Beautiful Things!!

I am so dreadfully behind in posting this! While my family was visiting, I received this gorgeous package from the most lovely Rachel (Mozart's Girl) in England! I had won her giveaway!! A package by Royal Mail - did I feel special or what?!?

And when I opened it, out spilled the most wonderful things: A book about a family in the restaurant business in New York, a little cup making me homesick for England, a little pad of paper that makes me smile every time I look at it, a fun little button and a CD with some of my favorite Mozart piano music! Thank you so much, Rachel! You all can click here to go visit her blog!

I am also late in posting about this gorgeous treasury my friend Theresa (Faerie Moon Creations) curated and included my bird print. Click here to see the treasury and leave a comment if you'd like, and here to visit Theresa's beautiful blog! I so appreciate that you always think of me, Theresa!!

Then, yesterday, I received this beautiful package from my dear friend, Kelly (Kelly Berkey Designs).  I just couldn't resist the new rings she is making!!! Just look at that gorgeous packaging (I have to admit that I put it back together to take pictures - I had opened it so fast in my haste to see the rings that I forgot about photographing it!)

Inside the box were butterflies and gold stars and two most gorgeous rings!

One reads "live.laugh.love" and the other "I am ... enough." Both things I need to remember all the time!!

I just love the way they look! Kelly, you do such a great job!!

And ... staying with Kelly for a moment longer, I took one more photo of her recent (well, it's been a few months) sketch challenge she hosted on her blog and did another 10 minute sketch - last week, before my drawing class had started. I think it turned out pretty nicely for being a quick sketch. I have to say though, hands are hard to draw!

We woke up this morning to a band of strong storms coming through. Now the rain has stopped and the sun is coming out. It's still windy though and we are expecting a big drop in temperatures. Tonight it's supposed to get down into the 30's! I'm thinking here at the coast we'll stay in the 40's though.

I hope you are all having a fantastic day!!

Another Rainy Day...

Another gray and soggy day found me in my studio this morning for a couple of hours, painting away in my art journal. I just doodled with some molding pastes, acrylic paints, pastels and colored pencils - pretty much anything that was around me.

I love the freedom of the art journal - it gives me such license to play and experiment.

I'm glad that tomorrow the rain is moving out and we are back to a few days of sunshine. Can you tell I'm subdued from the dreary weather? Well, I'm off to eat some chocolate (surely that will help!) and maybe take out my sketchbook to do another drawing of something. We'll see...

I hope your day is a sunny and creative one!!

A Strange Day

It's been a weird day. This morning I arrived at school only to find out that my professor was sick and class was cancelled. If I had remembered to check my new school e-mail, I would have known ahead of time. But I wasn't the only one who showed up... 

So, I went back home and spent a day where I felt I never properly woke up. We had storms and heavy rain and it was so dark and gray outside that it felt like dusk all day long. And what's more - tomorrow will be a repeat! 

This afternoon - in order to wake up - I decided to go to my studio and doodle in my sketchbook. First I did this painting that - while I was working on it - I liked, then didn't, then liked again and finally really liked. I just played and it felt good. 

Later on, I was knitting while watching a DVD and just really liked this young man's face. So I paused the video and did a 15 minute drawing, which I think turned out pretty well. He really did have that startled look on his face and he sat sort of twisted, which looks just a little weird. Can you tell that I can't wait for my drawing class to get going?!?

I hope you are all doing great and are having better weather than us. I know we need a lot of rain to make up our deficit, but I'm not sure we want all that rain to fall in just two days!

I'm off now to visit some of your blogs to see what you've been up to!!

Art Journal - Page 4

I am on a roll, people!! Another page from my new art journal - again painted over a not-so-good image transfer. Again, quite different for me, but then I love change. I had to chuckle at myself though - as soon as I made that comment about missing the women I paint, I'm on to other things. I need to stop making statements like that!

I'm glad you liked my last painting as much as I did. Thanks for all your comments and naming suggestions. It was fun to read what you all saw! Did any of you discover the two flowers in it?

Wishing you a fantastic day!!

Art Journal - Page 3

I am having fun, fun, fun with my art journal! Turns out I enjoy journaling without words... The perfect place to experiment. Here something completely different from what I've done so far. Love it!!

On the first layer of gesso I had done a gel medium image transfer. Well, the gel medium was sort of dry and the image didn't transfer correctly, but it still gave me great background texture.

Thanks for coming along with me on my journaling journey and for all your very appreciated comments on my angels yesterday! I should have more art to show you tomorrow...

Art Journal - The First Pages...

Yesterday, I played with my first two art journal pages (I'm showing you the background I had created and then finished pages) and returned to my first love:

Faces! And it was so much fun -- seeing what they would look like, each one different and each one a surprise. These are simple and done fairly fast - more like little sketches really.

It felt so good and so familiar. I missed this.

Progressing in my art techniques had somehow taken the joy out of painting for me. When I first started out, I was so much more carefree in just painting and experimenting. Because I didn't know anything, every painting was a success. These couple of pages connected me with that feeling again and I am so grateful!

I call them angels in training. Even if this is the only entry in my art journal, it was already worth it!

By the way, I was really tickled by the comments yesterday by all of you who also don't journal, but still collect black books. It seems that there are many of us...

P.S. I just wanted to mention my giveaway! If you haven't entered it yet, click on the photo in my sidebar and then leave a comment in the post that comes up!

Color!

Funny how sometimes a certain color seems to dominate my life. Right now, it seems to be red. I walked into my studio yesterday and saw the canvas I had prepped with some torn paper and my red art journal together and just loved the splashes of red!

Even on another painting in progress, there is bright red among the turquoise and green.

I decided a while ago to try to keep an art journal, which I have never done before. In fact, I am not one to journal in any way. My blog is the longest journal of sorts I have kept and I think the reason I love it so much is that you all read and comment. I get bored when it's just me and my thoughts...  We'll see how I do with this. Do you keep an art journal?

Well, Daniel starts teaching again today and life will return to more of a routine. Hopefully that will mean more regular blogging on my part. I have much to share with you! And much to catch up on...

Wishing you a beautiful and creative Wednesday!