OY!

The dog. She is a bull in my china shop. Charlie needs her forever family. Now. She would make a great farm dog. Farm dog, by day, that is. House dog by night. Yep.

Sign Me Up

I am joining B in the Photo Hunt Challenge for October. I will follow through. I will follow through. I will. There.

My first entry is up there. It is "Something Orange" In the physical world, it is terra cotta, but it sure looks orange to me here. I used Paint Shop Pro to crop all three.

I think this one will be my entry for "Contrast". Maybe. I do like dappled shadows but I might come up with something else.

Hey, I could've had "Something Spooky" and "Something Entertaining" in one shot today. I gave the dog (the big one that B is entering for "Critter") a bath. In the shower. With me. Hey, it is the easiest method I've tried that I can afford. You understand that there are no pictures though. And just let me say this critter smells much better! Can you tell that I trimmed her face a bit as well and her ears? Can you tell that she is completely worn out by it all? I love it when she is worn out. She is too cute. And she really does need a new and permanent home. Any takers? Just leave a comment and I am sure we can work something out.

Dragnet Wisdom

A frind sent me this in an email. I love it. Who knew the wisdom Joe Friday and Bill Gannon would apply so many years later? I am not very politically-minded so I hope I don't offend anyone. I just think its great.

Please, No Fainting

Geez, it has been six months since I have posted. Hey, my kitchen window is open again. A lot has happened around here, but that is for another post another day. This post is just an icebreaker for me, more pictures that words.

I decided, for my re-entry into bloglandia, to show you some of my artwork in progress.

First, my most recent creation. I am decorating these letters for my youngest. They were plain, white, wooden letters given to her last Christmas. She was going to paint them so I asked her to let me collage them. It has been great fun. My friend B has been coming over for art dates and these were accomplished while working with her. It is good to have someone there to give instant feedback (not to mention the motivation to actually create!). These are not quite finished. I think that I will add a beeswax finish and put some ribbon around the edges to finish them off. I like them and hope Miss H is pleased when she sees them.

Next are some unfinished (unfinished seems to be a recurring theme) projects that I am working on for a portrait class at Suzi Blu's online school, Les Petit Academy.

This is one of the first sketches done for the class. It was drawn in a sketchbook then pasted into the Moleskine journal and covered with clear gesso. (I love the Moleskine. Just sayin.) I don't know what is going to happen with her next. I have to watch some more videos to see where Miss Blu is taking me with this.



Next, another sketch drawn in a sketchbook but pasted onto wood. You can see how see started out on the left. I was liking her. I added some more shading and I still liked her. I pasted her onto the wood and then... I added the gesso. The graphite smeared. Really bad. I thought she was ruined. I was sad. But never fear. I scanned her and sent her to suziblu. Suzi said "she's not ruined. You can't ruin her. These portraits are shabby. She will be fine". I said "whew". I am anxious to see how she will be finished. I really like her. Her eyes are a bit wonky but I like her mouth and the overall feel of her.

Finally, the gypsies are drawn in the journal. They are fun and were copied from suzi's example pretty close. My details are different but the page layout and theme is all suzi. It's how I learn.


Well, enough unfinished art. I must now take care of business so I can work on my art today. I will post pics of each piece as I finsh it.

Now, let's all go create something!

The March of the Bluebirds

The March of the Bluebirds, originally uploaded by candyknits.

Ahhhh. I opened all my windows today. Spring is right around the corner and I am looking forward to it. However, I dread losing an hour of sleep tonight. I think I will go set my clocks ahead right now. Maybe it won't be such a shock to my system if I start now!

Drawing Prayers

I promised Belinda over at upsidedownbee that I would share my zendalas. I learned about them from her post, Praying With Art. When I saw the zendala and her magnificent doodle, I knew I had to do one too. She had already piqued my interest in the concept of using drawing to focus your mind in prayer in her post (I can't find it to link to it) about the book, Praying In Color . I purchased the book and played at it a little, but never really took off with it.

The Zentangle / Zendala thing though, that got hold of me. The first one I tried is the b&w one. I worked on it for a couple of days. After that one I wanted to incorporate some color and mixed media art into one which resulted in the one below. I'm not crazy about the way it turned out. I like my girls but the doodle part got lost in the too busy foreground.

This is one example of the many treasures I have gleaned from stalking Belinda. Her blog is definitely worth a read.

Thanks, Belinda, for sharing and inspiring!

It's A Musical Life

The CarolinaTheater, originally uploaded by candyknits.

When I was a teenager, I had a lot of friends in my circle who were musicians. I mean good musicians. We spent a lot of time hanging out in the background during jam sessions. I miss that. Though I don't have an ounce of talent myself, I sure enjoy listening to others that do.

I have a friend in my current life who likes to go where folks are playing the blues, particularly guitar blues. I've had the pleasure to accompany him to a couple of concerts this year (I like the blues too). Back in January we heard the Derek Trucks Band in Charlotte. It was a great concert. We were treated to a surprise appearance by his wife, Susan Tedeshi, who belted out a few songs with the band. Derek is the nephew of drummer, Butch Trucks. He was a child prodigy who started sitting in with the "big guys" when he was 9. He toured with the Allman Bros and still plays with them. He formed the Derek Trucks Band when he was 15. Cool huh?

This past weekend we went to The Carolina Theater in Greensboro for the Guitar Blues Tour to hear Robben Ford with Jorma Kaukonen, and, my favorite, Ruthie Foster.

I have been to the Carolina Theater long days ago. The acoustics there are really good. Ruthie Foster has this rich, resonant voice and she really filled up the place. She was very personable on stage and talked to the audience like she was just hanging out and jamming. I really enjoyed her. Though her songs were all secular, you could tell she comes from gospel roots.

She Has A Blog

Bill Morrison collection, courtesy of The Shubert Archive.

Well, I have always liked Jane Fonda and I found out the other day (somewhere online) that she has started blogging. It's right here and it's good, really. She shares her thoughts about her life and her art. She just opened 33Variations on Broadway in the Eugene O'Neil theater (I've been there!) and openly shares her feelings about returning to Broadway after 30+ years. I find it fascinating. Just sayin.

Check it out.

I love my books but....

...I want one of these



Can't argue with 230,000 books at your finger tips. Not too mention newspapers, magazines and blogs. I would really appreciate it for traveling with the cost of checking bags and all.

This second generation Kindle is getting good reviews. It is supposed to start shipping later this month.

Got snow?