Before It Goes Away

Here is a glimpse of what's left of my winter garden. We planted spinach, lettuce and broccoli for our inaugural crop. The lettuce did well, the spinach did so-so and the broccoli....eh, not so much. Not sure what went wrong, but at least I got a few photos out of it. Anyone with veggie gardening experience in the Southwest with tips on what (if anything) grows in the "warm" months, please give a holler.

Choosy Mothers

Choose Jif of course...actually I prefer the Laura Scudders.

Night Time is the Right Time.

Or my other title for this photo, Moonlight/Streetlight.

New Drawing!

Just finished my submission for the ArtHouse Coop 4x6 Exchange #2 Project. I can't wait to see what I receive in exchange! I love the idea of swapping an art piece with a randomly selected unknown artist.

The Moon Never Bores Me

I do hope my (seeming) obsession with photographing the moon does not bore you... I can't help myself. Before you say anything, I do realize that this photo is ridiculously noisy/grainy. Setting my ISO to 1600 seemed like the right thing to do given the darkness and I was too lazy to get out the tripod. I will keep experimenting with that. Noise aside, I thought it was lovely!

In other news, it has been an interesting week. The weather appears to finally be giving us a break; temps are dropping slightly. Not a moment too soon for my electricity bill either! With the change in the weather I am happy to see an improvement in my energy level and mood. Summer in Phoenix can suck the life right out of you!

Page 1 - Pie in the Sky?

I have started working on my sketchbook for the 2012 Sketchbook Project. My theme is "I Remember You." I will illustrate memories of people and experiences that have made a lasting impression on my life. This year I will complete the book. I think I have a better handle on budgeting my time...(we shall see). Here is a sneak peek of my first page (click to enlarge). One of the few things that can cause me to stop & ponder is a beautiful sky full of clouds so I figured what more appropriate subject for the opening page. I have also decided to start working through  The Artists Way again, if only for the sake of completing it. I have a small problem with finishing things that I start, can you relate?

Last night while trying to avoid working on my drawing (it takes a lot of energy) I was scanning through a few of the blogs that I follow and came across this article that centered around the idea of making changes in your life by changing your focus, "focusing on the No to become clear on the Yes, defining the Yes to clarify the No." Although I am not a follower of Zen philosophy, I do try to be open minded. There were some very interesting concepts, you can read that here.

Time to have a rare (these days) early evening cup of coffee and walk the dog, I need to relax, it has been a stressful day!

Image Transfer/Tip Jar Thursdays

I just came across this Facebook post from Arthouse Coop. It is an installment from their blog called "Tip Jar Thursday." This weeks feature is on image transfer; a technique which I will be including in my 2012 Sketchbook for The Sketchbook Project. Hope this information is useful to you. I know I needed a refresher on the finer points. After reading the post, it is all coming back to me. Needless to say, I had a flashback to Mrs. Yen's Intermediate Art class way back in 1975. Whooh.... You can check out a few pages from my 2011 Sketchbook and some random portfolio pieces here. I am just getting started on the 2012 Sketchbook but I will be uploading to this site as I get pages done. Maybe you should sign up for this project too, come on, whaddayasay???

Inspiration

Closed out the Sabbath today up on the roof watching the wind blow the magnificent clouds around in the sky. The beauty of creation is really all around us if we take the time to see it. Thank you to the Honduras crew for a wonderful program today at Camelback Church. I haven’t been that inspired in some time. It thrills my soul to see the changes that are going on at Camelback and I am grateful to those who had the vision to start turning us in a new direction.

The Best Dad I Know

 Is, of course, my husband. He was 35 when we got married and I think he assumed that fatherhood had passed him by. Which is why, I believe, that he embraced it so strongly when our daughter was born. Now my husband is not a conventional man. He was not all that concerned about our child learning table manners or getting straight A's in school. Mind you, he knows those things are important. He just figured that I would take care of that.
   Oh no, from the beginning his department was FUN. Dad in charge of making sure all the kids who ever came to our house had a story to tell when they left. We had go-karts and a trampoline. We had a zip-line and lots of animals. People still talk about the time he brought the 13 ft. Python to vacation Bible School.

Sometimes he worries that they don't have much in common any more. After all, she is twenty three now and off doing her own thing most of the time. I'm not worried though, once a Daddy's girl, always a Daddy's girl. She'll be back.

Crazy for Mosaics

You may remember our Dream House Project. Well, Miss Leo has been residing there now for about six months and for the most part the inside is finished. There are some small touches that still need to be attended to, in due time. One of these days I will get those photos posted...

One of the outside projects we are working on is an archway that will have a customized wrought iron security door. Inside the archway we are going to cover the walls with mosaics that will hopefully tie together into a cohesive design. This will be my first attempt at mosaic so we'll have to see how it goes. Here is what I've got so far.

 

Super Moon

 I am a bit behind on posting, as if you couldn't tell. I could try and come up with some really creative excuses or I could just get on with my life...

The night that the moon was was supposed to be a super "perigee moon"--the biggest in almost 20 years I decided to take the tripod out and get some shots. It was awesome! The clouds were moving rapidly and just watching it was interesting.. Living in the middle of the city where we can barely see the stars, I forget about the wonders of the night sky.