A Nice Surprise

With the rain (finally!!), fatigue, sore throat, achy sinuses, I came home to an unexpected suprise - the Somerset Studio Gallery Vol. IV ...

"What was this?" I thought, " I didn't order this magazine."

Lo and behold -- I have two collage cards in the magazine -

* One under Renaissance - page 11
* One under Scarlet and Cocoa - page 28.

A bright spot in this rainy, achy day!

Busy Time!

There's been precious little time for sketching over the last week. My mom was up from Florida visiting, I babysat my grandson, Nicholas (which meant less than five hours of consecutive sleep each night over the last week), we drove to SC to visit my daughter, we helped prepare food for 12 adults and 6 children under seven, drove home, did all our household chores in one day, and returned to just as busy a work schedule.

I did manage a few practice sketches, but I'm anxious to return to the Everyday Matters challenges. Maybe this weekend. Along with holiday preparations, shopping, and journal entries and updates for my grandchildren and daughter.

Meantime, with all the rushing around and busyness, I've come down with another sinus infection, making my energy level as low as my resistance.

Ah, well, 'Tis the season!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EDM #42

The challenge was to draw something we’re thankful for. I found lots of WORDS that fit this challenge – family, friends, my home, good health, good food, my five senses, woodlands, flowers, trip to Sicily, and on and on. I find many of these things very difficult to draw in the limited amount of time I have – so instead, I’ve decided to sketch what matters most to me ABOUT each of those – and that is TIME …. The time spent with family, friends, in my garden, sketching, art-ing, eating good food, music, etc.

I have a clock that sits on my TV that belonged to my Dad. Since he passed almost 15 years ago, I thought it even more fitting to sketch the clock that he owned. To me it also reminds me of the times we had with him and the specialness of both.

I’ve also included a scan of the same clock I TRIED to sketch three weeks ago, and how unhappy I was with the outcome! I wanted to include it to remind myself that it takes TIME to improve, TIME spent practicing, and how much I am enjoying the TIME doing this.


HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

EDM #17 - Musical Instrument

My husband, a glorious gospel singer, has decided to take up the mandolin and is doing a commendable job teaching himself to play. I decided to sketch it for the EDM challenge.

WHAT FUN!

Jewel, Charles's sister's granddaughter is beautiful with the kind of long, brown/blond, curly hair that I could only dream of .... she's polite, well mannered, played so well with Emily and Nick, helped clean up, ate like a grown up -- man -- I remember when she was BORN!!!! Can she only be four -- ALREADY be four???

And I just saw Nick and Emily 2 weeks ago -- now Nick is holding onto fingers and walking like gangbusters, eating THREE BOWLS of mashed potatoes and gravy, cube steak, peas, and more sweet potato pie and banana pudding than Charles, me and mom together!!! Emily was quieter than I'd ever seen her ... she watch Jewel, watch Nick, play a bit, tease Nick a bit, and for the first time -- I SAW EMILY COLOR!!! So there she is with Jewel -- COLORING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! OH MY!!!

Mom's plane got in a bit late -- so by the time we got to the house, everyone was ravenous -- Charles did an AWESOME job preparing everything ... and we ate like no tomorrow .... and then, wonder-man that he is ... he cleaned up while I talked to Sis, Mike and Joye, played a bit with the grands and Jewel ... It was glorious -- and too too long between times. My only regret ... I"m now bushed!! But the joy will be shining in my dreams for nights to come ....!!

Photos here: http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?p=999&gid=8737881&uid=589690

PUBLISHED

Had to drop in with my excitement! In the December/January 2006 issue of "Legacy" my "Mia Famiglia, Fabric Triptych" has been published!! on pages 13 and 14. The article includes small photo transfers of my sisters, mom and dad, my daughter and son, and Emily as a baby. And the gift of this is that my mom is arriving today and she'll be able to see it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOOO HOOO!!!!

It's a Pre-Thanksgiving Thanksgiving

It looks like the small get together we were going to have with Charles’s sister (after 2-3 years) and her granddaughter, Jewel, and a friend, has turned into a pre-Thanksgiving Festa.... Joye, Mike, Emily and Nick will join us, bringing our dinner party to TEN -- the first really BIG dinner party we've had in quite a while.

We've spent the morning 'child-proofing' as best we can, finding extra chairs, squeezing tables together, setting the card table, finding even more 'wouldn't it be nice' specials to cook. We're heading to Wal-Mart for another high chair (Nick is using Emily's), and a few more odds and ends.

I'm as excited as I can be ... I pick Mom up from the airport at 4:15 pm, come home to a riot of family and grandchildren, good food, photo opportunities and the pandemonium of family I've missed and missed but enjoy in short spurts!

So tomorrow will be a rest day .. And I may be quieter than usual (well, maybe -- I may need to check in for my own sanity! LOL) -- but I am REALLY LOOKING FORWARD TO THIS!

BTW, Charles is cooking mashed potatoes (kids love 'em), venison fried steak and gravy (though everyone will think it’s beef), b-b-q corn-on-the-cob (from summer), peas for the kids, more veggies than I can remember, sweet potato pie (from a friend who makes the BEST in the world!!), banana pudding (my humble contribution) and whatever else is in the cupboard....

This get-together signals the holidays for me -- ready or not -- since it seems the cold weather and the season brings us together from all our far-flung locales and overly busy, preoccupied lives.

If the holidays do nothing more than this ... I'm grateful.

Sunny

Today was a quiet day; one of those 'can't get going,' restful days; the first really COLD day we're had that seemed to announce that summer REALLY is past.

I've tried and tried to sketch my cat, and today I think I've finally done a decent job. I'm not quite sure about the watercolor addition, especially on text-weight paper, but the orange and white creamsicle color is close.

My attempt to create a 'wash' over the lamp sketch. I especially like the way the table came out and the white space left ...

EDM #2 Draw a Lamp

I'm not working these challenges in order, but did manage to sketch the lamp in the bedroom of the room I rent when working out of town.

WELCOME!

Welcome to the View from the Oak, a place for expression, art and those things that are 'so' of my life.

More Practicing

A few EDM challenges.

More Sketches

The challenge of a portrait and the glories of the fall inspired these sketches.

Some favorite sketches

A few of my favorite sketches as I try to teach myself how to SEE! and sketch.