Monday Music: Linda Ronstadt, "Blue Bayou"; semi daily sketch; a book about Everest.

Linda Ronstadt was awarded the National Medal of Arts recently.  She absolutely deserves this honor.  She is amazing.





And a sketch:

Seed, underground, with Roots

I put the book aside that I am actually supposed to be reading and read an ebook entitled Blind Descent by Brian Dickerson.  Thrilling read!

Impressionist Cape Honeysuckle and Sunday Stealing.

In the effort to make habitual the sketching and color use, I've tried to do this everyday but sometimes other stuff gets in the way... But, for Elle and Bee, here is another pen drawing.  Pens are somewhat dried out but they still work for this:

Cape Honeysuckle
I've given it a Gallery Frame just for fun.

And now, the great and very fun to do meme:  Sunday Stealing!

September 27, 2014

Ask Away!

Welcome back to Sunday Stealing which originated on WTIT: The Blog authored by Bud Weiser. Here we will steal all types of memes from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent memes. You may have heard of the expression, “honor amongst thieves”. In that age-old tradition, we try to credit the blog that we stole it from. We also provide a link to the victim's meme in our "Previous Victims" widget. (It's our way of saying "Thanks!") Sometimes we edit the original meme, to make it more relevant to our global players, to challenge our players, to select the best questions, or simply to make it less repetitive from this new meme or recently asked questions from a previously featured meme.
Let's go!!!

From Stronger

Ask Away!

1. What is your zodiac sign?   I'm tucked just out of one by a couple of hours, so, in the cusp between Sagittarius and Capricorn.

2. What is your favorite color?  Green is the top of the list, but Yellow, Blue, Brown and Pink are right there justling shoulders with it.  Color vision is worth living for I tell you!

3. What’s your lucky number? 37.  

4. What talents do you have?  I like to draw and paint and seem to have a talent for that.  I used to sing very well,  I can still design and build a house but now would need a crew to do all work!    

5. Are you psychic in any way?  Somewhat.  I can predict when the dog is hungry.. all the time.  hahahaha

6. Favorite song?  "You've Got A Friend", by Carole King.  

7. How many pillows do you sleep with?  Three, a very phat king sized pillow to rest my bionic knee on, a fat little arm pillow for that cranky bit of anatomy, and a tiny pillow that is really a decorative pillow in the shape of a butterfly.  It replaces the neck roll one and is great.

8. What position do you usually sleep in? On my side

9. Have you ever tried archery?  I was a top archer in GAA intramural sport.  I still love archery just can't  pull a bow anymore.  I don't like anything but a long bow.  Those sissy arse things with wheels and sights are not my cuppa.

10. What’s the longest you’ve ever gone without sleep?  3 days was common back in the day.

11. Do you have any scars?  Are we speaking of things to be ID'd with?  By the Feds?  One on my wrist and one all over my scabrous knee, from metallic implants.

12. Have you ever had a secret admirer?  If I did (or do) it is a mystery to me.

13. Can you do any other accents other than your own?  I can do Spanish, French, Texan, Alabaman (deep south), Georgian, Canadian, and New Jerseyan (sometimes).   I love accents.

14. Are you a good judge of character?  No.  

15. Can you curl your tongue? Yes

16. Are you a clean or messy person?  I'm clean but messy looking.

17. How long does it take for you to get ready?  Two hours.  First I have to wake up.

18. Do you have much of an ego?  That was kicked out of me in my youth.

19. Do you talk to yourself?  I've been known to mutter, yes.

20. Do you sing to yourself?  All the time.

21. Can you name all 50 states of America?  Yes, and even some of their capitols.  Rote teaching has it's special effects.

22. Have you ever been scuba diving?  Nope, and I really wanted to.  Bad ears.

23. What makes you nervous?  Gun shots, nearby.

24. Do you correct people when they make mistakes?  Never, the kids, yes, when they were small, it was part of their education.  

25. Are you ticklish?  Living on your last nerve, after awhile, makes you immune to being ticklish, right?  So, No.

26. Have you ever been in a position of authority?  Only once.  And it was a shock when everyone turned around and listened to me intently, and then we all ran.

27. How many piercings do you have?  Do we do these in pairs?  I have three pair.

28. Can you roll your Rs?  Yes, I can roll them all the way to Spain and France and back.

29. How fast can you type?  PDQ.  I'm a touch typist.

30. What are you allergic to?  Many things.  

31. Do you keep a journal? Just this blog.

32. Do you like your age?  Yes, everyday above ground is a good day.

33. What makes you angry?  Cruelty to Animals and Kids, and State Malfeasance and Brutality.

34. Were your ancestors royalty?  Yes.  The Duke of Marqués, but just try to find that dude.  He came over with Cortés, that rat bustard.  The Duke's unlucky younger brother was a French Franciscan and suffered the fate of being killed by the Native Americans in Maryland, in probably the year 1620, but I forget the exact year.  There, now you all know far too much about me.  

LIttle Wren Drawing; Basket of Pens; organizing chit chat; Saturday Komeekz; Maeve's "last book", and the movie "Clue"

I know, two posts in a day... *sighs*  But I hope you will forgive me my little brain fart in not doing these two Saturdays together.

Sketch for today:

House Wren: Isn't she sweet?

I did the quick sketch from a photo by Brian L. Sullivan, who is just amazing!  His photo is on the Cornell Site from my phone.  You can see that after I drew the outline I wanted to fill in with these pens:

Next to try are the colored pencils

They are nice pens, the black is really a thick felt tip that gives amazing control for it's size, almost like the tip of a Sumi-e Brush.  But they're just not the same as a water wash.  Since I've just started this enterprise, I realize it's best to have your own photos so that you have a multi sense memory as well.  There is something about drawing from life that can't be duplicated as the eye sees so much more when watching something that is alive and hopping around doing it's "thing".  If you don't believe me, just try to draw a Passenger Pigeon from the last photograph.

Organizing:

I'm keeping the bins but the yarn is going to the Craft Co-op in Santa Cruz, along with all the cone yarns (except for the big gray one that is a blend for socks).  This activity will free up some space in my sewing/card making/catchall of a studio in the front of the house.  The one in the back remains semi organized but is for another time and story.......whatwasithinking?

Source

Saturday Komeekz:

Dear little kitty, you won't like camping.  The only cats I've seen "camping" were in motorhomes, which they did NOT have to drive, and in which they had their own pull out food trays and beds!

The movie "Clue"



This thing is a literal scream!  I laughed myself sick and will most likely watch it again on Halloween!

I am reading a book that is a compilation of Maeve Binchy's  writings, her hubbie's and her publisher's.  You can tell the difference, but the book is still interesting and well written.  Parts have already been published elsewhere, and those are hers, as well as things she was compiling for a book she wanted to write about Chestnut Street.  I'm enjoying it, though it's sad to think she is already gone so long.   Chestnut Street


I have a migraine and plantar fasciitis at the moment so I'm just going to go rest awhile.  LOL!  Woohoo!  Trouble from Top to Bottom, er, the Foot Bottom that is.  Have a great Sunday!

Tuesday Tails, Baby tort report, bits of knitting blah blah, Accidental Art, Drawing blah blah

Next week I want to share a story about three animals friends that Pina sent me, but I can't figure out, in my slightly addled and timid (meaning not bold) state, how to capture and present the story in a blog format.  It's a gorgeous story of what happens when babies grow up together.

Tort Report:  Milagro and Dusty discovered the "Hand of Human" had thrown something Yummy into their path.  This is the first time they've ever had watermelon rind and they tucked right in!  The older torts got more but it was given them farther away so that they wouldn't come and horn in to the little ones' feast.


Some very teensy "fish" provided this Fisheye view of South America, or maybe it's Africa.  That must be it.  Anyway, I think of this process, too, as feeding the wildlife but they better stay out of my books!:

This has been Lomished, Cross Processed
and to think the artists were actually fish.
Silver Fish. hehe

Optometrists, avert your eyes.. the pupil is oblate!

I'm working on the pink Stardust sweater today.   I'm determined to have it finished by November. It's for Elle, and she's waiting not quite as long as Gee but long enough.  The Manly/Beastly sweater is awaiting sleeves so maybe I'll just chicken out and knit them before finishing the body front and back on straights.  I know there are instructions somewhere for this maneuver but where????

And I'm reading the last of Gail Tsukiyama's book, The Samurai's Garden.  This beautifully paced book about everyday life while recovering from tuberculosis in a small village in Japan is just what I need right now.  I'm recovering, too.  There's just enough intrigue going on to make it interesting.  There is some sort of surprise coming and I hope it's not a bad thing.

Enjoy the Week!

Saturday 9, Good Books, Drawing Blah Blah, Saturday Komeekz

Saturday9:  The Link button for this is in the side bar with more memes.  Come join the fun! 


Saturday 9: Hey, Soul Sister (because John suggested Train). If you're not familiar with today's song, you can hear it here.

1) The video was shot on a street corner in Echo Park in central Los Angeles. If you saw a film crew making a video in your neighborhood, would you stop to watch? Or would you just keep walking?  

For any sort of Music, I'd stop.  Anything else, I would just kept walking very fast, running even. Who knows the plot?  Maybe the next thing is where the perp,on foot, starts tearing down the sidewalk and trips on a root, and there you are?  One broken collarbone later, in the ER, you get an autograph for your cast.  Hmmm? Maybe I wouldn't run.

2) The singer says he remembers his girl in every dream he dreams. Do you remember if you dreamed last night? I did dream, and most of the time I remember enough to get by, but not all the time. Senior Dreaming.

3) The band Train is from San Francisco. Have you ever visited The City by the Bay?  We've been there several times.  If I could, I'd live closer to it; somewhere just below or just above it probably.  I love that part of the California, central coast and north all the way to Canada, to be honest.

4) Lead singer Pat Monahan got his start in a Led Zeppelin cover band. Can you name a Led Zeppelin song? "Stairway to Heaven", and "Black Dog". I hate "Black Dog" but I'll never forget it nor will I ever listen to it again.  We were having dinner at a little restaurant somewhere, and I put "Stairway to Heaven" on to play at the Jukebox, with it's flip side to follow, which I'd never once heard.  It was "Black Dog" What a mistake!

5) In doing research for this week's Saturday 9, Crazy Sam discovered a publication called Trains, The Magazine of Railroading. What's the last magazine you flipped through?  Something at my sister's house, to get directions for a wreath you make from an old book.  HERE is a link to a page that has it, and it's a lot like the one below the pink one on top.  In fact, I like it better than that one.



6) Do you consider yourself a leader or a follower?  
I'm definitely a different drummer sort of gal.  I'm not a follower.

7) Scholars tell us that "To be or not to be" is Shakespeare's most quoted line. Give us another one. 
I like this one the best: "There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt  of in your Philosophy."

8) How do you listen to music on the go? Car radio? CD changer? iPod/mp3 player? Your phone? 
The car tweeters need replacing so I can't listen to anything at all inside it.  A tweeter has cut loose and rattles if the stereo is turned up above a whisper.

9) Are you a convincing liar?

No, I'm really not, so I just tell the truth when it seems like it must be done, or, do a lot of tongue biting, or pretend I didn't hear.  Usually that ends it.

Happy weekend Sam!  Thanks for hosting this fun meme!

Thanks so much for joining us again at Saturday: 9. As always, feel free to come back, see who has participated and comment on their posts. In fact sometimes, if you want to read & comment on everyone's responses, you might want to check back again tomorrow. But it is not a rule. We haven’t any rules here. Join us on next Saturday for another version of Saturday: 9, "Just A Silly Meme on a Saturday!" Enjoy your weekend.







Drawing in the Abstract:

"Seed Queen" - an Abstract

Someday I'll just have to use better Media! Bee gave me beautiful paper and colored pencils- so many colors!  I'll have to recopy this one because I actually like it a lot!

Breakfast, in bed, with reading......

This came with a cuppa

I've been reading a lot.  I'm trying to catch up on some historical novels about China and Japan that have fallen into my hands.  If you ever get a chance to read the oldest novel ever written (though not published earliest), give The Red Chamber a spin.  I'm going to read it once more, but I'm buying it as a kindle version.  It's so long! 

And now, the Komeekz!  I got a big kick out of this Pickles!

DH has bragging rights.  He can cook just about anything, and he's also lots better at the BBQing.

Have a great Weekend, m'friends!  Stay cool if you are in the Southwest.  It's going to be a scorcher!

Tuesday Tails, a Sort of, Maybe, Abstract Drawing, and Witchcraft with a Watermelon.

And God said, Let there be Light....

Ok, I tend to draw and then name.   What I did is started in the middle with that random little C like thing.  I find that this is very comforting, this sort of drawing, though I do like realism the best.  Abstract sketching does have aspects or perhaps, qualities, that reach a little deeper into the subconscious mind.

I drew this while avoiding interaction (viewing, While throwing verbal barbs- unlike what they were throwing at the fish) with a fishing show about Blue Fin Tuna fishermen on the East Coast.  I like the red crab guys a whole lot better.  Blue Fin Tuna is about to disappear off the radar of species.  I don't WANT to make any emotional attachments to the fishermen who are stripping them out of the oceans.

Sorry, that's just me.  My blog, my opinions. 

Tuesday Tails...well, you got all them yesterday when I went insane and post three - THREE - 3 bloody times!  I can't blame the heat anymore but I can blame Elonis!

This 15 minute segment is the first part of how to cut a watermelon into a beautiful Arty thinga that's also good to eat!  There are a ton of these on YouTube, and I am going to watch the carrot ones next.  Life has a lot to offer if you can keep your eyes peeled for it, eh?  (No pun intended) Have fun going through all of them.  These are almost better than the cat videos, just slower paced.   



It's not the heart one.  You have to figure that out yourself.  Happy Tuesday!

Visiting sister tomorrow, and getting directions for the wreath made from a book.  Stay tuned...  I'll make one with you, Paula, if you like.

Monday shell sketch for Elle; Mystery Rock; Tort report: bits of knitting blah blah

This little bitty sea snail shell proved harder to sketch than I thought.

 But here it is, E.

I'm starting to get back some drawing mojo but not the skills it takes to do something that takes days.  I guess that comes with time.  Time also heals broken hearts and for that I'm grateful.  Art was always something I could go away with a sketchbook, a few pencils and my Collie, Shadow, and spend a day in the mountains around Forest Home and Oak Glen.  There were cattle up there and they do a lot of standing around, so easy subjects. hehe  There's a little bit of memory lane for ya.

Here's the mystery rock:

I think it's a 500 million year old piece of coral that I picked up somewhere along the way from "there" to "here".   It's probably off a roadway in the desert, since a lot of fossils from the layers in cuts for freeways end up as gravel and go to pave gravel roads in the desert.  Now that will give some unlucky Paleontologists something to ponder in the future!

Tort Report:  The little guys have been spending summer days, when it doesn't go over 90° outside, in their enclosure.  They now are protected by a completely enclosed pen.  They seem to like it out there and eat a lot of roses and leaves with their grass and dried grasses.  They need the dry grass for roughage, sort of the way we need our bran flakes. hehe

Knitting report: Ah.....Knitting -  the sock toe is straightened out but there are a few too many stitches on a couple of needles.  I've decided not to care a lot.   I don't care, I don't care, I don't care!  One of my feet is bigger than the other anyway.

Updated version: sketching and stealing on a sunday? Mon Dieu!

I love this fat little snowman ceramic.  It was the only thing that I could find besides a seashell to sketch.  Tomorrow, the sea shell.  It's really a sketchy sketch!

And now, what you've all been waiting for,  Sunday Stealing!  I am getting to this late every single Sunday.  My apologies!

I am doing this on the run.  So it got really sketchy there in Fictional Favorites... some of them are "least"..  Oh well, it's the brain draining chemicals in my life!  Or not.  hehehe

August 23, 2014

Fictional Favorites

Welcome back to Sunday Stealing which originated on WTIT: The Blog authored by Bud Weiser. Here we will steal all types of memes from every corner of the blogosphere. Our promise to you is that we will work hard to find the most interesting and intelligent memes. You may have heard of the expression, “honor amongst thieves”. In that age-old tradition, we try to credit the blog that we stole it from. We also provide a link to the victim's meme in our "Previous Victims" widget. (It's our way of saying "Thanks!") Sometimes we edit the original meme, to make it more relevant to our global players, to challenge our players, to select the best questions, or simply to make it less repetitive from this new meme or recently asked questions from a previously featured meme. 
Let's go!!!

From FYeahSurveys

  Favorite Fictional ? 

1. Favorite fictional couple?  Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett.  Who else? hehe

2. Favorite fictional character?  Well, I did like Violet Newstead in "9 to 5", dear Lily Tomlin, a lot.  What a crack up!  This may change if asked again at a later date, in fact, it may have already!  Bear with me, I'm anything but consistent with remembered movie types.  I loved Queen Latifa as the warden in "Chicago".  Superb!

 3. Favorite fictional TV show?  "Frasier", and that is followed very VERY closely by "Big Bang Theory" and "Third Rock from the Sun"

 4. Favorite fictional movie?  "True Grit".  There is no movie like it ever been made.  "Shane" was a little sad, though it was iconic.

 5. Favorite fictional villain?  Whaaaat?!  I always HATE the villians.  That's the whole point is it not?

 6. Favorite fictional hero?  Rooster Cogburn.

 7. Favorite fictional pet?  Asta, who is in the crosswords at least once a week.

 8. Favorite fictional setting/universe?  The Starship Enterprise.  Love them all.

 9. Least favorite fictional couple?   Brad Pitt and Catherine Zeta-Jones in the Oceans series.  Oh wait, that reads wrong.  They are my FAVORITE couple.  Darn!

 10. Least favorite fictional character?   I can't remember the miscreant.

 11. Least favorite fictional TV show?  If I had one I saw only a partial episode so I'm unlikely to remember it.

 12. Least favorite fictional movie?   This would be a tie:  "The Grifters" and "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"; I hated them both but had to sit through them.  UGH!

 13. Least favorite fictional villain?  See #5

 14. Least favorite fictional hero?   I don't read books or watch films where I hate the heroes,  that's just the way I am.  I don't find it "entertaining".

 15. Least favorite fictional pet?   Cujo.  Paws down.  I'm not a fan of Steven King anyway.  Brrrr!

 16. Least favorite fictional setting/universe?    I never could get "into" the "Red Giant" series.

I will be back to visit every blog as soon as I can!  Dinner time!

Have a fun week, do at least a few things, even if it's getting roaring drunk, that help you relax and enjoy daily life.

Daily drawing

Since tomorrow is wordless, and also because today was an odd day, I just couldn't settle down today.  so didn't draw.  The light wasn't right or maybe it was my head.  This was, like many others, a bad news day.

So this is a drawing that was the first challenge drawing when we were visiting the girls this last May.  It is, and will remain, unfinished.  It's from memory of a plant I saw a long time ago.

I was gifted with an incredible set of pencils as well as an artist's Vellum paper pad by my daughter Bee.  I was so honored to have these materials that I was shocked into almost being unable to do a drawing at all.

If you draw, paint, sing, sew, plant seeds or whatever everyday (just do something) you will survive this sick world.  You need something creative to do when there is so much destruction around you.

I found this in one of my sister's magazines the other day when we visited.  I wouldn't use an old book, but maybe something that was totally beyond use, like an old Dictionary that one of the bloggers was talking about retiring.

I've seen these paper wreaths before, not made, *shudders* from a book.

But especially, I've seen them in the garden.  They are a variety of of Calendula, I think.  Actually, I believe it's a wildflower but many little garden and landscaping flowers grow at the convenience of the wind, a good landing spot, and the kindness of caretakers.  This plant is at The Nature Interpretive Center at Mission Trails Park. 

Please keep looking around you for something beautiful no matter how tiny, and take delight in it.  You may not be able to stop the miserable megalomaniac upper echelons of the military or the industrial complex, but you can restore your soul, of whom you are the guardian, and first line of defense.  You can also help your family and friends to take comfort in the Peace of this Office.  May you feel blessed.

Daily Sketch called, "Comfort Me".. and a little Organizing blah blah, and knitting blah blah

When this was started it was only a series of curving lines, and then became ribbon like and then, it looked like a mother comforting a little child, thus the name...

Comfort Me

This is on a scrap of paper about 3 inches by 5 that runs down the edge of the paper that my daily crossword puzzles are printed on.  We dug it out of the trash, a whole ream of it tossed because no one wanted it after another company shut down.  It's great quality paper and a shame to waste even a small margin, so I trim it off and save it.  I know.  Insanity!!!!  That's pretty much what I draw these on.  My DD makes large color drawings but I'm not there yet.

Today we measured for moving the sewing desk - it has a five foot return as it's an old Steele Case secretary's desk from a place Mr.Z was working at in the Union Busting Reagan years.  But, we got two tables, four chairs, two computer chairs, a huge conference table, and this amazing desk for less than 200 smackers.  If that comes up in a crossword soon, I will be able to remember that it means "dollars".  Lol
This is the only picture I have of the room which hasn't changed at all except to have a lot of stuff piled in on top of everything else since 1999.  That table is the cutting table.  The sewing machine is my trusty old Pfaff, which I totally am besotted with.  That little machine has sewn an impressive about of garments since 1972.  It's still the go to machine for sewing quilt blocks, when any sewing of that sort arises.

First Ell of Desk

and around the corner a bit...

The true horror of too much:

This has accumulated since my knee replacement.  Really, it's insane.  I'm taking a lot of it North for the Sewing C0-Op in Santa Cruz.


Back to moving... the desk will be swung around under the windows, a table will go on the short end of the L shaped desk, and the power machine will be set back up on it's table where the desk and cutting table is now.  God help me please to find the room for all my Stufffffff in there!  I think the cutting table is going to have to stay where it is in the other part of the room.  It's going to be TIGHT and almost like the living quarters on a 21 foot Ocean going sailboat.  But, at least there will be no cambers to worry about!  Hmmm.. wave powered sewing machines.. hmmmm?

What I now lack in energy will have to be made up for by gobs of "true grit" and will power.

My plan is to make small things, dolls and their clothing, taking inspiration from this book:

I waited for years to get this book.... and now it's mine!  This is the doll face - that is what attracted me...

I think she is gorgeous! 

For knitting I'm planning Mitts, hats and Socks, cowls, tiny purses, anything small.  This is so, with my now Slower-than-a-snail-on Ambien pace, things will still get done. 

I'm going to go take a nap..

Knitting and drawing....

Well this has a lot to do with feet today, and it's the second post- *slaps forehead*. 

I picked up the knitting and held it for a little while, fiddling with the stitches and counting them at least three times.  Picked up some dropped stitches that came from the fact that five inch needles aren't really very forgiving when they hold knitting inside a bag that was tossed inside the Bounder and traveled with us. 

After that I knit for a little while until my thumb hurt, then knit a little bit more.  Then I took some snaps because, heck, we need to do these things from time to time. 

The foot of mine is short, wide and a little chubby.  That's the way they came to me and usually they behaved well and did everything ever asked of them, including posing for digital portraits and quick pencil sketching. 

Jane's Hedgerows, slightly modified
I can't wear patterning on the top of my foot.

It's a badly sized drawing because I've forgotten about the effects of foreshortening on something viewed from a short distance and at the end of your own leg.  heehee

Elle and I have a pact to draw every day, and this was yesterday's drawing.  But the knitting is today's knitting.  I don't know if I can stand to post every drawing but I'll try to go more abstract tomorrow.  Tomorrow is going to be a pretty abstract day, since it will be full on heat.  The doors will have to be opened for people to jump around in the attic and rip out the old and then install the new furnace unit.  When the guy came to do the estimate, he opened that door and saw something he has probably never seen.  It's the original furnace, a noisy inefficient little brute from 1959.  A few more years and it would be an antique!  It will never be "collectable".  Lol!