A Few White

One of the things I like to make from my paint skins is jewelry. I've used pendant and bracelet trays so far to create unique one of a kind necklaces and bracelets.  These are a few of those blank pendant trays.

Before we had an entertainment center in our living room, our television sat on a small xorner cabinet stand. We still use that stand as a sort of side table. I keep it covered by a folded up white lace table cloth  that was handed down to me. This is part of the lace

Short Post

Today is my son's 17th birthday. My baby is almost grown up.

Photo a day #1 for today was a landscape taken in September.

Photo a day #2 for today was Livvy feeling annoyed by her sister sitting on her.

A Throw Back and a Drink

This week I've had a little trouble keeping up with my challenges.  I have managed to do them but I've been scrambling to get them done. Tonight was no different.

I actually decided to go with an old picture for one of them. My son will be 17 tomorrow so, it has been a few years since I caught this picture of him and one of our Scottie girls asleep under the Christmas tree.  But, it illustrates friendship perfectly and it's one of my favorite pictures.

I have been using the squirtable flavorings in my water lately.  I found one I just love. It's peach bellini. It's actually good enough to deserve to be in a wine glass.

It's hard to find a place in our house where the background isn't cluttered.  A couple white tea towels helped. But, it still didn't really turn out the way I wanted.  It's not the worst, but far from great.

Trying to Grow

I am trying to grow as an artist. Honestly, I have th

is feeling of guilt calling myself that. I have no formal training and at this point it is a hobby for me.  So, a big part of me feels I have no right to call myself an artist.

In my attempt to grow, tonight I tried some different techniques.  I have these picture easels I bought at the dollar store and decided to use them to prop up one of my canvases as I poured paint on it. I first painted the canvas black. I poured my paint while the black paint was still wet.

I used a color shift green, a bright orange and a yellow. I poured the yellow and let it run. Next, I poured the green and then the orange.  I alternated those colors until the canvas was covered. I did tilt the canvas some to help the coverage.

I did two other green/yellow/orange pours tonight. One I flipped three cups of individual colors on a canvas I'd painted black first. The other I did a dirty pour.

 

The other color combination I worked with was pink/blue/sparkly gold. I did two canvases using this color combination.  The first one I did a straight clean pour and the other one I did a flipped cup dirty pour. 

I am really happy so far wit the results. I am thinking of adding semicolon butterflies to them.

Now, for my photo a day challenges. One of them was dark.  I chose to feature one of my favorite local shops that is located in our historical district as "I went here."

For dark, I edited a photo of my daughter sitting on the couch drinking wine. I used a filter that enhanced the shadows in the photo and darkened the colors. 

Something Red in St. Charles

I can be a bit compulsive when I find something that interests me. Like with the photo a day thing, it would not be out of character for me to try and do a dozen of them. But, I have been pretty good about sticking to two. But, I found another challenge I've decided to try to participate in as of this week.

This one is weekly, though. It is supposed to focus on your city. Since I love my hometown and the surrounding area I figured that was a good enough reason to add it.

This week's theme was "something red." At first I really was a bit worried I would not be able to actualy start this week because I had no idea what to do for this. Then, it hit me. So, here is something red in St. Charles.

Our historic district still has a red brick road.  While it is kind of a pain to drive down, I wouldn't have it any other way.

A space was the topic for one of my other lists for today. One of my favorite spaces is my painting space.

I really had trouble with the last one. It was "nice!" I actually went to see what other people had chosen to do with this.

I came up with the nice smell my wax burner has when it's turned on. I got it as a Christmas gift and I really like it. As a matter of fact I've been quite compulsive about buying wax for it. I have about twenty different packages of wax cubes already. At present cinnamon pecan is in it.

A Drip and Dinner

Today was not my favorite in the world of photo a day challenges. Both prompts were blah.

I'm not a fan of prompts that have to be taken at a certain time. I think I have already discussed that. But, I am also not that fond of taking pictures of food. But, I am committed to doing this. Dinner tonight was sloppy joes and steamed vegetables. The one nice thing was Caleb's girlfriend Emma was here with us for supper.

Photographing drips can be fun if you have the opportunity to be out in the rain or when ice cycles are melting. Otherwise it's hard not to get stuck with turning the faucet on to cause a drip.

We were at the swim meet again today.  I tried to get water dripping off my son after warm ups and just ended up with a spot on the heat sheet.

I thought about trying to get paint dripping by doing another pour today, but what I did yesterday is not completely dry yet and I really didn't want to add another set to the drying area yet. I ended up with my tea dripping from my straw after being at Mod Pizza. It's not a great picture, but it met the criteria.

A January Saturday

I got to do two things I really enjoy today, watch one of my kids swim and paint. January has always been a busy month for swim meets and this one is no different. This weekend it's a home meet at the Rec Plex.

Then, this afternoon I got my painting supplies back out.  They had been put away since right before Thanksgiving to make room for holiday happenings.  I like to do fluid art.  Today I did a couple different color palettes. 

My first color palette was two shades of turquoise with an orange.  I poured on two canvases.  The first canvas I did a clean pour.  The second canvas I did a stacked flipped cup dirty pour.

The second color palette I did was two shades of blue with a glittery eggshell off white paint.  These were both layered tipped cup pours.

I did remember my photo a day challenges, too. One of them was "on the counter. " I included my Scottie Dog cookie jar and our Budweiser stein that holds cooking utensils.  I did it in black and white with shadows.

The other photo a day was fence. I ran outside very quickly because it is very cold and windy today to take a picture of our chairs link fence.  I edited the saturation on this one.

Turquoise and Time

I really wanted to actually have some paint ready to go and pour a canvas for this prompt but I haven't got moving on my painting yet. But, I have been playing around with ideas for color palettes.  I'm thinking orange with the turquoise and maybe some white or ivory or silver. I'm just not sure yet.

I really wasn't thrilled with the other prompt today. I dislike time stamp prompts .It's just really hard to have a camera ready at a specific time especially during a work day. Even when I'm not busy I just don't remember.  So, this one is a bit of a cop out, but I think being busy with students is a good cop out.

Corner and Difficult

So, I decided a couple days ago to pick up on a second photo a day challenge.  I'd done about four days worth of both challenges only to realize I was doing the prompts from January 2014. Alrighty then.... so today I am on track with the correct year and month for both challenges.

Let's start with the one that I've been doing correctly all a long. Today was corner. I had a fee ideas for this but ended up opting for the corner of a coaster my mom made for me for Christmas 2017. She decoupaged pictures of my doggies on six blocks of wood to make these for me. It is one of my favorite gifts I've gotten in recent years.

The other prompt for today, now that I am working from the list for 2019 and not five years ago, was difficult.  I went back in my gallery to find something for this because I was at work for over twelve hours today so I really didn't even think about taking a picture for this prompt. 

I found a picture taken a couple days ago of our little girl giving me the stink eye because I wanted to take a picture of her and she wanted no part of it. It is difficult to get a picture of her when she isn't in the mood to be bothered. 

Glasses and a Bundle of Energy

I was born cross eyed.  I have never had good eyesight.  They tried patching my eyes when I was little in hopes of strengthening the lazy one. I had surgery on my left eye when I was three to cosmetically fix the lazy eye but it also messed up my depth perception.

So, I've also been clumsy my whole life.  I actually started wearing glasses when I was two. I was able to wear contacts for many years but about the time I got to the age where I needed bifocal I've not been able to get contacts to work for me.

Now, I have a collection of glasses that I've worn for the past 12 years. My current pair is in the front of the picture with the rest going in order from most recent to the oldest pair since.

One of my favorite things to see is my dogs. They both have such different personalities.  Our Izzy Bean still acts like a puppy.

She is floppy and clumsy and supe sweet. She will hug you when you pick her up.  She loves everyone and is an attention hound. She still loves to play and can be a bundle of energy.