So what happened to August?

So what happened to August?


Crazy isn’t it
How fast
Time seems to
Pass us by

August was full
Of
Art festivals
Art fairs
Family and friends

September seems to be
Following in August's
Footsteps

Bookmark for a friend

Lazy Weekend & doodles

I worked on this little guy this weekend. I used some watercolor pencils I've had forever and not sure I like working with them...I also don't like the way his eyes turned out. It looks like eyelashs on the dark brown but they are not.

This little rabbit is sitting on the bottom of a journal page that is in process. Love the way he looks.


And this little cat is in a small book I'm working on. Not sure yet if I'm going to do any color or not. I know I won't be using the watercolor pencils.

Full page face in the journal. Ink and colored pencil. I don't use colored pencils often...they just seem to take forever. My friend Brenda does amazing things with colored pencils. The last piece I saw took her 3 months to finish. I do not have the patience to do something like that so my colored pencil work I only do in my journal and I do it quickly.



Well I can smell dinner calling....turkey meatloaf, squash from a friends garden and a salad. YUMMY Yum. As much as I like my job I sure wish I didn't have to go to work tomorrow. sigh!

Doodles everywhere

Doodling makes me happy. And when I can share that happiness it's even better. I made this doodle into a card and send it out into the universe and it is now loved by another.


I was daydreaming about totem poles when I created this one. Not quite what I thought it was going to turn into but I like it.


And of course birds. I do love birds and drawing them in all shapes and sizes.




Have a great day.

Some journal pages

Hoping everyone had a great 4th...we had a pretty lazy one. Watched the fireworks from a neighbors back yard.

Finally getting around to posting some journal pages.




This one isn't finished as you can see. The colors on my snail look orange in this photo but it's really a vibrant red. I think he turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself.

Doodle's into Art work

Sometimes while waiting for a process to finish up at work I will doodle on some scrap paper. This little guy was from one such doodle. I did do a painting of him but he is hanging at work and I haven't scanned him yet.



Other doodles are done while watching TV, I hate watching commercials so doodle instead.


This little guy was done in my journal. I'm still working on the page and hope to show it when finished. I really like this little bird I think he turned out cute.


And this is a doodle that ended up on canvas. I finished him in time for a show we did at a local winery a few weekends ago and I got loads of comments on him. So many folks really liked him. So we may be seeing more of my doodles making it to canvas sometime soon.



I do love to doodle.

Japan - Part Two - Nijo Castle

Nijo Castle - was built as the Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa Shoguns.

The Front gate.


Inside gate before the castle

Detail on the gate.

Ninomaru Palace -

the most amazing thing about this palace were the "nightingale floors". When walked on they made the most amazing sound, and because there were quite a few visitor's the day we went the floors sounded like hundreds of birds singing. It was amazing. I so wished that we could have been there alone for a few minutes to play on the floors to see which boards made which sounds. The floor was built this way to prevent sneak attacks or assissins from sneaking up on the shoguns.

The paintings on the paneled walls were also amazing, but we could take no pictures

I think this building was a guard post. It was at the corner of the wall/moat that surrounded the castle and gardens.

From the top of the wall that surrounded the whole complex. Over looking the palace itself with Kyoto in the background.

In the garden were many of these little decorations. The garden was huge and we did not get to see it all.

Garden pond.

Some unusual trees in the garden.

Nijo Castle was probably my favorite place that we visited while I was in Japan.

New member of the family

A few months ago we lost one of our 4 legged family members. It's still to painful for me to talk much about but it lead to the addition of another member to our family.

My husband is a bird hunter (among other things which we do not see eye to eye on) and Arko his main hunting dog (who is really my dog unless it is hunting season) turned 12 years old this year..where does the time go. (all my pics of Arko were on the old computer....)

Anyway we decided that with Arko getting up there in years it would be a good idea to get someone to start training to take his place (which we did not really want to think about but....)

So....here he is:

Dylan at 8 weeks old.

And Dylan after I came back from Japan at 10 weeks:

He's a handful and is keeping everyone on their toes.