The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Calli and Quill followed me around after giving me the cold shoulder for being away.

2. As I was going to bed, I realized because of the Labor Day holiday, I didn't have to get up early to put the trash out

3. Himself made mashed potatoes so I could make the topping to a Shepherd's pie (made with lamb otherwise if it's made with beef it's a cottage pie)

4. A friend sent me a link to Bring Magic to Your Art & Life with A Free Taster Event!

5. A beautiful day. I had the sunroom all to myself so watched The Beautiful Game while I had lunch.

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. I heard from my high school friend who is moving from California to Arizona. The renovations to the house haven't been finished yet so they won't be moving until the end of the month. I'm glad I didn't send the new home card yet.

2. The Eldest Door Dashed donuts for breakfast.

3. The first ripe tomato and cucumber when to making a cucumber and tomato sandwich on brioche for lunch. Okay, it was Wonder Bread and still delicious

4. During bookbinding class learned about a jig to make perfect mitered corners. Found a different tool that does that plus has  4 other features for less money!

5. A lady at the hairdresser let me go ahead of her so I could have the hairdresser I like to cut my hair

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. I received a belated birthday floral arrangement from the Eldest

2. An uber productive day rewarded by watching The Great Waldo Pepper and having Five Guys for dinner in the sunroom.

3. I remembered to attend the Doodling class.

4. Door Dash is great

5. We had lunch in Teague's sunroom. I had a beef gyros.

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Saturday was warm enough to wear a tee shirt and shorts

2. Learned something new in the acanthus leaf workshop

3. Instead of lunch, Teague and I went out for breakfast.

4. I saw some flowers on the blueberry bushes. We might get a couple of blueberries this year.

5. I've been enjoying a murder mystery on Netflix called The Residence.

How was your week?

Workshop: How to Draw A Medieval Animal

These are the sketchnotes I made after taking a free class offered by Julia Bangert, a book illuminator from Mainz, Germany. In the class she talked about looking at images of animals and drawing them by looking for their basic shapes. 

The animal we drew in class was a rabbit. From the sketchnotes, you can see the rabbit was drawn using circles and then details added so it looked more like a bunny instead of circles.

Monet and Me

 

Monet and I are waiting to take another free workshop with Julia Bangert, a book illuminator from Mainz, Germany.

This class is Drawing Leaf Tendrils or acanthus leaves. Acanthus leaves were a common motif in illuminated manuscripts.

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Great-Grandpa picked up the baby books and was pleased with the work.

2. An uber productive day. I decluttered some stuff to go to charity, washed the kitchen window and changed the kitchen curtain.

3. A package went missing. The company sent another and the missing package arrived the same day.

4. Enjoyed the free class in how to draw a medieval rabbit

5. Teague gave me some frozen bake and eat chocolate chunk cookies to take home.

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. I enjoyed the Shell Symphony class. 

2. The rest of the art supplies needed for the class arrived

3. I transferred the design and now I'm ready to add color

4.We are still watching Holy movies and enjoy the ones with Finlay Currie who keeps popping up in a bunch of them. Finlay Currie best know for his role as Balthasar in Ben Hur and Cedric, the father of Ivanhoe.

5. The weather was nice enough that Teague and I got to have tea in her sunroom

How was your week?

Doodling for Stress Reduction

 

On Mondays via Zoom, I participate in a class where we spend  a half an hour doodling our stress away.  Last Monday, the class was cancelled. Bummah.

Last Friday, I signed up to take a Zentangle class. Besides a .pdf for the class, the instructor also sent a .pdf for beginning Zentangles. (If you're not familiar with Zentangles, you can read about the process here.) It's been awhile since I played with Zentangles so I practiced some of the patterns from the instructor's notes along with various "strings" (the pencil pattern to divide the paper called a tile) like the peacock.

Have you tangled with Zentangles?

The Friday Five Good Things

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. A little late but we celebrated the Boston Red Sox Opening Season with hot dogs, brown bread, and baked beans

2. Sad to hear of the passing of Richard Chamberlain. I called in sick to Filene's (department store) so I could watch the Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Hamlet 11/17/1970

3. I signed up for a Zentangle class. I thought Nan might be interested, and she signed up, too

4. I assembled tools needed for class and ordered a few things I did not have

5. For a treat I had some baklava. Not as good as Ma made, but sweet nostalgia

How was your week?

Whatcha Doin?

I am re-doing the last project we did in class with Dan.  I didn't finish it. We didn't have a lot of time to complete this project on the last day.  I work slowly, and I had a hard time floating the Instacoll in the center of the "O" designed by Dan. The letter was 2 1/2 in. square and larger than anything I've gilded. I found the edges were drying before I had the center filled. 

Instacoll is to be applied in a thick-ish layer, but in my haste I had added too much. The paper buckled and the goop pooled at the bottom of the letter. Instacoll takes 45 minutes to dry before you can apply whatever metal is being used. 

The surface of the Instacoll had dried, but underneath was still wet. When I went to tool the gold with the thin, cross-hatched lines, the gold tore revealing the Instacoll. 

Though I called this an epic fail, it really wasn't. I mixed the delicious blue-black background using red, yellow, and blue watercolor.  I learned how the materials reacted. How much time is needed for things to dry. How much time I need to work. All valuable lessons.

Dan told me I could try to salvage the piece by thinning some Instacoll with water, applying it again to the center, let it thoroughly dry, and lay another layer of gold. 

I think I'll add some lettering and re-do the project.

Whatcha doin?

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Had a lovely lunch with the Himself's teaching assistant. We went to La Cantina to see the kitty robots.

2. Errands, lunch at Cracker Barrel, and a haircut

3. Enjoyed part 1 of Kathy Milici's Modern Ornamental Initials class

 

4. Play date with Teague over Skype

5. Met the cutest little girl at Open House. She told me she was 6 3/4 years old.

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things A Day Late

 Five good things that happened this week.

1. Paid the deposit for the acanthus leaf workshop on Enders Island in September

2. Sent birthday wishes to my friend, S in California. She called, and we had a nice chat catching up.

3. I brought a birthday party to Teague: Boston Cream Pie, a candle, flowers with a birthday balloon, and a card. She's now the same age I am.

4.  Spent a pleasant afternoon working on a new drawing.

5. Lovely anniversary lunch at new to us Giacomo's in Wayland

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. The weather was pouring rain for the Eldest's birthday. She wanted to celebrate at  Red Robin. When we came out of the restaurant there was a beautiful rainbow just for her.

2. I thought I'd be early registering for Valerie Weilmuenster's class on Acanthus leaves at Enders Island in September. The class was already filled. I emailed Valerie asking her if there was a chance that she/Enders would add another class if there were enough people on the wait list. Popular time so all the workshops and retreats are filled. Bummah. Nice email from Valerie and catching up

3. Play day with Teague

4. We took a family trip to Southwick Zoo

5. I got a new pair of walking shoes.

How was your week?

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Gave the sunroom a half-assed clean and opened up the sunroom.

2. I spent a lazy day in the sunroom watching Queen Charlotte and Young Victoria on Netflix. Later in the evening Mother's Day texts from the Eldest.

3. Himself's birthday celebration. He wanted take-out from Outback and ice cream cake for dessert

4. I attended a Zoom workshop from the comfort of the sunroom.

5. Play day with Teague. We went to a new to us place for lunch, Out Post Farms in Holliston. Yummy, turkey sandwiches and giant cookies.

How was your week?

Whatcha Doin?

 

I'll be attending an online workshop on Social, Emotional Learning. Whatcha doin?

T Stands For Sketchbook Revival Online Workshops

 

Last week in a bit of serendipity, Anne from Anne's Creative Cornucopia, told me about Sketchbook Revival Online Workshops. I had already signed up.

Sketchbook Revival is a series of  FREE online workshops. The workshops began March 20 and will run until April 1 with free access to all the videos until April 20. You can still sign up. You also have the option of buying the workshops to have unlimited access to the videos.

Each day, you'll receive a link to two workshops for the day. You can watch the videos in any order and work at your own pace.

The theme for the workshop is color. The workshops are for all levels and are more of a way to draw each day and to have some fun being creative with the materials you have on hand.

My drink reference is the Doodle Blob creation I made while watching illustrator, Mike Lowry's workshop. I used a Tombow Brush pen to create a shape and to color it in on a scrap of Canson Mixed Media paper. Then using a permanent ink pen, (Micron Pigma pen), you add features to create an animal, person, creature. Whatever your shape inspired you to see and to create a little story. I saw a cat drinking a cup of tea. 

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Book of Marks Process

 

After the book was sewn, time to go through the button box to find a button for the closure. I like the teal buttons, but I think they may be too small for the 8 in. x 10 in. book.

I had to leave class early so I missed how the closure is done with button and ribbon as well as some of the decorating and ascemic writing inside the book. I'll have to wait until the video of the class is available so I can see what I missed.

Book of Marks Process

 

The Strathmore watercolor paper ( 22 in.x 30 in.) was cutdown, folded, and sewn with a simple 3-hole pamphlet stitch. (See Teesha Moore's Amazing 16 Page Journal)

Whatcha Doin?

 

I'm watching the video for the second class of the Book of Marks. I had to leave class early that day so I'm watching what I missed so I can begin working in the book.

Whatcha doin?