Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

The New Zealand Army Basel Tattoo

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?

Name Tag

Tuesday was part 1 of Kathy Milici's Modern Ornamental Initial's class. During the afternoon session, we were supposed to work on painting an intricate H. 

While the good students followed the lesson plan, I was designing a name tag for a work event. I just didn't want to wear the peel and stick Avery label. 

I worked my design on graph paper. On Wednesday, I transferred the design to watercolor paper using a piece of Saral paper. The size of the name tag which will fit into a plastic sleeve is 3.5 in. x 2.5 in.

With Dr. Ph Martin's Black Star ink, I wrote my last name using Kathy's Modern Storybook Script. The Black Star ink is truly waterproof. I was going to ink the entire design, but chickened out because the center line was so narrow. The initials and stars were done using a Micron Pigma pen .01.

I thought I would take process photos, but I got into the zone so here's the final piece. I was tempted to gild the stars and center line with 23K gold (just because I can), but worried that the plastic sleeve would harm the gold. The gold designs were painted using Schminke Gold Perl watercolor.

Oh, and if you are wondering about the star design suggesting I have an inflated opinion of myself , well I do, but that's not the reason for the stars. I have recurring dreams with star fields and magnificent blue skies so these motifs are important to me.

Whatcha Doin?

 

I'm packing again. This time for the Sacred Art Retreat on Enders Island in Mystic, Connecticut. Whatcha doin?

T Stands for Anniversaries Dinner

The Brother's anniversary and our anniversary are a week apart. The Brother and his wife invited us out to dinner to celebrate. Since dinner was his treat, he chose A.J. Tomaiolo's Restaurant in Northbridge. We weren't familiar with the restaurant so he said look for the big rooster out front.

Just as he said, there was the big rooster. I thought that might be fun to relocate to the Zensical garden.

I had a glass of Prosecco and a variation on my favorite dish, Linguini a la Vongola. Linguini and clams in a red sauce. The restaurant had clam sauce and Mussels. Very nice. They also served delicious bread and a nice salad.

We were practically the only customers in the restaurant. So we had plenty of time to linger, chat, and laugh over the dinner. The Brother is hysterically funny so always a good time when we get together.

For dessert, I had Tiramisu and a cup of tea. Big Brother and SIL, if you are reading this, thank you again for a lovely evening.

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.

Keeping Up with the Vanderbilts at The Breakers (A Virtual Tour)

 

Image from the website

From last week's posts about The Breakers, the Summer cottage of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, I forgot to include the link so you could take a virtual tour of the mansion.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

First time, I've ever seen a Yellow Woolly Bear caterpillar.

Sunrise with the moon

Red sky in the morning. We had some pretty fierce thunderstorms in the afternoon.

Morning glories taking over the inside of the greenhouse

Cosmos in a pot. Himself didn't know they grew so tall

Milkweed and Goldenrod

Bees loving the Goldenrod

Another giant, Zinnias

How does your garden grow?