A little bit of everything. . . .

ROOST..... and it's contents. This funky and interesting store in the area of Chicago called Andersonville. Andrew my son sells some of his art there and works there part time. I had fun taking pictures of all kinds of fun stuff.

At the bottom a couple more of my " Doggy Graduates"

Hopefully by next week I will get back on schedule with some of my artwork I am behind on.

ROOST in Chicago where my son Andrew works part time. Very eclectic store full of all kinds of treasures and old stuff.

SHELLS

ROPE

MAGGIE

ANDY AND HIS MOM

Time for some blooms...... A little less humidity !!

Here in Missouri, summers are known for heat and humidity.

Well, this summer is no exception, except it has become excessive. Especiallly for June. We have thunderstorms about every other day.

Peoples basements are filling up with water, streams are out of their banks and high winds are causing tornados and wind damage.

The one good thing though is that every growing thing is growing by leaps and bounds. Lots of mowing, weeding, and to help out lots of beautiful flowers.

Thought I might share a few pictures I took with you

Have a great week.

Fun week of Art, and a Surprise.!!!!

I am hooked on Word Art and found out my picture is on a bookmark at the local Library.

As I have said I am taking a watercolor journaling class. The pear below was one of our assignments that I really had fun with.

Our next assingment was word art. Well, to say the least I got really hooked on that. The one on the right is my 2nd one.

The 4th of July one is also special to me because my birthday is the 5th of July and so it becomes a two day celebration

About a month ago I was in the library checking out books. They asked if they could take my picture for a marketing promo for MidContinent Libraries. I said yes, they asked what I did I said art teacher and artist. So they gave me a sign with the word Picasso on it.

Today I went back to the library as I do most weeks to check out books, and there is a big poster with my picture along with others promoting the library. They also made bookmarks with each of our pictures on them.
Below is a copy of the book mark with my picture on it. !!
What a hoot. I may be famous, yeah right.

Grunewald Guild........ I miss not being able to go this year.

This time last year I was getting ready to go to Grunewald Guild in the Cascade Mts. of Washington State. It is an art and spirituality retreat, and I took two classes. One on Mandelas and one on Art and Spirituality. It was soooo wonderful I was going to go back this year for 3 weeks on staff, which meant for a little work I got my classes and everything else free. Well, alas things often changed. I needed to retire from teaching, I got the job at PetsMart, and so here I am still in Missouri for the summer.

I will return again though. There were two 87 year old women there when I was and they came every year. It was a wonderful way to spend my 60th birthday and was my gift to myself. I hope I don't have to wait to0 long to go again

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My life has been fruity lately . .. . . . ..

My life it seems has been full of food and fruit lately.!! In the Foundations of Artful Journaling online class, so far we have drawn watermelon, lemons and now a fortune cookie.

All of this reminded me of a painting I did about a year ago in a 1 day class on watercolor. I actually still have a little bit of work to do on this piece, but, for the most part it is done.

The grapes need some more color and the pear in the bottom left needs work.

I also need to finish the background, but I thought I would show it anyway. Who knows the way my life seems to be lately, who knows when I will ever get back to it.

I will say, some of the things I have learned from Laure Ferlita in just the past week already make me see some places this piece needs work done on.

Hope everyone is not expecting to have to build an Ark, like we are here in the Kansas City area. More rain expected for tomm.

I taught 5 dog obedience classes today and two 30 minute make up classes. I was wiped out by the time I got off at 7:15.

Happy times to all my new found blog artist friends. You make my life so much more enjoyable with your kindness and talents.

Flowers, Chicago and Lemons......and a long week

Wow this has been a long week.

It started out with going to work at 10pm to 4am on Tuesday night for inventory.

Back to work at 4:30-9:30 on Wed. to teach two dog classes.

Got up at 4:30 on Thursday morning to catch a 6:15 am flight to Chicago to see my youngest son Andrew.

Back home at 8:30 last night, because my flight was an hour late leaving Chicago, so, lots of sitting in the airport time.

Andrew will be moving to NYC with his girlfriend in August, as she will be finishing up her Masters at NYU in French Education. Andrew, not sure exactly what he will be doing. Oh to be young, in love and fancy free. I am so excited for them and their new adventure.

I am putting up some pictures from the trip, some beautiful flowers I saw, and the latest assignment for my on line class with Laure Ferlita.

Water brush. . . . .Birthday Watermelon

I am taking Laure Ferlita's Foundations of Watercolor Journaling on line class. One of the tools we use is a "water brush". I had seen them before,but never tried one. This was a new learning curve for me to get used to. It takes a bit to get used to how to control the flow of water and how much paint to have on your brush. Having now tried it I think I am hooked. I understand how wonderful it will be to take with you and not have to worry about messing with water, etc.

The assignment was this picture of a slice of watermelon. I am sure you wonder why mine has a birthday candle in it. My birthday is July 5,1949. I was not usually a big cake fan, so my mom started putting candles in 1/2 a watermelon and that would be my birthday cake.

Last summer when I turned 60 I took a week long retreat to Grunewald Guild in the state of Washington. It was a week of art and spirituality. I took a Mandala class with Carla McConnell.Check out her web site. She does amazing things with colored pencils. Her mandalas are unbelievable. That was where I first saw the water brushes. You need to check out the Guild, they have different classes taught by known artists throughout the summer. It is up in the Cascade Mts. and is just beautiful. They have a different set of classes every week. I hope someday to get back again.

My very dear brother and sisters, made sure that the staff there knew that I liked watermelon for my birthday cake, and everyone surprised me with a birthday celebration complete with a watermelon birthday cake. I will always treasure those memories.

My first dog graduate...... this is Talon

Yesterday my second dog obedience class had graduation. This class only consisted of one dog, as the other one in the class ended up not being able to be there at the time scheduled.

I loved this experience. I had a class graduate the Saturday before, but, I forgot my camera. This time I remembered.

The cutest couple were my "Pet Parents". Eric and Angela. She is due to have their first child next month, they are moving into their first house this week and Talon their beautiful yellow Lab graduated on Sunday. They were so sweet to work with and so nice.

What a rewarding experience this is. I love the picture of Talon with the cap on the side of his head covering his eye, and he didn't even mind. He is a special dog.

Bird and Artichoke. . . . . Zentangles

After a very long day at work today, I need some relaxing down time. My favorite thing to do for that is art work and more specifically Zentangles.

I have been hooked on them ever since I found out about them almost 6 months ago.

The first one I did was this little bird. Maybe that comes from my part time job at PetsMart !!!!

Whatever, it just seemed like a fun idea.

THE ARTICHOKE
Thanks to Valentino Ramos for the inspiration.

I must give some credit for this Zentangle to where I first saw it which was on the blog of Valentino Ramos .
She is an amazing artist who's work I just happened on to here in Blogworld.

I love her Zentagle works that at 3D- different, unusual and just amazing. I was so inspired by her Artichoke Zentangle I had to try one of my own.

SO, a big thank you to Valentino even though she has no idea who I am, for giving me this inspiration. You can go to her blog which is linked above to see her work.

Brother....... couldn't leave him out !!

Just thought I would let you see a picture of my Brother, so he would not be left out, since he is not a girl. What he is though is "Santa Claus" at Christmas time. I am sure you can see why. What else he is , is one of the most caring, loving, dependable, trustworthy and specially talented persons I know. That is " Brother"

The girls in the family.........minus my brother...

Family is Special....
Came across this photo today while looking for something else.

I love this picture. It was taken last August at my nephew's wedding in Tulsa Oklahoma.

I am in the middle back row, my oldest niece is to my left, my baby sister to my right ( mother of the groom) . The front row is my older sister on the left, her middle daughter in the middle and her youngest daughter on the right. My older sister had the three girls, my younger sister and I each had 2 boys.

We all had so much fun watching all of them grow up. They are all such fine young men and women now.

My brother who is the oldest could not be at the wedding. He is the wonderful person entitled Micosay who comments on every one of my blogs. We have always called him "Brother" although his name is John Charles. He and I have a bond of our artistic sides.

My younger sister is Betty Lou and my older sister Mary Margaret.