nanke's stuff

Today I finished painting my friend's apartment. Well, she refers to it as "painting her apartment", but what I really did was paint 2 bedrooms and was very happy to be able to help her with her move. I'll go back Wednesday to do some touch-up, but for the most part, it's done.

I also finished baking all the cookies for the party that my son and daughter-in-law gave for her sister. It was a surprise party on Saturday, the weather was wonderful (even tho rain and thunderstorms were predicted), and we had a really good time. I made Spritz cookies, oatmeal/date cookies, brownies, chocolate chip, lemon bars, Norwegian almond bars, "no-fuss" bars (graham cracker crumbs, coconut, mini choc. chips, nuts, and sweetened condensed milk) and peach bars that had coconut in them. There were some left over - enough for Carrie's (my dil) sister-in-law who is due any day now with their second baby, to take home and enjoy, which made me very happy. There was a bonfire, great food, fun and interesting people, and best of all, Carrie's sister Lauren, whom the surprise party was for, was totally unsuspecting and surprised.

I have a new computer (which I'm using as I speak), but it doesn't have everything installed yet (including my email add. book, which is Most Inconvenient), but I love it. It's a Mac (so was my old one), and has a giant screen, no hard drive box, wireless mouse and wireless keyboard! I'm really excited about it.

Since I've been sort of busy lately with non-art things, I'm posting a Zentangle that I did in my last-year's journal. ...... I have to save this post and try to do the download using my sweetie's scanner and computer because we haven't figured out yet how to get my scanner to work with this new baby. He's been really busy, too (right now he's trying to balance the checkbook which I've screwed up yet again .... I try really hard, but every month there are several (or 1 big one) deductions that aren't recorded. He's so sweet about it - never gets mad or anything - I don't know how he does it month after month. I can't tell you how lucky I am. .... This month I made about $1,000 worth of mistakes. Not my all-time high, but getting close.

So, anyhow, assuming I'll be able to use his equipment (with his help), here's the Zentangle. Until next time!

I've been really busy lately, and haven't taken (I almost said "haven't had") time to spend on art. I know that the time is always there - I just have to find it and do it. But, sometimes I get distracted and find that by the end of the day I'm really tired and just can't find the energy to go to my studio and do anything. Also, I've been in a bit of a slump lately when it comes to knowing what to do and how to do it. So, I decided that I would do a bit of collage (which I haven't done in quite awhile), and just play with paper and ink. Since I have a few postcard addresses from Postcrossing that I want to take care of, it seemed like a perfect match.

I'm not sure this card is finished yet, but I thought I'd share it anyway while I ponder what, if anything, to do next on it. I first covered the background with ink using a makeup sponge, stamped and embossed the plant on the left, added the torn paint chip in the lower corner (which is textured like sand), then put the picture of the fairy and Pinocchio on it. The blue paper on the top is a torn napkin, and I stamped the 2 birds on. I have a really ancient manual typewriter (I'll post a picture of it some day - I mean it's really, really old) which I used to type the quote on old, yellowed paper that I have, then added the red German scrap top and bottom. The silver star is cut out of some stickers that a charitable organization sent in a "send us some money, please" mailing. The card is nothing special, but at least doing it gave me the feeling that I spent a bit of time on art.

Tomorrow I'm going to a friend's apartment to help her paint it, then Friday I have to finish baking 24 dozen cookies for a party my son and his wife are having. I have 4 kinds baked and frozen, but I have 4 or 5 more kinds to bake by Saturday afternoon. I'll try to post again before the weekend .... I'm sure I'll need the break from painting and baking!

Today is our 35th wedding anniversary! We celebrated yesterday by going to dinner to a restaurant we love in Chelsea called The Common Grill. There's nothing common about the food. I had a wonderful goat cheese ravioli with a delicious sauce with large chunks of lobster in it. My sweetie had a stuffed chicken breast that looked wonderful. We shared a dessert of some sort of warm, crispy, chocolate affair with candied pecans as a garnish.
When we came home, we sat on the porch and I did a quick sketch of Abby, our special spaniel. (She tells us constantly just how special she is). She's very sweet and laid back, great with children of all ages, and most agreeable. I love her dearly.
Soon I'll be leaving to join up with my friend Vicki, for a day of roaming around checking out second hand shops and who knows what else! It's always a fine time and we'll also have a spot of lunch somewhere. So, until the next time, I hope your day is filled with moments of pleasure, joy, and gratitude. nancy

We've been to Nashville to see little Clyde, our grandson. He gives me such joy just to watch him toddle about. I love how he swings his left arm when he's on a mission - he's all business then, and knows just what he wants to do. He makes me smile and laugh like no one else can. Here's a picture of him in his brand-new boots (which he loves!).


While there, we took him on a couple of little outings. One of them was to the Opry Mills shopping center to see the fish and ride the merry-go-round. There is a large, shallow pool there filled with stingrays, and for $2.00 you can get a little plastic container of shrimp to use to hand feed them! Of course, I couldn't wait to do it, and since the walls of the tank are clear, the baby could watch from his stroller. The stingrays are very gentle, and most amazing to me is that they like to be petted! I'd never seen them "in the flesh" before, only in pictures and on TV. For the first time I saw their underside, and they have very sweet little faces under there! They are gentle and take the food carefully from your hand. They are very smooth and sort of velvety to the touch. Sadly, we didn't get any pictures of them - we left our cameras in the car, and I didn't think to use my cell phone. ...... I guess I'll just have to go back soon, don't you think?

I took some art supplies with me, but I was busy the whole time doing fun things, and didn't do a single drawing. Also, I put all of my art groups on "no mail", so as not to have so much in my inbox when I got back (there were still 154 of them) and now I feel like I have no idea what's going on. It's sort of like starting out new again. My computer is very slow, both because it's old and because we can't get a very fast connection here in Hooterville, so trying to go back and look at every ones postings and blogs just takes me way too long. I'm waiting for a new Mac computer to arrive any day now (hooray!!!), and I'm very excited to start using it. My sweetie will help me get it all settled in, and I can't wait!

So, in lieu of new work to post, I'm posting an ink drawing from my journal. It was a rather quick sketch on paper that has texture to it - not the best choice for the medium I used, but it was what I had available at the time. After I got home, I trimmed it and pasted it in my journal. I'm hoping to have more time now to get back to my art!

See you soon~

It's been too long since I've posted - things have been pretty busy around here. Most recently, we discovered we've become the home for yellow jackets and another kind of wasp. Now I don't mind the bees and things, as long as they stay in their place - which is outside!! Last week I started seeing (and killing) bees in our kitchen. At first just one or two a day, but by Friday, I was killing several of them a day. Then I discovered the floor of the furnace room in the basement littered with their little yellow jacket bodies, and several of them hovering around inside the window. Time to call the exterminator!
It took several phone calls: "sorry, mam, we only kill mammals", "sorry, mam, we can't come for a couple of days", "sorry mam, we don't go out as far as you live". You'd think that exterminators would do a great business out here in Hooterville where all the critters live, but nooo. Finally this morning I found a nice man who would come out today! Yea!!! They're called Maples Exterminators, for anyone who lives in Livingston County, Michigan (they go to other counties, too). So, as the nice man in his space suit was outside spraying the dickens out of the little buggers, I stayed in the studio playing. I could hear the buzzing in the walls - it was a bit disconcerting, but I kept at it, working on a mixed media page in my journal. I had to go to the window in the guest room and watch from time to time, but I was afraid he would look up and be startled to find me staring at him and fall off his ladder, poison and all. He went around the house and ended up spraying 3 separate places outside and then came in to spray in the furnace room. He said it could take up to a week for all the bees to die ... I'm betting they'll be gone before then.
So, here is what I did while he worked. I like parts of it, and parts of it I don't like at all, but all things considered, it's a wonder I got it finished!


P.S. I just noticed that I spelled the name of the plant wrong .... it's Caladium!