nanke's stuff

Well, I don't know why, but it's official ..... I'm definitely in a slump.  I did the sketch that I put in my last post with the intention of making a painting using it, but for some reason I find I just can't do it.  I don't know if it's lack of confidence, fear, laziness, a block .... who knows?  Anyhow, in an attempt to get on with something, I decided to start making some Christmas ornaments. 
Every year for a number of years, I've made handmade ornaments for my nieces.  Of course, every year has to be something different than I've done in the past, so this year I decided to make some tiny stuffed animals.  When my grandson CC was born, I made him a mobile for his room.  I made 5 tiny stuffed animals:  a lion with a huge mane, an elephant, a pig, a duck, and a panda.  But before that, before he was even born, but we were eagerly awaiting his arrival, I made a tiny rabbit for his first Christmas ornament.  Because I've had a bit of experience making them, I decided that in my current state of affairs, I would make a couple more of them.  I started with the rabbit.  I think the second one might be an elephant - I love elephants.  In this way I can at least be creating something without all the anxiety (or whatever label fits my current state), and maybe work my way up to painting and/or drawing again.  So, without further adieu, here is the bunny!

On Tuesdays I volunteer at the county health department all day, so I don't have very much time for art.  I recently took some photos of various parts of our yard, and I'm planning on trying my hand at acrylics again.  In the meantime, I did a quick preliminary sketch of one of them using pastels.  It's not very good, but it does give me some ideas as to what I want to include and what I want to eliminate.  So, in the spirit of trying really hard to do one piece of "art" each day, here it is, roughness, mistakes, and all!  See you tomorrow. 

Well, I got some really cute pictures of CC in his costume from his dad, Ben (our son), and because I'm a bit squeemish about posting CC's picture on the internet, I'm posting one where you can see part, but not all of him.  Even though you can't see his face in this picture, I think he looks just like a Gnome happened upon by a giant (the giant being Ben in his "early 1900s" costume).  So, without further adieu, here they are!

Today I went to Frankenmuth, Michigan with some lovely friends of mine.  One was a delightful woman I met today - she's a friend of one of the other ladies I went with and is a most interesting world traveler.  For those of you who've never heard of Frankenmuth, it's a small town that specializes in everything Bavarian and Christmas.  There is a world-famous gigantic store there called Bronner's that's open almost everyday of the year.  They close on Christmas day, and there may be 1 or 2 other days of the year, but for the most part, they're open every single day.  Busloads of tourists and shoppers arrive there daily from all over.  Frankenmuth is also famous for its chicken dinners (which we did not eat ... we were too busy shopping).
So, I went with 2 things in mind (other than having a really nice time, that is) which were:  1.  Find a Christmas stocking for CC (our toddler grandson), who will be here for Christmas this year from Nashville, and 2.  Find him a Gnome Christmas ornament to commemorate his Halloween costume.  Well, happily I was able to get both things!  I also found some cute ornaments for our sons and their wives.   I had a 15% off coupon which I thought entitled me to 15% off the price of one item, but I was wrong.  It was for 15% off my entire order!!!!  Yippee!!!
When we left Bronner's, we went to a discount shopping mall called Birch Run, where I found some stocking stuffers in a kitchen shop, dog cookies made in the dog cookie bakery, a hand blender (which I've been wanting for a long time to use when I make cream soups) and a new pair of shoes!
We ate at a restaurant called Uno - I guess it's a chain, but I'd never heard of it before.  The food was good (and I have enough left to take to work with me for lunch tomorrow), and the company was even better.   All in all, it was a splendid time!
Now, for the winner of the 2 books:  (Pretend you hear a drum roll, please)..... the winner is funkycrafter!!  I've emailed fc, and will send the books off asap when I have an address.  In the event I don't get a response, I'll move to the next person generated by the  on-line random number  thingy I used.  So, funkycrafter, email me asap!! 
Here's a picture of CC's gnome.  See ya later!

Autumn is my very favorite season.  It's such a treat for all of my senses.  The muted, subtle color changes of some of the leaves, and the bright, gaudy colors of some of the others dazzle my eyes and make me want to draw and paint them.  The scent of apple cider, the smell of burning leaves, and the wonderful aromas of fall dishes like stew and hot, creamy soups, and fruit pies,  put me in the mood for cooking and baking.  The sound of dry leaves blowing when the cold, autumn winds come through, and the crunch the leaves make when you walk through them makes me smile and drag my feet as I walk.  I love the cozy feel of sweaters and quilts.  We've started having fires in the fireplace, and I love the ritual of laying the logs and kindling ahead of time so that when it gets dark (or sometimes even in the afternoon), all we have to do is light a match.  I find watching the flames mesmerizing and soothing.   Sometimes we eat dinner by the fire - I really love it when we do that.
I love the respite from the feeling that I should be doing some kind of work in the garden.  Never mind that I haven't done any fall clean-up and there's many dead plants that should come out.  It doesn't matter.  For some reason, it doesn't bother me like it does in the spring and summer when the gardens need attention.  Autumn is for hunkering down, reading books, drawing, baking, writing, and listening to music.  Autumn outside is for taking walks and snapping photos of the fast-fading beauty of the season.  So, lean back, have a nice cup of tea or maybe some hot cider, and enjoy the most beautiful season of the year!

To  celebrate the 3,000th visitor to my blog, I'm giving away 2 wonderful books.  One is called "Let's Play Cards" published by Leisure Arts.  It's all about how to turn playing cards into ATCs, greeting cards, journals and more.  It has lots of cool ideas as well as ephemera you can use for creating your art. 

The other book is called, "Fanciful Paper Projects" by Sandra Evertson.  It's filled with so many fun ideas and besides the instructions, it also has great ephemera you can use.  I think you'll love them!

Just leave a comment between now and Sunday, October 25th, and I will choose a winner using a random number selection process on Monday.  Be sure to include a way for me to reach you, either in your post or by emailing me.  The last time I did this the person who won lost out because I couldn't get in touch with her and she didn't contact me when I announced who the winner was until after I had moved on to someone else.  Please don't let that happen to you!!  Good Luck and thanks for making my blog so much fun!

Today is sort of gray and it's supposed to start raining this afternoon.  So, I decided to try making a painting with acrylic paint.  I've used acrylics before in my mixed media art, but I've never attempted to do a painting.  I've shied away from it for a number of reasons .... it dries too fast (I don't have one of those special acrylic palettes that keeps your paints moist); I haven't mastered how much water to mix with the paint - it's either too thick and blobs, or it's too thin and is too transparent for what I'm looking for; it leaves hunks of paint on your palette that are hard to get off .... well, I'm sure there's more, but that should suffice.  I've always been a watercolorist when doing paintings, so I decided to experiment a bit.

I've had a number of small canvasses for quite awhile along with a few tubes of acrylic paint.  I have 6 small tubes of Golden acrylics (3/4 oz each), and 9 tubes of Liquitex Basics (which I've had for a very long time and forget now why I bought them).  I started with a reference photo taken in the 1970s during a trip my sister and I took one summer.  We camped our way from Michigan to the West Coast (I use the term "camp" loosely - we actually slept in her van every night except for a few times when we slept in a motel .... that's another story).  The photo had nothing but water in the foreground, and the painting ended up looking only remotely like the photo, but that's OK.

I kind of like the background, and I think the water is only so-so, but the foreground is rather disappointing.  I really don't like the tree at all, and the "grasses" are rather boring.  But, since I'm a work in progress, and so is my art, here it is, warts and all!