nanke's stuff

Two and a half years ago when our wonderful grandson CC was born, I made a mobile to hang above his bed.  I made 5 little animals out of felt, then decorated an embroidery hoop and fixed a hanger of some sort to the top ... I forgot what I used.  Anyhow, since the mobile is in Nashville and I'm here in the Mitten, I went looking for any pictures of it in order to get some idea of how I did it.  The reason I need to know is that sometime around March 1, we will become grandparents again (yippee), and I've been asked to make another one for the new baby boy.  They asked me to use an underwater theme this time!

I have some ideas about what and how I'm going to make the critters, but I wanted to see what I did to assemble it all the last time.   I thought you might be interested to see what the first one looks like, and when I finish the next one, I'll give you a look at that one too - (first I have to start it ... good plan, don't you think?).

So, here's a couple of pictures of it.  Ironically, I still can't see what I did at the very top of it, but there's enough there that I'm sure it won't be too difficult.... I probably shouldn't have said that last thing - you know how that goes - it's like inviting trouble!






This time I'm going to use a larger hoop so they're not quite so crowded together.  What do you think? 

On Tuesdays I volunteer for our County Health Department.  My job is fun ... I answer the phones, direct people who come in to the proper places, and sometimes they give me simple assignments to do.   None of the assignments are technical or difficult, but they can be very time consuming for the staff which is working with limited resources and a very limited number of employees. 

Today I got up at 4:00 and did a number of things here at home before I got ready to go to play.  I don't know about the rest of you, but I have a very hard time keeping up with my email - right now I have 89 unread emails, and that's after spending about an hour going thru them just before I started this post.  Most of them come from one of my favorite online art groups (Everyday Matters ... I was going to post the link, but it took up 3 lines!!) and consist of very wonderful and interesting links to blogs which I love to read.  My good friend, Vicki, somehow manages to do it all, but  I just keep falling further and further behind.  OK, enough about that ...

After I got home, had dinner, got the car loaded  with the recyclables (together with my sweetie) which I will drop off tomorrow, cleaned up the kitchen and walked the dog, I did 2 quick contour drawings.  I know - they're not much, but it was really all I could manage, and I'm determined to do better at both regular drawing (or whatever) and posting to my blog. 

So, without further ado, here they are .... now I'm off to take a nice, warm, bath!

It's been way too long since I've posted, and I've missed it.  Well, it isn't just the posting I've missed, it's all of you.  I've also greatly missed  playing with art.  But, I'm back, I'm in fairly fine fettle, and I'm ready to move along the path of creativity once again.

I'm getting back in the groove of exercising (I didn't stop using my treadmill,  I just haven't been doing it as regularly as I want need to).  I used to go to a Yoga class regularly, but for a variety of reasons (including the fact that my teacher is now 45 minutes away) I stopped doing it.  Today, however, I ordered a Yoga DVD which is supposed to arrive tomorrow, and I'm really looking forward to starting to do it again!

We were blessed to have our whole family together for Christmas again this year, and being with our wonderful grandson was a true gift.   He'll be 3 in April and  is more interesting and more fun the older he gets.   They live over 9 hours away, and it's just Too Far!  I cried off and on the whole day they left, including laughing and crying at the same time that night when our son called to say they'd arrived home safely.  We'll see them when our new grandson-to-be is born (due March 1).  We'll drive down as soon as labor begins and scoop up our little darling to wait with him for his brother to be born.

So, here are 3 sketches I did of my right hand.  I find hands very difficult to draw ...... who am I kidding?  I find everything hard to draw! 

I wish each and every one of you the very best for the coming year .... peace, health, and happiness!

When I sat down with my sketchbook I was not in the best of moods.   Nothing was wrong except that I was out of sorts..... restless .... unfocused .... thinking negatively.  I couldn't think of a single thing I wanted to do - I mean not one single thing.  So, I sat with my sketchbook and stared at the blank page.  Finally I drew a rectangle with pencil, drew a single looped line from one edge to the other, and started  with my trusty Micron 01 pen to make marks.  You may be able to tell by looking at it where I began making marks, but just in case you can't guess, I'll tell you.  I started filling in the loop.  I looked at what I had done and felt even worse.   It was dark and cramped - in other words, it looked just like I felt.  I kept going - another line, more shapes.  Little by little the drawing doodle began to change.  I didn't notice it at first, but then I got interrupted by a phone call, and when I came back to it, I realized that not only had the drawing changed, but so had my mood.  I was feeling better.  I decided to start adding a bit of color to it.  The color I started with was blue .... surprised?  After awhile other colors began to show up until, in the end, both the drawing and I were appearing quite cheery.

There's a definite lesson here for me.  It's not a new one, mind you, but it is one that I seem to have great difficulty remembering.  Maybe I should take out this page, frame it, and hang it where I can see it each and every time I come into my studio ..... what do you think?

So, what do these two things have in common?  Well, if you're anything like me, there's a very strong similarity.  I'll start with exercise.  It's very good and healthy for me to do it .... ditto for art.  Sometimes I put off doing it .... ditto for art.   Once I finish doing it, I feel terrific .... ditto for art.   But, here's the biggest thing they have in common for me.   The longer I go without doing it, the harder it is for me to start up again.  Also, the more reasons and excuses I find not to do it, the worse I feel and the  more distressed I become.  

I haven't posted anything here for a month - I think that's a record for me.  It's not because I haven't thought about it.  It's not because I haven't had time, although we did a wee bit of traveling during that time and I also had a bit of a problem with my eye (the one that will be operated on this coming Wed.).  I can't even honestly say it's because I didn't have any art to show you - Vicki and I took a wonderful book binding class last weekend at Hollander's, and I could post pictures of the books I made (I will do that soon, though).  No, it's because I "fell off the camel" so to speak, and I just haven't been able to pick myself up, dust myself off, and jump back on again.   So, I decided that today's the day.  (Ironically, I have to hurry because we're going to a birthday party soon, and I still have to wrap the presents).

Just another quick thing.  I've been wanting to go back to the Ann Arbor Art Center to their life drawing studio.  It's been a really long time since I've been there, but I want to start going regularly on Friday afternoons (great timing - it's about to get really snowy here and the drive takes about 40 minutes in the summer).  Of course I haven't gone yet, but here are a couple of things I did back when I Was going regularly.  I post them here to give me the incentive to get off my tush and get myself going!

I so appreciate all the good wishes I got from many of you for a successful eye surgery.  I had it last Wednesday, and it was a piece of cake!  (That's for any of you who might be contemplating having a lens implant in one or both of your peepers).  It was painless and fast, and I could see out of that eye right away.  I mean, I could see really well out of it.  The last time I knew what my vision in that eye was, it was 20/200.  That was years ago, and over time my vision got slowly but steadily worse.  The day after the surgery I went to the doc for my first post surgical check up, and my vision tested (are you ready for this?) 20/25!!!   I have the surgery scheduled for my other eye in mid-November.  My contacts are what is called monovision, i.e., my left eye is corrected to see near,  and my right eye to see far.  I've decided to have the same thing done with my lens implants, so the lens put in my left eye will enable me to see near without glasses.  I'm already used to seeing that way, so I don't think I'll have an adjustment issue.  As I write this, I have one contact in.  After my surgery, No Contacts Or Glasses!!!  I marvel that it wasn't that long ago that cataracts ultimately led to blindness, and now in a 15 minute surgery, voila - near perfect vision!  What a miracle.

So, that's the "Peeper" story of this post.  Here's the Dog part of the story.  Below is my first drawing post-surgery.  Walter is a dog that I copied from a magazine.  I did it wearing one contact, using pencils in the sketch book that I reported missing in my last post.  Yep, I found it!!  All in all, I have much to be grateful for, including all of you!  Thanks again for all your support.

So, because of my impending surgery and the need to keep putting drops in my eye, I'm sticking very close to home .... as in going no place.  Today I was out with the dog making sure she didn't leave the yard (even tho it's fenced, she sometimes decides her acre to roam in isn't enough, so she jumps through the slats in the fence, (and more recently, through the bars of the farm gate), and looking down, I saw a grasshopper just sitting on the sidewalk.  I got down for a closer look ... it didn't move.  So, I picked it up - still not even an antenna twitch.  Carrying it carefully after summoning Abby, we went into the house, where I set it down with a custard cup over it.  (It's pretty chilly outside, and I wasn't totally convinced it was dead).  After quite awhile with no movement, I decided it was, indeed dead, so I carried it upstairs to my studio intending to draw it.

That's when I discovered my everyday-use- it- in -and- around -the house journal is gone!  I've looked everywhere for it. .... drawers, shelves, all sorts of canvas bags, under, over, between, through, closets, boxes, upstairs and down.  It's driving me crazy.  Sometimes I feel like I'm looking right at it but can't see it.  I Will find it, of that I have no doubt.  The larger question is, will I still have any sanity left when I do?

So, in the meantime, here's the grasshopper drawn in my new everyday journal.  It's done with ink and colored pencil,  and the lettering is indicative of my state of mind at the time.  It's written from the inside out.