HAPPY HALLOWE'EN!

The Halloween Tree - Ray Bradbury

original artwork for his story of the same title

"Twas the night of All Hallow's and all through the room

Not a creature was stirring not even a broom"

~ 'Twas All Hallows Eve by Thomas James Martin

I love Halloween (almost as much as Christmas)! I love everything about it - the tricks, the treats, the decorations, carving pumpkins, scaring yourself silly (despite not being a big horror fan). It's a moment in time when you can walk into public wearing the most outlandish things and it's completely normal! Watching Hocus Pocus, It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown and reading Ray Bradbury's The Halloween Tree.

Every Halloween, my mother makes a big beef stew with chunks of potatoes and carrots, homemade bread and apple pie. The house just overflows with the scents of comfort food! My family comes over, neighbors and friends stop in to visit for a while - their halloween bedecked kids in tow. And where my house is so centrally located, we easily get over 100 kids every year!

But this year, I've felt very un-Halloweenie. My parents weren't going to come up because it's a Tuesday and Dad has to work tomorrow. I have drawing class tonight, so I wasn't going to be home. My niece was going to a friend's house, while my nephew was heading out to make mischief with his friends, so my sister decided to stay home this year. So I didn't buy candy, I didn't carve pumpkins...I didn't even decorate!

Now...well, Mum and Dad are up, Mum's baking as you read this. Both my sister and my brother (who's birthday was yesterday - happy 36th, Derek!) are coming over...and I still have a class...and there's still no candy...or jack-o-lanterns...and the house is still undecorated. And I'm sad, because I wish I had known - I wish I had decorated and bought candy and got into the Halloweenie groove!

Okay, I'm done whining; I'm over it...well not really, but I will get over it.

And by Lord and Lady, my house is going to be so decked out for Christmas, it'll look like the spirit of Christmas *heaved* her Christmas cheer up on it!

bat confetti that I found on my desk this morning - a present from my co-worker Deb!

Oh, and since I didn't post my "What I learned Wednesday" last week, I never told you that we learned about Negative Space and framing:

This is the negative space between chair legs that I did in class. And here is my homework for tonight - the negative space around my sewing machine (and of course, I couldn't get the digital the same as how I viewed it while I drew, but you get the idea):

and I caught myself putting in too much detail - I'll probably hear about it tonight! I'm not sure that I like negative space, but I understand how important it is.

Anyhoo, Happy Tricks & Treats, everyone!

Welcome Monday

What a weekend!

It started off Friday night with a farewell to my friend Melissa, who wasn't really going anywhere; she made the smart decision to leave a horrible and boring job in a more horrible office and strike out on her own, becoming a daycare provider! Yay for her! This something she really needed to do. She was just a big bundle of stress more often than not and very, very unhappy. Now she can spend more time with her husband and her two girls, she'll be at home and she's her own boss! But I miss her terribly and it's only been 1 day :^( She was my lunch buddy. We'd skip out of here most afternoons and just hang out, go shopping, get lunch or a hot chocolate, then commiserate that we had to go back to work. We were but a simple email away from each other that was normally answered in seconds flat! Thankfully she only lives a 5 minute drive from me and we've set aside Thursday nights to hang out, watch Grey's Anatomy and catch up with each other on the week.


Saturday brought rain and wind the likes of a hurricane! I skipped over to my parents with the dog to spend the night and catch up on some Christmas present crafting. Melissa let me borrow her Singer Serger and I was dying to play with it. So as the wind whipped and the rain lashed, my mother and I watched the companion video for the serger, learned to thread it and figured out what it could do...and then the power went! 30,000 people in Maine, stuck without power. Out came the candles and the flashlights and battery powered radios, the fleece pajama pants, sweatshirts and blankets; off went the furnace, the refrigerator, the ability to use the oven (thank god for a gas burner stovetop) and the ability to shower, wash dishes or use the toilet; down came the 5 gallon buckets and rope to dip them in the lake for water to fill the toilet tank, because I really wasn't about to live without a flushable toilet! And I spent the rest of the evening reading my book by candlelight and fell asleep to the sound of the freight train wind. By Sunday morning and no end of the power outage in sight, we packed it in and headed to my house, 45 minutes away. If the wind and rain hadn't been so vicious the night before, we would have left then, but it wasn't safe!


Sunday also brought the finishing of 2 projects and the start of a new one:

The World of Warcraft Imp minion for Juli and Maddie, and the Blue and Yellow Quilt Fairy for my aunt's friend. I'm very pleased with the finished product on these! The creation of the Imp proved to me that I could work outside the box when creating. His body is fabric, but his claws, horns and wings are polymer clay. He was out of the ordinary and made me create a pattern completely different from my fairy pattern! In some aspects he was easier - no wings to sew, no beading to add, no clothing - but in other ways he was more difficult because I had to figure out how to give him claws and horns and a tail. He had to be wired in certain ways and because he was all angular and hunched, he had to be propped up if he was going to look right.

The project I started, I haven't taken a picture of but I put that serger to good use and created a pair of flannel pj's pants for my sister (just need to finish the waistband and hem). The fabric is so great! It's covered in Mexican dishes, little cati, margaritas and sombreros and it's totally perfect for her! Her motto is, "When in happiness, harmony or doubt - have a margarita and everything will be that much better!" I need to get a coordinating colored t-shirt and stencil a margarita on it and buy her Coconut Lime Verbena lotion from Bath & Body Works (to her, it smells like margaritas - it's the lime).

Have a happy Monday all and I'll be back tomorrow to show you my "Negative Space" drawings (and I'm so excited, I should have my new glasses by the end of the week - I hope, I hope! Fresh, scratch free lenses, new funkier frames. I can't wait!)

Oh, and another whoo-hoo. My truck was making noises, so I brought it out to my mechanic, fearing the worst (a week being fixed and a ungodly expense); my mechanic just called to tell me it would be done tomorrow morning and the price tag wasn't going to be an arm and a leg (he said about an arm, but only to the elbow!!) You know it pays having a family friend for a mechanic!

A Week of Intentions

I know we all compose blog posts in our heads (come on now, admit it, you do, too!) but that seems all I have done this week, compose these great blog posts in my head and when I finally get a free moment to post...*poof*...gone! Or I think, "Oh, I can write about...wait, no I haven't taken the pictures yet...oh but...nope, no pictures of that either." It's very sad!

This week's "What I Learned Wednesday" was going to be all about negative space - did I take pictures of what I drew? No. And Wednesday was such a hectic day that I gave up ever trying to type what I learned, how much fun I had, how much more I need to practice and how the teacher thinks I'm too detail oriented (since when is that a bad thing?)

I finished a fairy this week and actually took pictures of her. Did I upload them to Flickr? No.

I've almost finished the Imp that Juli and Maddie requested - haven't taken pictures of him.

I've been making little snowmen and christmas tree ornaments for the December craft fair - nope, didn't take pictures of those yet, either.

There's the mail that I sent out to dear Shari - well, no I can't blog about that until she gets it. Then I can post the pictures that I did remember to take!

There were even more treasures rescued from the bowels of the garage top that could have been photographed but weren't.

It seems like a million things have happened this week: I ordered new glasses that are much funkier than the ones I currently wear, my vehicle conundrums, the new sewing machine I bought for my mother for Christmas, today being Melissa's last day here at work (*sniff, sniff* I'm really going to miss her - not that I can't just go to her house for visits, but it's not the same as having her right upstairs and seeing her everyday!) All these great and wonderful and not so wonderful things I could blog have blogged about...but I didn't.

So I'm ending this week of unfullfilled intentions with a post about what I coulda, shoulda, and woulda done, but didn't.

How boring is that?

Next week will be better. I'll have a picture taking weekend and start writing down those random, mentally composed blog posts or better yet - I'll start carrying my little tape recorder with me! If I had a cell phone, I'd leave myself messages, but I don't. I'm probably one of the few people in the world who doesn't have one permanently attached to my hand (gave it up almost a year ago - wasn't worth the cost).

Have a happy and productive weekend, everyone and next week I will be more organized!

week 3 homework

"wine by candlelight"

soft charcoal, vine charcoal and china marker

I really don't feel that I took my time with this. Funny how you can tell just by the finished product. I know I didn't focus as much as I should have and the depth is all off! At least I can recognize this and work on it for next time.

Hi, my name is Tiffany and I'm a recovering Strawberry Shortcake Addict

So this week is junk week in my town. A time that only comes around every two years...when everyone cleans out their homes, their garages and tells all their friends "Bring all your crap to my house!" You pay the town a set fee (extra for computers and t.v.'s - anything considered univeral) and you pile as much as you can on your front lawn. Then the town crews come around with dump trucks and bucket loaders and whisk your old stuff away. It leaves you with a very renewed feel!

I made my parents come look at things within my house and garage (as they still have soooo much stuff stored there) to see what we could purge. My Dad diligently (and precariously, I might add) climbed into the depths of the storage space above the garage and you would not believe the amount of stuff he got rid of! Before, there was only a small tunnel to practically crawl through to reach the other end, now there is soooo much space...it's beautiful!

During this adventure, he pulled out a lunch box and asked, "Wasn't this your sister's?", I practically screamed, "NO!!! That's mine!" but instead said, calmly, "No, Dina was too old for Strawberry Shortcake" (My sister is 8 years older than me). Inside, I was doing the happy happy dance of joy when I saw it!

My parents bought this for me back in the early early 1980's...back when my whole world was Strawberry Shortcake. I had the dolls, the village, the scented miniatures, the bedspread and sleeping bag, the night light, the big doll...I was a 5 year old Strawberry Shortcake Addict. Oh how I loved Strawberry! And this lunch box went everywhere with me. The thermos is now long gone and there are some rust spots on it, but what do you expect of a 25 year old metal lunch box? It's lucky to still be intact! When you open it up, the metal clasp that help the thermos is still there and the inside lid has an entire piece on child safety, not talking to strangers, etc. etc and was especially geared to those who walked to school, as I did. Oh, Aladdin Brand lunch boxes - you truly looked out for us! With your wise words and metal edges that hurt like hell if swung it at someone (I was a bit of a brute at times - it was the only way to keep the older boys from teasing you because they didn't expect you to fight back...or fight dirty).

When I wasn't using this for my lunch, I would pack all my mini's into it and cart them around the house, making them go on adventures. I had a very vivid imagination and every corner and crook of my house became a Strawberry Shortcake Wonderland. The bathroom sink was a great lake that had to be crossed and invariably, someone was going to "almost" drown, only to be saved at the last minute by her friends. My mother's hutch became a huge mountain that they all would scale (and yes, someone was bound to fall off the mountain face...it wasn't an adventure unless there was a daring rescue!)

The memories that flooded back with this lunch box...oh, what fun! It will now sit on the shelf in my kitchen for all to see, reminding me of the great joy it brought during childhood.

Did you have a favorite lunch box as a kid? Something chocked full of memories?

Have a "berry" nice day, everyone!

(oh, I know, that was a horrible horrible pun. I'm sorry! I couldn't resist. Bad, bad, bad!)

fly me away...

I was going through some of my pictures, trying to find something to post that I've never used. Something interesting because I'm having an uninteresting day, and I came across the pictures my friend sent me from her trip to Ireland.

I love this picture! It's the Stonehouse Restaurant (a 15 minute drive outside of Dingle), where my friend's ate. Looking at those pictures really makes me want to go! I've never been to Europe and I think it's due time. I'm turning 30 in 27 days (not that I'm counting) and there are a lot of places I've never been.

Blogging and checking out people's pictures on Flickr really makes me yearn for a new adventure. I mean I love where I live and enjoy my job, but I really think I need to take a vacation where I get on a plane and travel well outside my country and comfort zone. It's the budget that has been preventing any form of travel, but you know...others make it happen on a shoestring budget, why can't I?

Oh, so speaking of travel - this is a must share. I stumbled upon pictures by Dan Kutner via Flickr but then hit upon his actual website and wow! Take a look at his New Zealand picts (the land ones) – amazing, simply amazing!

I hope this weekend proves fun and exciting for everyone! Enjoy!

bye bye fall

these pictures almost don't look real, like they are painted.

autumn is leaving as swiftly as it rushed in. rain and wind have let loosed many a golden, rust and pumpkin colored leaf. and my lawn is calling to me to grab my rake and clean it up.

i've vowed to do a better job at composting my leaves this year. i'm actually putting them into a bin to let them biodegrade, so that i can easily use them in my gardens next year. i don't enjoy raking, so i end up leaving them until spring, when they are wet and miserable, making them harder to rake, making my back ache, which inevitably is why i don't enjoy raking. i just need to rake them now and get it over with...or mow them over and let them mulch in to my lawn...hmmmm. no, no then i wouldn't be able to use them as mulch in my garden.

ah, fall clean up - my back despises you!

i hope fall clean up (0r spring for those of you in other parts of the world) isn't such a hassle! for some reason, spring doesn't seem so much more labor intensive...though i really think it is. maybe it's the anticipation of what all your hard work will bloom into that makes it more fun than putting the garden to bed for winter. which do you prefer, spring planting or breaking it all down for winter?

happy thursday all! we're one step closer to weekend bliss!

what i learned wednesday

"bottles" using vine charcoal and black china marker.

ah...another week of drawing class!

last night we were introduced to the wonderful world of blind contour. we were not allowed to look at our paper while we drew (using china markers for this segment), only to stare at our subject; to really focus and concentrate on the shape, the edge - how it looked, how it felt. it was very much a "be the ball" moment (for those who don't know: "be the ball" - a classic chevy chase line from the movie caddyshack).

i chose a beer bottle, a wine bottle and a tea cup. to put it simply, i've seen 3 year olds draw better! but then we combined mass gesture, guiding lines and contour lines together (and were allowed to look at our paper while we drew, thankfully) and this picture of the two bottles is my result.

i really enjoyed doing this. what i was drawing actually began to look like something, rather than a roughly bottle-shaped blob o' circles! i really need to play more; to take time out, to sit down and just draw. you know the old saying about practice...so i won't repeat it!

i can't believe that the course is half over! well, this first course and then i go straight into the next 6 week course. i have only one issue - the class is only an hour and a half. i feel like i'm really just getting into the groove of it and then my teacher announces that it's time to clean up! ah, such is life.

another cool thing that came out of class last night was the announcement of an artwalk this friday night in gardiner! there will be 15 artists participating and various businesses have a map of who will be opening their studio for all to come and visit! a few businesses will be open late and will host some works by local artists who don't have a studio downtown. it's crazy how artsy gardiner is getting...i love it! it became such a diminished mill town and now there are so many little places springing up. it's really coming together as a community...and i really need to get more involved. hmmm, maybe i'll talk to the manager of the downtown revitalization program and see what ways i can get involved!

i hope you enjoyed another look inside my drawing class. if anyone has recommendations for art books for beginners, i would love to hear about them! that will be one of the things we do next week, checking out some books that my teacher recommends.

*homework for this week is to practice mass gesture, guiding lines and contour.

have a lovely lovely evening!

week 2 homework

i call this "flower pot and saki cups on a stool" - catchy title huh?

week 2's homework was to use mass guesture again.

i used soft, square charcoal, which i'm really starting to like. i never did before. i was very fond of the precision that pencils give, but i'm starting to change my mind!

and even though you really can't see it, this is set up on an old, metal easel that my dad found for me. where he found it? i don't know. and when it comes to my dad, it's best not to ask...believe me!

welcome to the pumpkin patch

despite being ill all weekend (sinus flu-bug. nothing major, just enough to keep me tired and achy and feeling yucky), it's been very productive! a couple of weeks ago, i was flipping through magazines looking for halloween gift ideas for my friend juli (every year i give her some kind of a halloween gift and try to make it as fun and creative as possible). in one magazine i found an advent calendar...of sorts. it marked down the 13 days of halloween with paper cones filled with candy and little gifts. in another magazine, i found a how-to on creating tissue paper pumpkins filled with candy to give out on halloween night...so i combined the two ideas and created this:

the 13 days of halloween pumpkin patch

i took a box top, covered it with green tissue and stuffed more bunched up, green tissue on the bottom. i bought or made 13 small gifts - all halloween related, wrapped them up in orange tissue paper, making them look roughly like pumpkins and twisted the "stems" with green floral tape. it was simple and fun and i know she'll love it. juli did something similar for me for christmas last year; she worked for an accessory store and made up 25 tissue paper roses that held many, many pairs of earrings, bracelets and necklaces. i got to unwrap one rose every day from the beginning of december to christmas - it was so much fun and she really stocked me up on earrings! so starting october 19th, juli can open one pumpkin a day until halloween for little treats like a tee-shirt, a copy of a cd i know she wants, candy, earrings, a bracelet, a pin, a an autumn scented candle, candle holder, a small decorative clay witch's hat, etc. etc.

the other thing that i worked on this weekend was a fairy house and fairy that my old roommate from university (who lives outside moncton, new brunswick) asked me to make. she said that her aunt is creating a fairy garden at her home in alberta (i think it's an indoor garden) and jenn wanted to give her something fairy and unusual to go with her new garden for a christmas present.

jenn said that her aunt loved bright colors, so i went with a festive orange...not because of the autumn season, but because i found that striped fabric (that her shirt is made of) and the colors from my stash just fell into place. you can see more pictures here, some close up and singularly of the fairy and her house.

i also have an imp that juli and my friend maddie commissioned. there are only 2 more things to do on it and it'll be done! i hope to finish that tonight (have pictures by thursday) and start work on a quilt fairy for my aunt's friend.

what i learned wednesday (the thursday edition)

Drawing Class - Week 2 (Mass Gesture), originally uploaded by faerytreecreations.

yesterday was just a loooooooooong day, but the conference was very interesting! it consisted of several workshops on the revitalization of maine's downtowns and the creative economy. i'm thankful that the conference wasn't happening today - we've had nonstop gale winds and downpours all day (and the conference was being held in several different locations from one end of waterville to the other - all of which you had to walk to). and today i'm having blogger issues...first the homepage wouldn't load, then when i finally got it to load, i couldn't upload pictures! so i'm doing this through flickr and hopefully it won't give me any trouble when i try to post it, then go back and fix it in blogger.

anyway...enough about that and on to the good stuff!

tuesday night's class was ah-mazing and the hour and a half FLEW by! we started the evening off with experimentation - using all of our tools, getting the feel for them, not drawing anything concrete, just making loose lines and seeing what the different charcoals and conte crayons and china markers would do. this was fun...and very messy! i loved it! there are 3 older women in my class who can't bear the mess that we make. they said that they are bringing gloves to the next class...i wanted to say get over it, but...to each their own! the teacher, helene, told us during the first class, "expect to get messy and don't wear good clothes". they obviously weren't listening.

(did i happen to mention that my teacher is of the "go hardcore or go home" school of thought? she wants no little drawings in her class - no small sketch pads. all work is to be done on the 18 x 24 sketch pad and should take up as much of the page as possible! needless to say, scanning these is next to impossible - so i'm taking pictures of them)

after "experimentation", helene set up a still life in the middle of the room with wine bottles, beer bottles, a tea cup, a vase, a light bulb and a jar of glue. as she did this, she talked about "mass-gesture" - about how it depicts volume and a sense of movement. she told us to move our hand as if we were touching the objects in the still life, to move our hands in a round/oval direction and to use a soft tipped charcoal.

she wanted us to really look at the still life as we drew and barely glance at what we were drawing, as "what" we were drawing wasn't as important as "how" we were drawing. she stressed paying attention to our subject, noticing the relationship between each object. we were to loosen up, draw life size or larger and relax.

she wanted a loose circular motion to be revealed in what we drew and no lines...we could blend with a fingers and give the object a little shape, but absolutely no lines - it all had to be circular motion!

i still need to learn to relax and pay more attention to the subject, but i really had fun with this!

next week's homework: to practice this technique by drawing 5 items of any shape on a table.

so much fun!! i love it!

i hope everyone is having a wonderful week so far! the weekend is almost here and i've got projects galore on the go - a ton of fairies, a fairy house, 2 bonnets and some lap quilts, plus my drawing class homework and not to mention building a doll house (but the dollhouse story will be for another post - maybe when i actually get it started). i swear every weekend from now till christmas will be packed with things to do - but that will be good, because these are fun things!

Drawing Class - Week 2 (Mass Gesture 3), originally uploaded by faerytreecreations.

wednesday

so i forgot that i'll be away all day tomorrow at a conference on revitalizing Maine downtowns and how we can reinforce our creative economy - so if i'm not too tired from it tomorrow night, i'll post my "what i learned wednesday". if i am too tired, it'll be a thursday "what i learned wednesday if we pretend thursday is wednesday".

anyhoo, i thought i would share this lovely picture taken through the tree in my backyard.

i love the color of these leaves - i think i'd like a sweater or a shirt this color.

have a wonderful wednesday!

week 1 homework

"mini heirloom pumpkins"

vine charcoal

last week, our instruction was to take 3 round objects, put them on a table and draw them. they didn't have to be perfect - this was just to gauge how well, or not so well, we draw. this is our jumping off point, what we compare our work to at the end of this 6 week class.

so here it is...my drawing - without any instruction. this is how i draw now...and in 6 weeks, my hope is that my drawings will pop off the page, will have depth and a realistic feel.

i can't wait for tonight! yippee!

i hope everyone had a good weekend (long weekend in the US and canada). i must go catch up on my blog reading and comments - i'm a little lapse in doing so!

have a great tuesday everyone and i'll see you again tomorrow for a new installment of "what i learned wednesday."

food for thought

shari's inspiration posts have made me really look around myself and as i sat to eat my sandwich i thought: "food as inspiration? hmmmm....yes, i think food can definitely be inspiring" (it inspires my tummy to rumble!)

the last of this sandwich, though not inspiring to look at right now started off very colorful and interesting, with it's bright cranberries and leafy green lettuce and golden bread (and if it hadn't smelled so yummy and if i hadn't been so hungry, i would have taken a picture of it when it was whole...too late!).

the little snackbar at my work makes the best chicken salad sandwich, called the "chicken coop". it starts off as 2 pieces of homemade apple cranberry bread, which gets slathered with chicken salad, topped with cranberries and walnuts and romaine lettuce....oh it is yummy. messy but yummy.

in further experimenting with driving pictures, i took these last night on my way out to melissa's to visit. they are veryvery blurry, but the patterns of light that oncoming cars and car brake lights make while snapped in motion are very interesting! this one is odd to me; there is an electric green streak off to the left and i cannot for the life of me figure out what it is! any thoughts?

and during my lunch, while i devoured this glorious sandwich, i had a chance to wander through some flickr pages and found junkado, whose photos are so amazing, but the titles of each one are even better! like, quirky smile funny and laugh out loud funny. i highly recommend checking them out!

well, must dash! phone calls to make, people to meet, letters to type, yada yada yada.

i hope it's as sunny and bright your way as it is here in maine!

:^)

what i learned wednesday

yay! the first installment of what i learned wednesday is here!

today's topic: me gushing over how cool this class is going to be...

my very first class was, of course, the introduction to what this class will be all about. my teacher, helene (pronounced HAH-lane) is amazing! she not only has a studio not far from where i live, but she is also an art teacher at the local community college. she's so energetic and really got us fired up! just listening to her last night and seeing some of her student's work made me believe that i can really do this. that by the end of these two courses, i will be able to make my drawings pop right off the page!

helene showed us what tools we would be using (here are the goodies that you asked about, louise) :

vine and willow charcoals
standard charcoals
conte crayons
india ink w/ chinese brushes
china markers
sharpie pens
tortillions

then of course we have to get gum and kneadable erasers, an exacto knife, masking tape, pushpins, a sketchbook, a toolbox and a portfolio - i've never had a portfolio before. i know that i can make a really inexpensive one out of cardboard...but i kinda wanted something "official", not extravagent...but something with pockets and zippers and...well...i splurged and ordered this in the larger size. it's not expensive and i know there are much better ones out there, but this will be just right for me!

we went over the outline for the class and...did i tell you that i'm doing the happy happy dance of joy? :^)

week 2 (next week) will be all about experimenting with our drawing materials and getting the feel for them. we will also be learning about volumetric drawing through mass gesture, blind contour and we'll have an intro to contour.
week 3 will be a continuation.
week 4 will be about negative shape and "viewfinder usage to locate composition".
week 5 will see us creating a value scale, laying tone and "drawing with the eraser".
week 6 is all about beginning a portrait with ink studies and we'll get to use our china markers with turps (helene said that turps really draw out the lines that china markers make, giving the image a wispy feel). the next 6 weeks will be a whole new course with emphasis on landscape and portraits - we don't have the outline for that yet.

during the last 15 minutes of class, helen did a powerpoint presentation showing us various works by different artist (some of whom are her college students) and WOW - they were so incredible and inspiring! i wish i took notes on who the artists were but i was too busy ogling the pictures. there were only three that i recognized, frida kahlo (who's work is so unusual, but it sucks you in because there is so much within each work); gustav klimt (i've always found his work very sensual and his use of color and shape has always intrigued me); andrew wyeth (whom the great state of maine claims as our own because he had a summer house here...he's really from pennsylvania - but many of his works depict maine, some bleak - some striking but all beautiful in their own right).

okay, i think i've blabbered on enough! friday night, i will be heading to artist & craftsman supply in portland for my supplies and to just hang out in the old port for a bit (something i rarely get to do since it's about an hour drive from my house).

so here's to inspiration! i know we've all been contemplating it, thanks to shari. to reviving that much needed inspiration in our creative lives, so that it may seep into our daily lives!

oh btw, we even have homework this week - we are to place 3 objects on a table and draw what we see as best we can, spending no more than 90 minutes on this! i can't wait to get my stuff so i can start playing!!!

like a kid at christmas...

i can't wait for this evening. tonight is the first night of my drawing class...the first night of 12 classes! i got the supply list and there are so many things on it that i've never used before and wonder what we will be doing with them? the teacher will be supplying what we need tonight and then it is up to us to find our supplies before next week.

i had an idea that, since i have class every tuesday until the week before christmas, i'd institute a weekly "what i learned wednesday" post to show you what new techniques i've learned and scan & upload my drawings where i've put these techniques to use.

i'm bouncing around doing the happy dance wondering when this day will be over and for this class to begin!

oh, i just can't wait!


oh, had to share this picture. it was taken through the window of my truck while i drove to work this morning. the sun was shining but near the river and in all the low lying areas the fog was so thick. it was beautiful to drive through - especially with the sun so blurrily shining through it.

there are more here (some a little blurry from the moving vehicle).

p.s. the headache and stiff neck are gone and i have freedom of motion once again! whoo-hoo!

wishing i was here

i slept wrong last night and have the worst stiff neck which turning into the worst migraine...and i'm still at work...but i'd rather be here - wandering through waist deep grass, listening to the birdsong, the buzz of bees and various insects, the water lapping the shoreline, an occasional boat puttering along.

it was warm that day, not hot, but comfortable - the perfect jeans and t-shirt weather.

a very slight breeze was blowing - barely a whisper through the tall grass.

and the sun was setting across the lake.

even after the sun set, it was warm...and so very relaxing.

so physically, i'm here at work on a very cloudy day, listening to construction and wishing away this headache...but mentally, i'm walking through this luscious field...watching the dragonflies and the butterflies...

here's hoping your mental landscape is as peaceful!