Zentangle Thurzday

Well, I've not gotten around to the Diva's challenge this week yet and I'm still contemplating whether or not to pick up the Zendala dares again over at the Bright Owl...I actually feel so out of practice with tangling since I've been playing with lettering and other doodling ventures. But the Yahoo Zia group is gearing up for a new round of Zengo (simply a zentangle themed version of Bingo) and I thought I'd play along for fun--they do offer up a few interesting prizes for the winners, so why not, right? Typically we play from a simple list of words chosen from a master list and whoever has all their words called first is the winner, but this go-around we are making up actual Zengo cards to play in a more traditional Bingo manner. Here is mine:

I've since added the words picked randomly from our master list and am all set to go!

Also, to play, you are to create an 'entry fee', which, for this game, was to be a traditional zentangle (any size but white paper and black pen) using only 'official tangles', so I did a quick little ATC last night:

Drupe, Hibred, Ixorus, and Knightsbridge

Woohoo!! Let's play!!

So now my McBugga is home for summer...we need to agree on some rules as far as computer time and getting his guitar practice in before he's off and gone to play at his friends' for the day. There's so much I hope we can go and do and see this summer--let the fun begin!!

Artist's Way Wednesday

Finally, the last day of school is here and summer is about to begin! We've been blessed with another healthy year and Bug's had his second year in a row of perfect attendance--I'm so proud of him! And we're definitely ready to get our summer groove on--all of our friends down south have been out for weeks! It's high time we got to play, too!

So, in anticipation of no longer having my days to myself for a while, I took a quick Artist Date yesterday morning and headed to Fort Phoenix beach. There's a physical reaction I feel when I see the water, something inside just melts as the tension lets go and stress evaporates. I instantly relax and let the peace wash over me. I love the water, the smell of the salty air, the feeling of warm sand beneath my toes...my little slice of heaven!

Could've stayed all day...

Yesterday was also time for our little bunny love to venture back out into the world. She had begun to panic when I tried to feed her--that instinct of fear is so great in these little ones, she would freeze up and refused to eat. Since she'd begun eating flowers on her own, I figured it was time to let her go then. Being cooped up and so afraid certainly wasn't in her best interest. I waited for Bug to get home from school so he could say good bye as well, and we released her together. She took off like a little bullet. I just pray she'll stay safe and have a long, happy bunny life...

She's a little fighter--I know she'll do fine...

I have lots of little projects on my list for the rest of the week--if we don't melt in the heat and humidity that is! Summer is off to a sticky start...thank goodness the beach is super close! Have a great rest of the week!

ICAD Tuesday and Bug's Graduation

Woo hoo! I managed to get a few more cards done this week for ICAD! Using two of the prompts for this week to do a logo (upper left card, two separate logos I've been playing with for my art stuffs) and to write your name in block letters (also used last week's Summer of Color selection for hot pink and orange) The third was simply playing with a little tangle pattern. Hoping to keep up a little better this week...

 

 

And yesterday was Bug's graduation from fifth grade! Off to middle school next year...it's all going way too fast!! But this is Pulaski's Class of 2013:

 

 

And Bug getting his 'diploma'. He's a wee bit taller than his teacher, Mrs. Silva =0)

 

And just a quick shot of our Boo after she'd dug herself a nest in the flower bed on the patio Sunday--it's too hot and summer is just beginning...bleh...

 

Artist's Way Wednesday--oops, it's Thursday...

So, I'm already off my blog schedule just one week in--go figure. Having this sweet little lumpkin in the house that needs fed every few hours has thrown my focus off, but who can complain watching her grow so fat and fuzzy? She loves to nuzzle down wherever she can--your neck, the crook of your elbow...I'm falling head over heels for this tiny little life and I have to keep reminding myself we need to let her go in a few more weeks when she's ready to be out on her own...My heart is already breaking at the thought...*sob!*

But, so I haven't kept up with my index cards and the week's Diva challenge just isn't speaking to me. The Summer of Color combination this week is orange and hot pink which doesn't appeal to me in the least--I'm not much of a warm color girl, maybe? I do have some journal ideas swimming around in my head that I need to rein in before they're lost and gone forever (I'm really good at that...) I have all these little notes of things to work on...I'll get there...one little step at a time, I'll get there.

I did sit down and finish this piece yesterday. I sketched it out on Tuesday then finished inking it in with my beloved Sharpies and colored with Derwent watercolor pencil. I sort of wish I'd gone with my Aquamarkers maybe for more vibrancy...it just seems too light, too pastel, needs a wee bit more life, more oomph...but overall I do like the design:

 

As for where I'm at with The Artist's Way, I've rather breezed through chapters three and four--neither really addressed any current issues, I suppose, and I thought I'd skip right on to chapter five (enter Lumpkin) but haven't gotten around to that just yet. I'm planning a beachy artist date for Tuesday next week before my kiddo is home for the summer. A stop at Fort Phoenix in Fairhaven followed by a little browsing in two of my favorite shops nearby, the Sea Witch and Euro at Phoenix. So keepin' keepin' on! Have a great Thursday!!

 

Not Very ICAD Tuesday

Well, seeing as I've posted pretty much all of last week's cards with other ongoing challenge posts, I don't have too much in the way of index cards to share today--but I have other fun pics that I hope you might like if you wanna take a look...

I posted yesterday about the tiny baby bunny we saved from Tucker and wanted to share a couple shots of our adorable new addition:

Tiny feets--yes, I kissed the toes!

So incredibly CUTE!!!

And as if this gift were not quite enough...while chillin' out back waiting on dinner to grill, Kyle spotted a Baltimore Oriole chasing another bird up in our trees and through the neighbors'! So we watched and waited for the bird to reappear and were hugely rewarded to find we have a NEST in one of our trees! We saw both Mom and Dad coming and going from the nest--so totally excited! Such amazingly beautiful birds!! And we're gonna have babies!!!

Nest tucked away in the branches

Dad coming out for a morning excursion

Is he beautiful or what??

I knew I wouldn't have any time to get any creating done yesterday, but I did snap a shot of the card I made for Bug to give Bill for Father's Day:

So cute, my kiddo!

Some watercolor, some salt, and some Sharpie--shazah!

And finally, Ruby still considers herself a wee pocket puppy and tucked herself underneath the breakfast nook bench this morning...silly girl--she only weighs 85lbs! Add about thirty to that and you've got Tucker--pocket puppy...not in my lifetime! I love big dogs! Okay, I love dogs...who cares what size they are! Haha!

 



 

Have a super great Tuesday!

More Mail Art Monday



I hope everyone had a great Father's Day. We had a beautiful day for cooking out, ate ourselves silly with ribs and grilled zucchini, fresh veggies and fruit, Red Bliss potato salad, Boston crème pie and watermelon for dessert. I think we're all stuffed to the busting point! Then, after dinner, our Tucker discovered a rabbit's nest deep in one of our iris beds and we discovered his discovery pretty much too late. Four little bunnies didn't survive his curiosity, but we managed to catch him with the last one and he released it before any serious damage was done--we hope. Right now I'm just praying she makes it through the night. We've fed her some milk mixed with baby cereal, bundled her up in a soft, squishy towel tucked into our baby birds' incubator for the time being...fingers crossed she's still with us in the morning. She is absolutely just the cutest thing you've ever laid eyes on and of course two of us want to keep her...but wild babies should remain wild babies and I'll be happy to raise her to the point that we can let her go outside again, wild and free...

 

Any who--for the arting aspect of the weekend, I did up a couple more postcards for Random Acts of Mail. The little birdie design I found on Pinterest some time back--it was done in my Windsor-Newton watercolors and Sharpie pen. The blooms card was done with Sharpie and Neocolor II's--love those things! So all set and waiting for addresses to get sent out into the world to brighten somebody's day!

 

Tonight Michael starts his official guitar lessons now that the quickie spring program is done at the rec center, so really interested to see how much more he'll learn in a one-on-one situation without the distractions of seven other fidgety students...And just a week and a half left of school--summer will get here eventually!!

Happy Monday, ya'll!

 

A Day on the Fisherman's Wharf

Something I've wanted to do since we moved here was to go down to the State Pier and just hang out on the wharf, looking at all the fishing boats and today we finally went. Omigosh--I could just stay there all day, every day! The water, the boats, the air, and all of New Bedford rising up behind...sweet heaven!

 

First we popped into the visitor's center on the Fisherman's Wharf, watched a little video about the fish auctions that used to happen right there back in the day...so cool. I'm completely enamored with the fishing and whaling history of New Bedford--can't get enough of it! Saw this beautiful artist's map of town and grabbed two--I would've nabbed a few more but there were only the two left! How cute is this?!

 

 

Then we headed out to look at the boats--just the perfect day, sunny but not too warm and not too windy, gorgeous bright blue sky, the water a deep sapphire blue...I breathe in the salty air and smell of fish, watching seagulls sailing overhead. So the best place in the world to be--who would want to live anywhere else??

 

We watched as the Ambassador headed out to sea

A marina across the water in Fairhaven

Fairhaven

Rolls of fishing nets. A super nice guy stopped to explain the difference between the fishing boats and scallop boats.

The hurricane wall and Palmers Light

My guys and the Miss Amanda



We saw jellies everywhere! Some guy stopped to ask if I saw the seal?! Apparently a seal was frolicking somewhere in the area but sadly we didn't spot him today...another time?

The boats are just huge and so beautiful. I would love to spend a day on one out on the water watching the guys fish. Such an adventurous life to me...Can't wait to go back again, maybe take a harbor tour and see if we can spot a seal or two while we're there! Yay!

It's a Summer of Color Paint Party Friday!!

Well, doesn't that just sound like a total blast?? I love Paint Party Fridays--they have the friendliest, most encouraging group of artists participating every week, so much fun! And Summer of Color is now in full swing as well, so I thought I'd combine the two (and I've got a little ICAD and Diva challenge going on here as well--just throwin' it all into the mix! Why not, right?)

First up, a couple of my index cards for ICAD--I played with a glue resist tutorial someone shared online (please don't ask who or where...it would take me forever to track them down again! I have entirely too much happening right here!) Gessoed a card, whipped on a quick coating of some pretty citron-ish-y green acrylic (Summer of Color, um, colors for the week are Citron and Turquoise---fyi...) Let that dry (this was all happening on the super humid rainy day earlier this week when NOTHING wanted to dry, so that's how I ended up playing with so many different things all at once) then squibbled on (yes, squibbled--it's a highly technical artistic term used, well, primarily by, um, me) some glue--good old Elmer's,and waited for THAT to dry...what a day...Then, I washed it with some turquoise-y watercolor and for the life of me, I can't help myself but want to sprinkle salt on all my watercolors because it does the coolest effects--that and rubbing alcohol...seriously, try it! Amazing! But I think in this instance I could've, should've left well enough alone. Eh...leave me to my own devices and things are bound to get a little out of hand...So here's how it finally turned out:

 I went back over some of the spots with a little watercolor pencil just to deepen the shady bits. Hey, for an experiment, it's still pretty cool. Oh, and the card on the bottom is another Summer of Color, Citron/Turquoise ICAD featuring a little Pokeleaf in watercolor pencil.


Then, I got a little grid seed play happy again, and zipped this zentangley card up today, in, what else? Citron/Turquoise! Lovin' this Summer of Color!

 

So, thanks as always for stopping by and I hope you'll come join us in all this Paint Party Summer of Color ICAD Diva fun!! Have a great weekend!!

 

Zentangle Thurzdayz

The Diva Challenge this week was to incorporate the new 'grid seeds' demonstrated in Rick and Maria Thomas' newsletter last week. In the newsletter, they illustrated fifty of these 'seed' possibilities:

 

and opened the door for our imaginations to run wild. I picked a seed (a little variation on C3) that I thought I could play with and, as you can see, play I did! I started off the top card and only two blocks in I realized what potential lay in this design and quickly drew out two more cards using the same seed design, just turned different ways:

Cool, no?

 

I think I could play with these grid seeds a long, long time...But! Other projects in the works--if the humidity would kindly cut me a break so paints and glues and gesso would dry in a more timely manner....What's a girl to do? Tangle with grid seeds while waiting for the paint to dry? Don't mind if I do! Have a great Thursday!

 

Artist Way Wednesday

Well, I'm on Week Two of Julia Cameron's Artist's Way and already I feel myself opening up to more creative playing. Yesterday I spent the day in a mix of media like I've never done before--I painted acrylics on a slate, watercolor on a greeting card and an ICAD card, sprinkled and spritzed with salt, glue, and masking fluid. I Mod-Podged a collaged art journal page then covered it with gesso for some lettering work and even played with a possible little poem for the page--me, poetry! I took a break for lunch then sat and tangled most of the afternoon away, creating three different cards--I just couldn't stop! It's so fun seeing all of this artistic productivity proliferating--who knew that was all in there?!

So another experiment with collage--I've had the bits and pieces for these pages laying around for a while now, just waiting to be put together, and while I was waiting for other things to dry I thought I'd give this some of my attention as well. I really have no idea what I'm doing with collage, but I loved the colors and the fish, which matched my little butterfly (why not?) and a fortune from somebody's cookie after Chinese one night that reads, "One of the best things to do sometimes is just be," which totally spoke to me after watching Eat, Pray, Love last night--what a great movie! Anyways, this is as far as I got since I had to wait for the gesso to dry--darn humidity!! Hopefully it won't be too long before I can get back to doing some journaling/lettering and finish it all up!

 

You'll have to wait to see pics of the other pretties I worked on today--ooo, like a cliff hanger...come back tomorrow to see more goodies!! Haha! Happy Wednesday!