Derwent Watercolor Pencils

Half finished, and only a portion of the canvas shown (still working on a frog) but it works for PAINT PARTY FRIDAY:

(sketched in with Derwent Watercolor Pencils)

You Knit Me Together in My Mother's Womb

For the Inspiration Avenue Weekly Challenge on "hearts," my brother tried his best to help me use the basics of Photoshop, but I failed miserably.  He even made me a 13 minute tutorial on layers and how to create images by combining pictures together.

It looked easy when he did it on his video, but there were so many intricacies that I could come up with only one half-way presentable image by combining two heart art clips on top of one image. Then I couldn't save the danged thing except to a .pdf file.

 (Mother and daughter in NIC unit, Kentucky, 1970)

"...You created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body."  (Psalms 139, verse 13, 15, 16)

So there are a couple of clip art hearts on my daughter and me.  My entry...it certainly won't win any awards, but it was valuable in at least learning a few basics on the software of Photoshop.

Join in Art with Heart and show us some of your favorite heart-y inspirations like these:

                                                                               cianellistudios.blogspot.com

                                                                              Palmarin Merges : In the Studio

What a Wonderful World

David Attenborough and BBC presents:

Inspiration Avenue Challenge: A Mother's Hand

Happy Mothers' Day to All

Inspiration Avenue, hosted by Shelley and her mom, Loretta, is challenging you to participate in something to do with a mother's hands.  Loretta says...

Did you know that the word hand appears in the King James Bible 1296 times? Now that definitely shows us how important hands were to God, our creator. Don’t you know He put a lot of thought into creating our hands, knowing all the things they would do for us in our day to day activities?

Being uninspired, but loving the picture of my mother and me in 2000 just before she died, I used it as a tool to try and draw my mother's hands; in this case, it was her left hand.  

I had always loved her hands.  Those bright red fingernails were one of her fashion signatures.

This is the sketchbook drawing:

And here is mother's (cropped) left hand.

It was a true art challenge, but it was a way to say "Happy Mother's Day" in a fond remembrance.

Please go here and join in the challenge.

also for ppf

Mud Man Figurines

Yesterday I was cleaning off the patio, recovering a foot stool, watering plants...the usual springtime sprucing up routine.

That old jade plant to the right of the rocker atop the mosaic table top I made three years ago was brought outdoors, cleaned, watered and examined.  Too leggy, not enough light.  Perhaps a summer on the patio will help that situation.

On closer examination, the mud man sitting on the soil (above right in picture) was also taken out and scrutinized more closely.  I cleaned it, looked at his hands, his back, the shrub in front of him, and wondered what the mud man was trying to tell me.

The mud man was whipping his back in self flagellation.  What was behind the "mud man" and how did he come about?

This is what I found Edensong:

The figurines are commonly known as mud figures or figurines, mud people, mud men, mudd men, or mudmen. 

Over 1000 years ago, Chinese artisans during the Tang Dynasty (618-907 AD), were creating landscape bonsai, miniature landscapes in a tray, a practice known as Pen'Jing.  To capture the realism of a favorite countryside or mountain scenic view, the artists added rocks and planted small trees in a large ceramic tray to simulate the panorama on a smaller scale. These were intended to invoke a harmonious feeling to the viewers. In an effort to capture the illusion, the Chinese artisans used figurines of people, animals, huts and temples, which gave an appearance of great age and size to the miniature forests. 

Figurines have had a place in bonsai as a visual contribution. Pen'Jing, nearly a lost art form, is experiencing a revival in modern day China and is once again popular with Chinese bonsai enthusiasts. The prosperous Manchurian Ch'ing Dynasty (1644-1912) began declining at the end of the 18th century. The successful export market for fine china was impaired by excessive competition for the wares.  Pottery and figurines dominated the Chinese export trade well into the next century.  Mud figures  thrived, as they were different from ordinary figurines.  They were made individually by hand and involved nearly all members of the village. 

 Mudmen were brightly glazed figurines of men, women, wise men and old sages, seated or standing, holding flutes, scrolls, pots, fish and other objects of mystical importance or sometimes fishing.  After completion of  the rice harvest and the dry season set in, villagers turned to figurine production to stimulate the economy. For smaller ones, the artist just picked a small piece of mud and in no time made a figurine out of it by using their two fingers. 

source

My little mud man was purchased several years ago at a local nursery and cost around $10-$15.  I'll be on the lookout for more because they intrigue me.  Ebay has quite a few authentic ones (and reproductions) if you are interested in purchasing a mud man.  You can tell yourself a story of what the mud man is saying to you.

Go Shopping for Mud Man Figurines

Sparrows and Lilies of the Field

...joining in with Floss at her blog to write about the The Thrill of What You Already Have...

This will be an introspective post, so sit down with your coffee as you are invited to take more than a minute to read about a virtual friend and what she has written here about needing a summer job to help the dormouse and her husband get through the summer on a more even note.

After reading what the dormouse wrote, it stirred me into thinking about how God takes care of us in ways we can't even imagine.  This is what she says in part of her post and in quoting scripture:

I have spent a couple of nights lying awake worrying, ... I need to bring my worrying mind to rest and try to trust God... 

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes?  Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?"

source

The "thrill of what I already have" is a powerful memory of my mother in the late 1960's.

To set the scene: she and I lived in a small, conservative Texas town.  She was divorced, coming out of an almost catatonic 18 month depression (remember, we did not have psychiatric drugs back then save for electroshock therapy).  We had just moved out of her parents' home where we had lived for two years, completely dependent on them. We had very little money, living in a small and very old rental house made of stone.

The memory which I want to recall as most impressive, however, is that of mother saying many times that if God could care enough to provide food for the sparrows and to clothe the lilies of the field in glory, that He would certainly take care of us.   And He did.  She died in 2000, and He continued to take care of her throughout her life, as she had always trusted.

source

Certainly not all of what gives us a thrill is on the physical plane, as this particular memory still gives me pause.  I think of mother speaking of the well being of the sparrows and the beauty of the lilies when worry begins it insidious way of worming into my soul, and I am always comforted.

Planting Weekend

Saturday was planting day over the weekend.  Home Depot and Walmart were the places I shopped, purchased and then planted:

Two dozen geraniums in pots

Perennial Sweet Flag grasses and three dozen small marigold plants

Assorted flowers that grow well in sun, like coreopsis

 (established ground cover)

Last, a dwarf Alberta spruce that did not seem dwarf upon planting:

Did you plant over the weekend?

Today is Ralph's 100th Birthday and PPF

Ralph Smith, born in Denver, Colorado on May 3, 1912 has seen many changes over his 100 years.

Ralph was a golf pro, a teacher, a golf caddy, and was involved in all things golf.  He spent most of his life in California and was married to his wife, Bobbie, for over 50 years.  He remains an active member of the Church of the Latter Day Saints.

Verda, his friend and companion who looks after his well-being, honored him with a party that included a huge birthday cake, complete with green icing and decorated with golf balls.  A barbershop quartet sang songs from the early 1900's.  A luncheon followed the festivities.

Since Oreo cookies had their start 100 years ago, Verda found birthday props that also celebrated their 100 years' presence.

I am fairly sure that Ralph had a great time that day.  And I am definitely sure that Verda honored him well.

Since today is also Friday (as well as being Ralph's 100th birthday), it is "Paint Party Friday" (PPF) in artist blogger-land; here is my contribution for PPF:

Go here to join others in a PPF celebration!

What Day of the Week Were You Born? - Challenge

A new challenge is going on at Inspiration Avenue.  Click on this link to join the challenge.  Here is the deal:

The challenge this week is  "The Days of the Week"  from the age old nursery rhyme that was written to help children to learn the days of the week.  The challenge is not specific to the days of the week, but rather to the actual day of the week that you were born according to the nursery rhyme. 

If you don't know the actual day of the week you were born, I have included a link to a handy dandy birthday calculator that will help you make that determination. 

Here is the Link to the Birthday Calculator to find your day. 

And here ...is an example... of just a few possibilities for each day! Use your imagination according to your day and any medium is a go!

MONDAY'S Child is FAIR OF FACE

http://www.etsy.com/shop/dimestoreemporium

Since I was born on a Thursday, I had "far to go"... my husband was born on a Saturday, and he had to work for his living.  So true for both adages!

So, since it took me a period of 44 years of schooling (off and on, between pregnancies, jobs, health issues, etc.), my challenge incorporated schooling and rough times into my theme of "far to go"... And after those 44 years, I still lack the doctoral degree.  Anyway, since school was always a theme in my life, I took the images of the little girl with an umbrella against the wind,

(Morton's Salt)

(Good Housekeeping)

 and school books, combined them together with a computer cord and came up with this altered image:

















... click on this link to join the fun.

Thanks to Kim from IMGIRL for hosting this at Inspiration Avenue Challenge.

Letter to the Dormouse Regarding Carrot Soup

Dear Fat Dormouse Getting Thinner:

Thank you very much for the recipe I found here on your blog.  I did want you to know that it was quite delicious.  But somehow, cooking times did not equate at high altitudes.  Your recipe called for cooking the vegetables for about 20 minutes after the liquid came to a boil.  I was extremely hungry when I began soup preparation, just so you know.

So after cooking the onions, carrots and sweet potatoes for 55 minutes in the chicken stock, and flavoring with a Tbsp. of orange marmalade (the grocery shopping elves had not picked up any orange juice by noon today), I hoped it was ready.  I zuzzed it all together, and put it in my favorite poppy mug.  Can you see the steam?  No?  It was there, believe me.

(knitters please note that those are Hermione's Everyday Socks on the needles)

I was too hungry to make it pretty with a little parsley on top for garnish.

Anyway, thanks again Dormouse,
Nancy

P.S.:  the roof of my mouth got burned while sipping the soup because I did not want to wait for it to cool (did I tell you I was hungry?)

P.P.S: I drank the soup and had Weight Watchers popcorn with the soup and it was extra delish

KnitCompanion and the Holden Shawl

Here is a shawl I finished yesterday, with the help of a new app for my iPad.  The app is called KnitCompanion and can be found here, or on iTunes for a download.  There is a Ravelry group where you can get lots of help, and it is here.  I tried it out, and will definitely use it for all my pdf knitting patterns.  The learning curve was fairly fast, and I went through the YouTube videos in one morning.

Now for the Holden Shawl, a free download by Mindy Wilkes found here.

KnitCompanion allows different crops and ways to put knitting instructions together in the manner YOU want, making reading instructions easier by far.  Try it.  You will probably like it.

(above photo from It's About Time)

Participating in Paint Party Friday found here!