12/28/06

Oh my goodness, the developers are getting closer, at least in my dreams. You see, I have a recurring nightmare, for 16 years now. In my nightmare, the developers have claimed part of my land, and there's nothing I can do to stop them. Last night, they took about a quarter of my land and put houses on it, and on another chunk they took, the house was 3 feet from my bedroom. And Scott (my nephew) had built me a horse barn and they took one stall (go figure!), and on the south side one of the developers kept parking her car and another vehicle by my house. The worst part of it was that dozens and dozens of people were lounging on my porch and deck on both sides of the house watching the buildings go up. Finally I went out and started chasing them off and told them to stay off my land. They were like swarms of locusts! They kept coming back. I had to go out and lock the doors of the car because little kids were going into it and playing with things.

Gosh, could Freud have a field day with me.

I called into work today and asked for the day off, but Lynn already called in, so I'm kind of on call. If they need me, Val'll call me. But in the meantime, I'm going to try to get something done. It's so nice and quiet, everyone else is sleeping.

I listed some beads on ebay last night. They had a 15¢ listing day, so I got Christian to come help. These are a couple of my favorites.

12/22/06

Well, thankfully the weather didn't get as bad as they thought it would. They were saying about 5" of snow, but we only got about 1" (so far). I didn't have to work today because it was early deadline this week (& next week too), so today is Monday for me.

I tinted a print of my Leopard Cub ACEO. It turned out OK. I did it with colored pencils. Maybe I'l try one with watercolors.


I've been in kind of a slump lately with my beads. I just can't get on a roll. I've been making some lentil florals. I'm going to make about 4 or 5 more so I have enough for a set to put on ebay.

I also started a Meerkat ACEO.

12/19/06

Back home and caught up with sleep.

Bob is recovering. The nurse said the first 24 hours were the most critical, and he's past that now. He will be in the hospital for a few weeks, then he will move to the 'transplant house' in Rochester, or rent an apartment in Rochester. He has to stay in Rochester for 3 months.

I finished the elephant ACEO, named it 'At Rest.' I'm going to start a meerkat ACEO. I've been watching Meerkat Manor, and have gotten interested in them. They're pretty neat critters.

12/17/06

I want to be home. I want to be home. I want to be home.

I'm in Rochester waiting for an update on my brother Bob's surgery. My brother Bill called me last night from Rogers to tell me that Bob was scheduled for a heart transplant at 10:00, and he (Bill) had just gotten in from Nebraska and had no way to get to Rochester. I called my sister Elaine and we decided that I would pick Bill up, go to Mpls. and pick Elaine up and then go to Rochester. About 10 miles from Rochester Bill got a call that they rescheduled the surgery at 5:30 a.m. They wanted to keep the donar body intact until they could find recipients for the other organs.

When we got to the hospital, Bob was awake. He's lost so much weight in the last few months. He's been through so much in the past few years.

It's about 12:40 pm right now. Last we heard was about 9 am; they were hooking him up to the heart lung bypass machine. So it's wait and try to stay awake until a recliner or couch is unoccupied. I tried taking a nap in the van this morning after he went into surgury, but it was a bit chilly. This is a day that I will be glad to see the last of.

12/14/06

Darn, I didn't realize it's been so long since I posted! I finished the leopard cub, just have to do the watercolor wash.



I'm just about done with another elephant ACEO.

I've been busy doing auctions on ebay. Christian is taking over the listings and paperwork so I can concentrate more on the bead making. It hasn't been fantastic, but I'm getting rid of some of my bead inventory. More money to buy more glass! Just what I need :)

Christian is also redoing my website. I've got to get it updated, since there are about 8 drawings that aren't posted on there yet. And I also want to get some of my better beads posted on there. But I want it to look nicer than it is now, hence my son the data base manager is going to work on it.

11/24/06

Well, I accomplished neither of my goals, really. I did work on the cub ACEO a bit, but didn't finish it. Maybe tomorrow. And the Bullseye florals turned out OK, just not as crisp as the ones I used to do on the hothead. I'm tempted to find it and get it put back up along side the big torch.

Maybe tomorrow....

Thanksgiving Day

Been a while since I posted! I finished the Civil War drawing, finally!! It turned out rather well. I have to sign & send one to Terry, Lukas' lawyer. I'll number it #1 and maybe in a hundred years it'll be worth something. :)



I've been going back and forth between drawings and torching. I should be out working outside, since it's been soooooo nice out. Supposed to be in the 60s today. Not bad for the end of November. But this is the last day. Boo-hoo!

Today, my goal is to finish inking my leopard cub ACEO. Then I'm going to try doing some floral beads with Bullseye glass. The Moretti melts too fast and just smears. I spent so much time learning how to do those on the Hothead, and it's frustrating not to be able to do them on the big torch.

Well, Lukas is stirring, so it's time to quick get back to drawing before it's time to get him up.

Well, I'm back home. It was just a rotten day. I and my sister went down to Albert Lea for my aunt's funeral. I haven't seen my other aunt or uncle for about 4 years, not since we moved my mom up to live with us. About a couple of years ago I had to move my mom to a nursing home because her dementia and other health problems (plus trying to take care of my handicapped son, who has now gone through 6 operations to keep him out of a wheelchair). (I'm NOT looking for sympathy. I felt grateful that I was able to do what I did. I regret greatly that I couldn't do more.) But anyway, my aunt is my mother's younger sister, and they look so much alike. I just broke down bawling (and now I'm doing it again!) on her shoulder and told her she looked so much like mom, and that I miss mom so much. For heavens sake, I'm 50+ years old, and crying on my aunt's shoulder like a little kid.

Anyway, enough of that.

I finished the Chickamauga, Georgia drawing. I have to get it posted on my website, along with the other 4 or 5 drawings I've done since I last updated it. I started an another ACEO, a leopard cub. No more leaves for awhile!

10/27/06

I started working on a new ACEO using Suellen Ross' technique of laying down the ink first, followed by watercolor, and then colored pencils. I'm not at all happy about it. It's too nitpicky! And then when I went over it with the colored pencils, that covered up the ink, so I'm going over with a final layer of ink, which doesn't go over colored pencils very well.

I think I'll just go back to ink followed with a watercolor wash. Anyway, here's the aceo partially finished.



I treated myself to a day of my own Tuesday. I had to go to the doctor for a followup on medication (new happy pills just aren't working), so afterwards I went down to the cities, stopped at Dick Blick & bought $150 worth of watercolors and pen nibs, then went to the zoo & took pictures. It wasn't too bad after all the school kids left; it was rather noisy until then. I got some drawable pictures of a camel and tiger, and some cute ones of prairie dogs. There's some nice texture in the prairie dog pics, with all the rocks.

The studio is progressing slowly. The boys got one end paneled, and the wall between the studio & foyer built. I'm making Dutch doors for that wall. I got the plywood cut out for the lower one and got a couple of the quarter inch plywood pieces glued onto it. Tonight I'll try to get more cut & glued on. And hopefully, this weekend they'll be back up to get the skylight put it. That will make a BIG difference in there; that and the ceiling fans.

Wed. 10/11/06

It’s been a non-productive week, kind of. Fired up the kiln last night to anneal my beads, and blew the fuse 3 times! Finished up by running an extension cord to another outlet. I will be so glad when the boys get my electric in the studio hooked up, but it probably won’t be for another month. I HAVE to get them to re-do the ramp in front. They have just a temporary one right now, and when Lukas & I went out this morning, the moisture on the wood had frozen, and his feet shot right out from under him, and he ended up flat on his back. I slowed his fall a little, but at 170 lbs. I can’t catch him like I could 10 yrs. ago.

Today it was back to work. I was happy because I figured I was going to have Friday off because we’re on early deadline this week, but my supervisor said I have to fill in Friday for the proofreader. Bummer!

Elephant ACEO

Monday, October 09, 2006

I finished the elephant ACEO last night. One week for a drawing. Amazing!



Today was not a good day. Really a depressing day, kind of. Did a little bit of work on the Civil War drawing, and labeled a lot of beads, and took a nap. Yippee....

Elephant ACEO

It's Sunday afternoon & I'm watching the Vikings lose, again. Well, I've only got another couple of hours to go on my ACEO. It takes 1-2 hours per square inch. But I am kind of liking this finishing a drawing in a week. My other drawing, a picture of the Chickamauga, Georgia Civil War battlefield, is just about done too. About another 5-6 hours left on that one. That one is taking a long time; it's about 6"x9".



Sunday, October 08, 2006

My nephews were up yesterday. They got my wall insulated & sheetrocked. No more north wind blowing through the cracks. Nice.

Meanderings

Friday, October 06, 2006

My first post

It's fall, and I'm in need of a new direction, incentive, energy, creativity, whatever you want to call it, so I'm jumping into blogging.

I was born and raised in the Midwest, and have always been involved with some kind of art or craft. I enjoy learning new things and exploring new arts, from needlework and quilting to pottery, painting and photography. My mother complained once that I was Jack of all trades and master of none. Right now I'm concentrating on just pen and ink, and lampworking (melting glass on a propane torch to make beads).

I'm trying ACEOs (Artists Cards, Editions and Originals, size 2 1/2x 3 1/2) to try to cut my drawing time from 3 months to a few days. I have so many ideas and not enough time or energy to put them all to paper! Right now I'm working on an elephant I took pics of at the Renaissance Festival in Shakopee. I wish I had taken a lot more pictures of the characters there. It would have been fun to try some drawings or watercolors of them.

But anyway, I've put about three hours into it so far, and am about 1/3 done with it. All those DAMN DOTS!! :) Hopefully, I will get it done this weekend, but it's doubtful. My nephews are supposed to come up this weekend and work on my studio, and I have to get busy and finish my half-done cabinet so I can get it down on the floor so I can pile more stuff on it! I wanted a new direction; boy, have I got it in this studio. Making cabinets, learning how to router lap joints, learning how to use my new miter saw (I have to have my nephew take a look at it & teach my how to use it. The manual doesn't have any pictures!), and come up with a design for the countertops that includes tile and stained glass. My studio is going to look so-o-o-o-o-o nice when/if it ever gets done.

Maybe I'll get the drawing finished up tonight, although I have to get busy on my beads. I'm participating in a trunk show at the Bead Bag in Elk River next weekend, and I have to get a couple of hundred beads sorted and priced. Oh, my!