Wednesday-10am

Good morning, my peeps!

Sloppy Spring has arrived.

The brown grass that has managed to be revealed with all the 30 degree weather...

...is under pools of water.

Even when it is in the teens and twenties in the morning...

...Karma tucks her feet under her and basks in the patch of sun in the corner of the porch.

 

If it's not too windy, of course.  The wind is still dang cold--like this morning when she was forced to pass on her sunny spot outside.
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Karma's feeling so much better.  Back to her sprawly self...

...guarding her toys... 

...and using hard things as pillows. 

And me...the 21 Secrets Workshops started on the first of April.  I thought I might try doing them in order.  The first one on the list is Following the Wild Wind with Carissa Paige.  It's all about getting back in touch with nature and the child you were.  She mentioned totem animals and I have always wondered if I have any.  Well, that sparked memories of special relationships I have had with soooo many critters...and the ones I have rescued (with failures that have haunted me).  I started making a list because she used pictures for her mixed media collage, right?  Well, I went on google images to find pictures that represented all these different animals I have been up close and personal with...

...from a brown bat the janitor was going to kill...

...to the limp hamster covered with sticky maggot eggs... 

 ...to a litter of five kittens whose eyes weren't open yet (mother got run over by a truck)...

...and, you know--I felt much better about my failures.  There were so many more pictures of the successes over my lifetime.  
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Oh, I just remembered another one--the baby red squirrel while I was in college over in Moorhead!  I might even have a real photo of that one!  
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Sorry, as I was saying--I have so many pictures now that I have to decide how to use them.  They could take up many pages of an art journal (maybe start a whole separate journal and write the stories?)...or I could make up one large canvas.  I'll have to decide.  Anyways, even though these aren't the actual pictures of any of these precious animals...they make me smile because my memories are very real.
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I also looked for pictures to represent the prairieland I grew up wandering.  I should still find some pictures of the edge of a wild lake with dirt and mud pathways for small bare feet...cattails and tadpoles.  Well, I only have a couple weeks to finish.  In order to complete all the classes I have two weeks or less for each one.  What a gift this was, eh?  I really needed this!  :)
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I think, like Karma, I must have a touch of spring fever.  I had this idea to make a background on watercolor paper that I could use to make my thank you cards.  Was thinking something pretty and sedate.  

Got out my Lyra watercolor crayons (yes, I removed all the paper wrappers)... 

...and this is what happened--lol!  

The bright stripes seemed more for a birthday card--so the next day I tried some of my liquid watercolors...and this happened--lol!

I am just in love with color at the moment, I guess.  I was having so much fun scribbling with the Lyras and splattering with the Dick Blick liquids...well, this is what I ended up making.

I have all these bright birthday cards printed off for 2014!!

And these bright, striped thank you cards for all my birthday gifts, too.  I was loving the color so much I didn't want to detract from it and kept it very simple.  They make me smile.    

And thank you all for your cards and letters...can you see them lined up across the ledge?  Of course the wet cat one on the end is Karma's card--lol!

I have been slowly making my way through blogs to read the most current post or two and it is so nice to begin to be in touch again.  :)  To be playing with paint.  To smell wet sloppy spring trying to fight her way in the door up here.  Groceries are coming this afternoon.  Donald fired Omarosa.  Life is good!  ;)  See you soon!!
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"Gratitude is the sweet fragrance of an opening heart."
Aine Belton