Wednesday-9:45am

Here's the end results of the Dr. Martin watercolor experiment. :)

Can't say these don't look hand-painted--hehe!

I worked on the metallic paints yesterday.

Did smooth and also more textured versions.

Messy, but fun!

Here they are dried and shimmery.

Dagan and Leah stopped by after their meeting. Dagan is still waiting for the replacement mother board to arrive. They're planning on spending the next couple weeks after the 4th cleaning and organizing home and garages. However long it takes--a top to bottom job. They've been there two years today, actually.

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Leah's been taking some pictures of the cards for etsy. We're still waiting to get our new rubber stamps and the jewelry forms. There were hold-ups on the ordering. Leah's planning on getting some pictures up over the 4th so that I can start working on descriptions. So, we should finally get up some new product in July here. We're both slow--hehe!

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After a cuddle session, Kama settled in under the art table late last night. This is what it really looks like without the flash...a nice dark corner to hide in.

With the flash.

Later--sound asleep.

It is so windy today that the door to the hallway is rattling and the dryer vent cover is banging against the outside of the building like someone with a hammer trying to tear down the wall. I had the livingroom windows open for a while, but it was sooo windy it was blowing away papers over by me in my chair and on the desk so I had to close them. Just have the bedroom window and porch door open. The hanging philodendron is spinning on the porch. But the sky is blue and it is a beautiful day. Supposed to get hot, so I'll probably have the place closed up and the AC on in a few hours. For now--just appreciating the fresh North Dakota air blasting and rumbling thru the apartment and shaking the building--ROFL!

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Well, I have to admit that they had an unexpected and interesting ending to the evil bull monster on True Blood. Satisfying. And a cliff hanger ending to season two! So I'll be watching when season three comes out on Netflix. ;)

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Today--have to do the end of the month more boring stuff. Balancing the checkbook, budget, bills, and such. Might be a good day to catch up on my magazine reading. I have had Writer's Digest, Poets & Writers, and a new-to-me magazine called (and) Memoir sitting here for a month. Too windy to read on the porch today, tho. Probably rip the pages right out of my hands! Have a wonderful day!! :):)

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No silence in Fargo today!

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"The trees, the flowers, the plants grow in silence. The stars, the sun, the moon move in silence. Silence gives us a new perspective."

Mother Teresa

Tuesday-11:30am

Karma washing up after her breakfast treat (canned food) in the morning sun.

Except for one brand so far...

...out of four different brands...

...she has been loving these new healthier canned foods!

And it's not just the newness, because the first can was the brand she never liked (wild something--luckily it was the smallest can)...

...and the rest have been the larger cans so she has to eat the same thing for like 5-6 days and she is gobbling them up and licking her bowl clean! She loves them so much that I've been giving her more like a tablespoon every day. She's very happy with her new foods. Best she's ever eaten her canned food--ever. :)

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Okay--after this last sheet/batch dried...

...I decided to see if spraying it would help...

...and misted it with copper last night here and there.

Still not sure if I like it. We'll see when I cut it up today.

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Meanwhile...

I cut out some blank bookmarks...

...because I'm thinking of going plain metallic colors on this next batch.

Tuesday is normally our craft night, but Dagan called last night and said that they had a meeting for ValleyCon tonight. They're going to stop by briefly afterwards and bring me my milk and chat. (For those of you who don't know, Leah offered to pick up organic milk for me at Target that is half the price than at CashWise and I pay her every month for milk now.) So they'll be by later on tonight.

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It was so nice to have the windows open last night and for it to actually be chilly! (50's) I slept really well. Ahhh!

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Should have the last DVD of True Blood arriving this afternoon. I have to laugh. I have been watching Supernatural, too, as you know--well, I kept thinking Sam and Dean should show up and just smoke this evil being!! They'd better kill off or drive away the bull monster by the end of the season. Sick to death of it. If they didn't have the other storyline with the crazy church...but that's over with now. I'm hoping for a magnificent showdown with Sookie now that she's back in town. That would make it all worth it! Well, I should find out soon. ;)

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Another gorgeous windows-wide-open day in the 70's today before it is supposed to heat up again tomorrow. You know there is a happy, happy me up here in Fargo when I can have the place open to the wind. :):)

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"Many paths lead from the foot of the mountain, but at the peak we all gaze at the single bright moon."

Ikkyu--Zen-monk poet, 1394-1481

Monday-9:45am

We didn't have rain. But it was a great cloud watching day all day.

I went to get out the metallic acrylic paints and ran across these Dr. Martin liquid watercolors that I bought on sale at Hobby Lobby around 3-4 years ago.

I had always wondered about them, having seen them in art catalogs over the years. Well, I discovered I would never buy them. I knew they were a bit "old" when I got them on sale. They didn't slosh in the bottles like they were a thin liquid, but I figured I could thin them out, right? Put them away and forgot about them. Well, they were like paste and they wouldn't thin out decently. Even the two that were thinner to begin with remained thick.

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I thought I'd be able to work with them regardless. Well, they didn't really even behave like proper watercolors. I soaked the paper and tried to drop and dab on the paint--it wouldn't even spread in the water--except for the green which did move about some (so I used more of that). They just kind of sat wherever you dropped them. I've had acrylics that work better with water than these. Not impressed.

I sprayed--doused--the whole thing with water and what you see above was the most the paint would move--period. I didn't like it at all, so I thought I'd maybe try the saran wrap and see if that could force it to move around a bit. I am not expecting much. And will think of these as more like acrylics--crummy acrylics--in future. (If they don't end up in the trash!)

I'm puzzled by this product, to be honest. Watercolors can be dry as a bone (they even sell them in dry pans for goodness sakes!) and you can use them with no problem. Why would these go bad? You should be able to reconstitute them with water if they have thickened over time. Makes no sense. So--buyer beware.

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Anyways, we had some very dark clouds pass thru during the day--quite ominous looking...

...but no rain. Dramatic. Beautiful!

I washed clothes. Was a quiet day. Slept a little better last night. Maybe see about the metallic acrylic paints today? When I do just a little a day--pace myself--that works best and I can keep at it longer over time. :)

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Sunny day. Not as hot--mid 70s. Nice! Nice!

Have a good one!! :):)

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"If a nightingale sings with her breast against a thorn, why not we?"

Susan Gilbert Dickinson to Emily Dickinson in 1861

Sunday-10:15am

Rain, rain, go away...yippee!!!

Apparently we are supposed to be rain free for a few days. Ahhh!

Here's the second batch made with Cheap Joe's American Journey watercolors and sprayed with LuminArt's misting sprays--which do drip.

I wonder if you could kind of wrap the bottles with a paper towel to catch the drips?

I'll have to remember that next time I am spraying something larger than a regular card size. (Didn't have as much trouble with smaller items as the drips can miss the smaller card front.) I cut the two on the right side the same size as the last ones (2" X 5") and the rest 2" X 6".

I still really like the sheen it put on the paper.

And I don't mind the drips. Makes it look like I'm one of those carefree messy artists that are supposed to be the "real" artists...versus the anal/OCD artist's like me--hehe! [I always heard complaints in every art class in high school and college to "loosen up"!! Well-this is as loose as I get--ROFL!]

Okay. The moth adventure. I even got the camera before I let Karma loose after her moth "prey". Swallows were diving at it and then realizing it was on the other side of the screen. Probably what was getting Karma extra excited--the birds! I got this picture of her crying up at the moth...

...and a very quick zoom of the big moth...

...before Karma jumped up on the table, knocked it down, and pounced on it hard--before I could even get another shot off. I'm still surprised when she moves that fast--ROFL!

It crawled just a little...

...but the way it fell so readily off the screen, I think it might have been on its last legs. I left Karma with her plaything--gross! Circle of life, eh?

Ten minutes later...I don't know if she ate it or it crawled away. I know Karma was disappointed that it had no fight left in it, no fluttering, and it didn't even try to get away. Odds are it slowly crawled off to die someplace on the porch, but Karma isn't telling.

Later I tried the black Chinese ink stripes with my Schmincke tiny palette.

Didn't work like I had envisioned. Here it is dry. Wasn't very happy with this batch. I still had the paper too juicy--like you need to for the saran wrap technique.

I cut these all up at the 2" X 5" size...

...hoping a few of them might be salvageable.

I like the bolder ones, but the ones that have the blurry gray areas--not so much. Oh well, I really liked the first two batches and they can't all be home runs, right?

Well, this old watercolor block had something like 20 sheets in it--so I still have a lot to play with. And anything we don't like for bookmarks we can always recycle for future handmade paper. :)

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Anyways, I slept really well for half of last night. No pain pill. :) Hot muggy day today. Glad to be inside with my AC and fans.

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I might get the metallic acrylic paints out next time. I'm even thinking about some solid colored bookmarks. I remember a couple of them in solid metallic copper--back when we made them last time--and I liked those, too. Plus, you can use acrylics more like watercolors--can thin them down with water. Play! Play! ;)

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Hope you're having a really nice weekend. :):)

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"There is no large and difficult task that can't be divided into little easy tasks."

Buddhist Saying

Saturday-7:30am

I cut up the first set of bookmarks yesterday afternoon. They're about 2" X 5".

I really liked these!

Bold with gold--hehe!

I was restless and aching all over. One of those days where I was up and down a lot because I couldn't get comfortable anywhere in any position anyways--so I started on another set of saran wrap bookmarks.

This time I used the Cheap Joe's watercolor tiny palette. Felt like Jackson Pollack there for a few minutes--hehe! Then got out the plastic wrap and crumbled and squished. :)

The second I am out of the chair Miss Jumping Bean was up there with her nose and front paw on the table. I gave her a sharp "no!" and she quickly went to the other arm of the chair...

...with her--"who me? I'm not the least bit interested in what's on that boring, boring table. Really. You can just forget I am here because I have absolutely noooo interest in licking paint water or pawing on the crinkly saran wrap"--act.

She didn't fool me for a second. :):)

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Since I have fans going all over the apartment to try and move the AC air from next to the living room windows (aims at the porch door-duh?) into the apartment, around the hallway, and into the bedroom...I decided to set the wet WC block in front of a fan. Several hours later...TaDa!!

I didn't add gold ink this time. (No shaking jars for me--hehe!) My plan was to use LuminArts Shimmering Mists for a more subtle, overall shine this time. So I got out our fancy box for spraying...

...and misted with Solar Gold, Pewter, Bronze Metallic, and Golden Bamboo...

...and left it to dry overnight. I'll show you tomorrow.

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The office folks never came yesterday, either, for the apartment check. ?? Oh well. I've been here for so many years now that they probably do know it looks about the same every time they come--hehe! Or I was just plain overlooked? Doesn't matter to me.

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I was glad to see that the next three DVDs of True Blood were due yesterday...and they arrived! (I only have the very last DVD left to watch after that one comes--there are five of them.) I had a True Blood marathon after the mail came in the afternoon--watched two of the three DVDs--five episodes. I have to say that I am just not sure about the new creature with the bull's head and toxic claws. Don't want to give anything away about that--but not my favorite storyline--at all. I hope it ends soon.

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I have been so sore and not sleeping well that I decided to take a pain pill last night. First one since I quit the beginning of May. I slept nine hours last night and only woke up once! Nice to have them work again because I was in desperate need of sleep. I had gotten almost immune to them, as you know, so I wasn't sure they'd work yet or not. Nice to know. Now I can use them here and there again when I really need them. :)

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OMGosh! Karma spotted a huge moth on the porch screen. Guess I need to hobble over there and let my pseudo-hunter cat out--hehe!

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"So much has been given to me; I have no time to ponder over that which has been denied."

Helen Keller