Santa Is A Good Man

So back in October, my friend Pat McGraw had an opening and I fell in love with a particular grouping of mixed media paintings. I remarked (more like gushed) to Mr. Pearl and Pebble about how I loved these four works. He said well we really shouldn't be spending that much. So we walked on and I thought maybe I could have just one. He agreed and we went back to them only to discover they ALL had little red sold dots below them. I was so bummed out! That was so fast! You snooze-you lose!!! I put in a special order to Pat asking her to do another set for me at her convenience. So the other day when we opened our gifts you can imagine my surprise! I do love that man!!!

WOW

Oh man check these out! These little pretties are sooooo gorgeous!!! You must ALWAYS, dear bloggers, respond to challenges and give-aways because this could be the outcome!!! Kelley from Kelley's Bead Studio is a glass bead artist (obviously) who enjoys enlisting the help from her readers in naming her treasure that she sells here . A name is randomly chosen from those who post and then she rewards the chosen one quite nicely:) They look and feel amazing - I just don't want to put them down! Thank you Kelley!!!

Buggy Bracelet No. 2

So this here is actually the first attempt at the buggy bracelet challenge a month or so ago hosted by Silver Parrot . I really loved the colors in the caterpillar but I just couldn't get the bead combo right and I didn't have an art bead that worked well. So today as I was looking at my stash I remembered Lisa Crone's morning post about collaging a piece of jewelry with random beads and finished my buggy caterpillar bracelet. That is one of the great things about challenges - even if you don't finish in time to actually participate, a mental seed has been planted to get the creative juices flowing. This bracelet has reclaimed vintage beads, a chunky amazonite cube, brass and glass. My favorite is the pale turquoise vintage round. I love this color and I like the brass with it! Thanks for looking:)

Glad Tidings of Great Joy

I just have to share the news - I have won some Wonderous Treasures from Kelley!!!! Her beads are soooo pretty! I will post a picture of the loot when it arrives. So exciting!!!!

Jangles Pendant Necklace

Finally here is the finished design created with the super fun Jangles pendant I won in October.

No. 11

Here is today's "painting". Maybe I shouldn't call them paintings -a- day, but I don't know what else to label them at the moment. It is my goal to do art everyday with the assumption that at the end of a year I will at least have ten to twenty usuable pieces and at the very least some compositional ideas for "serious" work. These works I have been doing are pretty much exercises at this point and I think it is helpful. Give it try. Today's watercolor sketch is of yellow dog. Derwent Inktense on charcoal paper.

No."s 9 & 10

Yesterday was a real quick sketch & wash of the cat. Have to be real quick with the cat. Such a difficult soul at times. But she is perfect and we love her. This morning's daily was of a toilet paper roll. It was much more cooperative. Both are sketched and washed with Derwent pencils on Stonehenge paper.

No.'s 6,7 and 8

So we had our nieces this weekend the youngest being one and quite active so I had to improvise on the painting-a-day thing and color instead. That was OK. I had actually been to an opening a few weeks ago and one of the artist's body of work was in crayon. Kind of refreshing actually. Somewhere between the age of three and twenty we have decided to poo -poo crayons as a serious medium. I don't know why. Anyhow, the crayon drawing is of one of my lamps that I got at the salvage yard for five dollars. It is a beautiful green ceramic lamp. It has recessed areas and when I spotted it, I thought it was glazed with the green and and sepia. When I got it home and wiped it down, the sepia came off. I thought "What could this be?" My mother - in -law suggested nicotine. YUUUUUCCCCKKKK! So it took a bit of elbow grease to get it off, and in the meantime we decided it had been antiqued with shoe polish. Anyhow, totally worth five dollars! It is beautiful!!

The second painting is pastel of a ceramic bird figurine. Love the figurine, not loving the painting. We will leave it at that.

Yesterday's is of a garlic bulb setting on a small dish that Mr. Pearl and Pebble's mother made. (LOVE THESE DISHES) Pastel on Wallis paper-belgian mist. I do like this one.

One A Day No. 5

Might be eggs, could be potatoes. This is discouraging. Pastel on UART P 400.

One A Day No. 4

The really great thing about photographing work is that it can be seen differently and the bits I'd like to tweak become more evident. Not unhappy with this. I am drawn to the the looseness, the "wobbly bits" as one of my professors used to call them and the painterly aspects. I do like working with pastel. I can haul it all over and can zone out. I am not crazy about today's paper. La Carte Pastel Board. Too sand papery. Tears up the oil pastel. Pulled out the Nupastels. Like them but they make more dust and I was working horizontally so a little more messy. However all that said, I am managing to stick to my new morning ritual even if it is only day four. Baby steps. Can't make it to step one hundred without the first ninety-nine right?

One A Day No.3

A little blurry. Might be the nature of photographing pastel. Might be me! Oil pastel & soft on Velour Board. Liked working on the velour. Three Tangerines.

One A Day No.2

Yellow dog is a bit more cooperative. Sennelier oil pastel & Rembrandt soft on Art Spectrum Colorfix paper -brown.

One A Day No.1

I am challenging myself to paint one a day this month. My cat was in the perfect pose until she realized that I was sitting down to draw her. So I barely got her outline sketched in. Had to wing it. That's ok. Only no.1 after all and I'm not unhappy with it. I was able to experiment with a different pastel paper. This one was St. Armand Sabertooth. I used Sennelier oil pastels and Rembrandt soft pastels. Got to love Sennelier. I picked up a few more colors this afternoon after doing this. Gerry's Artarama has them on sale for 1.79. That is an awesome price. This is my first time dealing with them so we'll see how it goes! (Blick makes me absolutely crazy!)

I love prints. I don't know why. I am particularly drawn to wood cuts and lino cuts. I think those are relief prints? I really enjoy browsing Etsy and seeing all the talented print makers. Here is my attempt. I just printed this from a lino block. A couple of weeks ago when I was struggling with the right beads for the ABS challenge, I made a polymer bead that had a design in it that looked like a stylized owl. I was REALLY tired but told myself to do a quick sketch. So I did. Last week I re-sketched the design on a linoleum block and cut it out over the weekend. (Oh and you can also make slices in your skin with a linoleum blade.)

ABS November Challenge Necklace

Well here is my finished piece that I tried to submit for Art Bead Scene's November Challenge. I think I got it over ok. We'll see I guess!! The pendant is from Lisa Peters. The rest of the elements are citrine, jasper, carnelian, glass and wire.

My Little Swallowtail

Here she is my little Swallowtail Butterfly bracelet finished at the very last minute for Silver Parrot's Buggy Bracelet Challenge. I have to admit though, I love the colors in that caterpillar, and I spent most of last week trying to get that just right. Pulled out the polymer clay and came up with some beads I am not unhappy with. But they won't work for the little guy. So last night I dug through my drawers and found the beads that I thought were quite complementary to the butterfly. They are Czech glass, seed pearls, mop inlaid bone, sponge coral, vintage lucite, coral, lampwork, a carved resin connector and three little stoneware beads that I actually made this summer:D Sorry about the light. Michigan gets dark about 4:30 these days!

I am a bit hesitant to post this because this is not the intention of my blogging experiences! But I just opened yet another bill from our adoption agency and am feeling a little low. It's NOT the $$ that bothers me so much, we knew to expect expenses. But I want the expenses to feel "legitimate". It is just so frustrating because, for instance, this particular invoice is for the home study renewal (we have just entered year 2). Fine. But the homestudy renewal consisted of: 1. Fingerprinting - fine but we did it last year, why again? Well the answer given = the state of MI doesn't keep them on file. (?) (This is a completely separate fee mind you) We also don't get fingerprinted at the state police's office. No Sir. They contract other people at various locations-for our convenience. Our convenient location was in a little room of an unidentified office space of some sort in a strip mall. Well, it did have a written sign on the inside I think. The convenient location had a girl who fingerprinted us on her laptop it seemed. The security agency takes information like SS, driver's licence, all names ever used etc. 2. The caseworker comes to the home - I guess to see that we still have electricity since last year's visit. 3. Physicals ( I have excellent cholesterol levels) 4. Three references from friends who have known you for at least (?) years or so. See here again, these people already did this last year. Apparently nobody keeps records of these letters either. The only thing we didn't have to do over, was the individual/couples "counseling" with the case worker. Which is a good thing because I didn't feel like rating my sex life for her again. I know that everyone just wants an appropriate environment for the baby. I would want peace of mind if I was making the decisions the birth parents are considering. I'm just venting I guess. I feel like the process and the state is somewhat unorganized. I'm sure there are reasons. So during this season as we all see those we normally see as well as those we don't, if while in the course of conversation any of you finds out that your cousin's daughter's boyfriend's sister is considering adoption please think of Mr. Pearl and Pebble and myself. This link will take you to our online profile. You may email me if you like. The online profile is part of our agency's website, so if the birth parent(s) want information they can access it from our page. Like I said, I don't intend to blog about our adoption journey per se. In general I like to wallow in my anonymity. But I feel a certain level of comfort at the moment with those of you who visit. So thanks for reading!

My Jangles Pendant Is Here!

This is the Jangles pendant I won from the Saturday bead give-a-way a few weeks ago at Art Bead Scene. LOVE IT!!

Five Hour Holiday Necklace

So this is my most current. I just got my little Artbeads package and these wonderful little stoneware "candy cane" beads were part of the order. I just love them. I had purchased these funky little brass caps a few months back and they don't work on just any bead. They really need a 10mm rounded something or other and tubular seems to be even better! So I was delighted to come across these little guys. Had a left over venetian glass bead and a faux cinnabar focal that I've never been able to make work - this is why we don't get rid of things-EVER!! Took me about five hours to say "OK" - hence the title:)

My Loot Is Here!

Oh Ms. Mail Person finally brought me my anticipated packages today! Check it out - the etched lampwork is from Jennifer at Skyvalley Beads , and the ceramic connector beads are from Lisa Peters Art . I totally see the pink connector working with some rhodocrosite. Do we love them or what!?!