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Wednesday, March 21, 2012

 We went from sunshine to rain. All week has been rainy and cool. It seems like I don't get much done when it rains. I belong to a group on ebay for people who do ACEO's, we had a challenge to do an interpretation of a photo of a street in France. I did manage to get 2 done. One a watercolor and one a digital. it was fun to see all the different ways people saw the photo. The damp weather has put a halt to any work on my kitchen floor. I am afraid it would take to long to dry and not set up good.
  

Thursday, March 15, 2012

The weather this week has been beautiful, which means I didn't stay inside to much.I had intended to work on the kitchen floor but that got put on hold while I do a few other things. I painted doors and some woodwork and did a countertop in my dressing room using a silver paper and coating it with the poly. I used about 5 coats on it and it looks pretty neat. I think it's going to work real well.
  Today was take Max to the vet, and that was an experience I do not want to repeat for a long time. He peed at least 3 times on the floor, then when I wasn't looking he hiked on my leg. Not a good thing. He managed to pull out of his harness and I had to redo it tighter. He really gave the vet fits trying to escape. Who would have thought a  20 lb dog could cause so much trouble.
  Here's a picture of my little guy. This is his favorite napping spot.


Saturday, March 10, 2012

Today was a start on Spring House cleaning day.  It was nice and warm here about 65 or so and great for opening  windows and airing the house out. I went to Ace Hardware this morning and got a free quart of paint. They are giving away a free quart any color every Saturday this month! I got one last Saturday and have been painting my dressing room a raspberry and today I painted a dry sink and old cabinet in  Blooming flax which is a pale blue. Turned out really good now I need to get some new knobs for the drawers. Tomorrow I have to finish painting the dressing room and a wall in my bedroom. I have to use a ladder so I saved the high stuff for one day.
  I managed to paint a couple of dog portraits today but decided I need to clean more than I need to art, so if it  rains tomorrow maybe I will work on some more art.

Friday, March 9, 2012

More aceo's  using the letters that I found. This is getting addictive. I stopped for awhile and went out and bought some rolls of brown paper and a couple of sponge mops so I can try the paper floor this week end. I bought a gallon of polyurethane from the local rehab store for $17 compared to the 40 + that the hardware stores want. All you do is use white glue to lay torn pieces of brown paper on your floor then you coat it with several coats of polyurethane. I have a small kitchen and I am going to make an attempt to do the floor in there.  The paper was only $1 a roll and there is 15 ft on each roll. I got 3 rolls so I am figuring the cost of a new kitchen floor will be under $30. That's a lot cheaper then new tile or carpet! I will post pictures if I succeed in getting it done over the weekend.



Tuesday, March 6, 2012



 I think I have Spring Fever, I haven't done any writing for awhile, and the sun was out and it hit 70 today. I have been doing some aceo's using old letters I found from the 1940's. I recycled some old aceo's I didn't like and pasted parts of letters on them. Then I used water color and painted over the letter letting the writing show through. I really liked the effect.
  My granddaughter who's a senior in high school, gave me a hair tip yesterday. It seems tht having different colored tips of hair is the new trend. It's expensive and not temporary, so someone came up with a different solution. You dampen the hair you want to color and using chalk pastels (I used Rembrandt, it helps to be an artist some times) you rub it over the hair till you get the look you want. I had a pretty pink strip for awhile. Then you use a curling or straight iron to set it with heat. it washes right out and even little kids can have bright colored hair.

Monday, February 27, 2012

 Today the weather was not nearly so nice, it seems to be hovering around the high 30's. I worked on a few dogs but nothing seemed to inspire me today. Some days are just like that. I guess sometimes you just have to do the mundane things like clean house, cook and wash clothes. I have managed to do some reading on my Kindle between  working. The Kindle was one of the best gifts I have every got. I read 6 -10 books a week and now I can read what I want when I want without having to make a trip to the library. I really enjoy it. What I don't like is the price of the covers and skins they make for it. I wanted a cover, so after a bit of thinking I decided it would be easy to make one. It is very easy and they look just as nice if not better than the ones you buy. All you need is a hard cover journal(they generally cost $5 or so) and then take the pages out and you can attach elastic on the inside to hold the kindle. Experiment and you can customize it to your own taste. I made several and they work great. I'll post a picture of one a bit later.

Sunday, February 26, 2012

Saturday seems to have slipped past me without my notice. It's Sunday and I haven't accomplished much of anything. I did manage to make a visit to Michaels and found this really neat luminous water color paint. I had to try it out of course. I did a couple more dogs to list on ebay and used the paint on the backgrounds. It shimmers in the light but from the scans it's hard to tell. I am fascinated with dogs that have blue eyes and I did a bulldog and a Catahoula Leopard dog that have blue eyes. The last dog is a Finnish Hound.


  

Friday, February 24, 2012

 I've found that one of the worst things about retirement is you no longer look forward to Fridays. Week ends are just like any other day. With that being said it snowed here in the night, so I woke to a dusting of snow. It was 61 degrees here just two days ago, this has been a strange winter.
  Today I am going back to work on the dog series. I have done several large sized dog portraits 8 X 10's and would like to do more of those as well.  These are pictures I did of a friends black lab, and then another friends shiatsu's

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Thursday, February 23, 2012

I've been doing ACEO's (Artist Cards Editions & Originals) for about 4 years now, and finally decided to get serious about doing and selling them. I am working on a series of dog pictures, I will post several of those every day. I sell mostly on ebay and also do commissions. I love dogs and have had West Highland White terriers as my last 3 dogs. My current dog is a Westie named Max who will be 3 years old. He's a happy loveable guy and I will post some of his pictures later. The dogs below are a Walker Coon Hound, a American Pit Bull and a Scottish Terrier.



Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Here is an example of a portrait I did of a friend's parents.
I have always been told the first sentence in anything you write is the most important. The sentence has to grab your attention and keep you interested to read more. I could not think of a brilliant first sentence, so hopefully you will continue to read on. I'm an artist first, a writer, a reader, and just basically a very curious person. This blog is about my art work and a few other things thrown in for good measure.