Iris Scott – FingerPainting – irisscottfineart.com
Filed under Fun with Fingerpaint, Iris Scott
Filed under Amazing Animals, Chainsaw Art, When Wood Comes Alive
Animal SnapChats – Giedre Vaiciulaityte – BoredPanda.com
I’m resting a bit this morning from trying to clean up my square foot garden. I finished the weeding yesterday, but I haven’t done the final spraying (one for bugs and another for any weed roots I missed) or covered the boxes with tarps yet. ONE ant found me yesterday and bit/stung me on my left forearm, making it swell up like a toad. I treated it with Benadryl Ointment, one of my miracle drugs, so I just have one small white ‘bubble’ on my mildly swollen, slightly itchy, tender arm this morning. I have about an hour of work left to secure the garden. I will try to take some pics for to share with you later today.
We will pick up our order of some frozen meals from Real Food in Greenwood today. We are really lucky to have Real Food and Stu’s Clean Cookin’ both of which opened in Greenwood in the past year. The cooking styles are quite different, which gives us nice variety. Both provide good meals with reasonable portions, no preservatives, frozen into individual meals perfect for us. Interspersed are some splurges with Lean Cuisine or Healthy Choice, plus my own cooking separated and frozen into individual meals after our initial meal.
It is on my list to clean up my drafting table in my art room before I try any more experiments. The last acrylic pour I did spilled over onto the glass I use to protect the table. I’m HOPING I have enough ‘spills’ to try a 4th technique I saw on YouTube. :0)
I hope this Monday finds you healthy and happy.
I’ve done two sessions so far today in my veggie garden – about an hour and a half. It’s really sunny, in the 90s and HOT out there. I’m trying to get the last of the garden boxes weeded and cleaned out. This is NOT my favorite part of gardening.
I got 4 of the boxes done yesterday. Unfortunately, of the six boxes, these last two are the worst. They were both filled not only with dead veggie plants and weeds, but also Bermuda grass. It amazes me that Bermuda can plant itself and thrive about 4 feet up from the ground, and fire ants choose to make their homes there, too.
I will try to get the last box weeded today. We’ll have lunch in about half an hour and then I’ll go back out. I don’t know if I’ll get the tarps on today or not.
My husband – (the wonderful man who (1) figured out how to make a garden where I didn’t have to get down on my hands and knees or bend over double, (2) MADE the wooden boxes and the structures to hold them up, (3) designed a system for automatic watering of the plants, AND got me a used cement mixer so I could make the Mel’s Mix more easily) – made the mistake of just now (having just gotten up from a nap) telling me how I should be doing the project and “suggesting” I cover the boxes with tarps when I finish weeding. I just looked at him, glugging water. After being married to me for over 52 years now, he realized that maybe his suggestions about how I could do the garden might be mistimed. He is now in the living room watching TV.
I’m a “Good Girl” this morning. This doesn’t happen often, so I have to pat myself on the back while telling you about it. :0)
I told you that my plan was to work in the garden this morning. Many times my plans go awry, I get distracted, my husband wants me to help him do something, or I’m just plain lazy. I have good INTENTIONS, but it just doesn’t get done.
I’ve just come back from working in the garden! I harvested as many onions as I could find and then weeded three of the six raised garden boxes. I did NOT get bitten/stung by a swarm of red ants! On the way back to the house, I spread the onions out on the trailer edge. I unhooked hoses. I am cooling off and glugging a bottle of cold water as I type.
I am substituting my work in the garden for the elliptical trainer exercise I was scheduled to do, and am putting a gold star on my calendar. I PLAN to do my yoga practice as usual this afternoon. :0)
So far, it looks like I won’t have to mix and spread Mel’s Mix. The three boxes I weeded today were fine on the amount of soil alternative.
The PLAN is to finish weeding tomorrow morning, harvesting any remaining onions. Then all I’ll need to do is cover the boxes with tarps and take down and store the irrigation control from the outdoor faucet.
Filed under exercise, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
I love this picture.
I’m heading out to my square foot garden soon to pull up the sweet onions. Our weather is such that, even with our irrigation system, most of our plants have given up the ghost. This was a weird summer, much cooler and wetter for a lot of it and then super-hot and dry with sun hot enough to almost boil the plants right on the vines.
The only thing left in the garden now is the onions. My plan is to go out this morning, armed with my 2 gallon sprayer filled with EIGHT, and pull the onions. If ants start swarming, I’ll hose everything down with the EIGHT and try again tomorrow. We have an old trailer which basically sits in one spot all year round. It has a metal mesh bed that allows great drainage, so it’s a wonderful place to spread the onions so they can dry. I’m hoping to get the onions pulled up and drying today.
I’m hoping that I can get the garden boxes weeded, topped off with Mel’s Mix (peat moss, Vermiculite, and three kinds of compost), unhook the irrigation system, and then cover each of the six 4’x4′ raised boxes with a tarp to keep the soil alternative IN and the weeds OUT until I’m ready to plant again. I’ll try to show you my progress.
Please keep all appendages crossed that the fire ants don’t attack me. :0)
Filed under aging, Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
All one has to do is look at these to understand I have my work cut out for me in learning the acrylic pour techniques. So far, I’ve tried 3. The one above is called the funnel technique.
As I am typing this, my sweet husband came in and asked what these ‘represented.’ When I told him, ‘failures,’ he said, “Oh, That’s what I would have said.” So now I’m honest AND a bit hostile.
Needless to say, acrylic pour may LOOK easy when you watch a demonstration on YouTube, as with anything else, it takes lots of practice before I may see some progress.
Matt Dixon – “Transmissions” – illustrator in the games industry
mattdixon.co.uk
Filed under Matt Dixon - Robot Art
When I’m feeling down, something I see brings me right out of it. I’ve told you that I think attitude is all. Here is an example –
Filed under Attitude, Awe-Inspiring Photography
Source: Inga Korokovaite – BoredPanda.com
Filed under Amazing Animals
Will Kurtz Paper Art – proteusmag.blogspot.com
Filed under paper art, paper mache
Animals Puns and Artwork by Sophie Corrigan
Article by Paulina Tikunova – BoredPanda.com
Due to nothing that I can figure out, I GAINED 6/10ths of a pound yesterday. :0(
I ate as usual, drank three bottles of water, did 20 minutes on my elliptical trainer, and did my yoga practice.
Today we go to Lunch Bunch. As usual, I’ll eat HALF and bring the other half of my chicken strips home and use them in our chef salad dinner tonight. Exercise today is three short session with my weights and yoga.
I am being a “good girl” and that will have to be good enough.
I just came downstairs from trying the acrylic pour technique again – the third different technique I’ve tried.
I don’t know how it will turn out yet, but it looked a bit more like it ‘should,’ and I ended up with more paint on the canvas than me this time, though it was a close thing.
I didn’t have enough I could use for the demo on the acrylic pour with crackles, so I just started from scratch. I made enough of a mess I should have enough to try the other technique next time.
I don’t feel very productive, but I’m laughing a lot – sometimes my language getting a bit colorful when I sploop yet another blop of paint on myself. :0)
Filed under playing in my art room
Filed under Amazing Animals, Oil Paintings I Love
Filed under Embroidery/Sewing Art
I WISH I could tell you that the above is my work. This is the one that got me drooling lately and wanting to try the “Acrylic Pour” technique. This one has the added effect of “Crackles,” which the artist then filled with gold. Gorgeous, huh!
I got the materials together after clearing off my drafting table. I finally got through the intimidated stage and have tried two techniques I found on YouTube over the past couple of days.
So far, I’ve made messes and had a lot of fun. Mostly, I’m learning what NOT to do again.
The example above was done using the remnants of previous pours by the artist. I have used two canvases thus far. I’m HOPING that I can PEEL the paint off the canvases and use the pieces to try to do my own version of the piece above.
Happily, I’m in the playing and experimenting stage, so I’m like a kid with finger paint, involved in the colors, the FEEL of everything, rather than worrying about whether my experiment is successful or not.
If I end up with something interesting, I’ll take a pic and show you. If not, I’ll have another fun time playing and learning.
I hope that YOU find something fun today, too.
Filed under playing in my art room
Filed under Gorgeous Gourd Art, Gorgeous Gourds
If you’ve been reading my blog for awhile, you remember that I was devastated when I tried to winter-over elephant ear plants my friend, Laufrain, had given me, but failed. I re-planted them and nothing at all happened. I finally bought some ‘bulbs’ (is that what you call them?) from an online nursery. I got six and spaced them around the yard a bit. As you can see, they seem to be happy, and I’m thrilled.
I’m especially happy because my square foot garden is over, except for harvesting onions, and our tomato plants are looking very sad. Many of our flowers have just given up in the heat, even though we have an irrigation system.
These are to the left side of our front porch. They seem to be smiling, too. They have good protection from gusty winds and blowing rain here, too.
These are on the far side of the house. They seem to be doing fine, but aren’t as large as the others.
I just love these huge leaves!
And the surprise of the day is here. We have an area around the house we have dubbed “civilized,” keeping it mowed, etc. The edge of this drops off into woods we just let grow wild. A lot of yard waste we throw “off the edge of the world” here. If you look really carefully, you can see – two batches of elephant ears! I threw the failed bulbs here and some of them have NOW made leaves! Wonders will never cease. :0)
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
When we got home from errands this morning, I brought the finished “peacock” out to his place in the yard.
This was a pain to re-paint, due to how wide and unwieldy he is. There are lots of angles that hide from you as you paint, and he doesn’t want to ‘sit’ quietly, making it easier to work on him. He also had lost most of his beads, so those had to be replaced.
He used to be high up on the tower above where we put the “Belly Vested Whapadoo,” –
but I thought he could enjoy a new view.
There are some other, smaller pieces we’ll have to take down from the side of the house, and some larger ones, like the robot at the end of the driveway, but we’re due for summer to come roaring back, so I’m going to take a bit of a break.
Filed under Lewis Art, Lewis projects, Lewis yard art
New Territory!
I finally re-lost some weight and this morning entered new territory – okay, only .2 of a single pound, but we have to take our wins where we find them, right?
I am trying to take one day at a time, rather than looking at the whole of my goal at once. One day at a time, one pound (or less :0) ) at a time.
I’ve done well this week on my exercising, as well. Monday I did 3 short sessions with my weights and then my regular yoga stretching session. Yesterday I did 25 minutes on my elliptical trainer and then my yoga. Today is weights and yoga again.
I’m having trouble drinking all the water I’m supposed to. I am TRYING to drink 4 bottles a day. I’m a coffee-holic, so I’m trying to make myself wait to have another cup until I’ve downed another bottle of water. Sometimes that is successful. (I just got up and got a bottle of water from beside the chair in the living room and will try to sip while I’m typing.) I’m hoping that my body gets used to all this water, rather than feeling as if my eyeballs are floating as I run to the bathroom. (can THAT count as exercise, too?) :0)
I’m feeling more motivated as I move onward and downward on my efforts to lose the lard.
Filed under Challenges, Changes, DIET!, Dreams, exercise
Animal Friendships – Jonas Grinevicius and Mindaugas Balciauskas – BoredPanda.com
These pictures make me hopeful about the world. I hope they bring up your spirits, too.
Filed under Amazing Animals, animal friendships
My drafting table is covered with paint. I”M covered with paint. One wrap-around canvas is covered with paint. I splooped some dots of paint on my shirt, even though I wore my denim apron.
I’m letting my mess dry now, waiting to see if I got any “cells” in my paint. Even though I basically made a mess of the “Acrylic Pour” technique, I had a lot of fun trying.
Next time I try, I’m going to try a different technique that I also saw on YouTube. As usual, the result was not at ALL what I pictured and I’m at the “learning-what-NOT-to-do-NEXT time” part of the learning process. That doesn’t keep me from having a blast playing. :0)
On a more successful note, I finished painting our yard art “peacock” yesterday and glued on lots of beads today, around his neck and on his ‘feathers.’ If the glue does well, I’ll bring him back out in the yard tomorrow and take some pics.
I hope YOU are doing something fun and/or challenging, too!
Filed under Funny Signs - Humor
creativeartworksblog 