Josh Gluckstein Paper Sculpture – Hidreley – BoredPanda.com
Thomas W. Schaller Watercolor 2
Thomas W. Schaller – @twschaller on X
Thursday 9-21-2023
brendapokornymosaics.com
Isn’t this stunning?
For some reason, I have to keep checking my watch to confirm what day it is. It seems like Saturday. I don’t know why.
Frontier Waste Solutions
When it IS Saturday, we have a ‘date’ with some dumpsters at the Sebastian County Road Department, where we can take the stuff we’ve been wanting to get rid of (with some restrictions, of course) between 7am and 2pm. HOORAY!
We’re having a beautiful day today, sunny and 76 degrees.
These light-weight hand-painted wooden teardrop-shaped 2″ dangle earrings will help you celebrate fall in comfort and style. $13.85 with FREE SHIPPING to the contiguous U.S. HandmadeHavenByLinda on Etsy
Norah Halstead – From Brush to Canvas
Norah Halstead – From Brush to Canvas – A Journey through the world of Landscape Painting for Artistic Souls
Norah discusses the different types of landscape painting, some of the tools required, a few ideas of marketing your finished paintings, and more.
This is a good introduction to the importance of deciding what you want to DO with your paintings – whether your aim is to paint realistic versions of what you see in front of you at a particular point in time, or an impressionistic version that brings out the emotion and atmosphere of an area, whether you prefer desert, mountains, cities, oceans, and the importance of paying attention to the wonder of the world around you.
She concentrates on really taking the time to SEE and appreciate – the time of day, the light and shadows, the textures, colors, the mixture of ‘scapes,’ such as a coastal city and the differences in techniques and pallets that requires, whether to include people or not.
An overview of the subject, trying to get you to pick up your brushes and dive in, not being afraid to experiment in trying to express your impressions of the world around you.
My initial reaction to reading this is to decide I like ‘impressionism’ and that I personally wouldn’t like to do ‘plein air’ painting because I would be embarrassed to be out where people might come and want to see what I was doing. Since I would be embarrassed that my painting wouldn’t look a THING like what I was obviously trying to paint, I would want to be sucked down into the earth. I would much rather work from a photo or other image of some kind, and I like the idea of going for an emotion or atmosphere, rather than realism.
Filed under Book - Movie - TV Reviews
Furball: The Well Mannered Pup – A Review
Okay. You’ve fallen in love with a ball of fur who is busily licking your face and making you laugh. With the furball, you’ve brought home a collar, food and water dishes, a leash – maybe a bed. Now what?
You’ve taken on this big responsibility of not only accepting a new member into your family, but will need to make sure your dog is not a menace to the neighborhood, doesn’t eat your husband’s shoes, knows to go outside to pee, doesn’t bite your best friend…
Norah Halstead’s book, ‘Furball: The well mannered pup will bring up all these questions and ones you haven’t thought of yet, giving you some broad guidelines on how to get started on a firm foundation for all of you. She covers housebreaking, socialization, where your furbaby should sleep, what you should teach him or her, and more. There is also a good section on other sources to get further help.
Nice beginning book that will get you started in pupdom.
After reading this book, I’m making a promise to myself to include further leash training with my dog, Amber, who minds us when we are all by ourselves at home, but looks at us as if she has never seen us before and has suddenly gone completely deaf when someone comes to the house.
If we need to take Amber to the vet, she is 95 pounds of eager dogdum who can become fixated on getting where she wants to go regardless of whether she is on a leash or not. I need to work on that.
Also, the suggestion that you invite someone to your home (preferably a good, patient friend) who will sit there patiently watching you try to get your dog to do the stuff he or she does quite readily usually, but suddenly is only interested in visiting with your friend, is a good one for us.
Good luck!
Filed under Book - Movie - TV Reviews
More Drooling Over Erika Kocsi
I love Erika’s beautiful watercolors, but I particularly drool over her expertise on light and shadows which brings such life to her work. Incredible.
Erika Kocsi – @kocsi_erika on X
Celebration!
Gfycat
No marching bands played. No confetti was thrown. No champagne corks were popped. No parades walked past, but the Lewises celebrated being able to drive the ‘old’ shorter way to town yesterday over the brand, spanking-new bridge! WOO HOOOOOOOOOO!
We actually had to REMIND each other on the way back from getting groceries that we could turn in on the old road to go home, rather than bypass it to travel several miles down farther where we could return to the house the detour way while they’ve been working on the bridge. :0)
SOOOOOO NICE!
We won’t even get a chance to take it for granted because of the PHASE 1 of the Greenwood Bypass project, slated to start sometime in November of this year. We’ll worry about that when it comes, though. Meanwhile, we are really happy to be able to simply drive to town when we would like to, using our regular roads…
Filed under Cause for Celebration
Rainy Wednesday 9-20-2023
“Frog Rain” –Displate-prints on metal
My computer says it’s 68 right now, but our thermometers say, “60”. Whatever the temperature, it feels a bit cool and is rainy. We’re grateful to have a warm, dry house and no have-to errands today.
I just added two new signs I painted to my Etsy site –
I’m working very slowly and carefully, trying to add my own free-form engraving/etching to the glassware I put chemical etching designs on for my friends. I have no idea if this will turn out well enough for me to give to them, or I’ll end up pitching them and starting something else. I’m having a good time trying, though it’s a bit stressful and I’m having to do just a little bit at a time.
I hope that this rainy Wednesday is a nice one for you and that you are able to find something enjoyable to do with at least part of the day.
Josh Gluckstein Paper Sculpture
@joshglucksteinartist on Instagram
Filed under Josh Gluckstein Paper Sculpture, paper art
What the World Needs Now is Dogs
Val Tatum – @ValTatum3 on X
SophieEllaFineArt.com
Sue Hewson Artist – @srh_sue on X
Filed under animal paintings, drawings, Sue Hewson Artist, Val Tatum
Cakes to Die For
tumblr.com
tumblr.com
Filed under playing with your food?
Tuesday 9-19-2023
Amigurumi Rat-cottontailandwhiskers.com
I’m going to check out more of this company’s stuff and I’ll share it with you. I’m not big on ‘rats,’ but this one made my heart melt.
Today is the wonderful day that we’re going to drive over the new bridge on the ‘old’ shorter way to town. I’ll try to stop and get some pictures to share with you. I think we only get to enjoy this for a couple of months because the paper said they were starting the bypass in November, and the route we take to town goes through the main intersection they will be tearing up.
Play Kettering
I finally got time in my art room yesterday. I started doing some etching on the glassware I’m trying to do for my friends, plus I started two new signs. I plan to do more up there today.
I’ll see if there is a quick project I can do outside, too. Starting this evening, we’re supposed to have a rainy week, so it looks like time outside will be limited.
I hope that you are able to make this a good day.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Good News!
The Bump
When we were out leaving our trash down at the bottom of our driveway a couple of minutes ago, a truck went past us, waved and then turned RIGHT at the intersection. Then ANOTHER vehicle went straight on that road, THROUGH the intersection.
Why is that wonderful? Because it means that the BRIDGE is finished and open for traffic! We drove down to the intersection to see if the big portable road sign and barricades were gone and they WERE!
That means that tomorrow we’ll have a celebration as we drive over the new bridge on the OLD, shorter way to town!!! Woo HOOOOOOO!
I’ll try to take some pictures of the new, finished bridge tomorrow.
Good things DO happen. :0)
Filed under Challenges, Good in the World
Time for More David Zinn
“Mr. Zinn is known all over the world for the art he creates under his feet. David’s temporary street drawings are composed entirely of chalk, charcoal and found objects. His most frequent characters are Sluggo (a bright green monster with stalk eyes and irreverent habits) and Philomena (a phlegmatic flying pig), but the diversity of Mr. Zinn’s menagerie seems to be limited only by the size of the sidewalk and the spirit of the day.”
Filed under David Zinn - Street Artist, drawings
Greg Catarino Art
“Sometimes it’s better to take a deep breath and say nothing.”
Greg Catarino’s art makes me smile. I’m going to try to find more for us to share. (He’s @gregcatarino1 on X (Twitter))
Filed under Greg Catarino, paintings I love
It’s Monday Again 9-18-2023
I love the color of this one, plus the 3-D-ness of it. The creative use of paper adds texture, too. Just love it.
It’s deliciously cool here this morning. It’s supposed to get a bit warm this afternoon and then we have good chances for rain the rest of the week. I’ll take it! My husband mowed the lawn, so it looks like someone cares at the Lewis place. I may do some weed whacking later today to trim up what he did.
I was remarkably lazy yesterday – even for me. I didn’t do anything on my list. I enjoyed reading and listening to music, writing blog posts, and looking for new, interesting stuff to share. I posted that beautiful video by Mark Gray yesterday, showing the water and waves at eye level, with the wonderful sound. I must have enjoyed that 10 times during the day.
We’ll gather our trash and take it down in a bit, get our mail. I don’t know if we’ll go to town or not. Can you tell my laziness has spilled into today? :0) As much as I love being able to point to something and think, “I did that today,” I’m beginning to love getting comfortable, stretching out, and doing nothing every once in a while. I think that’s equally good for my peace of mind these days.
Homes Alive Pets Blog
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Heaven?
This place has so much happening I feel as I do when I try to watch Cirque de Soleil – WAAAAY too much happening to catch it all the first – or even the third time. I hope this works so that you can enjoy it, too. THANKS, @Enezator on X.
Filed under video
Dog Art
rebeccarhodesart.com
samedi 21novembre2020-mosannick.blogspot.com
Pete’s Custom Pet Portraits
Sarah Eden Portraits – @EdenPortraits on X
Filed under animal paintings, drawings
Child Innocence 2
Filed under Neil Buchanan, paintings of children
Sunday 9-17-2023
I’m feeling pretty good about the state of the yard, though that project is never ‘finished.’ There is nothing out there screaming loudly at me now, so I might spend part of the afternoon in my art room today without guilt.
The Hillybilly Kitchen on YouTube
There’s another bread recipe for sloths like me (:0) ) that I would like to try…
The price of the #56 (Encore in Death) paperback finally got reasonable enough for me, so I bought it. According to Amazon, it might actually be sitting in my mailbox right now. I have preordered Payback in Death, the paperback of it due to be released in December of this year. #58 – Random in Death will be out in hardback in January of 2024. Because of all this happy news, I’m re-reading the series, fully immersed in Eve Dallas’ world of murder, wonderful characters with complex relationships, courage and more. I’m re-reading Loyalty in Death, #9, right now.
Tenor
Our weather has been so beautiful lately it’s hard to believe. I’m really soaking it up, trying to get outside to at least smile at it, if not work out there. Today it’s supposed to get to 89, but very low humidity, so it’s essentially perfect. Can’t celebrate enough!
Happy day to you!
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Grow Organic
Since I can remember I’ve always wanted to grow some of my own veggies and also grow and use herbs. I’ve done some of the first with various ranges of success and still want to do the second.
Norah Halstead has written a good general case for growing your own veggies and herbs organically both for your improved health and for the sake of the planet. She explains that you can enjoy this no matter how limited your space is, and walks you through what you need to know to create a rich environment for your plants. She managed to punch through most of my intimidation about growing, storing, and using herbs, both for my cooking and the idea of using some for medicinal purposes. The more medicines I end up taking, the more I would LIKE to be able to go as natural as possible when I can.
I would like her to concentrate on a book JUST about herbs, giving more information about what each herb does, more hints about how to grow each, when to harvest, more information about storing them after harvest, how to store the seeds for next season, and more.
The Nutrient Patch: Health-Boosting Vegetable Gardening Made Easy by Norah Halstead
Filed under Book - Movie - TV Reviews
Today’s Project 9-16-2023
These two pictures give you an idea of what I was trying to clean out today. There are 11 planters on the deck – all of them overgrown with weeds – some dead, most alive and thriving. I just came in from getting things cleaned out.
In the black planter in the center of this photo, there was a really big, strong root that didn’t want to come out. I finally got a stool, a short shovel, and some loppers. I pried up the root as much as possible and then lopped it off as low as I could. I don’t think we’ll see it again, since it will have to weather the winter with no water, little sun, and no food, but we’ll see. You can also see that Amber was helping me with the project. :0)
Things are looking more like someone cares now. I’m going to turn off the irrigation system to the back. There is only one planter along the driveway pad that needs watering, and I can do that by hand.
Filed under Gardening, Lewis projects
Lots of New Things –
We have a paper that comes out every two weeks, I think. It’s free and I get it when we go to Lunch Bunch. I was FLOORED when I read one article on the front page, listing a bunch of stuff about which I was not aware that is or will happen in our little town of Greenwood.
THING ONE – I’ve told you about the bridge between us and town being completely taken out and replaced. It is finished for all practical purposes, but the barricades are still up and it isn’t open for traffic, so we are still having to go to town a back way that is much longer and aggravating.
THING TWO – Now it looks like just as this bridge is opening and we can enjoy getting back to our normal route to town, the main road to town is going to be barricaded by another thing.
The powers that be have long discussed a bypass that would go past the ‘square’ in town, easing the bad traffic that happens twice a day due to people trying to drive through Greenwood from towns to the east – with people trying to get to work in Fort Smith – plus the traffic caused by kids trying to get to, or leave, school by buses and what my husband calls, “Mommy traffic.” This has been a pie-in-the-sky thing for years. Apparently, Phase I of the bypass will START before the end of THIS YEAR! This will obliterate the intersection of Hwy 10 and Hwy 96 – an intersection we have to go through to get to town. Oh, GOOD!
I read a lot about it online yesterday, studying maps provided. They said it is due to start in November – no estimated end date. This would mean that the back way we’re having to take NOW wouldn’t be possible, NOR our normal route to town. We’ll have to take a rural road that goes into pasture-type land behind our house and WAAAAAAAY out to HWY 71 South and then BACK to GREENWOOD…. to tell you I’m not looking forward to this is a vast understatement.
THING THREE –apparently, they’re going to build a new medical center to replace the one where our primary doctor is, from just off the square in town to out on HWY 71.
THING FOUR – likewise, they’re going to build a new library to replace the easy-to-get-to one in town out to HWY 71.
THING FIVE –They are going to build a new Senior Center – you guessed it – out on HWY 71.
They say this will be more ‘convenient’ for people living in South Sebastian County. I have to admit feeling a bit selfish. I like things they way they are. The only one of these last three that won’t affect us yet is the Senior Center. I may be as old as dirt, but I’m not old enough to go there to do anything yet, and may never be. :0)
I guess that’s the list. I’m still feeling pretty shell-shocked. Too many changes in too little time.
I have to tell you that I’m pleased with myself for handling the problem of our pharmacist retiring and sending my husband’s prescription to Walgreens – something that meant we would have to drive to Ft. Smith once a month. I asked our doctor to call the prescription in to Humana. They did that, and I got confirmation today that the med is on its way. HOORAY.
I hope that you are able to handle the changes happening in your life – whether they are simply small and irritating, intimidating, or even scary or life-changing. Try to handle one thing at a time and try not to feel stressed. We can do this.
Filed under Challenges, Changes, character-building exercises
Good Morning! 9-16-2023
Mark Gray – @GrayMarker99 on X
I had to discipline myself in order not to drool all over this exquisite, gloriously purple photograph by Mark Gray. I think he said these flowers were ‘lupines.’ I’ll have to research to see if I can get some here and try to grow them. I think they’re spectacular. :0)
I hope you’re having a nice morning. It’s wonderful here, cloudy and 69 right now. We’re supposed to have a high this afternoon of 84 with low humidity. It’s like we’ve gone to a different planet. I LOVE IT !
I got started cleaning out the deck planters yesterday afternoon. There are 11 planters out there, I think. I have the 4 larger ones left to do today. I’ll share pics if I finish.
Lunch Bunch was fun yesterday, although it was just Bud, Kay, my husband and me. Bud is the newest addition to Lunch Bunch. He’s Kay’s husband, and until recently has worked every day. This might not sound unusual, but he’s in his mid 80’s, I think, and he still runs a backhoe and other really big equipment, a dying art. He is finally just working as backup when they can’t get other skilled people. I’m delighted, because I’ve gotten a chance to get to know him a bit. He has a really great sense of humor and regularly has me exploding with laughter as he surprises me once again, eyes twinkling.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
My Garden
“My Garden” – Gregorio Catarino – @gregcatarino1 on X
I love this painting. I wish I had an area like this. I used to have a greenhouse that my husband and I built-
But a storm killed it beyond repair a year or so ago and we had to take it down. The reality of it is that if you don’t have a separate heating and cooling system for it in Arkansas, you can’t get the temperature right for good growing of seeds and plants. It was a fun experiment.
TODAY’S PROJECT –
As you can see, there are multiple small containers that are totally overrun by weeds. I need to completely clean them out. The heat got to everything – despite the fact that we used our automatic watering system twice a day – and the flowers died. The weeds are much hardier and used the opportunity to thrive. I’ll have quite a job getting these out.
Filed under Gardening
creativeartworksblog 