More Red Sketchbook

Got home from Mom's really late Monday night but the 40 oz. iced coffee I had been sipping for the previous three hours kept me awake - what a surprise! So out came the Red Sketchbook and this picture from one of artquiltmakers friends. There is something to be said for sleep deprivation and turning off the left brain/ I did this in about forty minutes! Used blue, purple, and silver for the Newf. Black would not have given him any character, in my opinion! I am very happy with how this turned out.


OOPS - forgot to turn this before I uploaded it! Anyway, this kitty took me about three hours and, though I like it, I don't think it is nearly as good as the Newf and child. I used a grid and was very painstaking with it. Sometimes too much thinking (actually, usually) doesn't help artwork.

Keep drawing! I have to stop as The Big Guy is building shelves in my studio and I escaped to Starbucks for the WiFi. Need to go home and help!

Moving and the Red Sketchbook

We are still in the process of moving and last week the boxes I brought out of storage were a lot of fun to go through. Some of the things we found were our high school year books and photos we hadn't seen in eight years! The drawing below in the red sketchbook and is of SB daughter and her old, now deceased dog, Willie. Willie was a real sweetie of a dog unless you threatened my daughter. He was also my nephew's babysitter! He was a BIG black lab mix and my daughter had him for about fifteen years. When her sister saw this drawing she said "Wow, you look like Dad!". I hadn't seen that at first but when artquiltmaker pointed it out, I did see it.



The Red Sketchbook is coming right along and I have hopes of it being ready in time to include it in the tour the books will be going on. I am enjoying doing the drawings, too. It is especially nice to draw in my new (but very crowded and unorganized) studio. My drafting table is in the studio but it is still in pieces. If the Big Guy doesn't get it put together soon I am going to do it! He has great plans for shelves and stuff for my studio which sound great but he has so many other things to do around the house still that I don't think those plans will come to fruition any time soon!


This kitty is one of the ones friends of artquitmaker sent me. I kept really bad records, though, and don't know whose it is. So if it is yours, let me know and I will e-mail you a copy of it so you can print it out. May do more work on it, haven't decided yet. Sometimes I have to look at a drawing for a while before I see what it needs to be truly finished.

I saw my nephew yesterday. He is taking a painting class at school and I was able to give him a couple of art tips. That was fun for me and I hope the tips help him. I would love to see him develop as an artist. I know his mom loved to have him draw and was proud of his art.

Doggie Drawing

Roxy, the best dog in the world, is one of my favorite subjects to draw. She was laying, asleep, on the floor in my studio (yeah! I have a studio!) the other day and I did a line drawing. Indicated in the drawing the light and shadow of her black coat and later I filled in the body. Of course, she didn't hold still so I drew her head again in the new position. I love the way this came out.

The Red Sketchbook - Roxy's cousin, Sadie and miscellaneous other stuff

We have started to have a real life! The Big Guys cousin and her husband and puppy came to visit the other day! First time they have visited us in eight years - we always go to visit them as we had no room for visitors in the trailer at Sequoians.

As I am doing the dogz and catz sketchbook I took a picture of Roxy's cousin, Sadie the pretty lady, a seven year old cocker spaniel and then drew her. There will eventually be a picture of my drawing but for some reason the program won't take me to picture uploads! Artquilltmaker is home and she showed me that once again, it is operator error! As you can see, pictures are included. Anyway, after I took this photo I worked on it some more and now don't like it. Oh, well.

Welcome to the 18th century!

We also went to the Highland Games in Pleasanton last weekend. I went Saturday and the Big Guy went Saturday and Sunday. We joined our old regiment, Montgomeries 77th Highlanders, at their encampment. It was a lot of fun. In the 17 years we have been reinacting the French and Indian War at the different Highland Games I have never had the chance to see the sheep dog trials. Last weekend our encampment was just beyond the trials so I spent a good part of the day watching the dogs. What fun! The dogs were beautiful, mostly well-trained and appeared to love moving the sheep around. They had a difficult time because it was extremely noisy with the bagpipe bands, other loud music and noisy crowds. I saw about 30 dogs run and I think only about four of them completed the course. Some of them got the sheep so excited that the beasts jumped the fence back in to their enclosure!

This is one of the successful dogs. He did a good job getting the sheep to do what he wanted and he finished in plenty of time. The dogs have five minutes to do the run. I enjoyed this so much I thought to myself 'I can do that and would like to!' then my other self said ' Idiot! Those dogs must cost a thousand dollars, need a flock of sheep to practice on and several acres to run.' Sure was fun to watch!

The Red Sketchbook - looking like one's pet and more blathering about my life

Person Who Looks Like His Dog

I have been taking BART over to visit the grandchild every Thursday since I've been home (after driving to Castro Valley to check the PO Box) and decided to draw the people who were on the train with me. While drawing I realized that this was not a portrait sketchbook but a dog and cat sketchbook. So I imagined what this guy's dog would look like and here is what I came up with.

Have done a little work in my studio, I can at least walk in there now! The other day I set up my sewing machine on the new antique table artquiltmaker gave me for my anniversary/birthday/christmas/mother's day and all. I worked on the food quilt and finished 41 patches completely and another about 30 sewn together but not trimmed or pressed. Am pretty proud of myself! Think I can actually finish it in time for artquiltmaker to quilt it the end of next month. Talking about it makes me want to go home and sew (I am at Starbucks using their WiFi).

The Big Guy and I are being earth friendly. He attached a box to my bike rack and we went to the grocery store on bikes this morning! Then after recovering I rode my bike the three blocks to Starbucks! This little town is quite convenient. The Senior Center, Post office, Taco Truck (GREAT fish tacos) Wahlgreens and Mexican restaurant are all within bike riding distance. We may save some gas! And possibly get in better shape!

Moving day

Dawn at our new home

Last weekend we finally moved out of the club. A large group of our friends showed up to help us clean up the site and load our possessions. What a job it was! We pretty much left the organization of the work to each person and the group worked really well together! I had rented, courtesy of daughter number two's credit card, a 24' box truck to haul the stuff to our new home. I was flabbergasted when I saw how BIG the truck was! We could have driven the trailer into it, it seemed! As I rented it I had to drive it. When I was inside I was eye level with 18 wheelers! And the thing had air brakes, a first for me. I did fine except for sideswiping one tree on the very narrow road out and skipping over a curb in the first five minutes I drove it! But I had purchased the insurance that was available so no foul to me!

The Big Guy and I worked on Saturday and the crew came on Sunday. One of our friends (a couple) provided a sumptuous repast, including gluten-free food for me. Another couldn't help so she gave us a check! Everyone there worked very very hard and we really appreciate that.

Another good note - another couple who were there helping bought the trailer for exactly what we paid for it six years ago! What a great relief to be rid of that! They have property near Santa Cruz where they want to keep it.

Two of the crew came over to the house and along with our great-nephew, Patrick, unloaded the truck. That was so nice. The Big Guy was spent by then. The only part of him still working was his mouth!

Monday we had to get up at five-thirty to return the truck. I got on the freeway, behind a semi, and toodled back to the barn. That made Monday pretty much a wasted day as neither of us had the energy to do anything else.

Between our daughters and our friends the whole operation went smoothly, was a lot of work, but is finally done! Thanks to everyone!

Now we are faced with putting all this stuff away! What a challenge. Where did it all come from? Where will we put it. We haven't even brought the furniture over yet - where will that go? Yikes!

The Red Sketchbook (and some blathering about my life)

WAGS

Greetings from moving-land. I think I have toted the equivalent of an elephant in the last two weeks! Where did all this stuff come from? Do we really need it? Oh well.

Chaos is our middle name today. We were informed Tuesday that the rest of our stuff was going to be disposed of because we had abandoned the site! Boy, did that tic me off. I have been out there every other day loading up my truck (one day to load, one day to unload - I'm OLD!!). The coop which owns the land is quite unreasonable and hard to deal with. I am at the end of my rope with them. But we have arranged for Sunday to be the final day of moving. Will be so glad when that phase is over! Then we have our single car garage sized storage to empty. We will have furniture instead of only boxes in the house. Oh boy!

NIXON

Did a couple of Red Sketchbook drawings. One is of Wags, my Mom's late dog and the other is of Nixon one of my granddogs. The Nixon one is done in oil pastel and the Wags is done in dry pastels. I found them in the move! Boy did I find art materials! My studio room is wall to wall two and three boxes high! Some organizing to do there!

The Red Sketchbook - Owl

Owl was inspired by a piece of bark from the huge sycamore tree in our new front yard. The bark is decoupaged onto the page and then watercolor and some shiny paste was applied injudiciously (!) over it. Am a little concerned about the bark staying on the page but can't do anything about that now.



The new house is coming along. The Big Guy and the Landlord are working hard. Well, not in this picture! They did a lot of prep for putting up drywall (on the ceiling - shouldn't it be called ceiling wall - or something?) and today will start putting that up.

One thing the Big Guy had to do was take down the ceiling fixture. We've all heard of plumber's crack..well I got a great shot of electrician's crack! But in deference to delicate sensibilities, I'm not posting it. It does trump plumber;s crack, however! He had to put on suspenders 'cause his pants wouldn't stay up!

I'm typing this blog entry and yesterdays blog entry on notepad. Storing it until I get over to Starbucks to use their WiFi. We don't have the utilities in our name yet and think I may not get any wireless or TV. Have heard that we can get TV with digital rabbit ears where we are (because it is FLAT and mountainless!) Starbucks is free and within walking distance. It would keep me from spending hours on the net and I can use that time to paint. A win-win. With texting and my cell I can keep in touch with everyone.

Home again!

KITCHEN FLOOR - WON'T IT MAKE A GREAT QUILT?!!

I am back in NoCal! Slept better last night than I have in four months. It was great. And in honor of my return it has been lovely and cool, only about 78 degrees! I was actually cold when I got up this a.m. The other great thing is The Big Guy and my dog are deliriously happy to have me home. The dog has not left my side/lap/feet since I arrived. Another perk is that the house is two hours closer to Mom's and only two blocks from Starbucks and a grocery store. So I'm happy. Still have to make the trip to the grandchild's, which I plan to do on public transportation, to see how that goes. Stay tuned!

HOMER, MOM'S DOG

ADDED MORE PAINT TO HOMER'S FACE

Artquiltmaker chastised me about keeping it too precious so I am working on giving that up. I drew/painted Homer, Mom's formerly rotten dog (he greatly improved with Mean Mary living with him for 4 months!). I am happy with how it came out as it looks exactly like him!

MOM AND BILL

HANNAH AND FRAN

RALPH AND LILA

JANE

Also took photos of the Sunday Lunch Gang. Banana splits were the dessert of choice on this day! I feel like SoCal is another dimension where I am a different person. In charge, mean, responsible and not even able to use my real name as Mom uses my childhood nickname :(. In NoCal I am an equal partner and not totally responsible to make sure everything gets done. It is a real relief.



Well, it is time to get to work on our new house - which is a definite fixer upper with lots of potential! More later.

Drawing questions

While sitting in the car waiting for Super G (Mom) to conduct her business at the post office I sketched up this ATC. For some reason none of the pictures I took of it were in focus! But this is the best of the lot.

I enjoy drawing like this but for some reason can't get myself to do it in the infamous Red Sketchbook. Can't wait for December when I have to send it back. I'm ordering a different color next time! So what do you think...is this cartoony type of drawing OK?

Speaking of Mom going into the post office by herself we had excellent news at her Monday neurosurgeon visit. Instead of seeing Anne, the physician's assistant, we saw Dr. Handsome (name changed to protect the innocent and describe the doctor!). He took off the neck brace! So Mom is well on the road to recovery. We signed her up for Dial-a-ride and are soliciting friends to drive her to various activities which are integral to a happy life for her. Getting her to ask for help is a huge hurdle. She has agreed to online grocery shopping. I know what she likes so that will make it easier.

The limitations set by Dr. Handsome were only two: no lifting anything weighing more than five pounds (did some serious culling in her purse!) and no driving until evaluated at her next appointment in October.

Mom's good news is also good news for me. I am anticipating going home early in a August.

The Big Guy has started moving boxes over to the new house. We can't move too much because the building inspector has to approve the new electrical first. But the boxes are in the bedroom half of the house which wasn't damaged in the fire.

I have been dreaming about decorating the new house. Want to put bead board half way up one wall in the master bedroom and paint it a shade of green with a lighter green above. Want to get one of those beds that is a top bunk with a work space instead of a bottom bunk for my studio so the grandchild will always have a place to sleep. Want to put my antique sleigh bed in the front bedroom for mom when she visits along with the dresser that holds a TV. The middle bedroom will be a dedicated guest room for the landlord's mom who visits from Mexico (she is going to teach me Spanish and I am going to teach her English!). I want to get a rectangular table for the kitchen but will probably settle for the round one we have already. Hope to be able to set-up my drafting board in my studio, too. It may be too big.

So, I am looking forward to the end of this adventure with mom and starting over in the new place. I'll keep you posted.

THE TENNESSEE QUILTS

I finally finished the blocks for Anna Maria Horner's project making quilts for people who suffered losses in the recent floods in TN. They are wrapped and ready to be mailed later today. Look at Anna Maria's blogspot for info on this worthy project. If I weren't measuring challenged this would have been a snap. I'm sure it will be really easy for you!

I'm on a roll with the food quilt. I think I have cut enough squares and I purchased the buttercup Kona cotton I want for the corners (not a jellyroll :( - couldn't find one I could touch!). Now all I have to do is cut the buttercup (after I decide what size it should be) and start sewing. Maybe today? After Sunday lunch with the Mom's gang, and games and desert with her gentleman friend.

The Red Sketchbook - Red Dog

Page Two!
Red is my favorite (don't tell the other three) granddog. I couldn't find an actual picture of him to draw from so improvised. He is Rhodesian Ridgeback and Boxer. If he weren't trained so well he would chase, catch and eat cats. But there is always at least one in the house so he has to mind his manners. We were privileged to have him (and his Akita big brother, Truman) live with us for three months when we lived in the Twinkie (a 20' antique Corvair RV). It was quite cozy but we got to know the dogs very well and came to really love them. Truman bonded with the Big Guy and Red with me. He is always very happy to see me and I am happy to see him, too.

Maybe I am over artist's block with this sketchbook. Two pages is a good start and I am actually looking forward to doing one of the cats you have sent me. I also need to find a picture of my late cat, Bear. She was a beautiful mix of Siamese and calico. She looked like chocolate drink powder in milk which had not been stirred enough. She was right up there with Roxy as the best animal friend in the world. She was 19 when she died. Like Roxy I had gotten her at 4 weeks old. She came home in Artquiltmaker's sweatshirt pocket.

It is really hot here at Super G's. In the triple digits the past three days. I'm melting!

The red Sketchbook - Baby Roxy

Going thru my 'edit blog' page I found that I had never posted this drawing! Or this post...so some of it is outdated, for example, I did make squares for the TN flood victims, JJ suffered mightily from his sunburn but WLs T-shirt protected him and I peeled but had no pain from the sunburn (give me ten years and I'll get some ugly bumps on my skin :( .....)

Didn't fix the thumbnail but may yet do that. Baby Roxy has grown up and is shivering from cold lying on my lap in her G-ma's Flower Garden crocheted coat. So read on for an early summer blog...........


This is The Best Dog in the World at four weeks old. She is the first drawing in the red sketchbook.

BTW, thanks for all the great dog and cat pictures! We sure have some handsome 'animal companions', don't we?

Once again, looking at this drawing in the photo shows me a glaring defect! The thumbnail needs to be toned down! My eye just zeros in on it. So I guess this is just iteration number two and not the final!

I was looking at The lazy Quilter's blog this a.m. and saw that she is also (along with artquiltmaker) making 12 1/2 inch squares for the flood victims in Tennessee. I guess I'd better get my act in gear and do it, too. I really want to so should just sign off and get myself in gear!

Had quite a day yesterday at Hurricane Harbor with the best boys in the world. They went on the scary slides, I just floated the river with them and went in the wave pool. When I was a kid we had a place called Pop's Willow Lake. It was a series of concrete pools of all different depths, very shady with grass all around. HH reminded me of that on steroids! The tag line all the workers say instead of 'have a nice day' is 'have a Magic Mountain day'. I figured out what that means: Spend every red cent you brought with you today! It has been almost twenty years since I have been to a theme park and I had forgotten how expensive it can be. Luckily I couldn't get the amount I thought I would need from the ATM so got $50 more. Came home with $19.75 and feel lucky to have that. Cost almost as much as Mom and me flying home on Monday! Hope the boys took away some good memories! Have no pictures as the camera isn't waterproof. Did I mention we are all sunburned? Bad Aunt Gramma! Did I mention walking on concrete threw my knee out (again!)? Oh the price of fun!

Better pull out fabric for that 12 1/2" square!

ATC Fauna from my house

Did a quick little sketch of the animals who live with and around me in the place we are leaving. The Big Guy found us a house to live in so a lot of the stress of the past few weeks has been alleviated.

The main character in this cast is Roxy - the best dog in the world. Orangey is the "Easy Street Cat". He lives at the club and only allowed us to feed him while we were there. He is the rat master. And then we also have the wild ones, deer, snakes, birds, squirrels, skunks, racoons from hell (the dog's biggest challenge_, mice etc. If it weren't for the Board of Directors mismanagement the place would be paradise to live in. But we did enjoy being there.

Now it is on to the next phase in our lives. Stay tuned!




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Cat ABC I mean ATC!

Another Atc created while thinking about the infamous red sketchbook. Didn't work on "red" yesterday as the boys have come to visit! That is the human boys - grandchild and nephew - the best boys in the world!

Anyway, perhaps this little alphabet cat will turn into the whole alphabet of animals, or specifically, catz and dogz. The title page of the red sketchbook has a "D" dog I may expand on.

Have to go now - Super G needs a shower.

The Red Sketchbook

THE INFAMOUS RED SKETCHBOOK!

Have I groused recently about the red sketchbook project I have been unable to start? Guess what? I actually started it. Perhaps artist's block is gone.

Had a venti latte on my way home from 4th of July BBQ with Mom at SBdaughter's (apaperaddict.com) yesterday so of course I couldn't go to sleep. Set up a makeshift desk on my bed - the one with the brand new mattress that is soooo comfy - and started drawing away!



Am using the webcam as the cord for the camera still hasn't turned up so you get a little bit of background in the picture :[. This is the title page. May color it in later but it's a start anyway. See the D for Dog?



And here is the author page. Love the cat icon after my name!

Have you ever tried to hold something to get a straight picture with a webcam? Everything has to move backwards or perhaps it is mirror image....... A bit of a mind bend for me.


And here is the first layer of the first drawing. It isn't done but I have a good start. This is my beloved dog Roxy when she was just four weeks old!

Stay tuned for the final version.

Calling all dog and cat lovers!

Help me fill all 80 pages!

If you have a picture of your dog or cat I am collecting them to draw and put in my book. Send them to me via the comment section of this blog and I will send you a photo of the final drawing. And your furry friend's drawing will go into a museum with art house co-op.