Projects, progress and a few random thoughts

I returned those books on Rosemaling and was happy to hear my friend will loan me more of them when I'm ready.
 In the meantime I've brought the big easel in and set up that abstract canvas as a vertical painting which should give me some fresh ideas and perspective on the piece before I fling anymore paint at it.

It was great to discover that in addition to making me apple pancakes for breakfast Dougie had set things up with zazzle, have any of you seen it yet? I guess I'll have to check it out for myself someday soon.
I spent the last couple of days doing a series of drawings on letters and envelopes but dropped them in the mail before I got around to scanning them.
I've also been doing a lot of cleaning and rearranging in the house so I can get all of my projects, equipment and supplies handy without running into anything.
The sleeves on my old denim jacket are still too long so I plan to shorten them and add a bit of embroidery. They've been too long for years but I hadn't done anything about it because they were keeping my hands warm until I got around to making mittens again. There's a rose on the end of the sleeve that I'll need to take a seam ripper to. As I'm doing that I'll decide what sort of design I want to draw on it this time.
It's not exciting news for most of you but it's a nice way to spend a snowy afternoon and you can always go and play the "click to feed the fish" game further down my page so we've all got something to do.
Thanks for stopping by. I'll be posting more photos and things after lunch. Have a great day!

Go out and Play

Most winters while I'm away from the garden I grow a few things indoors or work from my photos of last season. Having done all of that and with plenty of cold weather ahead I'm glad to have found some alternatives that provide both inspiration and encouragement.

A lot of people are afraid of getting old but I'm having a lot of fun with it. I joined the local senior center a few blocks from my home and am loving the painting group there. It's not a class, just a few gals that want to paint. Some have never painted before and others have been at it for years. Age and experience vary widely so there are a lot of different ways of looking at our various projects. We each bring whatever we want to work on and a lunch. (we're there for 4 hours and take a break in the middle).

As we're pulling out all of our books and supplies we've been loaning them back and forth which in itself adds another level of energy because we need to get  some of these projects done so we can return the books and materials. When you're working with your own things there's no rush and you can neglect things for years so I find having someone to kick ideas around with really helpful and the fact that they'll ask you how it's going keeps you motivated.

Here are a few of the other books the "girls" sent home with me this week. It's going to be fun to see what pops into my mind (and out of my paintbrush) between that book on mixed media, a mystery novel about a painting and some manuals on rosemaling. I can't wait to see what happens next!