Near Perfect Day

This is my work area at our beach house. It is at this wall window looking out at the ocean. Almost too beautiful to do anything but stare out at the beach.

Yesterday I spent most of the day working on a large abstract and then we drove out to our beach house. We haven't been here much the summer so to wake up here today was spectacular. It was supposed to rain last night but it did not and we had a beautiful sunny morning. After our coffee we walked on the beach and always stop at the spot on the beach where we got married. Gary mentioned how lucky we are to be able to return to the spot we got married at whenever we want.

We came home and I began working on the layout of our wall. I am doing the drawing in watercolor pencils, one of my favorite mediums. I worked for hours and then we decided to go blading/biking.

For those of you that know Pajaro Dunes, it has an amazing beach, unique arcitechture and great wildflowers. Not as entertaining as our bike/blades last week on Venice Beach but certainly a lot more peaceful. The weather was great, not too hot or too cold, lots of fresh air. Buying new rollerblades this year was one of the best purchases I have made with possibly the exception of Christian Louboutins. It's a tie and hard to compare.

I have wanted a specific personalized license plate for almost ten years and have not gotten around to ordering them. I tried to get my plate an Art plate but was not able to. It came to me that I might be able to get it on a regular personalized plate and hurray, I found it. In the excitement of playing on the DMV website Gary decided he wanted plates also so we ordered his and then the website would not let me go back and order mine. Looks like I will have to deal directly with the DMV and that is the only reason today is only nearly perfect.

Tonight we are going to eat at The Whole Enchilada. I have been thinking about their wonderful food since we left our house to come out here yesterday.

Being at the beach after not coming here for a while is one of those things that makes one think, why don't we do this more often? I am actually looking forward to rainy days here in the winter. The light is always great at the big window and I can create away while sitting almost on the ocean. Today Gary was puttering around the house which made my heart happy. At home I am always the busy one so it is nice to see him so happy here.

Newest project idea

Ever since we moved into our condo I have loved everything about it except our bedroom. It is a large room and feels a bit like it is missing something. A few things have come together to give me the idea of painting a fresco on the wall behind our bed. A combination of planning our trip to Italy, seeing some fun but funky wallpaper on a friend's wall, looking for something large to work on and Art Knowledge News have lead me to deciding to take on this large and exciting project.

I saw this Henri Rousseau painting in May and think it will be a great template for the wall. Luckily my husband loves the image also. I was worried that agreeing on a large wall idea might be a challange. The other challange is the window in the middle off the wall. I am sure the basics of this can be worked around the window. Sorry but I doubt I will start it before our trip so it will be long forgotten by anyone outside of our house by the time it is done.

I went to the city for a dinner last night and finally had a chance to go to Britex to buy lining material for my knit/crochet/beaded dress. Everytime I see it I am bothered that is was so much work and not finished. I think it will be beautiful when I can finally wear it.

Next week we are having our flat screen Tv's attached to the walls. I decided I needed finality to the furniture arrangement in the rooms with TVs. Today I got to move furniture around and I am very happy. I can't believe we have lived here a year.

Tomorrow I am going to paint a mug for Gary. I love painting ceramic pieces. If I had a lot of room I would have painted ceramics all over the place. Guess they are better left as gifts.

Before and After

Desk Before Tea Set Design Finished Tea Set

Once again my blog has been put on a back burner. Again it is not for a lack of creating. Just lazy and busy and focused elsewhere. My friend Alexis asked me to paint a tea set for her to give as a baby present. I had in mind something formal and could not get myself going. Once it was decided that we wanted whimical I jumped on it with passion and excitement. I am currently taking a watercolor class without a lot of excitement which shows me how much I need to be motivated to create and then I always default to knitting, probably because it is the easiest outlet for me.

I love the bright colors and not shown in the photo is a good luck charm painted on the inside bottom of each piece. I love painting ceramic pieces. My sister-in-law, Marci made me an amazing lime green super mug with a pink poodle theme so of course Gary needs his own custom mug. High on my list of to do projects. Just like his sweaters he has input and then we work out what he wants along with what I want to do and we are a great team. He is a wonderful muse, fan and critic. I always value his input even though he doesn't want to interfere with my creative process. I have not been too excited to paint watercolors but like most things I do I figure things out myself making up my own rules. Watercolors are unforgiving and not meant to be painted too far outside the basics so this class has been wonderful to help make things easier and help to do things in the right order instead of what I want to do, limiting myself in the end.

I want to practice my watercoloring as we are going to Italy in October and it would be great if I could take my paints and capture things live rather than from a photo. I am very excited about our trip and know there will be artist beauty every where. Most of my photos are of people I love. I am not wild about scenery that I have not experienced myself. The two exceptions are both of the Alexis'. LA Alexis is an amazing photographer and San Diego Alexis posts the most wonderful blog photos on her blog, a lot of them nostalgic.

So we are off to a trip to visit LA Alexis and hopefully will be able to squeeze in