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

This is the only painting that I have sold but wish I still had. It was the second painting I did after not having painted for about 25 years. I will be taking an involuntary break from painting for about a week. Yesterday I had an accident in the kitchen. A 8" butcher knife slipped out of my hand and landed on my foot slicing a deep laceration in my two smaller toes. I was home alone and sat on the kitchen floor for about 30 minutes trying to stop the bleeding and cleaning up the blood as to not scar Gary when we walked seeing me on the floor with the knife and blood everywhere. When Gary returned home he dragged me to the Emergency room with a fair amount of resistance. I figured the bleeding had stopped so we were done. He decided the cuts were too deep to ignore. Luckily stitches have been replaced with glue so the most painful part of the trip was the tetanus shot. Not so in the middle of the night when I woke up in intense pain. I am supposed to be off my feet for five to seven days. Today I am in the mood to be stationery, lets see how long it lasts. The good news is I will probably be close to having my dress done with the exception of the lining by the time I am mobile again. We have a new rule that should have been implemented a long time ago, no cooking while barefoot.

The other bad part of this is that we had started rollerblading and biking together an activity that we were really enjoying. We were to go to the trail as soon as Gary got home. This will be on hold for a while.
I will do my best to write during my resting period and keep you all informed about my recovery.

Finished

Today I hung the painting that kicked off my blog. It isn't a great photo but I am proud to show it off! I am about to start a watercolor class so I don't want to begin a new painting but it feels odd to have nothing on my easel and to have my paints cleaned up. Lately I have been getting a lot of positive feedback about my artistic talents and it feels nice. Gary and I rearranged the other paintings in the living room and it is fun to have a fresh look. I love to knit but I get a different pleasure out of painting and I thank my husband for encouraging me to paint.

I have my watercolors and watercolor pencils all set up on my big drafting table. I have some reading to do but will start doing some more work on the illustrations on my childrens book. Both my mother and our friend Alexis had some material sent about writing and illustrating my book. Always something to work on, always something to be excited about.

I have about 5" of knitting and it will be time to put my dress together. The last 5" feels like a long stretch and I am very excited about putting it together. It is one of the more interesting projects I have done and I have been knitting for 36 years. It won't be too long now until I can show you that project. Wish there were more hours in the day.

The other big project that I have been neglecting is the major semi-precious stone necklace I started a few months ago. I am at a stand still as I need to learn a few things before I can finish. There is always something to look at around here. I thank all of you for your support.

Two years

Yesterday we realized that it was the two year anniversary of our first date. We are both very romantic so it is odd that we almost missed it. As many of you know our first date was a week in the Azores. It seems like a lot longer than two years since we had our first date and first kiss. How romantic was this for a first date? I had always heard that a couple should get to know each other before they got romantically involved but I had never done that before. Looks like it paid off. The Azores are absolutely beautiful. The lakes behind us in this photo have a romantic yet tragic story about a princess and peasant that fell in love with each other. Each lake represents the tears of each of them as they could not be together.

Gary arrived in the Azores first and found me this beautiful waterfall. We had an amazing one week kick off to an amazing life together. Starting off this way has made all that life has thrown us a lot easier to take. Ups and downs together bring us closer all the time. We are blessed and so grateful that we can appreciate it. Our life has been a mixed bag of great travel, hospitals and cozy home life together. I wouldn't trade away one second of it.

Two years later and Gary's health is holding and looking to continually improve. We have learned to live in the moment and it is an easy way to live.

Hope you have a Happy 4th of July.

Never a dull moment

I have sat on a few animal sculptures in my time and have never given any thought to what the artist would think about it. Anyway, this is in Coure D'Alene. I am in bed recuperating from some nasty Periodontal work, just the beginning unfortunately. Looks like I have a long haul in front of me. I also have a lingering bad infection in my mouth that would explain my lack of energy and motivation to go to the gym. The moose statue ties into my dental work as I needed a cheery image for today.

I almost finished the painting I have been working on. I painted before I let for the dentist yesterday and now all it needs is a coat of gloss medium on it and I am finished. Good timing as I begin a watercolor class soon. Guess I get to knit to my hearts content until my painting class starts. There is a difference of opinion about knitting at my house. My husband sees it as something I just do and a lessor art form than painting. He sort of changed his mind when I was treated like a returning Rock Star at Tricoter, but that will fade soon and he will nudge me to paint. He is also right as it takes less creativity to knit but what does it really matter as long as I am doing something. And today I will be in bed so knitting is not as messy as paint in the bedroom.
I have a happy kitty on each side of me. What more could I ask for.