Sunday Sketches - 21st Birthday Card

This is a 21st birthday card for a special young man. It's acrylic (5 1/2h x 4 1/4"w) on textured blue cardstock.

Linking to Sunday Sketches.

Birthday Gifts

Well, my birthday has come and gone for this year.  I didn't want to give the exact date for security reasons.  My kids chose these lovely gifts for me, a Pandora birthstone charm (moonstone grey for June) and some Belgian chocolates.  I got a Pandora bracelet this spring and have been filling it slowly with charms.

Belgian Chocolate Truffles

Paint Party Friday - Art Bag

I had this white cosmetic gift bag with a store logo on it. I decided to paint over it and re-purpose it. Then my daughter L suggested I use it to hold my art cards. I thought it was a great idea, my art in my art bag! The bag is done in acrylic.


Linking to Paint Party Friday.

The Other Side

Card Holder

Summer of Color - Lime Green andPurple

The theme this week is purple and lime green. I hope you like her outfit, I designed it myself based on a photo I saw in a magazine and on some mannequins I saw at the mall. This is a greeting card done in watercolour pencils (5 1/2"h x 4 1/4"w).

Linking to Kristin's Summer of Color.

A neat link

I was walking by these poppies just finished blooming a little while ago and caught the leaves starting to fall off. Wish I would've seen them in their prime!

Poppies falling

I got this neat link from an email.  You click on any city and it pulls up the local newspaper headlines.  Give it a try.

Copyright rules apply, so please read the fine print.

Creative Tuesdays - We've Moved Theme

This theme made me think of painting houses or fences, which symbolize 'home' to me.  That's a trumpet vine climbing on the white picket fence.  It's done in acrylic with pencil on cardstock
(6 1/2"h x 4 1/2"w).

Linking to Creative Tuesdays.

Sun Safety

Fresh blueberries are readily available at this time of year. I put some in my yogurt and it's a healthy snack!

Now that the warm weather is here, I came across this booklet on sun safety. It says most people don't use enough sunscreen, especially fair-skinned people. It recommends a teaspoon of sunscreen for your face and 30 mls, 2 tablespoons for the rest of your body. One palmful for each arm and one for each leg. You want to apply the sunscreen 20 or 30 minutes before going outside, and re-apply every 2 hours after. Go here for more tips and to take a sun safety quiz.

Sunday Sketches - Still Life

I did a still life today based on a photo I saw in the newspaper.   I put my own flower pattern on the chairs. It's tough to draw 3 chairs like this, it seemed simple at first.  I struggled with giving them some depth and also with the proportions. It's an art card in watercolour pencils (4 1/4"h x 5 1/2"w).  My son K took a photo of it for me, it seems to show up better than the scanned version.


Linking to Alexandra's Sunday Sketches, please visit the other talented participants!

Photo taken by my son K

New Crunchie Bar

Here's an uplifting link for you to watch.  It's called 'laughing man'.

And this story in the newspaper was unbelievable, where 'a wedding gift spat spirals out of control'.

I noticed this new kind of crunchie bar in the stores recently. No, I didn't buy them, fortunately crunchie bars are not one of my favourite!

Paint Party Friday - Peony

I took this photo while walking in the neighbourhood, I thought it was a cute scene with the peonies pushing through. It's an art greeting card done with watercolour pencils (4 1/4"h x 5 1/2"w).

Linking to Eva and Kristin's Paint Party Friday.

Frosty Yogurt Shake

The weather has been so great, I open my front door to sunshine with birds tweeting away, it's like a Disney movie. 

My daughter L got her 'G' driving licence.  We have a graduated licensing system here, with 2 road tests for new drivers.  L has been driving for almost 5 years but never got around to taking the final G test.  We were relieved she passed as her G2 licence would have expired in a few months.

I broke my old pair of earphones that I use at the gym, and my good friend had an extra pair and brought them for me.  You know, I have lots of extra body lotion that I get on sale, I think I will bring her one the next time I see her.  She loves that stuff.

I found this healthy recipe for a 'Frosty Yogurt Shake' in an email.

It just needs milk, vanilla frozen yogurt, orange juice and ice cubes.

Perfumed lilac shrubs

I couldn't ignore the smell of these pretty lilac shrubs as I walked by on a windy day:

Here are 5 salad dressing recipes I got from a Whole Foods email recently. Enjoy summer! Do you make your own salad dressings? What's your favourite? I mainly use the Kraft store-bought dressings.

Summer of Color - Orange and Hot Pink

I did an orange and hot pink sunset for this week's Summer of Color kindly hosted by Kristin. It's acrylic (8 1/2"h x 11"w) on chocolate brown card stock.

Linking to Summer of Color.

The Tone of Voice

Giggles posted this poem on her blog recently and I thought it was inspirational. I'm sharing it with you today and hopefully I can learn from this:

                                                                The Tone of Voice

(Author unknown)

It's not so much what you say

As the manner in which you say it;

It's not so much the language you use

As the tone in which you convey it.

 "Come here!" I sharply said--

And the child cowered and wept

"Come here," I said---

He looked and smiled

And straight to my lap he crept.

Words may be mild and fair

But the tome may pierce like a dart;

Words may be soft as the Summer air

But the tone may break my heart;

For words come from the mind

Grow by study and art---

But tone leaps for the inner self,

Revealing the state of the heart

Whether you know it or not ,

Whether you mean or care

Gentleness, kindness, love and hate

Envy, anger are there.

Then,would you quarrels avoid

And peace and love rejoice?

Keep anger not only out of your words---

                                                      Keep it out of your voice. 

Sunday Sketches - Peeking Through

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers out there!

I did this one based on a photo I took in the neighbourhood.  It's called 'Peeking Through'.  It's an art greeting card (4 1.4"h x 5 1/2"w) done in watercolour pencils.

Linking to Alexandra's Sunday Sketches.

J'adore

My birthday's coming up soon, so I went to the local drug store, they were having a special on their points card. I had enough points to exchange for this perfume I've been meaning to get. Well, I had to pay an extra $25, but this brand never goes on sale anywhere so it was a good thing. It really made my day.  They included a Givenchy fragrance sample in the gift bag, which I gave to my friend S.

Paint Party Friday - Art Greeting Card

The is a quick sketch, an art greeting card done with watercolour pencils (4 1/4"h x 5 1/2"w), based on a photo I took in the neighbourhood. I was attracted to the look of the  wildflowers in the setting.

Linking to Kristin and Eva's Paint Party Friday.

Summer of Color - Citron Green and Turquoise

It's time for the Kristin's Summer of Color challenge!  It's Citron Green and Turquoise this week.  I did  a Father's Day card (5 1/2"w x 4 1/4"h) in watercolour pencils and black fine point marker.  I was inspired by a recent Prada ad in the newspaper, it featured a magnificent sailboat.

New Art Supplies

Art Supplies

I decided to get some new art supplies and it felt like a nice treat. I'm all set to make lots of new art cards!  I will have to start thinking of a good use for all these cards I'll be making.

I enjoyed my walk to church this past Sunday morning, the weather was perfect, the skies were clear, the birds were  happily flitting from branch to branch.   The young priest made a good sermon which caused the congregation to applaud him after.  He spoke about his 22 year fear of public speaking, I do forget why he said he was so scared, but he conquered it over time.

Then the priest spoke of the 'Prodigal Son' bible story. He introduced the story by saying 'how can you ask for your inheritance and your parent hasn't yet passed away?' This man had 2 sons.  One of them asked for his inheritance early and went away.  He squandered it and eventually came home.  The father was overjoyed at his return and threw a big banquet.  The older son was angry and confused.  The father simply asked him to rejoice with him that his long lost son had returned.

This is one story I never understood and has no clear ending.  That day I tried to see it from the father's point of view.  I think it meant that the father loved his son beyond being 'so-called' fair.  It may be what forgiveness truly means.   Some sources say the older son did not think compassionately and represented self-righteousness.  It's a lot to think about.  Doesn't it remind you of family disagreements that happen all the time in real life?

Creative Tuesdays - Alphabet

Creative Tuesdays' current theme is 'Alphabet'. The first thing that came to my mind was 'alphabet soup' so here you have it! It's an art card in acrylic (4 1/4"h x 5 1/2"w).

Linking to MMm's Creative Tuesdays. Do stop by and see what the others are doing for this theme.

Alphabet Soup

Prom

boutonniere

My son K's prom went well, he had a great time. This is the orchid boutonniere he wore on his rented tuxedo. His date looked beautiful as well.  She wore a matching wrist corsage.  K said his date R ate all her banquet food up completely.  He and his friends noticed laughingly.  K said most of the other girls he knows hardly eat, sometimes just salad.  Well, R sounds like a girl after my own heart, lol.

Now the worry is about upcoming exams.  He has to pass them to graduate high school, and it's entirely possible that he will.  But nothing is ever sure with K and his learning disability.  These are stressful days.  College fees have been paid because they were due, and it is possible to get a refund.  We'll take one day at a time.  I've been weeding to deal with stress, it's very therapeutic and good exercise.  I know because I usually wake up all stiff the next morning after weeding!

Sunday Sketches - Art Greeting Card

I felt like an an interior designer as I created this piece, it was fun!  It's a lot easier than actually doing a renovation.  Hope you like my style.  The art greeting card is done in acrylic which I then outlined with a pencil (4 1/4"h x 5 1/2"w).

Linking to Alexandra's Sunday Sketches.

Pine Tree Blooms

You can see these pine tree blooms in the Toronto area at this time of year. Pine trees don't flower. They are gymnosperms from what I can google, and have male and female cones as their reproductive organs.

Paint Party Friday - Glow

Musings of an Unapologetic Dreamer did a post recommending Bloglovin because Google Reader is being phased out July 1st.  It really took me 5 minutes yesterday to migrate all the blogs I follow on Reader over to this platform.  Please click the 'Follow this blog on Bloglovin' icon top right corner of my blog to continue following me via Bloglovin as you soon won't be able to  me on Reader anymore. Of course not a problem if you don't use Google Reader.

This piece is called 'Glow', inspired by some designer suspension lights I saw in the newspaper.  I drew them against a textured wall.  It's an art card in acrylic (5 1/2"h x 4/4"w).

Linking to Eva and Kristin's Paint Party Friday.

Follow my blog with Bloglovin

Summer Cars

As the weather gets nicer, here is a good article everyone should read called 'Drowning doesn't look like drowning'.

The weather has been summery although we've had a lot of rain and some days are cooler. It brings the cute cars out for display:

Pink Lilac

I think this is a pink lilac tree. Most of the lilacs around here seem to be, well, 'lilac' purple, so I thought I'd show you this one.

Here is the more common lilac:

Summer Festival

We had our local summer festival this past weekend and I took these photos for you.  It was nice to see all the marching bands, the dance troupes, and of course all the politicians were out!

Morning Laugh

My daughter L was listening to the news one morning before work, and she was watching a health segment. She told me the lady advises everyone to get a footstool for use when you go to the toilet. It raises your legs up to a more natural position for defecating! Lol...that was my morning laugh that I thought would be worth sharing.

I was out walking with a friend last week on Main Street and we happened in upon an art show at a gallery.  There were a lot of pieces on display by various artists and we were invited to submit our vote for our favourite piece on a ballot.  It was fun playing 'judge'.  My friend chose a 'woodland' sort of painting with clean lines and a neutral colour scheme.  I chose a lively, colourful piece entitled 'Joie de Vivre'.

Sunday Sketches - Hello June

I had fun playing with the colours and patterns in this simple piece.  It celebrates the warmer weather.  Acrylic on cardstock (11"h x 8 1/2"w).

Linking to Alexandra's Sunday Sketches.

Social Media

Welcome to the month of June!

If you want to listen to Pavarotti's grandaughter sing, here she is.  

I read an interesting article in the paper this week concerning social media and young people.
It says teens and tweens are not hanging out on Facebook anymore, they are using Pheed (an Apple itunes app where you can share text photos and video), Kik and Whatsapp (free text apps), Snapchat, Instagram and Tumbler.  It advises ways you can monitor your kids' social networking habits for their own safety such as modelling good behaviour and teaching them to guard their privacy.

For myself, I'm noticing that I am preferring to go online with an Ipad rather than leafing through a magazine in my free time.  It just seems more convenient.

And I keep reading more and more about 3D printing (making) technology.  Here's an article about what it is.They are saying it will change the manufacturing world.  Staples will soon be selling 3D printers on its website.