A post from the Past: May 28, 2008 - Knitting Books

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 2008 to 2009

May 28, 2008 Knitting Books

So the mail came yesterday with a box full of goodies!!!!!! I received the books I had been waiting for. Here is a pic of the books plus some of the others I have been collecting.



Some of the books I have had a while. Of course when taking a photo of the books I am reading I must have my Bible there. I read it almost everyday. It's on the top right. My son gave me it for my birthday several years ago. It is a Life Application Study Bible. I used it so much that the cover was falling off. So I took it to this little book binding shop that restores books and especially Bibles. I had them recover it with a pine green lamb skin leather. It is beautiful and feels so soft.

On the left edge is a reference book on stitches. My grandmother gave me this book probably 30 years ago. It has a lot of information.
Other than that there are a lot of pattern books and then the reading books by the Yarn Harlot. I love her books. The Yarn Harlot first book is not in the pic because I loaned it out to my sister to read, It is just so funny.

A post from the Past: March 25, 2009

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order. 

March 25, 2009

Proverbs 4:23
Above all else, guard your heart,
       for it is the wellspring of life.


Guarding our hearts from sin and the world is of chief importance. It has been said, "As a man thinks, so he is."

A wellspring is a source of continual supply -- often related to wells and water.  We must guard our hearts from being polluted by sin as much as possible, as sin pollutes the living waters which are to flow from us. 

Blog from the past: April 25, 2009

I am transferring my blog post from Live Journal over here to Blogger. I will start with the newest first so that the last post I post will be the oldest one from LJ.  That way you can scroll down and read it in order.

April 25, 2009


Today Peanut and I were driving home from town.  While sitting at a stop light a lady in an electric wheel chair crossed the road.  Peanut asked me how she did that. I told her how it had a big battery like my car.  She was still curious. She asked why the lady needed the chair. I told her that maybe her legs don't work.  She asked why.  I was driving and I didn't know why so I said, maybe when God was making her he took her out of the oven before her legs were finished.  
And then Peanut corrected me. She said that God doesn't put us in the oven,  But that God knits us. 

I have read her the verse in the Bible where it says that God knit us in our mothers womb before we were born. 

Psalm 139:13 (New International Version)

 ¹³ For you created my inmost being;
       you knit me together in my mother's womb.

So after she corrected me saying that God knit us.  I said, maybe God dropped a stitch and the lady's legs were not so good.  She liked that answer. She knows from experience when I have been knitting and she bumps me, then a stitch falls off and I say "don't move, I dropped a stitch".  She knows it can be a problem.

She can say things sometimes that just make me so proud of her.


Oh, and here is her new haircut, again.  I love you Sweetie!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

I am so very blessed and I give thanks and praise to my Lord Jesus Christ.

I have a warm home, food, clothes and a wonderful family.
We go to bed each night with a full tummy,
a bed
P.J.'s
Bible
no fear of danger
the love of family
a heater
prayer
and we wake up each morning with
oatmeal
a warm bath
clothing
a lick from the dog
a purr from the kitties
prayer
school
car with gas
a bible study church
Love of my family
Love of my friends
and knitting
painting
journaling

and so goes our day.  We are so very blessed in our lives.
Thank you to all my family and friends for being in my life. You make it so good.
Most of all, Thank you JESUS for your daily blessings and grace.

Sample of Past Watercolor Paintings

Hello.  Today is beautiful and it puts me in a good mood. I love Spring.

I want to share a few of the watercolor paintings I have done in the past. Some of the older paintings are done on really cheap paper and with cheap watercolor paints. This is before I learned about quality supplies.  The cheaper supplies really do make the job of painting more difficult.  Just saying in case your starting out.  Please be kind to yourself and buy the best that you can afford.  Compare the price of paper or paint to a nice dinner out or a tank of gas.

So I want to begin with a painting I did of my sweet daughter Sierra.  She was just a girl in this painting.  She is holding our cat named George. He was a sweetheart.  I think that Sierra was about 11 years old.  I can't remember.  I painted from a photo that I took of her.
Estimate paint date 1994.


This painting, probably painted around 1993 is of my late husband. Not late in the terms that he was late for dinner. But Richard died in 2000 of cancer. I sure miss him.  This painting is when we took a camping trip to June Lake, Ca.  That is in the High Sierra's which is where we came up with the name for our daughter.  BTW she died in 2007 tragically at the age of 23. I sure do miss her.
You can see the poor quality of this paper and paint. I was just beginning to learn to paint people. Painted from a photo I took.


While we were in June Lake we took a trip up Hwy. 395 to the ghost town of Bodie.  It is amazing.  People just up and left. They left behind so much of their belongings.
Painted from my own photo.


A few years later I was playing with Clay Board.  I came up with this with my watercolors.  Painted from my imagination.


I like nature and will paint it when it stirs up my passion for color or form.  This flower reminds me of my Grandpa "chickens" Moore.  He had a chicken ranch and he use to have this big cactus plant. He was so proud when it would bloom.  Painted from a photo in an old field guide to flowers.


This painting is a photo I took. I was looking out my kitchen window on a very cold rainy day. The clouds were hovering over.  Then to the west the clouds parted a few yards and the sun shone through. It made the field of hay glow.  It was so inspiring.


I loved the moment so much that I painted it again in oils.


Back when I began to paint I tried to paint this house. I am assuming it is a beach house because of the colors.  I had found a tiny ad in the paper.  I cut out the photo and it was only 2" x 2".  I changed some colors and some of the house to suit me.  I would love to give credit to the real house but I just don't know. It was probably a real estate ad back 25 years ago.


This painting is my doodling.  It is from my imagination.  It is pencil, ink and watercolor.


After my husband died in August of 2000, I began painting my feelings. I just wanted an outlet.  I painted this painting and then I took it to my old college professor to critic.  He told me to paint a series. So I did. This is called Death Series I


Death Series II .  Unfortunately it is in Mexico.  I gave it to a friend and now I am not sure if it is on a wall or in a storage box. Boo Hoo   I really love this watercolor.


This is Death Series III on 300 LB watercolor paper, size is 30" x 24".  I like it but I am not finished with it.


Death Series IV


Death Series V.  This is the most recent. I started this after my daughter died a few years ago.  She died so suddenly and so young.   This painting is done on 300 LB paper.
30" x 24" .  I am not done with this.  I am sort of stuck.  I don't like how heavy the white fog looks.  So I am pondering on what to do.


This painting I did when I was in a Bible study in the book of Ezekiel.  We were learning about his dream and I wanted to paint it.  I made a mistake in the wheels with eyes.  After I read the verses again I realized that the wheels should be horizontal, not vertical.
But the painting was fun.  It is watercolor and ink.


That is just a few of my paintings from the past.  I will post some oil paintings soon.

Happy painting and have a great day.
Carol

1-11-11

I had to post today because it is 1-11-11.  Isn't that cool.  I am assuming everyone understands but it means Jan. first, 2011.  Some countries put the day first and month second. So in that case today is 11-1-11.  Still pretty cool.

The uncool thing is that this afternoon my Peanut was under the weather.


She had a headache so she took a nap. Then she woke up feeling better but she had a fever. I know that she probably picked up a bug at church on Saturday evening. Well I going to keep her home tomorrow.  Poor baby.
The cat just hunkered down to sleep with her. She is in bed now and he is on her bed. But when she wants to hold him he runs all over the house.  LOL


Now I am going to show you some of my journal painting. I am having fun with it.

Inside cover of my new book which has watercolor paper in it.



This is some of my colors but I made up that wood paintbox.  The brush is one of my favorite brushes made of squirrel in France.


Here is my favorite pencil and then some sugar skulls.  The pencil is real but the skulls are my imagination.  I love Day of the Dead stuff.


Here is a painting from my imagination which is easy to see that without me saying it.
The animals are looking towards the star so I call this painting, "Waiting for Jesus".
 I did this before Christmas.



This is a little sketch I did when I was waiting in a coffee shop. I was drinking some yummy hot apple cider.  I tried photographing it in different lighting.

How about a Pumpkin sitting on a Moleskein sketchbook?  Here she is.

There also is a little village on the left.  Just for fun.
I have gone back and painted the table. You can see faintly the lines I drew on the table. I guess I just forgot to take another photo.  I like it a lot with the table done.

One of my favorite Bible verses I wrote at the top. AND ALWAYS BE THANKFUL.

With different lighting.
It was hard to capture the orange of the pumpkin. I need more practice.

I will end with a pic of Coraline. When Peanut and Oli snuggled in the big chair, Coraline curled up on the couch. She looks like she is thinking something.  What's on your mind Coraline???

Beautiful Sunday

Today was a good day.  I love good days.  After having years of bad days it is nice that life has settled down.  I am seeing small & large gifts in the things around me.
Here is one big gift in my life.   My sister Susan.  She took me with her to our high school
reunion last night.  It was really fun. We got dressed up and had a great time. Photos by Susan.

This is Carol and Susan.

Here we have Jim and Erika Mann. They were dear friends of Richard and me from High school on.  Jim was in our wedding as one of Richard's grooms men. The are wonderful people.

These girls are Susan's BFF, from left to right, Gail, Claire and Susan.

Here is today Sunday at the class reunion picnic.  I only have a couple pictures which I took.

My dear sister Susan is on the right.  Her best friend in High School is on the left, Claire. They look so good. It is hard to believe that this is their 40 year class reunion. For me it was my 37 yr. reunion. My classmates were not at this reunion but the classmates of my late husband were there and it was so good to see them.

There are a lot more people gathered under the oak trees. It even began to rain on us.

So here is another gift I found in my yard today.  For me this is a gift.

Mushrooms.  They just appeared overnight. They are really big.

It's been humid here for a couple days. I don't know what kind of mushrooms these are. I am treating them as poison just to be safe. I did flip the big one over.

I am fascinated by them. They are so beautiful.

Look at those gills. Is that what they are called? Peanut told me that the smores are in their. LOL

Another little gift....the words that Peanut uses. When we were leaving for the park she could smell the mango lotion on me. She said "Grandma I love your da-mingo."  I said, "What?"  "your da-mingo lotion."

A long time ago I was reading about how a pastor would leave a very nice bible on a low table for the kids to touch and look at.  His guest asked how he could leave such a delicate Bible down low for kids to flip though, that they might tear the pages.

The pastor said, I want the kids to go through the Bible. I want them to see it, feel comfortable with is and the blessing would be that the children would read it.

So when we were in Idaho, Peanut was sitting in the big church.  She was bored and so I let her look at my Bible.  My bible is one with the thin pages, tabs to mark the chapters, when the Bible is closed you can see gold on the pages.  So I turned to the maps. I thought that she might like to look at the pictures.

Well Peanut turned to the scripture.  She started to read the notes that I write in the margins.  Some people won't write in their bibles.  My bible is a study bible and I want to put the notes in the bible so that I can read and study them later.  To my surprise those notes were understandable to Peanut. She was turning pages and reading what I had written.  I got tears in my eyes to see that what I had written for my eyes was helping Peanut understand the scripture.  It was a huge gift that day.

I'm so glad that I didn't keep my Bible to myself like it is too precious to be touched. 

This photo shows 1 Timothy 1

A couple years ago I went to a women's seminar with my sister Susan & my DIL Anne.  We went to see Kay Arthur . She was very good. During her talk she taught us how to mark and highlight our Bible.  I don't do all the marking she suggested but just enough so I can see the important things in the verses.

I think Peanut was interested in the colors but then she stopped to read the notes and maybe some of the verses too.  Just like the pastor I had read about. What a beautiful gift God let me see that day in church.

Peanut wasn't reading Revelations like above, but this is an example of what I do every Saturday night or Sunday morning as the pastor speaks to us.

Here is a parting shot of the mushroom's smores...... enjoy  (gills, with spores inside)

For tomorrow Happy Monday and Happy new week.

Painting A Sunset

This is the 4th painting in the series of my class Imaginary Visit to The Beach.

Here is my sunset.  It's been a sad week because 3 days ago I had to put my dog to sleep.  When I came to this painting I was thinking that the sunset is appropriate because this week was the sunset of Babe's life. The sun went down but it shone brightly in her eyes with so much love when we said goodbye. 

I really wanted to keep the sparkle in the water.  To me this painting is all about light. I wanted to challenge myself to not overpaint and to barely put color in the water and parts of the sky in order to preserve the "lights" in the composition.  I tend to get too dark when I paint so this took discipline.

I think I spent 30 min. on the first part but I was making dinner so I was up and down.          BEFORE

I did use a block out liquid stuff instead of the wax crayon. I'm more familiar with art masking fluid and I take it with me always when I paint outside or inside.

I applied it with a Q-tip.

AFTER

I know that my water is a light value although It was hard to photograph. The original has more color I think. I stayed with the simple pallet. 

I have the darks in my mountains, rocks and boat.

I made my bird very light to push them back.

I wonder about the very top of my sky. Should I make it darker with the Shadow Violet or just leave it alone.  I don't want to loose something pretty by over cluttering the painting.  My sun is about 3/4 up above the mountain so maybe the sky would not be getting dark up at the top yet?

I didn't write on my painting. My mind was thinking about my dear old dog and if I did write on my painting I would have written this:

Psalm 34:18  The Lord is close to the brokenhearted; he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.

The painting #3 in the class was to paint Fiddler Crabs. They were just to be a quick sketch and painting.  So here are my Fiddler Crabs.

And here are the crabs together.  I didn't spend much time on the sand. We were not suppose to because this was a quick sketch. If we were really visiting the beach and saw these guys we would have to draw and paint fast because they are zippy little guys.  They are just shy.

Tomorrow, Monday we will get a new assignment. I'm proud that I have kept up with all the paintings and at the same time I am getting my sweater knit. Almost done!!!  OH NO, that reminds me. I have a shawl soaking in my bathtub. Gotta go block!  Have a good week and remember, 

1 Peter 5:7 Cast all  your anxiety on him because he cares for you.

More Paintings

I'm busily working on my Imaginary Visit to the Beach classes.  This week we were given the starfish to paint and also 2 pelicans to paint.  I found the ocean water difficult. 
Here is my "before" and "after" of my starfish.  I added a lot of bubbles and sea foam to the edge of the water.  I also added some pebbles. 

                                          Before

After

I wrote Psalm 139:17-18 on the painting.

It gives me comfort to know that God's thoughts outnumber the grains of sand. Can you imagine all the beaches in the world and the deserts, and still God's thoughts outnumber those grains?  I guess this is why he has time to think about me and my family. Thank you Lord.

So now here is Petey the Pelican.  This will be my before painting. The before paintings are to be worked on for only 45 min. Then we are instructed to take a photo.  After the photo we can go back and finish our painting.  So I will do that maybe tomorrow.  The reason we are to paint so quickly is that we are imagining that we are visiting the beach and if we were really to be sketching at the beach we would have to do it quickly before Petey flew away. 

My water is lacking.  Water can be so difficult.  With watercolor you have to be careful not to paint your whites.  If you put in a light color you have to be careful not to over paint it. Once you darken the paper in watercolor you can't go back to a lighter color.

So I left a lot of light areas. I will paint in some depth to the water.  I think some of the shadows got away from me.  the rocks above and below the water will make shadows. 

My rocks need work too.  I made them with a sea sponge. 

All in all I kinda like the painting.  Most of the girls in class and the teacher write something on the painting. But they write things like it was a journal. For example: "It was a beautiful bright day and to my surprise I saw this pair of pelicans sunning themselves."  I think I might find another bible verse.  What came to my mind was that Jesus was a fisher of men.  Any suggestions for a bible verse?

The other day I arrived home to find this....

I think that these two sweeties hear my garage door opening and come to greet me.  It cracks me up because they try to act so aloof like they don't care.  But I know that they do.  Oliver, the gray one is getting better and better. His rash is gone. He has a few spots where he scratched himself to bleeding. But those places are better. I am keeping both of them in the house 24/7.  We do have a kitty harness and leash.  We tried it out but cats just hunker down and don't want to move.  Oliver did like laying on the cool lawn.

Well that's all I have. 

Go do something creative. Have a good Memorial Day.