52 Weeks of Happy 5/52

Week 5 of 52.  I think I skipped a week in there.
I have been so busy and my life is up and down.  That is why I am Dancing in the Dark!  hahaha

What makes me happy?  This week is is picking paint colors.  I have decided to paint the inside of my home.  I will hire a painter since my ceilings are so high and I hate prepping for paint.

Right now my living room looks like this:

The mantle


The walls in the living room are caramel tan, green and red.


Here is the green wall.  It is seen from the living room but it is the hallway.


I'll get better photos later.  My bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and dinning room are all white. Boring!!!
The colors that I want to paint these rooms are Cream, gray/with blue tones, and maybe a pop of teal on the island. The island has Corian counter tops. They are off white with speckles of blue, dark yellow, dark blue, red.  It really is pretty. It is called Fiesta.
It looks like this


The colors I picked make me happy.  They are light and beachy. The other colors are nice but they darken at night and feel heavy. They are cozy and cabin feeling.  I need light and airy now.

Happy week 5 to everyone!!!

Red Rugosa Rose-hips with long Sepals

This is week #2 of my online class with the theme Autumn.
I love this weeks assignment. As soon as I saw the big red hips with the long skirt-like sepals I knew this was the picture I wanted to paint.


I did some color swatching. I also tested my inks for bleeding:


Then I drew in ink for 30 min.  This is how far I got. It was fun using the ink.
I used my TWSBI 540 pen and my free Noodlers pen. The ink is Noodler's The Heart of Darkness.


I worked on my center of interest first. I tend to paint the thing that catches my eye. Those rose hips really caught my eye. I have learned that if I am interested the painting will be interesting. If I am bored the painting will be boring to look at.  So that is why I will paint the thing that gets the juices flowing. I just love the long sepals on these hips too.


I wanted to get that glow that I saw in the photo and my watercolor paints didn't have that for me. So I took out my little glass yogurt jars that I got in France and put some ink, since this was an ink project after all, and diluted it with some water. I had one little jar that I let it be watery mud.


I continued to work from the center out. I did more ink work in black and then added some white ink. I would work a while and then set this painting on my mantel for the evening. Then I would just look over to it now and then. It is helpful to me to do this because I can see what my marching orders are for the next day when I will paint. I have to back up and view my work from a distance to really see what it needs.


So in the end I took the painting outside and took her photo. I tried different places in the yard, sometimes with the painting laying flat on the lawn, and sometimes sitting up on a table. It's strange how the colors change depending on the lighting of the yard. I can see it when I upload the photos.


I painted a black ink border around the painting too.
This was a fun assignment. I really enjoyed it.

Painting Autumn Leaves

I decided to use a photo that I had taken of leaves from my tree. I took this years ago.  These are maple leaves of green, red and yellow.


In the first 30 min. I sketched out the leaves and started to paint.


Here is my painting set up:


I didn't want to paint the main leaf as red as the photo since we were working on Gold. Yet I wanted to keep the contrasts of the 3 leaves.  I have to say, the camera doesn't pick up the lights and darks of the red colors. In person one can see more values in the colors.
I spent the afternoon painting. I was enjoying getting back into painting again. It was so peaceful and relaxing.


The actual painting size is 6.75" X 5" on cold press watercolor paper.
This photo came out much brighter (neon) than the paint is in real life.



Then I took a black and white photo of my painting to see the values.

This is the time to PAINT

What am I working on?  Well I am painting on a large oil painting.  A few years back I painted a watercolor of a lady dancing which I really loved. I don't have this painting right now. It was given to a friend in Mexico.  I wish I had the original but I do have a photo of it. I love the bright colors.



So from this photo I decided to paint this again but larger and in oils.  Oil on canvas 36" X 36"

CLOSE UP

ON THE EASEL


I'm also painting an abstract.  This is fun to paint. I can paint for an hour and then leave the work for a month and still be able to come back to it. The size is 14" X 10.5" This is in progress......


Above the whole painting, below a close up of the picky work I love to do.


Speaking of picky work. Below is a drawing in pencil and ink that I have been working on for a couple years. I love doing the small detail drawing. I'm the same with my knitting, cross stitch and even as a dental technician. I like picky work. 

This drawing is 14" X 11"

So that is what I am currently working on.
Today I begin some new watercolor painting. I will share this soon.
Happy Painting!!!

A post from the Past: May 28, 2008 - Fairy Wings

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  Fairy Wings



My sister and I worked on our costumes together at my house. It was so much fun. 




We did this for Halloween 2006. That was a special Halloween. My granddaughter came over in the evening....



This turned out to be the last time my daughter Sierra and I could take Peanut trick or treating, because Sierra died 3 months later.

So regarding the fairy costume, I bought the wings at Walmart of all places. First I tried to put holes in the wings with a flame but that was too harsh so I got some incense that was a stick. I lit it and then it had a burning coal at the end. A cigarette could do the same but I don't smoke. 
So I burnt holes here and there. The burning melts the edges so they don't unravel. And it looks cool. Then I got out my watercolor paints and I painted the wings with violets and blues and reds. The wings were a light green color.
After they dried, I put some fabric paint from a squeeze tube with glitter around each hole that I had made. Then when that was dry I sprayed glitter on all of the wings.

The costume is a skirt made with soft fabric of purple and greens. I had a long ribbon waist band and sewed petal shapes to the ribbon, then tied the ribbon around my waist. Under the skirt I had on the tights and some exersice shorts. For the top I wore an embroidered tank top that had little roses on it and a sheer long sleeve shirt and then over that I wore a purple vest that laced up on each side, front and back. 

I made my wreath for my head with wire and hot glued ivy and flowers, then added a dragonfly, bird, and lots of ribbons down the back.

So that was my winning costume at work. I won a gift card to Home Depot for $50. I liked that.

Then I kept on the costume and wore it to trick or treat around my neighborhood with my granddaughter, as me and my daughter Sierra took her around. We had a nice visit as we walked that night.

A post from the Past: July 7, 2008

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.

July 7, 2008   Feed the Monkey!

That is a great line from The Big Lewbowski, "she had to feed the monkey". But really I wanted to write that I started a new pair of socks. They are the Monkey Socks by Cookie A. 
I am doing them in Knit Picks Essential yarn of superwash wool & nylon. The color is called Peacock Multi. The yarn is now called Stroll sock yarn.






So while I fool around with socks, Peanut my granddaughter is turning into a crafter. She has a white fish and she is coloring the body. 



This is very intense work as you can see.




In the end it is exactly how she wants it. Bravo!!!


We took the 'ol fish swimming. The fish swam great. Crayon art work stayed on, no problem. 
It's only 104 degrees today. The pool felt great. Peanut is swimming so well. 
We found a Potato Bug the other day. It was yuckie. He was in the pool trying to get cool too but he didn't know how to swim and he died.
I got him out and of course took his photo.




Have a nice summer. Peanut had her first day at Vacation Bible School. It was so much fun. 

A post from the Past: August 20, 2008

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.

August 20, 2008

Tomorrow August 21 will be 8 years since my dear sweet husband died. We were married for 28 years. We met in High School and married as soon as I graduated from High School. I was only 17 1/2 years old.
We had 3 wonderful kids. 
Here is my Richard. 



That picture was taken at our house. We had a great view. 

Richard died of cancer 3 months after we found out. He had cancer of an unknown primary or CUP. He went on intensive chemo but it didn't help.
Here I am moistening his mouth. He is on hospice here. My daughter Sierra is standing behind me and my good friend and mother of my son's wife it there too.



I want to remember Richard as a fun and loving man. Richard was a very lively person. He was fun and had the energy of 12 people. 




It's hard to believe that he has been gone 8 years. I wish I could have a day with him to tell him how much I love him. I wish I could spend a whole day to laugh and hug and make love once again. I miss him so much. 

We use to go and play golf a lot. Sometimes twice a week. It was fun. We have been to so many different courses. We also use to take the kids camping every summer. We would hike and fish. We had a canoe that we would take out on the lake and then spend the day fishing. It was funny because the other people were in their powerboats and we were just floating along. It was just so peaceful. Here is a painting I made of him rowing the canoe.



He was quite a guy. He could do anything. I mean he could fix anything. He had a tool for everything. He could do mechanics from a lawnmower,car, tractor to a big semi. He could do carpentry or plumbing, electrical, cement, anything. He was an egg rancher. We had a lot of chickens for eggs. So he was good at caring for animals. He trimmed trees, roofed a house, installed a sprinkler system, he could weld in 3 kinds of welding (arc,tig, wire,mig, oxy) I probably got those spelled wrong, but I'm not a welder. LOL. He also had a brain for mathematics. He could add numbers faster than you can do a calculator. That use to piss off car dealers when they were trying to make a deal with us.
He was also a loving husband. He was generous, he helped cook. I could always count on him if I had a problem. 
He had his faults. He was high energy and could blow up if he got frustrated. He could even throw a wrench if things were not going good. He worked more than he should have which meant that he missed a lot of the kids activities. I was the one who took them to T-ball, or boyscouts. I was the one walking a parade route with Sierra when she was in baton. Richard was working. He would work on Christmas morning, just in the morning. When you have livestock they always need to be fed and cared for so he would have to check to see that the employees had come into work for the morning. 
Rich was a special guy. He was 47 when he died. 
Here is a picture of him almost exactly one year before he died. This was taken at our son's wedding.

And here is Richard and I on OUR wedding day ready to leave the church.

Tomorrow, God please hug my Richard for me. Tell him I love him. I will see you again one day Sweetie. I miss you. I miss you. I miss you.

A post from the Past: September 23, 2008

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.

September 23, 2008

My house was looking tired so I set out to paint the shutters a nice crisp color.  I chose a green like is becoming popular with the new shopping centers going up.
I picked Jungle Green.

So I spent this weekend painting the shutters and when I finished I liked it.  They were in the shade so all looked very juicy and clean. 
I got up the next morning, the sun was shinning on my house and OH MY GOSH!!!  The shutters looked like a neon light on a brothel.

Today I bought some olive brown paint and mixed it together with my Jungle Green.  I started on the shutters on the left.


The funny thing is, the new color looks like the old color in the shade (top right). And the new color in the shade (top left) looks like brown.
I don't care. I think the darker color looks a lot better.  
Don't mind the landscaping. I cut the roses back severely in order to get in to paint. I have removed half the rose bushes. You can see flats of Lantana there for a ground cover, lavender color.  And I bought some tall ornamental grasses in a burgandy color to put in front. They will compliment the green shutters I think.

I finished the shutters on the left. It was so hot outside so I am waiting for the sun to move before I finish the shutters on the right.
I hate the color of my house but there is nothing I can do to change it.

Butterflies Watercolor Painting of Pyrgus olieus

I painted these in May of 2011.  This was part of the Imaginary Visit to the Garden.
I deviated from the lesson and did a watery background trying out a new technique that I had read about.  I like it.

''Keep your hands open, and all the sands of the desert
can pass through them.  Close them,
and all you can feel is a bit of grit.''

Taisen Deshimaru

Spinning Tour de Fleece, Knitting and Garden

I was so lax in blogging that I missed the month of June. So I want to blog more this month.
What have I been up to lately? Well this month is Le Tour de Fleece over on Ravelry. I am on 3 teams. Yeah.
I am spinning some Perendale Top from Crown Mountain Farms. The color is The 5th Element.  I love it.  The fiber is long and fluffy. It is so easy to spin I probably will buy more of this perendale in the future.
Here is the cute little sheep.  The fiber came from New Zealand. It was prepared in Michigan into luscious Top.

The top:

And my spinning singles:



I will be spinning every day that the Tour de France event happens. We have 2 rest days.  It goes from July 2 to July 24.


In other happenings at Casa de Carol is the garden. I got the garden planted. It is growing so fast. We already have zucchini on the bushes and blooms on the tomatoes.  We also planted; sugar baby watermelons, cucumbers, pumpkin, and several types of peppers.

Do you see the wire?  That is a hot wire to keep Bob out of my garden. He chews and digs everything.  The hot wire keeps me from having to stress over loosing my garden to a puppy.  It works very well.

I planted the garden late. We had so much rain that I was waiting for a clear day to plant.  It was only 2 weeks ago that I got the veggies in.

Yes, this is Bob the dog. He has grown so much. He looks too sweet to be half beaver.  But believe me, he can chew up anything in a split second.  My new hose is in about 10 pieces.  
Today I went out to start the BBQ and all I could smell was gas.  Bob had chewed the hose under the BBQ.  I have my BBQ directly plumbed into the gas line of the house. I'm lucky that my son Roland had put a shut off valve which I always have in the off position when I am not BBQing.  Today I had to cook indoors. My chicken and corn on the cob were good but not how we wanted it because of our "beaver" dog.  I will have to get a new hose with the metal braiding on it I think.

Bob is afraid of the pool.  He will come to the edge but he puts on the brakes if you try to get him in the water.  I did put him in once to show him how to swim to the stairs.  I was hoping that he would like the water, he is a lab. No, he told me, "mom I don't want to swim!!!".  


On the painting front. Ok, so this isn't watercolor but it is painting.  I have this table.  (imagine it standing up)

And this oak table has been with me for a long time. It was in my kitchen in Yucaipa. It was moved to the livingroom so we could eat in front of the TV.  It came to my new house after my hubby died.  I gave it to my daughter Sierra and she had it in her kitchen. When she died I got the table back.  It has been on my patio for a few years. Ok, more like 4 years.  I decided it might look awesome if I painted it an aqua blue, Tiffany blue. So I started. 
It needs a second coat. It has just been too hot. The paint wants to dry on my brush so I will wait for this heat wave to pass to finish.

Look at how good it matches my old metal chair.  That is from my old house too.  I might paint the chair to give it a fresh look.  I love the color. 


I have been knitting too.  

This is a sweater based on the EPS, aka Elizabeth Zimmermann Percentage System.  I am doing a KAL (knit along) with a Ravelry group. I have finished the body. Now we are going to work on splitting for the sleeves.


I finished my Sprossling Sweater.



Now it is too hot to wear this sweater.  Maybe I can wear it to the movies?  Except I never go to the movies. LOL


Happy 4th of July to all of you tomorrow. We will be at church for the annual event. They will have the blow up water slides for the kiddies for FREE!!! Music, Hot rod and motorcycle show. And In & Out will provide the food. Yum.
They usually end this gathering around 3 pm or so.  My sister Susan is with us on July 4th every year since '05 or '06.  She has a new job and has to work. Boo Hoo. I will miss having the swim races here at home in my pool and BBQ.  Last year Susan, Peanut and I were in Idaho with Dustin and Bambi. We sat at the park to watch the fireworks in their beautiful town. It was fun.


Happy 4th !!!!!



Does Bob need a bigger Dog House?