Saturday Art Project

We went to a 40th birthday party Saturday evening for a dear friend. They had requested no gifts so we put a lot of time into a huge obnoxious card instead. It was quite fun to make and a real group effort. It was from two families so the three of us adults that were going picked out pictures. Mike wrote captures and Sarah and I decorated the card. It turned out quite nicely I think. Happy Birthday Aaron. Nice party!

White on Black

White on Black
Originally uploaded by ktes750

I've been having so much fun with patterns and my black canson journal with white signo uniball pen. Here's the most recent completed doodle. I started another one last night during my kids' voice and violin lessons. One of these days I'll get back to drawing.

Yellow Door

Yellow Door
Originally uploaded by ktes750

I've had all things yellow and sunny on my mind lately. I've been listening to Coldplay's "Yellow" and "I can see clearly now the rain is gone" by Johny Nash. It must be mid-winter lack of sunshine causing all this craving for yellow.

Check out my tumblr to see some of my inspiration for this journal sketch and a whole lot of yellow stuff (and a few other brightly colored things that caught my eye).

Diamonds on the Floor

Diamonds on the Floor
Originally uploaded by ktes750

Still working on my 43 things - exercising and eating right.

I learned to knit in french

If you really want to challenge yourself, learn a new skill from someone who doesn't speak your native language and you are a beginner in their native language. I managed to learn how to knit while I lived in France 20 something years ago. The woman I lived with knit and taught me how to get started.

I managed to knit an entire scarf while on trains and waiting for trains while traveling around Europe during college. I never did learn to bind off though. I vaguely remember her showing me, but I think she actually finished it for me. And since its been over 20 years since then, I don't remember how anymore.

I've picked up needles and yarn several times in the intervening years but can't get excited about scarves and didn't feel I had the ability to do anything else. Well, this year one of my goals is to knit socks. Probably doesn't sound like a HUGE goal for you knitters out there, but it is for me. So, since I've got this list of 43 things, I can't wait until the last minute to get going so I'm working the socks. Well, I haven't actually started them but I pulled out my stuff today and a beginner DVD and relearned the basics - cast on, knit and purl. I can't believe how quickly I felt comfortable doing just those things. Now, to find the sock pattern!

How to Keep Those New Year's Resolutions

Sketchbook Jan 14, 2010
Originally uploaded by ktes750

Since I'm determined to reach my goals this year, I'm rereading this book by M.J. Ryan. I read it last year too. Maybe it will stick this time. Actually, I think at least some of it stuck last year too but it is worth reading again. And I'm counting it as one of my 12 books for the year too.

My 43 Things

Michelle's "37 things before I'm 38" list inspired me to make my own list. Here's my "43 things before I'm 44" list. Also, coincidentally, there is a website called 43things.com which I've used for years to remind me what I said I was going to do. Last spring I made a list of things I wanted to do during the summer so this is a bit similar but will encompass the whole year.

My 43 things:

1. Update my will.
2. Carve a stamp.
3. Finish my quilt
4. Lose 10 pounds and keep it off by exercising regularly and eating right.
5. Finish the doll house with Erin.
6. Use my new watercolor paints.
7. Do journal pages three times per week for one month.
8. Read 12 books.
9. Keep my blog updated for one month.
10. Get family pictures done well before Christmas this year so I can send them out with cards.
11. Print photos from the last couple of years and organize them.
12. Embroidery
13. Midland Antique Show
14. Family bike ride
15. Family picnic
16. Morel mushroom hunting
17. Pick tart cherries and make pie
18. Plant tomato plants
19. Knit socks
20. Restart my sister gift box
21. Paint the large canvas in my basement
22. Have a summer party
23. Take a yoga class
24. Buy an original art work
25. Make jewerly with my kids using shrinky dinks
26. Go camping in the Alpena area
27. Track down photos of my grandparents homes
28. Paint my basement
29. Take family to Meijer gardens
30. Teach kids to sew (at least a button) and it wouldn't hurt for my husband to learn either
31. Eat at five new restaurants
32. Take the kids to a drive in movie
33. Find a phone booth (or at least a pay phone) and show them how they work so they can tell their kids that they saw one of the last remaining pay phones.
34. Take pictures in a photo booth
35. Visit my Aunts
36. Make fortune cookies with my kids.
37. Monthly date nights (at least once a month!)
38. Finish my art room
39. Host a vision board making day
40. Hang art above dining room windows
41. Visit parents "new" place in Florida
42. Take kids to Sleeping Bear Dunes
43. Be ok with not meeting my goals but satisfied that I tried.

And since this isn't really a birthday list but more of a January resolutions list, I'm giving myself all of 2010.

"Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do than by the ones that you did." --Mark Twain

Amarylis

Aunt Mary gives us amarylis bulbs every year in November. This year I planted them a bit too late for them to be blooming at Christmas but I am really enjoying them now. The pink one picutred below has four enormous blooms on it right now. The one in the background that hasn't bloomed yet is supposed to be red.

Still Sketching and Doodling

We spent the New Year's Eve holiday with friends in northern Michigan. We enjoyed great food and wonderful games of scrabble, luck of the draw, Wii sports, movies and sledding. I only managed a couple of sketches because I was working on my New Year's goals (I prefer goal to resolution).

I've also really enjoyed drawing and doodling in my black Canson field journal with my favorite white pen (signo uniball).

I'm working my way through Cathy Johnson's Sketching in Nature book and am at Chapter three now. I hope to finish the book by early February (it's a library book so I have to have it back by then). I think this is the third time I've taken that book out of the library in the last year.

New Blogs I'm Loving

So I haven't been posting much here but I've been following a lot of other blogs which inevitably leads me to checking out even more blogs and adding them to my list of blogs and websites to read. Here are a few new ones I'm checking out in no particular order.

Daisy Yellow
Needle n Thread - A video of library of embroidery stitches
Kathy's Cottage
Lily White Designs
tiny red design
the tiny aviary
ann wood
Random Veracity
Paper and Threads

I also love looking at photos on tumblr so I've signed up for that as well. My tumblr favorites can be found here.

http://kreativit.tumblr.com/