Nanowrimo is starting

For those of you who don't know, Nanowrimo is a novel writing challenge that takes place every November for people like me that don't have enough happening in their lives already! The idea behind this site is to just write, they give you 30 days to write 50,000 words. As they say its all about the quantity not the quality, its about just getting that book you swore you would write one of these days down onto paper. This will be my first year and I am both nervous and anxious about the amount of time that will be required to keep up with the 1600 words a day quota. The fact that I am a caregiver and I work out of my home will also add to this challenge. I have decided to write about my personal experience and journey with Jennifer's crash. Although they want us to write fiction I am going to write more of a memoir. I will be posting excerpts if you are interested in reading it and seeing how things are progressing. I would appreciate any support you might be able to offer since most of my family and friends think I am crazy!! www.nanowrimo.org

Christmas Card project

On Wet Canvas we are working on an exchange of Christmas cards. The way it will work is that we will do several different pieces of art and then choose either our favorite or several favorites. We will then make them into cards and send them out. I am very excited and have enjoyed the process so far. There is a thread in the learning center under watercolors that we all meet to show our latest work and get ideas and suggestions. I have wanted to make my own Christmas cards so many years now and never do it, this year I will.

EDM # 87 draw your lunch

I happened to take a picture of my lunch the other day and this was a perfect chance to immortalize it! I was hungry just painting it. It was a curried turkey sandwich on whole grain bread with lettuce and tomatoe. They bake all of their bread daily and is it good and fresh! I think for the bread challenge I will visit again and just draw all of the loafs sticking out of crocks in the shop. Its very quaint and homey, the menu is hand written on a huge black board above the sandwich station. The also bake and sell homemade pies, cookies, cakes that are to die for. I don't know how any one could work there and stay thin!

EDM #76 Draw some flowers

Well this is a flower so it qualified to me. These matilla poppies are so fragrant and beautiful. They, like the other poppies look like crepe paper as they blow in the wind.

LIMES

We just had a WinCo open up in our area, it was so fun to shop in a new store. They have a great selection of everything, I was very impressed. Anyway I stocked up on all sorts of produce. I happened to buy these limes, they looked so good! I must be a visual shopper! In my mind I am also thinking, these would make a great painting!

EDM challenge #59 draw a sign of spring or fall

I was outside today, working in the yard, trimming trees etc. My husband was trimming back some of the roses and when I turned around, in the middle of our lawn was the biggest leaf off of our sycamore trees. It was part green, part brown and yellow. Although Sycamores don't really do the color change thing, it does mean that fall is coming and they are getting ready to shed their tired, dried leaves. I grabbed it and ran into the house to do another quick watercolor, I just love leaves. I can't wait for the liquid ambers and pistache trees to do their thing, even here in Southern California.

More quick watercolors from Simple Simons

I took some pictures of people sitting near by me the day I had lunch at Simple Simons. I decided to do some quick watercolors of them today for practice with painting people. I have a hard time painting people in person because they often feel uncomfortable with me staring at them for extended periods of time. I have to get better at painting from a glance.

EDM challenge #86 Draw a traffic or street sign

Well, I know that this might seem like a stretch but I found this sign on my walk today, it was on the street and I felt it qualified. It is really a "sign of the times" as all the surrounding mountains, that we rode our horses across, are now filling up with huge homes. Its a bitter sweet thing, sad to see the natural landscape go from wild trees and bushes to a sea of homes but it does help send our house prices up and up. Since Jennifers accident I had to get rid of the horses so I don't feel the loss as much as I might have if we still owned them.

EDM challenge # 47 draw one of the past challenges

I thought I would paint one of the flamingos we saw on one of the sketchcrawls to the zoo. I sketched them there but also took tons of pictures, they are so vividly colored that they don't look real. They look as though someone got ahold of a can of orange spray paint. It reminds me of a picture in an old time-life book where these two men are holding a huge bird and they are painting it bright pink so it will stand out in the group of white birds. They would never do that today! The thought being is that these flamingos look like that painted bird from my past. I might like to do some large paintings of these interesting birds whose knees bend backwards and they drink and eat with their heads upside down!! That is talent.

EDM challenge # 61 draw a group of two or more

I had started this sketch back at the week long camp we took Jennifer to in Long Beach. All of that weeks activities are centered around water sports. As I waited for her to get back from a sailing adventure I noticed these life jackets all lined up. Almost like a patriotic red and blue army of men waiting for the assignments. They looked so pretty all lined up, hoping to be choosen to go out.

Another spot in Riverside

Ok, well I am off and running, I had a free day so I thought I would go and start my painting of Riverside. I decided to go have lunch at one of my favorite spots in a historic area of Riverside. It is in a open air shopping area right off of the Mission Inn. It is so beautiful, and there are tons of painting opportunities. I had a wonderful lunch and the wind was just softly blowing as I sat and painted the front of the resturant which is located in a retrofitted building made of old brick. Here is a picture of my wonderful lunch, the people sitting around me probably thought I was crazy taking a picture of my sandwich before I ate it. Also, Riverside had local artists paint giant oranges which were placed all over the downtown area for viewing. It was wonderful to see them and I was hoping to photograph them but I might be too late. Here is the one by the Mission Inn. They were all different and very clever. I hope they do it again.

EDM Challenge # 84 draw a store in your town

I think this is the right challenge number, if not I have to change it. I am so glad Karen choose this as our weekly challenge, it made me want to jump back into sketching and painting. I love the opportunity to get to really see my city and paint it. I am going to take this as my challenge this year, to really get out and journal about and paint the area. Thanks Karen, for getting me excited. I always wish that in California we had more history like they do back east. We do have history here, I just need to go find it. This is my first painting of the area, the local fresh produce store. Gless Ranch has been growing and shipping oranges from Riverside since 1907. Although many of the orange groves have made way for urban sprawl there are a few patches left, we even have a historic citrus belt where the groves still produce. The packing houses and the train stations have mostly been converted to upscale resturants now but they still stand. Here is the website for all interested Gless Ranch

Another mural for a little girls room

I had a job due today that was a Raggity Anne and Andy, it snuck up on me and I had to overnight it to the job site. That usually doesn't happen to me since I watch my schedule closer than that but there you have it. I got this one done and a train done too which needed to be on the same job site. After I paint them they are cut out and are ready to be shipped.I about had a heartattack when they called me and asked where the murals were, ahhh. I thought the job had been pushed back to the 25th but ...no. I scrambled so that I could get them done in time to ship since they have to arrive tommorrow. I hate that feeling in my stomach when the odds are stacked against me, but ohhh that feeling when I get it done. Wow. Today I am so thankful for my husband who helped me complete my mission !

Doodling

I have this habit of drawing horse heads on every scrap of paper within my reach if I have a writing utensil and there is a blank spot. Everyone who knows me laughs at the fact that I leave a trail wherever I go. My old boss used to request I stopped delivering his phone messages with horses all over them. LOL I find that if I have a minute where my mind is allowed to wander or I am bored or the phone rings, I start to doodle these horses, some heads, sometimes full bodied. Most often prancing proudly with long flowing manes. At our house, my husbands desk is full of these signature horses. I have done this as long as I can remember, I think I should just add them to my signature, because they practically are. It almost like the old saying "Leroy was here" remember that? Anyway, at wetcanvas they were having a carousel horse challenge, so I printed the photo with intentions of drawing it in colored pencil. The next day I was sitting at my desk and I was talking on the phone and I started to doodle, of course the horse head was first then I started to draw the carousel horse. Well since it was just mindless drawing I didn't have room to do more plus I was using a really bad pencil that just happened to be on the desk. I ended up with this partial head, and the other one I always draw. I was wondering, what do you doodle when your on the phone or still for a minute? Do you have a something you draw over and over. The other thing I draw is a flower, over and over. Let me see your doodles too! I must make a correction to this post, although my carousel horse was just started as a doodle, I understand it did get a bit fussy with the shading, although it started as a doodle. I like to shade my doodles sometimes, but often they are just line drawings. So whatever or however you doodle, I would love to see them. The little horse head is my signature doodle.

WC colored pencil challenge

The in the WC colored pencil forum started posting monthly challenges. I think this will be great since we now have so many challenges going on it has become a challenge to do them at all, so by giving me a whole month is great. The picture was nice but my scan really turned out loosy, I mean the picture might not be perfect but the colors are much better in person. HONEST!

Vacation sketches

I did do some sketching while I was on vacation but I found that we ran so much of the time and I didn't have time to sketch too much. I also felt like it took time away from Randy and I, it was our first vacation alone so I didn't want it to take away from our time together. I did draw during a very romantic dinner(see above) at an Italian Resturant and it took so much time, so I decided to put it away. We had such a fabulous time, we did everything we could find to do in Nashville Tennessee. It was beautiful and everything worked out perfectly. Here are a few sketches of our trip. The first one is of people at the airport,then a sketch of people getting on the plane and the one next to it is of the steak house resturant which we saw from the balcony in our room. We stayed at the Gaylord Opry Resort and it was really beautiful.
They were also having the National Championship Tennessee Walking Horse Show while we were there so we thought it would be fun to drive to Shelbyville (every city has a ville at the end) and watch the show. When we finally got to the show they had just finished the morning section and wouldn't have another event until 7pm, well we were so dissappointed but decided to wait until the night show. We bought our tickets and got to see two classes when they made an announcement that the judges and the trainers were having some trouble coming to an aggreement on something so they were putting a hold on the show and if we would wait patiently it would start in a few minutes. I ended up drawing the heads of the people in front of me. Well 45 minutes later they were still fighting and they ended up canceling the show for that night, I was really mad. I thought about how sad it was for all those kids that were there trying to show. It has to do with animal protection laws and what some of these trainers and owners do to the horses to win. I guess that some of the winner were disqualified and it started a big fight. I can understand them trying to stop this practice of soring the horses front legs to make them walk like they do, its kind of like the whole steroid thing, it became the unwritten law that to win you had to take steriods and the ones that were doing it the right way weren't winning. The same thing with these horses I think, they just arent as showy unless they are in pain, sad, so sad what we distort in the name of beauty!

New Mural for the New Church

I am painting murals for the new church in the kids rooms. I am not doing them all but a good portion of them. I started with the kindergarden room, the first room on the left that has windows for light since there is no electricity yet. I decided to do a jungle room with lots of bugs, frogs, dragonflies, birds and monkeys and I think the scripture will be "God created all things" I have to look it up. I am so sick of seeing Noah's Ark at every church so I want to do some different things. The church is very open and as long as I am not painting scenes from Hell I guess it all good. LOL I told my husband, dont think I didn't think about it, just a good threat for misbehaving kids. Just kidding. Anyway, it is not finished but I have a pretty good start. I got a bit to realistic so I am adding some fun wild colored bushes and stuff to liven it up a bit, after all this is Kindergarten!!! I wanted the whole background to just fade into the distance and all the fun animals to pop off of it. Here is my WIP (work in progress) more to come after I return from Tennessee! It is hard to see but this is a fairly good size wall, maybe 20'x9'. I have 11 hours into it so far.

The Vacation

Ok, tommorrow is the big day. For 6 years, my husband and I have not had a vacation alone of more than an overnight thing. Since Jennifer got hurt we haven't been able to find anyone to stay with her for any length of time. We tried her siblings and that just didn't work out, they are unable to grasp the fact that she can't do the things she used to do and she would call me at midnight and say " I am so tired and they still haven't put me to bed". Well it ended up just causing fights among all of us so we don't ask anymore. But my quest to find good care so that I could spend some time with my husband was still in the works. It ends up that the hospital where she has therapy is going to take her and work on some issues we have been having with her prothstetic leg and braces. I was so excited because its a perfect fit, its like her second home, she knows everyone. But even the best hospitals have their flaws and it still makes me a bit nervous not being there with her. The wonderful thing about this hospital visit is that it will allow us to go on vacation and I am going to the Nashville show to see my quilt that is a semifinalist. I have been so excited planning the travel arrangements etc and then last night I couldn't sleep. I think I am just worried about leaving her, its hard to understand if you're not a caregiver or maybe a mom with an infant. I was never the overprotective mother that couldn't stand the thought of her kids leaving. I looked forward to them starting their own lives. They were all gone except one, full time college student. But now, when I do everything for her and we spend everyday together, its so hard. My husband said, "We don't have to go, we can just stay home" but we can't. Inside I know that, I have to do this, she will be fine, and once I am there I probably will be too. We have all these things planned for Nashville and I have to go. I want to sketch too while I am there. So I will be gone for a week starting Tuesday. I hope to return, refreshed, renewed and with lots of fabric, and sketches.

pictures

One of the most amazing parts of the program, to me, is all of the trained volunteers that are needed to allow one quadriplegic person to water ski. I watch the total trust that this paralyzed person has to have in the team around them. They get strapped into a cage like apparatus that is mounted onto a single water ski. There are two people in the boat, one to drive and one to hold the flag, two sea doos with two people each that follow along side and one person the is on the back of the ski as it gets up and they make sure the person is stable and then fall off and swim back to the dock. All those people, to bring a smile and make a paralyzed person feel like a million bucks for 10 minutes. Its so incredible, such a great group of positive people.

More picts of Land meets Sea

I am posting some pictures of our week of activities. I want to share some of the amazing stories of some amazing people. As most of you know, if you read my blog, my daughter, Jennifer was hit by a drunk driver and almost did not survive. She was in the hospital for 8 months, in a coma for 4 1/2 months, she lost her vision, her leg, her voice and the use of her right side. Since then, 2000, she has improved, her voice is soft but we can understand her, her vision is better although she is still legally blind. She is smart and happy and dealing with her new life. Some of the other people we meet this year included a 17 year old girl that was shot by gang members in LA, another 18 year old was paralyzed by her father who was driving drunk when he crashed the motorcycle which she was an 8 year old passenger. Some are born with the handicap, others are hurt as a result of some sort of accident or crash. This program is so wonderful, I can't say it enough. It gives these people an opportunity to be normal for a week. To enjoy some of the things that the rest of us can do if we choose to that they could not do otherwise. The volunteers are all trained and the equipment is all adapted for the different handicaps. The moto is "you can" they never give up trying to make it work for everyone. It is a huge undertaking and I am so grateful. Jennifer thought she would never be able to enjoy some of the activities she participates in during this week. Also Long Beach, shuts down the Marina for us so that we don't have to compete with the able bodied boaters etc. Here are some pictures, I hope you enjoy and if you want to donate to a worthy cause please think about this organization, you will change a persons whole attitude towards their disability. To donate: Casa Colina Centers for Rehab, Outdoor Adventures program. 909/596-7733.

 

Land Meets Sea

Well we just returned from our week long adventure in Long Beach with Casa Colina the Rehab hospital that Jennifer goes to for therapy. They have this program called Outdoor Adventures which allow handicapped people the opportunity to enjoy activities that would otherwise be unavailable to them. It is such an awesome program and it lets Jennifer feel a little bit normal for a week. I will post pictures and share some of the things we experienced. Our first night we arrived on Monday and the activities didn't start until the following morning so we got to relax and unpack. The hotel where we stayed was wonderful, it looked like an Italian Villa. Out on in the courtyard by the pool was a wonderful sitting area and at 5:30 they served wine and hors d'oeuvres. We sat outside and enjoyed the warm breeze and talked about the week ahead. It was a great start for our week.

Life is like a bowl of cherries.....

why is mine always full of pits. I think Erma Bombeck wrote that book. Well I must admit, although I do have those types of days, normally my life is a bowl of cherries. I think this has to be one of the most beautiful fruits, they are so shiny they almost don't look real. I am sure they are spraying them with something like a wax covering which I shouldn't be eating but I don't want to know really. I love them just the same. I can remember my mom telling me about a time when her and her girlfriend decided to go and pick them for themselves. It was an actual cherry farm where you could pick so many for a set price. Well my mom said that there was nothing as wonderful as picking those beautiful cherries right off the tree and eating them almost as fast. She said that they tasted so much better right off the tree. Well about an hour later, she thought she was going to die. She had to go to the bathroom so bad she doubted if they would make it home in time. She said she couldn't even think of leaving the safety of the throne for quite awhile. She has not gone cherry picking since and the lesson, everything is good in moderation, was given new meaning!

Reality

Sometimes things just hit me from the side and I don't even see them coming, or I have been running from them so long I don't notice when it has finally catches up with me. Either way I am still shocked to hear that my blood pressure and cholesteral and triglycerides are up at high levels. I know since Jennifer's accident I haven't taken time to care for myself but I think I just kept telling myself I am fine and she needs me. Now I have to face the reality that my health is at risk if I don't stop and care for myself. Its such and easy thing, neglecting ourselves. I think as moms we are just used to sacrificing for the good of the family. My fear of who will take care of Jennifer if something happens to me is all too real in my life and sometimes is all consuming. I am not grossly overweight or do I eat bad, I just think its years of stress and neglect and lack of excersize. So I am going to be good and take my medicine and try and get healthy again so that I can be around and strong for a long time. Take note all you caregivers, take the time for yourself. OH it sucks getting older!

Hoffman Challenge

Every year Hoffman Fabrics has a challenge where they supply the fabric and we have to come up with some way to use it. I did it last year and didn't win but it did travel all year around to country. I was so late in getting it to them that I forgot to photograph it, some one sent me a picture at one of the shows it was hanging at. I should be getting it back in October of this year. Anyway, I decided to try it again, but this year I photographed it first. It is a quick design, the quilt is due the 28th. It is only 23"x23" and the flowers are three deminsional and I hand painted the toucan face. I still haven't named it, I am open to suggestions and would love to hear what you guys think.

WC Weekly challenge

I haven't had time to paint or draw in some weeks now, I miss it terribly. It is a special time for me, a time of renewal and it relieves my stress. I think that is the part I miss the most and I start to resent the activities that keep me from doing it! Some weeks life just gets in the way. I have finished my quilt and this week I decided to do the Wet Canvas weekly challenge. I love sunflowers so it was right up my alley. I hope to have much more to post now, expecially since we have taken the month of July off of therapy so I don't have to make the long commute.

Next month we will be in Long Beach for Jennifer's week of activities through the rehab hospital. It is such a great program for her, they shut down the marina and so that all the handicapped people arent competing with the regular boaters etc. This week the marina is theirs and we are so grateful. They do water skiing and jet skiing and hot air ballooning, soccer, baseball, deep sea fishing, kayaking, rowing, and at the end of the week we have a luau. A great week of activities for a bunch of people who need to feel normal for a few days.

Finally Finished

Well I haven't had much time to draw, I have been trying to finish this quilt before a show deadline. I did it! Yippee! I am so done, I struggled with the size of the quilt and manuvering it through my machine to quilt it, wow, how I like small quilts better! My arms just burned as I tried to keep it rolled up as I shoved it through that small hole in the machine. It ended up being close to 80"x49". I just don't see how they quilt those quilts that are 8 -10 feet long, wow, I admire the people who are doing that size of quilt. I know that when I took Velda's class her newest quilt is 12 feet long. That is some big quilt. Well here it is, comments are welcome.

Our sketchcrawl at the Mission at San Juan Capistrano

My friend Susan and I went to the San Juan Capistrano Mission with the Southern California sketchcrawl group. I had such a good time but wish I had gotten to visit with more people. There was such a good turn out,about 20 people, that we only chatted with the people sitting next to us at lunch. I want to get to know everyone better next time, what a great group of people. The weather was great and at lunch we all passed around our sketch books to share. What a perfect day, after lunch Susan and I went back to the Mission and took a bunch of pictures, I will share later. In one of the fountains there were beautiful water lilies that were blooming in the most wonderful colors. Yellows, purples, pinks with big koi swimming under them. Here are a few of the drawings/paintings I quickly did. Thanks Jane, for setting this up, what a successful crawl you orchestrated.

Another update

Here is the piece to this point, I am still struggling with the horizon line and figuring out what I should put there. I would like the get this one finished so that I can start the next in a series of three.

Colored Pencil update

After seeing how far I had actually gotten I thought I should go ahead and scan in the drawing. Who knows the next step could ruin it. I always feel like I am one step from disaster since its hard to correct any mistakes here. But so far so good, and I am pleased with the progress. Unfortunately, my scanner cuts off her other leg. I do learn alot when I scan the picture and put it on the computer, the different angle and view helps me identify problem spots. Like right now, to me, the horse's chest looks a bit narrow, so I may have to make it wider. I will have to look at my photo first. Comments always very much appreciated.

Colored Pencil of my granddaughter on horseback

I am really trying to fit it all in these days. I know I have to be HDHDS, whatever they call it, I have a million projects I am jumping around on and never think twice about excepting more. Need to get a reality check and focus so I can wrap a few up. I am working on a huge quilt that I hope to enter into Houston, it was my goal this year to at least submit something and the one I was going to submit I can't, so I am trying to make a new one. But inbetween, when I am just sick of looking at fabric, I not only am sketching but working on getting to know colored pencils better. I am working on this picture of Kylie, my granddaughter, taking her riding lesson. She is riding the cutest bay Arab and I just love them together. I am a bit farther these days but thought I would post this early scan of it and I will post either another update or the finished drawing next.

Drawing in public

Well I had my yearly womenly doctors appointment. You know the ones where you get assaulted and have to pay for it. Well the waiting room is always full of moms, and kids and pregnant moms-be so I took along my sketching book. I knew the wait would be long so it was a great opportunity to draw people. The hardest part about drawing people in a small room when everyone is sitting in a big circle looking at each other is to not let them know I am drawing them. I have been getting better at looking harder and better so I don't have to look up as often. There were a group of kids in the waiting room, the one boy kept getting in trouble for not staying in his seat. His mom would scold him and he would sit still for about 15 seconds and then his spine would turn to jello and he would slither out of his chair, going under the arm and into the one next to them. It was funny watching her try and keep him corraled. The next set of kids were brother and sister, waiting for their mom with their grandma. The young girl kept trying to be the mom but the grandma had the final word. The little boy would pull away from the grandma and say "Where mommy go?" and the grandma would say "Shes coming" and then she would say "Come here" and he would say "NO!" and the whole conversation would start again. It repeated itself about 40 times before the nurse came out and put on a movie and saved the day for the grandma who was trying her best to keep him in line. LOL, the good ole days.

WC Weekly challenge- dogwood

One of the members posted pictures of her mother's dogwood that is in full bloom. She took several pictures and posted them for us to draw this week. It was a great study in value and negative spaces. I am really pleased with the results, I did it with mechanical pencil in my sketchbook. Where I live we can not grow dogwoods so I envy those who can. I have tried several times, I order them from a catalog and this tiny little twig arrives. I spend the next few months babying this thing in hopes it will grow, but I haven't managed to get one to survive a full season. Its just not a Southern California (desert) plant!

Another WC weekly challenge

I loved the challenge picture this week, I hope to get a chance to redo it in color. I did the sketch after the zoo on Saturdays sketch crawl. I love the idea of capturing the reflections in glass since color shows up and is distorted. I haven't done much of them but admire those who do and want to attempt drawing it more often.

Sketch Crawl at the Zoo

We had a great day today sketching with everyone. It was so nice to meet new people and just hang out. Although I think the zoo was disappointing the animals were very accommodating by keeping their movements to a minimum so we could draw them. The enclosures posed there own problem by limiting our view at times and we had to stand to draw. I took some great pictures which I plan on turning into paintings or more refined sketches. The flamingos were beautiful, bright oranges and soft coral pinks. They looked like someone took spray paint to them. Randy and Jennifer and I all talked about how poor the animals habitates were and how it was like going to a small town zoo where there was no budget for a real zoo, in LA! Shame on Los Angeles, it should be a top of the line facility. But it was a great day with some great people and most of the animals had babies which are always great for sketching. We have another sketchcrawl in a few weeks and I am hoping to make that one too. I really enjoy the time to just concentrate on drawing and visiting with fellow artist!