Friday, March 26, 2010

Bunny About Town

I've been trying to socialize Fergal so he will be relaxed when I bring him to demonstrations, etc. So, he's been to pet therapy at the nursing home, knitting night at Six Loose Ladies, and this week he volunteered to be a display at Rachel's Science Fair (her project had to do with dyeing fiber.) Then last night I brought him to SLL and his Uncle Lucas sheared him.


Not.
His.
Favorite.
Thing.
Ever.

It was cold last night so I loaned him my sweater hoodie until we got home and then I made him a little jacket from an old sock. This morning he seemed to be a bit chilly so I made him another jacket from an old felted sweater sleeve. After I bring the kids to school I'm going to knit him a little sweater. Am I turning into Beatrix Potter or what??? Here is a pictorial rendering of the event. (Note the "I'm hating this look" in Fergal's eyes.)





Friday, March 19, 2010

Tis the Season to Break out the Watercolors

I love to paint. I started with acrylics, back in the day for an art class in high school. Watercolor didn't make a lot of sense to me at the time. I gave it a try later mostly because we had this awesome art store in town (Eastmans) and I'd go in there and wander the aisles, wondering if the other people wandering the aisles were REAL artists unlike me who was just a wannabe.

I remember I bought this little box of cheapo watercolor paints, the kinds in the tubes, yeah baby; they were cheap, but they were the real deal. I think I used them pretty much like I would have used acrylics. I had fun with them though.

Fast forward eons and I took a watercolor class. Whoa was that an eye-opener. I learned wet-on-wet and away I went! The painting at left is a successful example of my experimentation with wet-on-wet. It's a painting of one of my student's cats. Right now it's for sale in my shop on Etsy.

Looking at it and thinking about it and smelling spring in the air I'm starting to hanker for my paints. I recently picked up Antwerp Blue because I read that Beatrix Potter used it with Burnt Sienna to make one of her colors. Am anxious to try that. In fact, I'm anxious to get back to the sketches I did of some of her famous watercolor pictures. I sketched a bunch and then never got around to painting them. When I started painting I found that I would much rather copy someone else's work that I admired than to paint anything original (that cat being one of the few exceptions.) The benefit being that I have some "original" Beatrix Potter paintings in my studio and some "original" Tasha Tudor paintings which I couldn't afford to buy in a million years and I didn't pay a cent for them. LOL!! One of my all-time favorites I gave to my daughter. It's a lesser known painting of Beatrix's of guinea pigs gardening. Too cute.

What spring crafts/compulsions/hobbies are calling to you?

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Conversations With Animals

Okay, I talk to animals. I admit it. Do they talk back? Yeah, sometimes they do. Not, however, in these cases, recorded yesterday:

Walking Max (my German Shepherd who HATES all other dogs) upon spotting two labs walking down the road ahead of us (in a Scottish accent): "Max! Look! It's Breakfast! And Second Breakfast!"

To Jazz (my horse) coming out of the arena after dark when he spooked at a hay bale on the tailgate of a truck: "That's hay. You love hay. That's like me spooking at chocolate."

To Fergal (my bunny) most of the day: "Where is my little grey wisp 'o smoke? Come and have a cuddle wuddle. Oos a fwuffy bunny? Oos a sweetie weetie? Want a Weetabix biscuit?"

What do you say to your animals???

Monday, March 8, 2010

Mud Season Giveaway

Doesn't this purse just make mud season melt away??? It does for me. That cheery color reminds me of summer skies, sipping lemonade, green grass, canoeing. Ah summer. In the middle of mud season almost any other season is a welcome change, but summer would be nice right about now.

Anyway, if I haven't mentioned it before, I have been working with the Made in Vermont Etsy Street Team, a group of artisans from Vermont who have Etsy shops, and I organized a blog giveaway because, well, we all like free stuff, right? The first entry is this lovely purse by Mary Collins and if you'd like a chance to win it just go to
http://vermontetsystreetteam.blogspot.com/ and leave a comment. That's all there is to it! Good luck!! (p.s. After you've entered, check out Mary's other goodies in her Etsy shop. Mother's Day is just around the corner.)