Oh NOES! Curse that passionfruit seed!

Oh noes.  Fortunately we are still well stocked with oil of cloves (it’s the only thing that worked to get rid of the mould that came with last year’s rainy season and floods) so I can make a temporary poultice if it starts hurting too much…

The big thing is NOT TO PANIC.  Mr Beloved is helping, reminding me to “Notice… observe….” and I’m doing my best.

Journal page

I’ve been trying to get back into more regular art journal writing and collaging.  Keeps me out of the pubs and picture shows, as my Dad would say…

Happy New Year girl collage

(as always, clicky images for bigger)

(collage uses bits from  Tumblefish Studio, Paula Kesselring, and some magazine I had lying around.)

It’s hot here today, 34 degrees as I write this.  We don’t have aircon but we do have pedestal fans.  Now that we have a ceiling that can support them, we might one day think about ceiling fans… but for now the pedestal fans do the job.  My poor family over in Adelaide sweltered in some much hotter temperatures this week.

I’m very glad I cooked zucchini slice the other night – it’s nice straight out of the fridge, no need to heat up the kitchen! Oh, and as a treat we bought sausages from the butcher, so Mr Beloved will probably cook those on the barbie tonight.  I popped out to the greengrocer earlier, and the sweetcorn has been lovely, so I grabbed a couple of cobs.  I mainly went out to get some more grapes – I’m having a thing for frozen grapes again at the moment, yum.

Also bought some sugar free gum to have on hand as a temporary  fix for the broken filling – I don’t normally do chewing gum because I have TMJ issues, and after watching an episode of Jimmy’s Food Factory where he made his own gum (plastic pellets!  PVA! yuk!) I’m even less inclined to put it in my mouth, but needs must.

Journal page waiting for writing...

(Collage contains more bits from Tumblefish Studio plus others that were lying about…)

The flea saga continues – the cat is speaking to me again (after being bribed with milk) but the poor dog continues to get bitten – we suspect the fleas are in the grass, so every time she goes outside they jump on again.  The new medicine seems to be working, though, because the fleas that bite her DIE (muaaa haa haa) but of course she gets itchy with each new bite, so she’s still unhappy, poor little thing.   I spent HOURS vacuuming the lounge and the lounge room and the bedroom, enough to make my back ache – I’ll have another (less intense) run at that tomorrow, probably.

Tomorrow is the official unveiling of the Toowoomba Flood Monument – and perhaps fittingly, thunderstorms are forecast.  Supposed to be another hot day beforehand.

And even though it’s still hot, and Mr Beloved isn’t feeling up to it, I’m going to take the dog to the park for a quick walk.

The other things that WILL help: keeping up with the walking  – I’m not getting any faster but I am managing to do a little more each day  (today I walked for 28 minutes); and mindfulness training.

[cartoon by the wonderful Judy Horacek]

Last Friday I went to the first of 10 sessions on Mindfulness Skills at my psychologist’s office.  It was a group of about 10 women but this is skills training, not a whiny “group therapy” kinda thing – thank goodness!  The first session ran over time because the psych was explaining the neurology behind the psychology  – how the frontal lobes interact with the limbic system and what happens chemically when the mind perceives something as a threat.  Good stuff, and very helpful.

On Thursday I go for my intake interview for ACT group therapy up at the local private hospital – I need to check if my insurance covers it first.

I had gastro (AGAIN!  WTF? WHY?! ARRGH!) on Sunday and missed watching most of the Formula One Grand Prix as a result.  We’re pretty sure it was caused by drinking the town water (AGAIN) – this time from a bubbler in Queen’s Park when we took Connie for a walk in the off-leash area.  I have had gastro before when I’ve drunk water from a friend’s house – at home I drink either our tank water or fizzy mineral water from the supermarket.  I wish I could prove it was the town water making me sick, but I’m not going to double blind test myself to be sure!

I’m still way behind in my online art classes, since the pain has been bad and that means I just don’t get much of anything done.  Ah well, I’ll catch up.  The new med1c1ne is supposed to make you drowsy so perhaps I’ll get to sleep earlier instead of lying awake…  I need 10 hours of sleep to function at all, so the earlier I can get to sleep the better.

That’s about it for now – I’m going to go draw.

Learning that coloured pencils don't like to blend on rough gesso!

(one side of the face is deliberately left unblended to show the difference.  This blending was done using a cream prismacolor pencil -  I have yet to try blending colour pencils with the other choices: Gamsol,  Blender Marker pens, and “Zest It“.)

This one was on plain paper, but wrinkled due to glue on back of the page...

Getting better, but started too small to work on the details...

The next two pictures were for Week 2 Mixed Media homework – we were learning to draw backs and bums (I’m not good at arms yet, LOL!) and the assignment was to include coloured pencil with watercolour and acrylic, plus play with stencils.

Mostly 'armless...

Again, wonky arms, arrgh!

I don’t think either of those pages are finished yet – more paint needed on both.

I’m trying to catch up with the classes (haven’t watched the videos from Suzi’s class yet) but again, my back has been bothering me. Boring and whiny, yep.

We haven’t been to anything for the Carnival of Flowers – I’m hoping to see at least Queen’s Park and Laurel Bank Park next week, while they still look good.  It’s a busy week though – Monday I see the pain management specialist, and Wednesday could be the hospital procedure to help my back; Tuesday I (finally!) see the new psychiatrist, and Friday is my appointment with the Helpful Psychologist.  Thursday is my regular day for our little scrapbooking group, where I usually draw or do stuff in my art journal, but if I have the facet joint injections on Wednesday I might not be up to sitting on Thursday.

I’m REALLY hoping that the specialist agrees that I need the injections – now that the weather is nicer I would love to be able to go for walks – but right now it’s a struggle to walk between the house and the studio.  Fingers crossed that he’ll agree!

What I’ve been reading: a very well written paranormal, from a male author  - Hounded (Book 1 of the Iron Druid Chronicles) by Kevin Hearne.  Very clever and funny.  Now I’m waiting for the library to get the next two books in the series.

Stork Raving Mad - Book 12 in the series

Stork Raving Mad by Donna Andrews: I’ve been a fan of her Meg Langslow series since the first book (Murder with Peacocks) = they’re cozy mysteries (which means that even though there are murders, you don’t have to read about gore) and each book really does have something to do with the punny bird in the title.

Art and Max by David Wiesner came in to the library, too – and it more than lived up to my expectations!  Definitely on the wish list.

So that’s the week…

[as always, clicky for biggy]

An A4 page of basic faces...

And another A4 page!

Importantly, I discovered that I do not enjoy doing preliminary sketches using the Prismacolor pencils – love ‘em for shading, but HATE them for drawing!  I’ll be doing some more of these but either using the Prismacolor Verithins (which sharpen to a satisfyingly CRISP point) or the black Prismacolor Col-Erase pencil.

In other news, we saw our lovely GP today, and she’s managed to get me in to see the pain management specialist in the next fortnight!  My back has not eased up at all and it’s now stopping me from even walking very far – so something has to be done.  I had a series of facet joint injections some four years ago which made a HUGE difference – I’ve been trying not to go down that path again  (it’s a hospital procedure) but I just can’t stand the constant pain any more (not to mention the icepacks, brrr!).  I’m hoping that once my back settles down I’ll be able to walk more for exercise… fingers crossed.

[as always, clicky for biggy]

in 2002, I lived in a PO Box in Canberra..., (not really!)

It was from a secret Valentine Swap in 2002!  COOOL!

Postcards and yarn and things, oh my!

(Including a postcard of the New York skyline back when the twin towers were still there…)

The included card

I have NO IDEA who sent it to me – that info has been lost.  It was someone in the NY/ New Jersey area, though, going by the postcards and little goodies…

Yesterday as I was going through the envelope, I noticed a bookplate:

which I have stuck in the front of one of my current art journals.  And I thought to myself “Hmmm, I recognise that illustration!”  and this made me Very Happy.

Yep, in teeeeeeny little writing on the bookplate is  “Tuesday ©1991 David Wiesner Clarion Books”.  AHA!  It’s from another kid’s book I own – another Caldecott Medal winner , no less.

(In 1992.  He also won the Caldecott in 2007 for Flotsam, which I want to get. He’s the only person to win the Caldecott THREE times!)

And then I looked up David Wiesner’s web site and  YAY he has a new book out!!  It’s called Art and Max and I really really want it *sigh*… maybe when it comes out in paperback.  How could you not love a story about a lizard learning to paint?! Be sure to watch the video (click on the book picture to get the link) where David Wiesner explains the ideas he had in exploring various media to get to the characters – brilliant!

Art and Max

Anyway, if by some remote chance the person who sent me the Secret Valentines Swap in 2002 happens to be reading this – thank you for the goodies and for prompting me to look at David Wiesner’s work again!

When I met Jane at the Scrapbooking convention in Brisbane in June, she mentioned that this class was in the planning stages.  And now it’s HERE!!  It’s not to late to come and join the fun, class starts on September 8.

This is a jam packed class where the lovely Jane will be taking us through using all sorts of art supplies – there’s a coloured pencil week, watercolour week, and so on,  all with great videos and exercises and learning to draw faces and bodies and and and I just CAN’T WAIT to get started!

I’m also going to put in a quick plug for Jane’s online shop, The Insitute Of Cute (and also her In Real Life store of the same name in Byron Bay, which I am determined to visit one day!).  She stocks things that I can’t get anywhere else – the Prismacolor ColErase drawing pencil that has become my new favourite drawing pencil, for one. (I don’t get anything in return for this plug, I’m just a happy customer!)

And she also has a thing for ladybugs – long time friends (I’m looking at you, Nicole and Marion!) will know that I have long had a BIG thing about them too – ladybugs kept popping up as earrings and in my sewing stuff way back!

Anyway, I hope you’ll come and join the fun.

Here are two drawings that will go in that journal – they’re not finished here, they will be cut out and  put on a background with some other images:

False Friend and Small Town Art Critic

[clicky for biggy]

“False Friend” has a knife in one hand (to stab me in the back) while the other hand holds a tulip.  The background is Ranger Adirondack acrylic dabber paint in “Sandal”  and the coloured pencils are all Prismacolor (which I just lovelovelove!).

“Small Town Art Critic” is determined not to like anything he sees because he is a blocked artist himself who hasn’t done any art in years, but he goes to every gallery opening and drinks the free wine.  Background is some cheap craft white acrylic paint, drawing in Prismacolor pencil.

Both are on old book pages – there’s something about painting/drawing on book pages I really like – I did a lot of it when I was doing the Art Diploma course at TAFE.

Meanwhile my back is still cactus. (For readers who are wondering what the hell that means, “cactus” means “not working” (Wiktionary says “(Australian, slang): Non-functional, broken, exhausted.)

And we have new neighbours in one of the three properties around us up for rent.  Time will tell if they’re bearable… so far she seems to be on a cleaning jag, scrubbing the bathroom windowsill with a toothbrush  – sheesh!  (I dare not scrub ours because the wood has rotted!)  No big dogs or hordes of toddlers in evidence as yet…

ANYWAY, something about the way Suzi is teaching is clicking with me.

Here’s my first face done in Suzi’s style in just graphite (mostly 2H pencil):

It's a FACE!

and here’s my first attempt at a graphite (2H) plus colour face in my brand new Moleskine journal:

Unfinished, but getting there

I’m also referring to this book for some details (Suzi’s style is looser and more stylised, but she emphasises the importance of making things look like they sit properly in the face.)

Secrets to Drawing Realistic Faces

I’m so impressed with Suzi’s teaching style – if you are ever thinking about doing a class with her, all I can say is DO IT!

My order from jetpens.com

(click for bigger if you need to!)

I’m off to play….

I just can’t do such long days any more.  Tuesday was a write off.  Wednesday wasn’t much better… although a visit to our lovely GP to check on my new asthma medication (it’s WONDERFUL, I haven’t had to use my reliever puffer at all – such a huge change!) ended up including a referral to get Mr Beloved’s shoulder injury fixed (we hope). He needs an ultrasound guided injection to fix the bursitis that developed after he fell up the stairs and shoulder charged the house…

Wednesday also brought a surprise care package from a lovely Canberra friend – and if I could only work out how to get photos off my new phone and onto this old computer, I could show you!  She got EVERYTHING right, it was all such beautiful stuff and very me - I especially loved the badge that said “Craft is the new black” and another that said “Make tea not war.”  Good, yes?!  So generous, and you know who you are, *mwah*!

Thursday is our usual scrapping day – well, the others scrapbook and I admire their work.  I’m taking a wonderful online class that has got me interested in actually playing with my art materials and drawing again.  YAY!  The funny thing is, I’d signed up for the classes and hadn’t realised that one of the teachers, the wonderful Jane Davenport, was going to be speaking at the Scrapbooking show – it was such a delightful surprise and hearing her talk about art journals made the long day worthwhile. She is SO INSPIRING!

Here’s a page of very wonky drawings (mostly done with my left hand) – an exercise from Carla Sonheim’s Drawing Lab book

Wonky cats - an exercise from Carla Sonheim's "Drawing Lab"

And a boring page (but interesting to me!) of playing with pencils – I never would have known how much I like drawing in pencil over gesso if I hadn’t done this exercise from Jane’s class:

Pencil on paint... hmmm!

The rest of the week and the weekend is a bit of a blur – taken up with usual stuff, I guess.  I’m still recovering from a couple of super-anxious days that saw me chasing my own tail… thank goodness I see my lovely psychologist tomorrow!

Meanwhile, even with his wounded wing, the lovely Mr Beloved has been plodding on with  the ever-present task of reorganising the studio.  He’s a brave, brave man to wade into piles like this:

Another pile of books to be sorted...

We need to weed out books we don’t want, but there are still an awful lot that need to be re-shelved in our new bookcases.  Some of the bookcases are “zombie” bookcases that Mr Beloved has managed to patch together from odd shelves and pieces of timber – but they work!

And now I’m off to the post office (waiting on a book my psychologist recommended, The Mindful Path to Self-Compassion) and then a bit of housework and some DRAWING!