Doodles

No, as much as I wish I were talking about cheese doodles, this is something completely different.

As yummy as they look with that other worldly, beautiful orange color, I'm talking about doodling as an art form.  I have mentioned before that I think everyone has an artist lurking inside their bodies, and a good way to nurture that artist, is with another kind of doodle.  As you may have seen over the years, a whole new wave of books and blogs and such have been dedicated to Zentangling.  Poo on that, I am talking about sitting around drawing while you watch television.  Nothing with a fancy-smancy, made up name, just drawing or doodling. 

Oh, now you are getting ready to whine, I can hear you tuning up.  "I can't draw", "poor me, I'm being left out of all the fun".  Shut your crying, you big baby and go get your notebook and pens.

You can use a composition book to draw in, and just a good old fashioned ballpoint pen will suffice.  Personally I like to add a bit of color and I have boxes full of markers and pens at my disposal.  If you prefer pencils that's fine too, as long as you don't postpone the drawing by erasing everything that's not perfect...grrrr, don't get me started on that.  Can't draw a straight line?  Duh, find something with an edge on it and use it as a guide.  I'll bet you have a credit card in your purse...use that if you don't have the world's most perfect ruler.  As you can see, I am eliminating all your pitiful excuses for not drawing.  So now get off your butt...oops, I mean get ON your butt and draw.

Absolutely cannot think of anything to draw, because you are still trying to fight me on this??? Draw a letter or two.  Yeppers, you heard it here first.  Alphabets or monograms are some of the best things to start on.  Who doesn't love a monogram or a fancy drawn letter?  There are gazillions of decorated monograms that have been created since the beginning of your specific language.  (see how p/c I'm being here?) If you still need a nudge, do an online search for ideas. Pinterest or Google or Etsy. You know the drill, stop dragging your feet on this. (Y'all know I'm just kiddin' dontcha?)

Anyway, here are the monograms I drew this week while sitting on my keister watching the telly.

S is for Susan, as most of you know.  It's a fun letter and you can do all kinds of things with it.

T is for Timothy.  I don't know if I've ever mentioned his name here, just calling him DH for dear hubby, but he does have a name and it has many fine letters in it.  Starting with T.

Ok, now scroll back up to my letter and click on it.  You will see that I started out with the letter S and embellished it with those silly little petal flower that everyone has been drawing since first grade.  That's what it's all about.  Your favorite little thing to draw, be it flowers or moons and stars or Scottie dogs, I don't know...just draw in some little things in to fill out the letter some. I often add leaves to make things look "viney" and I love circles so I do lots of circles.

OK, now scroll back down to Tim's letter and you will notice several things.  One it has additional lines added that make it look.....drum-roll here please... "3 D".  One of the most fun things to do is to add perspective to doodles.  It's really easy to do.  Just check out the internet for drawing 3D and you will find easy instructions.  "What?  Shoot, quick stomping your foot.  I'll do it for you."  Here.  Satisfied?

Seriously though folks, I used black felt tip pens and then filled in (we are too old to just say we color) with markers.  You can use markers or crayons or other dry media that you can just grab and use.  Keep it simple to start.

Hope you have fun drawing your letters.  Send me a picture of your finished art and I'll post it here.  I really will.  You'll be instantly famous.

Another experiment...

So, at the risk of boring you all to death, I'm posting another picture of a bracelet.  Practicing beading can lead to one of two things...either something that works in jewelry or something that doesn't.  This most recent piece was supposed to be a wide cuff, but I made it too wide and it was uncomfortable on my wrist.  So I sewed the edges together and made it into a tube and it still works as a bracelet.

 I purchased the size 6 beads in Autumn colors, which worked well together, and while it doesn't really match anything else I have, I think I can find something that will coordinate with it. 

As you can see, it looks different on a dark background,

so perhaps a navy blouse or the ever present black top will work with it.

While going through my stash of beads last week I came across this owl pendant.  I got this in a grab bag of  broken jewelry at a flea market and it just so happens that I have a friend that collects all things owl.

Yes, this little pendant is going to my friend and trainer, Chelsea.  Sweet little Chelsea was recently diagnosed with cancer and after trying various treatments over the past few months, her doctors told her yesterday that she will have to start undergoing radiation.  Hopefully a little vintage owl pendant will help keep her mind off of things a bit.

Well, that's it for today.  Hope everyone is hanging in there and getting ready for Fall.  I'm not sure what is on my agenda for today.  I deconstructed the shawl that I showed you last post and I'm thinking about making granny squares with the yarn.  I found a pattern for a granny square sweater that looks promising.  I'll keep you posted.

See you soon.  Let us hear!

Peyote

I remember hearing murmurs, back in the days of my youth, that someone "was doing peyote".  Well, the peyote that they were doing was certainly different from the peyote that I am doing.  The peyote they were whispering about is a cactus that has hallucinogenic properties and has been used for years in religious ceremonies of various "indigenous people" of America  (for those less politically correct...American Indians).  During these ceremonies bead covered gourds are used and over the years the beading technique used for this decoration came to be known as peyote stitch, or gourd stitch.

I have a fairly ample supply of seed beads that were a gift from a very lovely gal some years back.  I have used these beads in jewelry making, as well as bead embroidery and even mosaic work.  They are so pretty, sitting there in their little plastic tubes and I love how colorful they are.  Over the years, as my cataracts gradually began affecting my sight, I stopped using my seed beads.  As many of you know, I had my cataracts removed so I am now delving back into my stash of tiny beads.  With the help of various types of magnifiers I am attempting to relearn peyote stitch.

Just to get back in the groove, I started out with larger sized beads.  Using various colors of size 8 seed beads, I whipped up this little color block bracelet. 

I fashioned a button and loop closure for the bracelet and added some larger glass beads for fringe, as well as weight.

Now I'll tackle peyote using much smaller beads and see what I come up with.  I purchased this magazine

 at Books-A-Million this week and it has fun projects in it.  I also have a very nice loom that another sweetheart of a gal got for me, and the projects that you can make on a loom with the tiny beads are really nice.

When not reading or beading, I've been crocheting a shawl, and I've done this much so far...

At first I thought it was finished, but when I tried it on I realized that it was too thick to be a scarf, but too narrow to be a shawl... so back to the hooks for me.  I'm currently adding a triangular shaped piece to the back to make it more shawl like.  I'll keep you posted on that.

Hope everyone is having a nice September and if you're like me, you are waiting in anticipation for Autumn.  I love Fall and everything that goes with it.  Sweater weather is what we called it when I was younger and it's not here yet, but almost.

Well, children, that's it for now, but take care and remember to stay creative. xoxo

Empty Chair Day

Today is Empty Chair Day.  This is a follow up to the speech that Clint Eastwood gave at the RNC, where he spoke to an empty chair on the stage and was addressing questions to it as if the current president were there.  We watched the speeches and I thought it was very well done.  He ad libbed most of it (meaning actually that he didn't use notes or the teleprompter) but he IS an actor and presented in a way that made the non-conservatives go crazy.  They just didn't get it.  Anyway, this led to people hitting the internet via Twitter, etc, with all kinds of things that they would have said to the (empty chair that is the current) president.  Many of these comments were accompanied by pictures of an empty chair.  Hence Empty Chair Day.  Hubby posted this shot with the following caption...

"Forced to carry his own clubs, Empty Chair prepares for a day on the links".

Normally, I don't blog about politics, but I think that it's a good way to get people to speak out about things.  People that normally don't speak out took part in this over the last several days, and I think that is good.

If you are interested in seeing what folks are saying on Twitter, just go to the site and search for #EmptyChairDay and the tweets will start rolling up.  I'm sure there will be similar things happening that are related to or are a result of the DNC which is this week.

That's all for me today and by the way...Happy Labor Day.