Hermit Crabs and other Challenges!

     

      I love hermit crabs.  They are one of my favorite animals.  I have always been fascinated by their behavior.  Okay, now I don't want to start any heated discussions, but I know that it is advised (strongly) against keeping them as pets - cruel, bad for the environment, etc.  I get that.  Honestly.  Over the years I have had many, many of these adorable pets.  At one time I had a huge 20 gallon tank set up with sand, water, and climbing items.  I fed them crab food plus fruits and veggies.  I took them out once a week and misted them to prevent their drying out.   All of that is said in my defense of being a good crab owner.  One of my crabs was as big as a man's fist!  He was quite a thing to watch lumbering about.  Just taking the time to draw one made me think how nice it would be to have some more - you need more than one because they are quite social!  Also did you know that late at night they make these delightful "chittering" sounds?  Yep.  I do think ANY animal kept wrong is cruel.  But I did my research and hopefully gave them a good home for the years I kept them.  Anyway, here is my inchie.

      Loving this 9 tile Joey challenge!!  I am trying to pull a little from the tiles they connect to each week.  It is a challenge for me not to add even a little on the next week's tile. 

      A zendala for the FB journal challenge.  I love coloring or drawing mandalas.  They are so peaceful to do.

      And last a page from my newest coloring book.  I tried to stay with the warm color palette.  This one was nice because I did not have to worry about realism!  Just color!

       And now, off to . . . I am not sure what!  Whatever I want I guess.  I bought a vegetable spiralizer this week and I need to figure out how it works.  My plan is to spiralize (is that not a word?) zucchini to use as a replacement for pasta - an effort to help with the carbs.  We shall see.  My brother is looking at me somewhat skeptically.  He could be right1
      Thanks for dropping by!  By the way, if you left me a message about a swap, I need more info to contact you!  Hope you read this!  See you all!



Thank you, really.

     Several years ago when I jokingly said I had a blog and I liked to write on it, I had no idea what it would come to mean to me.  The artistic support is wonderful.  I feel like I am part of such a talented community and sometimes that is overwhelming.  But beyond the creative support is the friendship and caring I have been a part of.  Thank you for all the comments about my cataract.  I am in the process of figuring out which doctor to see and honestly can say I do not feel as anxious.  Every one I talked to and read comments from said this is no big deal and guess what??  I am finally starting to believe it!!   I will keep you updated!
    I have a lot of art work to post this week.  I let it sort of stack up and then go "blog-crazy".  So sit back and relax, here we go!
    Love my inchies!  This week's word is jellyfish and just so happens a new tangle appeared called zenjellies.  I used the tangle and embellished it with some color.

      Joey's nine tile challenge is so much fun!  I am having a hard time waiting each week for the new tangle.  Can't wait to see it finished.  You know I have it pretty bad if my first thought Monday morning was "guess what, it is time for Joey's challenge"!!  (Well, it certainly beats my Monday morning pre-retirement thoughts, lol!)

     Here is a page from a sketchbook challenge over at FB.  Zendalas are so much fun to do!

     Diva's challenge was about Petrosky stones.  I had never hear of them, and if you want to hear more about them and see some really nice photos of real petrosky stones go here.

     And last but not least the summer challenge over at FB has ended.   Here are my last two pages.

      Thanks for dropping by and I hope you are having a lovely week.   I also hope everyone and all your loved ones are safe from the storm in Texas.  Take care.  Hugs.

Eclipse Week

     I have a terrible time coming up with title for my posts.  They are not inspiring.  I mean, yes, this was eclipse week, but aside from stating that fact I don't have a lot of things to say about it.  I stayed inside that day.  I know, boring.  But I just didn't trust the glasses and all.  Also sunlight bothers my eyes.  Oh well.  If you were able to get out and see it - I hope you had a lot of fun.  I am glad that I was not responsible for a classroom of children.  Our school elected to go that day and all sat outside and watched it with glasses provided for them.  I would have been very nervous worrying about them removing the glasses and such.  But the pictures posted showed they had a good time.
     My FB journal challenge this week was fun!  I like the one I did for the color black best.  Inside the Love challenge I wrote things that mean a lot to me. 

     The inchie word was seagull.  We live hours from the ocean, but - strangely - we often see seagulls in the grocery store parking lot.  Why?  I haven't a clue.  Maybe they are not really seagulls, but just look like them.  Whatever.

      The guest blogger over at Diva's wanted us to do a plate type tile.  She suggested doing one, but I had to have the whole plate.  I also chose to do it in blue to remind me of a plate my grandma used to have.

     Made by Joey has a 9 week challenge going on.  That is fine, but I am having to force myself to not work ahead.  I love how it has started out.  Of course red, black and white are awesome color combos.

     I actually called the insurance company and got info about cataract surgery.  I have to do this.  My eyes are not doing very well and it goes without saying I would be lost if I could not draw or create to some degree.  I am so afraid of the surgery.  Laying there awake while someone "fiddles" around in my eye grosses me out!  If any of you have ANY experience or have talked with someone who has, please share some encouraging words with me.  Please don't tell me anything negative - I have no trouble at all coming up with those thoughts, lol! 
    Thank you for dropping by - if you are not following my blog already, I would love for you too!  Have a wonderful rest of the week.  Hugs!

A Few Challenges

     Good afternoon!  I hope you are having a wonderful day!  We just got in from the grocery store - glad that chore is over for a bit. 
      My inchie was fun to do this week (well, they all are).  I love Kermit and so he had to be my frog for this week.   And of course, I hummed and sang "The Rainbow Connection" the entire time I drew!

     Diva's challenge was to use the tangle fragment D6.  Mine sort of got lost in the tile, but it is there!

 

      I am super excited about the Made by Joey challenge!  It is going to go for 9 weeks and we get a tangle to use (or possibly some other challenge).  The string for the tangles is drawn and connects over all 9 tiles.  Here is week one of the challenge!  I have a frame waiting for the completed piece.

    And last the daily Facebook challenge -

     Have a good rest of the week and here's hopefully something to make you smile!  Hugs!

Happy Tuesday!

    Lots of challenge fun this week.  I always start with the inchie - I love that one so much!  This week's word was alligator. 

     Made By Joey has a guest blogger, Susan Theron.  We were to use tangles that started with the letters j/v/o.  The string is a J for Joey!  My tile looks sort of mish mosh, but here goes anyway.  I used jazz-e-flower, jubel, vitrail too, verve, and on-two-three.

     Diva has a guest blogger also, Suzanne Fluhr.  She has a lovely tangle called aloha.  I really enjoyed playing with this one and will probably use it in the future.

     Last of the challenges this week was the Facebook daily one.  This has been a lot of fun and gives me a quick daily tangle to work on. 

     Here are a few other things I have been working on the last few days - loving time to cut with my cricut!

Perpetual calendar made from paper

Exploding box - outside

Inside of exploding box

My favorite!  These are going to be filled with spices and go into a kitchen drawer.  I have 2 more boxes to go!

     Hope your week is filled with blessings and fun!  Thanks for dropping by! 

First day of . . . well, school

    Hard to believe school starts today for my county.  It is so early.  I really liked the year we started after Labor Day.  That was so nice.  Of course, this year it is not my concern but I do feel for those with such a short vacation period.  And to have to return in the heat!  Yuck!  And while I haven't missed the first day of school at all, I did find myself trying to get my brother and Lakota walk on the second tile and in single file.  I did what I could then simply took their recess for not listening!  Old habits die hard, I guess.
     Every Inchie Monday's challenge word was rhino.  I found this cute baby rhino on google so I decided I would draw him.  He looks quite harmless!

      Here is my challenge for Made by Joey - we were supposed to place tangles over top tangles.  I think this works.

      For the Diva challenge we had to combine diva dancing and Lisbon.  Don't tell but this is my second start - I got a bit "confused" with the over under thingie! 

      The daily tangle challenge over at Facebook continues to be a lot of fun.  These are my last three pages. 

      Now I am off to work on my spice drawer.  I am painting jar lids and going to put vinyl on them for the names of the spices.  Then they are going to go into a spare drawer.  I will show pics when done.
      Thank you for dropping by and I hope you are having a blessed day!

Having Some Challenges Fun!

    This week . . . or next . . .  school starts.  I don't know when exactly and don't really care at the moment.  Seriously I do wish my friends a great school year and have thought more than once of my last year's kiddos and hope they would be fine.  But I am not stressing over my room, plans, a new group of kids, meetings, and the list goes on.  I spent some time getting to some of my favorite things - the challenges.  I would love a few more artsy type challenges.  Any suggestion?  Leave me a link to some good ones.
     Every Inchie Monday's challenge word was camel.  I am always reminded of the scene with Conan (the barbarian) and the camel.  It always cracks me up!  I have heard they can be quite contrary creatures. 

      Made by Joey's challenge was to use the tangle naida.  I combined it with betweed and some swirly things that just seemed to fit! 

      I have missed a few Diva challenges lately.  For no real reason, just have.  But when I saw that the challenge was to use nzeppel, I could not resist.  That is a tangle I love to use.  I also enjoyed reading the guest bloggers post about feeling as though you don't fit in.  I have struggled with that frequently.  I much prefer very small groups or even better being alone.  I can identify with her daughter's struggles in beginning middle school.  So much happening at that time of one's life.  But as I was working to make nzeppel fit into this shape, I saw a beautiful flower emerge.  I hope as this young girl (and all the others starting this stage) struggles to fit in, there is a beautiful flower emerge for her. 

     I finished up my coloring page I was working on - Lucerne Switzerland.  I loved giving my new pencils some more time.  I also am playing with ways to blend the polychromos - like using gamsol.  It went on amazingly smooth.  It also bled right through and I had to quick grab a blotter!  Uh-oh!

     Thanks for dropping by - I hope you are having a blessed day!  It is time to go get some dinner going.  Want to come by for an enchilada burger?  I will throw on an extra one!