§ Easter Sunday Sketch...

Drawing time about 20-30 minutes! This was a very simple sketch while I waited for our Easter meal to finish cooking [Baked Ham, sweet potatoes, steamed brussel sprouts and warm oven rolls]. For dessert I made from scratch Irish Ginger Apple Cake topped with frozen vanilla yogurt [I didn't make the yogurt tho :-)]. As you can see, my sketching pencil is becoming close to a 'stub' in this preview sketch!! We had several things to do on Monday, including an appointment for Bud, so we decided to go to Hobby Lobby for my pencils [I also found an egg separator on sale for 66% off 'cause it's Easter theme]. Then, we stopped at grocery store and book store! Making it a day away from home.

ps...Jean @ Cheerful Monk: I can't get your blog to open on desktop, laptop, OR phone! :-(

§ If Walls Could Talk, They'd Say...

Another famous Western artist is Charles Russell.  A long time ago, Bud used to collect Jim Beam bottles [thank goodness that craze lifted!].  Anyway, I liked one 'specially because it was female.  The title of the painting is The Indian Maiden The bottle, before it was thrown away, I took the liberty of trying my hand at sketching her.

An acrylic painting done in 1996 I titled Sonoran Sonata . I chose that title because sonata is defined as a composition for an instrumental soloist. The coyotes are definitely 'instrumental', and this happens to be a solo composition!!! It's depicting an area we lived in, in Tucson Arizona, with the jagged Tucson Mountains at sunset. Sonoran, by the way, is the name of the desert in Arizona and Old Mexico. For the both of us, if Arizona wasn't so expensive to live in, we'd still be there, happily...

The longest wall, with plenty of open space, instead of them being strewn around the room, I placed all four very large sketches in one spot. [Bud made the frames!]

Three of the four in Close-ups


Willie Nelson and Val Kilmer [as Doc Holliday]

Update: We are done with the rewiring, the painting, the curtain and curtain rod hanging, the wall decor, etc. All but the backing of the entertainment center...we have yet to get out and buy what we need for that. BUT!! We decided to take a few weeks off from our revamping the interior, and now I plan on some fresh air and birding!!! Yay. Seems I've been cooped up for way too long. In fact, I HAVE.

§ Two Rooms Finished...

...well, one room and then the hallway. All the pictures have been cleaned and rearranged. That was a job of work that entailed many hours on the floor laying out the 'design' and then changing here and there before being hung on the walls.

The hallway is more or less everything 'family'. From the diningroom as you walk toward the hallway the 'centerpieces' are of my maternal grandmother, my mother, and me...we are all the same age!

Another section of hall is some momentoes of the past...

My mother's well-worn, well used, Bible. Her rings [high school granduation, original wedding set, mother's ring, and new wedding band], a linen hankerchief of hers. Bud's Grandmother, Bud's Grandparents had a grocery store in Co. Springs...this framed calendar is their gift to patrons in the year 1948. Bud's Gr. Grandfather's pipe. And no matter what home we lived in from Nebraska to Colorad [there were many], at her bedside, my mom had the plaque "The Lord is My Shepherd" going to sleep and waking in the morning! Now I have it.

The photo above is of my own offspring [and a sketch I did years ago of Clint, my grandson brushing his hair in front of a mirror-his other grandmother has the original photo].

...close ups...

Next up, yet to be composed, if you're interested, I will post the finished diningroom. Once it was done, and house cleaned up some, I vowed to take a week off. OFF THE LADDER!!! So, I hopefully will be able to get outdoors, birding and maybe some yard work. I also vowed to NOT put up and decorate a Christmas Tree this year...first time ever in my life with no tree. But, I will put out a few festive things to remind us of the holiday. *smile

§ The Pumpkin Eater...

Last week we had a cold front move in. Cold for South Coastal Texas that is. The day before it arrived, we had wind and rain. So, I stayed home for most of the day. By mid-afternoon, I became bored and brought out my sketch pad. Of course, I began drawing the outer borders of something a bit Halloween'ish. After done with it, I titled it "Pete the Pumpkin Eater" ---the digestion went right thru him. Poor Peter...

From outline sketch to the finished image:

§ ....Flower Foto Cont...

Ironcially, Andrea posted in her comment yesterday on my blog post that she'd like to "see me draw this". Well, guess what? I was just beginning to sketch it. Bud and I mowed and edged our lawn in the front before it got too hot [nice morning breeze was keeping the temp tolerable]. Afterward, when I came back in to cool down and drink water, I grabbed my sketch pad and pencil, opened my blog to the photo and began drawing...

I finished it after lunch dishes...


I titled it Amarillo by Morning!

§ All About a Boy and a Girl and Teddy Bears...

It's 94°[F] at 1 PM as I type this up to preschedule publication. For a few minutes when I walked out to the mailbox for mail delivery, I watched the neighbors across the street building a new deck off their breezeway! Digging post holes in this heat [I imagine the heat index is above 100°!!] It might as well be 5000° for me! Crazy people. Anyway, I high-tailed it back to the cool interior. And, in this heat I have absolutely no gumption. I'm not walking as I should; just from the car to the grocery store and back to the car. I gotta get out tomorrow to take photos of some birds for my bird blog. It'll be a drive-by shooting from the open car window somewhere maybe. Or at least a well-shaded park. Maybe I'll just dig into my photo archive and find some there and call it good.

In the meantime, I've been sketching. As you know if you viewed my last post, the flower. After that was done, I went out on the 'net in search for still life. I decided to look for photos of teddy bears. I have three stuffed ones here at home, but they're of a polar bear and a panda. The other one is a Denver Bronco bear. Nah! Not good material for sketching. I found a really sweet one and uploaded it to my folder for future use. Then, as I scrolled more, I found the "perfect" one. Then...a 2nd perfect one!! The last two days I've worked on both...

Young boy and his teddy...gotta have a young girl, right?

If this heat keeps up, there will be a lot of sketching going on. Ya, I read books a lot, but that gets boring after a while - - no brain function. No thinking, no mental challenge.  LOL Oh, and the last few days, since I HAVEN'T been walking much, my sprained pelvis is feeling much better!!!!!! I hope, once I get back to walking the beaches again, it'll be feeling just as good. Don't wanna over-do, right?  Maybe this heat is a blessing in disguise.

Today, my youngest turns 50.  Holy cow.

§ I Titled It - Purple Passion....

I've been contemplating what to sketch. A flower, an animal, maybe still life of some sort? About the only thing I've been accomplishing the last several days is getting outdoors to keep the plants in the ground, AND the potted plants hydrated. Still no rain. Lawn is brown, extreme drought conditions here and there is now a 'no water use' that has gone into effect. Anyway, sitting at the dining room table looking out the window, I figured the only flower that is thriving in this inferno is the passion flower! Okay, I'll draw that. What started out as a pencil sketch only....

...it turned into more, by adding color pencil to the sketch!


All finished, and I then matted it and added a frame for my blog post!

§ A Day in the Life...

To begin the week, it was a chilly morning upon my wake-up hour. But the sky was clear; cloudless. I really had no special plans to do much of anything...I was playing lazy. I even went back to take a nap, only a couple hours after I got up for the day!! And I slept! Now, I tellya, that respite  really ruined my mojo. I couldn't get going afterward. Okay, so for the slow start, I had an old power line, ceramic, very large, insulator that I picked up, that had fallen from the pole, on a deserted county road when I was out looking for hawks, etc. several days ago.

§ Nativity...

For some time now, I've been thinking of drawing the 'reason for the season'...a nativity. Thing is, I KNOW how much trouble I have with drawing hands. This one, I erased, and erased, and erased some more! In fact, the beginning sketches I show, are the 2nd attempt. I trashed the first one. The day was windy, high winds coming in from the north in front of a cold snap that will take us here on the coast to 40 degrees overnight. Of course that won't last long, it'll be back up near 80 again by the new week's end. Anyway...

After hours of trying to create something that would look a bit reasonable, I said "I'm done with this!" I was happy to say that. It will be a long time before I try something like this again.

I was thinking of drawing Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas, I shoulda.

§ One More Comment Request...

...this time it was Rose from Time Stand Still. In a comment from the framed bird photos in my dining room, she asked:

Rose11/15/2021 -"Oh, wow! I LOVE the way you did this. I have never hung anything on the wall except a couple of Lorelei. Next, please show your sketches, etc. I so would like to see them on the walls."

Your wish, Rose, is my command. :-)

I'm in the middle of rearranging living room furniture to make room for the Christmas tree which is decorated, traditionally, during the Dallas Cowboys' game and while the turkey is roasting.  I thought since after I decorate the tree, some holiday stuff will come out of the woodwork and the ceramic birds will disappear for the holidays...I'd best get them photographed and posted here.

I have acrylic paintings framed, pencil sketches and ceramic birds here and there. I'm pretty sure I've shown all the paintings and sketches in past blogs, but I will share some along with the small ceramic pieces:

Then, some of the sketches and paintings. Which, I am pretty sure are posted prior to this, today. And, Rose, thanks for the interest. I appreciate it.

Yesterday was my cardiologist 6 month exam. All is okay. Cholesterol numbers are great which he was concerned about last time. Before next appointment in May I have to have a metabolic blood draw/liver testing, etc. because of statins. oh goodie!!

§ Sketch, Baking, Witch and Naming Her....

I have been really appreciating all the name suggestions for my witches. Y'all have come thru for me! Thanks. One in particular, which actually got me to reading the short story, was of a character named Ligeia, with the same title name. Thanks for "Nance" for the suggestion. I will probably use several from my blogging buddies. Ann, who suggested Raven and Ebony...great minds think alike. I have used those in the past years.

Nance10/11/2021
Poe had a short story titled "Ligeia" (pronounced Lie-JEE-a) about a raven-haired lover who sickened and died. The man married later, and his wife took ill and died, but she suddenly began to exhibit signs of life. As he unwrapped her burial shroud, he was shocked to see that she had turned into Ligeia, alive again. Ligeia would be a great name for a dark-haired witch.

This is one of my dark haired witches...now, named Ligeia:

As much as I enjoy reading Poe, I too like to re-read Irving's Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Even long ago, I had on my bucket list to travel to Terry Town in New York and venture up a ways north to what used to be called North Terry Town, now changed to Sleepy Hollow. Anyway, I was thinking of getting out the Disney DVD [narrated by Bing Crosby] Sleepy Hollow and watch it soon. Instead I got my pencil and eraser out and sketched a simplified version of Icabod Crane...

If you have been online for as long as I have, you no doubt have seen, heard about, or even made these cookies. Lore has it that some woman actually paid $250 for a cookie recipe from Neiman-Marcus and then shared it by property right to those who visited her website. Of course I did. Long ago. And made them many times. Long ago...yep, long ago I lived off chocolate and caffeine. Not any more!! In fact I don't do caffeine at all. But, I thought of those cookies this past weekend, and came up with a brilliant idea to make them but with NO CAFFEINE white chocolate. They are just as addictive as the ones with the Hershey's chocolate. Well, almost. 
I copied and had the recipe from years back, but I'm sure if you search online for Neiman Marcus Oatmeal Chocolate cookie recipe you'd find it.