Friday, October 28, 2005



















Oops, I'm a little late with my BC today. These are some of the scissors that live next to our computer.

Sunday, October 23, 2005

Artist Date: City Museum, St. Louis

Wow, what fun!


Holy mackerel, if you have never been to City Museum in St. Louis, MO, take yourself on a date and go! It was so cool. A wonderland created by artists- out of all kinds of found materials and built inside and outside of an old factory. I was on overload the whole time I was there.

Click here http://www.citymuseum.org/3D.html for a really cool video tour. The place is literally a blast for kids from 2-92. We took our exchange student and my 65 year old mom with us. Full of slides, tunnels, falling water, and huge jungle gyms.



This is part of the huge jungle gym built on the outside. It also has a sculpture garden (with fire pits) and tavern underneath this. The place stays open til one am and we noticed a that after about 8 the kiddies went home and the teens-adults came out full force.



Lot of cool caves to walk and crawl through. If you use your flash or come after dark when these are lit by candlelight you can see the cool cave drawings.










These are a whole series of amazing spiral slides from 2 to many stories high and dimly lit (somehow that does add to the fun!). Look closely and you can see my 65 year old mom coming out of a 3 story high slide.
















Here is a squid or octopus or something mosaiced on the floor. The place is covered in mosaics made out of tile, pennies, little gears, china--cool! They also used parts of old buildings-they have two reception halls that are awesome-made with huge parts of old buildings.

My pics don't really do it justice, but the video tour gives you a neat taste of what is there. Oh yeah, we also went up in the arch and visited a great old neighboorhood with fabulous old buildings. I took lots of pics I hope to draw from.

Friday, October 21, 2005

Flip Flop Flap
















There maybe a flap about shoes in this house soon. You can't walk for tripping over shoes (I admit, some are mine). Anyway, couldn't decide what to do for blind contour friday--then I looked around and saw the shoe thing going on.

Sunday, October 16, 2005

100 Things About Me

Apparently a bloggy thing to do....so here goes....
1. I have too great teenagers-a boy and a girl
2. I am married to J who I met when I was 14!
3. I love art!
4. I love gardening!
5. We live in a 100 year old house that we are slowly fixing up.
6. J and I (and the kids) love to ride our bicycles.
7. I love dogs.
8. I was born in Hawaii.
9. I try to be organized but find it hard.
10. My favorite color is red.
11. I drink Diet Coke.
12. Growing up, I spent summers at my granddaddy's lake cottage.
13. I still go there as much as possible.
14. I cannot play any musical instrument.
15. I wish I could.
16. I am addicted to decorating magazines.
17. I love chocolate!
18. Chicago is my favorite big city.
19. Red is my favorite color.
20. I am a Christian.
21. I walk every day for exercise.
22. I used to be skinny.
23. Now I am not.
24. I have short hair.
25. My eyes are dark brown.
26. I am interested in history.
27. I am interested in preserving older buildings.
28. I like to go fishing.
29. I don't like to clean fish.
30. Books....can't have too many.
31. I recycle.
32. My favorite way to recycle is to make something over.
33. I am an antique dealer.
34. I stop for garage sales.
35. I think you can tell a lot about a person from their home.
36. Nature inspires me.
37. I go hiking whenever possible.
38. I went to a Big 10 university.
39. I accumulated a lot of credits but no diploma.
40. I think most parents need to pay more attention to being good parents.
41. Basketball is my favorite sport to watch.
42. I used to swim on a team.
43. I worry too much.
44. The porch is my favorite part of the house.
45. Soups are my speciality.
46. I like music from the late 1970's.
47. I like music from the 50s and jazz too.
48. I love it when it snows.
49. I like to go fishing.
50. I like target shooting.
51. I know how to knit and crochet.
52. I don't mind doing laundry.
53. I don't like to put away laundry.
54. It always amazes me when people are mean.
55. I have a fire in the fireplace most days in the winter.
56. We have an exchange student from Thailand living with us.
57. I have never traveled to another country,
58. but I would like to someday.
59. I am trying to get into shape.
60. Making stuff is such great fun for me!
62. I make scrapbooks.
63. I don't care for Sinatra's singing.
64. I do like Dean Martin's singing.
65. I like romantic comedies--even though the critics rarely do.
66. I don't watch daytime soaps.
67. I do watch Desperate Housewives.
68. I always buy used cars.
69. I have a room that I use for artwork and sewing projects.
70. I used to have studio outside of our house but found I didn't use it because I like to be at home.
71. Someday I would like to build a treehouse.
72. I do not like shopping for clothes.
73. My favorite type of garden is the cottage garden.
74. I just love to shop in office supply stores.
75. I love to be near the water.
76. We love to take backroads when we travel.
77. I want more roses in our yard.
78. I want less grass in our yard.
79. I like trees.
80. I like to be around positive people.
81. I avoid negative people.
82. I get really excited when I receive something personal in the mail instead of just bills.
83. My sisters and my mom are my best friends.
84. I am kind of scatterbrained.
85. I used to work as photographer for a newspaper.
86. I now think 100 is a very large number!
87. I have painted some very large murals.
88. Little kids make me smile.
89. Someday I'd like to live on the water.
90. Log cabins....I am very attracted to log cabins.
91. I am still in love with my husband after 23 years of marriage.
92. My kids are great people that I love to be around.
93. I like to find ways to save money
94. and still have great quality stuff.
95. I think it is important to volunteer
96. so I have in the schools, at church and on community committees.
97. I have an aquarium.
98. I like to go to museums.
99. I love chocolate ice cream.
100. I love to laugh and to make others laugh too.

Humiston Woods
















Today I went to Humiston Woods after wasting too much of my day taking a nap (I was going to go to Starved Rock). Humiston Woods is a small nature preserve nearby. It was such a beautiful day today! I actually stayed out a little too long and it got dark on my way back to the parking lot.....spooky! We have a full moon tonite too.

Everyday Matters Challenge--draw a leaf



This is Everyday matters challenge #34. The leaves are really getting brilliant around here!

Joe's Birthday


We had a little wine after dinner, and before it put me to sleep, I got this blind contour done....I really like this one!

Friday, October 14, 2005

Blind Contour Friday



















I was looking at all the great blogs I have on my favs list and was inspired by Paula Becker's http://www.paulabecker.com/blog/index.php soup drawing. Well, I don't have any great homemade cream of mushroom soup, so I grabbed a can of Campbells. To see a bunch of great blind contour drawings, follow the Inkfinger link to the right.

Sunday, October 09, 2005

Fall Bike Ride



Today we took a bike ride along the I&M Canal. If you live near this path and have not tried it....do! It's a beautiful path. We rode from Ottawa to Utica, walked around the Burgoo Festival for a while and rode back. I did not have time to sketch, so I was trying really hard to remember what some of the path looked like...and then I came home and drew this from memory. This is the first time I've tried to memorize a scene to draw later.

If you knew me you would laugh. I am famous for my bad memory. Or infamous. For my friends and family it is a big joke and a pain in the butt. I take tons of pics to gaurd against losing wonderful memories. Drawing helps me to remember too... when I look at a drawing done earlier, it brings me right back to that place and time.

At the Park



After church today I sat in the park and drew one of the pedestrian bridges. They are one of the neatest things about our town. They make it much easier to get around on foot since a small river runs through the middle of town. I have tried to draw this before but I always got frustrated because I got all caught up in details. Today I was able to loosen up and I like how it turned out.

Friday, October 07, 2005

Blind Contour Friday
















I decided to blind contour my son sitting on the couch, and in the process I defaced him! So I drew his face again. He has a bad habit of sitting around with no shirt. Yuck....I mean he is cute, but ....why do guys like to sit around like that? And of course, I am a naggy mom and keep after him to put a shirt on. Could it be he just likes to drive me nuts? Nah.

Monday, October 03, 2005

The Eyes Have It



Everyday Matters Challenge #33

Today I wanted to do a challenge, so I drew my eyes while in the car waiting for the kids to get out of school. Then tonite I drew the eyes of everyone who was still awake. It is very interesting how when I am looking closely like this, I can see that the eyelashes don't go anything like I imagined they did!

THE BIG DRAW










http://www.drawingpower.org.uk/menu2.htm
This looks like a wonderful event taking place in the UK during the month of October. The idea is to get everyone drawing. There will be events, large and small, throughout the month to encourage people to draw. Check it out!