Tuesday, March 26, 2024

A Couple More Zendoodle Girls

 Still doing zendoodles to take my mind off my up coming surgery for skin cancer. It's touching the corner of my eye, which is very worrisome to me. That eye has been bothering me a lot since the biopsy. Not getting much else done, but these are helping a lot. That and prayer.

Again, I didn't copy, but did get inspiration from Pinterest. So many amazing tangles on there! I loved doing these girls, especially the middle one! Zig, Posca, and Calligraphy brush pens on smooth and textured paper in my sketchbook...




Switching gears a bit, for now! I finished this bottom one yesterday, and I sketched off what I meant to be a feather, but it looks more like a fern frond, so I guess that's what it will be, but I'm going to try again for a feather. Fun stuff!

Take care and stay creative! :)

Tiny Bathroom Mural

 This tiny bathroom, which joins our bedroom, is so small you can literally sit on the toilet, put your feet in the shower, and your hands in the lavatory. It has no window, so in 2000 I decided to paint one in oils. Over the years, I have taken spells of adding layers to it with oil pastels, and I added another layer yesterday. 

The paneled wall gives it a rough texture. I'm still not happy with it. I know I got the willow trees too thick and heavy looking, but I'm not sure how to fix it. That's not a white circle in the middle, but an arch with double benches at the end of the path, and yep, that's a mouse sitting on a tube of paint reading a book on the window sill. My father-in-law made the cabinet over the toilet.




It's not actually this yellow looking. The light over the sink bouncing over the coral walls gives it a yellowish cast. Here is a close up of Mr. Mouse!

February Full Moon

 Hubby couldn't resist making a picture of the gorgeous full moon last month. The picture doesn't do it justice at all, even though it's a good shot. Shot with a cell phone camera.


Monday, March 18, 2024

Zendoodle Girls

 I didn't copy these, but I did get the idea off of Pinterest. The bottom one is just some patterns I was practicing. These are so meditative and fun to do, even if my eyes (cataracts) and shaky hand didn't want to cooperate! I don't know how other people get such even shapes and lines. Mine are wonky, but that's ok! Very calming to do! Zig, Posca, and Misulove calligraphy brush pens on mixed media paper...




I did quite a bit of work in my mini junk journal yesterday, but don't have pictures yet. It's getting so chunky that I may have to change some things around. It's getting there though!

I've started two more zendoodle girls in my sketchbook today too,  amidst house chores.

I'm still very nervous, but coming to terms with my skin cancer diagnosis, which will be removed the first of April. Praying it isn't deep or spreading and that the Dr. can get it all. It's right at the inside corner of my eye, so that's a concern for me. Trusting the Lord to get me through it!

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Junk Journal Paper Bag Page

 I forgot to post about the paper bag basket page for junk journals that I saw someone share in a group the other day. I used a paper bag from the Sonic Drive-In, so it's too big for my mini junk journal, which I still haven't worked on in several days, but it's getting so fat I had to tie it together. I'm thinking I may have to take some pages out or put another cover on it. The pages aren't fastened in (see previous post) so it won't be hard to do either way. I do love this cover though...


Anyway, I decided to make a sample for use in a bigger journal. I'm sorry I can't remember who shared it, and I hope they don't mind me sharing the one I made. As I said, I used a Sonic brown paper bag, folded it flat, and cut it off above the bottom fold to create a short basket like container. I used a sheet of scrapbooking paper, cut to size, to cover the front.


I used the same paper to cover the folded part, and I glued a cloth tab to the inside top of the back edge to pull the page open with.


When it's open, it looks like this, with the front and half the back covered with paper.


The inside bottom is also covered with the decorative paper, and I dropped two cut to size old blank postcards into it for journaling.


When folded flat it looks like below. I can either cover the very bottom with more paper and tuck it into a journal, or glue it to the journal page and pull it open with the cloth page. Either way it hides places to journal my thoughts, or hide little things. I love it!


I make stuff purely for my own enjoyment and not for sale, so hopefully it's okay that I posted this. It was so fun to make! Thank you for sharing to whoever posted it to start with!

We learn from each other, and we learn something new every day if we pay attention! Grateful for people who share their knowledge, and who inspire the rest of us!

Monday, March 11, 2024

2024 Spring Yard Walk 1

Today was a beautiful spring day, so I took a much needed walk around the yard with my camera and my cane. Most of my daffodils have already bloomed and are nothing but wilted dying blooms now, but there are still a few, and the purple hyacinths that have spread from my old flower bed all over the yard are blooming. Love them! The irises have just begun to come up. The mini red rose bush leafed out earlier, but got nipped back by frost, and I'm waiting to see if the elephant ear that was supposed to be black, but was dark purple, pokes its head out again. The yard is beginning to green up, which means mowing time is about to begin.


I haven't tended my small flower bed, or any flowers at all, for years now for various reasons, but its presence is still here waiting...


Purple grape hyacinths in a cluster...


Old succulents container, once full of hen and chicks, now full of rocks and moss, still interesting... 


Old fountain in flower bed with one lone hyacinth...


Rabbit and Coyote still guarding old flower bed...


Old concrete figure with old metal heron resting against a stump...


Double daffodils from the old home place...


Same daffodils against unused brick...


Old tree stump that looks like a bird nest-I did have a white peony bush by it, but I think it has died out...


Old iron kettle I found years ago with the bottom rusted out. I had flowers in it for years, but it went the way of my flower beds...


Ancient Cedar tree branches...


We have been married 54 years at the end of this month, but the first four years we lived in a trailer while we built the one story part (a family project). The two story part was added about ten years later (another family project), the upstairs being a studio for me. So February marked this being our home for fifty years. It has sheltered us well all the years, and we're hoping it does so for as long as we need a home, even though it needs some work.


Antique tractor that hubby's dad brought to hubby to fix years ago. They never had time or wanted to spend the money for parts, so here it sits...


Old parts piled up, just in case...


Back of an old school bus that my grandpa had a shoe repair shop in for years with a random bicycle leaning against it. My dad had plans for it...


Old stump fountain in front of the house with water and moss...


Red rock shape, colors, and textures...


Blue glass garden ball with rust and mold ...

It was a most enjoyable little trek around familiar things that I love, and I look forward to doing it again. It's good for my soul!

Do something good for your soul every day. You won't regret it! :)

Random Sketchbook Zen Doodles

 So, I got some scary news health wise last week, and, needless to say, I'm freaking out a bit. I'm to have surgery in April. So I have until then to keep waking up in the middle of the night full of what ifs. I do ok during the day. I can keep my mind busy. Trying to sleep at night is another matter. Praying I'll be ok. 

I haven't worked any more on my mini junk journal, but I keep collecting papers and stuff. I also collected a few more paper bags for the paper bag journal I plan to make for one of the last two Jeanne Oliver courses (The Magpies Nest or Storytellers and Mavericks) I bought and haven't started/finished yet. I love to make journals, and I have several started that I need to finish. I have a tendency to get half way through one, see something else interesting, and off I go down another rabbit hole. From what I see and read online though, I'm not the only one with a fascination with rabbit holes...:)

Anyway, I spend too much time looking at everyone else's beautiful, and interesting, art than working on my own, and sometimes I think I love the gathering up things to use in projects more than actually using them. I do love looking through my little collections of various things, collected over many years, for my many projects and interests.

I have been picking up my sketchbook, Zig, Posca, and Calligraphy pens and markers, and occasionally a gel pen, to make these sort of zentangle doodles while I watched TV over the last few days. Not perfect like you see on Pinterest (I have cataracts and shaky hands), but they are mine, and they were fun to do! Hope you enjoy looking at them! :)






I wasn't aware when I crossed off the groups of five, until just now, that I made eleven of them, which is the age I was when my dad died in 2004. I love how you can look back over sketches you did mindlessly at the time and see the meaning in them later! I also just noticed that I did this page March 4 after they called me from the clinic with my biopsy results. Now I can see the feelings that I was trying to wrap my head around subconsciously while my pen moved.

My large Zig pen nib was about out of ink on the one above, which accounts for the gray lines. I saw an old leaded glass window on TV, similar to this, and tried to sketch it from memory. It's out of proportion, but the idea is here.


I used a water brush pen full of India ink, also nearly empty, to sketch this one from my imagination. She looks like she sees something suspicious...


This one looks sort of disconnected, which wasn't intentional, and it didn't start out that way. The two halves were connected at the beginning, but when I drew the dark line across the center, it made a "two halves of a whole" page. I'm feeling kind of disconnected right now.


I sketched this one off of the TV. Nowhere near a likeness, but good practice!

Now that I look at these after a couple of days, I can see areas where I could add more marks, and I might, at some point. But, right now, I'm about to start a new one. New sketch! New adventure!

Take care, be grateful, and keep making beautiful things, because the world can never have too much beauty! Thank you for visiting! :)