Groundhop Day! February 2, 2014
January Sketchbook Challenge is...collage! So on January 31st - I completed my first ever collage and it was fun! I followed Julie Fei-Fan Balzer's online class on collage. Its great because she is so much fun to watch! She demonstrated different compositions.

Actually four different types of compositions. The first was one with a cross design, the second was with a focal point. The third was with a grouping and the last one was a landscape..

Rip Van Winkle had nothing on me...

Oct. 29, 2013
Okay -Hmm so I fell asleep for a few months! Just call me Rip. Here we are starting up again. Hopefully I will get the October challenge posted before the 30th!

A Year in Review

March, April, May to June 7, 2012
I had follow-up chemo after lumpectomy. Last chemo on June 7, 2012. Nothing is as bad as your fears before something happens! The chemo was just an hour long and since my daughter gave me an Ipad with a purse to put it in that she made, the hour goes by very quickly and it isn't anything like the stronger chemo I had before the lumpectomy. The next phase is radiation for 30 days. It has to wait for chemo to be out of my system. In the meantime, more tests. Pet scan with both my daughters in town. Test all turned out to be negative. Good news!

August 1 to 31, 2012 - Wellspring for radiation. Beautiful facility and great people. A five minute procedure - it took longer to undress than do the treatment.

September 3, 2012 Free at last! Numbers almost in the normal range. Come back in 3 months.
October 2012 Stewie the cat joins the household.
December, 2012 Numbers still hovering around normal. Come back in another 3 months.

January 2013 - It's a new year and I am going to travel and enjoy life! I couldn't travel anywhere last year. First trip is Jackson Hole, Wyoming for a ski week with daughter Jennifer and her family.
March 22-29, 2013 Spring Break with Giuffre family; Jen and Chris, Dante is 8 and Carina is 6. Fun trip. Carina got stomach virus and only got to ski one day.

April in Paris!! April 8 thru April 18th Wonderful trip. Lyndall Stanley and I rented and apt in the 6th arrondissement between the Eiffel Tower and the Champs-Élysées. Lyndall comes to Paris every year so we really had a list of items tourists usually miss! Plus we had a bakery right down below our apartment!

May 31 thru June 13th Louisville, Kentucky for Megan's high school graduation.
Lab test for oncologist on return and both cancer cell tests in the normal range.! Woohoo! Next apt is September 26th.

June 22 to 29 Alligator Point for beach time with Jen and family. Off the grid with limited technology...no tv, ipods, etc. Cell phone for emergency only! Reading, relaxing, beach walking.
There's a whole year in review and we are up-to-date!

May Catching up - June is almost here.

I am playing catch-up-now all I have to do is the May theme of "fruits and vegetables".


April, 2012
Sketchbook Challenge is "open".

March 22, 2012

Started post-chemo treatments. Sketchbook Challenge for March is "flowers."


February 24, 2012

Surgery for breast cancer (lumpectomy was successful!) Now I just have 12 weeks of post-chemo ending June 7th. Anyway, here is my Sketchbook Challenge for February. The theme is closeup so I used a fingerprint to journal what has been going on and pithy sayings.  I used vellum to write on with a Rotring 0.3 pen and Koi watercolors and assorted colorpens.

January Sketchbook Challenge

As you can see, the Sketchbook Challenge is doodling and so far I have doodled leaves....

Buttons....

And rubber bands!

Got my License!

I finished the 75 day sketch challenge from Brenda Swenson. It was a good challenge and I hope to establish the habit of sketching directing with ink more often. It is hard for me not to pencil in a rough outline.

Imaginary Animals

The Sketchbook Challenge for November is Imaginary Animals. It is harder for me to create an imaginary animal, I have to see what I am creating. My inner vision is cloudy at best. I finally came up with some. Actually, even using a reference photo like I did with the cat is still imaginary.

Then I found the word "stunk" describing a skunk which has released its aroma. Skunk is an Algonquin word for animal that squirts. Very appropriate. And of course, rutabaga is one of my favorite words that tickle me.