I can see clearly now the SMOKE is gone...

Ad-Free Blog

I can see clearly now

 the SMOKE is gone...

I can see all obstacles in my way

Gone are the smoke/heat fogs that had me blind

It's a bright, bright, Sun-shiny Day!

(snitched from Johnny Nash's...Sun Shiny Day)

I really have to get back to blogging. I've been hunkering down in our sealed tomb of a home from the Chicagoland heat/smoke/hideous news has really had a hold of me, my mind, my attitude, I've been just UGH!

But, Today, the air cleared it's a brisk 65 degrees at 9:30 am, and I ran around half naked, and opened ALL the windows, doors, blinds, curtains...and OH MY! 

First thing that came to my mind was that song...

So you can thank me for the ear worm and have a Wonderful Sun Shiny Day! 

So far this week, I did quite a bit of gardening. Last night I made Overnite Refrigerator DILLS...the best homemade pickles. I even had fresh dill from the garden I hve stuck in semi-shade to keep it cooler. (Dill doesn't like hot temps when starting)

The Weeds have been horrid with the heat and rain Chicagoland got earlier just made them crazy. Again this year we have a flock of new weeds, I've never seen before. Our gardening zone is 5b at the moment (-5 to -10), but I'm thinking that is really not representational of what it really has been the last few years. I'm sure that weather cycles are just that, cycles, and suddenly we will have -30 winters right around the corner again.

I picked LOTS of cucumbers, dill, pearl onions, lettuce, tomatoes (small ones), a huge turnip-only one), long sweet yellow peppers and green beans. We have enough for this week's fresh produce needs. 

I always pick a few flowers...I'm having Poor Woman's bouquets all the time now. 

Colors are phenomenal...these are early morning photos without editing except for size and being crooked. The flower colors are real...and vivid. The PHLOX are phenomenal as well as the Dahlias and Day Lilies.

I'm not an Affirmation Person...except maybe snarky ones. But a prompt for my Mather class was for an affirmation. 

Here's my 20 minute scribble.

"Even Ditch Lilies Bloom...no matter What!"

I really think LIFE gives you no excuses...you just have to live it, like the panned, dreaded Ditch Lilies that we snub our noses at. 

When we moved here in 1984, there was very little landscaping on a bit over a quarter of an acre. We ordered fifty cheap assorted twig bushes from Michigan Bulb and 12 Day Lilies. That was what we could afford. I planted one packet of Sweet Peas for 59 cents and some marigold seeds. That was it for that year.

Our Sweet Peas are still going strong, the bushes are ringing the property and provide homes for all the birds and bunnies.  I still plant Marigolds from seed because they are kill and weather proof and the bees love them. 

June and May were so cold, we didn't use the porch. I finally got it ready for July 4th, and then it was so beastly, no one would go out there.

This morning I reveled in the lovely temp, opened the windows on the porch and his sink's finally hooked up to drain and get water again...long story on that one.

Ready for company and ME to play on the table with paints, and enjoy the birds from one of our rocking chairs. The furniture is mostly my great-grandmother's, and my dad made the table I painted for my art/craft shows.

I'm hoping the weather holds, I have a 5-6 hours in the car today, but am looking forward to enjoying the porch and having the car windows open! 

See you Soon!

Thanks always for visiting, 

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question. 

Join me at these fine blog parties:
Vintage Charm

Wonderful Wednesday

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own unless identified, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown.  

 Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission.  

Thank you for your cooperation, 
Sandi 

OldNewGreenRedo

Mather Classes helped me Beat the HEAT!

Ad-Free Blog!  

Last WEEK, 

One thing about aging is you don't adapt very well to extreme cold or heat. And, yes, the upper Midwest is frying like the rest of the country. 

Gardening consists of turning on hoses and sprinklers and then running back into the house. 

To keep cool and busy, I've been doing a bunch of art classes. Here are some of the projects, not made for results but mostly as learning experiences. 

In my Mather Senior Art Journaling Class (I don't journal, I just take the class for new materials and techniques), this week we explored Pointillism through the works of Seurat, Van Gogh, and Monet. All of whom used dots, blobs, streaks of colors on top of colors to create shading in their works.

This was 20 minutes of making dots, ala Seurat, to make the leaf form and shadow. I used alcohol markers on simple sketchbook paper.

Alcohol markers are excellent for this technique of using dots/dashes next to each other and you get the benefit of transparency to build up a wide color range.

It looks like I used a million colors, but it is the juxtaposition of colors next to each other that makes your think...ooh what a lovely shade of green, when it is blue and yellow and even peach that makes the shading.

My trushty markers for these next projects also.

In Creative Mindfulness we worked in what you would define as slow drawing from reference photos. Again, experiencing rather than trying to achieve a finished product. Pencil underneath and colors added with markers. For me slowing down is really hard.

This one was easier, building up layers next to each other and on top of each other...lily pads...with my trusty dark blue green as a background. I did the background first and then built up the shapes....slow sketches on sketchbook paper. 

Repetitive motions are actually relaxing...and your mind eases into the process.

These are small drawings on one page in a sketchbook.

Here is something different in Paper Cutting class. Using card stock and thick foam double stick tape, I worked at a large (on 12x12 cardstock) petals of an asymmetrical flower pattern I made. I worked large, it's hard cutting small with my old hands.

 I created a pattern for the biggest petals, and then cut each smaller layer by cutting off 1/4-1/2" off the edge of the pattern. (You never know how things will work out when you make your own patterns.) Eventually it became very skimpy, I rounded the pattern off for the centers.

The separation of the petals were created by using foam stickum tape (dollar store)

and twisting the pattern pieces one quarter turn each.

This used up quite a bit of paper. The technique was from artist Jen Stark who works in multi-dimensional constructions of layers...google her work, so cool. 

Definitely a fun and a bit messy project.

Another Paper Cutting project of building up layers inspired by Jen Stark, was made by cutting from a pattern you created, then making smaller and smaller pieces...mounting them with spacers(I used cardboard bits on this one)

I also doodled ghere and there...this really needed mountin on something interesting, and I used the turquoise and yellow polka dots,  as that was what popped out among the warm colors.

The central circle bit was just glued flat, but the edge pieces were layered.

  

Very interesting effects by deconstructing  and reconstructing a simple circle.

I'm always making collage fodder, cleaning my palette, using up wet paint. The strong and dark  moody paper was perfect for the next piece...

Working on a theme of Women...and skin tones, I constructed a 'model' from different magazine images, male and female, different skin tones...plus using a multi- portraits historical page for the skirt.

This was fun, the circles were another addition as the prompt included mixint two different styles from two artists. 

The fishnet flesh was actually a male model photo in that fabric as a shirt.

I used watercolor gel pens, acrylic pens, posca-like pens, magazine pages, and lots of ink drawing and paint staining here and there...

Spent a fair amount of time on this 3+ hours assembling, not counting making the original papers. The 'dotted' white lace was used to intentionally bring out skin tones and faces.

I finally got in the garden Monday and Tuesday, we had a break in the weather, YAY~ Cucumbers had gone bonkers,

Now I have to make Overnite Dill Pickles

The best ever and so easy! 

Thanks always for visiting, 

I will try and respond to every comment and answer every question. 

Join me at these fine blog parties:

Vintage Charm

Wonderful Wednesday

All the opinions and photographs in this blog are my own unless identified, I have not been paid or reimbursed in anyway for my opinions, posts or any products shown.  

 Please do not use photos without linking back to this blog without my permission.  

Thank you for your cooperation, 
Sandi