Some pages from my art journal and watercolor paintings

1. Hello everyone! This is what I have been doing lately. I started my first art journal and am having fun playing with it. This is not my “best” work because it is mostly just playing around with ideas. These are mostly on sketch paper in a sketch book and so it’s not the best canvas to work on as the water from the watercolors pretty much makes the pages soggy and wrinkly but that’s ok, it’s all in fun and if something great happens in this book I can replicate it on a canvas if I chose to.

I’m afraid I haven’t been drawing on paper for years!!! I have been using a drawing program on my computer where you draw with a mouse or a tablet and it is quite different than using real paint or pencils and so I have to get used to using these again and especially mixing my colors as there is no need to do this on the computer.

This is a model or actress I found online…didn’t really pay attention to who she was, I just thought her face was pretty and decided to draw her. In pencil, on sketch paper.

 

This little one was so much fun to do….I just started without a plan and no pencil sketching first, just pure watercolor and 5 minutes! I just love how she turned out!!  Watercolor in sketchbook

This is another quick watercolor, 5 or 10 minutes, just wanted pretty colors.

This was sketched with pencil first and then painted with watercolor……I think I’m really starting to like watercolor. I have never painted with them before this year. I think I might have the knack for it and then sometimes I feel like giving it up….I wonder which it will be?? :)

This is Claire Littleton from “LOST”!!!  I painted her hair different as I wanted color in this picture and it turned out half decent…..I put masking tape around the edges and it too long and when I went to take it off, it tore a bit of the paper….oh well, I will know next time…..Watercolor on watercolor paper.

Sometimes you can place weird things in a drawing and it makes it look interesting.



Have a doodly day!!  Sometimes I fill my page with random stuff.


The music dress made with Sharpie markers and colored with watercolor

This is one of my favourites! I love painting apples!   I l,ayered some shiny medium on top so the camera doesn’t photograph as well. This is Gesso on sketch paper, colored with wax crayon and then more gesso and then sanded. I painted the apples with acrylic paint. Love how the background turned out!

I enjoyed doing this one….done in blue ink. Just random things. I really liked how the house and smoke turned out! The glass swan was fun and the glass of water and the faces too.


sharpie markers


Here I wanted to try and draw something and then fit something else in the spaces. Marker and watercolor.

I love this!! This was really fun to do. “I hear music, no one’s singing, no one’s playing, I hear music”. This is actually a song I heard once….but these are all the words I know haha. 
Marker and watercolor in sketchbook


20 black birds, I enjoyed this one. Marker.

 
This is what I do when I get a song stuck in my head….draw it to get it out of my head!!!   I tried to draw it the way I thought the words of the song meant. It sounds like someone has to let go of love for some reason. A love that can never be but they are crying out for them to say something, anything to them.  Pretty sad really.  Marker and watercolor in sketchbook.
One problem that I’ve had with the art journal is I have NO patience to wait until something is dry and therefore make a mess on the other pages…..but I’m working on it! :)

I still have many more pages in my journal but I haven’t finished it yet….My goal is that I will have to be satisfied with every page I make.  I’ve got a long way to go but I am improving as I go along…I have just made some that I love the way they turned out, I just haven’t had a chance to photograph them….I will probably show you some day :) 

Here are some paintings I have made recently

16 x 20 Acrylic painting on canvas
 
My daughter Cara, had asked for a painting for her unborn babies room. She wanted a nautical theme for her room and wanted me to paint something with water and sailboats. So I preceded making this painting and I thought I’d make a boy that would look like something the baby might look like (they are having a boy by the way) sitting on the rock. When I stepped back to view my painting I realized that it looked just like my other grandson Gideon! I was amazed at it and so this painting just had to be sent to Gideon who is 9 years old. . He said that his clothes looked just like his summer clothes except he has sleeves. :)
So I had to make another one for Cara’s baby

This little boy turned out looking  like the baby’s daddy (Which I think the baby will look like)  :)

16 x 20 Acrylic painting on canvas
 
This picture was a bit difficult to do because of all the subtle shadows on the face. I find that shadows are very deceiving in what color they actually are. In this one it was in-between lavender and bluish green. Hard color to mix when you are not used to mixing skin colors! But I eventually got it close enough. Being a perfectionist I see all my mistakes and I am trying to say, ok this is good enough, it’s a painting not a photograph! It’s really hard but my husband is helping me see it through his eyes. When he says it looks really good and he tells me to stop looking at the original photo I can see what he sees.
 
Close up 

This is the picture I looked at for the painting. This pretty young lady is a room mate with my son and his girlfriend. I went there this summer and they wanted me to make them a garden in front of the house and so I did. This lady had a painted rock on the steps that I noticed there and thought it might look good in the garden and so I put it there and then thought I’d ask her if it was ok. I totally forgot to tell her!! Then left for home. Soon after I got home I found out that someone had stolen from the garden!!! They stole this beautiful tree I had planted in there and the painted rock!! Whoever heard of stealing from a garden??? Crazy people!! anyways, this rock had sentimental value to her and so I felt really bad that she had lost her cute little rock. :(  I made her this painting hoping to make up for her rock….hopefully she liked it.





This was really fun to make!! Excuse the glare on the window frame. I learned this new technique of glazing with acrylic paint and I wanted to try it out. This was done out of my head with no sketch first. Totally freehand with paint.

see you later :) 

Merry Christmas and Happy new years to all!!!

Help when people attack you for no reason

Help when you are under attack

 

Have you ever had people be against you, twist your words to make you look bad and feel their hate towards you and lie about you? God gave me this palms to meditate on and I thought I would share it with you because I know without a doubt there are people who need this.

If you know you are innocent and you have people lying about you and trying to get you in trouble, pray in Jesus’ name something like this psalm and see if God doesn’t move mountains for you and come to your rescue and get back at your enemies!! God sees your tears, they are recorded in His book!!!

Psalm 56

For the director of music. To the tune of “A Dove on Distant Oaks.” Of David. A miktam.^[b] When the Philistines had seized him in Gath.

¹ Be merciful to me, my God,

for my enemies are in hot pursuit;

all day long they press their attack.

² My adversaries pursue me all day long;

in their pride many are attacking me.

³ When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.

⁴ In God, whose word I praise—

in God I trust and am not afraid.

What can mere mortals do to me?

⁵ All day long they twist my words;

all their schemes are for my ruin.

⁶ They conspire, they lurk,

they watch my steps,

hoping to take my life.

⁷ Because of their wickedness do not^[c] let them escape;

in your anger, God, bring the nations down.

⁸ Record my misery;

list my tears on your scroll ^[d]—

are they not in your record?

⁹ Then my enemies will turn back

when I call for help.

By this I will know that God is for me.

¹⁰ In God, whose word I praise,

in the Lord, whose word I praise—

¹¹ in God I trust and am not afraid.

What can man do to me?

¹² I am under vows to you, my God;

I will present my thank offerings to you.

¹³ For you have delivered me from death

and my feet from stumbling,

that I may walk before God

in the light of life.

There is also Psalm 57 that goes along with this. Just google it!!

Be blessed!!!!!!

What's up in December!

Hi everyone, I'm still here but I haven't posted much lately but it's not because I haven't been doing anything.... I have started painting with acrylics paint!! I haven't used "real" paint for 20 something years!! I had been drawing or painting on my laptop and doing digital painting which is a bit different than using real paint. Color mixing is a lot easier on the computer than for real.  Anyway I'm pretty excited about it.
I started slow and small with a few paintings until I got the hang of it again and now I've taken off and I can't stop painting!!! I want to paint everything....all at the same time....but I can't!! So I just paint one picture at at time. lol
Here are some of the paintings I've made.

This was a ceiling fan.

This painting and the ones after this have all been prayed for by the way, I really believe my talent comes from God and He helps me as I pray. 

"Chance and Dillon"   16 x 20   Acrylic

This is the first picture I sold in 20 years!!!  I was so excited!!!

I am now basically finished two other paintings but I can't show them to you yet.....special gifts!  Two  of the same paintings but yet different. I will post pictures of them later.

I just started making a winter jacket. I have the back done and I'm loving it!!! uhm...I think I love all my jackets that I make myself......I wonder why??   Dah!!! Cause I make them the way I like them!! hehe
  I'd better love it with all the work I put into it!!! lol  I have blisters on my fingers to prove it!! 

Can't wait to finish it so I can wear it!!  Giving my old ones away anyone want it?? Still in good condition!!  Size medium

Rough rough rough and tough, that's what life is at times!!!

Wow, rough, rough, rough and tough. That's how life is sometimes, a lot of times for me I guess. Sometimes I do not like being me at all and then other times I wouldn't want to be anyone else. Life is so strange sometimes it overwhelms me. I know we have to learn lessons but goodness gracious, haven't I learned enough already???!!!!! lol
There are times I feel that I am the most loved person in the world and then the very next day I can feel like I am the most hated person in the world. I'm sure other people go through this but I feel so alone when this happens. Life can be going along fine and then chaos happens and you have no idea why it's happening. Yes, this is the story of my life, great and then Kapow!!
 I guess I've had worse times in my life than now but I wasn't a Jesus follower at the time and I could deal with it in a different ways. If I wanted to curse I'd curse and if I wanted to scream and yell I would scream and yell and if I wanted to go on a little binge I would do that too and if I wanted to be selfish I was that too!!  But now, I have to keep my temper in check, forgive everyone, not use the booze, not lie, love my enemies, think of others etc etc etc. PLUS deal with all the rest of the crap that happens in life. Sometimes it brings me to the point of quitting and then as fast as it comes it's gone again and life returns to normal...for a short period of time. Life is such a roller coaster and/or is it me and this Fibromyalgia/ arthritis/menopause that i'm on?? Whatever it is I seem to be having the ride of my life at times. Up and down and sometimes I'm going sideways too!!! hahaha   Now that's a ride!!!
I can't say there is anything major going on right now really but I don't seem to be having a good year. I've been to many funerals this year and I think that is bothering me and making me think.
 I drive through the neighborhood and I've reached the age where you look around at the people and places you grew up in and you realize that a lot of the people and places you knew are dying off and that makes me sad. There is definitely a sense of deep loss. It's something I don't want to let go of, the past with it's places and the people I knew triggering special memories. I am at that age where the older generation are leaving or will be leaving shortly and am realizing I am becoming the older generation. The people I relied on are mostly gone and now I have become the reliable one. Maybe it is because my mother is gone already although she has been gone since I was 25 years old. The sense of I'm responsible is only hitting me now as I see others fade away too. I wonder if she ever reached that age where she felt this way before she died...

I pray and this seems to help and if it doesn't I beg and I plead  and really cry out until God hears me and answers my prayers.

Maybe things will be better in the new year. There will be a fresh beginning with a new grandson on the way. Due March the 7th on my birthday!! How special is that!!?  I'm sure he will be a bundle of joy to everyone, especially my daughter and boyfriend who has been waiting for him to arrive for a long time! Can wait to meet him and look forward to going to Alberta to help out with the delivery!!!


Later alligators ;)

Pink paisley jean style jacket

This is the first jean style jacket I have made. I used a bought pattern for this one. Super great pattern but just not so great for my shape and my liking. I will show you the difference a better fit can make.

Don’t get me wrong, it is a beautiful jacket, it would just look better on someone else.

It looks pretty sharp and dressy in pictures BUT do you notice that the pocket is too high?

In this picture it is a bit more noticeable. Do you see where the pocket ends? Right in the middle of my bust line! looks weird to me!.The yolk is too high and the pocket is too high and not long enough. It does not fit my hand well and the jacket is a bit too short for my liking.

You can see that the blue jacket the yolk is a bit lower and the pocket curves to the underside of the bust. Gives it a much more relaxed and fitted look and that pocket is about 1/4 inch larger on each side so that my large hands fits in there comfortably. That’s the great thing about customizing your clothes!

I love the dressy casual look of it! Do you?

I did not like the straight back of this jacket pattern as my back is swayed a bit. You can see the crinkling in the back so I put in another seam in the middle and lengthened and curved the bottom.

I also lowered the back yolk by around 3 inches

Detail. lots of topstitching and buttonholes!

 

OK, don’t laugh at my Fred Flintstone label!!! hahaha   There is a story to this but I’ll spare you…..but my printer was jammed up good…I hope it still works!!!……This label was done with a marker on white cotton, you do not have permission to copy it, it is copywrited. It is the sole possession of moi, me. It is an original, really original..hehehe And crooked as all outdoors!!  I hope you enjoyed my jackets,

Goodnight :)

P.S.  If you haven’t seen my blue jacket you can see more views here

My favorite blue paisley jean style jacket

Hello everyone, Sorry I haven’t posted in quite a while. I really don’t know why I haven’t……, pre-occupied, tired, blue, sick, busy, lazy,  may be some reasons among others haha. I have had a blog for around 5 years now, maybe I am getting tired of doing it. It is a lot of work, maybe I just needed a break, not sure but we will see if the desire comes back to start posting again. The sewing desire hasn’t left though!!! Woohooo!!! I’ve made dresses and jackets, draperies and alterations AND  I have also been painting and drawing  up a storm!(Only thing I can do when I get too sick! ha) Filled a whole sketchbook that I may show you sometime.

 

Fall is in the air early this year and as soon as it even thinks of coming, my body, does NOT like it, ugh!  Fall or spring is not pleasurable for me I’m afraid. Fibromyalgia and injuries from my car accident definitely take their toll on me when weather changes, sigh, I just have no energy and am in constant pain but I carry on and smile when I want to cry and sometimes I cry but that’s ok,  C’est la vie

I’ve been daydreaming of jackets again and so I’ve made a couple recently and I love them!! One is pink with black velvet design in it and the other is the same fabric in a beautiful bright blue fabric which I just love!!! I will be wearing this one a lot. The pink one is from a pattern I ordered online. It is a wonderful pattern but it is a bit  too short for me and with my slight sway back it did not fit in the back correctly, more of a boxy style and so I made my own pattern in the same style that would be more fitting for my shape. I curved the bottom back edge slightly, I made the sleeves longer as I like fairly long sleeves, like past my wrist, at least half way of my hand. It sucks to have a jacket that the sleeves are not long enough to tuck in my hands when I’m cold…and that is often SO that explains my long sleeve wanting. :)

I made the body longer and more fitted in the back and bust areas. I found that flap pockets were too small for me and so I made them longer and also the bag for the welt pockets was too small and so I made them a bit bigger too. Now this jackets fits me well and I really love it! If I have time, I will be making some to sell perhaps. I have some nice fabric in a blue khaki print fabric that I think would look fabulous in this style. I just have to figure out if I should make it small, medium or large. My jacket is size medium. I think I may go for small since I have a close friend size small that I can use as a dummy. Does that sound funny? Sounds funny to me!! hahaha my friend the dummy hehehe

We started off on a walk in the Pubnico tail at “la boute d’a pointe” (End of the point) 

What a beautifully delightful evening. So quiet and peaceful with the wind blowing softly and the gentle rhythmic sounds of the windmills going swoosh, swoosh, swoosh and the occasional puff of wind blowing and lifting my hair and gently caressing my face, you know the feeling.  The sun was bright and warm but racing to kiss the ground and say goodnight, so we couldn’t waste too much time.  (Hey, I think that would sound great in a novel or something!!!) hahaha  Somebody should write one with those words in it!!!

Oh me and my creative thinking, you never know what I will come out with…neither do I  :)

 

We took some pictures on the beautifully made boardwalks. You have to have good balance though, it is a bit narrow and no sides. I don’t have good balance but so far so good!! lol

 

It’s all in the details!  This jacket turned out great but that topstitching is a lot of work!! And sewing buttons is my least favorite part of it :/

 
 
 
 

  

My handsome husband, Leon who did a GREAT job taking the pictures and putting up with me!!! :)

The jacket is unlined but it is still warm enough for fall

A picture perfect evening as my husband and I walked back through the trail hand in hand enjoying God’s perfect beauty and each others company.

Did you know what God says in the bible about what commandments are the greatest? We should never forget this. This should be first and foremost in our hearts.

Matthew 22:36-40 New International Version (NIV)

³⁶ “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
 Jesus replied:

“‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’

 This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: ‘

Love your neighbor as yourself.’

All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

 What does this mean?

How can we do this?

perhaps by using and applying these?

Galatians 5:22-23New International Version (NIV)

  the fruit of the Spirit is

love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,  gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

P.S  If I do decide to stop posting on my blog I will let you guys know so you won’t be wondering, Thank you for all your support and interest you’ve shown over the years!!!
Much love  xox

P.S.S. Link to my pink jacket here