Merry Christmas

 

May you feel the loving presence of your Angels this Christmas.

The Hardest Thing I've Had to Share

I don't quite know how to start..........I hadn't yet posted about the 25th Anniversary Lighthouse Challenge we completed because we were planning to be away for a few days visiting friends that had moved last summer to their new home in Pennsylvania.  I had worked ahead a couple days on the birds of Birdtober and we had just finished a project that we were going to take with us as the whimsical part of a housewarming gift.  Most of our things were ready to go in the car the next morning, but during the night, HWNSNBP - Thad, my husband and love of my life had a heart attack and passed away.  I won't go into the details of the emergency call and everything that happened here early that morning.  It was distressing and heartbreaking and I still haven't accepted it.  There were so many plans that he/we had for the future.  He was only 70 and none of us, family, friends, coworkers have been anything less than shocked.  He was unselfish in the love and caring he gave all of us, thinking of others always before himself.  He was my best friend, lover, confidant, care giver, and jokingly my box man, pool boy, and gardener.  There was very little that he wouldn't do for me if anything.  I miss the kiss in the morning when I came down the stairs and him saying "I'll be waiting for you" when he went up at night.  And so much more.

The kids came up right away and helped with as much as they could before they had to go home.  Telling the oldest grandsons was the hardest for them - they loved their dad and papa immensely and knew he loved them.  They helped to plan a pizza party celebration of his life at a favorite restaurant with our very closest friends and family members - something he would have loved.  Many came back to the house afterwards and shared stories that made us all both laugh and cry.  And all of them reminded us of how much he was loved and will be missed.

I'm muddling my way through paperwork and getting all those loose ends tied up.  It's been quite mind-numbing, especially since I also have to take care of settling my mother's affairs - she passed away three days after Thad did.  She was 93 and had had a stroke several months ago.  She died peacefully at home where she lived with my brothers who had been attending to her since she came home from rehab.  

My children check in with me regularly and my friends have been so supportive and are helping me with a lot.   I am lucky to have such a great network surrounding me right now as I begin to navigate through this hole in my life.  

On Tuesday morning - one week after he had passed - I had to get up early so that my son and I could go to the Social Security office to attend to the survivor benefits.  Normally I'm not up and dressed that early unless I have somewhere to go.  I happened to be standing by the kitchen sink quickly having something to eat before we left and looked out into the back yard.  One of the things on our "bucket list" of living here was to see an eagle in our yard.  That morning I did.

He flew from a tree in our yard to the neighbor's and stayed there long enough for me to get my good camera with the zoom to take pictures.  It was the white tail and head that caught my attention. Do you believe in signs?  I think this was a gift from him.  My grandsons will remember him when they see a cardinal - the red bird they said to me.  Those that knew him will remember the time he spent volunteering at The Raptor Trust and the way he lit up when he told people about the bluebirds nesting in our yard.  They, the bluebirds,  have been tapping on the windows looking for him.

I have no more words right now - I just want one more hug and to be able to tell him again that I love him.

Obituary

This was the last project we worked on together - I decided to keep it.

Jingle Belles - One More Pink Christmas

Well, I made it back with my second card for the Jingle Belles Pink Christmas challenge.  I have some die cut stitched flowers that I thought resembled poinsettias.  They have tiny seed beads stitched in for their centers.  There is some pale pink ivy trailing up the side of the screen.  While I was looking for a sentiment to add, I also came across this dove die from The Greetery that I hadn't used yet. 

 

A closer look at the stitching and centers.

It was a little precarious adding the stitching to these flowers and leaves.  Where the petals attach to the center it is not very sturdy and I had to be really careful not to tear the petal from the center.  The floss appears white in the photo but it is the same shade of pink as the die cut ivy.  There are three shades of pink cardstock used for the main elements which is why I opted for a white background.  I had so much pink paper out I decided to use it for a birthday card I'll be posting after I get the card to the birthday girl.  I enjoy all of the lovely fall colors but it is nice to have that pink in October too.

Please click here to visit the Jingle Belles and see all the beautiful pink cards.  You won't be disappointed.  

Birdtober 2024 - Days 1-14

Last year was the first time that I took part in Birdtober and I really enjoyed it.  I used a 4x4" sketchbook and felt that it was a bit restrictive so I opted for a larger book this time - an 8x8".  It is made for watercolors, but almost immediately I felt that the paper was a bit too toothy for my liking.  That could be because I use watercolor pencils which I first apply dry and then go over with an aquapen to activate and blend them so I may need a little more practice getting that saturation point correct.  

There were actually two prompt lists to choose from this time - a North American list and an International list.  I chose the North American list.  

Day 1 - Blue Jay

Day 2 - American Robin

Day 3 - Eastern Bluebird

Day 4 - Belted Kingfisher

Day 5 - Northern Mockingbird

Day 6 - Red-Winged Blackbird

Day 7 - Northern Cardinal

Day 8 - Great Blue Heron

I didn't think there was enough contrast, so this happened and I'm still not sure if I like it.

Day 9 - Ruby-Crowned Kinglet

Day 10 - Black-Crested Titmouse

Day 11 - Barn Swallow

Day 12 - House Finch

Day 13 - Carolina Wren

Day 14 - American Crow

I am using a combination of Generals and Derwent Inktense watercolor pencils.  The backgrounds on the bluejay, robin, and heron are regular watercolors.  And I was able to use my own photos as reference for the bluebird, cardinal, heron, and kinglet.  

There's a feature on iphones that I may have mentioned before that lets you identify things like plants/flowers, animals, and I think it will even identify works of art.  I am always looking to see if what I've drawn will be correctly identified and it's a small victory when it does.  I've even been know to have a celebratory fist pump when that happens.

The 21 Day 100Day Project

By popular demand, the facilitator of The100Day Project put out a fall challenge that was only 21 days long which started mid-September.  I wanted to keep it simple so I went with the kraft stickers again.  This time I added them to a page in a large sketchbook that I have.  This took a little time measuring and placing the stickers accurately, but I was glad to be able to fit 3 rows of 7 stickers in each to be able to keep it all together.  I used two gel pens and each day added some lines to a sticker.  Where the lines of the same color intersected I rounded them with the ink.  

A closer look at the first week.

And this is what it looked like when I initially finished it.  

I decided afterwards to take it a step further and used a black gel pen between the stickers to connect the lines, also rounding the intersecting point.  Those black lines connect blue to blue and pink to pink.  

I've still got a lot of these stickers left so I'll be looking for more was to use them in the future.  This was a nice little project to do while having breakfast on those days - quick and easy.

Jingle Belles - Pink Christmas (For the Cure!)

Maybe it's the dropping temperatures, or the leaves changing, or, more likely, HWNSNBP's worrisome prodding that I won't have enough Christmas cards made that sent me up to the stamp cave to make sure that I got going on the latest, and one of my favorite Jingle Belles challenges.  It's October, or Pinktober to some, and that usually means that the cards are going to be predominantly pink.  Lauren and Steph have a tradition of making a $2 (apiece!) per card donation to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and this year they are continuing that tradition.  

I recently got some dies that I thought might work well with the pastel pink colors for Christmas.  There is a bit of simplicity to this card, but I thought the bunny was so sweet and I know exactly who is going to get this card.  My PT has a pet house bunny so I think she will appreciate this. 

We've had a couple of frost warnings the last few days and the daytime temps have dropped enough for HWNSNBP to turn the heat on should we need it if the house becomes too cold.  He's starting the yard clean-up and has deposited several loads of leaves at the edge of the street so they can come and vacuum them up.  They usually do that several times right up until the end of November which is a good thing because we do not have a shortage of leaves.....ever.  Yesterday, since the lower stems and leaves of the tall zinnias were all brown, I asked him to pick the last of the blooms and he brought those in along with some of the last of the dahlias.  They greeted me on the kitchen counter this morning and I can see them in the sunlight from where I sit to use the computer.

I've got another card almost finished for the JB challenge - it needs a sentiment to complete it and I will be able to share it soon.  In the meantime, should you want to check out the entries so far just click here.  You will not only see what the challenge participants have done so far but you will definitely be treated to the always gorgeous work of Lauren and Steph.  And if you're a card maker, there's another 8 days left to come up with a pink Christmas card.  I know you can do it!

Northern Lights - Bucket List √

These pictures were taken from the back porch of the condo in Barnegat on Thursday 10/10 around 10:18 p.m.  I had seen people posting pictures of the Northern Lights on Tuesday and Wednesday night both from Barnegat and Branchburg but they seemed to be fleeting and not many caught them.  I even went outside on Wednesday night in Branchburg, but nothing was visible with the naked eye. 

With the prediction of visibility being more certain on Thursday night, tips were posted on how to view them with your cell phone camera - the settings to use to get the longer exposure and basically making sure that you were in night mode so the camera could pick up the low level light that the eye cannot see.

We had arrived at the condo on Thursday night to prepare for the kids to visit on the weekend (since cancelled) so I knew I was going ot have an unobstructed view from the back of the condo that faces north.  I waited til a little past sundown but apparently too long because at that time they were very faint.  I had all but given up but saw someone post on FB to "go outside now - they're back" and the post was only 2 mins. old so I had to try again and this time the results were great.

Back in the 60's (the 1960's not my 60's) we were visiting relatives on a Sunday night and when it came time to leave, my uncle walked us out the door and I remember that that was the first time that I had heard of the aurora borealis - the northern lights because he happened to look at the sky and he said that he saw them then.  I'm sure I looked at the sky but I don't remember seeing them - I would have been around 10 at the time.  But I did remember what they were called and as I grew older, after seeing pictures in books and on the internet, always wanted to have that experience of seeing them in real life.  Well, thanks to my iphone I have been able to √ that off my bucket list.  

Sketchbook Work - September 2024+

I don't have a regular sketchbook practice but every once and awhile I get on a roll.  These are some of the things that I worked on in September and I think a few of them were actually earlier than that but I'm just catching up now.  

This first is a tangle I had seen called Skalla by Theresa Fessler CZT.  In the true Zentangle method you are not supposed to use an eraser, but an eraser was very necessary when I did this.  Also, you are encouraged to do it in ink from the beginning but I did this in pencil first.  The basic tangle/shapes were done in Micron and then I added the glitter marker.   It's much prettier in real life.

Some things come up in my Pinterest feed and I usually just pin them to the specific category I have set up.  This time I decided to grab an index card and give this a try.

The same creator did something like this also which I chose to try in my sketchbook.

This tangle in the middle is called Stikz by Preeti Gupta which I did on another index card.  The framing is ad libbed similar to what I had seen her do.

I did it again in a smaller sketch pad I had at the condo one night and added my "maze" around it.

I got these owl stickers at the $Tree and kept forgetting to give them to GS2 and they were getting a little beat up in my travel art bag, so before they started flying off their page on their own I made a little owl mandala using some of them.

This was one of those neurographic art pages where you make the "scribbles" and then, using your ink pen, round the corners of the shapes.  I then went in with the glitter markers and filled in some of the spaces leaving a small portion of the white paper as a frame.  

It was a choice not to fill in everything hopefully adding to the design.

This was from the Sanntangle FB group page.  It's Tile #477.   It just looked very Halloweeny to me so i had to do it.  I had a 4" square of bristol paper that was perfect for it.  

The next 4 index cards where done on the fly.

This mandala was inspired by, believe it or not, a crocheted doily that I had seen somewhere online.  It is completely hand-drawn and colored using my own choices.  I have another one started but I'm also doing a couple of other challenges this month and haven't been able to quite complete that one yet.

I've been able to keep up with the Birdtober challenge (post coming soon) but I am behind on Inktober tangles.  Hopefully I'll get to catching up with that in the next couple of days - I finally found the paper for it that I wanted to use and will tell that story when I post the tangles.

Fall Into Fall 2024 - Tangles

A FaceBook group that I follow - Tangle All Around - facilitated an event during the month of September called "Fall Into Fall".  They provided a list and a pdf of the daily tangles.  This was much like some of the other tangle events that I've participated in and once again I decided to take part in this one.  I used another keyring tag booklet for these that was orange and measured about 3" long.  On the front of the tag I indicated the name of the tangle and it's creator along with a sample of the completed tangle.  On the back I drew six boxes and used two colors to show the step-outs of the tangles.  In the past I've just done the tangle on the front of some smaller tags, or in the case of the previous years' Inktober challenges, just the finished tangle which is good, but having the step-outs on the tag itself helps to not have to search out the steps again, and believe me, sometimes you really need the steps.  There is an example of the back at the end of this.  

Here is the complete keyring - there are about 20 extra tags that I can use to add to this.

And here is a sample of the back.  You can see that I have used a dark pink marker to indicate what is added in each consecutive step.  The arrows between the boxes show the progression of the steps.  This is what the official Zentagle creators have used in the past.  This is pretty small - having to fit 6 boxes on a 3" surface is challenging.  

Inktober will be starting on October 1st and I'm going to take part in that also but I haven't figured out what substrate to use yet.  If you recall, last year I used a sheet of black paper and put the tangles in a segmented pumpkin.  I'm kind of leaning towards doing a large leaf on kraft colored paper if I can find something large enough.  Maybe later this weekend I will see if brown kraft wrapping paper would be suitable.  If not, there's always the thought of another pumpkin.  We shall see.