Sugarwings went to school last week, looking pretty festive. When I picked her up, I took a photo of her in her rainbow pants and it (of course) made me think of Dorothy.
So, I gussied up the photo a bit with PicMonkey.
Here is the before. Weren't those bricks just calling out to be yellow and to be followed?
A few months back, I was asked to participate in this book by Anne Freund and Cynthia Schaffer. It is now out and ready for sale here. and I think on Amazon, too.
It looks like it is going to be a beauty. These pics are just lovely, and I'm impressed by the list of artists who have contributed.
I feel so lucky to have been included with artists I admire.
My project was a travel journal to illustrate the chapter, "Those who wander are not lost"
You can see some of my book in this post if you'd like.
Have you ever made a wrap bracelet? I know the trend has been around for a while. I hope I'm not so late joining in that no one is wearing them anymore… But now that I've found them, I've fallen in love and will probably wear the ones I've made way, way, way past the time of them being in style.
For one thing, they are comfy to wear, not to mention how easy they are to fasten. Bracelets often get put away in drawers for years if I can't hook them without assistance.
Inspiration hit at the Gem and Mineral show in Kansas City. I thought I'd try to make a few bracelets, after seeing the beautiful beads there.
The prices are pretty good there and the dealer was giving me another 20% off the sale price, so I might have gotten a teensy bit carried away…
Trouble is, I'd never attempted to string beads before, but that didn't stop me from spending $250 on semi precious beads to teach myself how to do it.
On second thought, I realized this might not have been my smartest move. These were harder to make than I had hoped they might be. They look pretty simple. But when I started in, it felt more like sewing than making jewelry and I'm not much of a sewer. Needles and thread have been my sworn enemies.
Mine started out a little wonky.
After more than a week of obsessing, and having beads spread out on my dining room table, I think I figured out a few tricks.
The most important thing I discovered was to use a heavier leather cord than the one I started with. The one pictured is ideal. My thinner one broke.
Also, a heavier silk, in 2 meters, not 4 is soooo much easier than the longer pieces. I had no idea which to use when I started, so I went with the one that felt like it was miles and miles of dratted tangles.
A pair of pliers came in handy for tightening the thread, yet I was still getting some beads that bulged away from the cords. I read that you can use a dot of beading glue on the strings to hold them in place. That helped too.
Mine are far from perfect, but the beads and colors themselves are so pretty, that helps hide my flaws.
One reason why I've so totally immersed myself in making these wraps is that I've been doing it in the kitchen instead of out in the studio. It has felt like a break from work, I've enjoyed having a home base right there in the house instead of heading next door. The piles of beads are always right there, tempting me to sit down and dabble with a new design.
Sugarwings had "forgotten" that she had homework until the last two days of spring break, and I sat and made bracelets for hours as she finished up her own work. She designed a bracelet for me to make for her to wear, although I don't really know if they are kid proof or not.
I made an onyx one for Ryan and he wore it to work at the warehouse last night. I told him not to be so trusting of my skills, that it might not hold up to loading trucks.
The possibilities are endless with the designs. Especially if you have gone overboard at the bead show.
Each time I finish one, I can't help thinking about who to make one for next and what colors I'll get to use.
This is one I've made for myself, it has vintage, glass buttons woven into the pattern.
Of course, it is my fave because it is the one I just finished. The latest one I make is always the one I love most, until I make another, that is.
For this one, I was able to make it longer, so that I could get three wraparounds instead of just two like the previous ones.
Most have already been given away, some I didn't even get photos of, I was so excited about them as I finished I couldn't wait to take them to their new owner. Of course, now I'm thinking I shouldn't have given away some wonky ones, I should've remade them.
Well, my pile of beads doesn't really even look like there is much of a dent it in yet. So, back to work.
Dewdrop, AKA Arabella Cinderella, had a slew of farewell parties before hitting the road and heading back to North Carolina for some much desired momma time.
One of our goodbye parties was a trip to the Topeka Zoo.
And to the park next door where all the concrete animals to climb on had fresh coats of paint.
Over the years, that zoo has just gotten better and better. This time, we saw lots of improvements and remodelling that had occurred over the winter.
After going to that park for well, decades, I noticed for the first time that there was a children's theater in the parking lot. How did I miss that? I love to take the grand fairies to shows, but in Kansas City and Lawrence, they are often sold out and hard to get tickets. For this little playhouse, we called a day ahead and for ten bucks each, got to see a group of kids put on "Aristocats" and Sugarwings was thrilled with it.
The only bad thing about it was that Dewdrop had already left and we didn't get to take her with us. She'd have loved it too.
But I'll take her next time.
The second coloring page promised for the Farewell to Downton art journal swap is finally ready. It was something I thought I'd do on a couple of different trips, and I'd travelled with my drawing tools, but never opened them. Once I got back to the comfort of my studio, I was able to make time to get some drawing done.
Here is one version of it colored in.
And here is one more.
There will be two different coloring pages included in the journal each participant will receive, and they will be loose pages. If you want to, feel free to scan them, make multiple copies and try different looks yourself.
I thought I'd show a few in progress pictures of the pages I did. For the frame at the top of the picture, I used a gold glitter as a base.
Over that, I highlighted with a gold metallic pen. (not shown in this photo)
On this frame, I used the gold pen only.
For me, a mix of metallic ink, glitter markers or ink, opaque white ink, markers, and a black liner pen to go over the drawing after it is colored all used together make the page more arty looking than just colored.
And I think that colored pencils make the faces much prettier than markers do. It is a softer look for skin tones.
For these sisters, I used a tan/brownish, a peach and a pink.
The darkest color went where you'd see a shadow.
You can find more tips for faces here.
For pretty hair, I like to use at least two colors. The lighter the hair, the more important this is, like on Edith's head. But even Lady Mary got a dark brown with a black marker over it.
When I color in the eyes, I can lose some of the drawing, so it needs to be added back in.
First with a black detail pen to redo the pupils, then with a white opaque pen to add the highlights.
Much better after those details are added to the eyes.
The champagne glass was done with the world's best pen, Gelly Roll Stardust Glitter, in clear. That was used on just the wine and the bubbles, then I shadowed the glass with light blue and highlighted it and the bubbles with opaque white.
These larger roses got a teensy bit more detail than the roses at the top of the page. All were done as I described in this post, But for these, I was more careful with where the darker colors went.
Instead of just blobbing the rose color onto the center of the flowers, I tried to find the shadows on the inside of the petals. Still, it was a quick process, and not a lot of care went into it, blending over the dark color with a softer pink, then adding one more dark tone to the very center evens it out and makes it pretty, without trying to be too perfect.
For myself, the most complicated part of this page was the black on black of Carson's uniform. You could get around this by using gray if you'd rather. Black marker tends to cover up the entire suit and you end up with a big, black blob if you aren't careful.
To avoid this, either use gray marker, or black pencils, or do as I did, and only draw with your black marker up to the very edge of the lines, leaving a margin of white.
Leaving some white showing throughout the drawing is very important. If you saturate every tiny bit of the paper with color, it will look flat and dead. Going back and adding highlights with a white opaque pen is good to do, and sparkles of glitter help too.
But, with this kind of coloring, leaving some white, really makes the page look better. You can be precise like I had to be with Carson's suit, or you can just have "skips" in your marker lines. Or purposely leave areas the white of the paper as a color choice.
In the fox hunt scene, try to remember that colors in the distance fade and are softer than in the foreground. (at this point, the foreground is just background colors, I added deeper tones to the grass later on)
My distance colors were too dark, and tried to fix it with a white opaque marker.
That helped a little. But it would have looked better if I'd just remembered that hills and trees far away would be pastel colors.
For the hunting dogs, I added random spots.
Oh, and don't forget that the animals' eyes will need a white highlight after coloring them.
Also, the horse can be a danger zone for becoming a big blob, like Carson's suit. To avoid this, don't try to do a black horse unless you go with brown boots and tackle. I kind of like the horse I left white the best.
Trying different looks was addicting, I've colored about four of these now. If you are in the swap, I hope you will scan your black and white drawing before adding color, so you will be able to print more to color and play with.
Before I went to the arty girls weekend on the island, I spent some time with Sugarwings and my handsome husband. She had school conferences a couple of days that week, so we snuck her out a couple more, and flew her off to Cali with us for a little Disney getaway.
Yes, I'm becoming a Disney freak. Mouse addict? Princess stalker? I don't know what you call it, but I caught a serious case of it. And while my husband the rest of the adults in the family are over the place, the girls and I are not. My husband does say he has one more trip in him to take Dewdrop, since she couldn't come this time. Then he is free and never has to go back with me.
But he does have moments there that he loves, like dancing Downton Disney with his grand fairy.
She and I don't get tired of any of it, and we try to soak up as much as we can. We decided that we would never leave the hotel without walking under the wizard's hat, even if going another way was quicker. You just have to walk under a wizard's hat if it is available, don't you?
The highlight of our girl's day at Disney (my husband went to visit friends and the beach, he didn't come to the park) was seeing Ariel.
We rode her ride too. We actually spent our extra "magic hour" before the park opened, trying to break our record of how many times we could go around and around on that. We hit five times in a row without having to get off, since there were no lines.
Sugarwings had her art journal with her and drew a frame on pages for the princesses to sign.
At the lunch in Ariel's Grotto, all the princesses stop to chat and while I didn't hear all of the conversations, a few were pretty involved, and the ladies were very nice about spending time with her. Many of them told me what a great kid she was, and had some laughs.
Sugarwings was very animated while telling Tiana that she admired her because she was a princess who took care of herself and worked hard. Their conversation turned to Rapunzel and Merida after that.
It was all pretty cute.
Sugarwings is about 9-1/2 now. And looks so grown up. I'm hoping this isn't our last visit to the grotto for lunch, I'll be sad if she is ever too cool to hang out with her grammie there. I know I don't outgrow it.
Neither of us got tired of hunting for Hidden Mickeys and we even found a few.
We certainly picked the right day to be there, a Monday in late February. We never even needed a fast pass, there were hardly any lines.
When there was a little wait, we had a system. I'd read a book on my phone, and she would listen to a book on Audible with headphones hooked to my phone. We were a pretty good team, and it was an ideal day. Great weather, no crowds, no rush, we did what we wanted, when we wanted to.
That is pretty much how the whole trip went, we stayed at Disney a couple days, then at the Hotel Del Coronado a few more. Our poor girl came down with a fever and we missed the San Diego Zoo, and even with that, we had a wonderful trip.
She and I had lazy mornings on the balcony watching the water, wrapped up in hotel robes and reading our books.
The Del gives each kid a backpack with scavenger hunt tools and hints, so we played that game for a while.
We explored the hotel, ate fancy dinners, and watched the Sandcastle Man with his masterpiece. Yes, quite a trip, and all building up to my artful girls getaway. I really felt lucky and blessed.
I'll leave you with a few more pictures of the week. And here is a favorite song from my youth, so dreamy and sweet. And about Disney, too.
One of the reasons (of many) that I wanted to attend this luxury event in Coronado Island was to take a lesson in making macarons, taught by a French Chef.
Well….. there were some issues with that.
First of all, there was a slight gassy smell coming from the 90 year old oven in the morning when it was fired up. The oven was said to need two hours to warm up, but when it was turned on, it didn't seem right.
I hardly noticed it, even though others were complaining. The home's owner was called and he said not to worry.
So, we went on with our morning.
But it got worse. And worse, and worse.
Stupidly, I went along with ignoring it, just complaining about the smell a bit. I did open windows on a couple floors. This is a 13 bedroom house, so is huge,and the smell was prevalent throughout. Which should have set off alarms in my head. But apparently I am a dumb ass.
Well, eventually, we all decided that waiting for the owner to care enough to handle it wasn't a good idea. The gas company was called, Beth and I went outside for fresh air and to escape explosions. I don't know why everyone didn't evacuate, one person took a nap due to a headache from the gas. If we'd had a lick of sense, we'd have brought her outside, not let her nap!!!
Now, if you are ever anywhere with a gas leak, please be smarter than us. You should LEAVE THE BUILDING. Call the gas co. or fire department from another location. When the technician arrived, he said that a cell phone call could set off a static spark that could ignite the house.
The old oven had given up the ghost, and we were lucky to have not become ghosts ourselves, according the the gas company. The repairman said it was not a matter of "if" but "when" it would have blown up if we had gone on with making cookies.
Yes, I felt dumb as dumb can be for blissfully ignoring the situation and going about my business. I'd like to say I was dizzy from the gas and not making rational decisions, but I'll admit to being plain old careless and stupid and am lucky to be alive.
Well, we lived. The gorgeous house did not blow up. And I learned how to make macarons. Although, the chef insists that all the ingredients must be measured and I am more of an eye baller. She told me, "good luck with that".
Well, I am on a lucky streak, what with being alive and all, so maybe my cookies will be fine.
We couldn't use the oven, and honestly didn't even want to.
I figured the toaster oven should be fine, but the chef said NO, it wouldn't. I figured I'd give it a shot anyway. Some of the cookies weren't as nice as they should have been, but we just piled on tons of extra filling and ate them that way.
They tasted magnificent.
There was one pan load from the toaster oven that looked good though. Very good, I'd say. The chef pointed out that they were a bit brown on top, but I didn't care. I think they are lovely. After all we'd been through that day, I WAS GOING TO HAVE MACARONS and I was going to enjoy them.
Here they are next to our other projects, a crown and a button necklace. I brought some extras to make the necklace and ended up making one long chain of buttons and another, shorter one with some of my rhinestone pieces added. My crown took on a blue bird of happiness theme, and has a lot of extra rhinestoney goodness pieces added to it too.
The kitchen might have been a time bomb, but man it was cool. See those wooden doors? Those are the original, ice box style refrigerators. Still in use. That is the fridge for the house.
This is the butler's pantry, I think.
This door might have been one of my favorite things in the house. Out of soooooo many beautiful things to chose as a fave.
Like this tattered velvet hand rail.
The dainty tile.
The garden trails.
Trees filled with fresh oranges.
Murals in the dining room.
And the chaise lounge in my bedroom suite.
What a lovely suite it was, two bedrooms and a full bath, with cozy beds each topped with a pillow with our names on it.
The house was a mix of comfy, homey furnishings from the family who'd lived there for decades, and antiques. The structure itself seemed to all be original, and the trim work was over the top, especially the dining room ceiling.
But the very, very best part? Interesting new friends to laugh with! And to not die with. I'm glad our headaches and upset stomachs from the gas faded away, not one of us exploded, and we even got to kind of finish one batch of macarons.
The home we stayed in on Coronado Island was a highlight of the trip. It still had so many of its original elements, and we could picture ourselves back in time as we explored the back hallways, servants quarters, and even the kitchen which still had its old, old oven and ice box style wall fridges. (and there is a whole other story to come about the oven…)
While the home was spectacular, it was still homey, you could tell a family had lived there for years. We were comfy hanging out in jammies and crafting till all hours of the night, or coming down to the kitchen still groggy to put on a pot of coffee.
Yep, we got to explore the whole house. One night, we went up to check out the attics. Yes, plural attics. One didn't have a light and it was pitch black in the stairs, and as we were trying to man up to get to the next level and find a light switch, Beth spookily said, "There is something wrong here."
She had stepped in something. We couldn't see what it was, but she guessed a dead bat. I thought maybe a rat. I ran down a few flights and zoomed back up with my phone's flashlight
And discovered, about half way up the flight of stairs, one of the biggest piles of dog poo, I'd ever seen.
Dog poop?
On the stairs?
Of a unused attic of a marvelous mansion?
When we hadn't seen a dog around anywhere?
Yuck, yes dog poop. I've never seen a dog use a stairway to do that on, very odd for many reasons.
Needless to say, that dark stairwell and attic space didn't get explored that night. But we went off another direction to a lower level attic and poked around in there. I'd hoped to see 90 year old, cob webby treasures, but instead, it looked like typical modern day storage from the family. Childhood toys, outgrown sports equipment, a few pieces of unused furniture.
No dog poo, though.
Deb, our hostess, was thrilled to see 1950s Barbies in their cases full of clothes and wanted to get a photo of Beth and I with them on the steps.
As soon as I held mine up, this happened.
And we started laughing like little girls on a sleepover being silly with their besties. Laughing til our bellies ached. Laughing like this was the funniest thing that could ever, ever happen. Laughing til I had an asthma attack.
I ran down a few more flights of stairs and to the other wing, bent over with laughter, unable to breathe, while Deb and Beth followed me, to get my inhaler from my purse in my suite.
It ain't a good belly laugh unless it almost kills you.
This was a typical moment from the weekend. Beth and I had the sillies, and made the most of them. Laughing like a carefree child and being goofy is not what I expected to do on our formal Downton Abbey art retreat, but man, it sure was a fun turn of events.
A weekend full of goofy behaviour is something everyone should have. We climbed out of our bedroom window to explore a hidden patio.
Where we had a beautiful view from our part of the roof top, but made fools of ourselves in ways I won't even mention. But we sure entertained ourselves.
Beth wrote "HELP" in sticks on the roof top, and we rolled around on the roof laughing at how clever it was. It is a good laugh that knocks you down to the ground so that you can't get up.
Here is a little sketch I made for my book, showing highlights of the trip.
Maybe you had to be there?
Here is Beth's post about the mansion. You can see how stately it is, not a typical backdrop for our juvenile giggle fits.
For the last few years, every time I go to a beach, I leave behind fairies made from the shells I find while walking the shores there.
I've been told that Coronado Beach can be shell heaven or be totally bare. And I caught it on one so-so day then a few days of bareness. So I was lucky to have found enough to create this little sprite, my beach treasure hunt didn't yield many shells. Lots of sand dollars though. My husband was a champion sand dollar finder, he even found living ones that we couldn't pick up. They were everywhere he looked.
I never break or alter a shell for my fairies, so I was happy to have him find this 3/4 sand dollar that made a pretty skirt with the ruffled conch shell topper.
The shore was a bit rocky, lucky for me, one was just right for the fairy's head, because I couldn't find a shell that worked anywhere.
There might have been a lack of shells, but the sand itself more than made up for it. There were GOLD FLAKES OF GLITTER throughout on my first day there!!!!!!!!!!
Real GLITTER!!!!!!!!!!!
Apparently, the waves are filled with Mica flakes that wash up on the shore. When the surf is light, they are big, fat, flakes of gold glitter. On rougher days, the mica is pulverised into a shimmer of stardust. Every day, the sand along the water is different, but it is always sparkling.
I was in love.
I just wish the sparkles had photographed better. The glitter (and that is what real glitter is made of, MICA flakes) was one of the most unexpected treats I've ever come across on a vacation.
Well, beaches each have their own personality and specialness, like the quartz crystal on Siesta Key that keeps cool to the touch no matter how hot the sun is. And the heart shaped pieces of coral that wash up on Kaanapali in Maui. Or the shark's teeth fossils all over Venice Beach.
Why oh why do I live in the smack dab, middle of the USA, as far from any beach as you can get?
Of course, I really can't complain. We have made it to the ocean quite a bit in the last few years for Kansans.
Which is why I make all these sea shell fairies to leave behind, I want to show my love of the shore, and my gratitude for the opportunity to be there.
I treasure each moment I get to be by the water. And thank my lucky stars that I had a chance to be there.
Every day should be considered a gift, but a day by the beach is a true treasure.
Tonight is the LAST night for Downton Abbey. I find that painful to say. The show was in its 3rd season when I discovered it, so I was late to join, but fixed that quickly with a little Netflix bingeing and was soon enamoured of it all.
The show touched many of us, not just for the glorious sets and costumes, but the stories too. Last week, while I was in Coronado Island, I attended my THIRD Downton Abbey art retreat. It was a popular theme, wasn't it?
For this event, we stayed at a 1930s era mansion and I took advantage of the lovely interiors to get some photos of my Farewell to Downton art journal. Some of the pages I'd made there were for the swap, some for my personal book. Beth and I spread supplies out on a dining room table, and I worked on the book for a big chunk of the weekend.
Most mornings, I was at my work area before anyone else even came down for breakfast.
The theme has so many opportunities to explore, I never got bored with it. And want to do more, too.
Also, having a big space to spread out, and leave our things for 5 days was hard to resist. There were other projects for the retreat classes (photos soon), but our time there was pretty laid back, we were free to work on our own projects, explore the house, beach, or the nearby town, and hang out with new friends.
But if you know anything about me, you'd guess that I was constantly drawn to my pile of goodies and bottle of glue.
So, here is a big stack of pages to show you, as examples for your own books if you are joining the swap.
I've mentioned that the book should be a "working journal". Artists will be completing some pages, and leaving some for the new owner to work on. Like this page lying on the desk, it is a piece of stationery with plenty of room for the person who gets the journal it goes into to use for photos, doodles, notes, anything she'd like.
And the page on the easel? It is an example of a decorated page with a pocket that can be filled with whatever momentos the artist would like.
My plan was to do half and half of completed artwork, like the collage on the left, and pretty pages that could be used by the next artist, like the one on the right. That one is old ledger paper with a pocket that has a tag tucked into it.
Hopefully the pages where we leave space for further work, will be lovely as is, while being an inspiration for the artist to fill and finish.
These pages all leave workspace. The one on the left is a decorated pocket page, the middle is a collage of pretty papers to use as a background, and the front section is stationary paper with a die cut rose and lace trim.
Notice that the pages I have done have trim or lace or flowers on different edges? It makes for a more interesting finished book if there are tidbits peeking out from all sides.
The one in front is for my own book, it is the finished version of the coloring page that comes with the journals. And the buttons? That is a necklace! From one of our workshops.
This page is pretty simple, old rose wallpaper, a cut out lady from a vintage magazine who has been glitzed up with some rhinestones, lace, millinery, and velvet ribbon, then some tatting trim at the edges of the paper.
A layout doesn't need to be elaborate to be eye catching.
And the Downton theme can mean so many things. I went with a lot of the fashion of the era.
Here are ladies from an old fashion magazine layered over netting and a map of the British Isles, then blinged up.
Here are two more pocket pages,both have two pockets to fill up.
You are welcome to be more direct in your own interpretation of the show. I plan on having more examples of the themes to show later on.
If you are going to miss this show as much as I will, maybe you'd like to join the swap? Creating pages will give us something to fill the hole left by this beautiful program.
And the book itself can be a treasured memento to look through and reminisce.
I have been getting some questions about the swap details, and hope that these pictures help answer them. If you have any, please feel free to contact me at:
karlanathan@sbcglobal.net
And here is a communication I had with a swapper, with her statements answered in red: