Blog Schedule

I'm going to stop posting here every week.  Instead, I'll wait until there's something worth posting -- maybe only putting something up every other week, or even once a month.  Just depends on whether I take a photo or three of something fun, or have enough new art to put up here.  

Whenever I do post, it will still always be on a Monday, so that's the only day anyone needs to check up. 

Just two drawings from this past week:

Chess pieces in ink and water-soluble brush pens on toned paper

Tree frog in watercolor

Hope you are enjoying your Summer out there!

Nothing to See Here

Sorry, I didn't do anything this week except the usual stuff and there wasn't anything to take photos of during the daily riverfront walks.  So the only things to share today are the two drawings done from the group art practice sessions.  

This is an abandoned industrial site (no idea what) in New Zealand, done with ink and watercolor:

We got a bit out of our comfort zone for the other session, when we decided to try doing a portrait.  No idea who this is -- she just turned up on a Google image search for "interesting faces".  I used colored pencils.

Other than that, we survived the horrible Fourth of July noise, although Pippin had some rough moments.  This is a pic of him during the worst of the bangs and booms, clutching his stuffed toy:

He was NOT happy. Neither was I.  DOWN with FIREWORKS!  

Don't worry -- Pippin recovered nicely.  Here he is a few days later at the groomer:

Okay, back to my needlepoint project.  And the other usual stuff.

Have a good week out there!

Going for a Walk

I've been getting out and about more lately, and have been putting in my miles, mostly along the riverfront, though last week I encountered an obstacle:

The Columbia River was so high (from mountain snow runoff) that one of our favorite paths was partially covered with water:

And the beach was gone!  There is normally an 8-foot wide sandy beach at this point:

The water level has gone down now, nearly back to normal.  

The temperatures have been rising, though -- we're hitting the 90s regularly now, and even got over 100 once.  So I have to get up and get going by 7am to beat the heat.  Yay.

But despite the rising waters and rising temps, I managed to hit a personal goal last week:  1,000 miles in one year!

The Pacer Adventure Challenge app helped motivate me a great deal.  They offer virtual walks all over the world (which you can follow using Google streetview), from short ones (a 13-mile stroll around London, a 26-mile walk around Bangkok et al) to medium ones (49 miles in Iceland, 54 miles in Honolulu) to long walks (105 miles around Mont Blanc, 135 through the Colombia coffee plantations).

I've virtually walked all those and many more -- I've done 19 virtual walks in one year.  It was hardest in winter, when it was too cold or too snowy or too icy, and sometimes I walked inside my house for a mile or two, which is VERY VERY BORING.  But I managed to keep moving, as noted by the app's stats:

I even earned a special pin for completing at least one walk on each of the seven continents:

I shall try to keep up the walking even as we head into 100+ degrees here for the Summer.  Yay.

Okay, on to the artistic side of things.  Here is the one sketch I liked this week -- some sort of hook that I assume is attached to a boat at the other end, but this was all we got to see in the reference photo.  I used ink, water-soluble colored pencils, and watercolor to get the various textures:

 

I didn't like the other sketch our Zoom group did, so nobody gets to see it.  Hah.

But I did enjoy working on my newest Good Omens needlepoint project.  I used my own colored pencil drawing as the reference this time, of Aziraphale:

The chart was produced by putting the photo through the free pixel-stitch.net program.  To get the level of detail I wanted, the chart required 61,920 stitches!  (My previous three needlepoints were all around 35,000.)  Yikes.

Oh, well.  I decided to try it anyway.  Usually I work from the top down, but I realized the larger size would make that difficult, as the worked canvas would get too bulky as I rolled it down (I hate using frames).  So I worked out where the center was, and started from there, working downward first.  This is how far I've gotten after one month (15,000 stitches):

Assuming I'm able to keep up that pace, it should be finished by end of October.  And then I have another project in mind...of Crowley...that's also 62,000 stitches.  What larks!

Anyway, that's the report for now.  Have a great week out there, everyone!

The Comforts of Home

Those who know me well are aware that I do enjoy home decorating a great deal.  They also know that my tastes run to the unusual, eccentric, and eclectic.  For example, here are two pics of my living room, which is full of things not seen in most ordinary (and boring!) homes:

I mean, every non-boring home should have a candelabra, right?

And a statue of Shakespeare:

And a unique plant stand on which to place your unique obelisk:

In order to acquire these fabulous things, I like to haunt the antique shops, and we have some good ones here.  And last week, a new one opened in the Uptown Shopping Center, one of my fave places to go, as there are two large antique malls there plus several smaller shops.

The new one is called Gleaned Antiques and it's small, just one owner, but she has a good eye for fun stuff at great prices.  For just $100 total, I picked up these three finds:

Miniature sundial (about 4")

Fabulous candlesticks

Globe with Atlas!!  I love the colors on the globe.

I also hit up one of the large antique malls, where I spotted what looked like a charming painting at a distance, of a typically English village scene, but upon closer scrutiny, it turned out to be a needlepoint!  And a very nicely executed one, too, I must say.  It definitely came home with me.

And finally, at that same mall, I found this unusual triptych mirror.  I'm not a general fan of mirrors, and the only ones in my house are in the bathrooms, but this one just spoke to me.  "I'm unusual!" it said.  "And eclectic!"  So now it is mine.

Many of these items are now gracing the headboard in the guest room, but eventually they will migrate to other spaces.  

So that was fun. 

Someday I'm going to do something with that guest bedroom, something wacky and eccentric, but it will have to wait until I figure out what that something is.  Wait and see!

Otherwise my week was pretty normal.  On our dog walks we noted that the Columbia River is still above normal levels (from snow-melt runoff in the Cascades).  Here are some trees that are usually out of the water:

The temperatures are climbing upward now, after a rather cool Spring.  It should get into the 90s and even over 100 this coming week.  A good time to cool off:

On another walk, we spotted this quail on the trail:

And more evidence of the high waters -- those little clumps of vegetation in the middle of the river are actually the tops of brush and trees which are part of an island, currently submerged:

Luckily, there is a dike, and the riverfront trails stay nice and dry.

As for artistic endeavors, I did this quick copy of a 1920s drawing of an Egyptian scene:

I spent a lot more time on this wonderful vulture, using ink and watercolor:

That's all for now.  Probably won't be out and about much this coming week with the high temps, but you never know.  

Stay safe out there, everyone!

 

Farther Afield

The Hounds and I ventured out of town for a short jaunt!  Wonder of wonders. We drove up to Ellensburg (about two hours one way) for the annual Dachshunds on Parade event which hasn't been annual since 2019.  

But first, the usual Other Stuff has to be got out of the way.  

We've been out walking by the river more often, as the grass pollen has calmed down.  There has been so much runoff from the snow in the Cascades that the rivers here were near flood stage at times.

The sign in the pic above is normally completely out of the water.  Fortunately, the river boats were still able to dock.

They wouldn't have been able to dock at this spot...one of the smaller boat docks nearby.

The water level had gone down a bit the last time we were there.  Whew.

In artistic efforts last week, I drew two views of some church buildings:

And this challenging picture of a crow taking flight:

Okay, now for the report on our little mini-adventure.  Dachshunds on Parade is an event held in downtown Ellensburg which includes a costume contest, pet tricks contest, races, and of course, a parade of wieners.  It coincides with the weekly farmers market, and takes place over three blocks or so.

On Friday afternoon, I drove the Hounds up to our friend Michelle's vacation home in a town about 20 miles from Ellensburg.  We had a lovely visit there with her and Winston, the longhaired English cream dachshund who was buddies with Truman when we lived in Seattle.  Although they initially enjoyed seeing each other again, most of the time it was Pippin who claimed Winston's attention.  Those two followed each other around a lot, and played a bit, while poor Truman just sulked in a corner.  I suspect Truman was just unhappy to be away from his home.

We stayed overnight, and on Saturday morning I drove to Ellensburg, with Michelle driving Winston there separately, so I could head on home from there after the event.  We met up at the farmers market, where we scored some scrumptious cookies with chocolate and marshmallows in them.  We watched the parade of wieners, and then joined in at the end to walk the last block or so.  Then we enjoyed the costume contest, but did not stay for the other events.  

There were hundreds of dachshunds, of all coats and colors.  The weather was perfect, around 65 and sunny.  It was wonderful to attend such a fun and festive event after the two-year hiatus.

Here are a few pics (it's very hard to take photos in such a throng, but I tried my best!).

Costume contest:  the SS Doxie fishing boat:

Wiener dog chefs:

Fred and Wilma Flintstone:

Dachshunds on parade:

Parade grand marshals:

Winston, Pippin, and Truman relaxing at Michelle's place:

That's all for now.

Have a lovely week out there!

Defeated by Grass Pollen

I wasn't able to get out and about much this past week due to very high grass pollen which gave me horrible allergy attacks if I spent even a few minutes anywhere near a lawn.  There is a lot of grass at our favorite parks, so I had to walk the dogs around the Uptown shopping center or other concrete-heavy areas.  Sigh.

Even going into my own backyard was hazardous, though I did manage to snap these few pics of the lupine blooming:

The lilies in the front yard are looking good, too:

Meanwhile, in dachshund land, I finally have a wonderful photo of Truman to share.  Pippin is much more the photogenic one, and tends to get way more air time than poor Truman, who often looks anxious.  But the groomer managed to take a pic of Truman this week that I just adore:

He looks so confident! Possibly even ready to run for office.  Vote for Truman!  His platform is Free Treats for All.

When he got home from the groomer, Pippin had to sniff him thoroughly to make sure I'd brought back the right dog.  He did definitely smell different, as in clean.

As for the art projects this week, here is a lantern in a Kyoto garden which I did with grey ink and watercolor:

And here is a reflective stream which I did with just watercolor:

Finally, the custom frame I ordered for my Good Omens needlepoint arrived, and I put it all together, and it was perfect:

Here it is on the bedroom wall along with my oil painting of a daVinci angel and my drawing of Crowley in the bookshop which is hard to see but oh well.  I'm always rearranging the dozens and dozens of pictures and art work on the walls in my home, so this will probably change at some point. But it will do for now.

That's all for this time.  
Have a great week out there!