Having Fun with Procreate

My daughters gave me an iPad Pro for Christmas. So I decided I was ready to download Procreate and explore the possibilities. It was a little intimidating at first but at least I had already learned to work with layers in Photoshop. I'm really excited about what I've been able to do with just a few of the tools available. I have been learning to do repeats for

Mosaic Series

Mexico is the inspiration for the Mosaic Series. I was awed by the beautiful bright mosaics and the gorgeous flowers and plants everywhere. Looking through photos from that trip, sparked the idea to play with an arrangement of plants and mosaics -- bringing the joy of the trip into my artwork. So far I have five different but similar mosaic and plant digital paintings. They make me smile. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do. Here is the first.  Enjoy!

Lurking on Spoonflower

Not sure how long I've been lurking on Spoonflower -- maybe 10 years --  following the challenges, voting, and sometimes entering a design.  I tried repeat designs maybe 20 years ago but doing them by hand is a real chore. I think I just got frustrated -- that and life got in the way. 

This past Christmas my daughters gave me an iPad Pro

New Year New Post

 I remarked to the Molly Maid ladies just before the holidays that I really needed to make a resolution in the new year to clean my studio. I started having them come clean last February after a mishap with my knee but told them to leave my studio room as it was except for the floors. I kept thinking I would clean it. Somehow the COVID thing had the opposite effect on me. I just could not get motivated to do much of anything. Well, I can't really blame it all on COVID -- I've also had a bad knee for the whole year.

Anyway, Molly Maids were due in the middle of January to clean and I suddenly felt the need to follow through on my promise. I started dragging stuff out of the closet, then the shelves. Then I had to do something.  So a little bit one day and a little bit the next. Viola! I did it! Well, except for 4 file drawers full of paper and a trunk full of linens. I will get to them eventually.

Feels good to have a clean mostly uncluttered space with my art quilts hanging on the wall. Still have stuff I need to get rid of -- Facebook Market hasn't been much help this go-round.

No before pictures -- it was that bad.

My 100 Day Project - Part I

How many of you participate in daily art projects? Do you consider them practice? Meditative? Brainstorming new ideas? In a way, these daily practices seem to stem from social media -- the need to share?   

Wonderful Wacky Holidays

I discovered the Wiggle Your Toes holiday when I was doing research for The Complete Idiot's Guide to Backyard Adventures which was published in 2008. (Unfortunately, the book is no longer published. However, I do have a few copies available in my eBay shop.) While my Wacky Holiday chapter did not make it into the book, there is an appendix of A Year of Holidays to Celebrate. Of all the wild and wacky holidays I found, this has got to be my favorite. This might be the crazy year to seriously celebrate --

Wiggle Your Toes!

Lovely Gardenia

The Lovely Gardenia Collection in my Zazzle shop is based on this photo. Last spring I added new bushes to my side yard which included two gardenias. What a wonderful surprise to have blooms the first season.

For the collection, I used Photoshop to make the photo somewhat transparent and gave it a more painterly look. I printed the photo and added pen/ink markings to accent the edges of the petals.

Funky Pink Pastels

Zazzle suggests telling a story about each design collection. Most of my designs have stories that would be more than a couple sentences long. So I'm reposting here the story behind my Funky Pink Pastels Collection.

Looking for Inspiration

It's a new year! I've spent some time the last few days looking for inspiration -- trying to figure out just what it is that I want to do. Before I retired I had ideas for all kinds of wonderful projects. Well, it's been nearly three years and I haven't really completed one project -- except maybe some household things that needed attention.

Cactus Moon Collection

Cactus Moon Collection

Cactus Moon Collection

Introducing my new Zazzle design -- Cactus Moon.  

Last fall I enjoyed a wonderful camping trip to the Southwest -- Arizona and New Mexico. The trip included Santa Fe and Alburquerque. Then on to Window Rock, and Hubbell's Trading Post (a must-see if you have any interest in Navajo weaving). We hiked Canyon de Chelly to see the White House ruins and enjoyed the Grand Canyon overlooks and Grand Canyon village.  It snowed on us on the way to Flagstaff where we stopped for pizza and mapped- out our route for the next couple days on the road. Sedona, what a fun place!

Evening Stroll

Dusk, a beautiful time for a stroll. And the perfect place for a stroll is along the Via Appia Antica, Rome Italy. As day flowed into dusk, the ancient walls and ruins, the umbrella pines, and the cobblestones conjured up images of days gone by.

Leaves of Autumn

It's almost mid-December and here in Florida, the leaves are just beginning to fall. The golden Maple fall as soon as there's a cool rain and little wind. However, the leaves from the Live Oak tree fall as new ones take their place, a process that will continue into late February. 

Just back from Mexico,

Cosmos

Several years ago, I wanted some color in my slow-growing and mostly green bed of lilies and iris. I decided on pretty, bright orange cosmos. The ones I remembered grew easily and were about twenty-four inches tall. I bought a couple seed packets and spread them generously around the bulbs in my flower garden. And they grew, and they grew some more and more! I had plants six feet tall. What a glorious sight when they all began to bloom. Thus, the basis for the branding of my design sites. They just seem to work well for banners, site headers favicons, and sales materials. I've also used these photos for my Zazzle Cosmos Charm | Bath and Beauty and Kitchen Collections. The orange makes me smile! I hope you enjoy them as much as I have!

To blog or not to blog?

First web site in 1996

I’ve had a website since 1996 so it is hard to give it up. But I did – sorta. When I first started the website, it was innovative and worked well for me because I was in the DIY industry. I used it as a portfolio to promote my design work to vendors and picked up newsletter followers who were interested in the work I was doing for publications.

Around 2003, life got in the way –