Merry Christmas and the Blizzard of 2009

The weathermen had predicted we would get 3 to 8 inches on Christmas Eve. As it turned out, it had rained during the night before, then about 7 am, it turned to sleet. I made it in to work, then a little after 8 am, they told us all to go home. I had not had a snow day since I was a kid in school. The roads were noticably worse on the drive home. The wind was blowing so hard that the sleet was biting when it hit your face. It turned to snow before 9 am and the blowing snow continued all day. It was blowing so hard, there was very little visability, even looking out the window. I braved getting out my front door once in the afternoon to take pictures, particularly one of the snow drifting up against my front door. (I tried to take a photo later in the afternoon through my window, but the camera focused on my screens.)
All events for the day were canceled, the governor declared a state of emergency for the entire state. All the interstates were closed. I am grateful that we did not lose power. On the news, they said that so many people had gotten stuck in their cars that the roads looked like parking lots, and many cars and trucks had slid off the roads. The last I heard, they had 12 inches of snow at Will Rogers Airport, and this was a record snow fall for Oklahoma.
I am grateful for Our LORD and Savior, who came to earth as a babe so that I could have the free gift of salvation.
I am grateful for the snow day. It gave me more time to spend with my son who is here visiting from St. Louis. And I baked some of his favorite Christmas baked goods.

Handmade Christmas Ornaments

This weekend I took a class at My Heart's Fancy in OKC and made these Christmas ornaments. There is alot of detail on each ornament that you really can't appreciate from a photograph. I am pleased with the way they turned out. The large Santa one didn't photograph well as I took it at the shop with my iphone and the lighting wasn't right. I don't have it available any more to photograph again.

Deeper Still

I had the opportunity to go the the Deeper Still Conference this weekend at the Cox Center in Oklahoma City. It was so wonderful. I met a friend and her husband at the Spaghetti Warehouse for dinner and then we walked over to the Cox Center. Kay Arthur taught Friday night and then Priscilla Shirer and Beth Moore taught on Saturday. Saturday after the morning session, Kay Arthur had her photo taken with the Precepts Leaders. There were so many of us that the photographer divided us into two groups. Travis Cottrell and the worship team had us on our feet the whole time. Kay, Beth and Priscilla did a question and answer session on Saturday that was hiliarious. And I ran into old friends and got to reminiscence a little.

Happy Thanksgiving

I am grateful for so many things this Thanksgiving. My son drove in from St. Louis to visit his family. Thanksgiving is always more poignant when one has family and friends. Life is good.

Bert Seabourn at the Edmond Art Association

I was able to watch Bert Seabourn demonstrate his craft
at the Edmond Art Association meeting November 23.
His wife Bonnie was with him and they are quite a team.
They were both very personable and made all of us feel
like old friends. He brought his sketchbook and let us
look through it to our hearts's content. They answered
questions until Sharon Webster had to finally tell us that
we were out of time for the room. Forgive the photo as
it was taken with my iphone.

Happy Thanksgiving

I thought I would share this Thanksgiving card that I made for my mom and dad.

Rose Hips and Hops Wreath

I came across this post from Ali Edwards blog a few weeks ago: http://aliedwards.typepad.com/_a_/page/3/

The wreaths are from Colby Cottage in Oregon. I sent an email to the owner of the shop, and she responded that they would ship the wreaths. So I called and ordered one. Here is it on my front door. I love it.

Autumn

I grew up in Virginia, and I was bemoaning the fact that the trees here do not display the beautiful colors in the fall that they do in Virginia, particulary in the Blue Ridge Mountains. And then, as I was driving in Edmond this afternoon, these trees caught my eye, and I just had to pull over and bask in their glory. I didn't have my camera with me, so I got out my phone and took a few shots. It was just a God-stop thing, bringing me to my knees as I realized the beauty that is all around me when I just slow down enough to stop and look.

Thanks for looking.

Majestic Swan

I was able to get close enough to catch the
reflection of this swan with the little geese
swimming in the background. It was such
a beautiful show that it really warmed
my heart. Enjoy life.

Christmas Angel Tryptich

I met with some good friends this weekend and we made Christmas Angel Tryptichs. I didn't even put up a tree last year, may not put one up this year either. But, I thought it would be nice to make some decorations - hence the Angel Tryptich. I am pleased with the way it turned out. And, it's always fun to create with friends.

Portrait Challenge #2

Sherry (http://pashnada.blogspot.com/) and Ellen are working on a portrait challenge. This is my attempt #2. The problem with trying to draw a portrait, or anything else for that matter, when you are just learning, is that it never looks like the person you are trying to draw. We also tend to be hypercritical of our own attempts. Danny Gregory has said that you should draw, and then write on the page something good about your drawing; the idea is that you can't write anything negative. That would just give you an excuse to give up. In this portrait, I used Faber-Castell drawing pencils in HB, 2B and 6B, Faber-Castell PITT artist pen in both black India ink and Sepia india ink and a variety of Prismacolor colored pencils. In attempt to not be negative, I will note that I think I will probably use the india ink less and more pressure on the pencils to get more value in areas.

Comments? Advice is welcomed.

Birthday Celebration

In celebration of my birthday, a good friend took me to dinner at Charleston's. It was wonderful as usual. And as a surprise, she had them bring a huge brownie with caramel sauce and ice cream on top for us to share for dessert. It's a blessing to have good friends. Then I met another friend at the UCO Jazz Lab and we went to the Chris Botti concert. He and his band put on the best show. My photos during the concert were taken with my iphone. I took the one of me in front of my curtains.

article in Downtown Oklahoma City Magazine

A friend at church brought me this magazine. I had not seen the article, so I was pleasantly surprised. Thanks for looking.

Trying to Learn Watercolor

I have checked a few books out of the local library and checked many artist's blogs, and I am trying to learn to watercolor. This iris is from an iris exhibit that was at the local library. Thanks for looking.

~Bye for now.

sketch a day

This sketch is not recognizable. The person I am attempting to sketch is famous, but it doesn't look like him. I saw him on an awards show and was so impressed with his blue eyes and his smile. He just looked like he was having fun.

work in progress - part 2

Once again, my sketch doesn't look like the person it is supposed to look like. I have tried to follow Sherry's recommendations, but somehow it just doesn't turn out like I want it to. I guess that is why they call it practice, or learning.

work in progress

Funny how portraits never look like the people you are trying to sketch. This is definitely a work in progress as it does not look the the person I am trying to sketch. Funny how also I only see the things that are wrong in a sketch.

sketch of door of law school

I made this card from a sketch of the door of my son's law school earlier this year.

Self Portrait

My attempt at a self portrait. I am the only person who is willing to sit still for a portrait.

Moon flowers

My mother is proud of her moon flowers.

Providence

I have had a number of times in my life that the Providence of God was evident. One of the most recent times was on August 10, 2009. I had borrowed a car and driven to Chattanooga, Tennessee for a job interview. [The car belonged to my parents and they had purchased it new in April.] I-24 through the mountains just west of Chattanooga has many curves and hills and heavy truck traffic. There are even "runaway truck" lanes that go up the mountain when the interstate is going down, in case a truck loses its brakes. As I was traveling back from the interview, in heavy traffic with 3 lanes in each direction, I came across a large piece of a truck tire in the road. There was no way to avoid it, so I went over it, as did other cars. Large pieces of truck tire were flying through the air. I thought the tire pieces were going to go through my windshield, but luckily the pieces hit the underneath part of the car, and only messed up the grill, and resulted in numerous dings in the bumper, grill and part of the front hood. There was no where to stop at the time, so I kept going. I am grateful that I was not hurt, and the damage to the car was minimal.

my old underwood typewriter

While I was visiting my parents last week in Tennessee, we dug out my old (or should I say my mother's old) Underwood Typewriter. It was under fishing supplies in the garage. My mother got the bug nests out of it and we cleaned it up so I could take a few photos. Unfortunately, it was late afternoon and there were lots of shadows, but photos with shadows are better than no photos. I have such fond memories of typing on that old Underwood with the upright keys, the manual return and the ribbon you had to change. I typed up my college notes and papers on it in the early 1970s. She even has the owner's manual wrapped up so that it looks like new.

Jewelry - Using Tim Holtz Ideaology

I thought I would share photos of a couple of necklaces I made in a class at My Heart's Fancy. They are totally unlike my usual taste, but I am trying to stretch my comfort zone, and make and wear things that are not my "norm". Thanks for looking.

Tennessee Sunset

I had the pleasure of visiting my elderly parents in Tennessee for a couple of weeks this month. They live out in the country, on a lake, with no internet access (yikes!) and my phone didn't get reception there either. It's funny how much we think we need the technology. One evening while walking, I took this photo of the sunset. I didn't have my camera with me, so I took the photo with my iphone. I am posting two versions of the same photo, one with a little photoshop "tweeking".

Dianne's Southwest Cornbread Salad

This was delicious.

1 (6-ounce) package cornbread mix

1 (1-ounce) envelope buttermilk Ranch salad dressing mix
1 small head romaine lettuce, shredded
2 large tomatoes, chopped
1 (15-ounce) can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 (15-ounce) can whole kernel corn, drained
1 (8-ounce) packaged shredded four-cheese blend
6 bacon slices, cooked and crumbled
5 green onions, chopped

Prepare cornbread according to package directions; cool and crumble. Set aside.
Prepare salad dressing according to package directions.
Layer a large bowl with half each of cornbread, lettuce, and next 6 ingredients; spoon half of dressing evenly over top. Repeat layers with remaining ingredients and dressing. Cover and chill at least 2 hours.

Makes 10 to 12 servings.

From Southern Living Magazine 2004

note: I altered the recipe to make it less spicy.

photo sharing

I wanted to share a photo from the Netherlands.

Edit: sorry to be misleading, this is a photo that I did multiple steps to in photoshop. The original is on top.

Digital Scrapbook Challenge at JessicaSprague.com

Jessica Sprague is teaching a free online class on digital scrapping and this week they are giving away freebies and a different challenge each day. This is my digital scrapbook page for today.

Watercolor of Kaisers ice cream shop

I thought I would post my latest. I went to St Anthony's for the Celebration for Cancer Survivors on June 7 and on the way home I was struck by the beautiful flowers in front of Kaisers and along the circle at 10th and Walker. I decided to try to do a watercolor of the front of Kaisers with St Anthony's Hospital in the background. I wish I knew what those blue/purple flowers were. I am posting the original photo and an "in progress" of the watercolor and the completed watercolor.

~Thanks for looking.

Finally got a decent photo of myself

Last Friday evening as I was about to leave home for the Survive and Thrive Single Mother's Conference put on by Arise Ministries, I decided to try one more time for the elusive decent photo of myself. It is amazing how the older I get, all I see are the wrinkles and other defects. It's funny that one of the breakout sessions at the conference had quite a bit of information related to low self-esteem! Anyway, I took a few shot by setting the timer on my camera and standing in front of my bedroom door. I thought this one was acceptable. And since I didn't care for the design of the bedroom door behind my head, I used photoshop and moved my image to a solid black background.

~Thanks for looking.

Happy Father's Day and I love Photoshop

These photos are from 2005. My father's boyhood farm home was lost to the family when the government cut payments to disabled WWI veterans and the family could not keep up the payments. My grandfather was gassed in France in WWI and my dad was in the service in WWII. I had a photo of my dad when we went to Massachusetts looking at one boyhood home and I also had a photo of his farm home that the family lost. I wanted to put my dad in the photo of the farm home, so I tried to do it with Photoshop. It's not perfect, but I am happy with the results.