Filed under: Sea Salt
Umbrellas for a rainy day… :)
Finished the artwork on a major project today, 22 illustrations for a woman who is self-publishing a children’s book. (photos to follow this week) In a week and a half, my painting is due for Artisphere. I ordered my frame and have a few days left to continue working on the painting. A relief, since I hurried through the bottom half and it showed. :)
May is around the corner, and with it work on my project Sea Salt. I’m doing a collection of sea-themed paintings and drawings, as well as children’s works. Stay tuned…
What are you having for dinner? I’m having this on rice, with asparagus and melted cheese. It’s a rainy evening; caught Kingston well on his way up the basement stairs to his upstairs lair of goldfish and on-demand entertainment (Lora’s House). Have banana bread in the oven for work tomorrow and for us tonite. Here’s a little secret: if you bring baked goods to the office and keep them close by, you create an ongoing social event. :) By the way, baking fail #1. I tried a struesel topping for the bread. It’s sunk in. Maybe now there’s hidden goodness inside. We shall see.
Artwork in progress…. let’s see. Here’s a snap of author’s sticky notes. I’ve made my corrections and now am in the painting stage. After the initial paint comes outlining with my trusty microns (having not masters the dip pen and ink technique). Last I’ll touch up with colored pencil. I plan to finish this week.
Baking fail #2. It tasted ok, well the filling wasn’t quite perfection. Not even quite. But… there was a crack in the top layer. So I filled it with the glaze. Which was rather thick, and heavy… and well. It cracked more; it slid slid slid. It probably would have slid anyway, even if my top layer were perfect. We will never know now. :) The bookclub ladies ate it anyway. An avalanche of coffee-flavored-cake with immense amounts of sugar, is, in fact, edible anyways.
Filed under: children's books
Side note: if I eat any more garlic, I’m going to smell like a spice rack when I walk by.
Moving on….
Where I am in the children’s book is this: I have a stack of loose leaved sketchbook pages with drawings and sticky notes attached. The sticky notes need to be read, heeded; eraser out, corrections made. A couple more illustrations are needed, a cover, resubmit pages. Repeat the eraser/correction step and THEN transfer, paint paint paint!
Here’s some sketches.
Filed under: baby days
At last. Thank goodness no one ever tells us how long it will take us to accomplish our little projects. Or about the dozens that sit forever unfinished, like my scrapbook of my freshman year.
Kingston finally has his painting installed above his crib. This is why I need deadlines! I’m pleased with the turnout–it ended up very strong. Pleased, too, since I wasn’t sure how to render his cross-hatching technique with oil paint. Didn’t accomplish his exact effect, but you know…. maybe that’s a good thing considering I’m already committing blatant plagiarism.
On other news…I’m falling down on the painting an hour a day. But I’m working out with Jillian Michaels. Shredding I should say. Apparently my ducks don’t go in rows… they come quacking in and out on a whim.
Filed under: baby days
Counting us, the Lekosheres, there were 61 people who celebrated Kingston’s first birthday. Mercifully the day was beautiful. Colder than a party in a garage would make ideal, but so much better than February could have coughed up. On that Saturday, the realization came to me, that without help I would not have finished the preparations. I was in over my head and hadn’t even known. What would we do without opportune friends in our life? (Or parents that watch birthday children so their parties can be prepared for. But that goes without saying, as when you become a parent you sign up to be taken advantage of by your children for the rest of your existence.)
Anyway. I’m not sure when I began working on the party, but it felt like so much work. Doing crafts when you have an almost 1 year old… well you work in 10 minute increments, the last 3 minutes of which you are madly rushing about narrating what you’re doing in a loud sing-songy voice, distracting the stream of whining coming from your child. Not the best work environment for getting things done. :)
Originally, I was going to go with a Three Billy Goats Gruff theme…. until I finally acknowledged that there wasn’t really much, if anything, that represented the theme. So I dropped it for just plain goat. Haven’t attended many Goat-Themed parties? Well, you probably haven’t attended many parties where a little Samburu 1 year old was involved. :) We partied Kenyan-style… we had a goat roast. Acquired one from a farm, Sawaya and his Kenyan friend killed and prepared it that morning, then another friend helped him roast it. My house smelled like goat; Sawaya’s shirt was covered in goat.
We also served pulled pork-many thanks to my brother who shredded it for me! beans, thanks to another friend, mac and cheese, thanks to another friend, chipati, thanks…. well you get the picture.
Lora and I made a goat cake the night before, then with collective effort, made goat cupcakes the day of. Kingston received two goats for his birthday—man-made, stuffed toys, not for slaying.
The party was busy busy for me and cold for my guests. But I hope everyone had a good time. Kingston got some good loot. Guess when you slay a goat, people come prepared to party. :) Seriously, thanks everyone!
Kingston’s Birthday Banner will be made into a quilt…the invitations were blank quilt squares for the guests to personalize…
The Chalkboard Pictures of Kingston’s 1st Year
Filed under: hodge-podge
I like holidays. It makes the sunshine happier. It gives the whole country an energy. Everyone’s mind is on the same thing, and since it’s not political, it’s a happy thing. But….
People love to hate on valentine’s. People say things like “If we want to go out, we just go out whenever.” or “We say we love each other every day.”
In that case….
I am thankful every day…
I celebrate Jesus’ birthday every day…
I study Black History every month….
Then there’s the whole guys hate it because of the expectations forced upon them. Really? You really want to go there? You poor thing, one day a year you have expectations? Welcome to the world of Women Every Day. We pluck, and tweeze, laser and wax our God-given hair off our skin that has been properly prepared with Retina-A anti wrinkle cream, Nighttime, and Pore-reducing oil-free cleanser, Daytime. We wear shoes that should have a Surgeon’s General Warning attached. We carrry children in our abdomens and then wear spanx the rest of our lives to look like we didn’t. We color, cut, spray, curl, straighten. We deny the brownie worth 3 points for the fake cookie worth 1. And still feel guilty. And after all that, some guy slouched in his truck, staring at us over his beer belly decides that we’re a bit of a dog and really need to take care of ourselves better. So excuse us for having expectations of you for exactly one day a year. :)
Just to clarify, my man gave me chocolates, flowers, and a date. :) I made the men in my life message pillows. The idea came from a magazine, not original.
January 2013 is done, over, kaput. The gyms should be a little emptier, people are putting in PTO requests at work for upcoming vacations and Wal-Mart is selling Teddy Bears the size of the Biggest Loser contestants. The size of me since I haven’t been sticking to my calories, which brings us to our first review. Arms. Not amazing.
My most consistent success is in my fingernails, my unbitten fingernails. I’m pleased to announce that my painting record, while imperfect, is noteworthy. I’m getting work done which I can promise you would not be done were it not for my resolution. My Bible reading is behind, much behind. And my novel isn’t touched. I’ve met with Marie, who is self-publishing the book I’m illustrating for her, and have the green light to draw draw draw, paint paint paint. More on that later, as I will blog the rough drafts.
Here are my painting accomplishments of January. (minus the two little paintings I featured earlier)
For starters, here’s the owl growth chart I will be putting on Etsy this month. I noticed the giraffe one was getting attention, so I decided to add to it.
I painted 5 of these for center pieces for Kinston’s birthday party. They will be filled with painted white sticks which will be hung with stars.
Carved a goat stamp for the invitations…
The invites are stitched to a cloth background which double as quilt squares. They will be displayed at the party alongside the birthday banner I’m working on. 
Table runner, imperfectly sewn, hastily sewn. Carved a goat hoof stamp…bought malt balls to sprinkle down it. ;)
Remember the fair bald maiden, waiting forever on my canvas? Meg March is at last! finished. Happiness.
