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A busy miscellany

Friday, December 13th, 2013

As I mentioned a short while ago, I’ve been ridiculously busy.   Between birthday (Joshua), Thanksgiving (all of us), wrestling (Eli and Paul), laundry, dog walkies, fundraising for the Cross Country and Track teams, follow-up doctor’s appointments in distant cities, it seems like the last month has evaporated.   I have managed to do some doodling (I *REFUSE* to call it zentangling, as I’ve been doing this sort of stuff since about 1973) and some sketching and visiting cool places in Portland, Maine…..  here’s a taste:

My decorated cat is my favorite new piece of noodling around.  Our cat Tyger had an unfortunate incident and ended up with a short tail as pictured here.  My friend Kathy said I should QUILT this...I'm thinking she is right!

My decorated cat is my favorite new piece of noodling around. Our cat Tyger had an unfortunate incident and ended up with a short tail as pictured here. My friend Kathy said I should QUILT this…I’m thinking she is right!

I like the owl, sort of.  The bottom tail feathers and feet are too dark compared to the rest, but I rather like his eyebrows and the blank spaces.  Initially I thought I would fill him in completely like the cat, but I like the quiet spaces.

I like the owl, sort of. The bottom tail feathers and feet are too dark compared to the rest, but I rather like his eyebrows and the blank spaces. Initially I thought I would fill him in completely like the cat, but I like the quiet spaces.

Both the cat and owl were done in my  new Stillman & Birn Epsilon sketchbook which has 100-lb “plate” (very smooth) finish paper.  I used HEAVY black ink (Pitt permanent) and there is very little show through (you can see a bit from the reverse side on the cat page).   With regular sketch paper I wouldn’t be able to do ANYthing on the back side of the paper.  TOTALLY love this sketchbook and paper.  It is heavy enough for light water media, so I think this may become my sketchbook of choice.  They also have a plate finish in heavier paper, and the journals come wirebound and hardbound, ivory or white paper.  Nice!

Birds in Colored Pencil with Val Webb.   Have been taking another online drawing course.  I am learning a lot, including that I am not a fan of the waxiness of colored pencil.  So for this lesson on black birds, I used graphite.  Apart from the fact that I totally forgot that the spine/rib of a bird's feather is *straight* (not rippled as I drew) I am pleased with my ability to get the proportions and value reasonably well done on this sketch.

Birds in Colored Pencil with Val Webb. Have been taking another online drawing course. I am learning a lot, including that I am not a fan of the waxiness of colored pencil. So for this lesson on black birds, I used graphite. Apart from the fact that I totally forgot that the spine/rib of a bird’s feather is *straight* (not rippled as I drew) I am pleased with my ability to get the proportions and value reasonably well done on this sketch.

And over Thanksgiving break, Max (younger brother of Eli’s wrestling coach) was home and came to chop down some trees.  Sigh.  This was a BEAUTIFUL tree.   Plopped right in the middle of the yard.   ????   Then, when we had to do some extensive ditching alongside the driveway to deal with water run-off, we discovered the previous owners planted this tree SMACK ON TOP of the power line to the house, which was about 24 inches below ground.  HELLO?   Can you say “root damage?”   Out there alone this tree could easily get toppled by a wind gust, ripping up the main power line to our house.   So down it came.  Ditto for the two trees the previous owners planted right on top of the power box and meter and the one tree right on top of the water wellhead.   WHAT were they thinking?  WERE they thinking?  They did so many things correctly (because the house is well-built and we love it) that it makes one wonder.

The 20+ foot spruce tree c omes down....

The 20+ foot spruce tree c omes down….

Since we feel like it is nearly criminal to cut down trees, we are sad.

I’ll share more about the trip to Portland in a post soon!  It involves old stuff and art!

 

 

The Grand Prize Winner is 27! Nancy!

Tuesday, December 10th, 2013

Hullo out there!  Just popped numbers 1-36 into the random number generator at random.org.

The winner is 27!

The winner is 27!

27 is the Grand Prize winner, and my list of comments tells me that it is Nancy! Nancy, please get in touch and we’ll work out shipping!

Thank you to Quilting Arts/Interweave, Mistyfuse and Havel’s for donating prizes, thank you to my intrepid bloggers and reviewers for making this SO much fun, and thank you to all of you who read my blog and those who participated!

And (sorry, but I must do this…) if you didn’t win, you can still order from me or download/order from Quilting Arts / Interweave.

To order a DVD, visit my Store page here, or to order either the DVD or a digital download, visit Quilting Arts' Interweave Store, here.   And, of course, you can enter the various giveaways thanks to the generous quilt artists who are helping me give away copies!

To order a DVD, visit my Store page or  order either the DVD or a digital download at Quilting Arts’ Interweave Store.

Now..ONWARD to the Holidays!

 

Christmas Cards Done!

Tuesday, December 10th, 2013

Well, they are ordered!  Now I have to write the newsletter, wait for the cards to arrive, get the address labels ready, write personal notes, add stamps (already purchased) and get them in the mail…..

 

Stationery Card
View the entire collection of cards.

Wrestling begins, Eli still undefeated!

Monday, December 9th, 2013

Have been insanely busy for the past two weeks or so with this and that, but I’ll start with the best first:  Eli’s wrestling season has begun!   A week ago the team attended a 6-team pre-season meet and WON despite some early-season wobbles by some team members.  Eli is, for the first time, losing a bit of weight which is commonplace in wrestling.  Fortunately, this is carefully monitored by the governing body and the school:  you weight in a couple weeks before the season, you are limited to losing only a small percentage of your body weight, and you cannot lose it too fast (or you can’t wrestle), and total body fat percentage cannot go to low.  So fear not, folks!  Anyway, Eli is wrestling at 145 pound weight class.

Eli begins getting ready mentally by pacing the sidelines.  I get ready mentally by taking a "good juju" photo of him pacing.

Eli, back to camera, begins getting ready mentally by pacing the sidelines. I get ready mentally by taking a “good juju” photo of him pacing.

The team begins warm-ups.

The team begins warm-ups.

Eli practicing at warm-ups with Connor (Eli is facing the camera)

Eli practicing at warm-ups with Connor (Eli is facing the camera)

Eli's (in red) first match.  Notice the ref smacking the mat to indicate he has pinned his opponent and won.

Eli’s (in red) first match. Notice the ref smacking the mat to indicate he has pinned his opponent and won.

Second match, against Massabesic.  Pinned!

Second match, against Massabesic. Pinned!

Eli:  third match:  pin!  Are you noticing a trend here?

Eli: third match: pin! Are you noticing a trend here?

Then this weekend, while I was doing a fundraiser at the concessions stand at the high school (so the Cross Country and Track and Field teams can buy two EZ-Up tents), was the first official meet of the season.  Eli wrestled both at his own weight class and up one, at 152-lbs.   He had five matches.  He won one by forfeit (no opponent in the weight class on the other team).  Eli won three on points and one by a pin.  The above are all pins.  When you pin someone’s shoulders for a full second (which lasts a lot longer than you’d think, and especially if someone is wiggling their shoulders on and off the mat a lot), the match ends and you win.  Otherwise there are three periods of two minutes each.  You get various points for take downs, escapes, back points, and so on.   If you win on points, you have wrestled all three full periods (with delays for nosebleeds, stalemates, throwing up –when someone puts a REALLY tight waist on, and so on).

Eli’s fifth and final match was against the kid from local rival Belfast, a town about 30 minutes north of Camden Hills.  Said kid placed third at States last year.   At the end of regulation (the third period) it was tied at 5-5.  In DOUBLE OVERTIME ELI WON 9-5!!!!!!   WOW!   So he is still undefeated.  We are looking forward to the season, tho I’ll admit Eli is already looking forward to eating as much as he wants once the season is over in March!  Yes, I am an unabashedly Proud Mama!   (And he’s Honor Roll, too!)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bloghop-Giveaway-Lisa Walton’s winner

Sunday, December 8th, 2013

The winner of the video download from Lisa Walton’s portion of the bloghop is Jodie A, comment number 9 (thank you to random.org for providing the online random number generator between 1 and 17).  THANK YOU!

To order a DVD, visit my Store page here, or to order either the DVD or a digital download, visit Quilting Arts' Interweave Store, here.   And, of course, you can enter the various giveaways thanks to the generous quilt artists who are helping me give away copies!

To order a DVD, visit my Store page here, or to order either the DVD or a digital download, visit Quilting Arts’ Interweave Store, here.

Make sure to enter the final Grand Finale Bloghop and Giveaway, here.  The drawing will be December 10th.  That’s SOON!