Some Mono Printing

 These are some of my mono prints from this week using the Gelli plate.  I had some papers previously printed that I wanted something on the backs of them.  Good way to play and practice.  I just used any acrylic paint or Set-a-color opaque paint to print with.

This was a ghost print from the one below that I ended up adding some painted bubble wrap and paint.

The first print was for the feathers outline..then I painted over a ghost print from another print!  You can see what it looked like in the second pic below before I added the blue print.

This was a ghost print from the print below.

A before print (see 2nd pic above for the finished pics).  I downloaded some out of order and too lazy to reload!  :)

Nothing great...just some bubble wrap and smearing from leftover plate on the gelli plate.

Had to use up the pink paint!

I love working with feathers on the gelli plate!

I took the wet feathers from the print above and laid on top of the white feathers...putting them a little off center of each feather.

  The first print with the feathers 

And, again, took the feathers and laid on top of the papers and printed.

The feather ones turned out really nice!  These are all 8"x10"

Just playing with leftover paints and feathers!  Fun hour or two and the backs of my papers have some cool designs printed on them.  

Birthday Time...

 My 74th BD was  day of ups and downs...Bob gave me a beautiful, meaningful BD card, we had a nice breakfast and then the Internet went down.  OK, so not a big deal, right...but enough to have to call tech support and be on hold for over 1.5 hours until a real person came on.  Later about that remaining 60+ min. call.  

While Bob was on hold, I had a phone call from my friend's sister in Florida informing me that my friend had passed away!   I received the message Elizabeth had passed away around 10 a.m. on 1/16.  I was devastated and just in shock. 

 Elizabeth and I have always kept in touch with each other via email/text or phone calls.  Elizabeth was such a kind soul and just a sweet, sweet lady...as is her twin sister, Jane.  My heart hurts because it's such a shock and it certainly made my birthday seem like such a silly thing to celebrate.  

Elizabeth's little dog is named Ranger and she has been working him in agility!  They were becoming such a wonderful team in that sport!  Ranger is the only dog, other than Kalee, that Gigi would actually play with.  They would lay in the grass while Elizabeth and I would talk (and talk!)...we both love to talk and the two 'kids' would run in the back yard.  Sometimes playing and sometimes just ignoring each other.  Other times, one of us would be on our dog walk and the two dogs would just lay in the grass, yep again, just listening to Elizabeth and I talk!  This is hard for those who know Gigi to think she would tolerate another dog.  I love little Ranger and I'm so glad Elizabeth's sister has him to hold in her heart.  Elizabeth will always be with her in this way.

Fortunately, my grand daughter, Amber, called  me just as I had hung up talking with Jane...and we did a video chat on Google Duo.  That was such good timing...I needed that call from her...so we chatted along for over 20 min.  Amber was keeping me occupied, which I didn't realize at the time.  She knew what surprise awaited me!

 Bob was still on hold and then he signaled me that he needed help with the tech and the internet...so Amber and I hung up...I went into the office and started to help Bob when my daughter called on the phone.  She said "open the garage door"!  And yep, Dawn and my DIL, Kris were unloading their car! 

Those sweet girls brought me beautiful flowers, an Instant Pot air fryer, recipe book, birthday cake, breakfast for tomorrow (Dawn's famous French toast) and Blueberry scone mix! What more could this 'mum' ask for!!!

This Air Fryer fits on top of my Instant Pot!  Both the girls use their Air Fryer's and love them.  I can't wait to experiment with more recipes!  

The brown topping is for the delicious overnight French Toast my daughter has all ready for me to bake...and fresh blueberries and scone mix!

This is the BEST overnight French Toast!  Both the girls are great cooks and always find fantastic recipes!

This is a White Chocolate Raspberry bundt cake! OMG...my DIL has had this cake on different occasions and it is fabulous!!! And it's all mine! HA Well, I will share!

Well, the only thing left was what to have for dinner!!! Bob called and ordered take out Mexican from our favorite Mexican restaurant. My favorite dinner (chicken Faitas and chicken flautas!). Of course a Margarita was in order too.

Oh, back to the internet...we were actually on the phone for over 3 hours trying to get the internet up and running...which we finally did BUT....now the pswd has been changed to this funky pswd that we now need to either a) change - which isn't as easy as it sounds or b) change all our devices, which are at least 10-12! That includes phones, laptops, tablets, NEST, Google Home...you get the picture!

And, yes, we did have some cake! SO SO SO good!

It has been a day of different emotions...so sad for the loss of my friend and how her twin sister is hurting and I can't be there to give her a hug. And so thankful for my wonderful family who give so freely of themselves to make others happy. I am truly blessed and so thankful for what I/we have.   

A gift and playtime!

 Look what my wonderful "Q" bud from Florida (aka Susan) send me! 

 She's so sweet and knows how much I love sketchbooks and journals.  This one can be used for lots of most art media...it's 80lb acid free paper!  Can't wait to get started to fill it up.  Susan gifted me several  journals over the years.  One I use for Hilary's online class...it's over half way filled already!  Thank you my friend...I think of you anytime I use one of your special journal gifts!!

And I did print a page in my new journal  Well, sorta a print...I was painting over the stencil of the crows from a screen print.  Working on using the crow silhouette I showed on my blog before....just trying some different ways of using the print!

This past weekend (after finishing the knitted project) I was ready to get back to some artwork.  Our online class with Hilary starts back up this week.  So, as I was watching some video's folks had recommended, I came across a cool YouTube channel called "Art Prof:  Create & Critique".  They have some really interesting video's...so I had to play a little...after all I have so many papers I've made in Hilary's online class..good use of the ones I'm not so crazy about!  

This project is called the Lotus Fold Artist book...kinda fun and similar to the Squash Book I made for Amber back in 2019.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with this...perhaps write inside each section...or stamp...or do nothing!  Now there's an idea!

The cover is 4.5 inches and sheets inside are 8 inch folded...these were some ugly papers I had...just to practice with.

The pale purple are the covers..and the other squares are the folded pieces of papers.

When the piece unfolds, this is what it looks like!

Cover

Kinda a cool folding technique isn't it!

Just a picture of it being folded back together

I hung it up on my wall...didn't know what else to do with it...but might fold back again...don't want to ruin the folding!

Not a good background...but you get the idea!  So now onto working to create my canvas background for our online lesson!

Ta Da! Finished!

 Yep, my knitted top is finally finished and before spring!  HA  

I also have to be aware of the pants I wear with it.  The ones I have on now don't have a button or zipper closure but they do have a wide (3-4 in waistband/elastic) that shows through...at least I can see it just below the waist area.  Picky I know...but....

This really was an easy pattern, if you pay attention to your knitting!  That's the only time I had to rip out was if I added a YO or dropped a stitch...but I finally only worked on the top when I was not watching TV!  That seems to help.  HA

So from start to finish..

It only took about 3 months...but I did other things in between...like cooking breakfast, lunch, dinner, breakfast, lunch, dinner, breakfast, lunch....you get the idea!  I have another knitted project in mind....but so far that's where it has to stay...our online class is back up with Hilary so I need to get busy with that!

Loss of a precious lady!

 I wrote this post in 2010:  

So on to some family updates. I posted a few months ago about the book, Saving Cee Honeycutt, by Beth Hoffman that I enjoyed so much. The story reminded me of my childhood days of living and being raised by my great aunt Helen and her daughter, Tootie. My sister still lives in Pennsylvania (that's where we were raised) and a few weeks ago she invited Tootie over for a picnic...actually, from what I understand my sister was trying to fix Tootie up with her 'rich' neighbor! But that's probably another blog post! So back to Tootie...who was such an amazing woman to me as a child...living on the farm, raising a family, taking us to horse shows and just teaching us everything!




Here is one of the most special people in my life! This is Tootie!!

She is a young 80 years old! but is slowing down now a days and only rides her horse 1-2 days a week and walks 2-3 days a week!! Yep, that's slowing down for her!

Is she a doll or what!! I only hope that I can be half the woman she is now! When you meet her, she'll make you think she's known you all your life! Tootie is the sweetest lady around and I feel as fortunate as Cee Cee that I was raised by two special woman.
I still remember going to the fairs and of course all the 'workers' at the fairs would 'hoot' and 'holler' at Tootie. She was a fox in her day and for 80 she is certainly a 'silver' fox! Thank you for all you did for me, Tootie!

That was 10 years ago....And, with a heavy heart,  today I am posting on my blog that Tootie passed away last night! 

A year ago, November, my daughter and I flew to Pennsylvania for a surprise 90th BD party for Tootie!  You can read that post here!  I am SO glad that I did get to attend and surprise Tootie!  You can see by this picture she was very surprised as she hasn't seen me in years!!  My sister lived in PA until a few years ago and would visit with Tootie and my sister's daughters would visit and check on Tootie! 

This is my sister, MaryAnn, with Tootie at the party.  

I can't express the impact Tootie had on my life.  She always had a smile and was one of the hardest working women I know.  Tootie and her hubby Bub lived and worked their farm every day.  That was their job.  I can remember helping them from picking strawberries, grabbing chickens at night to butcher, to shucking corn for the horses and just playing on the farm!  Yes, we would get in trouble but you were always given a smile (or  cookie!) a few minutes later!  I can hear Tootie's laugh even to this day.  

I last talked with Tootie on Christmas Day....she was so cute, she said "Rob, I have to put my sweater on to go out as I get better phone reception there".  

Tootie was lucky to live on her daughter, Wynna's property in South Carolina.  Wynna built Tootie an apartment attached to their home for her to live...and Tootie could ride her horse, as Wynna still has her horses.  This was taken last March...Tootie told me as soon as she got to SC she was going to ride and by gosh she did!   Wynna posted this on FB and said their combined ages were 119!  This is Tootie's horse that was around 27 or 28!!  So glad Tootie got to ride a few times this past year!

This was back in 2016 at Quarter Horse Congress, I think!  Wynna, Tootie's daughter, is in the middle...she's as cute as Tootie!  And just as nice!

This is Tootie with her dad and Wynna!

So funny...when we were kids, we would ride just about everyday in the summer except....Tootie would never let us ride with a saddle unless she was riding with us.  She said this way if we fell off, we wouldn't get a foot hung up in the stirrup(s)...we'd just fall off!  And we did fall off quite often!  HA

Tootie's health has been failing the past several months but Wynna continued to take such good care of her.  Tootie often talked about how great Wynna was and the care she gave her.  I have so many stories in my mind and so many great memories of life on the farm and held Tootie high as a wife, mother, friend and mentor!  She wouldn't hold back, even when we were adults, on what we were doing with our lives and what we should think about!  A wise woman who I will shed more tears for but will replace those tears with a smile as I think about the funny memories.  Thanks for giving me love, Tootie!  Time for you to rest.

Michigan Winter Wonderland 2021

 I posted some of these on FB but want to have them for my 2021 blog book.  You have to admit a winter snow day is beautiful!!!  I ended up putting on boots and walked around the yard yesterday. 

The snow/ice was melting as I walked around taking pictures.  Our temps got up to 35 in the afternoon.

The driveway was even melting the snow/ice that I didn't get pushed to the side.

This tree was beautiful!!!

The girls look dirty compared to the white snow!

 I  shoveled/pushed  snow off the driveway.  I couldn't lift the snow with my shoulder but my stomach provided the 'wall' to hold the shovel for pushing off the snow.  Bob was at the flying field with some of his buds!  Yep, he actually flew his little plane with pontoons on instead of wheels!  He had a ball and I'm so glad he had such a great day.  Now to get back to knitting...working on the second lace sleeve on my T top.  This bugger better fit!

Knitting progress

 

We've had some snow this week and actually had a white Christmas, which was beautiful!  

This is our view from the dining room...we have woods all along our back yard, which is so beautiful no matter what time of year.  Deer walk through the woods and then jump the farm fence and travel throughout our sub!  We see them on our security camera often!  Even when the security light comes on, they just look up and keep on grazing or walking...so cute!

Of course, there was football (which I love) and basketball (which I do not love!  HA) on TV for the past few days....so I did take some time off  from housework, chores and sat watching football and knitted!  I'm making progress on my cotton T...I may finish by spring afterall!  

The color doesn't show up correctly and I haven't altered or adjusted it.  The yarn is a pale lime green...it's really a pretty color and I usually wear spring colors, so I am happy with this choice.

This is the lace pattern...of course, the top will be blocked and the pattern will show up even more...I think!  HA

I need to add the sleeves, which I have  just started.  That dark green yarn you see is my 'life line'...just in case I make a mistake, I can 'unrip' to those 54 stitches and start over!  HA  Ask me how many times in knitting I have used a 'life line'...and how many times I didn't put in a life line and needed it!  Takes me awhile but I am learning!  HA

The sleeves will have the same lace pattern  that is on the bottom of the T.  Now I just hope this bugger fits correctly!  You never know!!!!