So. What's new?

Jill Biden's photo is from the cover of Vanity Fair, which the entire trump clan protested. I had to use it.

Added a wash of white paint to tone down that green a bit

Water color in the Canson journal. Still my favorite medium.

Acrylic paint and collage, from Klara!

Just another hot mess

We have been working on abstracts. Not going well. Not at all

This isn't really done, but the journal is full, so yeah, done.

File folder journal I made, started March 22nd, finished today, while working in various other journals as well. 

Gracie on my deck, looking for Meranda.

Oh, Jake. Belly rub time.

These are so pretty, but I have lost petunia plants this year like crazy.

 It's raining. Yes!!! Have not had any rainfall to speak of in over 3 weeks, so this is welcome. The dogs are pissed, but they'll get over it. 

I pulled out my water colors yesterday, and so enjoyed doing that girl. It dawned on me that working with water colors doesn't require a lot of drying time. They dry fast, and so the artistic process of trying something is instant. Maybe that's why I love that medium so much. You can finish a journal spread in an hour, fan the page, and then turn it and move on. That's my plan for this afternoon. See how much I get done with Gracie, the master whiner, complaining about her life. Gracie is a con artist when it comes to food. One of the best. She now wants dinner at 11am. Her reasons are she gets me out of bed at 5am, we all have breakfast at 5:30, so yeah, dinner at 11 is reasonable, mom. Mom. Are you not listening to me, mom????

Enjoy your day. OH, by the way. I received a second bill for my second visit to the Illinois Toll Roads. Yes, indeed. This one is due August 22nd. I paid the first one, then copied everything and sent in a letter of complaint well over a month ago. Then had to use the toll road again, to visit my stepson. Yep. The system didn't work a second time. So this time I complained online. "We will get back to you within 48 hours." That was 8 days ago. Am I upset? No, not really. Did I expect anything different out of the state government of Illinois? No, I did not. But am I going to let this go? OH, hell no. So the plan is to pay this invoice before the due date, and write a letter of complaint every week. When I hit a dozen, and don't have an answer, think I will contact one of our local Indy television stations that help people out with problems like this. 

I sure do know how to have a good time, don't I? Linda

Old. So Old.....

I really like how the girl turned out, not so much for the rest of it

Proud of the fact I used acrylic paints for this

Gulfsprite suggested I blend the colors for the background

And I do like this background better

Can't remember if I posted this. Mom! Bunny Alert!!!!

Acrylic paint, collage and colored pencils

 I have not had the opportunity to work as much as I used to in the art journals. Tis the season for yard work, and getting the dogs out, and more yard work. But it does seem I am spending far more time on each journal spread. More painting, more complicated. That's fine. It's all good.

Arthritis. Let's talk about it. My knee is not that bad, certainly no where near needing a knee replacement. The physical therapist has a plan to strengthen the entire leg, and this is based on my history. Having had a right hip replacement in February 2019, I did indeed exercise until the pandemic hit in March 2020. Unfortunately, I wasn't doing enough hip specific exercises to strengthen the muscles surrounding the hip. Like most people, life became homebound in 2020, and I then discovered it was difficult to move, talk and breathe at the same time. Oh, wait....you need open heart surgery for a new aortic valve. Don't do anything. We don't want you to have a heart attack. 

I didn't do much other than walk at the dog park from September 2020 (when I was finally released to drive again) to May 2021, when I joined the recreation center and started taking Silver Sneaker classes. I had fully realized I was still too weak, and it's almost a year since my surgery. Arthritis had settled into that knee, and the lack of support from the surrounding muscles intensified the pain. I have had 4 sessions of physical therapy, and scheduled 4 more over the next 2 weeks. We are concentrating on both hips, both legs, the glutes (my butt) and core strength. I have a series of exercises I do at home, twice a day, and have incorporated some into my time at the dog park, using the sturdy wooden benches for support. 

In other words, if you sit on your ass you will pay the price. To relieve the swelling and pain, I am using a prescription gel, ice, and elevation. It is all working. Is this hard? Oh, you betcha! But I will do just about anything to prevent or delay another surgery. And being in control of my own exercises is appealing and satisfying. So once again, exercise is the answer. What is your question? Sometimes I have to be reminded of that. Stay cool. Linda

Monsoon Season in Indiana

Painting on a magazine image

Just a pile of Gracie fur after Meranda brushed her, because Gracie won't allow Mom to do it

Trying to do complicated backgrounds first

Eye glass stencil from Gulfsprite

Started as a clean off your brush page

Tissue paper, then a glaze of craft paint for background

Pencils, markers, paint

My goal is for a detailed background that makes you look twice

Dog park about a week ago. Can we say rain?

acrylic paint over pencils on the girl

I was in a mood....

I had saved this image from a fashion magazine forever, and decided to finally use it.

My older cone flower plant

New cone flowers from this year. WTH???

Having issues again with Blogger. Just roll with me, okay? 

I haven't been art journaling as much as I would like to, mainly because of yard work, dogs, yard work, and health issues again. Yes, once again, I have screwed up my body. So today I have a helpful tip on what not to do when cleaning the house. DO NOT WEAR ISOTONER BALLET SLIPPERS ON A WET FLOOR! Got that? They have leather bottoms. Plus, the slippers are old and the bottoms really slick. Want to hear this story? You got it.

I had cleaned the house, and the last thing I do is mop the floors after getting all of the dog hair up. The hallway was wet, I was carrying the bucket full of ammonia water to the hall bathroom to dump it. My left foot slipped forward, extending my left leg straight out, and my right leg went back, folding under my body as I dumped the bucket all over me and the hallway. I had just, a few days before, been to the doctor to have the right knee X-rayed. Severe arthritis.

You can't try to stand in standing water on top of a laminate floor. I butt walked to my bedroom, got up on my knees and crawled to the bed to pull myself up. Then started the cleanup which included another shower. I had ammonia water all over my head, running down my body, plus had sat in it. The doctor had given me a script for arthritis meds, and between that and the ice machine from my hip surgery, I was able to walk by the next day. My PT starts today.....

I really am a hazard to myself.....Have a good one. Linda

 

No Excuse

The Patreon lesson was collage and drawing, so I used what I cut out as a template

This is how it ended, and I don't like it but tired of messing with it

Came out of nowhere

Another Patreon lesson about connecting images that have a common theme. Love this.

The day I knocked over a large container of water on the desk and soaked this journal. Put the fan on it for 2 hours

Patreon lesson where we started with an abstract background

If you look closely you can see my background peeking thru the sky and veggies

This spread took me over 5 hours and I loved the process

Used colored pencils for finishing touches

After spending 2 days painting a pineapple, I tore it up and did this collage

Then taped off borders and did abstracts

Part of my garden in the morning sun

Freebies - see below

More abstracts because I didn't like any of the girls I was drawing

Yep. Abstracts

 It's been awhile. I apologize. Either I had too much information swimming around in my brain that I could not put on the net, or I was just not in the mood for art journaling. 

The freebies: Google "DesignCuts". It is a company that sells graphic packages, but if you register for their emails, you get weekly freebies. The files aren't huge, but for anyone into mixed media and/or art journaling, there are some very interesting images, for free. You also receive the license to use them, in case you decide to sell your art. I have downloaded about 6 decorative fonts, and various birds and floral graphics. Lots of leaves. One never knows when you might need something. The link is here. The emails are almost daily, and you are offered several free packages per week. I stumbled across it when looking for additional fonts to use with my Cricut. 

Hope everyone is enjoying the summer. Either blazing hot, or you need a jacket at night....just saying. Linda

Introducing FolkArt Terra Cotta Acrylic Paint

Happy Memorial Day Weekend

Gracie and Jake at the front door, after I told them that Lynn was coming to visit.

Girl is watercolor, acrylic in background with collage for top.

Collage

Wild flowers at Town Hall Park on our walk this week

Repeated an old lesson from Gulfsprite, using magazine images as a stencil

Our government is failing us. We deserve the truth.

How I feel but I actually have less hair....

Llama head stamp from another Sprite.

 I think I am becoming quite cynical in my advanced years. Is this normal? I want the truth of what the former guy did on January 6, 2021 to be made public record, and for that former guy and his little minions to be held accountable. Yet the Democratic party is allowing the former guy and his neckless cohort hold this country hostage. McTurtle needs to crawl off into the sunset. Or, better yet, the Ohio river. 

Onward. Still doing a great deal of collage. It is satisfying to me and now I am on the look out for any and all strange images I can find. Expect weirdness in the future. Well, that will happen anyway. Perhaps I should say expect more weirdness than I normally come up with....

So I had an interesting encounter with the Tollroad Authority in the state of Illinois. Fun Fact: you can go online and register your car, license plate, mailing address and a current credit card for "Pay as you go". That means if you drive on an Illinois toll road and pass a toll (used to be a booth, now a scanner) place, the camera scans your car, grabs the plate, and goes to your account to bill you. Simple, yes? I knew I was going to use 294, the tollroad from hell, on April 6th to see my stepson in a western suburb of Chicago. So I registered all of my information a week prior to the trip. I received confirmation from the Tollroad Authority. Still with me? Good.

Today, in the mail, I received a bill from the tollroad for $18.00. $6 in tolls on April 6th, $12 in fines for not paying properly. I went online, accessed my account, and yep! There I am, all information is correct, and no charges! Can I protest this? Why yes, yes I can. Unfortunately, not on the phone. And not in person. Download your form here, fill it out, and mail it. To avoid a collection agency, ( not my first rodeo here, folks), I paid the $18 bill. But boy howdy, are they going to get a letter or what! I will get my $12 fine back. I will also ask them why in hell their system failed. Explain that to me, in English. I pressed "1".  In the old days, we tossed coins into a collection booth on this tollroad. As the population in and around the city increased, the booths were slowing traffic down to a mere crawl, so someone in the tollroad authority group decided to eliminate the booths, and the people who worked in those booths. The scanners work. Illinois can now scam, (oops!) bill you for each time you pass under a scanner. I just want it to work....

I also returned to taking, not teaching, Silver Sneaker classes this past week. Sore. So, so sore. And it's not like I haven't been doing anything at all, because I have. This getting old crap sucks. Just so you know. Have a good weekend. It is raining here and turning cold. First weekend of summer......uh huh. Linda