violetismycolor

playing with programs...

I had the most fun today playing with Illustrator. I have been trying to figure out how to create my own pattern swatches to use in my illustrations (like the ones in the little girl's overalls and the background in the banner) and have finally figured out the 'tricks'. Yay. I have been making my own ginghams and plaids and all sorts of fun things. This is harder than one would think.

My next challenge is to try to figure out how to create my own brushes. And, oh yeah, I have been experimenting with different types of eyes. This may sound boring to some, but I can totally lose track of time doing this...I enjoy it that much. I was so mesmerized tonight that I almost missed the beginning of The Daily Show. Luckily, my husband called me and broke the spell and I got to watch Jon Stewart in all his silliness.

I'll try to remember to post some of my 'creations' tomorrow.

IF...glamour...

When I thought of 'glamour', I immediately envisioned a little girl dressing up in a big sister's or mom's jewelry.  I guess big sis was a beauty queen and little sis got her hands on the tiara.  (I always wanted one of those when I was young, so that I could pretend to be a princess, which I was sure I really was.) The peacock scarf must belong to mom.  What self-respecting teen would own one?  And the necklaces?  One from mom and one from sis is my thought. 

the birthday boy...

Ice cream cake to celebrate last night and then the Original Pancake House this morning.  Aren't birthdays great?

Ross!

Happy 18th Birthday to Ross!

He can't believe that he has to sign up for the draft...*shakes fist as he says, 'darned draft!'*...but he's happy to be taken to Raccoon Lodge for dinner and for the Baskin-Robbins ice cream pie for the dessert celebration.

I can't believe that I am now the mother of three 'official' adults...*shakes fist at growing older*...but am incredibly pleased at being the mother of 3 wonderful kids.

Ross's monster...

I found this cool monster, drawn by Ross (apparently based on something from some game of his), while cleaning out my laundry room today.  Thank God that something like this really didn't jump out at me, though it could have given the state of my laundry room...well, former state...The place was a huge mess! 

killer knife...

Have I told you about the knife that I bought this summer?  The one that is trying to kill me? 

One of Bonnie's friends was working for this knife company, Cutco. They are sort of the Fuller Brushmen of knives...you know, door-to-door except they actually make appointments first.  Anyway, I have a bunch of crappy not-very-sharp knives in my kitchen and I decided to buy a really good one from this young lady. 

Little did I know that the knife was so dangerous.  I can't tell you how many times I have had slices of my left thumb hacked off and how profusely a thumb can bleed.

So, tonight when chopping up some cooked meat, the thing literally turned from bearing down on the meat to bearing up on my poor, already-almost-mutilated left thumb.  My husband can hardly bear to let me get that knife out of the drawer and he is probably getting sick of running for bandages every time the knife attacks me.  Ross thinks I should throw the thing out but it's my only good knife.

I just need a good thumb guard.  Do they sell those at Kitchen Kaboodle?

our Bonnie is gone...

Bonnie went back to school on Saturday.  She was home so long (5 weeks) that it feels odd to have her gone, now.  And she got so used to being at home that some of her parting blog thoughts were the following:

These last few days of vacation I am frequently reminded of a quote from Calvin & Hobbes: there is never enough time to do all the nothing you want. Too much to do, not enough time, and I have to kind of remind myself that it is not like my life is ending on Saturday, I am just returning to school and I can still gasp! still do some of the "nothing" I can't fit in right now.

Bonnie also spent a couple of afternoons with 2 friends of the family who are attorneys, asking them about their jobs and looking at their offices, then coming home both times with a big grin on her face and the announcement that she thought she wanted to be a lawyer.  Not all that surprising since she has always seemed to us well suited for it:  she is a very good writer, she has very good attention to detail in her work, and she enjoys work that is more project-based than not. 

She feels good because she now feels she has a direction, which she is very uncomfortable without.  We are happy because she is happy. 

IF...cat...

*Click to see larger*

Can't believe I got this cat illustration out so fast, but it was such an easy prompt.  Lucky for me, I guess.  I usually agonize for days over what I will do.

I have had many cats in my life.  I grew up on a dairy farm and people regularly dropped cats and kittens off at our farm, since we obviously had milk and land and the cats would surely be taken care of...What kind of an idiot does that? 

The first cat that was actually mine, though, was Minet (pr. mee-nay, which means kitty in French).  I was about to be a sophomore in college and would live in my own apartment for the first time.  An apartment that allowed pets.  I answered an ad giving away free kittens.  I wanted an all-white cat and the ad promised there were some in this litter.  Minet sounds girly but was actually a 'he'. 

He was very, very sweet.  I would bathe and shampoo him once a week to keep him looking and smelling good.  He didn't seem to mind.  The most ironic thing was, he was lactose intolerant and would get really sick if fed milk or cheese.  The summer after that school year, I left him with my parents since I was going to New York to work on that political campaign, and all that milk around the dairy killed him. 

We've had cats since then...Chutney, Sundae, Biscuit...but none were as sweet or as close to my heart as Minet was...

photo friday...pink...

I know that I haven't done any Photo Friday thing for forever, but when I saw that the prompt was 'pink' I just couldn't help myself. 

First of all, I just love pink.

Secondly, I have this awesome-cool plant with Dr. Seuss-like pink flowers growing in my kitchen and I just love the chance to show it off. 

I say Dr. Seuss-like because the flowers grow out of the center of the flower below it.  Weird and wonderful.

Actually, they are not flowers at all, officially, but bracts.  Who is the joy-killer that had to assign the word bract to a perfectly good flower-like object?  Some high-flying botanist/fuddy-duddy, not doubt...

Anyway, I went on the web to find out what this marvie plant is, exactly.  It is called a 'crown of thorns' (it does have a thick thorny stem); latin name Euphorbia milii.  It is from Madagascar.

Euphorbus was the Greek physician of King Juba II (approx. 50 BC to 19 AD) of Numidia (now Algeria).  King Juba is the first to have cultivated the plant and he named it after his physician. Odd, since the when you cut the stem, the 'latex' that drips out is poisonous, and was used on poisoned arrows or to stupify fish (I assume one put this stuff in the water with the fish...anyone?).  Anyway, more than you wanted to know but still wonderful stuff.

I have had this plant for about 3 years and it blooms continuously.  Really.  I forget to water it and voila, tortured plant = happy, blooming plant.  This is about the only kind of houseplant that can survive around me.  I kill everything else.  Odd, since my outdoor garden is quite nice and does not consider me an assassin.

Ah well, Pink...

illo friday...E is for...

*click on image to see larger*

I thought that "E is for Eavesdropping"...this illo is a mix of Illustrator image and old painting (Lambert Sustris:  Scene of a Birth, 16th Century).  Trying something to stretch myself a little. 

I was inspired by the film Pride and Prejudice, the family was always eavesdropping on each other, and Elizabeth's pride was hurt by Mr. Darcy early in the film when she eavesdropped on his conversation with Bingley, and he pronounced Elizabeth to be 'Not handsome enough to tempt me.'  Sometimes you overhear something that you would rather not, right?

Marilyn...

I got to meet Marilyn of California Fever yesterday.  She was in town with Jeffrey; he was doing an MLK event here.  She called me about mid-day and I immediately dropped my office-organizing project to run down to the Pearl District to have coffee with her. 

We had a lovely time, sitting in the Little Wing Cafe (an old hangout of mine...my yarn store, Spindleshanks, used to be right next door) and chatting like old friends. 

As you can imagine if you read her blog, Marilyn is incredibly open and honest, gentle and compassionate, funny and smart...  What a pleasure to get to spend face-to-face time with her. 

Marilyn took this photo and we like it's wonky weirdness of angle.  I, of course, took my trusty Photoshop to it.  Marilyn looked perfectly cute, sure. But since I ran out of the house without so much as taking a comb to my hair, I decided to hide my defects behind a layer of perfect pixels.  It is what I DO, after all...

m.l.k. day...

I  have been very fortunate in my life to have met many fascinating people.  One of the most fascinating, and certainly one of the dearest, was Coretta Scott King. 

This happened when I was 19 and working on the congressional campaign of Allard Lowenstein, on Long Island, NY.  Al knew everyone in the world, as far as I could tell.  His 'Christmas Card List', as he called it, was a who's who of celebrated people in politics, movies & tv, business, etc.  He was the kind of man that was so charismatic, everyone fell a little bit in love with him.

One of the many friends of his that came to campaign for him that year was Mrs. King.  She spent an entire day, going with Al to all of his events and hanging out with us at the campaign headquarters between engagements.  She visited with every one of the staff...most of us college students from all over the country.  She learned our names and asked us about our personal lives and, amazingly she remembered us all.

Later, she would call in to the office to chat with Al, if he was around.  Then, she would ask to speak to each one of us, in turn, and ask us about that boyfriend, or mother who was ill, or place we had moved into, or whatever.  We all felt so special.  That is how she could make everyone feel.

I was sad to hear of Coretta King's stroke last year. She sat out the speechmaking at home this year, I heard on the radio today.  She is getting old, I guess.  But I still remember her as the wonderful, warm woman who treated us all as though we were friends or family.  That takes a special kind of person, don't you think?

faith journeys...

John and I went to an Eid-ul-Adha supper tonight.  This is a Muslim holiday celebration, the feast of the sacrifice', and it commemorates Prophet Ibrahim's (Abraham's) unselfish act of sacrificing his son Ishmael to God.  It also celebrates the end of Hajj (the pilgrimage to Mecca), one of the important elements of Muslim faith.

We sat with our dear friend, Shariar Ahmed, who always makes a big fuss over John.  He got up in front of the group and introduced him, reminding people that after 9-11, John encouraged the Muslim community to come together with people of other faiths so that all would understand each other better. 

Anyway, the food was awesome, as always...lots of biryani rice and chicken masala and naan.  Yummy.  And it's always interesting to hear other people's belief systems and try to understand them.  All in all, a good way to spend a Sunday night.

artist's way blog...

I am starting a separate space for Artist's Way exercises, etc.  at The Violet Way.

organization...ugh...

I have set myself the task of organizing my household in the next couple of months.  That means going through every room (in some sort of non-random fashion) and cleaning things up, throwing things out, photographing all items of importance for insurance purposes, and making computerized lists of what is where. 

Daunting? Yes. 

Impossible?  No.

I began today with my very own home office...a mix of trash and treasures. 

First off, I have all sorts of files in multiple places, and not filed in any good order, either.  I am constantly frustrated with how long it takes me to find things.  I am moving all my files into Adam's room, where he has a perfectly good, and empty, file drawer.  I WILL put things in alphabetical order so that I can find it again, too.

I spent the most of the day just beginning this task and now am abandoning (just for the day) said project in favor of joining John and Bonnie in going out tonight...to see Casanova and then eat out somewhere. 

The office isn't clean yet, but it will be...

illustration friday...sea...

*click on the illo to see it even larger*

I thought I would try using textures, compound shapes and geometrics for my 'sea' composition.  And I like how it turned out.  It reminds me of the colorful fish and coral that we saw on our honeymoon on Tahiti.  Awesome. 

Oh, baby...

(Pictures:  1:  Maranatha, ME, Elly, Seth, 2: Cam and wife, Maranatha, 3: Maranatha, Elly, Seth, Marita)  We had a whole slew of family over last night.  My sister, Marita, with her son, Seth, and dtr Maranatha, SIL Cameron, and new granddaughter, Elly were wonderful houseguests.  The sweet angel of a baby, ELLY, was a delight.  She is the best-behaved baby...I swear, she basically never cries.  She does try desperately to hold a conversation with you when you hold her, though.

I'm sure that if I could translate what she said to me, it would have been, "You are the best great-aunt, ever.  And so much fun to talk to!"

Yeah, I'm sure that's what it was...

She is also just huge for her age...17 lbs and only 3 months old!  And the only thing she is fed is breast milk!  My gosh, she does nurse about every other hour, though.  (I seem to recall my Adam doing the same thing.) 

Luckily for all of us, the furnace was fixed and the leak was patched...and we were snugger than a bug in a rug. 

This morning, all us girls (baby included) hung out with my Coffee Girl friends and little Elly was passed around among all of them...and she never cried or fussed once.  Since all of our babies are pretty big these days, we are often in need of a baby fix and this was a real treat.

Then, off we went to the Dutch Store to buy all sorts of goodies...Speculaas, Stroopwafels, Hagelslag, etc.  Hard to describe but let's just say butter and sugar and be done with it.  Yummy!

They drove off about midday and I miss them already...

cold and wet...

So what could be more frustrating than a $330 heating bill that still kept my house at about 10 degrees colder than it should be…me freezing my butt off and having to hide upstairs all the time, inspiring John to buy me a space heater for Christmas so that he could sometimes have my company?

More frustrating could be that our 2 year-old furnace has motherboard issues (? My furnace has a motherboard?) and the repairman has been here for 2 hours and can’t seem to fix it. It seems that the furnace was sucking up the natural gas and making heat, but then not sending it out into the house.  Kind of like Pac-Man...chomp, chomp, chomp but producing nothing.

Yep, and the roof guy is finally here, after 3 weeks of harassing the roofing company to send someone out to fix the leak in my brand-new roof. Ack, my house is falling apart. 

Oh, yeah, and I have 5 guests coming over in about an hour for dinner and then to spend the night…in my cold, leaky house. Boo hoo…

the Artist's Way Group...joining in...

There is an Artist's Way Group that has formed over at Kat's Paws.  I have had the book for The Artist's Way for a couple of years and never had the discipline to follow through on the program.  When I found out that this on-line group was forming, I knew it was my chance to try it.

I am not sure what to expect will happen as a result of doing the writing and the exercises and the art that will be required, but I am hoping that it will help me see the world in a new and more creative way.   

Anyone else interested?  We are starting Chapter One this week...so, there is still time...

Illustration Friday...flavor...

 

*Click on the illustration to have a better look*

I have to say that I waited about as long as I could to finish this one.  I pondered the theme all week.  Couldn't get a grip on what I wanted to convey, but the whole sugar-drenched holiday hangover thing won out.  Gingerbread Houses and Christmas cookies and cute little kids enjoying it all were the images that just stuck in my mind. Eh, voila...my piece-de-resistance.  Almost gives you a tummy-ache, doesn't it?  But cute, definitely cute...