At the River

We had a great time at Rasar Park, lot's of rest and reading and taking walks down to the river. Not as much sunshine as promised, but at least it didn't rain heavily until we were headed home. The river wasn't as high as we expected, although we could see it had been. It was still the highest we've seen while camping. Usually there is a sandy beach all along this stretch.

And the rocky point is mostly underwater and filled with sand. I did find some rocks in the sand that worked for the Silly 3 photo assignment - making a face with odd objects.

And while we were having our picnic snack, I dropped some of my trail mix so created this face...

John sometimes wonders about me. :)

I wanna be here

And tomorrow we will be. Off in the morning to our favorite park for some winter camping. yay! Now I just hope the promised sunshine actually shows up. :)

We have a Winner!

I put everyone's names into a basket, and had my husband pick a name... Naked Heart Studio is the winner! Congratulations, Robin!

And because you can't have enough of a good thing (and I am still de-stashing), we picked a second place and it is Lynnsie. Congratulations, Lynn!

Please email your address to me at natureswalk at comcast dot net and I'll get your packages on their way.

Art

I have been doing quite a bit of art of late... the challenge to do art every day is keeping me doing some bit of art every day. Sometimes it's just the 10 minute exercises from Silly the Third, sometimes working on the journal pages for the Strathmore Visual Journaling Class, sometimes just 'cuz I wanna play. Here's a couple Altered Playing cards I created today...

 

These cards were brushed with gesso to mute the numbers, then layered with stamped script and paper napkins, images and inked edges. The birds in the heart also include beeswax and Glaze pen.

Clark's Point

Today, as our celebration of Martin Luther King Day, we joined a work party with the Whatcom Land Trust and Native Plant Society and helped removed invasive plants from the Clark's Point preserve. The biggest focus was on Scotch Broom, and English Holly. Bonus were the good company, no rain while we were there, hot scones one of the volunteers brought (yum!), a walk up and down hill through a gorgeous old growth area, and standing out on the point enjoying the view. You could feel the earths energy. 

Lagoon at Clark's Point 

John looking out from the spit at the Lagoon

John pulling up Scotch Broom and a good view. 

A few of the volunteers...

Looking out from the tip of Clark's Point.

Spontaneous

Spontaneous –adjective

1. coming or resulting from a natural impulse or tendency; without effort or premeditation; natural and unconstrained; unplanned: a spontaneous burst of applause.

I have decided that I need to work on being more spontaneous, taking joy in the slight detours along the way instead of grumbling because they disrupted my route. 

This photo is from a spontaneous day with my husband, my favorite person in the world. It's on my computer desk top to remind me that it's all about the journey, not the speed at which you arrive. :)

It started snowing again last night. We had at least another half inch before I headed off to bed, and it was coming down hard. I was SO ready to be snowed in.

I woke up to a rainy melting world. sigh. 

At least I got this picture of trees in the backyard while we still had our winter wonderland...

I've entered this photo in the Artchix Snowy Art Challenge... :)

Just a reminder that I'm holding a give away... check it out here

Blog Give Away!

I've been cleaning out my art room/office, and have way more stuff than I can ever use. So I decided, since it's 1-11-11, that I'd host a give away to one of my blog followers. I'll pick a winner on January 23 (1+11+11) and send the lucky person a package filled with fun papers, collage goodies and vintage items.The only qualification is that you're one of my blog followers. Good luck!

P.S. Here's a a few of the goodies that will be in the package.

PPS. I'm still cleaning so who knows what fun things will get added as I go. :)

Visual Journal Class

I'm taking the visual journal class by Strathmore, and in Workshop 1 we're creating a page in "lessons". Here is from the first lesson, using images from journal pages I'd done before and some scrap paper. 

The second lesson we added color, gesso washed and added more color. I used water soluble oil pastels since I don't have plain oil pastels, and they didn't resist. The gesso wash took out the featured from the lady, and I'm disappointed in how it's working out. bleh!

Perhaps the third lesson will save this mess. I plan to create a couple more pages using these techniques, so perhaps I'll end up with one I actually like how it's going. :)
These are also part of Project 365.

Love Birds

4 x 6 Gothic Arch created using the January Collage Challenge sheet from Green Paper. This is the first time I've entered, although I've been following it the past few months.

It is also part of the Project 365, and the swap I'm hosting on atcsforall.com.

Hood Canal

Spent a long New Years weekend on Hood Canal with Julie and Phil. Didn't get as many pictures as I intended, but I did get these two which are part of the Project 365 challenge.

The cormorants stayed on this piling a good part of the morning, fluttering their wings to dry them.

There were a few clouds on the horizon one morning... which blocked the sun a bit and made this lovely light. This picture includes a couple of the ducks that stayed around the dock most of the morning.
There is something incredibly relaxing just sitting in the quiet and watching the water and the birds. Very good for the soul.

This is another piece included in Project 365 - 4x6 Gothic Arch collaged with paper napkins and Cavallini images.

Challenges for 2011

I've signed up for a few art challenges this year... first one is the 2011 Project 365. The challenge is to do some type of art every day for the year, the goal of creating an art habit. So far so good. :)

 

 

The second is the Sketchbook Challenge, where a theme is chosen for the month and you incorporate it into your journal/sketchbook. January's theme is "Highly Prized"...more to come on it as I get caught up from being away for a long weekend.