Trip to La Jolla

We went on our usual Holiday trip to see my husband's brother and his wife, and we decided to meet in La Jolla this time, since it is so beautiful there, and they like it, too, and it's not too far from their home. I asked for some time near the ocean to do some outdoor painting, and I got to paint for about three hours, until it got too chilly and we had to leave.

I couldn't get to it, but there was a sea cave and hollowed out rocks down below, when the tide came in the water was swirling in it, I really wanted to go down there, but instead I watched the children, they loved it, some of them were at least 30 or 40, lol!

The sea cliffs were so polished by the waves that the harder stones looked like seal shapes lying on the rocks by the ocean. This is one of the few areas that has a rocky coast instead of sandy beaches on the Southern California coast, and it's particularly gorgeous.

It's a nature preserve, too, and these pelicans were happily sunning themselves a few feet from all the children jumping up and down and pointing at them, and they seemed to pose for the cameras. Every once in a while they would take off, one after another, find a snack, and cruise back to perch in the sunshine.

The high tide came in and washed over the whole cove that the swimmers had been enjoying all day, in spite of temperatures in the high 50's or low 60's all day, and a brisk breeze off and on. They looked kind of blue, and I know the water was chilly. So gorgeous, I wish I could have spent more time there. B*B, Ysabeau

Winter Ramblings

It has been a very busy few weeks around here, with a lovely early visit from our Susie for Christmas, a lot of finishing of projects for gifts, and sending off handmade cards for the season. I've been kind of busy... plus the computer service changed from Adelphia to Roadrunner, and has resulted in no service much of the time for most of December. Now, it seems that they are starting to get it straightened out, so to catch up, the Fall term of classes finished up, and I'm preparing for a beginning oil painting class in mid-January. The weather has been so pretty, I'm going to be spending as much time in our little patio as I can, and my dh gave me outdoor speakers for Yule, so I can have as much music as I like! I will really enjoy the music, and will be serenading the neighborhood and painting to the music, woo hoo!

I got my little dog a huuuge bone for her stocking, and she has been carrying it around and successfully trying to make a dent in it, she's a rat terrier, so this twenty pound dog is just right for the bones for the eighty pound dogs. If she can get her mouth around it a little bit, it is going to get eaten!

Fun and Games! Ysabeau

Planting flowers

Today I found the energy and, with help from my dh for lifting three huge bags of dirt, planted some low-water flowering plants in a dry spot in the front yard, sloping land, near the street. In this part of the country, this is a good time to plant, because they get a chance to get well started before the extreme heat comes back sometime in late Spring. There will be little feathery purple flowers on one, apple red petals on the other, and they should spread out well and cover the area I need covered.

I love gardening (I ended up soaking wet, filthy, and with mud on my face, woo hoo!) but I have to really be careful because it's so easy to overdo it. I'm really tired now, but didn't hurt myself, and it cheers me up to think about the flowers, plus they will be very easy care, which is a priority for later. The neighbor's incompetent gardeners that come once a week to blow leaves around, cut back my big pretty rosemary, and it's dying and will have to be removed, as well as my mature lovely pink geraniums. Neither does well after being weed-wacked, but we've enjoyed them for several years, and I'm making progress in cleaning up that area. I really enjoy all my gardening results, but doing it isn't as easy as it used to be. B*B, Ysabeau
I really enjoy all my gardening results, but doing it isn't as easy as it used to be. B*B, Ysabeau

Huntington Beach, California

When I started having problems with my mobility, I started realizing how many of the places I had taken for granted, have problems with access. There may be a way down to the beach, with a ramp, but I didn't see it! It was all steps and bars, down to the sand. Then, of course, it's a distance walking through sand to get to the ocean. I always have loved the ocean, but at least on this day, I couldn't get to it, even though the weather was beautiful. B*B, Ysabeau 

George James workshop last Saturday

I overdid it Saturday, but it was worth it! I went to a George James workshop all day, took lots of notes, while he demonstrated watercolor technique, then gave a second demo on Yupo synthetic paper, with lots of ideas about how to use it to get effects you are just not going to get on regular paper. I don't know if all the watercolor contests will allow this stuff, but it looks like a lot of fun to try, and a way to express things that you can't get any other way. Woohoo! she said, with ice on her ankle, missing her Monday classes... but it was worth it! B*B, Ysabeau

a busy week!

These are some of the paintings I did in watercolor, all in the last couple of weeks. These are in the school display case right now, along with wonderful paintings by my fellow students. I feel really honored to have my paintings up for other art students to see, and some people have told my teacher they like them. In fact, one of the teachers was really enthusiastic, and had my teacher introduce her to me, so that was nice, because she seemed to see what I hoped to put into them.
B*B, Ysabeau

Creativity resistance!

I have spent many fun hours doing immersion dye on extra-high quality cotton, comparable to the tightly woven fabrics used in Batik work. I have washed, dried, pressed, and hoarded my results, and gifted a few special people with a piece here and there, for a birthday or special event... but I have had a terrible time using any of it myself!

I used a bit of my early pieces to make some small items, bags, but I just couldn't bring myself to slice it up into parts for a quilt, so yesterday I started cutting pieces for some Seminole style strips to put into a quilt. There are glowing shades of yellow, turquoise, green, cobalt, purple... and wonderful muted tones with streaks of magenta or crimson, and I'm just wacking it into strips of 2", 3", or 4", which should be adequate to play with the patterns in my Seminole book, and the advantage is that since I intend to machine quilt it myself, I can work up the quilt one strip at a time, and hope to manage the super-Cal-King on my home machine.

Why is it so hard to cut the fabric? Do I feel like I don't deserve to use it? I have no problem cutting the fabrics I don't really get the big charge out of, so why not use them on my projects when I'm going to spend lots of my limited time and energy, so my results will be as good as possible. Hmmm.

B*B,

Ysabeau