It seemed that Thanksgiving snuck up on us this year, with summer easing quietly into a warm fall. And you don’t even have Thanksgiving dishes done and the National Dog Show watched, before being slammed into the Christmas season, via ads and watching your social media follows decking their halls. As I always confess at this time of year, I have a very hard time getting into the ‘Christmas spirit;’ the one that includes decorating, shopping, and parties. My Christmas includes advent readings, candle lighting, reading by the fire with hot chocolate, avoiding malls, and doing what I d ..read more

I have participated in Inktober each October since 2016, but I forgot to post the ink sketches here this year. So here they are. They were all done in a large sketchbook that has paper that won’t take paint, so just ink, Inktense pencils, and ballpoint pens. Each day in Inktober has a prompt, which I pretty much stuck to, but I think I’ll just let you guess the prompts this year! I enjoyed sketching with ink this year, even more than in previous years. The sketchbook I used is a larger format one, and I have grown to like that ..read more

 I previously added a few pages from my travel journal from a trip we took to New England. I used the same small sketchbook for our trip a few weeks later to Bryce Canyon National Park, and to view the recent solar eclipse in nearby Utah. We stayed in a VRBO ranch just beyond Hatch, which was secluded and very nice. My favorite activity was while my husband was biking through Bryce, I sat and did a small (5x7”) oil painting. The resulting painting was not great Art, but it was great Fun!  I did a few little watercolors in the sketchbook on site, as well. And I also sketch ..read more

            We finally were able to take the trip to New England that my heart attack at the airport had delayed. Our flight was the same one we had booked before, very early in the morning. I brought a small sketchbook with me, to use as my travel journal, so sketched for a part of the flight, to pass the time. (I am not fond of flying, and having a heart attack at the airport did not improve that.) Our flight agenda took us through Texas, then on to Boston, where our son and puppy, Milly, met us at the airport ..read more

 I was hoping to be adding sketches and photos from a trip to New England now. But that is not to be. We went to the airport, checked our bag and went through security, and settled in to wait to board our plane, when I had sudden and severe pain in my chest, and down my left arm into my hand. We waited awhile, took something for heartburn, then an Excedrin (the only thing we had with aspirin in it) but nothing helped. I finally told my husband I could not get on an airplane, and we called 911. I had indeed, and surprisingly, had a heart attack, so ended up in the hospital, inst ..read more

My life recently has been showing up mostly in my sketchbooks. We went to Kansas to bury my Father, and I sketched on the trip. I also sketched the very small town we lived in for a few years when I was young, from a few photos my brother took. (below)     July is apricot season at our house, so I sketched some, based on a Cezanne painting that was probably peaches. The rest of this 2-page spread was done at our cabin, where dragonflies were busy (hopefully eating mosquitos) at the lake and caterpillars were busier than usual at the cabin (sign of another big winter?)  You ..read more

  I have a few tapestries ‘out there in the world’ right now, which is a big change from the past few years, when the pandemic made all exhibits online only. This one, “Yin/Yang” is in the 14th American Tapestry Biennial at the Appalachian Center for Crafts in Smithville, Tennessee, May-July of this year. “The Duet” and “Tapestry Arch” are both in the 2023 Biennial of Textiles exhibit at the Hudgens Center for Art and Learning in Duluth, Georgia, now through July 15th. This small tapestry, “The Caregiver (selfie#3)” will be in the Handweaver’s Guild of America’s Small Expressions ..read more

      This afternoon I did this self portrait to end my current sketchbook. I have made a habit of beginning and ending my sketchbooks with self portraits. It is a way of checking in with myself, to see how things are going.    I am not really a fan of 'selfies.' I do not have a 'selfie stick' for my phone. I rarely take, or even like, photos of myself. (I also confess to deleting many of those my husband takes of me.) But the sketches I do of myself are not to capture my image, as much as to capture my mood, and even more, to capture my life at the time. The Sk ..read more

  I have mostly been busy doing family ‘maintenance’ for the past months. But I did manage to recently rewarp the Shannock, as I felt a strong need to weave. I listen to those strong urges, because to ignore them results in more stress than I can handle! My favorite season is passing rapidly. This view at our cabin is already snow covered. It has been one of the prettiest falls here; maybe because we needed the beauty so badly after the past hard years! I have finished a few small tapestries, and several have been sent out on exhibit.  This tiny tapestry will be in the ..read more

Sometimes life throws a lot of Big Things at you, and it seems like doing anything at all is beyond you. That is when you need to do little things. I have been doing little things for awhile now, and they are keeping me sane. (I do not use that phrase lightly.) The tapestry of the Queen of England, above, is a very little thing! It is postcard size, about 5x7". It was woven for the ATA postcard exchange, and sent to England last summer. I share a birthday with the queen, and was, in fact, born in the year (on her April birthday) that she became queen. So I loved making a tapestry of her in ..read more