New Year's Eve in Savannah, GA

It's New Year's Eve and I'm settled into the Best Western here in Savannah, GA.  I'm gonna get myself a little dinner, watch a little TV, and then spend the rest of the evening relaxing.  Tomorrow I am going to walk to the Cracker Barrel for breakfast, and then spend the day finishing my hawk.  I have a buyer for it but I have to figure out how much to charge for it.  I wish I had someone to talk to about it who knows about what to charge.  I am a little clueless as to what type of price to put on it.  I want to sell it, but I don't want to just give it away.  I have put many hours into it.  It will be hard to part with it.  I think I will have some prints made of it to sell too.  I also am reading up on copyrights too... I want to copyright my work. 

I also have to get started on the owls that I am going to teach next summer.  They are done in watercolor pencil.  Quite a different technique than what I'm used to but I'm up to a challenge.

Red Tail Hawk in colored Pencil

I have been working most of the day and part of yesterday on my red-tailed hawk that I am doing with Faber-Castel Polychromos colored pencil.  I started this last year in my colored pencil class in college (which was a waste of my time and money as my instructor didn't know much at all about the medium), but I was determined to rework it, make it more pronounced.  When I did it for my class I didn't lay down enough layers on it to bring out all the color and value of the feathers, but I spent yesterday on the head and wings and today on the breast and glove. Unfortunately my hands hurt so much that I can hold the pencil much more, so I will stop for the day and work on the legs and feet an the rest of the glove tomorrow after I get in from work.  I've taken some pictures on my phone and will post them just as soon as I figure out how.  I will spend some time figuring that out after I have a little supper.  I think I will walk up the street to the IHOP.  I haven't eaten there for quite a while, and haven't eaten out since I've been here (except that burger from Hardee's the other day that made my fingers swell from all the msg, preservatives, salt and chemicals in it).  I'm really trying to get totally away from all those processed foods out there, and all that fast food that is really not good for me.  Until later.....

Second day in Chattanooga

Today was my second day here in Chattanooga, Tn, and would you know it, it snowed here today.  Not a lot like it would do in Michigan, but it snowed.  I think it followed me here.  Yesterday I took a liquid load to Hostess in Columbus, Ga and got back to the hotel around 10pm.  Today I rode along with a driver and did a flour load to Little Debbie just outside of town, got back to the room around 3pm.  I called in and I have to be at the yard at 4am to do a sugar load with a different driver.  This is what I need to learn as sugar unloads differently than flour and sugar is what I am going to be hauling out of Savannah.  But, I guess I need to know to unload it all since I may have to pick up a flour load as a back haul from somewhere and no telling where I will wind up.  I hope they give me my truck soon so I can put my stuff into it.  I have a bunch of stuff to take me through until April.  It looks like a lot, but it's just strewn out a little.  I need to repack it. 

Jimmy was accepted into the Disney internship program and I'm excited for him.  I sure hope Paula gets accepted too.  I don't want anything to happen to his relationship with her during the time he is away.  I know this is what he wants too. 

I think Bruce is enjoying his time at home without me right now.  I miss him, but we have went into this think knowing what is real so I am not afraid in the least that he won't want me to come home, or that I won't want to come home.  It's just a job, and it will be over in the spring and we will be back to normal.  I sure hope this winter goes by quickly.  But, I miss him already, and my dogs, and my cats, and my mom and Nony. 

I haven't gotten to start on my colored pencil class project yet, but plan on working on it a little while this evening after I get done here.  I wish I would've made notes and taken pictures when I did the original... what a dummy!  Will I ever learn???  Anyway... this time I will have notes and pictures.. and I hope I can get all this done before next summer so I can teach it. 

The Adventure Has Begun

I imagine I need to give you a little insight into what is going on before I walk right into a new topic.  Although this isn't art related, it is my life and I want to include it into my blog.

I have transferred to Savannah, GA for the winter so at this time I am sitting here at my computer in the Best Western in Bowling Green, KY.  We have stopped here for the night and will get into Chattanooga, TN tomorrow afternoon sometime.  I will be working out of the Chattanooga terminal for a week learning to do the dry bulk side of our company, and then will be heading on down to Savannah, unless something changes which I really hope not.  It's only for the winter and then I will be returning to Michigan in the spring... around the end of April.  I know it sounds like a long time, and after a month or so it will start feeling like a long time, but I think it will go by quickly and when it's all done hopefully I will have made an aweful lot of money and paid off a lot of bills.  This will be my first Christmas away from home in a very long time.  Here lately my life has been full of a lot of firsts.  Last Christmas was my first Christmas with my son living 2000 miles away in Arizona.  I missed him so much, and Christmas just isn't the same without him.  I also didn't put up a large tree last year.  We had a little tree on the table in front of the picture window.  I actually sent out Christmas cards last year.  This is our first Christmas with Tito and Tyson.  Well, actually Bruce will be with them for the holidays.  Anyway...lets get back to my adventure.

We left about 7am this morning and stopped in Middlebury, IN for the breakfast buffet.  I love the buffet, and not because you can eat as much as you want, but because it is all homemade amish cooking and tastes just like you wouold fix for breakfast at home.  Real eggs and fresh hashbrowns, homemade sausage gravy, bacon that is more meat than fat and cooked perfectly.  Bisquits that are small enough that you don't throw any of it away and it doesn't stuff you either.  My favorite... the scrapple with butter and syrup on it... which is also cooked perfectly.  Fresh fruit and this icey, juicy, fruit concoction with bananas, pineapple, and orange juice all frozen together and scraped like an Icee.  Little mini muffins and petite little slices of banana, blueberry, and pumpkin breads.  Mini doughnuts and fresh coffee that tastes great.  Needless to say we both left there pretty stuffed... but off we went.  It was a very nice ride down here, a little chilly, but the further south we got the warmer it got.  Not a whole lot, but enough to notice.  Tomorrow it is supposed to rain all day so we enjoyed the sunshine while we had it.

I'm gonna turn in... tomorrow comes early. 

Hello all from Camp Pretty Lake, and the fall retreat of the Friends in Art painting club.  I only got to be here one day, but I've been having a total blast!  I didn't get my project completed, I never do, but at least I got the turkey done and the pumpkins done, so now I only have to do all the vines, leaves, and berries.  Leslie Williams taught it and we just love her.  She's such a great teacher.  I'm anxious for spring retreat already... next May.  Don't know who we are having for a teacher in the spring but whoever it is I will be there if at all possible. 

The year is over half gone...

It has been quite a long time since I have posted and I guess I need to get you updated on my happenings.  I am working again... back to driving a truck.  I didn't really want to go back out on the road, but I had to work as Bruce retired in June.  So, needed that extra income again and insurance, but I am hoping to get out of that truck one day forever!  It is just killing my body.  I now have fibromyalgia.  It's been coming on for quite a few years now, just didn't know what it was... I know now, and this has been my worst year so far.  Not only all the bouncing around in the truck but the lack of rest and sleep makes my body hurt so badly somedays it's all I can do not to lie down and cry.  I have been taking Aleve twice a day, two in the morning and one at night and it is helping a little, and the doctor has me on Cymbalta which also helps... but sometimes it seems that nothing is working some days.  Everyone seemed to tell me I was just getting older, and it's true that I am not a teenager anymore, but this is totally different than aging.  Totally different.

I got to go to HOOT this year in Columbus, OH and it was totally great!  Spent more money than I should've, but that's just part of going to convention.  I didn't take any classes again this year... they are just a little too expensive for me right now, but I would've loved to.  There were some beautiful projects and so many wonderful artists.  I had so much fun with Janet Filley, Cathy Payne, Jan Hall, and Penny Collison.  We stayed at the Drurry Inn and it was wonderful.  Lots of memories.

We have two new additions to our family.... Tito, a cockapoo, whom we adopted from the ASPCA.  He is a little pistol but we love him.  He is almost five years old.  Tyson, whom we aquired from my nephew Joe when he couldn't keep him when he became an OTR truck driver.  He is not quite a year old.  He is a shar-pei.  They are both good dogs and love each other very much.  We adopted Tito in February of this year, and Tyson came to live with us in May.  They get pretty roudy when they play, and with Tyson, everything is a game... but he will grow out of the puppiness one of these years.  I will post pictures of them soon.

I will close for today as I need to get to my hair appt which is in 20 minutes. 

Harley, our wonder dog!

Harley, our English Bulldog, passed away this morning around 9:30, after a long and brave fight against arthritis and degenerative joint disease.  He was such a wonderful boy, and we miss him so much.  I tend to think that in many ways, he was the master and we were his companions instead of the other way around.  He didn't follow you around like a normal dog... he chose where he wanted to be, and then barked for you to come be with him.  He let me know when he was hungry and when he was thirsty, when it was time for bed, and would even wake me up in the morning so that I would get up and he could have my 'soft' side of the bed, and then he would go back to sleep.  Yes, he had us wrapped around his little fingers... all of them.  My heart is broken once again, and I know it will mend, and I know once again we will open our hearts and home to another one of God's precious animals that someone has mistreated and abused.  And in time we will do this all over again... that is what we do... that is what I do.  I guess my calling is giving abused, neglected animals the chance for a wonderful life before they pass on.  I wish I could save every poor creature out there, but I can't, so I will go on helping one or two at a time and give them the love and companionship they were cheated out of in the first years of their lives, and making their last years wonderful.  Like Harley.  Harley was 6 years old when we adopted him from the rescue shelter, and who knows how many of those 6 years was spent in pain and agony, and a broken heart.  But he spent his last 4.5 years loved, and spoiled, and happy.  He went out of this life "with his boots on" you could say.  I love him so much.

Welcome to my world!

It's a new year and I'm beginning a new blog.  I first want to say "Welcome to my Studio".  Everyone is invited in to see what's on the easel, or the drawing board, or the painting table, or even in the sketchbook.  I've not yet taken the photos of my artwork to post yet.  I would like to tweek them and then copyright them first...you professional artists know what I'm talking about... my designs are mine and I don't want them stolen from me. 

This is my last week of break between classes, so Monday I will be back in school.  I'm not taking any art classes this semester, just English and History.  I hope I enjoy them.  I will be taking them online this semester so that I can also concentrate on getting my studio in order and finding some time to create in between classes, homework, cooking, laundry, housework, and job hunting.