Beelieve

The big draw "crow" story collage

The whole story just for fun!

The Big Draw~days 19,20&21

A bit of a catch up in posting today.  I had to wait until I had some good light to take pictures in since I am not always thrilled with our scanner.

Today is the finale of the "crow" story.  I left off at day 18 when Crow could not grant wish number 3. 

 

 

 

The End

I have been tagged

Wow, 10 months more or less of blog land and have never been tagged. Valiane from Silent Dreamer has tagged me to share 6 random facts about myself.   I do random quite well these days so this should be easy...or will it?

1. When I was young, I was told I was allergic to bees.  As an adult I chose not to accept that and nothing happened the 2 times I have been stung as an adult.
2. Since I am mentioning my youth, I had some weird kidney thing as a child and according to statistics I should have been in complete renal failure by the time I hit 20-25 years old.  No one ever told me until one day in my late 20's a doctor from Buffalo children's hospital who had me on some study wanted to know, how my blood pressure was, and who my renal specialist and cardiologist were.  Huh? I said.  I am in perfect health, which he found such delight in the hope of a positive outcome as the majority were not good outcomes.  The key "No one ever told me", I did not live my life planning for kidney failure.  At 41, I am in perfect health and blood pressure is only 98/60!  
3. Every report card I ever had said "she does not work up to her full potential"  My comment there would have been: "Yeah, but I was having fun!"
4. In my 20's I was a head-banging groupie with hair to my waist. I met all of Skid Row, Guns and Roses(pictures to prove it too), Alice Cooper, Danger Danger, Hurricane, and if I were to look back in that box of back stage and VIP room passes I would probably remember more I have actually forgot about.
5. I don't want to know which candidate anyone is voting for...no offense to anyone.  I will just skip past that post and continue reading the others.   I just like balance, not competition, nor persuasions and can not wait until this election is over and any political comments left here will be handled by my husband who has actually followed politics all his life, not just the past few months.  I will have him handle the comments....and trust me, you don't want that...the man is brilliant and will set your head spinning.
6. Hmm, the last one should be profound right?  Nah, why start working up to my full potential now, this is fun. Hmmm, ok, I have 2 close friends who have sisters with triplets!

Ok in no particular order I will tag some people I would like to know more about and if you have been tagged and I may have missed your post please link me up. 

Rowena, Suzan Buckner,  Maya,  m.heart,  Suki, Jen D

Tag rules: Link to the person who tagged you. Post the rules on your blog. Write 6 random things about yourself. Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them. Let each person you have tagged know by leaving a comment on their blog. Let the tagger know when your entry is posted

Bee Spotting~10/21/8

Well this post would probably bee short if it were not for Nancy Lefko at My Collage Art .  She has spotted some great bee art this week.  I was probably most excited about the Etsy Treasury she spotted. I could not find a direct link to it and sorry I missed seeing it on the home page, but just take a look.  I could just stop this post and bee done after all this great art!

 

I am not going to stop beecause Nancy did not stop either.  She also spotted some adorable art from the talented Krisztina Maros at Sketchpause.  She spotted this Illustration Friday entry for "Late".  Well if this bee is from around here, he really is late.  Yesterday morning's temp checked in at 22 degrees F. 

 

While visiting this eye candy illustration blog, I spotted this next one as well.  Another IF entry for "Sugary".  Which reminds me, bees #1 enemy is the bear so never wear black or brown around your bees.  But this is a sweet, sugary honey of a bear.

 

If you want some funky fun jewelry statement, Nancy also found this cuff bracelet from Pink Flamingo 61 .  I have shown her off beefore  and always a treat to see this creative "found art" jewelry of hers.

 

 Leah from Creative Every Day has sent me some fun links this week as well.  The necklace below is just so amazing.  It is from Clockwork Zero on her Steampunk Jewelry blog.  She also has an Etsy Store and a great Flickr photostream of her work.  This one is already sold, someone is very lucky!

 

There is a form of art I someday hope to bee able to sit down and have a go at.  Digital art is something so limitless.  Once you have the skills, imagination can take you away to the surreal world.  Much like the world of Maggie Taylor.  Leah sent me a link to this one below, but I needed to take some time and lose myself in her art for a while. 

 

 Many may find some art, especially surreal digital art a bit disturbing, a lot of art is.  Art is a form of communication and unless you know the story behind it, as anything in life, don't judge it.  It could mean something completely different, get a translator and learn the language, or just stop looking.  I have always loved Salvador Dali, even as a kid. Trust me, I can take a picture of my Dali book shelf, the one that bows in the middle from the weight of all the books about him.  I am amazed at this great master's creativity and wish he could come back and play with some digital art! 

 Even Dali was once inspired by a bee in his  One Second Before Awakening from a Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate, 1944 I found here.  I will not post a picture in case someone does find it disturbing, to me he put the "aaaaaah" in  art, and painted it at that.

  So let the bees inspire you as we continue to inspire each other!  Thank you everyone!

Therefore: I put a handle on country living

One of my favorite books to rip pages from is "The Sparrowgrass Papers: or Living in the Country" by Frederic S. Cozzens (1860).  I wish I had actually read the whole thing before ripping and cutting from it.  I had marked a page I did read.  A poem called "Therefore"

Therefore

I’d kind o’like to have a cot
Fixed on some sunny slope; a spot
      Five acres more or less;
With maples, cedars, chesnut trees,
And poplars whitening in the breeze.

’Twould suit my taste, I guess,
To have the porch with vines o’erclung,
With pendant bells of woodbine swung,
      In every bell a bee;
And round my latticed window spread
A clump of roses, white and red.

      To solace mine and me,
I kind o’think I should desire
To hear about the lawn a choir
      Of wood-birds singing sweet;
And in a dell, I’d have a brook
Where I might sit and read my book.

      Such should be my retreat;
Far from the city’s crowds and noise
Where I could rear my girls and boys, —
      I have some two or three,
 And if kind Heaven should bless my store
With five, or six, or seven more,
      How happy I would be.

 

I loved how "Crow" turned out on a day of distraction.  As luck would have it, I had another handle...another 8x8 inch canvas...and of course book pages.  More specifically, these pages.  I had a different idea at first, then the background came out darker than I had planned.  So, I went with it.  I cut and pieced a heart with the poem and this perfect little flaw of white remind me of a farm house off in the distance.

 

Well if it wants to be a farm house then let it I say.  In fact, let it tell me the story.  "It was night in the country...the littles had just gone to bed exhausted after a day of fresh air and searching for bittersweet...   I picked up a good book and began to read because if I don't a crazy artist will get a hold of the pages and rip!"   Next thing I know the painting told me to coat it with bees wax and put a handle on my art again!

 

 

 

 

I took some pictures then grabbed "my little" (as good as any seven) and we headed up the hill to get some bittersweet.

The rest of the story ended up like this, as I imagine any great story about country living does. (I might not know...rip!)

Going to Etsy soon!

 

A product worth trying

I must admit as a pharmacist I have recommended this to many.  It wasn't until the other day when I went to my own doctor for a routine exam, I was told to try it.  My doctor took one look at my hands and must have thought I used steel wool to clean my hands.  I confess, they are usually a mess. Especially now until maybe...August.  At work I wash them a lot and dry with "paper" paper towels.  People aproach me wiping their nose and handing me their prescription with the same hand and at 200-300 prescriptions a day...yeah...a lot of hand washing.  At home they are always covered in medium, paint, glue...you name it.  Paper and fabric can absorb oil from your skin as well.  I have a feeling there may be many of you out there who have a cabinet full of those creams that just did not get rid of those annoying thumb cracks and paint filled fine lines on your fingers.  I am only on day 3 of using Kerodex 71 and there is a drastic improvement.  I just worked two 12 hour days and today  have put it on before painting and my hands feel and look 10 times better. 

*This will probably not be on the shelves in the pharmacy you go to but ask the pharmacist to order it for you.  Most pharmacies order daily for the next day.  Make sure you ask for "71" it is the one for wet work.  You will never know it is on your hands, other than the fact they feel great

The Big Draw~Day 18

a quick post and big draw for yesterday...not crow though

Hi, have to bee quick.  Have not had time to focus on my crow story for the big draw, but did some very quick shrink art buttons.  They are no where near as good as Elsita's.  PJ girl wanted toast, thru toast in the toaster as these were in the oven baking, set toast on fire while watching these.  Put out minor toast flame...smoke detector off...shrink art in oven too long and some are a bit distorted.  But I did draw all but the 3 on the right, those are stamps!

 

How do I do it?

On Tuesday part of my routine is after PjGirl's art class we hit the library.  This Tuesday there just so happened to be another book sale.  Had to check it out.  Once again, I scored.  I got at least 24 or so books, including PjG's picks for $6 total.  What am I going to do with these?  I have a bit of an idea if I can get it all to work.  For now, here they are:

 

The Thomas Jefferson's Farm Book is still selling for $49.95!

 

I actually grabbed some books I will use and not rip up.  The polyshrink book came with at least 20 sheets of shrink plastic.  Right on time as I was about to try some of these from Elsita and knew if I even located the 1 sheet I may have left, it would not be enough once I started!

 

I have been celebrating this score by cleaning out  today to find room for them.  We have a weird room with a crooked floor and no wall space.  It leads from one hall way to the next so 2 doorways, a large closet, window, a third door to a balcony and built in floor to ceiling bookcase.  About all that is in there is everything that needs a home when brought up from downstairs.  Odd ball boxes of stuff.  So today I was creative at emptying that room out,  yawn!

I like to bee distracted

The fall colors are so abundant and so beautiful right now.  They are also hard to capture in a photo.  I decided to capture some of those colors in a mixed media painting.

I started the 8x8x1&1/2 inch deep canvas by blanketing it with book pages, fairy tales more notably.

 

I layered on vibrant colors with a credit card until they were just the way I wanted.  Guess who came next?

 

"CROW"  and his magic flower.  The final steps I"messed it up" a bit.  Added a funky handle to the top and coated it all in bleached bees wax to preserve the color.

 

I left the sides unpainted, just distressed a bit and coated in wax as well.

 

"Crow" is available at my Etsy shop.  Remember, it is a magic flower and proceeds in October go to the American Cancer Society!

UPDATE:  "Crow" is sold