COME TO THE WATER

                                                      COME TO THE WATER

Gravitating to the water is an ever constant theme. Whether Susie and I are pondering a site to sketch/paint or just to walk or sit and chat.

Avon Beach, Outer Banks, NC

Aside from all the other things in life that sustain us, the waters draw us (pun intended).... bidding us to join them in their peaceful ebb and flow.  Beside the waters is where we are always able to sit the longest....taking in the sun (or rain clouds), listening to rhythmic pounding of  waves in their quest to finally escape the depths that bind them or to almost undetectable laps almost caressing the shore as we gaze from a riverbank.  Beside the waters we can breathe in the calm and perfection the universe has to offer us and become revitalized.

Sailboats

The "jaunts" my BFF and I take for art opportunity are not always to far reaches of the country as some posts may seem to imply.   We live in Florida so we have PLENTY of water... RIGHT?!

Very well I recall the day while visiting Susie in south Florida that we decided our venue that day would be the Jensen Beach Causeway that crosses Indian River.

Sailboats on the Indian River

Taking our "painting" chairs  (regular folding chairs purchased especially for outdoor "arting" out to a shady place with good subject in view we organized our supplies within arm reach and balanced our watercolor blocks on our laps..... which is hysterical considering all the outdoor painting equipment we have both collected over the years. So, while individually and collectively we both have a plethora of easels, art bags (large and small and everything in between) various pallets, paint brands and colors, we now go out with everything in a very small bag and we have scrapped the easels altogether which has given us the freedom to traverse more territory without succumbing to heat exhaustion, muscle cramps and various other outdoor perils I will share at a later date. Who knew? 😉

House of Refuge

Making "art" does not require a huge investment. It can begin at any time with a pencil and a piece of paper or a cheap set of children's paint.  Just have fun watching the colors run together or make patterns. You don't even have to show it to anyone.  I hope you will grab a pencil and sketch out something every day. You will see yourself improve constantly.  Start with sketching your salt and pepper shakers and send it to us and come back on Monday for another arty post.  Till then,

Sketch on......
Bonnie

Quilts & Cucumber Sandwiches

Hi Everyone,

Long, long time ago or so it seems, I used to be an avid quilter, maker of large and small quilts for beds and walls, tables, blankets and clothing to cover one's self with and totally into all things involving quilt making.

My Favorite Quilt
Hand Pieced and Hand Quilted

You could say it was an obsession or lifelong hobby depending how you looked at it <wink wink>.  Ever hear the phrase Eat, Sleep & Breathe .......?  I ate, slept and breathed quilts and quilting, couldn't get enough of it.  Just ask my family, they will tell you that there was colorful fabric on bolts, fat quarters in drawers, tiny snippets of fabric on the floor that seemed to follow us thru the house..... patterns everywhere, Oh and did I mention Quilt books?

Quilt Books for Keep.

Books galore on every aspect of quilting. I spent a lot of time making quilts, researching patterns (before Internet), teaching, organizing groups, going to meetings, symposiums and it was such fun!

 The quilting bug started when I took my first Community Education class in Beginning Quilting with Anne Marie (I'm sorry I can't remember her last name) and met the most wonderful group of ladies (they knew each other)!  After the six weeks of class were over, we decided that we really enjoyed our time together and in order to finish our quilts we would meet weekly and work on them. Those weekly gatherings were a blessing to a young wife and mother of very young children, a grown-up diversion of epic proportion. These ladies were gracious hosts and lovely role models and became life long friends, in fact we are still friends to this day after some 30+  years!
 Even though we don't see one other for long periods of time (mainly since I moved away) when we do it is an instant re-connection which never skips a beat when we are together. Do you have friends like that?  Isn't it wonderful that the bond is so strong between us even after so many years have gone by?

We had a weekly quilting group that met in each others homes until the group got so big that we began meeting at the community center and eventually we formed a quilting guild that met once a month, The Coastal Quilters of N.E. FL. are still going strong at the beaches in Jacksonville.  The core group continued to meet weekly and that group Kindred Spirits is going to this day!  I love that about quilting and the women who quilt, it (quilting) weaves the threads that binds us all together in love and friendship.  To my quilting sisters, a SHOUT out of love to you all (Florida, Virginia, Colorado...) where-ever you are I miss you and love you!

Flower Sample made with thread. 

Now what does this have to do with Bonnie and I?  Both Bonnie and I love to sew and so it was a natural progression that I would share this new love of quilt making with her.  She probably resisted my prodding as long as she could but then she caught the quilt bug and the rest is history as they say. She and I have spent many hours together making quilts together which reminds me of a story about when we went to stay at her mother's condo for a weekend. Our first Road Trip was one and a half hours from home.
THIS WAS BEFORE GIRL TRIPS AND ROAD TRIPS BECAME "THE" THING TO DO. 
In order for us to have a "girls get-away" weekend there was strategic planning to be done, who would take care of the kids, meal prep while we were gone and of course:  what we would be taking with us.  Our goal was to each take a "in progress" quilt and finish up other projects. Oh AND we had a new quilt pattern to try, naturally we might have slightly over estimated what we would get done.

The Plan: I would meet Bon at her apartment in town on a Friday night, and we would drive down to Ormond Beach, grab some dinner and start working on our projects.  Bonnie would bring cucumber sandwiches (w/o crusts) because we both LOVE cucumber sandwiches, so she made a shoe box full for the trip.  Little did we know that shoe box full of cucumber sandwiches would come in very handy as the weekend progressed.

Cucumber Sandwiches and Quilt Weekend

It took longer to load up the car (abundance of projects and luggage) and get out of town (Friday night traffic) than expected and we arrived later than planned at the condo, by the time we unloaded the car we were too tired to go out for dinner so we stayed in and ate cucumber sandwiches and talked into the wee hours of the morning.

Next day we decided we would try to find a quilt shop that I thought (remember, this was before GPS and Internet) was "near by", I couldn't remember the name of the town or the name of the store, I just knew it was a log cabin on US1 South of where we were.  Turned out it was almost 2 hours South but we finally found it and had a great time purchasing fabrics, in fact so much so that we barely  had enough money for dinner and gas to get home!

Fabric Stash Collecting over the years.

 The rest of the weekend was spent at the condo quilting and eat cucumber sandwiches and whatever we could scrounge from her mother's freezer! Those were great days and so much fun together!

I would again encourage you to take class on-line or better yet in a community class to learn a new craft or improve your art work.  You never know who you will meet or where it will lead you in the future.

Stay Creative!
Suzy

Quiet Places

Today's world/life is so completely filled with chatter and clatter, technology (my nemesis) and exponential CHANGE that seems one scarcely has the opportunity to assimilate into each new DAY before another day is upon us heralding a new myriad of challenges.

Even as a young child I sought the "Quiet Places".
Exploring the world and taking in every tiny detail was immensely fascinating. For hours I could roam about the neighborhood deriving much pleasure from the most mundane (by most standards) scenes.  I was captivated by the sunlight reflecting off a small stream, tree branches swaying in the breeze or I often could be found sitting for long periods engrossed in the activities of tiny ants marching in long lines as they created (or remodeled) their miniature abode.  Today (many moons later) my close friends will attest that I have never put away my interest and fascination with observing.

A quiet walk with a friend has been known to come to a sudden halt as I declared, "Look.... a dung beetle!", or "Oh my gosh.... look at these beautiful leaves" as I pick up the colorful treasures and hold them tenderly with every intention of painting pictures of them later. I never pay any heed when eyes begin  to roll as we all stop to observe the tiny creature pushing along his precious load (so to speak) nor when I am met with a blank stare over the beauty of the fallen leaves. My friend, Susie, does GET and tolerate me now...even though I still get the occasional "look" if she is in a hurry to move on to her next venue while I am still trying to get the shading on the dung beetle "just right".

She puts up with a lot from me .... getting this first post from me up has been no exception as it has been fraught with technical (and my) failure to comprehend issues from the moment we decided to reawaken the blog. For this and so much more I give her kudos and lots of love.

We both sincerely thank you for taking an interest and coming by today for a gander. Hope we can inspire you to pick up a pencil (any ordinary pencil will do) and just start sketching. You will be surprised how quickly you will like what you are doing. It's very relaxing if you don't agonize over it (of course WE have never done THAT 😩).  I leave you now til next week. Enjoy your friends, the sunshine and shadows dancing over the trees, a comfortable chair and a nice glass of wine in a quiet place from time to time.

Bonnie

FAST FORWARD TO 2017

Hello Everyone!

 Fast forward from 2014.....here we are 2017, good grief where DID the time go???
Time goes by so quickly, things happen....some good (New Grands & Great Grands), some not so good (Bon lost her Mother & I lost my Dad & Brother In Law). You know, life goes on and gets in the way at times and often we find we just get stuck in the mire. That's life.  You never know when life will throw a curve ball or two (or three).
The GOOD news is ......We're Baaaaack!  After a considerable "time out" or loooooong hiatus (whatever you want to call it) we have recharged our batteries so to speak and are ready to tackle the business of sketching & blogging once again. Time to catch up on what's been going on with the Sketchy Girlz and their adventures!

Love Birds in ink.

When we last left you all, Bonnie and I had just signed up for a few classes online to start the new year off.  Taking classes online is something I really enjoy doing and one of my favorite classes was with Joanne Sharp  "Draw Your Awesome Life".  Her class showed me how our everyday life is filled with artful moments if we just look around.

A cuppa Joe

We both participated in an online Journal/art forum called Journal 52.  It was interesting for awhile, Bonnie dropped out because it wasn't her cuppa tea and I just lost interest after a few months.  Here's one of the collages from my Journal 52 and I'll post more later.

One of the best places I've found for taking workshops online is either with the artist themselves (first and foremost, if you can, always support the artist directly)  or on the Craftsy.com website.  The classes are inexpensive and provide videos on how to do just about any craft you might be interested in.  Check it out and let me know if you take any classes, I'd love to hear what you think about the format and if you like taking classes on line or prefer classes online with the artist or in a real classroom setting. 

 Perhaps one of the best things that came from some pretty bleak days was our re-newed love of  knitting.  When you spend time in the hospital and nursing home sitting for long periods, it gets pretty darn boring.   Knitting to the rescue! Can't begin to  tell you the number of hats we both knitted during those stressful days. It seems like my knitting bag traveled everywhere with me for months and the best part was the hats we knitted went with a group of missionaries to Guatemala! Between Bonnie and I were able to send  3 dozen hand- knit hats to bless our brothers and sisters in the mountain regions of Guatemala that needed warm hats.

 Both Bonnie and I LOVE to knit, she is the Queen of HAT & Scarf knitting! Since Bonnie is now retired, she has lots of time to enjoy her knitting and other hobbies these days (and truthfully speaking, I may be a little envious that she has time to do ALL of her hobbies).  Granted, I'm only working part-time 5 hours a day, four days a week, and I'm NOT complaining about working because I enjoy what I do and feel blessed to have the job and what it affords me to be able to do, but it DOES cut into the hobby time (if you know what I mean). It's a Catch-22 situation <wink>.

Bonnie & Suzy

We've been on some adventures too and you'll be seeing our sketches and photos coming up in the next few weeks/months....you'll need to stop in for regular visits weekly and when you do, we'd love it if you would leave us a comment to let us know you were here.

Until then....
Be Creative!
Suzy

JUST CHILLAXIN....

This little scribble was done at a little park not far from
Susie's house that we frequent often.  We were "just chillin" and enjoying the
beautiful day outside.  This was done in a small watercolor
journal that my BFF made for me.  

Although much of the art Susie and I have done together has originated either ON or FROM a trip somewhere, this is not always the case.  Of course, now that we live about four hours driving distance apart, there is that little trip, but I don't count that.

I have found the most difficult thing about going to spend time with my BFF is in trying to figure out what I am going to take with me.  Because we are heavily invested in SO many things, we have to check in with one another before leaving so we will know WHAT to bring and long ago figured out we can't take it all with us.  Will we make jewelry (should I bring the beads?), will we work on a new or old quilt (should I bring fabric?), or will we knit/crochet (bring the yarn?)...??????  So much to think about.

But there is ALWAYS the ever present mini watercolor set.  After years of purchasing a multitude of easels, pallets, watercolor tubes, sponges, brushes, watercolor additives and tools ad infinitude...which is not to mention all the papers and journals in every size, weight and texture imaginable, we have finally arrived at a tiny little kit we can usually fit into our medium sized purses.  And although we HAVE traveled with the BIG stuff in tow, the heavy duty supplies now mostly live at home in the studio.

Another park....another painting.  Susie wanted me to see the house
on the hill.  It was hot that day and, while I don't recall for certain,
looks like those are rain clouds in the distance.  Sometimes a few raindrops
on a watercolor painting can be interesting.  Unlike oils or acrylic, where the
paint STAYS where you put it, working in watercolor means giving
up control for the most part .  It's exciting to watch the colors flow, blend
and do their own thing.  Susie is a master of fluid technique and dashes
beautiful paintings out faster than I can drink a cup of coffee before it gets cold.
Most of the time she is finished and waiting anxiously for me to finish so we
can move on to our next scene.  The pressure, the pressure...... 

We are never quite sure where we will wind up on our little day outings, but it's always enjoyable.  The duration of our playtime is dictated by only weather and hunger.  Sometimes we bring food with us for a little mini picnic as we did the last time I was down to see her.  We had some unexpected guests for lunch.....

The Ibis showed up looking for a free meal.  They were quite respectful actually and nothing like some of the birds who have joined our picnics over the years.  These guys had absolutely no fear and hung around for a long visit so I had time to dash this off as a memento of that day.

We are all building memories every day... Do everything YOU can to make your memories happy ones.  Take care of your friends and those you love.  Carry them in your heart with a smile.  And as always I say to you.....

Sketch on.......
 Bonnie

PS:  We so much appreciate your comments.  It helps us
        to know that you are enjoying the blog and spurs us
        on to continue.  : )  So jump on in and leave us a message.

ONE NIGHT AT THE QUEEN ANNE

A number of years ago my BFF, Susie (aka Suzy) and I were blessed to have been able to take what to date is recalled by both of us as the BEST VACATION EV-ER.  You have to say EV-ER like a valley girl to really understand what I'm talking about here.  You just did it, didn't you?  

As with many of our vacations, this one began with only a rough "outline".  Other than flying into Sacramento for a BEAD SHOW (YEA) and staying with Susie's cousin for a few days and finally winding up at the end of two weeks in Los Angeles, there WAS no plan, no timeline, no deadlines and of course, NO RESERVATIONS....cause THAT'S how WE roll.  LOL.  Both of us abhor the thought that we might be somewhere having a marvelous time and then have to leave just because we have a committed reservation at another place.  Call us crazy but we both say a great big NO to that plan.

After having driven from Sacramento through wine country and then down the coast (many stories to tell there) we finally were in the city of legend that we both had longed to see...SAN FRANCISCO.  After a day of non stop activity it was getting close to sundown and if we had given any thought at all to where we would sleep that night it was only in passing.  While I consider myself adventurous, when the sun begins to get low in the sky and I don't have my bearings, I do begin to get a little anxious.  So Susie and I headed back to the pier....yes THE PIER, if for no other reason than we had a place to sit down and we could get a beverage.  We sat at our table, where we could see the lights from Ghirardelli across the water, and perused the AAA travel book seeking refuge for the night.  It was a little dicey at first as we called several places which were either booked or an exorbitant amount of money.  This was not the first time (nor would it be the last) that we thought we just might be spending the night in our rented car.  If you have ever heard the phrase, "God watches over babies and fools", this would be a place that it applied; and we were fortunate to finally find a room at a "vintage" hotel which was within our budget and not far from where were.  We got the directions and off we went into the San Franciscan night.

Finding our way to the hotel was no problem.  We had been told there was a free parking lot "across the street".  We drove by once and did not see a parking lot of any kind, so we drove around the block again.  Hmmm still no parking lot across the street.  Were we BLIND here?  Again....around the block....frustration beginning to set in just a bit....still not seeing a parking lot.  So we decided we would just park on the street, go check in, and after asking where the mysterious parking lot is located I would go back out and park the car in the free lot.  Unfortunately the "street" parking was parallel and admittedly this is not my best skill.  We found a spot and I proceeded to attempt "the parking procedure", but then a car came by and I had to abort the mission (the street was narrow).  Around the block again to come back to the parking space....again during the attempt ANOTHER car comes by....ABORT MISSION.  After a few more times around the block we are both frustrated and tired (it being about 8 PM by then) so we decided to drive around the block ONE MORE TIME and find ANY kind of parking place.  This time we saw a tiny little parking lot without a sign across and DOWN the street on the SIDE of the hotel.  Who knew parking could be so exhausting?

The Queen Anne hotel was an elegantly furnished and fabulous old monument to the Victorian era.  We were thrilled to have arrived in our room and now we were starving.  Without even taking time to unpack we went back downstairs and inquired with the staff where we might eat.  The suggestion was a place in "Japan Town" which was a short distance down the street....optimal word here is DOWN...remember?  San Francisco?  Given the recent "parking experience" and the fact that the restaurant was not far away we opted to walk after being assured by the hotel staff that the neighborhood was quite safe.

Our late dinner was beyond fabulous and the wine and dessert was perfect.  I wish I could eat it again..right now!  It was about 10:30 or so when we finished our leisurely dinner, paid our bill, tipped well, and left to walk back UP to the hotel.  Funny we had not noticed how steep the street was on our way TO the restaurant, nor had we noticed how very   l  o  n  g
that "short distance" was.   Now after the dinner, dessert and wine it felt like trying to climb a mountain.  It was quite dark on the street and I began to also notice for the first time how many small alcoves and alleys there were between the buildings we were passing. It began to feel a little spooky.  By now Susie was at least three strides ahead of me as usual (I being 5'2" and she 5'8").  

Suddenly I heard the crunch of footsteps behind me and my heart skipped a few beats.    Although my mind immediately started racing, I kept telling myself to just be calm, it's just someone walking...but the person did not pass us....and those ALLEYS would be so easy to pull a person into....and it was sooo dark, there was no one else on the street and all the shops were closed, and we were two women all alone....  I knew Susie had detected the footsteps  as well because she had picked up the pace.  She quickly reached her best uphill speed while I struggled to keep the distance between us at a minimum as we both focused on reaching the hotel.  My heart was racing as fast as my mind, and my chubby little short legs pumped harder.  I had always wanted to be tall (so I could eat more) but now I REALLY wanted long legs so I could walk faster to at least keep up...and ahead of the scary footsteps.  

Finally we reached the hotel and almost FELL through the doorway panting like the devil himself had been chasing us.  The hotel staff said something to us to which neither of us had the breath to acknowledge so we merely nodded and may have mumbled something incoherent as we continued our accelerated stride to the elevator and then to our room where we LITERALLY fell onto our beds and lay there until we could breathe normally again.

Once the fear subsided and we regained our breath, we giggled and laughed like teenagers.  It was a HUGE "OMG I can't believe that just happened" thing.  To say we were relieved is an understatement.  Of course we learned a very big lesson...Never trust the hotel staff and NEVER walk blocks to your restaurant at night especially DOWNHILL  We never had looked back to see who (or what) had been behind us.  

Thanks for joining us here today.  We so love sharing our adventures and art with you.


Stay creative in all ways my friends... and 

Sketch on......

RESOLUTION CHECK IN

Hi Everyone!

Are you having difficulty keeping your New Year Resolutions?  Most people that make them do. Statistics show that older people (over 50) are less likely to keep their Resolutions than younger people.  As I mentioned a few posts ago I didn't make New Year Resolutions but instead have a 2014 List of things I'd like to do.   One was taking more classes and as you know Bonnie and I have signed up for a few of those!  (click on each icon to find more information about classes)

 I'm also writing a post each Saturday on the Journal 52 prompt of the week and you can see it HERE.

 As far as the One Little Word monthly class goes, I've started it and have completed the first assignment.

 My OLW is RELEASE and I've been working on that too, Releasing the clutter in my home One Room At a Time.  So far so good.  

Two of the three classes we signed up for are going well, in fact I'm pretty engaged with them online. You can check out my Flickr page HERE.  I'm still very excited about each class!

If you were to rate yourself from 1-10 (10 being the best) where would you say you are in terms of your Resolutions for 2014?   Are you still excited???  Not at 10 ?!?  Maybe slipping a little or falling behind??  Harder than you anticipated?? Whatever you do, DON'T GIVE UP!!!  Think of ways to make your resolutions work for you,ways to have fun accomplishing your goals and pretty soon your list will be completed!   It's okay to start and occasionally stop to regroup, but remember to keep plugging along each day, slow and steady wins the race!

Have Fun, Sketch On!
Suzy