A week of Celebration!

This is my birthday week and first on the list has been getting ready for yesterday's Christmas Art Show at The Center.  Christmas music was playing and there was excitement in the air!

I busied myself all week...

and hoping everyone would be in the holiday spirit...

and come to our beautiful Center.  Come one, come all!

Taking time out from creating, I had invited company on Friday.  One of our dear art friends goes South for the winter; we will miss her, and I wanted to have her, and a few other friends, over for dinner...

so we took an intermission from preparing for the show.

I bought some Sunflowers for my table, and then found some dried grasses in my garden to put into the arrangement.  Reminding me of Van Gogh; a celebration of artists!  I had to cook right before serving, as I was making Chicken and Mushroom Marsala (along with Baked Mashed Potatoes w/Parmesan Cheese and Panko Bread Crumbs, Garlic Spinach, and French Apple Pie), and so I set out watercolor paper and watercolor colored pencils to keep them entertained while I cooked!

I think their drawings are wonderful and we had a wonderful time!

Saturday, included a drive out to Wilmington to visit some very dear best friends (pictures later) and fun shopping at "Countryside Village" in Braidwood.  Back by suppertime and I continued packing up for the big day on Sunday!

I made some little gift tags to put in every customer's package.

I packaged note cards...

Glittered gift tags...

Special cards...

"Art by Danielle" ...

 Collage...

and more cards...

And yes, I thought about you "Wilbur".  Always do.  You were my "star' of The Center.  And yes, Laura, Wilbur's cards were there.  They sell my little drawing of him in the Fellowcrafters' Gift Shop.

Here are a few pictures from the day.  I had good intentions of taking lots, but then things get busy.  Here is Denise and Tish looking at the collage class's display of beauties to sell.

Denise and her quilting.

and here's Marge with her artwork.

Motivation is when your dreams put on their working clothes. 

Milton Berle

Sledding along...

Trying to post some progress!  Still bustling along, getting ready for art show on Sunday, mixed in with all the other activities of the week.  Time out for collage class today!   On Dasher! 

Christmas Art Show and Sale
Sunday, November 20th
12 noon to 4 pm
at
The Log Cabin Center for the Arts
12700 Southwest Hwy
Palos Park

http://www.thecenterpalos.org/ 

today

Thought about them all day.  Today is their birthdays.  Born on the same day, seven years apart, my Mom and my favorite Uncle Albert.  Happy Birthday.  I wish you were here. 

Getting ready!

Bustling along with my list of things to do, I'm getting ready for the art show & sale at The Center next Sunday!  Packaging and packaging and packaging notecards, greeting cards and gift cards.

I have my sheep card printed in black & white, but then hand color them just a little bit.  They come to life for me.  You can hardly see it, but they get a little "Blush" on their faces, a little "French Grey" on their wool and a tint of "Raw Umber" for the hay in the background.  I took a photograph of these sheep, years ago at the Will County Fair, and the next year I won a blue ribbon for the photograph.  The picture haunts me.  They were so sweet; like they were consoling each other.  I loved them.

And this is "Farley", my son's lab.  Sadly, he's gone now.  He was a wonderful "companion". 

I add a little "Yellow Ocre" to his fur and a little "Canary Yellow" to the sun coming in the window.  As I color him, I can feel the softness of his fur and feel his tail thumping against my leg when I would come in the door.  He would follow me around the house, when I would be babysitting Danielle there, and plop down wherever I sat...always near. 

Frost Moon or Full Beaver Moon

I didn't see it Thursday night, but early Friday morning, there it was peeking through the trees. 

The Full Beaver Moon.  For both the colonists and the Algonquin tribes, this was the time to set beaver traps before the swamps froze, to ensure a supply of warm winter furs.  This full Moon was also called the Frost Moon.

and then, looking out to the East...a new day begins.

collage and beyond

Yesterday, Danielle came over and she wanted to make a book about dogs.  Here is her "beginning" page.

And then she worked on a collaged page of dogs.  Love her background!

Back to Wednesday's collage class, I had made more papers for my "forest-y" backgrounds, using tissue paper which I gessoed with a sponge brayer and then layers of paint applied the same way.

Well, this one is upside-down, but you get the idea.  I see sunrays shining through the trees in the forest.

Judy is working on her darling altered book of a  "hedgehog's world".

Teri has caught my interest with her book named "The story of Transformation".

 Here are two of Sandy's pages satisfying the theme that I gave of "The Call", creating with the colors that call to her in her beautiful artwork.

 Bernie is concentrating her pages on "what makes me happy"!

Lora Lee had fun with this one, showing lots of action and movement and color!

Barb working on her book, and her workspace is a lovely collage all by itself. 

Mary Ann has added some leaves to her serene landscape and we are all likin' it!

and Mary Ann's little book in progress.

 Denise has some beautiful colors going on here with her Fall landscapes.

and here she shows us, besides working on her landscape series, she designs a quilt square a week with fabric.

Another beautiful landscape in the making, Lora Lee has a great start here!