Thursday Watercolor Practice Update & Ramblings (Long)

 First of all, for those of you that celebrate Passover and Easter, I am wishing you all a happy holiday this weekend.

 When we lived at our woods home we had friends that would invite us over for big holiday dinners, along with other friends of theirs and everyone would bring sides. I miss that sometimes, but then when we are there neither of us can eat most of the foods that are shared any more-dietary concerns, so then I don't miss that part so much, and since covid we have become very isolated from people now.  Which is probably not a good thing. I do all the food shopping and errands so Larry can stay away from people. I am also so glad we chose Not to get those covid booster shots as I am reading more and more evidence that those are causing major health issues for heart patients. 

  I think I am feeling down a bit too as I realize we are getting older (mid 70's) and I am just really feeling old this week. Never have really thought of running out of time before-but I won't have another 50 years left any more (well you know what I mean, we never know how much life time we will have but since I am in my mid 70's  I know I don't have Lot's of years or quality years left) , so that has been on my mind.  

   I find myself a bit down, which doesn't happen too often for me.  I am just sharing some of my thoughts tonight.  

  The weather has been gloomy and just blah most of this week and it continues for several more days. We both over worked ourselves handling those heavy concrete blocks for the dock. There are still a few more loads to move.  I have about 5 more days of the steroids for the episode getting in to stuff, and like last year during the last week of taking the pills-they make me really sick. I am finally getting better thank goodness, but I still get woken up early mornings with the burning on my arms. This is worse than just poison ivy-sigh. It will pass eventually. Patience.

  I have realized this evening, that I must go through my craft-art room. It is a very small room considering how much  I have crammed in there. It is time to think seriously what I can declutter. I just was not ready to do any of that when we moved off of the woods land. I have just about everything I have collected for my arts and crafts since the late '60's As I add in more mediums-well I just have more items haha  I also have items from family sewing rooms-both Grandmothers, my Mom and my late sister that passed way too young-right after graduating college.

   I still have many bags of fleece to spin-they have all been washed-dried and are stored in cloth bags with tansy and lavender. I need to see if I can sell those on Etsy. It is difficult to sell craft books, but I need to see if I can do that as well. I enjoyed spinning, but I am just not good at it, have not mastered finer yarn as of yet. I will finish spinning up my bison roving which I love working with and decide what to weave with it.

  Larry found me this awesome very large vintage oak desk that was a work desk of some sort as the top is a hard rubber. I have enjoyed this desk for over 15 years now.  I keep it covered with very large quilt cutting mats. (as I am writing this I am thinking I may just take those quilt mats off to keep those nicer. I am not cutting fabrics as much as I used to) 

    

  I do allot at this desk including painting, and now writing my slow mail letters here too. It was so cluttered with stuff that I removed allot of it to make more space. Paints to the right, pens, markers etc, writing materials, a tin full of papers for journal pages to the left. In the back is some fun pieces-some gifts some vintage etc. 

  To the left of this desk is my sewing table and sewing machine. Behind this desk and sewing area are four large steamer trunks two placed side by side and then two more backed to those that are packed with felted wool fabrics, weaving yarn etc.       Behind the sewing table and under another window on that left wall is a huge vintage trunk full of leather scraps and large pieces. In front of that is my farm girl Grandmas standing embroidery-sewing box that is filled with beads now. Next to that a floor to ceiling commercial shelving unit full of dye materials and soap making supplies. 

   That brings us to the wall with the entry door to the far left. That wall also has large commercial shelving units filled with fabrics, bags of silk, linen, embroidery, vintage buttons, and more plus paper making supplies and one shelf full of weaving magazines, and other saved craft magazines that I use for reference and also hardcover reading books. On the floor there in the corner are big baskets of spinning items which didn't fit in my computer room, and more paper making supplies etc.

  I could really have used a large room like our friend Deb has. haha and I have not even mentioned the little closet with steps to the attic to the right of my desk-that I will work on first for decluttering. Also next to my desk to the right in the corner wall is a wooden file cabinet filled with craft art literature, and on top is a vintage metal eye glass cabinet that is the perfect height for my wooden stamp collection.

 

    This vintage cabinet is to the right of this desk on a different wall, (next to the closet)  and the top is covered with mixed media and watercolor papers, I grabbed Larry's vintage cigar boxes-he was going to sell them-for my colored pencils, etc. I snuck these in so I don't think he has seen them yet (smiles)   I just couldn't let those go when they are perfect for storing. One has my calligraphy dip pens in it too.   What a cluttered mess this space is. I am not used to this much clutter sitting around.

  Something I learned today:  Doing some research on the watercolor inks and inks in general I looked up how to keep ink from drying out in the bottles. For my dip pen I have been using these vintage crystal ink pots with silver tops-but they are not air tight, and my India ink is getting dried out and thick between usages.  So I learned  ink in little glass bottles should be kept in their little boxes, and then placed in another wooden box or a drawer. So I am using a plastic craft box I found in my stash and placed that box into one of these wooden drawers in this cabinet. I did purchase a quality India black ink from Japan that I am using and it comes in plastic bottles that I am not having any drying issues with.

  My big purge yesterday was to purge all of the Outlander books including all of the Lord John books as well, and put them on Ebay to sell.  I have read the first four books and have had difficulty getting into the next book-I have started several times to get into that one. The author is a gifted writer, very detailed as she does mountains of research for these books-but the stories can be very dark and can get into allot of violence. I am not liking the story line in the Outlander tv show this season at all-that was a push for me to box these up and get them up for sale. 

  Ok if you are still with me, this morning I played with  my watercolor page more this mornng. I decided to add some spring flowers to my bunny page and used this lesson page as a guide

    I did have fun with this, as I mixed up my colors. I used my dip pen and black India ink for the lines on the flowers and the leaves. I outlined the leaves with a green watercolor ink, and also used that green watercolor ink in the grass too.  I then wet my page for the background and mixed up a very light blue (thanks from the tips for a couple of friends comments)

  As I had mentioned in my last post I am working in a mixed media notebook, instead of on watercolor papers, so I can not get the paper as wet, but I think since these are really for practice and to get more comfortable with watercolors I will stick with this notebook for a bit longer.

So looking at these practice pages-they looked perfect to tear out of my mixed media paper spiral notebook, fold them in half and turn them into cards for my slow mail friends.  This way they will have a purpose and not just sitting in a notebook. They will be fun to write in too, and hopefully my slow mail friends will like them.

  Thanks for dropping by Have a good weekend