A Gift For You

The classes that I teach locally are about "to commence to start" as my mother used to say.  I have last minute details to work on and my room to set up.  This time of year is always full of anticipation with new classes and new students.  All of my classes are either full or almost full.  I will also be adding something new to my teaching ventures this Fall.  I will be offering video classes for Homeschoolers through my Wind and Honey website.  I taught my own kids through homeschooling and taught art classes to homeschoolers for over 10 years until I moved to my current town.  I'll share more about that later.

Today I'd like to give my collage artist friends a couple of images that I believe would make fun backgrounds.  Feel free to download them if you would like.   I took these pictures on my recent trip to my husband's parent's house.  I thought they would create an interesting look behind a variety of vintage images.  I'd love to know how you use these.  Post your links here if you do so we can all enjoy them.



Wind and Honey Creations
Creative Pencils - Online Drawing Lessons

Decadence Abounding!

This beautiful circle of temptation is the New York style cheesecake my daughter made for me recently.  It is topped with ganache and fresh strawberries and the crust was made from crushed almonds.  Oh My!!!  It was soooo good and soooo rich.  Of course there were absolutely no calories.  Don't you know that if you are having wonderful family moments that the calories don't count?

Now........off to the tread mill!

Facing Forward

My journal has finally arrived for the Sketchbook Project.  Its funny how a little book with a plain brown cover can be such an exciting arrival.  Its blank pages hold potential for new ideas, thoughts, images, and creativity.  How much fun is that!?  The topic I chose for my project is Facing Forward.  Its seems appropriate to me as we come to the end of summer and prepare to enter September and Autumn.  I know most people think of new beginnings in January with the change of the year.   But to me, that always just feels like the middle of winter.  I'm sure all those years of school have affected my mindset.  September just seems more the time to face forward to new beginnings.

I found this precious little nest in the yard a few days ago.  It has been hot and dry here so there have been no blusterly storms to toss the nest out of the tree.  I choose to think its owner was also facing forward.  Perhaps her young little inhabitants had matured and grown to the point that they no longer fit in the tiny nest which is only about 3 inches in diameter.  Perhaps they are enjoying a feast with their friends on the watermelon I set out last night for the turtles.  Certainly there was enough for Cleopatra, Claudette, Miss Mae, and Goldie to share with the birds and even with the squirrels.

And as I think about facing forward, I've just come from my husband's parents house where we went through a box full of old family photos.  Some are quite old with no name.  It is sad that now no one knows who they are.  All we know is that they are family in some way or another.  Many of them are young, facing forward to their own futures so long ago.   I've included one here that I'd like to share with you for your own art projects.

Silent Saturday

Wind and Honey Creations
Creative Pencils - Online Drawing Lessons

Oh My!  Kenya thinks working on lesson plans is sooooo much work!  It just wears him out!  

Bless his heart!

Inspired by the Creativity of Children

In keeping with the theme of children's art in the last few posts, I've created an original collage for the Crowabout Challenge.  This is for week 87.  We'll just ignore the fact that I'm 2 weeks late.  This collage is entitled Through the Window and it is meant to make one ponder the creative thoughts in the imagination of a child.  I've always remembered fondly a quote from the old Muppet Babies cartoons.  Gonzo said "Who knows what weirdness lurks in the minds of kids."   LOL!   That would definitely have been true at my house.

This collage began as an original digital collage printed with archival pigment inks.  It was then hand embellished with a variety of artist colored pencils.  And then mounted permanently on a gallery wrapped canvas painted with acrylic paint.    It may be found in my 1000Markets Shop.

On another note, I've been gathering a few treasures from sales lately.  I thought I would share.   I bought this suitcase from Aunt Agnes (as her niece running the sale called her).  The others have come from various sources.

Isn't this pin cushion sweet?

There was nothing in the thread box.  But I thought the box itself had enough character to stand on its own.

Dancing Swans all in a row.

I bought the photograph of this woman framed.  It is not a print but an actual photograph in 11 x 14 size.  Is this woman anyone famous?  Should I be recognizing her?  I'd love to share her with you for art purposes. But would love even more to know something about her.  Feel free to download her and please share your work with me if you do something creative with her.