Last Days of Summer

We spent the last days of summer vacation in Mattituck on Long Island in New York. I don't know how time can go so fast when you are just hanging around the house or on the beach. We had some good weather days
and some not so good weather days.



There are vineyards nearby, but we didn't go tasting.


We enjoyed yummy fruit and vegetables from the many farm stands around.


It was the first time all the cousins (Anna, Ben, Jessica, and Alexandra) were together.

First Day of School

Today was Anna's first day of fifth grade. She was anxious, but not excited, and woke up at 5 a.m. That could partly be because we arrived home Saturday from New York (it would have been 7 a.m. there). She was mourning the last minutes of summer vacation as we were walking to school.

Neglecting Blog Duty

I have not been very good, lately, writing on this blog. What have I been up to? Hmm, many things. The guest bedroom is now back to the sewing room. The Chuck Close exhibit at the museum is now "Close"d as I have been helping to get that down. Anna has been at Taekwondo camp, so I have been taking her back and forth there.

I have many ideas in my head and have been trying to squeeze in little creative bits here and there. Here is a bit of creativity while eating chocolate.


I have been carving some stamps. The big flower-like ones I did a few weeks ago, but the smaller one inch squares I've been working on this week. Someday you will maybe see some artwork with these in the piece.


Here is some playing around with the one inch squares to create patterns in my sketchbook.


I will be taking another break for a week and the blog will rest again. But afterward, school starts and hopefully we will be back into a good routine and more will appear here!

Carving Stamps

Last week I was working on carving some stamps from material similar to Speedy Cut (or erasers). Anna sat down and decided to do one of her own. This is the bunny with hat that she made and carved out by herself. I think it is adorable.

Dyeing Fabric

I spent all weekend dyeing over 60 yards of fabric in preparation for a Nancy Crow workshop I am attending in September. Below are some of the pictures of the mess I made and the resulting fabrics. I worked in the garage.

Crayon Drawing #3

Today's drawing is suppose to be a pepper shaker. I chose something a bit more complex. It is hard to portray glass and metal with crayons. The proportion is a bit off but you can't erase crayon.

Crayon Drawing #2

Tomato.
It's not a very complex subject to draw, but it is hard to do shading with the Crayola crayons. There were two little spots on the tomato that looked liked eyes and I just wanted to draw a smiling mouth on it. I still might.