Monthly Archives: May 2014

Flower Explosion

I decided to learn more about my Illustrator program so I signed up for Skillshare. I love the mini classes.

What would we do without videos these days?

The first class I took was Digital Illustration: Doodles to Designs by Jon Burgerman.

 

First the teacher had us draw doodles. The first one was doodle with your eyes closed!

Doodle 1 Close Eyes (492x640) Looks like a two-year old scribbling, but it was fun. 🙂

Second one we had to doodle what we know.

Doodle 2 Draw what you know (490x640) I have always liked drawing flowers. I mostly drew it without picking up my marker.

The third thing he had us turn the page as we drew and not pick up the marker.

Doodle 3 Turn page do not lift pen (490x640)

The final drawing was a new piece of paper and trace things from all three doodles that we wanted in our new drawing.

Doodle 1 (492x640) My end result!

We scanned it into Photoshop to clean up the lines and the background. A new skill that I knew was possible but was not sure how to go about it. Once it was cleaned up we opened it into Illustrator and he walked us through the Live Trace and the Live Paint option. I had fiddled with those two things but could never get them to work right.

Happy camper to know how to do them now. 🙂

Here is the cleaned up version of lines.

Fixed Lines Doodle 1 (492x640) It makes a difference with the background if you look at the one above.

My colorful explosion.

Colors-Doodle-2 - Copy (491x640)

I have a saved file for the basic line drawing so I can go in and do different color combinations. I am definitely going to work on more doodles so I can get more of a picture out of it than this one was.

The neat thing is you can have this put on different items like T-shirts, mugs, etc. I do have a Zazzle shop (click on Zazzle and it will take you there) that has a couple of my images from a long time ago. I hope to get more designs on there as I get better at creating.

I find doing projects like this gets my creative mode going and it is a nice break from writing and editing. 🙂

Plus, makes for great household decorations! 🙂

 

Happy Friday! Have a great weekend!

 

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Why Does A Watermelon Float?

Science Adric 2014 001 My youngest son, Adric and his watermelon project.

It is that time of year when the kids come home and say science project!

I cringe.

I love science but I hate explaining the whys. I love the ending project where he gets to decorate the board. It takes everything I have to NOT do it for him. I cringe with each crooked writing. I think this comes from when I was a kid.

My grandma would help me with my school projects. She would actually get a ruler and use a pencil to draw a line that I would have to print my lettering on. It had to be perfect. I didn’t get it back then, but I do now.

I did almost get out that ruler and pencil tonight though. I really wanted to but I kept thinking will the teacher be upset and think he had no part in the project.

Luckily, my teachers never thought that and I always received awesome reviews and great grades on my projects.

Adric did a really good job. There is only a slight slant in his writing for the data part. We did print out the long writing with the computer and then he cut it with my fancy scissors. The only part I helped with was the actual project.

A knife was involved and I don’t think a fifth grader needed to use one. 🙂

Science Adric 2014 008

He was dangerous enough with the giant fork.

Science Adric 2014 004

I kept telling him watch the other fingers, no need to go to the hospital tonight. 🙂 The look was in his eyes to stab that watermelon recklessly.

No mishaps thank goodness.

In conclusion, the watermelon floats because it is air tight. Something to do with density and etc etc. I told you I don’t like explain.

It took us cutting the rind off for any of the watermelon to actually sink and even then it floated a little bit.

Science Adric 2014 011 Still floats

Science Adric 2014 012 Cut off the rind and in pieces, finally sank a bit.

It was fun doing the project with my son.

Good memories. 🙂

And now we have watermelon!

And it is already clean! 🙂

 

 

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Thank You Rami!

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A fellow blogger nominated me for the Leibster Award! Thank you so much Rami! I am enjoying your blog!

1. Write 11 random facts about myself.

2. Answer 11 questions Rami came up for me.

3. Nominate 11 bloggers (if I can think of that many).

4. Come up with 11 questions for my nominees.

Random Facts…oh boy.

1. I’m a Pepsi-holic! Though I am cutting back for health reasons. I won’t give it up entirely. 🙂

2. I’ve always wanted to be a writer. Love having the internet to make this come true!

3. I love to learn. I wanted to be an Architect when I was in high school and went to college. Life threw some curves. Hope to finish it just because I want to.

4. My husband’s forgetful remembering of names has rubbed off on me. 🙂 Who are you?

5. I want to visit the castles in Europe. I secretly want to live in one. 🙂

6. I believe in the spirit world. I think my three cats are my grandpa, grandma, and my dad. 🙂

7. I envy my husband for all his traveling he has done and does. He has seen the world. I’ve seen the U.S.

8. I love to dance and really miss that part of going out on the weekend. Don’t miss the hangovers and drama.

9. I never wanted kids, but definitely happy that I did. I wouldn’t trade them for all the castles in Europe! 🙂

10. I miss having a best friend (girl) and yet I don’t. Figure that one out. 🙂

11. I’m a number freak! I love making budgets and keeping track of statistics.

Rami’s ??????s

 1. What is your favorite genre of fiction? I would have to say Mystery. I love trying to figure out who done it.

 2. What scares you the most? My hubby and kids passing before me.

 3. When you were growing up, what did you want to be when you were an adult? Always a writer, then an Architect, an archeologist, a race car driver, a singer, a dancer, a journalist, a spy, and a princess. 🙂

 4. If you could hang out with one superhero for a day, who would you pick and why? Wonder Woman. She is awesome. I loved that show. Who wouldn’t want all her powers. 🙂

 5. What is your pet peeve? People who don’t throw their trash away. Hate it. Drives me batty. Yes, I am one who will pick it up and throw it away.

 6. What is something you never thought you’d end up doing but you found yourself doing it? I never thought I would be a bookkeeper, it is so not creative. I did make colorful files and calendars. 🙂

 7. What do you look for in a potential romantic partner? Kindness, funny, adventurous, spontaneous, adapts to change, respectful, and a good kisser. 🙂

 8. What is something you wish you could change about yourself? I would like to lose 50 lbs so I am where I should be for my height.  

 9. What is something you’d like to do before you’re 80? Travel to a few different countries with my hubby. 🙂

 10. What is your fondest childhood memory? When my dad taught me to ride a bike and roller skate. I didn’t get much time with my dad because he was always living elsewhere. I was raised by his parents.

 11. If you found a large brown spider crawling up your leg right now, how would you most likely react? I would grab the nearest object and kill it. I can handle spiders. My parents said I use to eat them. Yuck. 

The bloggers I want to nominate are: Drumroll…….these are recent blogs I started to follow. Give them a quick look! 🙂

1. Me-Who am I?

2. Marina Kanavaki

3. The Risible Rambler

4. Fashionassist

5. Pouring My Art Out

6. Lights, Camera, Action

7. Fiction All Day

8. Kraexhaust

9. Writer B is Me

10. Dinosaurs in the Bathtub

11. The Sacred Dice Roll

My eleven questions are….

1. Do you snack while writing?

2. Do you write in the same place every time?

3. Do you listen to music while writing?

4. What do you daydream about?

5. Do you spend a lot of time reading other blogs?

6. Have you published a book?

7. What made you decide to write?

8. What’s your favorite color of pen?

9. Do you like journals?

10. How often do you log on to WordPress?

11. Could you survive without the internet?

Happy blogging about this award! All of you deserve it! I understand if you don’t have time to follow through but do know you have earned the award! 🙂 Good day!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Rip It Up…Again!

Our kitchen tear up Kitchen at the Puzzle House.

Our weekend was spent demolishing our kitchen, again. I do believe this is the third time we have removed the cabinets. This should be the last time for several decades, I hope. 🙂

When I moved into this house it had a very small kitchen. I love the size of the kitchen now. It is more than doubled the old size.

After twelve years of living in a construction zone, we moved across the state for hubby’s military career. Now, we only have to live in it during a weekend and then we get to ESCAPE!

YAY!

I can handle that. I think we all were tired of the dirt and boxes of stuff packed everywhere.

It does look a heck of a lot better and hubby does a wonderful job. Plus, it keeps him busy, mind and body. 🙂 It is paid for can not complain there. It would be nice to win the lottery to finish it all in a timely manner than little by little.

We always joke we should have tore it down and began from scratch and then we remember we were living in it, that would not have worked. 🙂

It all began with a very poor roof!

Then along came a water pipe break. That began the kitchen and bathroom remodel after the bathroom had already been remodeled once.

Yes, we have had to demolish several rooms a couple times. It’s a learning journey. I like to call it Murphy’s Law. One problem is discovered and it creates another one. Ugh.

I could actually call this the Money Pit house.

Loved that movie and I love this old house. It has character. It is one of a kind.  😉

I am going to hunt down some more pictures and will show as much of the remodel as I can. We have done better lately of taking pictures than we did in the beginning.

Be looking for future blog posts! 🙂

Have you had any remodel nightmares? 🙂

 

 

 

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Living with Allergens

I hate allergies! My daughter’s new blog! Check it out! 🙂

Lights, Camera, Action

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Above is a picture of my environmental allergy test results. On April 21st, 2014, I was a bit shocked to learn just how bad my allergies were. Let me give you a little background information for starters.
I have had allergies since as long as I can remember. I have always dealt with running noses, never ending sneezing, a little wheezing, itchy rashes every once in a while, and everything else. Don’t even get me started about watery eyes. I would take a headache over watery eyes some days! They don’t stop no matter what you do, then they chap your eyes, cheeks, and eyelids, they crust over especially if you fall asleep, and then they burn for days! Not to mention you can forget your make up when your eyes keep watering. By the time I turned 21 I had been accustomed to carrying packs of tissues in my…

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