Thursday, December 31, 2009

Some Recent Journal Pages








I'm thinking of going to the Judy Wise type of art journaling--incorporating a daily blow-by-blow of a whole month on one spread. But then I think I've thought this before and decided everything (writing and artwork) would have to be much smaller. So...never mind. Plus, I don't really have anything interesting to write about everyday. Such is my life here. Need to get knitting a hat again...obviously.

 As  I am writing this, Frieda is on the bed (in the Vincent/computer/room, snoring.) It's a tough life for doggies in our household.

Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Around Our House For the Holidays

I took a few pictures of our holiday decorating and am just now posting them--just in time to put everything away for another year. Our method of decorating is to get out a whole bunch of stuff and cram in on every surface. No planning involved.










Tuesday, December 22, 2009

The Beginnings of My Current Art Journal


recycled book cover as cover for my art journal
(I had read about this somewhere and decided to try
it out. Not real happy with it though.)


first page


first spread of current art journal...wherein I talk about "the blog"



front cover of my last art journal (resolu...)




(...tions) back cover




another art journal (our lives here bliss)



and back cover







Friday, December 11, 2009

Trying out Linking

Watching some links to John Lennon songs/videos. I still get chills when I listen to/watch "Imagine," but I linked to this because I realized JL and I have very tiny lips in common and that is probably the reason he was always/still is my "favorite" Beatle.

I originally posted this not being able to figure out how to "link" a URL to a "word." So I eventually discovered that I would have to somehow change my post  back to a "draft" so that I could then go in  to change/edit the link to the word. Yes, I am still trying to figure out "blogging."

Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Trying Out Some Self Portraits

I decided to take a self portrait before I cut my hair. You know, the before and after thing. Except I keep thinking I need to get a "professional" to cut it...even though the last two time the "stylists" did not listen to what I said I wanted and whacked off the back. I've noticed the hair people love to keep working on the back...where you can't see what they are doing. Anyway, here is a "before" picture.


I might make it my new facebook picture. It's nice and blurry because
I am unable to hold the camera still when I take a picture.





Here's another self portrait in my kitchen environment...        



and a wild a crazy asparagus fern


Wednesday, December 2, 2009

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas...too soon

Over Thanksgiving weekend I think I watched (or switched around channels) on t.v. for just about every Christmas movie that has ever been shown on television. What will it be like when it gets closer to the actual Christmas. "They" weren't showing It's A Wonderful Life or Miracle on 34th Street ..yet. But I'm sure those will be popping up way before mid December. I do somehow have an affection for the Celtic Women specials on PBS, especially when one or all of the CW is singing seriously, beautifully and in harmony. My favorite CW is "Chloe" ...the blond slightly overweight one who sang Faure's Pie Jesu or is by  Durafle? One of the most beautiful, most moving sacred songs of a Requiem. In my opinion.


the 2008 leenda tree

Now that it is actually December, I do have to start thinking about Xmas, decorating, shopping for presents and maybe even buying a Celtic Woman CD  to listen to. (I already have a couple of the Celtic Xmas CD's that I always play to get me into a holiday frame of mind.)
                                                              

Devil and Angel Dollies

Devil and Angel Dollies
Egg heads and tissue paper bodies, inspired by the ones hanging above in Santa Fe's Pasqual's cafe and restaurant.

What I've Been Reading

  • The Grownups...Robin Antalek
  • From Here to Paris...Cris Hammond
  • A God in Ruins...Kate Atkinson
  • Some Luck...Jane Smiley
  • Crazy Little Thing...Tracy Brogan
  • We Were Liars...Emily Burkhardt
  • Nora Webster...Colm Tobin
  • Saving Grace...Jane Green
  • The French House...Don Wallace
  • Florence Gordon...Brian Morton
  • Us...David Nichols
  • Life Drawing...Robin Black
  • Lucky Us...Amy Bloom
  • Perfectly Miserable: Guilt God and Real Estate in a Small Town... Sarah Payne Stuart
  • Paris I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down...Rosecrans Baldwin
  • Beautiful...Ruth Richl
  • The French For Love...Fiona Valpy
  • Green Angel...Alice Hoffman
  • The Husband's Secret...Liane Moriarty
  • A Day in the Life of a Smiling Woman...Margaret Drabble (short stories) a
  • The Arsonist...Sue Miller
  • Table for Seven...Whitney Gaskell
  • Outside the Lines...Amy Hatvany
  • The Widower's Tale...Julia Glass
  • Still Life With Bread Crumbs...Anna Quindlan
  • And The Dark Sacred Night...Julia Glass
  • The Good House...Ann Leary
  • We Are Water...Wally Lamb
  • Three Junes...Julia Glass
  • After I'm Gone...Laura Lippman
  • The Woman Upstairs...Claire Messud
  • Death of the Black Haired Girl...Robert Stone
  • Lydia's Party...Margaret Hawkins
  • Bread and Butter...Michelle Wildgen
  • Thursdays in the Park...Hilarry Boyd
  • A Place At the Table...Susan Rebecca White
  • The Glass Wives...Amy Sue Nathan
  • Summer People...Brian Groh
  • Beautiful Day...Elin Hilderbrand
  • Carthage...Joyce Carol Oates
  • The Lovliest Chocolate Shop in Paris...Jenny Colgan
  • House of Glass...Sophie Littlefield
  • The Comfort of Lies...Randy Susan Meyers
  • The Painted Girls...Cathy Marie Buchanan
  • The Kept...James Scott
  • Tell the Wolves I'm Home...Carol Rifka Brunt
  • The Perks of Being a Wallflower...Stephen Chbosky
  • The Position...Meg Wolitzer
  • Teach Me...R.A. Nelson
  • Carry The One...Carol Anshaw
  • The Bookstore...Deborah Meyler
  • The Interestings...Meg Wolitizer
  • The Union Street Bakery...Mary Ellen Taylor
  • The Girl Who Stopped Swimming...Joshilynn Jackson
  • Another Piece of My Heart...Jane Green
  • Knitting Yarns, Writers on Knitting...Edited by Ann Hood
  • Margot...Jillian Cantor
  • Fork in the Road (essays/memoirs about food/travel)...James Oseland
  • The Baker's Daughter...Sara McCoy
  • How To Be A Good Wife...Emma Chapman
  • The O'Henry Awards: 2001 Prize Stories
  • Sisterland...Curtis Sittenfeld
  • The Pursuit of Other Interests...Jim Kokoris
  • The Mourning Hours...Paula Treick DeBoard
  • Nine Inches (stories)...Tom Perrotta
  • A Country Called Home...Kim Barnes
  • The Kitchen Daughter...Jael McHenry
  • The Best Of US...Sarah Pekkanen
  • Family Pictures...Jane Green
  • The Beginner's Good-Bye...Anne Tyler
  • A Farm Under a Lake...Martha Bergland
  • Special Topics in Calamity Physics...Marisha Pessl
  • The Lost Mother...Mary McGarry Morris
  • Memories of A Marriage...Louis Begley
  • Tapestry of Fortunes...Elizabeth Berg
  • Heat Wave...Penelope Lively
  • Sag Harbor...Colson Whitehead
  • Big Brother...Lionel Shriver
  • Second Nature...Jacquelyn Mitchard
  • Medium Raw...Anthony Bourdain
  • Pieces of Happily Every After...Irene Zutell
  • The Boy...Lara Santoro
  • Lit...A Memoir...Mary Karr
  • More Than It Hurts You...Darin Strauss
  • The Burgess Boys...Elizabeth Strout
  • Tales of Burning Love...Louise Erdrich
  • A Home at the End of the World...Michael Cunningham
  • The Cookbook Collector...Allegra Goodman
  • Look At Me...Jennifer Egan
  • Shelter Me...Juliette Fay
  • The Gathering...Anne Enright
  • A Nearly Perfect Copy...Allison Amend
  • Gone Girl...Gillian Flynn
  • The Casual Vacancy...J.K. Rowling
  • The Gin Closet...Leslie Jamison
  • Dearie--The Remarkable Life of Julia Child...Bob Spitz
  • Indiscretion...Charles Dubow
  • The Marriage Plot...Jeffrey Eugenides
  • Oystercatchers...Susan Fletcherr
  • Bitter In the Mouth...Monique Truong
  • The Future of Love...Shirley Abbott
  • Flight Behavior...Barabara Kingsolver
  • The Lake of Dreams...Kim Edwards
  • Afterwife...Polly Williams
  • Daddy Love...Joyce Carol Oates
  • Good Family...Terry Gamble
  • Whistling In the Dark...Lesley Kagan
  • Model Home...Eric Puchner
  • A Soft Place to Land...Susan Rebecca White
  • The Shadow of Love...Rebecca Stowe
  • Almost...Elizabeth Benedict
  • Bridge of Sighs...Richard Russo
  • Beast...Joyce Carol Oates
  • Summerland...Elin Hilderbrand
  • The Ellementals...Francisca Lia Block
  • Broken Harbor...Tana French
  • So Much for That...Lionel Shriver
  • State of Wonder...Ann Patchett
  • Ash Wednesday...Ethan Hawke
  • Dark Places...Gillian Flynn
  • The Roundhouse...Louise Erdrich
  • The Loop...Nicholas Evans
  • The Next Best Thing...Jennifer Weiner
  • The Truth About Lorin Jones...Allison Lurie
  • Black Dahlia and White Rose (stories)...Joyce Carol Oates...
  • Lone Wolf...Jodi Piccoult
  • In One Person...John Irving
  • America, America...Ethan Canin
  • How I Became A Famous Novelist...Steve Hely
  • At Paradise Gate...Jane Smiley
  • The Kite Runner...Khaled Hosseini
  • Duplicate Keys...Jane Smiley
  • The Dylanist...Brian Morton
  • The Age of Grief (stories)...Jane Smiley
  • In the Woods...Tana French
  • Claire Marvel...John Burnham Schwartz
  • Breakable You...Brian Morton
  • Ordinary People...Judith Guest
  • The Safety of Secrets...Delaune Michel
  • Maine...J. Courtney Sullivan
  • Started Early, Took My Dog...Kate Atkinson
  • The Hunger Games...Suzanne Collins
  • The Family Man...Elinor Lipman
  • We Need to Talk About Kevin...Lionel Shriver
  • Mudwoman...Joyce Carol Oates
  • Dear Husband (stories)...Joyce Carol Oates
  • White Truffles in Winter...N.M. Kelby
  • The Weird Sisters...Eleanor Brown
  • Elizabeth Berg...Once Upon A Time, There Was You
  • The Last Nude...Ellis Avery
  • The Book Borrower...Alice Mattison
  • An Object of Beauty...Steve Martin
  • An Available Man...Hilma Wolitzer
  • The Marriage Artist...Andrew Winer
  • After the War...Alice Adams
  • The Leftovers...Tom Perrotta
  • Case Histories...Kate Atkinson
  • Nantucket Nights; Summer People; The Love Season...Elin Hilderbrand (o.k. I'm obsessed.)
  • My Sister, My Love...Joyce Carol Oates
  • Russian Winter...Daphne Kalotay
  • A Friend of the Family...Lauren Grodstein
  • The Lost City: The Forgotten Virtues of Community in America...Alan Ehrenhalt
  • Silver Girl...Elin Hilderbrand
  • How to Be An American Housewife...Margaret Dilloway
  • Little Bee...Chris Cleave
  • Freedom...Jonathan Franzen
  • When Will There Be Good News? ...Kate Atkinson
  • Don't Make a Scene...Valerie Block
  • The Summer of Naked Swim Parties...Jessica Anya Blau
  • The Grief of Others...Leah Hager Cohen
  • The Embers...Hyatt Bass
  • One Good Turn...Kate Atkinson
  • The Sweet Relief of Missing Children...Sarah Braunstein
  • Cinderella Ate My Daughter: Dispatches from the Front Lines of the New Girlie Girl Culture...Peggy Orenstein
  • Behind the Scenes at the Museum...Kate Atkinson
  • Had A Good Time: Stories from American Postcards...Robert Olen Butler
  • After You...Julie Buxbaum
  • The Year Of Endless Sorrows...Adam Rapp
  • Lately...Sara Pritchard (stories)
  • Julie and Romeo...Jeanne Ray
  • Secrets of Eden...Chris Bohjalian
  • Satisfaction...Gillian Greenwood
  • Sing You Home...Jodi Picoult
  • Eat Cake...Jeanne Ray
  • Sarah's Key...Tatiana de Rosnay
  • Unfinished Desires...Gail Godwin
  • That Old Cape Magic...Richard Russo
  • The Lake Shore Limited...Sue Miller
  • Heat...Bill Buford (memoir)
  • Joy School...Elizabeth Berg
  • Pictures of You...Caroline Leavitt
  • The Blue Bistro...Elin Hilderbrand
  • The Painted Drum...Louise Erdrich
  • The Castaways...Elin Hilderbrand
  • East of the Mountains...David Guterson
  • My Father's Tears...John Updike (stories)
  • Blood, Bones & Butter...Gabrielle Hamilton (memoir)
  • Moral Disorder...Margaret Atwood (stories)
  • Grub...Elise Blackwell
  • Attachment...Isabel Fonseca
  • Snow Angels...Stewart O'Nan
  • Every Last One...Anna Quindlen
  • The Life List...Lori Nelson Spielman
  • Between Husbands and Friends...Nancy Thayer
  • Songs for the Missing...Stewart O'Nan
  • The Goldfinch...Donna Tartt
  • Someone...Alice McDermott
  • The Silent Wife...A.S.A. Harrison
  • Fin and Lady...Cathleen Schine