PITT Pen Color Chart

PITT Pen Color Chart
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

I recently started a new sketchbook so I had to make a new color chart of my PITT markers. I love these things! The light cool grey lives in my pen case that follows me everywhere. So does the sanguine set, you just never know when you'll want to draw henna designs! I also keep the flesh tones handy, I'm not real great at mixing them in watercolors yet and end up wasting too much time at the park. They've expanded their selection, I think there are 48 colors now, including a lighter flesh-tone and many other lighter shades of colors. 103 and that turquiose are wonderful to use! Danny Gregory used to use them in his journals and I liked what he was doing, and my art store had them on sale, so I bought some. Wish I had some more greens, but they do blend a little while still wet. I run into Utrecht and grab a couple every once in a while, just pocket change really, and will slowly accumulate all of them. Art supplies! Love 'em!

Kids

Geordan Playing Dulcimer
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

This is a super-quick gesture sketch of my Cub playing my mountain dulcimer. He really had fun strumming with the picks and trying out notes on frets. I bought it a gazillion years ago at Silver Dollar City on my Open Water dive certification weekend. It was the first trip I'd taken by myself, too. I can still play some tunes on it!

Edit: Yeah, the dulcimer's on his lap backwards, he insisted!

Last night I curled up in the rocking chair with my daughter. We both drew, she in her pink sketchbook with my prismacolor pencils and PITT markers, and I in my hedgie with my sanguine pigma microns.

EDM Challenge 101 Draw a Bar of Soap

EDM Challenge 101 Draw a Bar of Soap
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Sandalwood soap I received from my Secret Santa partner in the Henna Page gift swap. Smells great, but I don't want to use it up! Pencil in my hedgie...that's watercolor paper!

Here's a song I remember from Girl Scouts...

"Oh I wish I were a little bar of soap (bar of soap),
Oh I wish I were a
little bar of soap (bar of soap),
I'd go slippy, slippy slidey, over
everybody's hidey,
Oh I wish I were a little bar of soap (bar of
soap)!"

Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts

1-11-07
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

My sketch of the design for the Kauffman Center for Performing Arts being built in KC by Moshe Safdie. My dh is the Zahner Architectural Metals Project Engineer on it! I'm terribly proud of this, Safdie is an internationally known Arch. as is Frank Gehry, whose MIT Stata Center was one of the first buildings Ron did work on when he first went to Zahner. (yeah, I'm throwing names around!)

http://www.kcperformingartscenter.org/
www.azahner.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Gehry

Kleenexes

Kleenexes
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

When you send your significant other to the store for tissues because you have a cold and are out, what do they bring to you? Something nice and soft? Or sandpaper?

Couldn't let the day go by without a bit of ink...

Challenge #92 Brown Paper Bag

1-8-07 Challenge #92 Brown Paper Bag
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

In my father's house, there is a closet next to the basement door, just inside the kitchen. This closet is next to the chimney for the furnace, so all winter, it's nice and warm inside. This is where we kept the brown paper grocery bags, on the shelf above the coat rack. We used them for our trash bags. Put one under the dropped counter, next to the dishwasher in the island where the sink is. They came from Big V, without handles, with groceries, Wonder Bread, Wheaties, Velveeta cheese, and cans of Del Monte green beans. The ones we get from Sunfresh have handles, Spam, Best Choice wheat bread, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and are next to the fridge holding cardboard boxes, plastic and cans to be recycled.

Challenge #92 Draw a Brown Paper Bag

Challenge #92 Draw a Brown Paper Bag
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Ok, so it's not brown...yet. I'll do that tomorrow, it's getting late and I wanted to get something up tonight. Pigma micron in my new hedgie!

I'll also get the link in the group page in the morning!

Bon Soir

Christmas Angel

1-6-07
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

This porcelain angel vase has been on my parents' mantle and by my Christmas trees all my life. Delicate porcelain prayers for Peace on Earth.

If you come to my Flickr in the next week or so and see something strange there, fear not. All shall be right soon! All my photos are still there as are all my sets, they are just hiding til Yahoo gets my money order in the mail!

New Sketchbooks In Production

Stitching the Signatures, originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

I've been making sketchbooks for a little over a year now. I started in the Everyday Matters Group almost 2 years ago with a Moleskine pocket sketchbook. Loved it, learned to deal with the beading up watercolors, wanted something better by the time I was halfway through the second one. I liked the size and the elastic and the pocket and the ribbon! I surfed Moleskine sites in search of cool hacks and stuff to do and found out about Hedgehogs. Wirewoman's Hedgehogs Forever Yahoo group is full of glorious stuff including instructions for making your own mole look-alikes! I tried it out, modified it, made it mine. Now I am in the middle of a batch of three; watercolor paper pages, fabric covers, pocket Molie size. They are numbers 10, 11 and 12. I've sold one, given one to my dh, another to a friend for a birthday, two typing paper ones to my kids, a henna journal with hand and foot templates to my Secret Santa person, and some for future use. These will have a nice Persian print fabric on them and be filled with love!

I did do a sketch today, I am waiting to see if I'll post it or not...someone else's input is needed...

Blogging & Bribes

1-4-07, originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Hi Everyone on the Superblog! Michael was kind enough to add me today! Thank you!

I've been inactive for a while, since about May, and am on day 4 drawing again! I finished re-ready "Everyday Matters" this morning and am making a new batch of pocket moleskine-like sketchbooks as this one is on it's last two pages. If you'd like to look, they're on my flickr in the Making Books set here.

Hi to all the new EDM members! I look forward to seeing your work as I go through the links of the challenges and blogs! I am also getting more active on the Botanical and Naturalist group, Hi to you, too!

Rianna's in first grade and has homework every night (!). Tonight it's addition and subtraction of numbers up to 20. She get's real stubborn about getting started so we did some bribery today after some tickling to get her woke up and alert. Rold Gold pretzels are a good bribe for her but I didn't want her filling up before supper, so she only got 1/3 of a stick per right answer!

Trains Today

1-3-07
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

I drew my son's newest locomotive. This is Diesel. Not Diesel 10, but another rascal on the Sodor Line. Geordan really has train fever, he'll either be an engineer or a life-long hobbyist.

I started three new hedgehogs today, this one's only got 2 pages left!

Yesterday's Drawing

Keyboard
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Drawing what's in front of me at 10am, here's my keyboard. I spend way too much time in front of it...something to cut back on this year. Most of the time is spent wondering if someone's answered a post of mine, commented on a photo or drawing of mine, or done something else of interest to me...

Quite narcisistic, I think.

A certain amount of self-focus is necessary to one's health and well-being, but to the exclusion of getting things done. Just not healthy.

Something to think about this year.

Seriously.

New Year's Day, 2007

New Year's Day, 2007
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

A new day, a new start! I'm taking up my drawing again and re-reading Danny's book to start off. I've lost sight of the reason for doing my art and dropped it except for the henna art.

Ka-Chow! Yeah, Baby!!!!

I am proud of this!!!



Now I gotta get the kids to sleep!

Kaci, Mindy & Me: Henna Sisterhood

Kaci, Mindy & Me
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

My new friends in Henna Goodness! We had a get-together at Kaci's to sift henna, drink chai, eat sago, talk about henna and watch our kids play deliriously in the family room! These are two very nice ladies who share several interests with me and I look forward to more! Kaci went to the last Las Vegas Henna Conference and is a wealth of information as well as a fantabulous person. She shared so much with us! Thank you!

I'm mixing up a new batch now!

Crocheted Yarn for Yarn Belt/Skirt

Crocheted Yarn for Yarn Belt/Skirt
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Thicker than a single strand of yarn or even three strands braided, I think this will hang and swing nicer on a yarn belt/skirt. I'll do some braided strands with silver metallic cord in them, too, for some sparkle and put some coins and silver beads in, like the hair braids. The yarn is 1 strand of 4-ply Red Heart burgundy and 1 strand Lion Boucle in Popsicle held together using a really big hook that my daughter got at a JoAnn demo. I'd say it's close to a J...

Arrrrr!

Here's some more blogthings nonsense...a couple of weeks ago it was "Talk Like a Pirate Day" and yesterday I went the the KC Renaissance Festival (so, I'm still not convinced that Pirates belonged in Tudor or Elizabethan England). So...

Your Pirate Name Is...

Cannibal Right Eye Rita

What's Your Pirate Name?

Musicians

RiverWynd
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

This is a photo of my friends Amy and George and I when we played some music for church service one Sunday. Amy was my recorder and piano teacher and is a good friend as is George. We grew apart when I had my kids, I just have a busier life now. They stay in my thoughts, though. The kids are more forgiving of my practice time now, and I've added Middle Eastern drumming to my interests along with dance. I'd like to get back into some contact sometime soon...find out how they are...I miss you guys!

Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter and Human Extraordinaire: 1962 -2006

Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter and Human Extraordinaire: 1962 -2006
Originally uploaded by lorenzodom.

I really can't add too much to what lorenzodom writes here. We've lost a passionate human...and still have his adventures to remember and watch and pretend about!

Malinda



Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter and Human Extraordinaire: 1962 -2006
September 5, 2006:

The death of Steve Irwin is not as tragic as many media pundits are purporting it to be.

Far from, for how many of us have the courage, the tenacity and the integrity to do exactly what we love doing, everyday, regardless of the risks and the ridicule, regardless of the perils of the unknown?

Not many.

But Steve certainly did, and he died well knowing of the dangers involved in executing his greatest passion. That is not tragic, that is triumphant.

Granted, I’m sure he, his family and all his fans around the world would have preferred that he had lived a lot longer.

Alas, when a man looks fate straight in the eye and even vies to wrestle with it, and when an indifferent and amoral species, such as the mortal stingray that killed Steve on Monday by piercing him directly in the heart, as it reacted out of primal fear—he, nor we, should be surprised.

Zoo owner, star of several documentaries on Animal Planet and the Travel Channel, ardent conservationist, and business entrepreneur, Steve Irwin understood what it took to succeed; he understood the perseverance, the passion, and the peril that he faced often, if only because he wanted to teach and inspire others not to fear living life to its fullest.

Fearless in so many ways, Steve was still known to have a more vulnerable, human side to him. For he is reported to have said, “Getting married was the scariest moment of my life.”

Nonetheless and allthemore, the fact is, Steve likely died as he had hoped, maybe a little earlier than he had anticipated, but certainly in as grand a manner as his gall, his showmanship, and his exemplar exuberance had together deemed what was ultimately the most apropos way to go, for this extraordinary man, this extraordinary human, and this extraordinary lover of (wild) life.


The End Is Not So Horrible, If You Know How To Get There *

Immediately after Niezstche's Zarathustra gives his prologue, the tight rope walker carrying on above Zarathustra and the onlooking town folk—plunges to his death.

The following conversation ensues between Zarathustra and the fallen, prior to the latter's last breath:

“By my honor, friend,” answered Zarathustra, “all that of which you speak does not exist: there is no devil and no hell. Your soul will be dead even before your body: fear nothing further.”

The man looked up suspiciously. “If you speak the truth,” he said, “I lose nothing when I lose my life. I am not much more than a beast that has been taught to dance by blows and a few meager morsels.”

“By no means,” said Zarathustra. “You have made danger your vocation; there is nothing contemptible in that. Now you perish of your vocation: for that I will bury you with my own hands.”

To die by one's vocation.

That is perhaps the highest form of passion. To live and perish in the thrill of one's purpose and the moments that made life meaningful for that individual. That is the ultimate form of living.

Perhaps, it is living dangerously, but it is also living.

How many heroes have done much the same? Those we hold in the highest esteem live and die by that which they know to be their calling.

9.11 and the bold acts of all the municipal servicemen that perished is a poignant example.

But just the same, the likes of the greatest artists, writers, scientists, entrepreneurs and other elite minds and imaginations who died of old age are equally laudable, if only because they held their course in life, they overcame obstacles and defeated monsters, and outwitted conformity, complacency and their seven ugly sisters: jealousy, envy, virtue, materialism, righteousness, apathy, and the unknown.

“Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.”
- Mary Schmich -

The greatest journeys are always alone and end with death, which is why the journey itself should be the ultimate goal. Fulfillment comes with the fulfilling. If you constantly are looking to go somewhere in order to achieve happiness, you'll really never get there.

“That's the message of the myth. You, as you know yourself, you are not the final term of your being. And you must die to that, one way or another—giving of yourself to something or in being annihilated, actually, physically—to return, you might say, or to recognize (that) life is always on the edge of death—always. And one should lack fear, and have the courage of life. That's the principle initiation of all of the heroic stories.”
- The Power of the Myth, Joseph Campbell -

And so my fellow photographers, kin spirits, adventurers, lovers of life, Make Every Shot Count, position yourself well, and then click before you’ve lost the nerve.

Life is fleeting, as are all the fine moments that cumulatively constitute our existence.
So fear not! Most of the time you won’t get hit or the person you’re aiming your camera at really won’t care (especially after you walk away).

“The choice to live our passion is not dangerous,
it is much worse, it is unknown.
But what is known can never be new or creative.
If we die in our passion, at least we have lived,
if we live in the known we have already died.”
-Steven Harrison-


Decicated in memory of Steve Irwin, Crocodile Hunter and Human Extraordinaire: 1962 -2006


*Excerpted from the upcoming book 25 Lessons I Have Learned, to be published by Cyan Books in the Spring of 2007.

Uploaded by lorenzodom on 5 Sep '06, 5.33pm PDT.

New Map on Flickr

West of Marakkesh
Originally uploaded by SideShowMom.

Guess what? You can see where photos were taken and plot yours on a map within Flickr! You can set permission to say who's allowed to see the location on an individual photo basis or for all photos and change the ones you don't want, like home and school photos...so no one, or family or friends only can see them. I tried it out with some of mine...the most recent...and it's cool! Click on the photo, then, once you're in Flickr, click on "Map" under the photo...