Heeling On Up and These Boots are Made for Walking

We are moving into the still life category in the drawing and composition class. The focus is on the contour and gesture lines. Using only pencil on paper, we are building the foundation for successful drawings. This Donald Pliner couture pump is an example of my sketchbook exercise. 

These shoes are a remnant from my corporate career in law. I kept quite a few of my high heels - now in boxes with nowhere to go.😢 

Back to the still life, we were to choose 5 items. Items with angles, heights, and structure. The items I chose were a skein of yarn, an orchid plant in bloom, crystal lamp, white China teapot, and a bottle of Chanel No. 5 perfume. I will reveal the sketch at a later date, the assignment is being graded. 

Summer college classes posted and ancient art is offered online in the 8 week format. I am tempted to take the class but I am still on the fence whether I should change my major from Art History to Art. 

Sometimes I buy thrift items for myself. A recent happy $1.99 find was a CD Case Logic plastic sleeve case full of 25 country western and others. In the others category, the most intriguing was a compilation New Orleans Gospel Tent 2002. 

My daughter's wedding update. The wedding dress has been chosen! She is boot shopping as it is rustic-themed Western type of wedding. I can reveal my dress as soon as I decide. There is one that has come up in an online auction I am bidding on. Luckily, I bought my amazing Ariat boots a few years ago. They will make an appearance at the wedding. 

Big fan of Nancy Sinatra - wish she would have recorded more.   

Just a Gypsy

It always intrigues me when older posts of mine trend into popular. If you are new to visiting my blog, many welcomes! 🤩 Page views have greatly increased, lawd knows why, I just enjoy the audience. 

I used to scoff at those wonderful collections of fabric that all meshed together. Not anymore. I had enjoyed meshing random fabrics into pieced patchwork. I discovered how hard it was to pull diverse fabrics together into one creation. Ultimately, I would end up taking a trip to the local fabric store (which has now gone into bankruptcy). My son bought me this Kaffe Fassett collection for Christmas - my first EVER of this designer that I have worshipped from afar. It will take some pondering to determine how best to highlight this fabric. 

I have been motivated to start wearing pierced earrings again. I haven't worn them in over 20 years. My daughter's wedding is in September and it will be nice to wear extra bling for that event. My mother had pierced ears and I just located her stash of jewelry from the estate. Below is an image of some of that jewelry. 

Now, I can buy some incredible beaded earrings from my friend Sara on Instagram at goddess_seeds_ I also have in storage some beaded hoop earrings from the 1970s. I did a search for that type of earring, but couldn't find any close to the real vintage ones. Once I find my original ones, I will model an entire outfit + earrings. 

Art update for those following along with my college class of drawing and composition. The current module is about site measuring and sketching from a grid. I struggled with the latter method because I have always used site measuring for my self-taught ways. 

Gardening continues between the raindrops ☔These are my newest additions. 

It is raining and storming

Back up and running with the new laptop. I kept plugging it into a dock and it was making strange noises. When I stopped doing that, it was fit as a fiddle. 

Finishing up the "larges" of my sewing patterns. These are the bigger sized patterns measuring 8-1/2" x 11". If I were still into quilting, I might have attempted this one. 

I💖My Sewing Room.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/186946378759

Seems with the long weekend coming up (President's Day aka Washington's Birthday on Monday), and the inclement weather across the country, people are shopping online. This is normally not a busy time of year for my eBay sales, steady but not busy. I just sent offers to 15 people, one day's interest in my listings. On average, I get 5-7 to send offers. 

Speaking of Monday, it is also the day that the summer class schedules are posted. There usually are few classes during the summer, but I will see what is offered. I haven't decided if I want to continue as an Art History major or switch to Art Major. As an Art Major, I would have to create more. I am not sure I am willing to do that. I love learning - the actual process of art I will leave to others. I like to do projects on my own timetable. 

Pretty Pink Friday

I had yarn just enough for one pink poinsettia on my Christmas latch hook rug skirt. I am enjoying this craft, one I haven't tried in decades. I have gone rogue on the kit pattern. I am combining 4 sets of thrifted rug yarn. 4 more red flowers to go and I can start the dark green background. 

Having a blast in my art class. Our newest technique to practice is No-Look Contouring aka Blind Contouring. This is an exercise where you practice drawing an object in one continuous line without looking at it. I chose to draw an abalone shell. There are a couple of tricks I discovered. You can use the free hand as a place marker. Best to draw the outline of the entire image and then circle back to add more detail. 

Seller update: I engaged in another sewing pattern listing session on eBay. These next two Pretty in Pink patterns are from the late 1980s. It reminds me of the dresses my daughter wore when she was growing up. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/186935692152 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/186935700254

I have been 1099'd

It perplexes me why some sellers fear receiving a 1099-K for tax purposes. This is the first year I received one. My calculations were a couple of hundred off so I adjusted the entry in Turbo Tax (not an ad, I just like the program). 

In addition to the extra money gained by selling on eBay, I receive the tax advantages of having a business. One is the home office deduction. There are other deductions I won't list here. 

College update: The sketching continues with my focus being on toys. The model was a mini Bratz doll. 

Still slogging away on my sewing pattern listing session. Another highlighted from that session is 2001 Kinfolk Twig Star Mats #W103. 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/186928598466

We had a break in the rain so I could prepare the flower bed. Here are the seeds to be planted. 

The birds and bees will be happy campers when these come into bloom. 

When Hoarding Pays Off

Welcome February! Leading off with the second in my series of Akedo figurine sketches. Scary Clown deserves his day in the sun! 🤡 They will total 15 if I sketch the whole collection. 

I am an admitted hoarder of art and craft supplies. Being a thrifter for over 40 years, I am bound to run into useful items. My newest hoard category is beads. I did complete one seed bead project last year. 

I was pretty sure I had a box of colored pencils in my stash. I found not one box, but two. In addition, there are all full packages of soft pastel and oil pastel crayons, watercolor crayons (who knew there was such a thing), and Twistable Crayola crayons.  I don't remember when or where I picked up all of these items. 

I have posted about hoarding before in 2021 and 2019

It boils down to being brutal about what you keep for yourself. How much of it do you want to display? I have numerous collections at this point that I keep stored. Those collections include:

Wooden duck decoys
Antique advertising tins
Blue Ball jars
Doll collections
Bing & Grondahl plates
Sewing patterns

There are other items in storage other than my collections. I am still working through the boxes from my mother's estate. 

Moving on to seller update - I am in the middle of a sewing pattern listing session. The specialty patterns are from the 1990s through early 2000s. This one is even earlier a knitted jacket pattern from the 1980s.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/186923536699

Cutest of the quilting variety is this 1995 Country Threads Chicken Salad.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/186923559119

Rain is forecast for the next week in Northern California. Gardening will have to be postponed until then.