October 2013 Desktop calendar

October 2013 - corner calendar

October 2013 - full size

I had a tough time deciding which one I liked better - smaller calendar on the corner or the full size one.  I might try one for a couple of weeks and switch it around to see which one I prefer.  To use, just open it and save to your desktop. Or print it out to use as a monthly journal page.

October is always a darker month than September. There's no more Mr Nice Guy with October. You know you're in full-on wet weather. Skies are dark and grey but still not as bad as November and December. I love October - it has Halloween! I love the spooky scariness of Halloween.

This picture was taken along the trail by the river where we walk the dog. The sun had just came out from behind clouds and from the angle where I was standing, the tree limbs looked so much like giant spider legs crawling out of the ground.

Picture was put through the various iPad apps so much that I've lost track of which app did what. Calendar was created in Procreate, frame was created in Snapseed, and everything was put together in Sketchclub.

Kitchen Sunday - Peanut Butter Cookies

Peanut butter cookies

The usual Sunday batch of blueberry muffins were done quickly this morning. The weather is wet - very wet today. Just did not feel up to going to the Farmer's Market in this rain. Made peanut butter cookies instead. I think it was a great decision.

The original recipe came from a newspaper or magazine clipping way back from the dawn of time. It's a pretty straightforward recipe - 1 cup sugar, 1 cup peanut butter, 1 egg, mix and bake at 350 for 8 mins. Over the years it's been modified.

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 cup brown sugar
2 cups peanut butter (chunky or smooth works depending on what you like.)
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips (optional)

Mix everything together. Scoop dough onto your cookie sheet, about a tablespoon size ball, and flatten slightly with a fork. Bake 10 mins at 350 deg. Let then cool slightly before moving off the cookie sheet otherwise, they'll crumble.


Happy Sunday!

Funny bunny

I haven't done much this week - very little knitting, very little drawing, and a whole lot of Guild Wars 2 playing. I know playing computer games is a BIG time sink for me. I seem to go through phases. It's fun and for the most part, mindless.

When I don't know what to draw, I draw odd looking bunnies. They make me happy. That's reason enough for me.

Doodled on iPad using Paper53 app.

Jelly Fish

Jelly fish at the Vancouver Aquarium

One of our day trips for our staycation was a trip to the Vancouver Aquarium.  I love the jelly fish tanks - they are so delicate and beautiful.  If it was up to me, I could stand there for hours watching them float up and down.

We were there for almost five hours but it doesn't feel like it was enough time to see everything.  I think we could have used another five hours in there.

Photos were taken with my cell phone. For the most part, the glass didn't present too much of a problem for reflections. 

Everyone has a story

"In a city of 23 million, it boggles the mind to think that each one has an exciting personal story that no one will ever hear."

We drove by an old graveyard yesterday. I couldn't help but wondered about the people buried there. Did they still have families around? What were their lives like? Did they have secrets that no one else knew? What was their story? What was their legacy that they left behind?

Initial sketch done on Sketji, imported to SketchClub for everything else, iColorama for the frame.  It could have easily been done in SketchClub but I wanted to play with the pre-set borders in iColorama. Red and black colour blocks were digitally stamped on the background with the opacity turned down to 60% to create the feeling of an old worn photograph.

The world within

I sat and knitted and knitted and knitted some more today. I'm trying to finish this sweater before the end of next week. It was supposed to be a summer sweater but it's been too hot to knit until the past week or so. I have a sleeve and a half to go.

Tomorrow is the second week of my two week staycation. I love being at home like this. We've taken a lot of day trips last week, playing tourists in our own home town. Next week, hubby goes back to work and I have another week off. My plan is to read, knit, and draw on my iPad. That's it.

Daikon sketch

Sometimes when I don't know what to draw, I look in my fridge. Found an old daikon in there. A daikon is kinda like a big radish, about the size of a parsnip. This one was in the fridge for a while, little roots were growing from the tip.

The drawing was done in Sketji, imported to Sketclub for colour tinting.

A button

I've been working on this button off and on for a couple of months now. It never seemed like it was finished. Today, I realized it needed a background - the jacket for it to sit on. Now it's done. Sometimes you just have to be patient and let things work itself out.

Sketched on Sketchclub.

Making digital brushes and stencils.

Just like regular art journaling, you have to spend some time doing prep work. Like creating brushes to use, playing with different effects for backgrounds., etc. I made some stencils today for the days of the week. I wanted to recreate a block printing effect but that's still a work in progress.  Instead I got these...interesting enough to keep. They do look pretty cool combined with different filters.