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.

September 2013 monthly calendar

September 2013 monthly calendar 

I made this to be used on a desktop or printed out as a monthly calendar page for a journal. Feel free to use as you wish.

Night sky.

Did I mentioned I signed up for a pen & ink drawing class in September? I'm excited. It's a whole new skill set to learn - drawing without an undo button. No safety net.

I try to do something creative everyday, whether its a quick sketch on the old iPad or knit a few rows of a sweater. It keeps me sane.

This was done with the Sketji app. The effects are more like a brush painting than drawing. A fun app.

Time goes by fast.

What's on my desk. 

The weather is still warm but kind of cloudy and rainy. The mornings are dark when I wait for the bus now. Although August is not quite at the end yet, it feels like the end of summer. Another year going by quickly.

Drawing done on Sketchclub on the iPad.

5 year journal, part 2.

5 year journal pages in Paper 53

I'm going to commit to doing a five year journal.  Just write one line a day.  I tried that before but got bored very quickly.  Maybe it will be different this time because I'm doing this on my iPad using Paper 53 app for this.  A quick line and a quick doodle.  I can do this.  This might be easier than doing a paper journal - I always have my iPad with me. 

Old favourite shoes

Going through my closet and came across these oldies but goodies from the old Fox and Fluevog days. Amazingly, they're still in good condition. I gave the suede a bit of a brush with the suede brush and they look good as new.

Wildflowers

Wildflowers

Digital painting done on my iPad, using Procreate and Artrage for the canvas texture. Inspiration for this piece came from Splatter paint tutorial over at Tammy's My Flower Journal. Although the tutorial is for real paint and paper, the techniques can easily be translated for digital painting. I used the splatter brush in the spray can set in Procreate. Once the painting was finished, it was imported into Artrage for the canvas texture.

Fifty two

Fifty Two

Something about turning 52 that wasn't there when I turned 50. I'm that much closer to retirement and have been thinking of how I want to spend my sunset years. In truth, I've been thinking of what I want to do when I retire and how to prepare for it. Financially, it's going to be fine. Hubby will retire first in less than than two years. In my retirement, I want to have more time to make stuff, sit around and read all day if I wanted to.

As part of my preparation, I've been taking a few drawing and painting classes. I've signed up for another one in September and I'm really looking forward to it. I think, one is never too old to learn new things. It seems weird to think about retirement already. I don't feel like I'm old enough yet.

The photomontage was done on my iPad, using Sketchclub for pretty much all of it and Artrage for the background texture. The text was done on Documents, imported into Sketchclub as an image load. I wanted it to look like an old newspaper clipping. This was done using the sepia filter in Sketchclub.

Photo corners courtesy of Retoucher07039 on deviantART, tweaked in Sketchclub to fit my picture.

No Undo button in Real Life

Scribble Drawing

The idea was to make a scribble and draw something with it.  I did this using FinngrPro  app on my iPad.  The appeal of FinngrPro is there is no undo button. Whatever marks you make, you work with.  If you don't like something, you have to paint over it or make it into something else.  That was an interesting challenge. 

A metaphoric lesson on life...you work with what you have and make the most of what you're given.  Sometimes you have to look at your mistakes from a different perspective. 

Scribble and drawing done on FinngrPro, imported to Sketchclub for the border (no reason, other than I wanted to), and for the signature brush.

Time

To Do

The question for yesterday was "What is the one thing you want to accomplish tomorrow?"  Interesting that it did not ask what I accomplished today but for tomorrow.  I started to mske a To-Do list but that was not the question. What was the one thing I wanted to accomplish?  The question made me more mindful of what I needed to accomplish not just for today but for my week off work. Although I still have my list of chores for this week, I'm going to make sure I have time to do things for me.

This journal page was done on the iPad with Sketchclub. I tried to do this page as if I had painted it, laying on the colours on one layer, rather than multiple layers.

What did I have for lunch today?

Sushi, of course

Sushi is my go-to lunch when I don't know what to eat and I didn't bring my lunch. So far, it's three days in a row this week.

I know this is boring stuff but I told myself I will try and do something everyday. I liked the Everyday in May series. The prompts help...I think I needed someone else to do the thinking for me. When someone else tells me what to draw, it takes the pressure off me. I've been using the 365 questions for the 5 year journaling when I'm stuck for ideas. Trying to draw sushi was a challenge trying to get the rice to look rice-like. Baby steps, right?

Sketched on my iPad with Sketchclub and imported to Artrage for the background. Newspaper background was imported in as an image load and distorted using transform. 

Did I made a difference today?

I like to think that in some small way I did made a difference today. I used cloth bags for my groceries. I recycled my cans and plastics. I shopped local. These are all the things my family do now as a matter of course.  Little things adds up.

I think it's great that all these things are now part of our normal daily routine. By doing so, yes, I made a difference today.

The weather was much cooler today and I was able to get some knitting done. I found this project while rummaging in my workroom looking for some sock yarn. I forgot all about this project...it's going to be a light knitted tee done with Habu silk. I'm about halfway through so I might be able to finish this before the end of summer. It's all stockinette stitch and knitted in the round so it's really boring.