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Quote Stephen King

The most important things are the hardest to say, because words diminish them. ~Stephen King

Pears

Oil Pastel on 140 pound rough watercolor paper

Study of Two Pears
1
Opusculum paedagogum.
The pears are not viols,
Nudes or bottles.
They resemble nothing else.

2.
They are yellow forms
Composed of curve
Bulging toward the base.
They are touched red.

3.
They are not flat surfaces
Having curved outlines.
They are round
Tapering toward the top.

4.
In the way they are modeled
There are bits of blue.
A hard dry leaf hangs
From the stem.

5.
The yellow glistens.
It glistens with various yellows,
Citrons, oranges and greens
Flowering over the skin.

6.
The shadows of the pears
Are blobs on the green cloth.
The pears are not seen
As the observer wills.--- Wallace Stevens

"Portrait"

http://illustrationfriday.com/

Hope

Posting With Dragon

It's good to be writing again although it's making my throat sore. My doctor told me not to use my right hand, it's terrible not writing, I can't really go an entire day without writing. I tried using my left hand to do everything but it's giving me trouble as well. Yesterday my brother installed Dragonfor me, I had my doubts about it but, it's good to be writing again even if it's giving me a sore throat. It's a lot harder writing with Dragon I have to work without music, words just don't flow for my head the way they do from my hand. It's fun to though, it even works in Adobe, and now I can to leave comments on your blogs without feeling guilty about using my hands to type. I'm starting to get used to it still I have a lot to learn.

Chocolate

A page from one of my altered books.
“Chocolate is a divine, celestial drink, the sweat of the stars, the vital seed, divine nectar, the drink of the gods, panacea and universal medicine.”
Geronimo Piperni, quoted by Antonio Lavedán, surgeon in the Spanish army, 1796

Self Portrait Tuesday

change a light bulb?

Q: How many Bush Administration officials does it take to change a light bulb?
A: None. There is nothing wrong with the light bulb; it's conditions are improving every day. Any reports of its lack of incandescence are delusional spin from the liberal media. That light bulb has served honorably, and anything you say undermines the lighting effect. Why do you hate freedom?


thanks to Written Revolution for this joke.

Cousins

"Cleaning your house while your kids are still growing up is like shoveling the walk before it stops snowing." ~Phyllis Diller

All God's angels come to us disguised. ~James Russell Lowell

I found this photo of two of my favorite angels while I was going through my photos today. They grow so fast, they both look very different now. They are my blessings and before I turned around twice he was all grown up even the little one is growing as fast as a nasturtium.

Everything Has a Gender

This is from an email my friend shared with me I laughed myself silly, and want to share it with you but instead of forwarding it to your mail box I thought Iwould just post it.

• You may not know this but many nonliving things have a gender.
• Ziploc Bags are Male, because they hold everything in, but you can see right through them.
• Copiers are Female, because once turned off; it takes a while to warm them up again. It's an effective reproductive device if the right buttons are pushed, but can wreak havoc if the wrong buttons are pushed.
• A Tire is Male, because it goes bald and it's often over-inflated.
• A Hot Air Balloon is Male, because, to get it to go anywhere, you have to light a fire under it, and of course, there's the hot air part.
• Sponges are Female, because they're soft, squeezable and retain water.
• A Web Page is Female, because it's always getting hit on.
• A Subway is Male, because it uses the same old lines to pick people up.
• An Hourglass is Female, because over time, the weight shifts to the bottom.
• A Hammer is Male , because it hasn't changed much over the last 5,000 years,
  but it's handy to have around.
• A Remote Control is Female. Ha! You thought it'd be male , didn't you? But consider this - it gives a man pleasure, he'd be lost without it, and while he doesn't always know the right buttons to push, he keeps trying!

Nature

The theme this week at http://www.mamasaysom.com/ is nature. this photo was taken at Jamaca Bay.

Self Portrait Tuesday

http://selfportraitchallenge.net/

Oranges and Lemons

Still life oil pastel on 140 pound rough watercolor paper

What Kind Of Camera

Wander over and look at Abort, Retry, Ignore? at Rambling it is funny, entertaining and I am sure you must have had an experiance like hers, I know I have.

Forever ago, Marybeth asked what kind of camera I used for one of my photos. I kept telling myself that I would check my camera and answer tomorrow. I am sure I don’t need to explain the problem with that to anyone. So now I am going to look,( no I don’t know) and the answer is wait just a second while I open the case. It’s a Kodak … DC4800 3.1 meagapixel. Its the one I use almost always. I keep my camera on the little flower setting so I am always ready for the next close up. The photo above was taken at Clark Botanic Garden.

Hummingbird

tiny warriors

swords drawn

dance to unheard music

Poetry Thursday

Book of Dreams - What I did

The cover of my book

Parts of the book will show through. Since I didn’t like the cover of my book, I painted it red and gold and let it dry before I began the foil process.

I glued directly to the cover although C. covered chipboard and glued that to the cover of her book

Mark the size and area of your book that you want to cover. Or cut your chipboard to size.
Crumple cheap thin aluminum foil
Smooth it out
Spread glue (we used Elmer’s’ Glue but any good glue will work) one side at a time on the book where you want to apply the foil. As you spread out the foil work it tightly against the cover. Make certain there are still wrinkles and folds in the foil.
Continue working until you have finished applying the foil.

When dry, clean the aluminum foil with a soft lint-free cloth or lint-free paper towel dampened with ammonia.

Use Golden ®GAC 200 medium and mix with liquid acrylic. Ten parts paint to one part of the medium (Do not add water!)

Paint the foil. I used several layers of different metallic colors. Allow a bit of the foil to show through. Let dry between each color of paint.

If your color begins to look to heavy, you can remove some of the paint by sanding lightly with 600-grade sandpaper

I used
Golden® GAC 200 medium
The instructions I learned from use Golden Fluid Acrylics… These were not available in my area and were very expensive so I used FolkArt Plaid Paints
Metalic Periwinkle
Copper
Gold

I finished with Golden Mica Flake Large
And stenciled "Dreams" on the front

Book of Dreams Project

Have a Beautiful Mothers Day

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy;

they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.

Marcel Proust

Poetry Thursday- My Favorite Poem When I Was Wee

Strictly Germ-Proof
The antiseptic Baby and the Prophylactic Pup
Were playing in the garden when the Bunny gamboled up;
They looked upon the Creature with a loathing undisguised;—
It wasn’t Disinfected and it wasn’t Sterilized.
They said it was a Microbe and a Hotbed of disease;
They steamed it in a vapor of a thousand-odd degrees;
They froze it in a freezer that was cold as Banished Hope
And washed it in permanganate with carbolated soap.
In sulphureted hydrogen they steeped its wiggly ears’
They trimmed its frisky whiskers with a pair of hard-boiled shears;
They donned their rubber mittens and they took it by the hand
And ‘lected it a member of the fumigated Band.
There’s not a Micrococcus in the garden where they play;
They bathe in pure iodoform a dozen times a day;
And each imbibes his rations from a Hygienic Cup—
The Bunny and the Baby and the Prophylactic Pup.
— Arthur Guiterman

This was one of my three favorite poems when I was little. My mother used to read it to me. I used to beg and beg her to read it to me. I think she had to read it so often that she memorized the poem.

I think the funny words fascinated me and I loved the way she read "they froze it in a freezer that was cold as banished hope" and I wanted to bathe in pure idoform a dozen times a day.

Poetry Thursday