Owl watercolors for special occasions!

This weekend I celebrated both Brie's birthday and Mark & Rachel's baby shower...and I painted a sweet little owl for both. Edy helped by sitting on my knee and trying to eat the paintbrush.

 

I painted Brie's owl in the colors she has in her house, so she could put him in any room.

 

For Mark & Rachel, I wanted to make the colors of the owl gender-neutral since it will be a surprise whether they are having a boy or girl.
 

 

Didn't they come out cute? I'm surprised I hadn't painted owls sooner since I made like 8000 of them out of felt :P

 

materials: pencil, Prang semi-moist watercolors on Canson Montval Watercolor Block, Faber-Castell PITT artist pen (brush) in #177.

Owls in progress (or ghosts)?

Here's a bunch of the felt owl ornaments I've been working on, in various stages of completion. Some of them resemble colorful ghosts rather than owls at this point...

Tea time (and Happy Benito Juarez Day Observed!)

On Friday, Brie and I both took off work to enjoy an afternoon tea (at Sweet Simplici-Tea in Sykesville) and some shopping. Well, actually we had been meaning to do this since March. There's a story to go with it...

Several years ago (probably 2006?) when Brie and I used to work together, we were supposed to go to one of those multi-day offsite regional work meetings that make you want to stab yourself in the eye. We were seriously dreading it and trying to think of reasons to say we couldn't go, so we looked up the date of the meeting on the calendar with the idea that we'd find some obscure holiday we just HAD to be away to celebrate. The only thing on March 21 was Benito Juarez Day. Neither of us had ever heard of Benito Juarez (turns out he is a former Mexican president) but it sounded good!

We ended up still going to the dang meeting, but every year Brie reminds me when Benito Juarez Day comes around in March...so this year we wanted to actually take the day off and amuse ourselves. And then I was in Europe for most of March so we rescheduled it for May 3. Now I just googled Benito Juarez Day and was stunned to see that someone else must have had the SAME IDEA!

In any case, tea was lovely. The most awkward part this time (usually something really awkward happens) was just me stupidly burning the crap out of my tongue drinking the tea as soon as it was poured.

  

 

The scones and quiche were friggin awesome! After tea, we enjoyed some shopping on Main Street in Sykesville at Alexandra's Attic and A La Mode Boutique...and later we somehow ended up buying shoes at DSW (because you always need more shoes). All in all, a fun day!

 

 

Happy Benito Juarez Day to you too!

Red owl ornaments

To go with the stellar bright red sunburn I got on my feet today, here are my red and pink owl ornaments. I was helping Jyoti with a yard sale this morning...nice to be outdoors but forgot sunblock on my feet! It itches!

 

Also here are some of the other owls I'm working on...

 

 

 

Outdoor owl photo shoot!

There are lots of pretty cherry blossoms near my place, so I figured I'd re-photo some of my owl ornaments outside.

 

Next: new red owls!

Paint your own pottery

Check out what I made!

 
I recently tried one of those paint your own pottery things for the first time at The Pottery Stop. I wasn't sure how my piece would turn out since 1) it took me a hundred years to do, 2) I was trying a wax resist technique that seemed iffy, and 3) I made up the design as I went along. I also experimented with putting a ton of different paints in some of the areas which gave it a cool marble effect (but could equally have come out as a disaster for all I know).

But I totally love how this switchplate cover came out! The leaves look pretty cool. I would totally go again--and next time I want to make:

• a larger switchplate
• a round trinket box (maybe with a monarch butterfly on it?)
• a large rectangular vase

A big thank you to Juli for introducing me to this fun crafty outing! :)

From my sketchbook: Spain & Italy trip 2013!

I spent the second half of March vacationing with friends in Spain and Italy. We rented a car and drove around Tuscany, then flew to Barcelona for a few days as well. I didn't sketch as heavily on some previous trips (mostly because it rained almost every day in Italy) but I got a couple of good ones in :)
 

 

Cortona, Italy

I sat in the Piazza della Repubblica on some steps to sketch, looking very much like a hobo.

 

Port Vell, Barcelona, Spain

Took advantage of a lovely sunny day to sit by the docks and draw.

 

Inspired by the earlier boats, I did this cute circles watercolor...would be nice for a little boy's room.

 

Montserrat, Spain

It was a bit chilly up there so I only had the patience (and warmth) for a quick pen sketch!

 

 

Parc de la Ciutadella, Barcelona, Spain

I wasn't exactly sure what an umbracle (shade house) was at first, but it made a nice place to sit!

 

 

And here's a circles watercolor inspired by the lovely Tuscan hills:

 

  Trip photos to match coming soon, I promise!