July

Good grief, it's July!

Sorry that I haven't posted, but the awful truth is that I haven't accomplished anything in the studio at all. My time has been taken up with house and kid projects, and this unrelenting humidity and sticky heat (my next home will have central air. ALL through it, even if they only get one hot day a year! I'm determined! Also, it should have a cleaning fairy.)

I've been looking yearningly at my studio with lots of projects in mind, but instead:

We've made ice cream in a bag:
2 Tablespoon sugar
1 cup half & half (or light cream)
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup coarse salt or table salt(I used canning salt)
ice
gallon-sized Ziploc bag
pint-sized Ziploc bag

Mix the sugar, half & half and vanilla extract together. Pour into a pint-sized Ziploc baggie. Make sure it seals tightly.

Now take the gallon-sized Ziploc bag and fill it up halfway with ice and pour the salt over the ice. Now place the cream filled bag into the ice filled bag and seal.
Make sure it is sealed tightly and start shaking. Shake for about 5 minutes (or 8 minutes if you use heavy cream.)

Open the gallon-sized bag and check to see if the ice cream is hard, if not keep shaking. Once the ice cream is finished, quickly run the closed pint-sized baggie under cold water to quickly clean the salt off the baggie.

Open the baggie and pop in a spoon.

The onion bud opened to reveal a bunch of itty-bitty buds and I'm waiting for them to open too. I can't tell if it smells like an onion yet.

I set up a hammock on my back deck, all by myself.

I found a robin's nest full of four healthy babies watching me very quietly as I weeded a mulched one of the MANY flower/landscaping beds we worked hard on in the heat. Those feathers look a bit warm, actually. I don't think I could sit that close to my siblings in 92 degree weather and 100% humidity.

I learned that a redhead with a massive sunburn is not a pretty sight. *ahem* Sunblock would have been a novel idea.

I found that the ONLY trade-off for all this horrid humidity is a beautiful sunset. That's it. I can't come up with anything else. You can see the humidity in the picture, which actually makes it look less humid than it did! This is nuts! My yard is a complete stinky mud-pit with water squishing over your shoes!

And that with all the excess rain (and it is in excess, as there have been flash-floods for weeks on end here), the frogs and toads just love it. This one hopped up to my daughter the other night, and instead of a low ribbit as one would expect of such a dignified looking toad, instead he squeaked like a cartoon character:

And I always think of toads as he's. Do you? Maybe this one could be a she... but a toad just seems more suited to be a he. Well, unless I think of my third grade teacher. Then, perhaps, a toad is spot on for a she.

The truth is that I have my big watercolor/acrylic unicorn and fairy piece yet to finish:

You can see how it started off watercolor, and then somehow I got frustrated and ended up going heavy handed and more traditionally acrylic. I think I felt that the watercolor just wasn't coming through bold enough. On the other hand, I rather like that it gives the feeling of some elements being not totally solid, fleeting, while others are harsh and set. Maybe that's the whole point of magic depicted in a painting? Not so far off base after all?

I also have my two smaller pieces, the dragon hatchling twins, and the smaller unicorn, but those I haven't done much with either. I think I'm giving up the time lapse on the two of them in favor of simply getting them done. I'll try another time lapse later. When it's not so hot and the camera isn't so distracting. And then I have my Alice paintings to work on. Next up will be the Queen of Hearts. I have plans for her.

More, however? I want to finish out this series by the end of October. That is my goal, so I can start a new series next year. But I have a LONG way to go. It's time to step up the pace! I may have to set aside my other paintings while I really hammer this out to my satisfaction!

I hope you are all doing well! Are you keeping cool? Has it been blisteringly hot? Raining like crazy? Or have you had wonderful weather, where I will promptly be jealous?