Got Scarves?

I love this little drawing I made a few years ago. She’s  a precursor to Genevieve, with her little red shoes and blue coat. She loves yarn and making scarves. She loves wearing them too!

A friend of mine who travels to France a bunch, once told me that French women wear scarves a lot, no matter the season. I tend to be a cold weather scarf wearer. I need to expand my scarf collection to lighter, smaller silk scarves for spring and summer use.

All three of the scarves I’ve knitted and am offering in my Etsy Shoppe, are definitely for cooler temperatures. But it’s never too early to think of what you’ll need come fall, or for gift giving to a special friend. And actually, I may need one of these the next time I go to Harris Teeter…brrrrr, it’s cold in there!

Here are the three…two of my own design, the pink lace one designed by Laura Harding from her book, Knitted Little Luxuries.

This scarf is embellished on both ends AND on both sides! That way, you don’t have a right or wrong side…any way you wear it, something whimsical shows. Click here to see other views of this scarf in the Shoppe.

This scarf is designed by Laura Harding, whose book, Knitted Little Luxuries, is full of lovely lacy knits! The pin can be worn to anchor the scarf, or not. It is made of a luscious cashmere/cotton blend. Again, to see more views of this, click here.

And this scarf is a melange of stitches, fibers, and colors. I loved every minute of knitting this thing…just randomly selecting what I wanted to go next. Click here for other views.

Though none of these are red, I could see any of them on the little girl in the sketch above! Or, on an older girl like me!

Morning Lines

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In case it was difficult to follow the written lines along with the drawn ones, here’s the poem.

All lines, written and drawn, were made over the last three mornings.

Morning Lines

 

There’s something about morning

All the world seems right.

The day ahead teems with possibilities

As my creative heart takes flight.

 

The simple things are charged with goodness.

A mug of coffee. A slice of bread.

Hope hangs thick in morning’s thoughts.

There’s nothing to dread.

 

Dreams can play as I carve the lines.

On paper. In pen. Getting them down.

So I don’t forget, before the race begins.

Before the everyday threatens to drown.

 

As my weary head finds evening’s pillow

Only two or three sparks remain.

I fold them in to my hopeful heart

That by morning, they’ll rekindle the flame.

 

-jpe

June 15, 2013

A Bunting We Will Go

 

A bunting we will go…A bunting we will go…High ho the derry-oh…a bunting we will go!

Tee Hee! This little project was so much fun to work on the last few days. It really didn’t last long enough! But I’m enjoying the end result and it seems my family loves it too! A bit of back story: A couple of years ago, I was making a bunch of things to give as Christmas presents to all our cousins, and Maddie was helping me. One day, when Randy walked in, she said, “Dad, we’re making lots of stuff in Genevieve’s Workshop!” Right then and there I thought it would be fun to have a sign or something over the entrance to “my studio”, aka. family sunroom.

As I’ve run several options through my mind, I was recently captivated by the Granny Square Triangle Bunting Lucy was making over at Attic24. Her tutorials are always spot-on, and this one was no exception. I switched things up only a tiny bit to serve my purpose here, but it seemed the perfect way to add signage to my art space. Here’s what I did:

I used Vickie Howell’s Sheep-Ish yarn for its bright, bold colors and an H hook. I worked each triangle in two colors, choosing the outer color of the previous triangle for the inner color of the next triangle. For the “space” in between the words, Genevieve’s Workshop, I made a multi-colored triangle. Once I had all the triangles I needed, I strung them together with three rows of single crochet across the top, using a different color for each row. I then followed Lucy’s fantastic instruction for flattening out the crochet (brilliant!).  I used stencils to cut out the letters from a fabric chosen to show up on the bright colors. I simply used Elmer’s glue to glue them onto the triangles. Et Voila!

Now I’m dreaming of other places in our house that “need” a little bunting love! I really did enjoy this project! So simple, very fast, and it really adds a festiveness to our kitchen/sunroom area.

 

You should go a-bunting too! And then you must drawcument the result, as I did here. Drawing what you make is a great way to celebrate that you actually completed something and to record the finished product.

If Knitting Had Feelings…

I do wonder about this sometimes. I fall in love with a simple ball of yarn. And the dreaming begins. I’m sure it loves this…me dreaming about all the possibilities it might become.

Then I choose, and off we go…clicking away happily with nary a thought but the yarn and stitches in front of me.

And then. I fall in love with another hank of yarn, or an idea, or a pattern. And before you know it, I’m dreaming again. Only this time with another yarn.

I do keep knitting the first one, but not exclusively anymore. It might be the one I take on the go and leave the other for home, when I can concentrate more. But nevertheless there are two now, and I might be caught thinking of the other while knitting the one in my hands.

Lately, this malady has happened several times. I think I now have THREE knitting projects going AND a crochet project! I’m sure this speaks volumes about my start-itis tendencies, my fickle nature, my creative ADD, or whatever you want to call it. In my defense, I am totally committed to each and every one of them!

But the poor yarns!! Surely they are at least mildly disappointed at having to share my affections! Perhaps they’re even downright angry. I dunno. But when I pick them up, they seem all happy to be becoming whatever I’m making them. They seem glad to be held and treasured… for however long until I pick up a different one.

And at the end of this post I’m thinking I’m crazy…and that I’m glad yarn does NOT have feelings. Otherwise, I’d be in big trouble!

Growing Up

I drew the above drawing in pre-hospital days from a photograph of Maddie enjoying a break on the rocks at Hidden Falls, Hanging Rock State Park. I can’t believe that in just a week, she will “graduate” from 5th grade.  I’m not sure I’m ready for my youngest child to be going off to Middle School.

But then again, it is a beautiful thing to watch your children grow up. To see what wonderful human beings they are and are becoming. Her dad and I marvel at how this jolly infant girl has become such a lovely, kind, and creative young girl. Enjoy the slide show of some drawings and paintings I’ve made of her over the years:

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The Smell of Honeysuckle

One day recently as I walked near my favorite Lane, I smelled honeysuckle! I could smell it before I could see it. And then, rounding the corner at the top of our neighborhood, there it was…a blanket of white and yellow vining in a tangle of overgrown weeds.

Bliss! You know how it is…

A hush of the scent comes wafting ever so gently on the morning breeze, blue skies dancing as the smell increases until it’s heady fragrance nearly knocks you over! But it’s a curious thing, this honeysuckle. If you go up to it, actually pick a stem of the flowers, they don’t look much like they smell. You expect to see some sultry, large-petaled, bright colored flower to match the fragrance that drew you in. Instead, you find small straw-like flowers in pale shades of white and yellow. And when you put the flower to your nose, hoping to breathe in more of its musky odor, you can barely smell it, causing you to wonder if you have the right patch of flowers.

Honeysuckle fragrance is best from an entire patch of it, rather than a single stem. I like that. It speaks to the whole “we are better together, than just on our own” thing.

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Now…how to paint that smell? I put this challenge to myself, and stood for rather a long time in front of my drawing table. Eventually something came out of my brush. The above is my attempt. Here’s how my thinking went as I tried to paint the smell, without painting what honeysuckle looked like.

*What medium does honeysuckle suggest? The vivid heft of soft pastels? Heavy acrylics? Black & white pen? Watery watercolor? etc. I decided that watercolor was perfect for the ethereal smell of honeysuckle.

*What about the smell is predominant in my mind? Is it the light sweet aroma? Or the strong, heady odor? I decided I think of honeysuckle as being light and sweet with a few punctuations of the strong stuff. So my painting needed to be on the watery side to depict this airy fragrance.  Then have bits of more concentrated color and some splashes to denote the heavier smell.

*What small bits of its physical properties can I include but not describe? The fact that the fragrance wafts from the ground up was something I tried to suggest with the darker greens near the bottom of the page and the slight blue at the top. And the little stamen in the centers of the flowers seemed delightful and significant…so I added a few as “hints” here and there.

So this is how my mind goes with a challenge such as this. The cool thing is that if you posed these questions to many artists, they would come up with totally different paintings. Or even across disciplines, the results would be so varying. Why don’t you try it? Post it on your blog or FB, or Everyday Matters FB and share with us!

CHALLENGE: ??How would you paint, collage, stitch, write, sculpt, etc. the smell of honeysuckle??  (No need to be a professional at this…just have fun with it!) AND>>> let me know you’ve done this, so I can see it and compile them into a post later.

A Lenten Walk

I have now written down the story behind the events of the last few months. I humbly submit it to you dear reader, should you even wish to dive into it. It is a true story of what happened. It is not what came to mind in hindsight. It may seem fantastical or bizarre. But there it is. And I believe I was given that sense of being caught up in a story of Lent, to encourage me along the way.

Feel free to print it out, curl up somewhere comfy with a coffee or tea to read. Should you feel that it would be of benefit to someone you know, pass it along, either digitally or in paper copy. It is not intended to make me seem super spiritual…goodness No! It is meant to bring focus to the One who traveled a Lenten Walk before me. A walk which I may have tastes of here on earth, but which I will never have to endure fully because He walked it already.

Click on the highlighted words to download.

ALentenWalk-1

Deux Collages

My mom and I have been drooling over Mark Hearld’s work for several months now. Definitely check out this video of him…it is delightful! I think I got his book back in early February and have attempted some collage works based loosely on how Mark Hearld works.

I love the fact that all the images in his work is taken from his growing up years on a little farm in England. He has loved nature all of his life and this shows in the wonderfully whimsical collage/paintings he creates. Much of his work is a lovely layering of a watercolor painting with collaged papers on top. He even incorporates his lithography work.  Many of the collaged papers have been previously painted and then cut up into the shapes he wants.  I was trying more of that in the collage below.

This collage was made a few months back, whereas the first collage (tulips) was made just last week. I’ve discovered that I’m an impatient collager.:)  I really don’t enjoy spending time painting the papers I’m going to collage with…I’d just prefer to use all kinds of papers as they are, whether decorative or “junk”, cut ‘em up and glue ‘em down! Of course, I love the watercoloring bit.

The first collage has been added to  my ETSY Shoppe for sale! (***As of this very afternoon, this collage has already SOLD! My. Thank you so very much!)  Also in the Shoppe is a recent watercolor, titled Tulip Dance, which you can see in this post here.  The same day I offered this painting, I also offered Purple Tulips, in this blog post, but it was scooped up pretty quick.  I’ll try to alert you when I’m adding artwork to the Shoppe as soon as I can. Thank you, thank you, for your interest and purchases!

Perhaps you’d like to try your hand at collaging like this. Here’s a step-by-step suggestion for you:

1. Swoosh some watercolors around on a fresh page, not mingling the color too much, but allowing them to oozle and wazzle with each other. (These are highly technical art terms, you  know!;)  A floral piece works well with this, since the somewhat random watercolors suggest foliage and flowers in the background!

2.  Cut shapes of found and purchased papers to suit what your subject is.  Vary tones of one color, or choose different colors… it’s fun to explore lots of approaches to this.  Maybe you would like to paint or draw on the pieces of paper before cutting them.

3.  Glue them down according to your idea and vision.

4.  Take other media, such as oil pastels, watercolor crayons, markers, pens, soft pastels to add any flourishes or designs to your collaged piece.

Et Voila! Enjoy!

**Oh, and one more thing…would you like to see the photo I worked from to create the first collage?? Here it is. See if you can find the 2 tulips I looked at while assembling their shapes.

Knitterly Notes

 

Have I ever told you I love to knit?  

And so I have…here and here and here. The only thing better than knitting, is to draw or paint what I’m knitting or crocheting. I loved making this little painting of my hands knitting a scarf. Mind you, this lace scarf was begun several years ago…but I have finished it! And I’ll give you a proper reveal soon!

So here’s the photograph I worked from to create the above painting. I thought you might like to see the reference photo and how it gets translated into line and watercolor. I also thought you might like to see some of the projects I’ve been happily working on of late.

 

I knitted this little cupcake hat for my niece’s one year birthday back at the beginning of March, the early days of my U.C. diagnosis. That’s my beautiful sister with her fifth child, Brynley.

Then I finished this pair of socks, which I wore and wore through the chilly days. For some reason, I kept messing up on grafting the toe together. I’ve done the kitchener stitch successfully many times before, but a brain glitch prevented me from getting it right on both of these socks. Of course, I made it work somehow so the socks hold together without being uncomfortable.

So, on THIS sock, finished just recently, I was delighted to work the Kitchener stitch correctly! Yay! Maybe my recent surgery re-worked my brain as well!

And I love the colors in this yarn!!!!!

This is a random photo of the basket of yarns I used for my Resurrection Shawl. 

And this is the beginning of another multi-yarned confection, all in creams and whites! I have quite a vision of this shawl in its finished state…we’ll see how it all turns out.:)

And a photo of me knitting on our front stoop. This was taken prior to being in the hospital, hoping and praying that the medications I was on would put the U.C. into remission. There’s something about this photo I like… 1. I love knitting outdoors, even if it means wearing a coat and knitted hand mitts. 2. Knitting became synonymous with “hope” during my recent illness. Knitting and Hope…I like that.

Well, that’s enough for now…I’ll share more “knitterly notes” with you soon. I’ll be stocking the Shoppe with some new items soon…more on that coming up!

**Thank you so much for visiting me here on Drawn2Life!! I can’t thank you enough for sharing in these creative ventures with me!

***And…if you ever wanted to take up knitting, try my little photo tutorial HERE. I haven’t yet transferred it over from Drawn2Knit. It will happen someday. For now, check there for free patterns and tutorials.

****ANNDDD….if you’d like to try your hand at drawing/sketching OR need a little boost or encouragement to get back into it…check out my Drawing Your Life Mini Lessons. These were offered last year and still receive a lot of traffic.  I hope it’s helpful to you all!

“The Fringes of a Dress…”

Where Dwellest Thou?

O what is it that wanders in the wind?

And what is it that whispers in the wood?

What is the river singing to the sun?

Why this vague pain in every charmed sense,

This yearning, keen suspense?

 

Often I’ve seen a garment floating by,

fringe of it only; golden brown as it lay

On the ripe grasses, fern-green on the ferns,

And in the wood, like bluebells’ misty blue

Whitened with mountain dew.

 

I laid me low among the mountain grass;

I laid me low among the river fern;

I hid me in the wood and tried to hold

The lovely wonder of it as it passed,

And tried to hold it fast.

 

It slipped like sunshine through my eager hands;

See, they are dusted as with pollen dust,

Soft dust of gold, and soft the sense of touch,

Soft as the south wind’s sea-blown evening kiss;

But I have only this…

 

This dust of vanished gold upon my hands,

This breath of wind blowing upon my hair,

Stirring of something near, so near, but far,

Glimm’ring through color’s fleeting preciousness–

The fringes of a dress.

 

O Wearer of that garment, of its hem,

Hardly perceived, can thrill us, what must Thou,

Its Weaver and its Wearer, be to see?

Master, where dwellest Thou? O tell me now,

Where dwellest Thou?

 

The grasses turned their golden heads away,

And shyer and more wistful stood the ferns;

The little flowers looked up with puzzled eyes;

Only the river, who is all my own,

Left me not quite alone…

 

But mixed his music with my human cry,

Till somewhere from the half-withdrawing wood

Sounds of familiar footsteps: Is it Thou?

Master, where dwellest Thou? O speak to me.

And He said, “Come and see.“

 

-Amy Carmichael

from a collection of her poetry titled, Toward Jerusalem.

 

**May you enjoy this poem today and walk through the day’s moments with an awareness that they are but fringes of His dress.