Restocking

Here is some of that restocking mentioned in my last post.

My newest design for men: Abstract

Twist on a traditional Norwegian design for 

women: Botanical


Hers and His: Cardinal and Botanical


Wild Rose along with a branch of Diplodenia 

I used for a brush-drawing:


Another traditional Norwegian design 

I call "Snowflake":

A "New" Computer

After many months of turning on my computer 

knowing that within minutes it would freeze for 

at least an hour and then come up with this 

same old message of failure...




... it was time for drastic action. 

1: Buy an external hard drive
2: Back up everything on my computer
3: Spend hours over several days working with three different Microsoft advisors online to finally get a full computer reset to work

4: Wait hours for the computer to build a new operating system

5: Spend a couple more days reinstalling all my software and files
6: Knit (restocking the Etsy shop with mittens) while waiting



It was worth it! I can now hit the power button 

and get right to work. What a novelty!

Nature Journaling at the Lake

While at the lake with the sailboat, 

I pulled out my sketchbook to record 

a few bits of creation that had caught 

my eye (and my nose!) 

Playing with Wind and Waves

I see that my pre-written, pre-scheduled 

posts ran out several days ago. Today 

may not be the day to fill up the "queue" 

again. But I will show one joy from the week...

The sailboat brought us soaring 

across the lake again! The first day 

was wet and wild, but the second 

gentle and relaxing.

Dad taught us to sail when young on his 

17-foot Dolphin before buying a 14-foot 

Snark we could handle all on our own.

Both of those boats were in our barn

when it collapsed under heavy snow

years back. Just a few years ago, they

were replaced with this New-Zealand 

designed, tri-hull Weta.

It doesn't take much wind to make 

this thing go! It is even fun to sail solo.

Elsa was too young to want to learn 

the mechanics of sailing our old boats. 

And her neurological damage from 

Lyme-etc. is still not allowing it. 

So for now she helps run the jib-sheets. 

And someday, she'll have the tiller in

her hand as well!

I thought how God must smile 

to see His children playing in the 

wonders of His creation!

Father's Day 2020

For Father's Day I decided to attempt a watercolor 

of Dad based on a photo I took in Florida when we were 

watching the sun rise over the ocean a few miles away.

Dad helped us all learn principles of photography, 

and especially a greater appreciation of the beauties 

of God's creation, through much-anticipated slideshows 

whenever a batch of film was developed in years past.

Having previously mentioned the new watercolor paper 

that made skies so much more fun to attempt painting, 

I must admit that my next try was a huge flop!



I let that dry and flipped the paper over to try again 

the next day - with a different technique.



A photo can't capture the colors correctly, and my

painting is far from perfect, but I learned more about 

watercolor as I finished this gift for Dad.

Father's Day itself contained the gift of family-time 

as we celebrated two fathers (and a grandfather)!









This little guy is so strong, he was climbing out of 

his dad's arms during our tour of my dad's gardens!





Most meals now contain delicious, homegrown lettuce!

God Bless America

From the mountains...

... to the prairies...

... to the oceans white with foam...

God Bless America,

My Home Sweet Home!

International Nature Journaling Week - Day 6

Day 6: Skies



We spent June 5th out at the lake where the 

skies begged to be studied and painted.



But though June 6th was the day for skies, 

Elsa and I were out of strength to continue with 

daily nature-journaling and had to wait several 

days to get back to this theme. Thankfully our 

first order of 100% cotton watercolor paper 

came during that wait, so we had a better 

opportunity to enjoy the process.



(A look back at my painting of the Florida ocean 

would show the superiority of this paper for 

attempting skies and clouds.)

What a joy it was to play with color again!

The theme of Day 7 was "Ecosystems." 

And though Elsa and I watched the teaching 

videos to go with it, we have not yet tried it 

ourselves. If you want to go back and learn

from the international artist/teachers yourself, 

check out https://www.naturejournalingweek.com/