Toad in a Boat

I’m posting a bit early for Creative Tuesdays so I don’t forget. The theme is morning. Around here, the wild morning glories have been blooming everywhere. They are filling the ditches, climbing fences, and turning the road signs into interesting but unreadable topiaries. They only bloom for a few hours each morning but oh how glorious they are for those few hours.

This month’s Sketchbook Challenge theme is everyday objects. Somehow, I completely missed last month, so I thought I’d do a quickie while sitting here at the desk, in case I never get around to doing anything better, LOL. I had my Route 44 sugarfree cranberry tea from Sonic sitting here so that’s what I sketched. The black thing next to it is the stylus for my wacom tablet. I should be sketching everday objects everyday.

Pink and shabby, comfortable and familiar, after all these year.

The Summer of Color theme this week is pink. I wanted to do another altered book page and was lucky enough to find a reference to pink azaleas in the book I’ve been using. Other words on the page such as shabby and comfortable made me think of a much loved stuffed toy that has been dragged around and loved for years, providing comfort and companionship to some little one. We were to use wax in some way for extra credit so I used a white wax crayon for the word Shabby. It acts as a resist to the green watercolor. Next week’s challenge color is Yellow with a bonus of metallics. I hope I can find the word yellow in my book!

Mr. Toast wants to see some old timey storefronts this week. I immediately thought of Central Grocery in New Orleans. We rarely go into the city anymore, but when we did, we liked to stop at Central to get a muffaletta to go on the way home. I hear the food and service there aren’t as good as they used to be, but I’m getting hungry just thinking about that muffaletta.

I am not happy with this at all and after scanning it I realize why. There are no people. I’ve never seen this sidewalk empty. It just looks wrong. It looks stiff and lifeless but this is a very lively street (Decatur St). Oh well, I am posting it anyway to show I did play along. Watercolor pencil in my sketchbook.

ETA: Claire asked, What is a muffaletta?” Here’s a link to a photo. Have a look if you aren’t familiar with them. It’s like nothing else on the planet. BTW, these are 8″-10″ but most people do not eat a whole one!

The Three Muses have asked for something blue this week so I made a page in my journal. I found an interesting prompt and tutorial at Green Isle Crafts on tearing a random shape from a folded book page and seeing what you could make with it. Mine looked like a dog to me, among other things, so I made him a window to look out of. Maybe he’s watching a bird fly by. This journal is bigger than my scanner, so it’s a bit cropped but the important bits are there. This was a fun prompt and I’ll be trying it again.

The Creative Tuesday theme this week is Trees. I’m not good at trees but I gave it a shot. At The Broken Egg, where we occasionally eat, there are some outdoor tables and near those there is a tree with a face on it.  While thinking of ideas for trees I thought of that funny tree and it inspired this little conversation between a raccoon and a wise old tree. At least I didn’t have to draw leaves, LOL.

This week’s Take a Word theme is Zetti. I love Zetti! I decorated an envelope Zetti style.

It’s Paint Party Friday again! If you aren’t participating, you should be. It’s a great motivator to actually get something painted during the week and it’s fun to surf around and see what everyone has been working on. It doesn’t have to be a big painting and it doesn’t even have to be finished. This week, I have a little watercolor sketch in my sketch journal. I can find time to work in my little sketchbook even when I can’t focus on starting a new canvas or a real watercolor. This is the front porch of the General Store in the nearby town of Covington, LA. I love the look of that old red and white gas pump with the blue shutters. And how many businesses have a front porch with a swing?

I finished and mailed my Helping Hand for Japan for the auction, too. I’ll show that on Monday. Gotta get some breakfast now.