Evergreen

 

Bet you can't guess where I got the name for this post?   

I like green but this shirt is sooo bright and the green seems rather Christmas-y that I hardly ever wear it. For me it's always been a "formal" shirt.  But because of photographing my outfits regulary, recently, it's given me creativity to try this shirt.  And I think I want to wear it more! (informally)  

Ok, to be honest though I didn't wear it all day. I took off the shirt and jacket for hours and put on a big comfy sweater because I was doing cleaning.  I did some DEEP cleaning.  And it did feel too dressy to clean in.  I put this outfit together because I was going to pick up my sister from the airport, last night or should I say this am. She is one of the best dressers I know.   Her arrival time was 12:55am but she ended up landing around 12:30.  And, by the way, she LOVED the blouse. 

12:55 am pickup time is killer.  And the flight was into BWI, which is a two plus hour drive.  I got a coffee from 7-11 and some snacks. I got the flavored coffee, mmmm, not great. I mixed mine. It was like Pumpkin Spice and Vanilla.   Next time I'll get the regular.  I actually burned 3 discs with a 3 hour long free audio book to listen to as I drove.  I did listen to a lot of it. But the quality was really bad, hence "free audio book." I couldn't understand everything, which is bad if you're trying to follow a story and the different characters. (Oh well :)  It was "Plots and Counterplots" by Louisa May Alcott. I did catch a lot of it and it was interesting, to say the least.   

As you may have noticed I did go to bed late! last night/this morning. Around 4am. I had a bit of trouble falling asleep and I was like, "Oh no, I had coffee!"  I woke up around 10:30. Which right now in my time of life is around the time I wake up everyday. I'm not working, yet and I go to bed late normally.  

leaf necklace: from my sister (my favorite necklace right now)

evergreen blouse: New York and Company, Gabriel Brothers ($6?)

brown jacket: Gabriel brothers, $3, it's missing a button on one of the cuffs (oops!)

dark wash skinny jeans: thrifted $2 (one of my recent finds)

brown moccasins: Old Navy 

vintage ring: $6 thrifted 

I made dinner last night. It was "easy" spaghetti.  I took pics through the process. I know many people know how to make spaghetti but I know many don't know how to cook, so a bit of a "how to" I think would be helpful, for some.  (Maybe later today I'll post that.)  Wow! I'm getting camera happy ;)!!

"Dreamer" I finally painted!

While home on a bit of vacation from my time in Sault Ste. Marie Michigan I finally did the painting thing.

I dunno but for me as an artist, more so with drawing and painting it's a bit of an emotional leap to start a piece of art. Not sure why :) any ideas?

Anyways there's this wonderful picture my sister took of herself with her boyfriend (now an x) where she looks awesome. It has these wonderful contrasts. Very dark values and very light values.

Soo one morning I did my computar stuff than in my unwashed state and still in my pj's I set up my painting stuff in my sisters bedroom (she has a sort of easel) and I started painting.

I first painted the background black with blue mixed in. Than I traced the shape of her face with white paint and went from there.

Some tricky areas were her eyes especially. When an eye is hardly seen (her right eye) it's hard to know how to do it. And I had trouble with the nose. I also had to go in and adjust the lips. When they were "First done" they looked to tensed up.

I haven't painted in acrylic for years... my last big painting project was the set for our churches christmas project.

I had fun on this...there were times when I was a bit on edge cus there were elements that I had to work at...had to mold and even redo or adjust.

I really like how this painting came out.

"Dreamer"

it's also listed in my etsy store:
www.mariesmiracles.etsy.com