Paper and Threads

Challenge #232:  Draw The Last Thing You Bought:

I am not a shopper, unless I'm in a book or fabric store.  The last things I purchased were books.  Two weeks ago I bought childrens' books from the Cat in the Hat Learning Library series: Clam-I-Am! and I Can Name 50 Trees Today for our grandchildren.  This week I bought two summer books for me to read on our travels. 

EDM Challenge #233:  My Favorite Drink

I love coffee and enjoy my first quiet hour of each day, when I drink several mugs of filtered coffee, and plan the day.  This is so important to me, that I must be able to make coffee in hotel rooms so it is ready as soon as I wake up and even before I shower and get dressed.  During a Christmas visit to London in 1988, I bought myself a present at Harrods - a Russell Hobbs filter travel coffee pot.  I have enjoyed it on many trips since then.

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Our guests returned with us to New York City after "beach week" and we spent the afternoon at the Met.  I did a quick sketch of Sara and Renee while they were looking at some of the exhibits in The Pictures Generation Exhibit.

The 3 of us then went to the Model as Muse Costume Institute Exhibit while our husbands went to the Art of Afghanistan Exhibit.  Since I've already sketched in the fashion exhibit several times, I concentrated on accessories.

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We spent last week in Southampton with friends that we have known for many years.  Each morning our group of 6 went for a two mile walk along the beach, enjoying the beautiful weather, watching the activity of the gulls, and collecting "treasures" to be sketched.  There were very few shells, in contrast to the same week last year.  After our walk, we sat at the Snack Shack, had breakfast, and sketched our Still life of treasures.

Clockwise:  Gull feather, skate egg sack, moon snail, crab claw, and small crab shell.

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This is the inside of the junk drawer in my bedside cabinet - SIMPLIFIED!  In the basket on the left front one pen represents about 50, one highliter about 12, one emery board about 6.  On the right front are individual packets of yearly Filofax calendar pages from 1993 through 2008.  The black leather zipper case in the back contains some information about renting apartments in Europe.  The compartments on the right back are in a plastic silverware drawer insert and contain much more stuff in each section.  On the far right back is an old Altoids tin and a pen case full of fountain pens that I love but no longer use!

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I painted sketchbook pages 6 and 7 from our sketchcrawl on Thursday - but will probably leave page 8, the tortoise and the skink, as is.  The Snow Leopard is one of two introduced to the Zoo this past Spring and we were extremely lucky to have her moving around her enclosure and for a short while sitting on a ledge directly in front of us.  As she jomped from rock to rock, frequently jumping up another level in the process, you sensed what powerful animals they are.

We ended our sketching in the Tropic Zone - a huge enclosure that is so full of tropical birds and other animals that you need to pay attention to see all but the most brightly colored.  Here are two of those.  I can't look at a Toucan without conjuring up a Fruit Loops box on our breakfast table. 

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