Some journal pages

Hoping everyone had a great 4th...we had a pretty lazy one. Watched the fireworks from a neighbors back yard.

Finally getting around to posting some journal pages.




This one isn't finished as you can see. The colors on my snail look orange in this photo but it's really a vibrant red. I think he turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself.

Doodle's into Art work

Sometimes while waiting for a process to finish up at work I will doodle on some scrap paper. This little guy was from one such doodle. I did do a painting of him but he is hanging at work and I haven't scanned him yet.



Other doodles are done while watching TV, I hate watching commercials so doodle instead.


This little guy was done in my journal. I'm still working on the page and hope to show it when finished. I really like this little bird I think he turned out cute.


And this is a doodle that ended up on canvas. I finished him in time for a show we did at a local winery a few weekends ago and I got loads of comments on him. So many folks really liked him. So we may be seeing more of my doodles making it to canvas sometime soon.



I do love to doodle.

Japan - Part Two - Nijo Castle

Nijo Castle - was built as the Kyoto residence of the Tokugawa Shoguns.

The Front gate.


Inside gate before the castle

Detail on the gate.

Ninomaru Palace -

the most amazing thing about this palace were the "nightingale floors". When walked on they made the most amazing sound, and because there were quite a few visitor's the day we went the floors sounded like hundreds of birds singing. It was amazing. I so wished that we could have been there alone for a few minutes to play on the floors to see which boards made which sounds. The floor was built this way to prevent sneak attacks or assissins from sneaking up on the shoguns.

The paintings on the paneled walls were also amazing, but we could take no pictures

I think this building was a guard post. It was at the corner of the wall/moat that surrounded the castle and gardens.

From the top of the wall that surrounded the whole complex. Over looking the palace itself with Kyoto in the background.

In the garden were many of these little decorations. The garden was huge and we did not get to see it all.

Garden pond.

Some unusual trees in the garden.

Nijo Castle was probably my favorite place that we visited while I was in Japan.

New member of the family

A few months ago we lost one of our 4 legged family members. It's still to painful for me to talk much about but it lead to the addition of another member to our family.

My husband is a bird hunter (among other things which we do not see eye to eye on) and Arko his main hunting dog (who is really my dog unless it is hunting season) turned 12 years old this year..where does the time go. (all my pics of Arko were on the old computer....)

Anyway we decided that with Arko getting up there in years it would be a good idea to get someone to start training to take his place (which we did not really want to think about but....)

So....here he is:

Dylan at 8 weeks old.

And Dylan after I came back from Japan at 10 weeks:

He's a handful and is keeping everyone on their toes.

Japan - Buses, Bicycles, Subways and Trains

So many things have happened since I last posted:



Have been to Japan and back. What a trip. I walked more than I have in the last 10 years and rode a bicycle which I haven’t done in probably as long…

Things that stand out:

Hardly any homes in Japan have lawns. They have small rock, tree and flower gardens, if they have more room they have a vegetable garden and if they have even more room they have a rice paddy. Even in the cities.


If the bus, subway or train is crowded it is very quiet other than the announcements. They just don’t talk to each other, even groups, even the school kids. That was amazing to me. It seem that the more crowded the system was the less noise from the crowds.


Bicycles everywhere. Riding right down the sidewalk among the people or out in the roads with the cars and some really flying along.


Motorcycles. Do not obey any laws of traffic that I could see. They zipped in and around cars, buses and people and were always speeding.

The Japanese people do not stare. While on the train one day a little girl of about 3 years old was staring at my daughter and I…her mother quickly reprimanded her and told her to quit.

Other Americans or none Japanese people also seem to ignore you. When we would pass someone on the street, subway or bus they would not look at us, or acknowledge us in any way. I found this rather odd and ask about it, DD said it seems to be some unwritten rule that you do not acknowledge each other???? She didn’t know why but has found more than just herself has noticed it. I only ran into a few people who actually looked at me and returned my smile. They must have been tourist’s also.

I don’t care much for traditional Japanese food.


After a while all temples and shrines look the same. My daughter had said this before but for some reason I didn’t much believe her, but found it to be true.

I have way more pictures but haven't gotten them all downloaded and reformated...hope to post more this weekend.

Finally some new art work

A few months ago I taught an art doll class here in town. We had so much fun. Here is the one I demo'd and worked on. It's not completely finished, I'm wanting to do something to the wings - maybe some black netting and possibly add some eyes. Just not sure yet so it's hanging above the art desk.



To see two other dolls created in the class go look at
Brenda's Art Dolls. She's the art teacher at the high school here in town and has asked me to come in to her summer art class and do an art doll class for them. She's hoping to have a robot theme. I'm pretty excited about doing it.

And once a month a group of us here in town get together for "Arty Party". Last month we had it at Bobbi's place. She is the retired high school art teacher and a very popular watercolor artist here in Idaho. We craved little eraser stamps and did some abstract watercolor paintings. Here are the paintings I did.



This one isn't completely finished it needs more white detail work.

More Doodles

It's been a strange month. Weather and emotions up and down, cloudy and gray, sunny and warm...

And more strange doodles





I haven't worked on much else this month, just seem to be holding tightly to the end of the rope, keeping the nose above water.

But spring is here. The first day of spring here was gorgeous...sunny and warm. but the rest of the weekend has been gray, drizzily, windy and cold.

Hopefully spring will bring a lift in spirits.