Totally exhausted

We have puppies.  Saturday we went for a long drive to a shelter to adopt two puppies. We intended to get only one...but we stayed open to the idea of two. It's a good thing because both of these pups are a perfect fit for us and for each other.  My goodness this is work! I had forgotten how much work a puppy can be and now we have two.

We had our last dog for 14 years and he passed away almost two years ago so it has been 16 years since I've had to train a puppy.

These two are going to be a handful. We're going to have quite a summer this year.  :)

More white pen playing...

I saw a stamp on a blog not too long ago of a crazy looking girl in crazy looking clothes. It was by Daniel Torrente and the stamp is called Prom Queen. I wish I could remember where I saw it but I sat and sketched it across almost the whole page of my journal because I really liked the crazy hair. I moved her hands and put more weird curlies on her dress but the credit for the original girl goes to Daniel Torrente.

I also discovered Joanne Fink and her wonderful Zenspiration dangles. And now that I've found a nice white ink pen I'm going to do more doodling on black backgrounds.

Eureka!

I have found it!  Actually, more than one 'it'. I've been looking hard for a good white ink pen and after several frustrating purchases I think I've found a couple. One is good for doing fine work like zentangle and other fine doodles and the other is good for thicker lines for writing.

I guess that takes my total spending for this journal up to about $15 since I started it in January.  Not bad.

Naturally I went a little nuts using the white pens on the dark green background. But it was fun.

The main thing I was trying to get was a white pen that would write on a background of acrylic paint.

The Pentel Sunburst white gel pen works very well, lays down a fine line, but you have to give it an easy touch. Just let it glide over the surface without pressing too hard and it will lay down a nice line of ink.

The Sakura gel pen is a thicker line, goes on milky-clear and dries white. It takes a few minutes to dry completely so this isn't a 'journal-on-the-go' pen. It has a tendency to puddle so don't let your pen tip linger for too long in one spot.

I tried another more expensive major maker of gel pen that was a total disaster. It's named on the layout and if you really want to read about it you'll find it if you look for it. I have nothing nice to say about it so I won't say anything with the brand name attached. I have no doubt that the ink inside the pen might be  nice ink because some of the ink layed down on the page where I experimented. But it seemed almost as if the ink was too thick to pass the roller ball in the tip. It just wouldn't lay the ink down. And since it was a two pack of pens I tried the second one just in case it was just a defective pen but the second one did the same thing. It would lay down about 1/4 inch of a line and then quit. I had to beat on the tip on another sheet of paper to get the ink going again and then it would quit again.  Too much frustration to keep working with it so I gave up and pitched them into the garbage can.

So there is my assessment of white ink pens. And some Zentangly doodles.

Evil thoughts....

It seems that I have amassed quite a collection of snarky quotes. I thought it was probably time that I put them into my journal.  I'm trying to work with the idea of leaving white space on my pages. It's absolutely killing me to not paint those little bits there. So I'm off to bed so that I don't mess it up.

I also have a hard time leaving bright and cheerful colors alone. I always itch to grunge things up. I indulged this time in a  little black.

Journal page

I don't watch a lot of new television. I hardly watch any at all if it isn't on netflix. What I do watch is older stuff like Cary Grant, Gene Kelly, Clark Gable...you know....OLD stuff. When I'm in the mood for silly stuff I go for some of the stuff from the mid 1990's like Hercules. I always loved that show because Kevin Sorbo had this comedic timing that was so wonderful for the cornball humor that was written into the show. I'm rewatching it now after not seeing it since it originally aired and there are some parts that are even funnier 15 years later. I've been catching a lot of really sharp one liners that are worth using on some of my attitude pages in my journal.

And they are captured best on a bold colored background with a thick sharpie marker. rofl.

It's April!

I have seedlings started in our little portable greenhouse. Tomatoes, spinach, a few herbs, sweet red peppers and....hold onto your hats....OKRA! I actually am trying okra this year. It's too cold here to grow okra but I have a spot that I think might be hot enough for these three plants to grow. I hope.

Hopefully the blogging will become a little more regular....I'm thinking about doing just once a week. I just haven't got the desire I once had to do the writing.  But for this year at least, I will keep up with my art journal.  The journaling itself is going along very well. I like taking the journal with me along with my pencil box when I know I'll be sitting around bored somewhere. That usually means karate class. You see....my darling daughter doesn't want me watching her in class because she gets self conscious when she knows I am watching. She's a perfectionist and doesn't want me to see stuff until she has it perfect. She used to do that when she was starting to talk. We had an audio/video baby monitor in her room when she was a baby. I would hear her practice words half the night while she laid there waiting to fall asleep. Then the next day she would be silent. She would watch and listen and then practice when she was alone. Baby monitors really need a record option. lol  Those videos would be priceless.

This month's calender page is the first one that I have painted the white squares for the days. I decided I didn't really like using squares of paper for the days so I made a template to more easily paint the squares in a straight row.

I had originally done April with  the idea for an Easter theme....I started it in February. Then when it was almost finished I discovered that Easter would be in March. darn.  Oh well, it's still pretty and looks very spring-like.

I think I still have lots of room for more doodles on this page.