A new art addiction...

Well, I FINALLY got to do something creative yesterday! A friend from church is a gourd artist and I've wanted to go out to her house and learn a bit for a LONG time. She took off work this week so I headed out to her house as soon as I dropped the boys off at school! She lives WAY out west! I got there about 8:45 and she made us a yummy breakfast and then took me out to her workshop. She makes beautiful pieces! And she showed me all the different kinds of gourds, taught me how to clean them, and let me loose with her tools! This is my first piece in progress. As you can see, I still need to clean out the inside as well as do a little "artwork" on the piece itself, although it will not be a lot of detail of any kind. I love the natural color and markings on this gourd so much, there's no way I'll paint over it. However, I'm pondering the inside. The piece will be titled "The Offering" and once finished, the inside bowl will hold little slips of red paper containing prayers. I'm thinking of adding gold or silver leafing to the inside but think it would be way cool if they have leafing in reds. I want a sense of fire coming from within representing prayers being offered as burnt offerings to God. Around some part on the outside, I will be adding the many names of God in Hebrew... thanks to my friend Fran's mother-in-law who happens to teach Hebrew! Makes it quite convenient for me to get that list, huh? :) Anyway, now Michelle has created a monster and I was online for a while this morning investigating tools, comparing brands, prices, etc.... Now, I need my artwork to sell that I have in the gallery show right now so I can have tool money! LOL!

Today, it is GLOOMY outside! UGH, it's so YUK! I hate overcast days. I don't want to do anything, although I did work on a small watercolor painting for a bit and made a couple of sympathy cards this morning. I just came back from Blockbuster getting movies for my kids. I'm declaring today Friday Fun day so I'm going to do nothing the rest of the day except play games, watch movies with my boys, and each crap! hehehe! Got my raisinettes and popcorn ready. Got them some yummy things too. They'll think they died and went to heaven! I should do this once a month or something! I'd have to literally put it on my calendar to make it happen though.

I am reading THE best book! It's called "Three weeks with my brother" by Nicholas Sparks. It's a memoir he wrote about a trip he took with his brother around the world in yes, you got it, three weeks. He writes in present day logging things about their trip but also writes in flashbacks to their childhood. It's a really neat story about their relationship and it's pretty funny in parts too. I highly recommend it. I've wanted to read it for quite some time but I refuse to purchase a book, especially hardback, at full price because they are expensive and I"m such a fast reader, it's not worth the money. But, last Sunday, Sam and I were in Borders and it was on sale for $5.00! That's a steal for a hard copy so I snatched it. It's a great read.

Well, it's almost time to go pick them up from school. At some point, I'll recap stuff I wrote a few days ago that got wiped out... I'm still mad about it.