I just came across this video for this amazing ABC3D Book over at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Borrowing from Lily, all I can is Wow.

A little bit more of a hectic day today, but I did manage to finish this little mandala - very relaxing, and I didn’t blow the colours as badly as the last one!

Mandala No. 3

I spent far more time today with my nose buried deep in my work, and the funny thing is, I worked slower and ended up taking far longer than I expected. On the weekend, I had reversed this - I had worked in a focused way, but with lots of fun little breaks, and I ended up getting more work done in less time.

So there’s a lesson for me there!

At first, I wasn’t even going to post this for my latest Art Every Day Month piece; it didn’t exactly turn out the way I wanted, mostly because I chose the absolute wrong colour as the background. (I must admit, I did really love the swirls before I coloured in the background!).

But then I thought to myself:

Did I enjoy making this?

Absolutely! I started it on Tuesday, and in my spare moments, would pick a colour and add more blobs or shapes. I really love “painting” with these new gel pens of mine.

And isn’t that the point of AEDM? To have fun being creative?

At this point, my inner me was starting to sound just a tad sappy, but that’s okay. She has a good point. Making this mandala made the deadlines fade. I had fun. It was soothing. Meditative.

And anyway, I’m so through with the self-judgment thing. This post is proof.

Organic blob.

This is my first completed “piece” for Art Every Day Month (AEDM). I enjoyed making this - it’s done with gel pens, and this new batch of gel pens flows very thick and inky; it almost feels like painting with pens! So I might actually try and complete one a day, instead of working on one throughout several days.

About five or six years ago, I actually filled up a little Italian paper blank book with these gel pen mandalas. I created one every day for about three or four months straight. It became almost a meditative experience, and in my quest for balance this month, doing something similar seems like the perfect thing for AEDM!

Mandala No. 1

This afternoon Dylan and I took a good look at this gel pen carousel I bought at Costco a few weeks ago:

Gel pens from Costco

And next thing you know, we were working away together on this picture which we’ve decided would be our Big Draw picture for the day. We worked in a humungous sketch book that we like to draw in together. Mommy drew the freight cars and occupants, and the big top tent, and decorated the back engine. Dylan drew the front and back steam engines, decorated the front steam engine and colored all of the freight cars.

Circus train. Gel pens.

Can you tell we had a great time drawing this picture together?

I’ve been sitting here thinking about how blessed life can be. Always a wonderful feeling with which to end the day.

Tonight I finally got around to doing something I’ve been procrastinating for a while - and it’s left me wondering, why on earth was I procrastinating?

We buy a lot of cookbooks around here. My husband loves to cook, but while he enjoys reading cookbooks and picking out things to try, he prefers to cook recipes that I’ve chosen - it’s always better to cook something that you know someone wants to eat. So one of my jobs when it comes to the kitchen is sitting down with our latest cookbooks and going through each one, writing down recipe names and page numbers for every dish that catches my fancy.

I do this in a Cambridge steno pad. I use a Zebra pen that glides over the pages. All in all, it’s a very enjoyable experience. Yet it’s something I seem to always put off. And then one day we both notice we’re eating dishes prepared from the same cookbook - because Ward’s cooked so many of the ones I’ve chosen, there’s not much left to select!

Our recipe steno pad

So tonight I went through two of our latest cookbooks, and have a third ready to dive into. It’s been a very enjoyable evening so far.

I also uploaded the second batch of pictures from our Thanksgiving weekend last weekend, taken during our Thanksgiving dinner at my sister’s place. I still have a third batch of pictures to upload into a blog post (did I mention I am a procrastinator, and a masterful one at that, too?)

Dylan and Ward have been making gingerbread cookies, too. We recently added a KitchenAid Pro mixer to our arsenal of kitchen gadgets, so gingerbread was one of the first things Ward tested out. We also bought a new cookie cutter - in the shape of a train, of course! Here are two of the cookies, decorated by Dylan for Oma and Happy (Ward’s mom and dad):

Train cookies.

They left with only one, though, since Dylan really really wanted to share one with them

Today’s Big Draw Drawings

Dylan drew a boxcar today - not an unusual choice of subject, but he tried something today that he’s never done before. He drew the boxcar using color only - rather than drawing the shape of the boxcar first and then coloring it in, he approached it like a painter, laying down swathes of color.

Boxcar. Crayola markers.

And me? A shoe! (I love shoes.)

Shoe. Pen.

Here I go again, cramming everything into one post. I mentioned in my previous post that we went to Aberfoyle Junction on the weekend, and as usual, we took a lot of pictures. Dylan wanted me to post some here, so here they are:

As you can probably see, the detail is simply amazing. I didn’t snap a shot of Toronto’s downtown this time around - that’s one of my favorite scenes. My other favorite scene is the city street scene (it’s the first picture above).

We also took a few movies, including one during the “nighttime”, but luckily for all I haven’t figured out how to upload the .wav file and format it for a blog post. Yet.

The Big Draw

Dylan is still very much on track with the Big Draw, Mommy not so much. I’ve been feeling the need to just stretch out and read, more or less “me” time, in between deadlines and family stuff, so I’ve been honoring that. I’ve managed to polish off a lot of books on my TBR pile, which is nice - but haven’t really been doing much else, including drawing.

Ever since we went to Aberfoyle Junction on Sunday, Dylan’s been drawing lots of trains. Here are his two drawings, one for yesterday and one for today.

Colorful steam engine. Crayola markers.

Colorful freight cars. Crayola markers.

Three Beautiful Things

It’s been a while since I’ve written up Three Beautiful Things for the day, and it feels like the perfect way to end this post tonight.

1. Hayley and Heather working away on their schoolwork, so companionably, such wonderful friends.

2. Memories of the gorgeous focaccia (Rosemary and Sea Salt) that Ward made last night and we finished off tonight - beautifully flavored, wonderfully chewy and soft at the same time.

3. Finishing the day with a glass of wine and a good book.

We spent the day at Aberfoyle Junction; it’s a model railroad place out in Guelph that’s really amazing. Filling 1500 square feet of space, the layout represents trains and tracks running in Southern Ontario in the 1950s. Every half hour or so, the lights dim and it becomes “night”, and that in itself is such a spectacular show. Ward, Dylan and I have been going every year since Dylan was two. They open to the public for two weeks in May and three weekends in October/November. Dylan absolutely loves Aberfoyle Junction; he has a tendency to mark off time in terms of this train show (as in, “it’s fall. How many more sleeps before Aberfoyle Junction”?)

Of course, with all the running around, we didn’t get much drawing done. But when he came home, Dylan decided to use the Paint program on his computer. He’s been doing a bit of drawing in Paint lately, so we saved today’s for his Big Draw post:

Train. Paint program.

I didn’t draw today, but I’ve got a great substitute! My daughter Hayley finished the video she just made with her friend Heather, and they’ve uploaded it to YouTube. It’s hilarious, especially during the fight scenes. She’s the one with the dark hair. And if you look very carefully, about midway through the video, you’ll see Dylan riding his tricycle on the back deck. He saw them filming outside and had to get out there and be a part of the action

It’s called “The Ultimate Battle for Pepsi”:

It’s great to have creative kids. They’re hardly ever bored!

I’ve missed a post this October (messed up my Blogtoberfest as well as the Big Draw …). We had my brother-in-law and his wife over for dinner yesterday, so much of the day was spent cleaning up - having people over is always so nice the day after, because the house is usually still clean! We had a great dinner, and the evening ended late - no time for a blog post.

Here are our contributions for the Big Draw today:

Dylan’s Big Draw Drawing

Dylan loves trains, and he likes the tracks almost as much as the trains themselves. This drawing is of a switching track (I think that’s what they’re called).

Train Tracks. Crayola marker.

Belle’s Big Draw Drawing

I’m still working on faces using pen. I’ve been drawing from a book I have that show women from the 20s. Lovely fashion drawings. It would be nice to be adept at drawing the clothes, too! Today’s faces look nothing like the models I was drawing but they certainly have character, don’t they?

Faces. Pen.

Interesting how lately I’ve just been sticking everything into one post! Today was a bit better timewise, although I was at the high school all afternoon for parent-teacher meetings. The place was very busy; the daytime meetings used to be so much better than the nighttime meetings but that’s definitely changed.

It was a nice afternoon despite the short waiting time between teachers. It’s always nice to hear teachers talk about your kids, kind of like getting another perspective and as a parent, it can be very lovely seeing your children through another’s eyes (usually!). Most of the teachers we met with today were genuinely interested in our kids, and there were a few that I certainly would have liked to have had as teachers way back when!

The Big Draw

I’ve been reading your comments to Dylan and he’s quite thrilled with it all, although he’s still not quite certain exactly who you all are He calls everyone “other people’s websites” (Until I got busy with deadlines, I’ve been showing him your blogs and all your lovely artwork.)

Today Dylan chose to post the gas station he drew:

Gas Station. Crayola markers.

And I had some spare time to draw, so attempted a few more faces:

Faces. Pen.

Things are a little less hectic the next few days, so I’m hoping I’ll be able to get around to seeing everyone’s blogs and drawings again soon. I’ve really missed that part of my day, reading your thoughts on Google Reader and clicking through to see beautiful artwork.