General Chat November - December 2009

Back when the in-laws still had everyone over for the big X-mas dinner, the only thing they ever expected us to do was bring the wine - kind of funny, because they weren't too great in the kitchen, and we both have a background in fine dining/gourmet food. One year we went nuts and brought some fresh cranberry relish - no one touched it, but the canned stuff disappeared in no time!

Christmas Eve I'll be going to Church and then head over to my son's with my little RV to stay over night so I'm there when the kids get up early. I only live 9 miles away, but the RV works out great. I can escape the mayhem of all the in-laws that come down from Flagstaff and stay with them for several days.

I also bring Mozart with me and he stays peacefully in the RV awaiting my frequent visits to keep him company. We are only expecting 50 degrees during the day and 30 at night (10 degrees lower than normal for this time of year). I do have a real good furnace in the RV, so we will both be toasty warm through the night.

Speaking of RV, I've got to get out and clean it up. I really didn't do much with it when I got back to Tucson.
Enjoy the holidays....Judy

That sounds like a great set-up, Judy - your own private guest quarters.
And some almost Christmas-like weather, too

There are snowflakes falling in my computer!

Debra,

Let it snow... let it snow... let it snow. Well it took a little while to figure out how to give us some snow for the holidays. I have plenty of the real stuff. Enjoy!

Ahh...Now it looks like Christmas!

The snow is fun! And better here on the computer screen than on the streets!

I'm almost set for Christmas. I'll finish wrapping presents tonight. Tomorrow I have to drive to the ferry and pick up two of my sons and my grandson. We'll be going to my sister's place for both Christmas eve and Christmas day dinners. I'm making burritos tonight as my share of the Christmas Eve dinner and on Christmas day we'll go over to my sister's early enough so that I can help with all the turkey preparations. I think ther will be about 18 to dinner, all family. Fun stuff!!!

If we don't hear from you for a few days, Sofie, have a Merry Christmas! It sounds like you'll have a very nice time
And Merry Christmas to everyone else who might not be here for a few days!!!

Janet.. thanks for the snow. We actually had snow in the mountain here so that the ski resort is now open. If I wanted, I could drive up the mountain in half an hour and ski or stay here is the desert at home and look at the mountain and say "How pretty the snow is up there."

I just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. I'm not sure if my private guest house will pickup my son's wireless signal for my computer.



Judy

Judy - that's so nice. Did you have cards made from it?
You probably will get your son's signal. I get the signal from the coffee shop next door, sometimes better than my own wireless. But I'm sure it's OK if you "disappear" for a day or so - Have a wonderful Christmas!

Merry Chirstmas everyone!

Sofie, 18 people for dinner! That certainly is a big crowd. Good luck!

Callie, I probably be really busy for the next few days but I'll try and stop in if I have some down time. By Monday everything will be back to normal so I'll be painting up a storm.

Judy, I love your card! It's beautiful!

....not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse.....

I've been running up and down the empty forum halls, turning the stereo up full blast, jumping on beds.... it's kind of strange having the place all to myself

I hope everyone had a lovely holiday!
See you soon!

Callie,

Sorry, we all abandoned you.

I had a great time with my son, wife and two grandchildren. The only disappointment was that there was no DVD in the WII Fit I gave them all for Christmas. Somebody, in the spirit of the holidays stole the one out of of it. I was able to get a replacement this AM before the crowds of returnees. Mozart woke me at 5 AM to eat so I went to the store which opened at 6AM and they had one left wit the DVD in it.

I love your card. Was it one you made? The one I posted was one of 4 that I did over several seasons. I use to do a lot of art fairs so the cards sold very well. I'm not doing many of them now with all that has gone one recently with me and the way the economy is. Actually, I'm enjoying just relaxing and painting just for me.

I did more work on the apple, just refining things and am pleased. I'm ready to tackle a new painting with the glazing technique to try it on my own. I'll post it as it progresses in WIP.

Thanks again,

Judy

Glad you were able to find another DVD. Why is it that packaging is only difficult to open for those who actually buy the items? I'm sure I'd be busted right away if I ever tried ripping into something right there in the store!

^That's just an animated pic I found on line. One of these days (years), I'm going to make some cards

Good to hear you've had a nice holiday. Thanks for checking in! I'm just hanging out having a cup of tea, trying to get motivated to work on my still-life painting. I have a special talent for doing nothing!

I think we are computer addicts.

Those cards I mentioned were done originally with soft pastel pencils. I did them on colored acid free mat board so I would have a consistent background color. It worked really well. I scanned the originals and now print out cards as I need them on my laser printer.

I'm supposed to be going out for a walk with my neighbor so I better turn this off before you responds.

Procrastination is one of my favorite pass times.

Judy

I've been having computer issues, but they're getting sorted. Hope everyone had a great Christmas!!!!!!

Hi everyone! I'm back go normal pace now. No more Chirstmas marathon. I have been working on the computer making some swatch charts for our color theory forum so now I'll be able to get back to it. I find those Munsell ones that I posted aren't that specific many of the colors showed out of range. I feel that 12 sections isn't precise enough so I've expanded it to 24. I intend to go through all the colors for Holbein and Winsor & Newton Water Soluble Oils and place them in the rite categories so we can build some color wheels together.

My christmas was great! I now have CorelDraw again. I had lost it when my computer crashed and my disks were not working. Hubby knew that I missed having it so that was my chirstmas present from him.

What did everyone get for christmas?

Janet,

I'm drooling. I've wanted Corel Draw for o long time but it is just so expensive if you don't have a version to upgrade. I think I'm going to set aside money specifically for it so I can buy it one day.

I tried the drawing program you suggested, but i don't do well with vector drawing. My understanding is that the newer Corel Draw are no longer vector. Let me know if this is true.

Judy

Corel Draw is still a vector program. If you get the Corel Graphics Suite, you get Draw (vector artwork and page lay out)and Photo Paint (image editing and graphics/painting) with a lot of other goodies. The price isn't bad when you consider what it would cost to buy something comparable from Adobe (Design Suite = $1399, Corel = $429). Although I have Illustrator and In Design, I prefer Corel Draw - it's just a lot easier and quicker for me. Very nice for making cards, postcards, brochures etc. for promoting your art.

Sofie - my main computer fizzed out a few weeks ago, haven't got it fixed yet (probably needs a new motherboard $$$ ). I hope you have better luck with yours!

Janet - that's quite a project you've got going - looking forward to seeing your color charts

Glad you all had a nice Christmas, and you're back on your computers now!

thanks Callie,

I'll just have to put my mind to learning vector drawing. I got turned off to it when I bought a 3D Cad Program because of what it showed it could do. Unfortunately, the language used in it was geared toward engineers, not artists so it was very difficult to follow.

Maybe I'll play around with that free drawing program Janet recommended. I'll have to look for the link again. I am going to buy Snagit for sure. I love that program.

Judy

Callie, The color charts should take me another couple of days if I can devote a lot of time to them. I think I'll post the charts first and then we get into which categories the WSO colors fall into.

Judy, I hope you like the free one. I found that you can do a lot with some of those free programs. Their was just a few features that Corel Draw had that I missed. More with the way the color palette was layed out.