28 Chapters 28 Days

     I've decided to share Willow House here on my blog! February is my birth month and it conveniently has 28 days. Willow House has 28 chapters.

     I didn't do many illustrations, but you'll find a few pop up here and there.

Front Cover

Back Cover

Description on Back Cover:

  It’s the first Monday of summer vacation. Ella’s mom loads her and her baby brother into the car to take them to a new babysitter. She pulls up in front of the town’s most haunted house, turns, and says, “we’re here!” 

     WHAT?!

     Not only does 10-year-old Ella think she’s way too old for a babysitter, but this one could potentially eat them for lunch! Ella has to survive! She has to protect her brother! But mostly, she has to tell her friends about this!

     In the words of Mrs. Hallovich, the new babysitter, “Welcome to Willow House!” A place where things are not always what they seem; a place where, if you open your heart, magic truly does exist.

     I posted Chapter One in May of 2022. Click below to link to it. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoy the story!

Chapter One

The Candy Dish

We're not sure how old this beautiful, glass dish is, but it's been in the family for over a hundred years.

My grandfather and his siblings filled it with candy on Christmas Eve. He inherited, and passed the tradition on to his children, and then grandchildren, and my mother passed it on to her grandchildren.

That's me, waving in the background with my mouth full of chocolate, many years ago,

and the guy in the red Christmas shirt is my dad.

Now, her grandchildren are grown, some having kids of their own, and this will be the first year that my sister and I are starting our own traditions. It's a bittersweet time. I did the painting and had Christmas ornaments of it made for all of the kids (and my mom of course).  

Families grow and change, but my goodness! The memories! I am very blessed.

My favorite photos are the goofy ones!

Christmas pajama party! 2013

I love these people!

Wishing everyone a Very Merry Christmas!

Scarier Version of Willow House

Happy Halloween!!!

 

Portrait - Susie

 Here is a portrait I did back in February for a friend. This is a friend of hers (Susie) gone way too soon.

Here's a few steps in the process:

The first step was just setting down the values with black and white acrylics.

A little more detail (still in acrylics).

I then started applying oil paints over the top, adding just a hint of color to give it all some warmth. 

It is at the end that I added the butterfly on the chair arm, which has a sentimental significance.

Tux and Eddie

     I've been busy at the drawing board again, and with grandchildren there's pretty much an endless supply of inspiration. This year my grandson from Vegas got a taste of an Ohio summer, and had his first experience with lightning bugs! Here, he was afraid that he may have given this one (who he named Eddie) a bit too much attention. But Eddie managed to recover! Phew! He flew off after a brief rest and said he hopes to see Tux again next year! 

Below is the straight colored pencil portrait. I dropped the image onto my iPad and added the background (a photo I had taken this spring), and a little more of Eddie's green glow. Credit for the original photo I used for reference, goes to his mama - Ashley.

 

Dance of the Acorn People - Mixed Media

   I keep a daily planner/sketchbook/scrapbook that has become invaluable to me. I sit with it nearly every morning, check the ongoing calendar to make sure I don't forget anything important (though I still occasionally do), make my to-do list for the day, set goals for the week, the month, the year, list gift ideas, ideas for projects, and paste in my favorite photos as they happen. It's basically my life's bible. The book is always evolving. Each month I experiment with a different layout, and some months are more decorated than others.

Here's what this spread looks like. I have boxes for 8 days worth of to do lists on the left, and one extra column for goals, ideas, photos . . . whatever.

For this art page I printed off the acorn people from a sketch I did on my iPad,

then traced around some leaves, that I had picked up on a walk, to colored paper. I fancied those up with various colors of gelatos and cut and pasted them around. In other words - I played. Woohoo! 

Something I have mentioned a hundred times that I don't do enough of.

Here's the previous page:

After a playdate yesterday with my friend, a couple of cocktails, and craft supplies, I am set up to play with a few more layouts.

And this, Folks, is blog number 7 and officially breaks the crummy 6 blog post record of 2020.