embellish granddaughter usable

Every artist was first an amateur.

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Apt with the quote, don't you think?  Quizzical Squirrel.  And this, folks, is why I am always yammering about drawing

I stumbled across a whole bunch of Victorian portraits made of inmates in an asylum-  For your enlightenment, probably a few of my relatives:

They are also labeled with their diagnosis but it's tiny and difficult to read, not to mention nothing I ever heard of before.

Another long stretch in the studio today-  I used up all my batiks and didn't make blocks out of the last batch since they didn't end up with a pattern of diagonals.  I figure that she can use the extra strips for edges or sashing, or perhaps another quilt.  Anyway, there are 12 finished blocks, 1 more finished but not part of the pattern, and then 11 more blocks worth of unmatched prints for a scrap quilt or to finish off this one.  This is the young NC high school girl who is making quilts for kids who age out of foster care as a Girl Scout project.  Please get in touch if you can make a few blocks for her-  Sarah Jasany.  I'll send specific info and pattern if you are interested.  Here's her Facebook page.

I barely got to my own work today, just sewed a few more blocks together and did a massive pinning for more slashes.  Then I hit the wall.  I was sick last night for no reason, felt like a truck ran over my midsection this morning yet I had to get the house ready for another showing.  By the time I got out of here to the studio-  with the dogs piteously crying in the back seat- it was 9 AM, and I didn't even celebrate

NATIONAL DONUT DAY

Poor me.  My endocrinologist would have been proud.

So, hey, let's talk about some art, sort of!

Third grade students in Glendive, Montana, will no longer be visiting the Glendive Dinosaur and Fossil Museum — a creationist institution that “presents the truth of God’s Word” and teaches an account of prehistory in which humans and dinosaurs coexisted. The local school district received a letter from a Washington, DC, advocacy group alleging that the annual field trip violates the separation of church and state.

Verdict: Now the children will have to wait until the June 12 opening of Jurassic World to learn entertainingly inaccurate “facts” about dinosaurs.

 Hey, kids, come get your TRILOBITE here!

The Trilobite Plushie by the Paleontological Research Institution in Ithaca, New York is a cuddly stuffed replica of Greenops boothi, a trilobite that lived 380 million years ago. Arguably the cutest of all Devonian animals, this little guy can be pre-ordered via a Kickstarter campaign to help fund PRI and its national outreach program.

Here in Palm Beach this will come in handy-  a footless glass!  The Beach Glass is designed to address one very specific problem: drinking on a beach without accidentally knocking over your glass, or seeing it sink to the bottom of the sea. The glass is actually plastic, so it floats. And instead of ending in a foot, the bottom of this glass is a spike. When you’re done with a sip, drive your glass into the sand. The designers also suggest using it with snow or while soaking in a bathtub, since it will remain upright in water.  Might just drive me to the beach some afternoon!