EDMs 8, 11, 37

I had wanted to draw these simple, everyday items but each in itself seemed a little boring. Not much there to make a composition out of. I decided to group some of the previous challenges together, to see if I could find some common ground about the individual items. These seemed to me to belong together as Accoutrements of Personal Satisfaction, each of them designed to make life a little easier on a daily basis. How many of us really take the time to appreciate how our glasses make the world bright and focussed, how our keys keep our "stuff" safe, how our watch keeps us on track and responsible to those who rely on us. This is a celebration of the quotidian, an homage to the ordinary.

I am Yellow

I am a Yellow Crayon

Your world is colored with happy, warm, fun colors.
You have a thoughtful and wise way about you. Some people might even consider you a genius.
Charming and eloquent, you are able to get people to do things your way.
While you seem spontaneous and free wheeling, you are calculating to the extreme.

Your color wheel opposite is purple. You both are charismatic leaders, but purple people act like you have no depth.
What color crayon are you? Find out here:
http://www.blogthings.com/whatcolorcrayonareyouquiz/

EDM 28 - Draw an appliance (or two)

This is a drawing of my brand new fridge and stove. We bought our original ones fifteen years ago and, while they still worked, they were inconsistant and not very efficient. We chose these ones with the environment and energy savings in mind and we were happy with our choices. The stove is a ceramic cooktop with a warming station. The fridge, however, needed to have the door swing orientation changed from right to left. "No problem" said the salesman, "It'll take three days for them to do it in the warehouse, and it will be delivered on Wednesday". Thus began the nightmare. It was delivered on Wednesday, but without the swing orientation changed. The delivery man said to call the salesman, the salesman said to call Customer Service. The receptionist said they were all busy but someone would call me back. When they finally did, Customer Support said to call the Warranty company. The Warranty company said they had no record of the sale and to call the salesman. Now we've gone a full circle, it's five days later and the freezer has turned out to be defective and all the items in the freezer are a soggy, dripping mess.

After taking names of managers, and threatening to complain constantly and loudly, we were promised a new fridge, delivered the very next day with the door swing orientation completed. And it was. But why does a request to get what you paid for need to become adversarial before it becomes successful? It seems so unnecessary and unpleasant. But the new fridge is perfect.

I'm calling this EDM 28 - Draw an appliance. The stove has a distinct slope that shouldn't be there. I drew this in the Moleskine with the Pigman pen. Sometimes it seems that the texture of the paper can grab the pen and lead it astray. The T-shirt magnet on the fridge commemorates all the things we did in Puerto Vallarta, and the little gecko is a magnet clip that hold the bills to be paid. I think I will try to keep this large, pristine fridge quite uncluttered this time.

EDM 133 - Draw a Peach

I found this beautiful white-fleshed peach at the market. It has more delicate coloring than a regular peach, and a more delicate taste as well. They seem to ripen better and sweeter than the other peaches which sometimes never ripen. I ate this one in a salad for supper. This recipe is worth sharing.

Romain lettuce, torn into pieces

One peach, peeled and wedged

One yellow tomato, wedged

Slices of red onion

Toss together.

Add the dressing:

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

2 tbsp mayonnaise

1 tsp honey

1 tsp Dijon mustard

Whisk til blended and pour over salad and toss again.

Add some freshly cracked black pepper and salt to taste.

Chain of Change

Tomatos again! One of the best and most gratifying part of gardening is watching the tomatos grow and change and ripen. Each day brings a change in color or scent or size. These little cherry tomatos seem to tick off the days and keep track of the changes in temperature and length of day. We don't grow many vegetables, only salad ones, and we eat them as soon as they are ripe. We also have a jalapeno pepper plant that has about 12 peppers on it all in various shapes and sizes. This week we have been eating the little cherry toms, almost daily. The bigger tomatos have a ways to go and are just starting to have a tinge of orange. I will now begin to gather up tomato recipes and find freezer space because soon there will be too many to keep up with. Life is good now when they are fresh and ripe, and in the deep of winter we can take some out of the freezer and pretend it's summer again by making salsa with the tomatos and jalapenos.

Jalisco Salsa

1 cup chopped tomatos

1/2 cup chopped red onion

1 small jalapeno pepper seeded and chopped

1/4 cup cilantro

Juice of 2 key limes

Salt to taste

Mix everything together and serve immediately yellow corn tortilla chips.

Enjoy!

I was going to call this post "It's a Tomato's Life", and forget about this week's challenge because I could find no chains. But my beloved said it look like a chain of tomatos, and suggested the title "Chain of Change". He is, after all, my biggest fan.

EDM 131 - Draw a Spray Bottle

This was a good challenge, as it gave me an opportunity to continue my exploration of transparency, reflected light, and shadows. I spent a long time just looking at the color gradations, the highlights, the shapes within the colors. This is a bottle of Avon Exotic Waters body spray. It is an oil emulsion spray that must be shaken to blend it. The oil settles to the bottom to become that clear layer and then the lighter liquid lies on top. It smells lovely, is very soothing to your skin after you've been in the sun, and it's color is luscious.

This was done with Pigma Micron pen and Caran d'Ache watercolor pencils in the Moleskine journal. I really like the richness of these pencils, the colors are so clear and bright.

EDM #24 - Draw a piece of fruit

One of my favorite pastimes seems to be cruising the produce area at my local grocery store. Over the years, to my delight, they have been bringing in more and more different kinds of fruits and vegetables. Although I now try to buy local produce as much as possible, we don't have the proper conditions here to grow much fruit. And I really love to try food that I have never tried before. As I walked along, I smelled a divine aroma. I traced it back to these pears. Aren't they gorgeous? They are Forelle Pears from South Africa. I have never seen them before. Usually we have Bosc, Anjou, and Red pears, all lovely in their own right, but none have this amazing spotted skin. I just had to buy them. My biggest problem with pears is that they really are only ripe for about 30 minutes. Before that they are hard and bitter and after that they are mushy and ugly. It's sheer luck to catch a pear when it is perfectly, gloriously ripe. But if you can, then you can have a taste of heaven.

Watercolor in the Moleskine journal.

EDM 130 - School Supplies

A brand new box of crayons was always the best part of going back to school. The crayons were sharp, the paper sleeves were clean, the corners of the box were still crisp. There was such potential in that box, such promise of hours spent in creative bliss. But that was back then - before anyone judged us, before we even understood talent, before we learned to be critical and fearful, before we learned to submerge our creativity because it wasn't "right". But true creativity will find its way out, and those lucky ones will return to the promise and potential. We can once more see the joy in a box of crayons, or a tube of paint, or a clean sheet of white paper. We can once more celebrate the ordinary, see the beauty in the everyday things that surround us, and spend hours in creative bliss. And when the crayons are worn to dull stubs, the sleeves are ragged and grimy, the box is all squished and soft, and the promise and potential is all spent, there are many "masterpieces" to show for it. The crayons have fulfilled their destiny.

Watercolor and Pentel brushpen in Moleskine

"We could learn a lot from crayons: some are sharp, some are pretty, some are dull, some have weird names. All are different colors, but they all have to learn to live in the same box." - Anonymous