INTRODUCING The Family Read-Together Night!

Much earlier in the year I shared that I was illustrating a children’s book – well the book is FINALLY finished and I can now tell you all about it!

The book was written by Lee White, a retired elementary school librarian. Although the story is based on an actual family read-together night at the Hawthorne School in San Luis Obispo, California, this book will appeal to all elementary school age children and families, interested in sharing the fun and enjoyment that can be had by reading together.

As a reader myself, I love that I can travel the world without leaving home, I can learn about how things work, explore history, or escape into the world of fiction, suspense and drama. The universe and all it contains is open to my exploration – all because I can read!

When I was approached with the opportunity to put images to Lee’s story, I was thrilled. This was a “first book” for both of us, and it sometimes felt like it was the blind leading the blind, but we persevered, learned an incredible amount about publishing, and have a 8-1/2” x 11”, full-color, hard-copy book, ready to share with the world.

Lee is in the process of having a website created, so in the meantime, signed copies of The Family-Read Together Night are available for sale in my Etsy store, located at http://debjeffrey.etsy.com/

Thank you for your support throughout this project – your kind words and encouragement helped get us through – THANK YOU!

All Things Cake!

That is just what we are learning, thanks to Mary Pallister, our wonderful Wilton cake decorating instructor!  Mary has such a passion for what she does...and her enthusiasm spreads throughout the class each week, encouraging us on in our attempts to mimic her flower making and cake decorating skills.

Class 1 involved four 2-hour sessions, each designed to teach us how to bake, level and split a cake, frost it, make buttercream decorations and decorate a cake.

Sounds easy.  Well like anything, it takes a lot of practice! 

In my last "cake decorating" post I shared my experience with attempting to frost my cake -- well I have finally moved beyond the neanderthal stage and can actually frost a cake a little more smoothly now.  I imagine that as time goes by and I frost more cakes, it will become even easier -- oh how I look forward to that day!

In class, we used the practice board and flower nail to learn to make various buttecream flowers and border...

Wilton's site has intructions on making all of the flowers we learned, so rather than reinvent the wheel, I will provide links to the Wilton site for instructions on how to make the... half-rose, leaves, ribbon roses, roses, rosettes, shell border, stars, sweet peas, swirl drop flowers, zigzag border, basketweave, carnations, as well as a few other designs.

And at the end of class 1, session 2, here is my first "decorated" cake...

I know...kind of bland, huh.  As we learned to make flowers and borders, we used white frosting.

Well, my hubby and I aren't eating sugar right now, so I knew that this cake would not be in the house long.  I also knew that an anemic looking cake wouldn't be well received, so I took the cake home, scraped off the flowers, colored some icing, and redecorated the cake so I could give it away....

it was a hit. 

For just picking up piping bags and learning the difference between a #3 round tip and a #18 star tip, Mary had us moving right along.  In week three, she asked us to bring some iced cupcakes, marshmallows with a dot of frosting on the flat end, and pocky sticks...

So what do you make with iced cupcakes, icing dottd marshmallows and Pocky sticks?  Clowns...of course!

Mary showed us how to paint the face of the clowns using food coloring, (the dot became the clowns nose).  Then Mary had us stripe our frosting and pipe out the body of the clown.  The painted clown head was attached to the body, by running a Pocky stick through the body.  We then piped on the remaining details and ta-dum, here come the clowns!

Mary also taught us how to pipe bears....

for character cupcakes...

A lot of information had been shared between weeks 1 and 3,so our final session for class 1 seemed like "CAKE" = )

We were asked to bring in an iced cake to decorate in class.  Mary reviewed some flower-making techniques wth us and turned us loose.  So here it is...cake number 2

So there you have it...Wilton Cake Decorating Class 1 completed.  Thank you, Mary! 

Everyone in the class did a great job, learned lots, and we can't wait for Class II to begin!

House Portrait

I have to confess that work on the book has been my "art" priority for the past several months.  It's almost finished though -- just a few pages to finalize and we'll be on to the next stage.

I did recently take a little break from the book to work on a portrait...

The request came from Margaret.  This is a little convoluted, but here's the story...Margaret's husband Bob had contacted me in the fall of 2008 and asked me to paint a traditional watercolor memorial portrait of their beloved dog Shammy, for his wife for Christmas.  Bob provided me with photos of Shammy and we spent the next several weeks emailing photos, drawings, drafts, and progress paintings back and forth.  In the end, Bob had the portrait framed and presented it to his wife for Christmas. 

Margaret contacted me after Christmas and shared the following:

Dear Deborah I just wanted to tell you how much I loved the beautiful painting you painted of my Shammy. You captured his essence, and I feel closer to him each time I look at it. Thank you for all the hard work you put into the painting - I absolutely love it, and it means the world to me! When I received it from Bob, there were many, many tears, but they were good tears. Thanks again, Margaret

Well, fast forward a year and I received an email from Margaret, inquiring about a house portrait --  A surprise painting, to give to a friend who had shared her home when Margaret and Bob were in the process of relocating.  Well, Margaret provided me with several photos and a sketch of what she had in mind for the portrait.  This portrait had a time constraint, so instead of a traditional watercolor painting, Margaret opted for a digital portrait, so we could speed up the process and not have to wait for paint to dry between layers, and didn't require flattening at the end -- which requires an additional 2-3 days for drying.  Anyway, the emails flew between Margaret and I, and photos, drawings, drafts and proofs were exchanged for the next several days.  This is probably the fastest portrait I have ever completed, but we got it conceptualized, painted and framed in the matter of a week!

It was very fun working with Margaret -- she knew what she wanted and once again I was happy to be a part of such a special gift. ~Deborah

I HEART You!

and it's not even February! 

This past year has been filled with a number of friends and acquaintences being diagnosed with heart disease -- unfortunately for some, the diagnosis came as a result of their autopsy.  Morbid yes, but the reality is heart disease is real -- it impacts our lives, whether directly or indirectly. The good news?  There is much we can do to help combat it. 

You know what is coming, don't you...yes, with minor modifications to our daily routines, we can make positive changes to help prevent heart disease.

I recently took part in the French Hospital HeartAware program, a FREE cardiovascular risk assessment that took about 7 minutes to complete and:

•Assessed my current cardiovascular health status and identified those medical or lifestyle conditions that may lead to development of the disease.

•Shared what I could do to take action to reduce my level of risk, including making you aware of the many services available through French Hospital Medical Center.

•Offered FREE continuing education via e-mail about my specific cardiovascular health and risk factors, if I so desired.

In addition, at the end of the online assessment, I had the option of obtaining a FREE 1/2 hour consultation with the HeartAware Coordinator.  The consultation included a review of my assessment findings, a FREE cholesterol check and the opportunity to have a $99 calcium CT scan to check for any potential problems with my arteries.

At the end of the day, my heart is fine.  I have however taken some steps to ensure that my heart stays healthy -- I stopped eating sugar about a month ago, I have cut out my daily caffiene habit, I'm eating a lot more veggies & whole grain foods, and a lot less junk! 

So what is next on the road to the healthier me agenda?  Walk more!  This is where you can help!  I (along with my dog Zoe) have joined the FzioPed's HeartWalk team to help raise awareness for Heart Health.  The walk will be in October and will benefit the American Heart Association.  Until then, Zoe and I will be preparing for the walk and raising funds to help support the cause.  If you would like to support us in this endeavor and either walk with, or donate to the cause, please go to our Heart Walk web page. As a special thank you for caring, Zoe and I will be making a special PawPrintArt HEART card that we will send to each person who signs up at Heart Walk web page.

Thank you for your support!  ~Deborah & Zoe

Cake Decorating 101

I shared previously that I attempted to decorate cupcakes for a bridal shower. The cupcakes weren’t bad, but definitely not what I envisioned in my head!  So, what to do, what to do…that’s easy, sign up for a cake decorating class! Thankfully my local Michael’s store offers Wilton’s cake decorating classes, so I signed up and spent the last 4 Saturday nights learning the basics of cake decorating.

I purchased the “Class 1 kit”, which included just about everything needed to begin this new endeavor, including:

7 Decorating tips:

Round decorating tips #3 & 12 – these tips are used for outlining, lettering, dots, balls, stringwork, lattice, lacework.
Open Star Decorating Tips #16 & 21 – these tips are used for “star” techniques, drop flowers, borders, and whole host of decorations.
Leaf Decorating Tip #57 – in addition to making leaves, this tip can be used for “shell-motion” borders.
Petal Decorating Tip #104 – used to create realistic flower petals, dramatic ruffles, drapes, swags and bows.
Drop Flower Decorating Tip #2D – used to make….drop flowers.

3 Decorating bags - 2 reusable and 1 disposable. The bags hold the frosting and are MOST important to the decorating process!

2 Standard Couplers - The couplers are made up of two parts the coupler and the coupler ring - the coupler fits inside of the decorating bag.  A decorating tip is placed on the outside of the bag, over the coupler, then the coupler ring is screwed on over the decorating tip to hold the tip in place. The couplers make it very handy to change decorating tips without having to use a new bag filled with frosting each time.

1 Flower nail – used to make roses, daisies, carnations and other flowers

1 Practice Board – used for just that, Practice, Practice, Practice! It is a vinyl covered piece of cardboard with a clear vinyl overlay. The overlay lifts so you can place a practice sheet beneath and copy the various shapes and decorations. It is a very handy little tool for testing things out before actually putting icing on the cake!

1 Decorator art brush – used for “brushed embroidery” work

1 Tip Cleaning Brush – essential for getting all of that frosting out of the decorating tips!

1 Straight Spatula – used for mixing, stirring your frosting,. It can also be used for frosting your cake, although a bent spatula is better…and a special Cake Frosting Decorating Tip is even better!

You will notice that I said the kit contained “just about” everything needed to begin cake decorating. Other supplies needed were:

• Gel food coloring (I had the liquid type at home, but learned that the liquid thins the icing too much and makes it impossible to use for decorating. So stick with the gel type – you will get MUCH better results!)
• Toothpicks – for dipping into your gel food coloring and coloring your frosting. Note, it is important that you use a toothpick only once – you can contaminate your colors AND “mess up” your gel food colorings if you use the same toothpick to get more/another color.
• 1-1/2” squares of wax paper – these are used to put on top of your flower nail when making flowers
• Double stick tape – used to hold the wax paper onto the flower nail
• Scissors
• an Apron – definitely needed!
• Extra couplers and disposable decorating bags
• Paper towels
• Buttercream frosting…lots of it! The instructor provided us with a recipe, however I must confess that I used Wilton’s premade Decorator icing throughout most of the class!
• a Turntable (or lazy susan) – we learned that it is MUCH easier to decorate a cake when you could turn IT rather than have to move your body around it.
• Bent spatula (easier to use than the straight spatula when smoothing the frosting on your cake)
• Cake boards (to put your cakes on)

And so, with supplies in hand, I showed up for the first class. The instructor passed out the Wilton Class 1 book, which included frosting recipes, cake baking/preparation tips, icing coloring tips, and a number of how to’s for creating lines, dots, borders, flowers, and other fun decorations.

I love it when people are totally into what they do, and this instructor certainly LOVES what she does! She handed out a number of frosting recipes, cake recipes, a pricing sheet so we would know what to charge for the beautiful cakes that we would ONE day create, a sheet which provided the number of servings per cake, popular websites, flavoring company information, etc.

Once we were loaded down with information and everyone was as fired up as the instructor, we began…

She showed us how to cut the tip off of the bag, place a coupler inside, place a tip over the coupler, secure the coupler with the coupler ring, fill the bag with frosting, and finally how to burp the bag. (click here to go to the Wilton site for a visual on how to fill the bag).

With filled bags in hand, we were ready…or so we thought. We quickly learned that there is a right way and a wrong way to hold the bag, and “position” is everything in cake decorating. Rather than fill up more space with the particulars of bag positioning, click here to go to the Wilton site for a visual on proper bag positioning.

With proper bag positioning behind us, we pulled out our practice boards and started in on stars, zig zags,  the Fleur de lis, Shell border, and the Basketweave.

Each session is 2 hours long, so after practicing the above, we had just enough time for the instructor to show us how to frost a cake, so we could bring a frosted cake to the next session.  She placed the cake on a turntable and showed us two methods for frosting a cake: 1 using a bent spatula, and the other using a special cake icing tip...

I have to confess, I like to take the easy route and when I saw that you could fill a bag with frosting and essentially squeeze out the frosting in three easy steps

and the instructor had that cake frosted in a matter of minutes, I knew this was the method for me!  So I went out and bought tip #789, baked my cake, let it cool, leveled it, placed it on a cake board, and put it on my turntable for a "quick" frosting -- HA!  What I forgot is that the instructor has YEARS of experience and what took her just a couple of minutes to do BEAUTIFULLY, took me too many minutes to confess here.  Have you ever seen that episode of "I Love Lucy" -- where Lucy and Ethyl are working at the candy factory?  Well, I felt just like that! 

I did eventually get my cake frosted, however it didn't look nearly as smooth (or balanced) as the instructors...

And that was just the cake...I will share more about the actual decorating next time.  Until then,

Today's Quote:  "I went to the store to buy a candleholder.  They didn't have one so I bought a cake."  ~Mitch Hedberg

Little Love Session

What?  Yes, today I would like to share about a Little Love Session -- a Valentine's Day photo session of my friends Bob and Linda's granddaughter Claire.  Claire is the love of their lives, and she thinks her grandparents are pretty special too!  I remember the discussion they held before Claire was even born, asking one another what they wanted to be called.  Linda chose "Nana" and Bob chose "Bif" -- for Bob is Fun.  I just love those two!

Well as I said Claire is the love of their lives and their home is filled with photos of her, including those of photographer Christan Parreira.  Christan takes amazing photographs and he took the following photo of Claire -- along with several others that you can see by going to his blog:

Photograph by Christan Parriera

When I saw the photo I just knew that it would make a great painting, so I contacted Christan and asked permission to paint Claire's portrait.  He and his wife so graciously agreed, so here it is...the painting created from Christan's wonderful photograph...

To learn more about Christan or to contact him about a photo session for you, please check out his blog at http://www.christanp.com/index.html
 
And, if you are interested in having a portrait painted of your favorite person, pet, place or favorite thing, please contact me to discuss.
 
Today's Quote:  "Grandchildren are the dots that connect the lines from generation to generation." ~Lois Wyse

About.Com Graphics Challenge

For the past several weeks I have participated in the About.com graphics challenges.  Each week, a new challenge is made to all levels of individuals, to...

Use your imagination to create an image based on this theme, using any graphics software you like. Then post your completed images as a reply in this thread and tell us a little bit about what software and techniques you used. Remember, some of us are just learning, and would like to know how you did that.

I have found the challenges to be great fun, "challenging", and I am learning quite a bit from my fellow forum members.

The first challenge I participated in was #220.   A forum member, Renato (Wyxk), suggested we create a POSTER FOR HAITI, due to the recent devastation in that country. His thoughts of a friendship poster to perhaps lift the spirits and hope of people came from a recent challenge. We were asked to use our imagination to come up with a visual message and perhaps give a glimmer of hope in a time of need. No starting images were provided and this is my submission:

Challenge #221 celebrated aritst JACKSON POLLOCK and encouraged us to discover our inner Jackson Pollock and try out his style of expression.  No starting images were provided and this is my tribute to the painter dubbed, "Jack the dripper"...

The next challenge I participated in was #223, a challenge to create a Birthday card to celebrate Photoshops 20th Birthday.  No starting images were provided and this is my submission...

(Photoshop is a program that allows you to create your graphics on layers)

Graphics Challenge #224 was a bit of a stretch for me.  I grew up near Los Angeles, so I have seen a lot of graffiti in my day, but I have never actually done any "tagging" of my own.  This challenge was TAGGING, stating, "Graffiti or tagging has long been a form of expression - it can also get you into trouble. We've set you up with some trouble free starting images for you to tag and cover with graffiti however you wish. Get out those paint cans and have some with it!"  And so I downloaded a couple of "graffiti fonts from 1001 Free Fonts and created a couple of images...

 and applied them to one of the starting images...

and applied them to one of the starting images to get....

Graphics Challenge #225 was to create VISUAL PUNS. We were encouraged to come up with an image using a literal translation of a product, plant, object, etc.  No starting images were provided and these were my submissions....

Sunflower...

and Sand dollar...

The next challenge, #227, was called "Wearing o' the green", in honor of St. Patrick's Day.  No starting images were provided, and I introduced a quick Celtic knot painting that was painted entirely out of a special digital paintbrush that I created from Zoe's paw print. 

This weeks challenge is to THINK SPRING.  No starting images are provided and I am still in the "thinking" stage. As soon as I create an image and make my submission I will post it for all to see.

And so, if you are looking for a challenge, I encourage you to join the forum and participate.  It is a great group of people and the challenges keep the mind sharp!

Today's Quote:  “I have always grown from my problems and challenges, from the things that don't work out, that's when I've really learned.” ~Carol Burnett

Break Time is Now OVER!

Not that I’ve actually taken a break in life, but the blog break is officially over. These past couple of months have been busy with work, household chores, the book, family and friends. In other words, LIFE!


My finger is doing better, but I have a feeling it will never fully recover. I have limited strength and an ever-present “pop” every time I bend it. So, I guess I just need to put on my big girl panties and move on!

My jewelry wardrobe continues to grow, as I “experiment” with the whole jewelry-making process. My sister gave me a jewelry making book for Christmas and a charm bracelet book for my Birthday. All my husband has to say about it is, “Oh No!”

Last month I had the pleasure of organizing a bridal shower with a friend, for a friend. It was a small, intimate affair, and so instead of a cake we had cupcakes. I made them, and wouldn’t you know, it led me in another direction. Cake Decorating Classes! In my attempt to make something “pretty” for the shower, I realized I hadn’t the skill to create what I wanted, so I did my best

and signed up for the Wilton Cake Decorating class at my local Michael’s store. You can be sure I will now include cake decorating as a topic for future posts.

Work on the book continues.

Zoe's PawPrintArt will be expanded to include paintings painted with a paw print paintbrush the I made in Corel Painter.  The paintbrush was created using an image of Zoe's paw and will be used to paint entire paintings.  It's kind of a strange concept, I know, but here is a very fast, very rough painting that I painted so you could see what I'm talking about.  It is a Celtic Knot, done in celebration of St. Patrick's Day.

If you look closely, you will see that every bit of this painting was painted using Zoe's PawPrintArt paintbrush that I created in Painter! 

Well, I guess that's the past couple of months in a nut shell.  I'll be back with regular postings about art, jewelery making, cake decorating, the book, and whatever else I can share with you.

Today's Quote:  "Dream as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today."  ~James Dean

Are You Living Your Dream?

It has been quite some time since I've blogged.  When I decided to take a break, I thought about all of the things I wanted to do, but today as I sit to write this posting, I realize that I didn't accomplish nearly all of the things that I wanted to... 

I hurt my right index finger in mid November.  I didn't break it or anything like that, but I injured it nonetheless and it has been weak, swollen and painful just the same.  I have come to realize just how much I took my index finger for granted and I am learning to make adjustments and do things differently, but I really hope and pray for a full recovery.

The "injury" has definitely affected my artwork -- holding a brush or art pen has been tough, so I haven't really done much artwork since the injury.  I did make some earrings to give as Christmas gifts, and I restrung a necklace for my Mother -- that was quite the learning experience, but I was happy to do it and happy to learn something new in the process.

You may be wondering about my title, "Are You Living Your Dream" -- it came to me when I realized all of my friends and acquaintences who are working "to make money to pay the rent or mortgage" and also doing something on the side that they love -- My sister who works for a carton company during the day, but is a bellydancer by night; my great-niece who is a student by day, but makes beautiful bracelets in her spare time; a physical therapist who is also a beautiful nature photographer; a school teacher who is also a wedding photographer; an at-home mom who opens her home to anyone needing refreshment and encouragement.

My dog's veterinarian (Dr. Stephens) is a fine vet, yet on the side he plays guitar and sings at various venues and events.  I asked him if I could purchase a CD of his music and he was kind enough to give me a CD.  I listened to it for the first time this week, and the first song on it is Jim Croce's "I Got a Name".  Just in case you have never heard the song, the lyrics follow...

Like the pine trees lining the winding road
I've got a name, I've got a name
Like a singing bird and a croaking toad
I've got a name, I've got a name

And I carry it with me like my daddy did
But I'm living with the dream that he kept hid

Movin' me down the highway
Rollin' me down the highway
Movin' ahead so life won't pass me by

Like a north wind whistlin' down the sky
I've got a song, I've got a song
Like a whipoorwill and a baby's cry
I've got a song, I've got a song

And I carry it with me and I sing it loud
If it gets me nowhere, I'll go there proud

Movin' me down the highway
Rollin' me down the highway
Movin' ahead so life won't pass me by

And I'm gonna go there free

Like a fool I am and I'll always be
I've got a dream, I've got a dream
They can change their minds but they can't change me
I've got a dream, I've got a dream

Oh, I know I could share it if you want me to
If you're going my way, I'll go with you

Movin' me down the highway
Rollin' me down the highway
Movin' ahead so life won't pass me by

I especially like the line "I've got a song, I've got a song, And I carry it with me and I sing it loud, If it gets me nowhere, I'll go there proud."  I suppose that is how I want to live my life -- doing something I love, yet if it gets me nowhere, I'll go there proud.  Life is short -- do what you love!

Today's Quote:  "You see things; and you say, "Why?" But I dream things that never were; and I say, "Why not?" ~George Bernard Shaw

Happy New Year!

It is hard to believe that we are now in Twenty-Ten -- what happened to 2009?  Well, I must admit, 2009 was an "interesting" year, and I am thrilled to be entering this new decade.

My art blog will continue...tomorrow.  Until then, enjoy your day and may you have a Blessed New Year!!!!

~Deborah