The Quicksilver Workaholic

Our group journaling blog is active and vital, and full of great ideas from our co-authors!  If there's something you'd like to see discussed, please let us know--and don't miss the poll in the sidebar at right!  That's a great way to let us know what you want to see--please join us! Bookmark the site, "follow" the blog, share it with friends, but do be sure to visit to see what the buzz is about!   We also have a very active Facebook group  and a Flick group you may want to join, if you're a journal keeper--you'll find it here:  http://www.flickr.com/groups/artists-journal-workshop/ another addition to our group Artist's Journal Workshop blog . 

And AGAIN it's been a while...

I finished the big month-long class I did for Strathmore Artist Papers, at the end of March...figured I'd take a break, she said, laughing hysterically...

I've been quite busy working on the next mini-class, Quick Sketching in Color, and hope to have it done by the end of May...

Delighted the other mini-classes have been doing so well!  We got 17 new students in the past two weeks, and lots of good feedback...thank you SO MUCH, all. 

The videos went over so well in the Strathmore class, I'm definitely planning more...I'm no Spielburg, but people seem to feel encouraged by my more laid-back, casual approach.  I figure if I don't have fun with them, you won't either!

I've been working on our new Urban Sketchers Midwest blog, http://urbansketchers-midwest.blogspot.com/ and love the response we've gotten.  I love it here and I would like others to see what a beautiful area it is...if you're an artist from the Midwest, please join us on our Facebook group or join us on Flickr!  We're always looking for new members for the blog.

Artist's Journal Workshop http://artistsjournalworkshop.blogspot.com/ is busy too, with wonderful artists adding their art, reviews, materials, journal pages...if you haven't visited, please do!  I've done a couple of new catalog pages there and on my gallery blog, one for a bookshelf of recommended books that pertain to art and sketching, and one for tools and materials we like!

Or feel free to join our wonderful Facebook group, it's VERY active.

I actually got an art tip done not too long ago, too, but I forgot to announce it here.  You can find it here: http://www.cathyjohnson.info/tips.html

An old friend has been here for a couple of weeks, getting ready to paint the trim on the house...he's a pro, so he's REALLY doing it right...I don't know if that's been done since the last time HE did it, 15 years ago or more!  It's going to look great.

Between that, computer work, and our sewer backing up, we've had lots of folks around.

I've been updating my eBay offerings and my Etsy store with original art, fine art prints, and handmade jewelry.

And now we're finally back to working on the house we've been rehabbing for years now!

Check out kateslover's journal for some of the pictures from last month!  He's been doing a lot of bits and pieces since then...painting doors, rehabbing hinges and hardware, fixing locks, painting more trim. And today I joined him to start pulling the hundreds of staples in the south parlor's floor--there was some truly nasty carpet in there!  NO idea how many staples I got up today, but I got good and grotty crawling around on the floor.

So I decided I might as well go ahead and deal with the big new planters I got this morning, and all that compost, mulch, and potting soil, in preparation for a few veggies and flowers over where we actually get some sun.  More on that later...right now I'm mud-covered and tired, so off to the shower!

I've been really, really busy--could you guess?--with a new online class for Strathmore, which has grown to over 2700 people!  I wrote  4 lessons and did 8 videos for the class, and I audit it, now...

Yard work, cooking, sketching, and getting back to eBay sales (trying to simplify life again, ha, and clear out the studio a bit--lots of art supplies flying out the door!, the Artist's Journal Workshop blog--which grew out of my book of the same name, a related Flickr and Facebook group, Urban Sketchers and our new Urban Sketchers Midwest blog plus all the rest...well.  That explains it.

Please visit us at any and all!

HI ALL!  Waving madly, on St. Patrick's Day!

and a blessed and joyous Solstice, when the light overcomes darkenss...


The Shortest Day

And so the Shortest Day came and the year died
And everywhere down the centuries of the snow-white world
Came people singing, dancing,
To drive the dark away.
They lighted candles in the winter trees;
They hung their homes with evergreen;
They burned beseeching fires all night long
To keep the year alive.
And when the new year's sunshine blazed awake
They shouted, revelling.
Through all the frosty ages you can hear them
Echoing behind us - listen!
All the long echoes, sing the same delight,
This Shortest Day,
As promise wakens in the sleeping land:
They carol, feast, give thanks,
And dearly love their friends,
And hope for peace.
And now so do we, here, now,
This year and every year.
Welcome Yule!

-Susan Cooper.

And happy anniversary to my dear friend Ailsa!

I just got four more auctions listed on eBay!  Of interest to reenactors, costumers, theatre people...or anyone who enjoys dressing up!

All sewn by me, personally...I've been reenacting as a hobby for 25 years, and I've made almost all my own clothes...


A pair of comfortable 100% linen jumps, which are a kind of casual support garment...lightly boned!  All outside stitching was done by hand...hey, it would work for RenFaire or Pirate Wench, too...




A cute 18th C. style jacket of reproduction cotton print fabric...


  Here's me, wearing it at Colonial Williamsburg...got lots of compliments!



A Victorian era dress, made in a workshop with Saundra Ros Altman of Past Patterns...it's appropriate for 1820-1840...



This at least shows you the neckline...




A pretty, hand-smocked reticule, suitable for 1812-Victorian-Civil War...

Descriptions for all this can be found in my eBay store, HERE...