Art Journal Days

Sometimes it's a challenge to sit down and

create a blog post, because of being

busy or because of time away...

but wow....a whole month away!?

Time to catch up.

So it's a photo-heavy post today in order

to catch up with all our 'doins'.

Had a nice visit to the Ohio State Fair,

where I sketched at the same time as

other members of Urban Sketchers Columbus.

I didn't really get a chance to spend any

time with the group, but managed to 

touch base with them before everyone 

headed home.

It was a really hot day, but I enjoyed 

drawing in the barns, hearing the Ohio

State Fair choir and band, and having an 

ear of corn on the cob!

What do you do when you have half a page

filled, and then leave the fair?  You've got 

half a page to fill when you get to the 

next fair!  Below, I was surprised to see

that Fulton County, Ohio had procured a 

piece of The Towers for a 911 Memorial.

It also happened to be a day when the 

American flag was at half mast to honor the 

passing of John McCain.  The flag pole 

made an effective 'divider' from one

fair to the next. 

 Oh, did I mention the Tractor Pull on Friday

 night? Hubby loves those events! 

 Daughter and I left him on his own

 after a couple of hours...just a little more noise

and fumes than we could handle. 

Daughter plays the djembe' with her church

praise band, and they played on Saturday

night.  She sang lead on 4 songs...very 

proud of her!

Fulton County Fair, near Wauseon, Ohio.

I seem to have an attraction to bunnies.

We also happened upon the end of a Llama and

Alpaca show.  They had been leading them 

through an obstacle course.  Very interesting,

and the animals seemed quite agreeable to 

jump low obstacles and even walk through

the flaps of a tent!  "Vanilla Ice" (on the right,

above) was a llama that was a creamy beige color

with long curly hair. He had one white eye and

one black eye.  His eyes had black all around

them like he was wearing eye shadow!  I think

maybe his 'nose' should have been longer in my

drawing, but he did insist on moving around a lot.

Daughter and Son in Law are 4-H advisors, and

 there is always a big push before the fair each 

year to plan and create the Fair Booth. The 4-H 

members set up a booth in the Junior Fair Building

to showcase their projects and activities 

for the year. As I was a 4-H member as a kid,

and so were my children, it brings back lots of

good memories.

The trials of livestock and animal ownership...

something got into the chicken coop at the In Laws

farm and killed a bunch of chickens.  We suspected a

weasel or a mink.  Eight (or was it 6?) dead 

chickens with broken necks, but left uneaten. 

 Apparently, whatever it was just killed for the fun of it.

Ugh. So bury the chickens and try to secure

the coop- which for a weasel means no 

openings bigger than 3/8 inch! SIL was

pretty aggravated. Took them all day to apply

additional screen over the chicken wire.

Labor Day spent with family...

I'm back to doing the Hobonichi Challenge

this month, which is a theme of 

"Experiment, Fail, Repeat,"  featuring 

technology and inventions.  A good way to

reflect on science that has changed our

lives.  My grandparents lived in the era that

saw the invention of cars and airplane travel. 

We are living in the Digital Age, and social

media is very impactful to our lives... 

kind of scary to me to realize there is a generation

of kids that would not know how to use a 

rotary phone or manual typewriter.

I'm showing my age!

How many tea bags did you notice?

In addition to my coffee, I've been enjoying

some Vanilla Chai Tea in the mornings. So

I'm linking up for the T Tuesday blog hop

over at Bleubeard and Elizabeth's. It's 

been a while, but it's always fun to have a

beverage and see what the blogging friends

are up to. Join us!

*There were six tea bags*

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