AquaBee Sketchbooks

I just ordered some AquaBee Sketchbooks from Daniel Smith Art Supplies. They had these on sale a couple weeks ago, so I bought myself some, and 2 for my Granddaughter. They are made from nice sturdy paper (93 lb.) and 60 pages. You can sketch in them easily, and the paper takes watercolor very nicely. Hope D. Smith appreciates the commercial :-)
Anyway, I decided to "personalize" mine because I had some papers left from my bookbinding escapades (?) so I measured and cut and glued (with my bookbinding glue) and I thought they turned out pretty nice!
The larger book is 6 x 9, and the small one is postcard-size: 4 x 6 (so handy for my purse).

BEST BURGER ???

Being retired has it's advantages! Sometimes We feel like treating ourselves (after eating "healthy") to a Hamburger in a bun with Onion Rings. Our favorite place is in Dearborn, MI--about 25 minutes from our home--so we just go down there (yes, it's south of us) and get a burger and rings. It's very formal :-) Everything is served on paper, with a plastic fork stuck in the pickle jar on the table, along with the mustard and ketchup servers. The server even brings you a slice of onion wrapped in paper (in case you want one).
We both had Vernor's Ginger Ale (A Detroit "goodie")...and split an order of Onion Rings.

Michigan State University Tollgate...

Michigan State University (Lansing, Michigan) has a Tollgate Education Center (160 Acres of rolling Farmland) about 1 mile from our home. I have been there for their Gardner's Plant sale in June--and you can talk to Master Gardners about problems, etc. This Saturday (Sept. 17th) is their Fall Festival. We will be there to see what's new and what is of interest. In August, the 4-H'ers sell their produce from stands set up there. It's a lovely spot, with many interesting gardens, plants, sheep, horses, and things I probably don't even know about :-)
We are fortunate to have it so close! I will go on Saturday with my Watercolor Journal and see what else I can capture!
BTW, a couple years ago, I bought a Michigan Cactus at the plant sale and it had 9 big yellow blossoms on it this summer (not all at once, but 2 at a time).
There are many other buildings there, not just these few pictured.

Ruth's Trellis

I just watercolored a Trellis that my daughter Ruth has in her back yard--Actually, the whole place looks like this--She is a Gardener (par excellence). She has a real green thumb (She must have inherited it from her Gram. K.--My Mother :-)
Her Garden has been featured (several years ago) on the Northville (Michigan) Garden Walk. She has several different varieties of Clematis (that is what the purple flowers are on the Trellis). All of this backs up on a huge pond and she has lots of 'wildlife' to contend with! The Birds are beautiful....but the Deer eat everything. There was an Eagle sitting on a limb (fishing) over the pond last week.
I did this in one of my newer watercolor journal books (shown above).  It's the one with the Black & White cover and the dark rust spine.

Delicious Nachos

This past Tuesday, our friends called us to come and "split" some Nachos at their local Golf Course Restaurant. Wow! This huge plate of Nachos and cheese was only a half-portion. (but yummy--I couldn't even finish mine!)
It was beautiful overlooking the 9th Green right by the pond (it's a huge one!)

Bookbinding a Watercolor Journal

Just finished "binding" my 5th Watercolor Journal! I think this is addictive...I do enjoy picking out the Paper Covers and the Fabric for the Spine Cover--then comes tearing all the watercolor paper pages to size...etc., etc., etc. Then finally to paint in it. I just started painting in my 4th book...so will have this on hand when I need it. :-)
Is it time to go shopping for the next book covers??? (just in case).
I am getting very close to finishing up my "Drawing in Church" journal too--Oh my, decisions, decisions!