Ever Inchie Monday: Oak

Hello Folks,

"I think I shall never see/ A poem as lovely as a tree."
Joyce Kilmer.

When I was a child there were huge elm trees at the end of my driveway that framed the entire street.  Unfortunately the city I live in decided it was more important to widen the road than save the trees.  That was a long time ago before we became more earth conscious, as we are now.  Of course, being elms they would all have died from Dutch Elm disease anyway, but I remember crying when they chopped them down.  

 I had one special tree that seemed to have been made for a little girl, because it had a burl that formed a bowl at just the right height that served as the sink for my little imaginary kitchen that surrounded the tree.  I was also incredibly lucky that there was a small woods behind my house and we spend countless hours playing out there using our imaginations, building forts and being chased by pirates.  Idyllic in many ways.

This week's word at Every Inchie Monday is Oak.  The strong and mighty oak.  I chose to depict a phrase about nature that always humbles me:

I have two quilling oaks that sort of look like trees:

Have a wonderful week.  Enjoy the budding trees as we gradually creep into spring.  Very gradually - it's still only 3 degrees above zero celsius in Southern Ontario.

Every Inchie Monday: Lasso

Hello Folks,

In the presence of that golden lasso, I cannot tell a lie: this is, bar none, the worst inchie I have ever drawn.  But it was not for lack of trying.  I must have drawn this picture, without exaggeration, a dozen times.  I'm fairly new to drawing faces and no matter what I did, her face ended up looking like a skull.  And I think I used the wrong media (coloured pencils and sketchbook paper) to colour her because I could not get a smooth coverage with something so small.  So here, in all her lack of glory, are two versions of  Wonder Woman and her Golden Lasso of Truth.

The quilling one was, comparatively, a breeze.

Now you go out there and have a truthful week ;)

every inchie monday: nail

Hello Fellow Inchers,

This week's word at Every Inchie Monday is nail.    I tried and I tried to take a picture of my finger nail, but I am just no good at selfies.  I can never get them in focus and I shake too much.  So instead, I decided to go with nail polish.  I adore nail polish and rarely are my nails naked.  This is a shrunken picture of my bathroom cabinet, entirely devoted to that most important accoutrement, nicely arranged by colour.  There is a third shelf but it wouldn't fit into the square format.  (I mean, what else is a bathroom cupboard for?)  

Inchie size considerations:  I thought I'd enlarge it too so you could see what is there.  But this one, of course, isn't really an inchie.  But the smaller one is smaller than an inch on my screen even though it was saved one inch square in photoshop.   There seems to be a problem with inchies when you use a photograph itself as the subject.  Does anyone else have this dilemma ?  Maybe it has to do with screen resolution?  Hmm.....

My quilled inchie is a little more traditional.  It is supposed to be just an ordinary nail. 

Have a great week.  (I couldn't think of anything to say using "nail" that didn't come out sounding rude.)

Every Inchie Monday: Egyptian

Hello Folks,

Egyptian (this week's word at Every Inchie Monday) is one of those words I can never spell correctly.  I always get the 'g' and the 'y' and the 'p' mixed up for some reason - maybe because they are all 'below the line' letters.

This week's word was tough because there is so much to choose from.  I always loved studying Ancient Egypt in school.  At one point I even wanted to be an archaeologist, until I realized how much time I'd be spending out in the sun.  That was before Indiana Jones told us 90% of all archaeology is done in the library.  I remember traveling by train to Toronto to see the King Tut exhibit the first time round back when I was in university.  So here is my rendition of the iconic Egyptian eye of Horus.  You can't see all the sparkle in the drawing, but it's there.

And I've always thought hieroglyphs were the neatest thing.  So pretty and yet so meaningful.  Here is my version of the letter K, for Kia, in Egyptian gold. 

I couldn't fit it in the cartouche, so I did that separately.

Walk like an Egyptian this week.

Every Inchie Monday: Love

Hello Folks,

Don't ya just luv love?  That's this week's word at Every Inchie Monday.

I'm a child of the sixties when 'Make love, not war' was the motto.  I've never understood how people can cringe at sex in movies yet sit through the most appalling violence.  I haven't seen a really violent movie in years - which means basically I stick to the Turner Classic Movies channel.  (Of course, there is an awful lot of death in my favourite film noir mysteries, so maybe I'm being a bit of a hypocrite.)   And don't get me started on horror movies.

Enough of the diatribe.  I have this really neat gauzey fabric that, in a fit of insanity, I bought at the dollar store one Valentine's.  I have whole roll of this stuff and have never used it.  But it sure is pretty.  So sparkly.

The quilled inchie might be the easiest one I've done so far.  (I really wish the glue didn't show up so much in the picture.  I guess I'm going to have to be more careful with it and put it only where it should be, instead of everywhere, which is my norm.)

Hug everyone you love this week.  Just because.