Sewing Again

My mom and my daughter getting ready to walk.

Here it is 4 days before Christmas. And I am busy sewing. I finally got around to the sewing machine after months of no sewing. I am doing hats. Similar to the one my mom is wearing in the two photos. Of course these photos have got to be of Angwin. We are there twice a week! Angwin has the best walking trails around.

Monty on a Walk

Here is a picture of our dog Monty. We were on a walk in Angwin. He is always on alert, and interested in everything.

Lost in Space Drawing

I am still doing Lost in Space artwork here. This is Maureen Robinson during season 1.

Cartoon Sketches

These are what I did during art class. I was with one of the students I work with. The entire class was cartooning on white boards including my student. I was the only one who had paper, so I saved what I did. Both sketches were done in about 4 or 6 minutes, and my student did some great drawing. The art teacher was enthusiastic about all the art going on in the class.

The Ghosts in the Wind

This is more art from school.

Picking Apples

An extra example of Fall is: Picking Apples.

Black Cat: Happy Halloween!

This is Ana's handwriting, but my example. Happy Halloween Ana!

Fire Here in Napa County

There was a fire in Deer Park this weekend. This is a photo from the newspaper. We saw this fire from the backside, on Howell Mountain Road. We were returning home from Angwin, and had to go down the back side of Howell Mountain.

Fall is...

These were the examples I made for art today. I guess Thursday is the day for art for at least now. I can't seem to get our schedule at school in my mind.

Work and Home

It is the same old... same old. I go to work... come home exhausted. Do laundry, eat a little, sometimes work in my small garden, draw a little, paint a little, watch a little tv, then go to bed. More recently my mom and I have been going through some of her old photos of the family. The first photo was of me during first grade. The second photo above is my younger brother and me with our beloved dog Molly.

School Started Over Two Weeks Ago

Back to school on Aug. 18th. Redwood Middle School got a facelift over the summer. A new parking area, and new sidewalks, and quad area. In the classroom we have three new kids. I have been busy trying to think up some ideas for art. Found some in a discarded book. The flower is sand mixed with different colors of dry tempera paint on blue construction paper.

Last Day of Summer School!

Yahoo!! Today was the last day of summer shcool. What a summer! Those 20 days were wild! Some of us went on a fieldtrip every day. I sat with some of the kids before the buses came and did some coloring.

Pirates and Parrots

We are doing pirates this week. This is one of the coloring pages we have on hand for the kids to do. Just being able to sit down with the kids and talk to them while they color can be interesting. This is my parrot colored with markers.

Art and Special Ed Children

I got to do some art today! We made some watercolor and toothpick art. This is the example I made for the kids in our class. They made some real cute pictures!!

Summer School

It is hot, and summer school has started! Getting our Special Day Class together with another Special Day Class is liken to a madhouse! It is a hard thing when you have one kid who is on the verge of running away any moment. Then, we have one who hits people, kids and adults.

Those 8th Graders

Today was 8th grade graduation. Eric, Tilly, Justin, and Alma are to move on this next school year.

Non Enhanced

I am not sure which way I like my watercolor picture. This is it without playing with the colors using Adobe Photoshop.

Watercolor is my Favorite!

I did this watercolor last night, after a full day exhausting myself with miscellaneous work.

The Weather

Here in Napa, we went from cold to hot to cold again. I do wish we could have some spring like weather. It seems we only have winter and summer here. The watercolor illustrates where I would really like to be, someplace by the ocean.

Drawing Judy

I did this drawing of Judy from Lost in Space last weekend. She is standing next to Major West in the original one. Her features seem to be so delicate, so I have to have a light hand.

Dangerous Place

Where I work really is a dangerous place. We have several severe autistic kids. One who throws chairs, and hit his head on the floor. To escape this reality I watch and draw Lost in Space. The picture is inspired by "The Thief of Outer Space" episode of Lost in Space. The planet they are on is a dangerous place. But being part fantasy and part science fiction it isn't really dangerous at all, at least not as the place I work.

But He is Still There

I can't believe that I wrote that about Major West. I could never really truly cut him out of any picture I draw of him. No matter how badly I may draw him. I just keep on drawing him. There is nothing I enjoy more than drawing or watercolor. It used to be rain pictures for the longest time. Then it was lots of lighthouse pictures. Then it was horse pictures. Now a lot of my art is centered around Lost in Space. Though I still do some of the other. Now that part of my life is better than my job. What a trip!!!! Carla ran away from school today. I and one of the campus supervisors had to go retrieve her from her mom's place of employment. Then Eric is about ready to blow most the day. He is just on the edge, or the verge of losing it. Then to top things off, Alijae came back, after three months absence, for surgery and recovery. But then, though she is a lot of work, being in a wheelchair and all, she is really the sweetest, most joyful part of our classroom.

If I Lose my Mind

I think that I am losing my mind.... very, very slowly. Yesterday and the day before seems like a blur. Well, we take doggy for a walk... then later watched "Song of the Thin Man." While we watched our movies I drew a picture of Dr. Smith and Don. Dr. Smith came out ok. But I didn't like the way Major West turned out. So I cut him out.

Always so Cold Here

I have redone my Lost in Space swimming scene 4 times now. Each time it looks so much different. The last one I did a couple of weeks ago. That is the one above. It was the first one I decided to do on real watercolor paper. All three previous one I did on plain drawing paper. Who knows, I may do more. I am having so much fun doing them. The waterfall picture I did last week. I really wish I could live in such a place. It is always so cold here. Every once in a while we might get a hot spell, but it doesn't last. It always turns cold again. Now it is back to work for another week. It can be so difficult working with special ed kids. I can't go into detail. Much of what goes on in our classroom is going to stay there. At least on my part. But it can be distressing and depressing.

Grateful for What I Have

Here is my brother David and my mom. My mom will be 90 years old in June of this year! This picture was taken in Angwin on Los Posadas Road, near where Los Posadas State Forest and Pacific Union College property touch. The first picture is my acrylic picture which I did way back in December. I wanted to take a picture of it outdoors with my non digital camera, but it has always been too cold or raining.

I am grateful for so many things. Though I do not have a husband or a house, I do have other things I am grateful for. I still have my mom, my daughter, and my two brothers, plus their families. Also, I have Monty our dog, and three fun and sometimes feisty cats. I also have good eyesight, and fair health. It is now almost a year since I had my kidney removed for kidney cancer. That surgery was on March 29, 2007. I am grateful that surgery was successful. One of my doctors, Dr. Yap, told me that one of those blood tests he had me take showed I was cancer free. Though, I have a touch of arthritis.

I Would Rather be on an Island

Here is another Lost in Space picture which I did a few weeks ago. In the t.v. show they never did swim. But I like to think that Preplanus had some sort of swimming hole. And that they would have gone swimming in it. Dr. Smith talked about hot lava pools in "Two Weeks in Space," so they had to have had some sort of recreation. So here are Judy and Penny relaxing. That's my idea of having fun somewhere on another alien world. The robot is keeping watch.

I did the second watercolor the other night. I would like to be in such a place right now. I miss the old days when my life was quieter. That was when I lived in Angwin. There I had time to reflect. Today there is not that much time.

Tightening the Screws at Redwood Middle School

Oh the joys of work!! I am an aide at Redwood Middle School in Napa. It is a hard and demanding place to be. We are constantly busy. But they want to spread us thin. That way our classroom will be short staffed. An aide from another class retired last year. And they did not hire another aide to replace her. They want an aide from our class to cover for her part time. The kids in our class are severely handicapped and disabled. Plus some of them have major emotional problems. No wonder I am crazy....... sort of... kind of.

Drawings I Did From The Great Vegetable Rebellion

The second picture is of Major Don West from Lost in Space. The first picture is a composite picture of both the robot and Maureen Robinson. Maureen has just come away from watching Penny who is fast asleep. But it is not a normal sleep but one induced by the bad veggie who has captured and imprisoned the group. The robot is actually not in this scene.

Lost in Space Drawings

Here are some of my drawings of Lost in Space characters. The first is suppose to be Judy Robinson. The second Will Robinson and Maureen Robinson, then Maureen Robinson and the robot. These pictures are fun to do. I wish I had more time to do them. I usually do them late at night when I should be going to bed, thereby missing much needed sleep. But then if I don't do some sort of art in a given day, then I feel like the day is a waste.

Fairyland in Angwin

Rain rules! It looks like fairyland in Angwin again. That is Sarah and Monty, and then me and Monty. We keep trading him off between ourselves. In the picture of Sarah we had just spotted fellow walker, April going the other way with her dog Adel. We get to see them about once a month on the trails. When it rains like this most people won't venture into the woods. We got a little wet, but not bad. It is so quiet in the woods on wet days.

The lighthouse picture I did a couple of months ago. For a while that is all I ever did was lighthouse pictures.

Golden Moments

We drive to Angwin, usually about twice a week. There we take walks around the trails of Pacific Union College Property. I think of those moments we spend on our walks as Golden Moments. Pacific Union College boarders on Los Posadas State Forest. Much of the area is truly a bueatiful place. But I worry that it won't stay so bueatiful. I they have their way they will put in an "Eco-Villiage" with 380 new homes up in Angwin. It will spoil the quiet and gentleness of the community. I lived in Angwin for close to 17 years. So I am not a stranger to the community. I lived in both the dorm - Winning Hall on the campus of Pacific Union College, and out in two different apartments, off campus. Angwin is really a unique place. On Valentines Day it will be 7 years since we moved from Angwin down to Napa to my mom's. I dream often of the Tobin Avenue apartment we used to live in.

Rain, Rain Go Away, Come Again Some Other Day

It has been raining almost every day for the last two weeks. I am really getting a bit tired of it. Besides too much work, I have been wearing myself out. Our washing machine broke, I caught the cold that every one else has had in the classroom, it is the second cold in the last two months. This wouldn't happen if the parents would keep their sick kids home. I feel obligated to work because they won't send a sub for me. I am only an aide. I comfort myself by drawing Lost in Space pictures.

The Jupiter 2

I wanted to do the Lost in Space Jupiter 2 on the ground in a landing/crash site. Instead as I was drawing and doing the color it morphed. Now it looks about to land. So that stuff in the picture is suppose to be dust and debris. Also there are creatures watching.

The Global Markets versus Those Lost In Space Dreams

It is so depressing. The Markets worldwide are falling, and all I want to do is draw Lost in Space pictures. I don't get it. I should be doing those preparations. And somehow getting ready to move out of this place. I know I won't be here forever, living here with my mom. Yet, I can't get myself in gear. I would rather draw or do watercolor, or even sew and read. But then I am so tired all the time.