Summer Delights

This is me - happy to be sitting in the shade of our new awning over the back patio! The patio faces west, which means blazing heat in the afternoons. Having the awning means it won't get too hot inside the house either, since it shades the slider. The horses are our neighbor's boarders. We feed them carrots every so often, and a couple of magnificent fellows they are! Powerful draft size, but so gentle and sweet.

Ancient Cottonwood

While Bob and I were hiking along the river in Glenwood Springs, I saw this tree and thought, Now I understand what people mean when they say a tree has a presence, or soul. It really spoke to me, and I think it needs to become a drawing at some point.

Discharge!

Here's a can't-miss, no-fail recipe for gorgeousness. Get some hand dyes in the batik section of the fabric store, with their lovely variations of color. No patterns - just dyes. Use a small sponge to apply discharge through a stencil - either commercial or a hand cut one made with freezer paper or contact paper. I get the type of discharge that you allow to dry and then use a steam iron on, but there are other options available. Check at Dharma Trading online for a selection of the different kinds. Whichever you try, they can turn out quite beautifully.

More Artmaking at the Porter Hospital

This is a lunch given in appreciation for all of us who are involved in the workshops with the cancer survivors groups at the area Centura hospitals. Christi Beckman and I will be there again at the Porter on Tuesday the 7th to make prayer flags with the monthly support group. The Healing Arts director for Centura, Jude Kellor, will hang a display of them in, appropriately enough, the Porter Cancer center.