Tulips for Reyna

2.5" x 3.5", Prismacolor colored pencil

For my friend Reyna U., who is a nurse doing one tough job! Hang in there girl! This one is for you! Hope it brings a smile to your face. *hugs*

Oh, hello!

2.5" x 3.5", colored pencil

`Ohelo kau la`au (Vaccinium calycinum), a native Hawaiian relative of blueberries, grows in the wet forests and bogs on all the main Hawaiian islands except Ni`ihau and Kaho`olawe.

PS: How boring! When I posted this at 1:30 am, my brain was jello and believe me, saying something witty or interesting was the farthest from my mind. I was thinking "pillow." LOL Thanks for stopping by and leaving me comments! They always mean a lot to me! :D Have a great day peeps!

Evening silliness

each 2.5" x 3.5"

It's good to be silly once in a while.

I am hopeful

"It took a lot of blood, sweat and tears to get to where we are today, but we have just begun. Today we begin in earnest the work of making sure that the world we leave our children is just a little bit better than the one we inhabit today." - President Barack Obama

I was watching an episode of the Ellen Degeneres Show on YouTube last night and she was talking with Jennifer Aniston, her guest that day, and Jennifer Aniston said something that struck me as being a very different mindset from the past 8 years. She mentioned that with our new leader, there is shift in what we want and said, "Maybe we want good news! it's sort of like `Oh! the country had a really bad boyfriend for awhile' and then all of a sudden, its like, `Oh! She finally met a nice one!'" Ellen agreed and challenged the news to cut back on the bad news and focus on the positive wonderful things that happen! I am ALL for that!

I was so inspired by that that I picked up my color pencils and drew this freehand ... I just let the pencil do its thing starting with the highlights. Ok, it may not look like President Obama so much but my heart was in the right place. :)

I love summer!

I love the fruits of summer! Last week, I had a juicy pineapple, lychee, longan, and some of these strawberries from Waimea! My friend, Ron of RYH Pottery, made the bowl. He's such a talented ceramist who lives in Volcano. I drew this with my Prismacolor colored pencils on some Strathmore bristol vellum paper, which I find is nice and toothy and takes colored pencil extremely well. This is my homage to the tasty treats of summer. 

Whew, I finally redid the strawberry drawing. I wasn't happy with it but I couldn't figure why I didn't like it. I finally darkened the entire thing and feel much, much better. Now, I can move on to the next one! :)

Marigolds are a delight!

For some reason, my once color-accurate scanner has now morphed into some weird color-mixing machine since I switched to a mac. I think it is because it is as perimenopausal as I am!  My marigolds are blooming nicely and are producing their own seeds now ... so I will be sharing them with friends as Kate has shared them with me. I'll be passing on the Rietz legacy. :) I just had to take the opportunity to draw my little flowers because their little bursts of color light up my morning when I sit amongst them and drink my coffee.

Day 18 of 21: Tropical paradise

Inspiration sometimes comes from weird places. When I was at a meeting at Harold L. Lyon Arboretum in Manoa Valley this past week, I happened to find this tiny vase of beautiful tropical flowers in the bathroom. I thought it was such a lovely touch that the garden staff would decorate the bathroom with pretty flowers from the grounds of the arboretum. So, I had to rush off and find my camera. I can not tell you how many funny looks I got when I grabbed my camera and rushed off to the bathroom. Goodness knows what they were thinking!

EDM Challenge #78 - Souvenir

Sharks creep me out! I once came face to face with three very large sharks while snorkeling along the coral reef of Ant Atoll off Pohnpei (Micronesia). So, I bought this souvenir from an artisan in Kapingamarangi Village to commemorate my survival (it has real sharks teeth in it). Ok, ok, they told me that the sharks don't bite people there but I'm not convinced they told the sharks that!