Buy these books: Livi Talbot urban fantasy series

 If you like urban fantasy, you will love the Livi Talbot series.  Livi Talbot is a single mom and a treasure hunter specializing in mythological artifacts that have become more powerful after the recent Pulse raised the ambient magic level.  She also has a tendency to go after items to keep them out of the hands of power hungry folks.  Think Lara Croft crossed with Leverage.   

There are 6 books starting with Solomon’s Seal;  each book sends Livi after a different powerful artifact.  Each book is chock full of action adventure, a different mythology, some addition to Livi’s found family and an intriguing increase in the psychological complexity of the characters.    And I love the characters.  From Livi’s roommate/platonic wife who is helping her raise her daughter to all the men who help Livi find things, they all have depth and nuance.  I am particularly pleased to see a disabled character so prominent.  Pru, her roommate, has MS. As I am coping with ME/CFS, I like seeing characters in fiction coping as well.  So, yea, a bit of spoonies unite here.  

I’m not going to review the remaining books in the series to avoid spoilers.  I will say that despite my many decades of being a book addict and generally good at anticipating plot twists, I was surprised fairly often.  Try the first one and if you like it, each book adds to the enjoyment.  Well written, good characters, great action/adventure and all around good entertainment.  Buy these books!

Online Art Portfolio at LizCopeland.com

 After a year off to focus on healing (more about that in a future post), I am feeling good enough to be social.  And that includes blogging.  And showing people my art. 

Gaia’s Dance, 2009
Quilted textile collage

I’ve combined the two by putting my art into pages here on my blog.  I have 4 pages:  Abstract, Dancers, Nature, and Historical.  Abstract is mostly spirals but will include colorful poured paintings in the future.  Dancers and Nature are what they say and Historical is everything that is owned by someone else at this point plus the things that I do not intend to sell.  Ever.   Everything in Abstract, Dancers & Nature is available to buy if you are so inclined.  Until I get an online store up and running, this means drop me an email or comment on the blog post and we’ll work something out.

Mandala Medley

 I’m continuing my paint pouring experimentation in the studio and spent this last week trying out some different stencils of various mandala style art.  I actually like all 3 pieces which tells me I’m starting to understand what’s going on and how to work with the materials.

First up is the moody green piece that got some very favorable comments when I posted the background.  I found just the right swirling leafy stencil and I really like how it came out.  I’ll be doing more with this image and trying different backgrounds as I try out different ways to manipulate the paint.

Second in my opinion is this mandala which I have used before.  I like how the green of the mandala brings out the colors along the edge of the peach and blue.  I think a dark blue might also have worked well as a mandala color and I like the color palette in the background so I will likely be doing something similar in the future.  The blue ring is a bit more dominant than I would like so I will be changing that.

And last is a more subtle color combination with little tiny hearts.  I’ll be changing the hearts to just the v at the point so it’s more abstract.  Overall, they all came out okay and have given me lots of paths to take in future playing around.

Playing with Pouring

 My experiments continue with paint pouring and different techniques for manipulating the paint and then adding to it with silkscreens or stencils.  Big thanks to Olga Soby for her wonderful videos that have been a major inspiration.

First up are some pours I did with warm colors and then did stencils on top.  Here’s the one I’m mentally calling Rocket Mandala but that’s my wierd sense of humor.  It’s just a sample piece so I don’t actually have to come up with a real title.

Since I’m planning on doing birds or dancers, next I did an owl on a stump.  I think he really needs a moon in the upper right corner but I’m not sure yet.  That should be decided and done this next week.

These were both done with the ring pour technique for the backgrounds.  While I like the layering of the colors, I don’t think the technique is quite what I want so I started experimenting with blowing the paint around after pouring it.  I have multiple ways to do this and started with a blowdryer and the squeeze bulb I use with alcohol ink.  

This first one was supposed to be a mostly green backgroound with a lighter yellow spot in the middle for a hummingbird stencil.  Unfortunately, the blowdryer I used had a really wide nozzle attachment and blew paint everywhere.  I like the misty layering of the green but want more control.

So next I used the blowdryer on low.  This meant I had to practically touch the surface to get any paint movement so that’s not going to work either.   I tried blowing the paint in a swirl around the center color and that had some interesting effects that I think would look good with dancers.  In Space.

And last I used  my squeeze bulb.  This worked well and gave me good control but made my hand ache afterwards.  Since this was only an 8x8 piece, I need a different thing for larger pieces.

So I am now assembling things to try this week.  Another blow dryer and metal straws for blowing directly on the paint myself.  Here’s hoping I get something that works well.

My Preorder Faves in Urban Fantasy & Paranormal Romance

 I'm needing escapist books, preferably with a happy ending, and this led me to think about what I preorder regularly.  Then I thought others might like to know too as we are all coping with too much right now.  So, here's my list of things I almost always preorder.

1.  Ilona Andrews.  All the series, all the time.  They write about worlds in which magic is real and what varies from series to series is the how of it becoming real.  I like all of them and preorder them all.  I even recommended them to Kid2 and he now texts me comments as he reads.  

2.  Anne Bishop, The Others.  Fascinating departure from the usual shapeshifter tropes in a universe where humans are just another prey animal to The Others.  The Others are the guardians of the natural world and the dominant species.  I would really like to live in this world. 

3.  Nalini Singh, Psy-Changeling.  Did I mention I prefer shapeshifters to vampires?  And things with a psychic powers bent?  That explains why I adore this paranormal romance series.  

4.  Patricia Briggs, both the Mercy Thompson and the spinoff series.  I prefer the Anna & Charles ones because the vampires have a lower profile.  Great universe, with interesting political intrigue across all the species.

5.  Faith Hunter, Jane Yellowrock & Soulwood series both.  If there was a  new one in the Rogue Mage universe, I'd probably grab that real quick too.  Yes, there are vampires, and they are legal, but Jane is a shapeshifter in the Cherokee tradition.  Soulwood takes a branch off of Jane's story and is more earth centered spirituality in tone.  

6.  Shelly Laurenston, Pride series & the Honey Badger Chronicles.  These are 2 of 4 series set in the same universe but I'm really meh about the other 2.  The Pride and the honey badgers, on the other hand, I adore.  Class warfare in NYC by shapeshifters with great humor and good use of the classic romance tropes.  

7. Devon Monk, Ordinary Magic series.  Mythology, romance and a setting in coastal Oregon.  The sense of humor is just the icing on the cake.  

8.  Seanan McGuire, Incryptid series.  Again, humor, weird things happening and also shared with Kid2 who loves the mice.  Not so good on the happy endings however so keep that in mind.

9. Eileen Wilks, World of the Lupi.  Shapeshifters as a special army in an interdimensional war between ancient energy beings.  I've been waiting for #15 for a while now as the publishing date keeps getting pushed out.  This series has lots of romance but the plots are not tightly tied to the romances so I'd call it urban fantasy.  

10. Jennifer Ashley, Shifters Unbound series.  Set initially in Austin TX, the shapeshifters are out to the humans and kept in Shiftertowns.  Definitely paranormal romance as each book features a couple getting together but in a way that advances the series plot about the shifters working to be free from both humans and the fae who created them and want to enslave them again.  

Peter Ash: new crime series with echoes of both Spenser & Reacher

 I spent most of this summer reading when I wasn't painting the fence or catching up on years of garden neglect.  Most of the books were ones I had read before.  I wanted the certainty of knowing how the story would go.  This also meant an emphasis on the mystery/crime/thriller category where chaos is conquered and the bad guys lose in the end.  Which brings us to a new to me series:  Peter Ash & friends written by Nick Petrie.

The Drifter is the first book and it introduces Peter as a war veteran dealing with his PTSD by going alone into the woods in the north Cascades.  The similarity to Jack Reacher is obvious in his lack of possessions, his solitude and his direct dealing with problems.  While responding to a call for help for a widow of one of his Marine friends, Ash is brought into contact with a fellow problem solver who becomes a continuing character in the series.  I liked Ash's voice, his morality and his approach to problem solving so I continued on to the second book.

Burning Bright starts in the ancient redwood trees in California and brings in a female character who is the third in the group that continues the series.  This immediately brought to mind the Spenser novels by Robert Parker.  Again, excellent action, good writing, good characterizations.  

I finished the whole series (through The Breaker, #6) and pre-ordered The Runaway which is scheduled for January 2022.  If you liked either Spenser or Reacher, I would highly recommend this series.

Kingfisher at Zuanich Point Park

 Summer is heating up so I went to the harbor early for my morning walk.  It was breezy and sunny and a lovely walk along the water.

The gray blur along the horizon is a line of clouds coming in.

Gulls were hunting breakfast and there might even have been a couple of terns fly by but the highlight of my morning walk was a really closeup look at a belted kingfisher flying along the rocks the length of the shore.  I'm using the Cornell ornithology photo below since I have never gotten a good shot of a kingfisher on the wing.

The female is the one with the rust colored belt.  The one I saw this morning was unbelted so likely male.   

A lovely start to my day.  I hope your day is as good.

BirdNote podcast: Bring birds back

 I love BirdNote.  Their 2 minute radio clips won my heart years ago and I have appreciated the bird poetry podcasts from BirdNote Presents.  And I'm on their email list so I heard about their new podcast, Bring Birds Back.  I listened to the first episode and found out that bird populations (with 2 notable exceptions) have seriously declined over the last 50 years.  What can an ordinary person/birder do about it?  That's the focus of the rest of the episodes. 

The 2 exceptions to the decline?  Raptors (cause we got rid of DDT) and waterfowl because of the Wildlife Refuge system.  So, I was heartened to learn that if we take action based on what we know, we can have an impact.  

Here's the link to their webpage which gives all the current info.

Fast & Easy Coconut macaroons

 It's been a while.  The covid vaccine seems to have reset my immune system.  Good news, most of my allergies are gone.  Bad news, my Chronic Fatigue is fluctuating wildly.  But, despite the erratic energy, I have made cookies!  

I love coconut macaroons and these are so fast and easy.  Takes about 10 minutes to mix up (while the oven is preheating) and then 18 minutes to cook.  I'm using allulose sugar as part of the sugar because it keeps my blood sugar lower.  (Yes, I'm eating cookies to be healthier. Go me!)

Here's the recipe:

1.5 C unsweetened shredded coconut  (in bulk at health food store)

1/4 C sugar + 1/4 C Allulose

2 TB all purpose flour (I'm using up the last of my GF flour)

1/8 tsp salt

4 TB egg whites (I'm buying these by the carton since I make these so often.  Should be 2-3 eggs worth.) at room temperature

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

optional add-ins:  1/3 C of choc chips & pecan bits

Preheat oven to 325.

In a small bowl, combine coconut, sugar, flour. optional add-ins & salt.  Add egg whites and vanilla and mix well.  

Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto greased baking sheet or use parchment paper.  Bake 18-20 minutes until golden brown.  Cool on wire rack.  I get 2 dozen from this recipe.  

I'm enjoying the allulose cookies for dessert so much that I bought a glass cookie jar so I can see how close I am to needing to make more.  And this week, I can only be thankful for our AC which makes it so cool that baking cookies is still fun.

I hope your weekend is healthy and not too warm.

Using Rapid Resizer to experiment in the studio

 My alcohol ink experimentation continues.  This last week, I tried using a stencil to paint over an alcohol ink background.  This was not as successful as I'd hoped (see below)  and I decided to try just the rose from the center of the stencil after blowing it up in size.  

I could do a black and white version of the rose and then pop into my photo software and scale it that way but I decided to give Rapid resizer a try.  The stencil rose is on the small sheet and the 2 different sizes from RR are to each side.  This turned out to have a couple of advantages over using gimp:  one, I don't have to organize the images on my computer, RR keeps the designs for me and 2) if I want to scale up a design for a larger piece, I don't have to do the dividing it into pages for multipage printing.  

Next step is making the 2 stencils with the scanNCut machine and then I'll play with what color to use for the rose.  I have a fun week planned.  Hope you do too.

western Washington quilt shop hop on for June in 2021

 Well, I just booked the last half of June for my post-vaccination activities by adding this year's shop hop.  I haven't done this in several years due to medical issues and now that I'm recovered enough from chronic fatigue to go do things, I am looking forward to fondling lots of fabric.  See all the details here.

For those who haven't done this before, each shop gives out a free pattern and has a kit for purchase with the theme fabric to make the block of the free pattern.  The quilt above is what you can do if you get all the patterns.  It's a lot of fun and a particularly nice way to restart some socializing if you have quilter friends who are also vaccinated so you can all carpool.  I'm going to start organizing my car full right away.  Here's the map of the participating shops and of course the home page gives the list and more details.  

Alcohol Ink Experimentation continues

 Having finally mostly recovered from my sinus infection, I've been back in the studio this last week.  I'm doing some color palette pieces and playing with different ways to move the colors around which has all been a lot of fun.

Each day, I did a different color.  So far, I have red, orange/yellow, blue, green and a second green on different paper.  Here's most of the colors at once.

Here's the 2 greens next to each other.  The small one is on an 8x5 piece of Yupo and the larger is the back of a piece of photo paper.

The yupo paper had better movement and layering to my eye.  

And finally, here's my new wall rack for my alcohol inks.  I could not pass up the tree with all the birds.  The shelves are deep enough that I can put the concentrated ink in the front and the bottle of diluted color behind it.  

Next week, I'll do a similar set of colors on glass and see about printing them on fabric to sell in my etsy store.  I've gotten a fair number of comments about the colors & the blending being great from my quilter friends so this seems like an obvious progression.

Electric Vehicle battery breakthrough coming soon

 From Grist.org, we have wonderful news about new batteries for EVs that can recharge completely in 5-10 minutes.  Current in-use technology takes several hours.  This breakthrough means that gas stations could add charging stations and by the time everyone goes to the bathroom and picks up some snacks, the batteries are all charged up for another 250 miles of road trip.  Woohoo!

Read the whole article here.  The optimistic estimate is 3 years for making it into available vehicles.  The pessimistic one is 5 years.  So, coming soon to a car near you.

A Year of Experimentation, Take 2

 Last year was supposed to be me experimenting in the studio as I healed from ME/CFS and explored what I could do within my physical limitations.  Then, well, 2020 happened.  

So, I'm picking up where I left off when my back went kablooey in August by taking some baby steps this month.  Normally, back recovery from a serious blowup takes 6 months so I am being careful as I start up my studio time again.

I'm still working with Alcohol Ink and will be using the lovely little tool kit I bought to play with marbling and other fun color swirling.

I've been watching videos and reading in the FB groups dedicated to the lovely inks so I was already looking at silicon brushes with interest.  Then Mighty Girls had a post about the above mandala painting kit and I checked it out.  Very good price for all the extra stuff that comes with the silicon brushes.  I start tomorrow with playing with these new tools and seeing how the ink behaves when manipulated.  

2020: A year of coping

 2020 was supposed to be a Year of Experimentation for me.  And then the pandemic crushed that.  Instead, it became a year of Coping.  Looked at through that bit of reframing, the ending year taught me many things.  Just very few of them the things I thought I was going to do.   We all lived through the dumpster fire that was 2020 so my purpose here is to tell myself what I accomplished besides surviving.  

Persist!

1.  Set up art area in bedroom.

2.  Started Spirit Animal series with several snail pieces. By the end of April, I had finished 6 pieces.

3.  Experimented with 3D medium (powertex) and did snail sculpture.

4.  Continued listing art inventory on etsy.  

5.  Discovered while updating inventory that I've sold 100 pieces.  That made me feel much better about having several older pieces still here.

6.  Redid studio space in garage with lower tables since standing wears me out.  

7.  Started doing regular zines again.  Another indication of rising energy level.

8.  Tried knitting for evening activity and didn't like it.  Part of experimentation is saying no to things that don't work.  This was one.

9,  Had to take our elderly cat to the vet to be put down.( 2/15)  She was failing rapidly.  We still miss her.

10.  Tried out a condo in Blaine.  Nice location, good birding but alas, our vacation was cut short by the covid-19 shutdown.  The first one, not the current one.  *sigh*

11.  Started Medicare research.  This is way more complicated than it should be.

12.  Tried needle punch as alternative for quilting.  Didn't like it.  Another nope.

13.  Made several masks for the family.  

14.  Tried braided perle cotton for surface texture.  Liked it.  Keeping this as a collage version of my decorative satin stitch.

15.  Started listening to podcasts including installing software on my ipad and finding which ones I like.  

Go with the Flow

16.  Did taxes.  This is something I put off and then am always surprised at how much easier it is than I remember.  

17.  Created abstract hummer sketch and stencils in May.  These were set aside and I'm now contemplating using them with the alcohol ink explorations I'm planning for 2021.

18.  Bought new storage boxes for my silkscreens and sorted them by type:  birds, dancers, geometrics, nature elements.  This was a great thing to do.  My studio looks better and it's easier to find a particular screen.

19.  Did new drawer labels for all the elfa shelves in my studio.  James did 3D printed large plastic pieces to hang on the drawers and I painted them white so I could more easily read the writing.  Another excellent improvement in the studio.  Now I don't have to open the drawer to know what's in it.

20.  set up marbling area and did some marbling.  This was wonderful and I enjoyed it tremendously.  And it was the last straw for my poor back in mid August.  After my back is recovered, and I'm going to the gym regularly, I'll try the marbling again and see if it's still possible for me.

21.  Added mailchimp signup to my blog.  This is another item that was started but ended up being delayed.  I plan to restart my newsletter in 2021.  

22.  Started chair yoga and other back supporting exercises.

23.  experimented with Inktense pencils.  Ongoing as this is probably going to be a big part of my future work.  Still in the exploration stage.

24.  Got flu shot in early October.

25.  Joined a monthly walking meditation group at our church.  We walk solo and have a distanced group chat after we walk. So I guess I have gotten some social interaction this year.

26.  Started experimenting with alcohol inks.  Fabulous color, great fluidity.  On my list for 2021.  I'll be combining this with the inktense pencils and we'll see where it goes.

27.  Gave up on GIMP.  The photo processing works fine, but I have struggled with printing things and cannot get it to do what I want easily.  

28.  Bought Affinity photo software after recommendations on the SAQA group on FB.  Just beginning to work with it.

29.  Did bird walks at 6 different parks with almost one big walk per month.  This was a big part of coping for me.

30.  Maintained my meditation practice, another big selfcare item.

31.  Took November & December off from the studio to focus on my back and other selfcare.  

32.  Got lots of reading done this year.  Mostly reading books I'd already read but I did get some new ones in.

And that's about it for the year.  Half the length of last year's list but I'm good with that.  2020 was a very tough year.  Getting anything done at all was a big win.  May the next year be easier & healthier.

A week of Christmas movies

 Traditionally our family watches Die Hard and It's a Wonderful Life for Christmas.  This year, since we aren't able to gather with the kids for our daylong bagel buffet and present unwrapping, Jeff & I have expanded the movie list.  In part to give us more seasonal things to do and in part because of some interesting discussions among my FB friends about their favorite Xmas movie.

Last night, we started with Long Kiss Goodnight.   Clearly in the Die Hard camp, it's also one of our favorite watch things blow up movies.

We'll also be adding one of my top five movies, The Lion in Winter.  Definitely a family movie and set at Christmas but not a feelgood film.  Lots of family infighting and emoting, but at the end of the film nothing has changed.  Great actors and excellent writing.  We like the original with Pete & Kate. Altho I'm just now realizing I haven't seen the one with Patrick Stewart instead of O'Toole.  

Also new on our list this year, Love Actually.  This is a more traditional sort of holiday movie which is also a favorite in our rom com category.

That will pretty much round out our week ending with a zoom call with the family on Christmas Day.  I hope your holidays are healthy and happy.  

Finding joy during studio sabbatical

 My back is still being cranky so I am mostly doing not much of anything but read and watch the hummingbirds through the window.  This is annoying as I was really enjoying working with the alcohol ink but I will get back to it in a few weeks, I'm sure.  And when I do, I will use some of my bird photos as a starting point.  So today, I'm sharing some of the ones I'm considering.  I'm mostly looking for a good silhouette altho if it's a stunning bird shot, I may just interpret it in ink.

First up, my favorite Steller's Jay photo.  Part of what I'm doing while not in the studio is learning my new photo software (Affinity) and I'll be creating a layer off this photo with lines that can be used as a silkscreen.  

And of course I have to have a Great Blue Heron shot.  So many choices.  Here's a flying heron that I love because of the water background.  I think the alcohol ink will be great for doing that background.  If I use this one, I'll probably crop it in but that will be a balancing act between focusing on the heron and keeping enough of the water to give that spacious feeling.

The other candidate is one taken at Tennant Lake in April so we joked about the heron keeping social distance from us on the boardwalk.

This one is more of a classic standing pose and that's always a popular choice.

Alcohol Ink monoprint on fabric

 I'm experimenting with alcohol ink because it's a really quick drying fluid way to create color and it works on both paper & fabric.  Today's experiment was to see if an alcohol ink bird done on glass could be successfully printed on fabric.  Here is the starting bird shape.

This was done using a nasal syringe to blow the ink around and see if I had enough control to create shapes.  If I were finishing this as a bird piece of art, I would add details and more with ink pens along with a background.  But first, I wanted to see if my ideas about how to transfer from the glass to fabric would work.  

I stabilized a piece of white cotton by ironing it to a scrap piece of freezer paper.  I let that sit overnight, and today I sprayed the fabric with 90% isopropyl alcohol to reactivate the alcohol ink that is on the glass.  Then I used my favorite brayer to rub to make sure the ink transferred.  There was some ink left on the glass but what did transfer did not seriously run or bleed so I'm fairly happy with this outcome.

There is some blurring of the edges so I would definitely want to sharpen the details with the ink pens if I was using this technique for the foreground of a piece.  This will however be an excellent way to create moody backgrounds and I'm looking forward to more experimentation.

Halloween treat: caramel apple cheesecake

 A recipe for Caramel Apple Crisp cheesecake bars came across my FB feed and since I love cheesecake and Jeff loves anything he can put caramel sauce on, this seemed like a winner of an idea.  I printed out the recipe and successfully made some but the recipe didn't include eggs in the cream cheese mixture so I added one and I found the results tasty but bland.  The rest of the family came back for seconds so it was a success but since I only get dessert once every 2 weeks, I want something more.

So, here's my plan.  I'm going to take my favorite cheesecake recipe and use half the cheesecake filling amount since I'm doing an 8x8 pan not the 9x13 it calls for.  I liked the crust in the above trial which added rolled oats to the graham cracker crumbs, butter, and sugar that is traditional for the cheesecake crust.  (We used GF graham crackers, of course.)   To add the spicy apple part, in addition to the peeled & sliced apple, I'm going to sprinkle the cheesecake with fresh ground cinnamon before putting the apples on. And maybe a bit of ground ginger too. And then there's the crumbly topping from the above recipe which needed way more than the recipe called for: The original recipe called  for 1/4 C AP flour (GF), 1/4 C.  rolled oats, 1/4 C brown sugar, 1 tsp cinnamon, 2 TB coconut oil  (I subbed butter since Jeff doesn't like coconut oil).  I'm going to add some ground cloves.  If this doesn't cover well enough, I'll make more because I like the crumbly bits all over the top.  

Bake at 350F for 40 minutes, a bit longer if you want totally soft apples.  Cool for 15 minutes.  I'm not sure if the refrigerating overnight is actually required.  But add caramel sauce when serving.  We used Trader Joe's GF no-corn sauce and it was quite tasty.

 

Studio Sabbatical or reading instead of doing

 Thanks to my back having it's every 13 year super spasm, I am not doing much in the studio.  For the last 2 months.  *sigh*  Once I got over the worst of the pain, however, I was thankful the library sent me a book on alcohol inks.  It's a fairly popular book so I had a several month wait for it and had forgotten about it.  Having it pop to the top of my hold list gave me a lovely distraction.

Pigments of the Imagination is a guide to learning the medium with a series of explorations.  I sometimes think of this type of book as an art cookbook as I'm one of those people who actually reads cookbooks all the way through to find ideas & recipes.  I bought an inexpensive set of inks to try it out and will get the more expensive brand name inks if I decide to pursue it.

One of the things I do when browsing books like this is write the things I particularly want to try on a post it that goes on the inside cover.  (My cookbooks have the recipes & page number written on the book pages rather than a post it because I like annotating them.)

I filled 2 post its before deciding I should try things out first.

Part of the appeal here is that the inks are very concentrated, like the Derwent Inktense pencils/bars, and work on both paper and fabric.  So the experimenting will begin soon, once I'm over the flu/sinus infection that is adding to my wonderful medical life right now.  Hoping you are in much better health & also enjoying making art.