A Tea with a Princess

Good Morning!  Happy Mad Hatter's Tea Party! If you're just browsing you can find all types of interesting tea parties and stories over at A Fanciful Twist's post. 

I'm so sorry that I did not have time to create a most special tea party story for the blog. Not to seek sympathy, but I had to have knee surgery and it's slowed me down this summer. But I did have a dress-up tea party with my granddaughter yesterday. She has a new sister who will be joining us in the delicious fun fantasies in a year or so. Have a great day and I hope you enjoy this little princess.

Hello There!

Hmmm...what shall we do on this UnBirthDay?

 

I shall pour us a cup of UnTea. You will enjoy it, yes?

Oh! This cup of tea is just perfect and just the thing for a long "think".

A Princess looking for Alice and friends needs to watch out for the too-intense sunshine! 

A little velvet and fur adds a certain elegance to the day, don't you think?

It's so much fun to spend the day laughing and telling stories that may be written down, embellished, and told over and over again. Who knows! Maybe we'll see the White Rabbit and his friends.
If you want to visit a previous Mad Hatter's Tea please follow this link down the Rabbit Hole!

Let's Do This Party!

A Fanciful Twist

It's been a while since I've had the time to do creative little ditties like this wonderful Mad Hatter blog party.  It's time. Let's do this! See you there.

Running in Circles

A very interesting kindergarten in Kyoto. Can you imagine the lawsuits in America? Do you think we can ever get past our greed and fear of letting kids be kids. Small injuries are going to happen. We post images on FB and other social media that shows our playgrounds of the past with steel and concrete.  Most of us survived fairly unscathed and learned valuable lessons. We learned to help one another. We learned that our actions sometimes have consequences we don't like, so we make better decisions.

Along with entitlement, the generation that are teens today, give little thought to their actions. Why? Because it is always another person's fault or the fault of the city, school, etc. that caused the accident or the outcome.  Not theirs. They've never made a decision for their own safety or the safety of others. They've never been allowed to run around in circles unfettered by someone (who fears a lawsuit) yelling at them to stop.

Just a thought that came to me this morning and I had to make it. Enjoy Whovians. Enjoy.

Thoughts on Self-Promotion

...or more accurately "Thoughts on What I Don't Do Well".

I've been busy updating all my varied social media applications.

I've given a lot of thought to dropping this blog and placing my efforts into only sharing my work on G+, LinkedIn, Behance, Tumblr, and of course, Twitter.  But...

This blog was the first step I took into sharing my art and illustration. It has lost its focus.  It rambles.  For those who know me personally, well, that's me.  I love a challenge.  I like to try a variety of methods and spend a lot of time learning new skills or techniques.  Isn't that what it's all about?  "Life-long learning", I chant to my students.  So in some ways, it does share the journey of my processes and progress.

My work is like a Carol King song. Only I could sing - "My work has been a tapestry of rich and varied hues". 

I have the darnedest time promoting myself and focusing on what I do best. Saying "HEY! Look at me over here!  I can do X, Y, AND Z!, is not my thing.   I also have a tendency to shrug off any praise that client's or viewers share.  I really should be getting them to write it down.  

So here goes -  these are the other places you can find my work.  I've added buttons on the right.  I'm trying to get them all pulled together nice and neat.  Organized.  The problem for a lot of artists isn't that we don't have work; it's that we don't have time to do the actual work, prep the files for online, organize folders for each category, and then build the online portfolios, etc.  I'm working on a Tumblr also.  More on that later.

Finding me online:

Behance

Google+

and
@sandravanwinkle on Twitter

And I've also been designing fabrics (mostly for my own personal collections) over on Spoonflower.

Please check out my other sites and work references.  I'll continue to use this blog as a way to discuss art and design.  I will most likely move my education blogging to another blog.  It becomes difficult to keep all my projects and output organized within one blog.  I'll post that here when I get it all pulled together, hopefully, soon.  After school starts back, I'll be very busy.

Oh!  I MUST add, we are having a BIG wedding here in the Autumn.  My handsome baby boy - yeah, he hates me calling him that - and his very lovely fiancee - are tying the knot.  I'm thrilled.  Yeah.  It's busy around here these days.  I wouldn't want it any other way.

The Happy Couple
Photo by Jason Hensley
Can I just say - I LOVE these photographs by Jason Hensley.  He's amazing.  Check him out through the link above and on the photo.

Beer Citadel: Partial Mash Brewing Guide

If you like brewing or beer, you should read this guide from award winning home-brewers at Beer Citadel.
Beer Citadel: Partial Mash Brewing Guide: The image above of the cooling down of a partial mash boil in the kitchen sink full of ice likely brings back fond (or frustrating) mem...

It's Called Lifelong Learning

Gorgeous work!  
Found this as I was researching surface textures and painting for the comic I'm working on.  Great stuff here.