Best Shot Monday: Meet Penny

 

Meet Penny. I photographed this sweet girl early this morning. I'm not sure of her back story yet, but I suspect there's been some abuse there. When I began to get her out of her kennel to take her outside, she immediately crouched down and tucked her head, but once I got the leash on her and coaxed her outside, she opened up a bit. She still was not a ball of energy, pretty cautious of her surroundings, but as soon as I squatted down with her, she crawled right into my lap. What a little lover she is. We stayed outside for quite a while, and she was so reluctant to go back in that I actually had to carry her. Once back in, it was clear she was frightened by all the noise in the shelter as she continued to tuck her head into me, so I sat in her kennel with her for a few minutes trying to soothe her fears.  Sometimes it truly breaks my heart imagining what these dogs have been through.

Penny's currently being treated for heart worms and has some skin issues the great staff at ACPS are currently helping her with, but once she clears up, I have a feeling this little girl will love you like no other and be just as beautiful on the outside and she appears to be on the inside. She is available for adoption at Animal Care and Protective Services, 2020 Forest Street, in the Riverside area of Jacksonville. She's three years old an her ID number is A907438. Follow ACPS on Facebook here.

On the lighter side, below is what happens when you try to take a selfie with a DSLR.  :-)  That's me with Bethany, a three-year-old Shepherd mix, ID number A906890, also available for adoption!

2015 Documented Life Project: Weeks 1-3, Sarah

Last year, both my redheads started out doing the Documented Life Project with me. They got through about week 13 and then lost interest. Olivia's discovered she really doesn't like paint, so lately she's been using markers and colored pencils and has fallen in love with a series of advanced coloring pages by Thaneeya McArdle. I'm happy to just see her art-ing in some fashion!

Sarah's tackling the DLP project with me this year. She's decided she's going to do just the pages she wants when she wants, and that's fine! I'm glad she's giving it another shot! She was super excited to do her cover (above) after watching Roben-Marie's videos in the Cover Story class.

Above is Sarah's Week 1 "book pages" challenge. I like to see the little light bulb go off over her head when she gets an idea and tries a suggestion I give her.

For Week 2's gesso challenge, Sarah coated her pages with gesso before using water color crayons to draw a sunrise. The sunrise was inspired by week's quote, "The beginning is always today," by Mary Shelly.

Sarah's Week 3 color wheel was also done with water color crayons. (Can you tell she's fallen in love with my water color crayons?) The quote is her own. Hopefully we'll spend in a little time in the studio today working on our journals! Get all the details of this project from the Art to the 5th gals here!

2015 Documented Life Project: Weeks 1-4

Sarah and I are doing the 2015 Documented Life Project: The Journal. I so enjoyed my 2014 Documented Life Project that I figured I'd keep on rolling. This year's journal is much larger, about 9 x 12 closed, so a two page spread is about 18 x 12! That's big! Here are my first four weeks. I'll post Sarah's later this weekend.

This page (above and below) was not a challenge page but I didn't want to leave the first page blank! This is the very first opening and covers January 1-4. I included a thought to keep me focused for the year: "Have the courage to take the leap." Given that I've lept into a new job and my family will all be moving to a new town in 2015, I thought that was just what I needed.

Week 1's challenge was "book pages" (above and below). I love old children's books so I dug into my stash and pulled out these pages. I think I'll make a book out of the covers! Part of this week's challenge was to write down our goals, so mine are tucked in that envelope on the right.

Week 2's challenge was "gesso" (above and below). So much we could do with this! I like how this year's challenges are a bit more wide open. I used gesso as the center to some flowers. This page includes so many different "stooofs," as Sarah would say (her word for stuff). I used paint, ink sprays, water color crayons, gelatos and gesso! Another new thing this year is the addition of a guiding quote. I included the quote in the close up below: "The beginning is always today," by Mary Shelly.

 

Week 3's challenge was "colorwheel" (above and below). First, I cut some circles from ledger paper and then stamped on top of them and glued them on the page. Then, I used a sunburst stencil to give me a base and then colored in the rays with gelatos and water color crayons for the color wheel. I added in some pen work and gave it an overall wash with linen destress ink and matte varnish.

 

Week 4's challenge was "your handwriting" (above and below). This was a tough one initially for me because, like most people I think, I hate my handwriting. So I decided to keep it underneath! I wrote out a poem a wrote a few years ago and then added inks and a little stenciling. The poem references the stars so I cut stars out of watercolor pages and glued them in, outlining them with a Stabilo All pencil and water brush (thank you Roben-Marie!). This is definitely my favorite page so far! You can see the poem here.

Again this year, this project is free! I really enjoy having a weekly challenge (no matter how far behind I usually am!). Check out the project on the Art to the 5th blog here. These ladies are great fun and inspiration! See my 2014 Documented Life Project wrap-up here.

Best Shot Monday: Meet Charleston!

I got a little shelter time in early Friday morning before I had to head to the state Music Symposium. As I've been easing into my new role, I've been lucky that two of the state events this year just so happen to be in Jacksonville, so I can sleep in my own bed! I sure am missing my regular time at the shelter though. I'm trying to slowly wean myself away so I won't have such a shock when we move this summer, but it's so hard to stay away!

Meet Charleston. Doesn't he look rather distinguished with his salt and pepper face? Shelter staff think he's about four years old. He's very friendly and loves hanging out in playgroup with his shelter pals. Charleston is also available for a sleepover. Yes, you heard that right! A sleepover! The shelter uses sleepovers to allow a potential adopter to see how a new furry friend will do in a potential new home with other animals. Sleepovers are also a great way for the shelter staff to learn how a particular animal may behave outside the shelter. I think it's a great program that has the potential to increase adoption rates even more!

Check out Charleston and all the wonderful animals available for adoption at Jacksonville's Animal Care and Protective Services. They are located at 2020 Forest Street in the Riverside area of Jacksonville.  Visit their website here and their Facebook page here (you'll see lots of my photos on both!)