Road Trip! You know the routine… Items from my etsy store will be filled on my return Monday; November 26th.

~~~

I wanted to take some time to highlight some of the great posts I’ve been reading over the past week or so; and since I will be gone for a few days I thought I would spreading a little (leafy) link love. I am borrowing “Carver’s Style” of placing a photo between paragraphs of text. No one can do it like Carver… she has this built-in tempo of knowing right when to deliver a photo. It is placed right when you need to take a breath, then to dive in for more. Here is a perfect example; check out Carver’s post on Life In Motion

Here is something I think you will like from But Wait – There’s More (isn’t that the greatest name for a blog?); some of Shelly’s American Sentences complete with a autumn photo of pumpkins all in a row. American Sentences are “Sentences of seventeen syllables informed by direct observation”.

One of the first blogs I connected with when I first got on line was a prompt page off of the Creative Everyday site; on the Artist Way I think it was. This month she is hosting the 5th Annual Art Everyday Month (November). I seriously missed the first day of this by getting pulled into the NaMloPoMo groups; which somewhat the same kind of thing. Leah has been working on a “subway stories” series on her Blue Tree Blog.

Here’s another new cyber-pal-artist that I e-met earlier this year… Sandra Evertson a regular contributer of magazines like Romantic Homes Magazine… and Somerset Studio Magazine… and Stampington & Company’s. You’ll find some of her own books in the left hand side of her site.

I don’t make it over to Citizen of The Month’s site as often as I would like to but when I do he never fails to give me an (off the wall) chuckle. Here is one on Becoming an Adult without rebelling against his parents. (Even if he did wipe me out of his Blog Crushes of the Day – along with 300 others – I am still sending people his way. Hrumph. Somehow wiping my name out makes him more of an adult? Hrumph again, I say.) (Note: See the addendum to this at the bottom of this post for more from Citizen of The Month)

Here’s another that I don’t get over to as often as I would like… Cow Hampshire. I got a chuckle out of this post on self portraits. And check out this post on smashing pumpkins. It is difficult to stay less then an hour on this site for all there is to offer.

I was thrilled when Carol over at Dispatch from LA wanted to exchange links a while back. Here is a sample of her art posted Oh Dear that has some link love at the bottom of it which are brand new to me too. Living south of me, near the fires, she has some amazing photos from over the summer (not so long ago) “Smoke and Ash” and “California is Burning”

If you are looking for some amazing photographs (and art and photoshopping) look over here at Flander’s Inside written in both Dutch and English. If you are like me and enjoy a lot of eye candy she provides it all. She has had almost 255,000 hits this year. Seriously. 1,658 have been from the United States and I have to wonder how many of those are mine!

If you are up for a bit of wit stop over at the Here Comes a Storm site. Actually the full title is: Here Comes a Storm in the Form a Girl… that pretty much says it all. If you want to get lost in blog heaven; check out her list of blogs in the right hand side. I am thinking of using that method over here… or just moving the list of blogs onto a separate page – they are getting a bit out of hand.

One more wonderful site I found this last year is the very clever Ms Mamma’s site. Photographer Extraordinaire! Is anyone else wondering how she got these guys to have the same expression in all these photos??? And look at this one Isn’t She Lovely? That is what I mean by: “Photographer Extraordinaire”

I re-ran (yeah – it’s a word) back into Red Moon a few months ago. Her blog used to be called WaterColor Blues (as I recall?); a writer and a photographer. Here is a sample of her writing, a piece of “flash fiction“. And here is a sample of her photography “Ducks”

The Paint Pot is a site I discovered recently. Does it get any lovelier then this red red pear? Mildred paints everything from portraits to animals, pastels to oils, on many types of surfaces, including fine miniatures on polished white elk horn and on different finished woods.

If you are a little bit of glum run on over to the Rodrigvitz Style blog. Yeah, I know I talk of her site quite a bit. It is always cheery and bright and creative. Makes me want to turn off my black background and go orange! Someday I am going to find out exactly how she creates amazing pieces of work like these in the Longmont Studio Tour.

Here is cyber-chum’s Tammy Vitale’s site. I have sang her praises in the past; a post on Synchronicity. Tammy (almost daily) brings us a little of her own art, a little of someone else’s, art advice from her coach, art quotes from assorted books she is reading this week.

Here’s another artist: Laurie Pace’s blog; Texas Premier Contemporary Artist ~ International Gallery Representation Hong Kong, Wyoming (been there!), New York, Ohio and California (live there!). Here is a post showing her contemporary art … and a peek inside a home she is thinking of buying. I had no idea (until tonight) that she posts on these blogs as well: Open Range, She’s Out West Magazine, Laurie on Guitar.

Studio Lolo’s site is one I stumbled over in the last year. It was reading this post with art of a crow that I realized she has yet another blog (seriously, where do these artists find the time??!). This one is dedicated to what is inside her moleskin.

Here is Jane Poe’s blog; unlike me – Jane Poe writes her own poetry. Check out her Hospital post. Bring kleenix.

I have said it before; no one tells it like Believing Soul. If you find yourself sitting dazed after a Believing Soul post you will be joining the rest of us. Here is a Powerful post which says it much better then I.

Paris Parfait always brings a wide variety of photos from Paris, plus thought provoking conversation. Here is my favorite Parfait post from this last week (or so)… 12 Scenes from Bastille

~~~
~~~

Re: Citizen of The Month… posted concerning first commenters on his blog so I thought I would play along with my first five commenters when I began blogging in October 2005…

My first post was October 19th 2005; uploading my watercolor avatar. I received no comments.

On October 27th 2005, my second post I placed up a dry pastels called “Remote” (about ‘the foo’). I attached a quote by Deepak Chopra: “Synchronicity is God sending us messages anonymously.” Which is really quite clever since my first two commenters were by some called “anonymous”. I received five comments (and I became addicted to blogging).

~~~

commenter #1: Anonymous #1 says:

“I could swim amongst your ‘remote’, gorgeous!”

Anonymous #1 isn’t really ‘anonymous’ though; as he/she has a very real profile and posts to three very real blogs apty named: Photography Anonymous; Artwork Anonymous and Bird Anonymous.

~~~

commenter #2: My second anonymous commenter is really an anonymous commenter and has no profile or blog:

Wonderful dry pastels.

~~~

commenter #3: My first actual non-anonymous commenter, Aravis says:

I really love these colors, and the way they seem to flow!

Aravis did run a blogger (Secret Soul) and now has a newer blog at Exploring Aravis; the extroverted thoughts of an introverted mind. As the first 3-D person who commented on my blog please drop her a note thanking her for creating my blogging addiction.

~~~

commenter #4: the very lovely, very 3-D Alina Chau says:

WOW!! Love the color and the abstract …. V lovely painting!

Alina Chau; as we all know, is an animator who runs the Ice-Cream Monster Toon Cafe. Alina is still an active commenter today as she was two years ago.

~~~

commenter #5: Nita says, supplying me with my very first “smilie”:

Ditto to the fabulous shapes and colors! The glow from the screen is wonderful

Nita is from New Hampshire, still alive and well and running the blog Ink Tracks; Sketching the world around me, exploring methods and myself. Fiber and photos, too. I think I met her back in the day that I was posting to Everyday Matters.

~~~
~~~

See you back on Sunday (or Monday) (or there about)!