Drawing Lab -At the Zoo (kind-of)

So I waited until we finally had a chance to go to the zoo in Madison to continue with the labs in this great book.....but I forgot my sketch stuff when we went to Madison the other weekend! Duh! It was a fabulous day at the zoo too...I even left my camera at home!

So I tore out a few photos from magazines and sketched from those....

Drawing Lab -sketch your pet

Young Guinea Hens- Confucius and Pearl

I meant to post more about this book but I actually lost my copy along with my sketchbook! Ugh!

But I found the book and some of my sketches....now remember that I am not very skilled at drawing. Beacuse of this I often avoid doing more that quick sketches. My sketches are just for me to remember an idea. This more though inspired me to draw more and ya know what? I am and the kids see me drawing and then they start drawing. Cool huh

This lab was to sketch your pet. Quick loose sketches, no erasers.
My drawings are pretty bad but the point is to keep drawing regardless and I'm bound to get better :-)

Parakeet- Echo

Dogs- Lucky and Penny

Guinea Pigs-Patch and Bandit

Mama Dot *with edit

Mama Dot-I wonder how many feathers she plucked out to feather her nest???
Looks cozy

Our sweet duckie Dot has been sitting on a clutch of eggs. She's only been on them for 10 days out of 28 days total. Dot made her nest in an old dog house full of hay we have in the duck pen. So far so good.

Odd thing happened this morning, she wasn't the only one in the dog house. Another female duck was in there too. Rook got up and ran out with the other ducks. she left behind a small next of six eggs in front of Dot's nest. I have no idea where the six eggs came from, they weren't there yesterday!

I checked back later and Dot was alone in the house and the eggs and Rooks nest were gone. The only thing I can figure out is that Dot loaned out some of her eggs for Rook to sit on and when Rook left, Dot took them back. Does that make sense????

This is Rook

I really don't understand duckie behavior. Either way, we should end up with a bunch of ducklings in a few weeks. it will be tough on the kids, but we'll have to sell off most of them.

*I caught a photo just this evening of Rook again on some eggs.
She stood up and hiss at me and I saw the eggs under her :-)

*If you look carefully at the above photo, you can see all the mosquitoes!
This is why we cannot go outside much this summer.

I know I haven't post anything artistic in awhile. I've been too busy or forgetful to take pics, but I will soon!

Duckies at my window

My loyal minions!

My Duckies are Growing!

This is Polky.

Some of my minions are getting their "real" feathers!

I have NO idea what the poofs are on some of their heads. Very fuzzy though *grins*

This is Seven...what a cutie!

Ducklings

Last Friday we adopted 8 ducklings. They were approx. 2 weeks old then.

For now (until they are bigger) they are living in our kitchen. Lucky adopted them also. He sleeps next to them and tries to keep the duckies in line.

Some outdoor play time in the sun

"We're much bigger now...let us out!"

from left to right they are: Yoda, Polky, Shadow, Dot, Harold, Fern,
and you can just see a bit of Seven. Not shown is Rook, a medium sized black one.

Isn't Lucky a great lifeguard?

I don't know why I get myself into these things? Not like I have too much time on my hands or anything.
I've wanted ducks for a couple of years and I decided to go for it. So now we have 2 dogs, 2 guinea pigs, 1 parakeet, and 8 ducks. It is never boring in the Walker house! *grins*
I just feel lucky that my Hubby puts up with it all!!!!

More Poladroid

I'm playing around with a bunch of old pics....so fun!!!

critters

Since I wasn't blogging for a few months I never got to introduce Bandit, our new guinea pig. We got this cutie back in September. He's a bit more skittish than Patch. Bandit is hard to photograph becuase he seems to be afraid of the camera!
With a second GP, we needed a bigger cage. I made this one using ideas from Cavy Cages.
It was very easy to make. I used coated wire cube shelf pieces from Target, zipties (cable ties) and coroplast (sign plastic). We have storage underneath and the little guy are off the floor so it isn't as drafty for them. Oh, the paper sign is in dragon runes and it says "Here be guinea pigs". *grins*
This is Emma's budgie named Echo. He's very sweet and friendly. We are accumulating quite a bunch of critters!

Yummy Summer Berries!

We have a large wild berry patch on the edges of our woods. The last few years we had a very lame crop, it has been too dry for nice juicy berries. This year we have more than we can pick! Well we could pick them, but it is the mosquitos that drive us away! Even when we wear long sleeves, long pants, hats, and bug spray, we still get attacked! I love fresh berries, but it is NOT worth the multitudes of itchy bites!

My Heart Aches

Bluto

6/30/95 to 4/21/08

We Miss You

My Patch

I love my little guy! Just look at that face *grins*

Sitting with Patch in my lap is 

so relaxing. He just curls up and makes cute "reet reet!" noises.

A feast!---yummy

Busy as a mole

April has arrived and most of the snow in our yard is gone. 

We discovered that the moles have had a party this late winter. Snow melts and the dirt clumps appear! All over the yard are mole tunnels and dirt mounds. The mice were busy too! Cute little mouse nest.

grassy mouse nest

Finally I spotted a robin hopping around yesterday. I love robins. During the summer, when I'm busy weeding in the garden, picnicking with the kids, or just sitting and reading a book, there always seems be a robin hopping around  nearby. I love the peep-peeping.  As a family, we keep an eye on the nearby Nest full of gorgeous blue eggs. We name each of the hatchling, have a funeral and burial when we find one dead. Poor birdies...I even made a shrine to honor the little guys. For all the little hatchlings.

Bird shrine ---outside (the top is a mini gazing ball and a broken vintage Fiestaware saucer)

The shrine swivels open on pins 

bird shrine ---inside (with broken egg, shredded money nest, and LED votive)

Our Newest Family Member

she thinks she's a cat
Originally uploaded by byxanthe

Isn't she a cutie!
We adopted this 6 month old pup named Penny on Easter Sunday.
She needs a bit of training.... so I never got to the Illustration Friday challenge last week.

Hopefully this week!

Our Family Grows

I wanted to introduce you to a new member of our family...
"Patch" We adopted this cutie on Monday. Who would give up this little guy?
He is very sweet, affectionate, and playful. Not at all skittish.


The younger of our two dogs is really interested in Patch.
Not aggressive, just curious.