For my birthday I got a 24 color pack of
Blick Studio art markers. I figured I would give them a try and see how they compared to
Prismacolor art markers. Both these brands offer two different tips on each marker. One tip is fine and one is chiseled. They are spectacular for coloring, blending and sketching. The
Blick Studio markers worked
surprisingly well considering they are over a dollar cheaper per marker. Discovering this I ran out and bought another 40 colors individually. After purchasing all those fantastic colors I returned home to the realization that I had no where to put said markers. I am very particular about how my art supplies are kept. They must always be in color order and preferably I should be able to see every color all at once. Compulsive much? To feed my compulsive behavior I took a box and a bunch of wood pieces and created this......
Just look at all those wonderful colors - 64 to be exact - all
visible in color order and waiting to be used. This is the kind of thing that makes the artist in me drool.....
You may notice there is also space for 11 more markers - one day soon I hope to fill this space. When I'm not using them the markers fold down and the box can close.
Speaking of creations in wood - here are two kitty magnets I made using wood pieces.
Inspired by my magnet idea my friend Cherice Campbell created a few magnets of her own while I was building my marker box. (I really like the pig!)
So needless to say I did not get out and take any fascinating photos to show you. Which is odd because the weather was wonderful! It does occur to me that this is a photo blog and the only photos I've shown you are of creations.....so I will distract you with something shiny and bright.... (The sun shining through the trees)
and something cute! (Giraffes at
Brookfield Zoo)
Today was a beautiful day. I went for a stroll by the pond this afternoon and stumbled across some amazing dragonflies.
This was the first time I had the opportunity to photograph a dragonfly with my SLR. Have you ever tried to photograph a dragonfly with a regular point and shoot camera? It's not easy. Dragonflies do not sit still for very long. In the past I would sit very still and when I saw one land I would try to creep up on it as quickly and quietly as I could. If I succeeded I then had to try and get the camera to focus on the dragonfly so I could take a decent shot before it flew away. I hate auto-focus! Here are some pictures I took in Tennessee in 2006 with my Nikon Coolpix 5900. 
And here is one taken in Illinois the same year with the same camera. 
I have a 55-200mm zoom lens for my Nikon D60 SLR camera. I no longer have to spend hours sneaking up on insects! The zoom lens allows me to take nice close up shots from farther away so I don't scare the dragonflies. It also has manual focus. Here are some more of the photos I took today. 
I love Shooty!
