I am grateful. This year has been amazing for me. It has been cyclical, healing, formative and expansive. I have settled into life on the East Coast again, have felt the impact and grace of opening my creative process up to the world. I have worked to draw you in to my approach and have watched you grow with me and for that I am very grateful.

Throughout this week I have received emails of thanks and good cheer from Sweden and Italy, Washington state and I have watched comments come through the blog thanking me. But I thank you.

There have also been a few cards, hand drawn and painted, printed, showing a sense of self respect by their creators, who made promises to self to draw, to paint, to learn and to be ready. I love the community we have created and I thank you for helping me to grow and learn too. I plan to offer more creative challenges in this coming year, I do hope you will again join in the fun.

In the meantime, thank you, every single one of you, commenters, lurkers, card senders, gift givers, supports, friends, artists, all.

I am going away with my Man for a few days. Be well, welcome the sun back into your life, enjoy your family, your holiday, make time to make something. See you soon.

Today was a great day to get out of the house. I didn't need to go further than a mile but decided to take the subway there and to walk back. I love the 9th Street station because it is the highest in the system and it has a view of the Statue of Liberty.

I went to visit my gal pal, Shanna, my bookbinding teacher and friend. This morning I woke all tight and yuckster and I totally messed up on sewing some signatures together, she took me in hand and whipped me into shape. I was just making sh!+ up!

Notes to self:
2 pages per signature when using 140lb watercolor paper
Use an even number of holes.
That fancy tie them together stitch? Always go the furthest away from the hole you just exited. (See that needle?)

I would be lying if I told you I didn't use the search function on this blog to remind me of things and I know I will be using it to reference this post.

Shanna was making cookies, while I sewed my new books. I got to lick the whisks of their cinnamon buttercream and oatmeal cookie dough. I would have stayed even longer and would have encouraged further feats of baking prowess had I the chance... There would have been ulterior motives in it, but.

I am just sayin'.

Then on my walk home, I definitely needed it at that point, I saw this graffiti. I think it would had had more impact had it said, Swells. Now that is a tag I could embrace.

You may remember this post. Seeing this sticker made me wonder about Street artists' and just how they decide to traverse the world. I mean, how do you pack your bag when you take a trip, stickers, stencils, buy the paint when you get there?

And this sad guy.

Last night we went to see some jazz at the Douglass Street Music Collective. It was great. I of course, brought my journal and made time to draw. As Tomas Fujiwara & The Hook Up were playing there was one point where the music hit me, I heard it, it entered me and tears came. Good stuff.

The trumpet player caught my attention early on because I liked his hair, so I drew him twice and like the second drawing much better than the first. But, as it goes, I think that is to be expected.

My Man started the day off with some very pretty pancakes.

Thus inspired, I began experimentations in using Kozo paper with soy wax and screen printing. I think I am falling in love.

On Thursday I found myself in Manhattan a bit early and walked over to New York Central Art Supply where they employ some very lovable naysayers. They think they know better, and often warn you against a thing...like say, purchasing a ruling pen, or using soy wax on Kozo paper, because it easily abrades, it should not be submerged in water and ought to be ironed free of wax instead. Whateva...

One would need to ask said salesman why he chose to apply glue to the weaker paper, if he had ever washed paper before and if so what precautions he might have taken and what exactly did he know about soy wax anyway? Huh?

And well? I think I loves me some Kozo paper. It is sheer, and although I have not begun my experimentations in collage with this paper, I have been placing it on top of printed matter, and love the transparency. I will use one of these papers this week and report back on their use in journaling, I may even try some out in some fiber art too.

What else could I do to this paper?

The start of the day was very auspicious for both Arrow and I. We received a package in the mail From Mom of Bob, Nelson, and Prinny Prin Anney. There were froths of cloth bundles, a book and a certain amount of green stuff that persons of feline persuasion really dig.

Then my space was taken over by a surprise visit from Mark Lipinski and Jodie Davis of Quilt Out Loud.

Jodie was a cutie patutie, and I was able to get her to play art with me.

I like nothing more than to get people to make stuff with me.

Mark is a riot. My favorite part of the day was when he pushed me away from the camera and told me that he was going to eat a cupcake and that I wasn't invited. He is just that way and I love him for it. If you are not a member of QNNtv, check it out. It is a paid subscription and comes in two levels of intensity, awesome and awesome-er.

And hey! if you come to this blog through Google Reader, please read this and tell me if it works!

A reader told me that she cannot view my photos in Google Reader... I do no know why. I am trying to figure this out.

If you are having trouble viewing my blog in Google Reader, try this:

Copy this address: feed://www.melanietesta.com/mtype/atom.xml

Go to Google Reader and access your subscriptions, it will look like this:

On the right hand side of the screen you will see

Subscriptions

and to the right of that word there will be a downward facing triangle, Click it.

Scroll down to Add a subscription.

Paste the above address into this pop up box.

This works for me, my feed changed when I updated the blog last year, so if you have been a reader for a while, your feed may need updating. I hope this is easy to follow. Good Luck.

About a month ago I went over to Deb Lacativa's blog and saw these.

Deb has been one of my longstanding blog buddies. I feel like we were both blogging in the dark ages when knitters knew where it was at but quilters hadn't cottoned on, as they say.

I could not resist these things, stuffed to the brim with shreds and shards. I started daydreaming. What could I do with those things (besides hold them close to my mouth and cuss at them?) I started thinking that perhaps I would stuff them with eucalyptus and give them a good boil, check out the cloth shreds and see if a piece comes about, hang them on the wall and continue to stuff them with my own scraps and shreds. I almost wish they were known far and wide and that a few of us would decide to do a cusspot exchange... Round and round they go, where they stop...

I am going to stuff them full and give 'em a good ol' boil. Stay tuned.

And there is a mystery at Casa Melly. The paint in the lower left half pan is of unknown origin... me thinks I resupplied that pan with the wrong color...

(I am sorry this is a blurry photo but) Meg Mooar went to this same lecture in Houston and took up journaling as a result! Look at her enthusiasm in showing me the pages. And she brought a non-quilting art friend to see my lecture too!

Meg is front and center in this photo too, less blur!

I have been a member of three quilt guilds, when I started attending NSQG, as we tend to call it, I was just hitting my artistic stride. I decided (without asking) that I would create a monthly surface design challenge and would go home each month to create a supply list and basic outline. I gathered a group of people and really took advantage of what everyone had to offer and enjoyed being a member of the guild.

I found the guild to be predominantly traditional but very supportive of artistic aspirations and developments, I mean last night their quilt art special interest group had a how-to about blogging!

I felt honored to be asked to speak with them and went home feeling enthused, it was great. AND, um... I sold two small works last night. (Yippee-I love selling work)

I am going to lecture at my most favorite guild tonight, wish me luck.

This week I met up with Gal Pal and fellow Journal Study Group member Shirley, at the Society of Illustrators Sketch Night. I am going to commit to going to this event once a month, with or without Shirley because I want my figure drawing skills to improve.

The night starts with ten two minute poses, progresses to four five minute poses and then two tens and three twenties. Or something like that. As you can see my skills are rusty.

There are glimmers of hope in there and for that I am grateful.

But I am going to commit to going once a month because I want to see and convey what I see better.

Drawing and being around people who draw better than I do, keeps me humble and striving for more.

A man arrived late and quietly set up an a rickety easel and began drawing to my right. With confidence and skill he began drawing. The drawing he did was well proportioned, beautifully rendered and appropriately shaded.

A little while later a woman sat to my right and close to my own chair. She had some lusty supplies, Copic markers and fine tipped pens. She began drawing in a style I admire, using crosshatching and color, it was very pretty, even if she kept hopping up and chatting.

I work well in a setting where folks have more skill than I do. I learn from observing and evaluating what I see. I commit to improving my skills with figure drawing today.

I have announced that I will be participating in The Sketchbook Challenge and I really hope you will too. The only way to gain skill is through doing. So do it with me, OK? The group of artists we have gathered is really diverse and amazing.

Anyway. The above photo is a teaser for a video tutorial series I will be doing on The Sketchbook Challenge blog which will begin in just a few short weeks. Photo inspiration for this page by Gerry Sibell (with permission). Check out the story of this photo here.

And Phew. Thank you for coming along with me on this journey.

Today's lines needed to be smashing. Needed to impress me. I opened Birder's World magazine and began flipping through the pages. I have not yet read this month's magazine, and as usual there is at least one photo that stops me in my tracks. This month it was a photo by Gerry Sibell (Check out More of Gerry's photos here). So at first, I drew this image into my journal, creating body memory. (I have begun creating a video tut on watercolor painting for The Sketchbook Challenge group using that page so will not discuss or share it here.) But, when I started doing my lines for today, my final, official day of lines, I knew these lines needed to be good.

I drew this freely, no pencil, no tracing, nothing beside my previous trial with body memory. I lurve it. I like the graphic quality of the horizontal lines and the fact that I only completed the head to shoulders.

I did all of this while listening to the Zoos episode of Radiolab. The jaguar portion of the show ended and brought happy tears because that is the way I feel about birds. I won't say more because I think you too should listen to the show. I am pretty sure you can stream it straight from the link in the last sentence.

Has anyone noticed the 'favicon' to the left of the address bar up there?

Boy am I whupped today.

Day 29(!!!), I have never, in the 6 or 7 years that I have been blogging, blogged every-single-day. I know the name of my blog is every-single-day but I named it that because I want to remember to be creative, every-single-day.

I think I will make November my blog every single day month.

In homage to my day yesterday, to the JSG, I made this journal page this morning. Tonight's lines came well after.

I fall in love easily. Today I was in the subway when a family came in. The grand parents and parents were all having a day. The Eldest man among them was dressed so prim and proper that I felt proud and happy for the whole family. So tonight when I started doing my lines, I asked myself, 'How can I honor that memory?' The tree came first, the people next, lines to connect them all flowed after that.

Today was a JSG day, which meant that we gallery hopped all day. It was amazing. I don't remember all we did or saw. But I live in wealth and amazing culture. AND I have a fabulous group of women do enjoy it with.

We went to the Frick to see the Spanish Manner, The Adelson Galleries and I fell for the watercolor paintings by Stephen Scott Young. That man has control of his imagery, color, hand. Amazing. We went to see the Sargent and Impressionism show, and well? Not so much... Then we went to Leo Castelli and saw a show by Jasper Johns? I don't know if I have ever seen his work in person, I love it.

I wish I had the names of these pieces, the gallery walls were not labeled. I tried to look them up briefly and could not locate them easily.

We also went to the Whitney and saw the Edward Hopper show. That was interesting too. What a fun and fabulous day.

This morning I woke with a focus!

Back when I was a vintage poster restoration artist, I was enthralled with tax stamps. In order to hang a poster, or advertisement as it was in those days, you had to purchase a tax stamp. Some of the French (?) posters had a lickable stamp, that would be adhered just after wheat pasting the poster in place. Later, a tax man would come and stamp an official seal atop this to verify that you had gone through the proper channels to post the poster. If your tax stamp was peeled free, the partial over stamped image would still show.

Not all tax laws were the same, or the technology advanced and some posters were merely stamped by the tax official as seen in this link in the lower left portion of the poster.

So I woke with the idea that my journals needed a tax stamp! The Daisy Gazer, a bird who loves gazing at daisies is an image that I draw into my book when folks ask me to sign their copy. I carved the Daisy Gazer from rubber like this.

The 'stamp' (the square image with the gold crown) is Sticky Back Foam in two separate pieces.

Can you believe I am nearing the finish line of the 30 Lines in 30 Days Challenge? The group itself is still growing, which makes me super happy.

I am going to be participating in another challenge, one that I hope you too will join! Check it out.

We will issue monthly challenges and post about journaling on a group blog together, Jill Berry, Laura Cater-Woods, Carla Sonheim and Sue Bleiweiss will be among those who are ready!

Are you ready and willing?

Day dreaming of cold snowy nights high on a mountain top. Those days are long gone, but it's a nice memory to settle into. Heavy Ponderosa Pines, a breeze and a tumble of snow. How quiet it was when it was snowing. I love that sort of quiet. (Jeannie-have you been having too much of that sort of quiet lately?)

I have been invited to make a house for a certain installation... Here is a portion of my house... This is a fun challenge. I have not made anything dimensional before. I have to become a builder, of a small, artful house.

Annika made me do it. She has been using brushes in her mark making challenge. And the brush I use to load my ruling pen was just sitting there and I heard a little whisper...

Yesterday morning we went, rented a car and left the city for a short time. The pigeons welcomed the sun as we left.

A flock of birds caught my attention, and serendipitously Dianne commented telling me to read her blog post with a similar theme.

My Man and I went to our favorite local restaurant to celebrate a happiness. I was brave and asked out waitress if I could have one of the bread bags from Grandaisy Bakery.

Bags like this are ubiquitous here, if you are hungry here in New York and are an early riser, you will most likely come across a bag similar to this tucked in a security gate or propped against a restaurant doorway.

Me? I just want the bag for collage use.

There is a newbie in our midst.

Goodness, plain and simple.

No time for posting today. I am off.

Today is an auspicious day, and that is all I will say about that. My lines are complete, my table is littered and I am sated.

What could be better, a new journal with three pages either complete or in the works. Money in hand, or on table as the case may be. A cleaned gouache palette (it took elbow grease, bleach powder and sheer will).

And this page is as complete as it will be (for now) I feel like it needs something subtle but I am willing to wait and see. Detail images can be found in this, this and this post.

I am proud of myself for sticking with this one. I draw the Big Earred Bear now and again. But I work the image and make sure the bear looks like himself, and I have never given him a female friend before. So when I started drawing him, he went wonky and my censors kicked in. And I mastered my self and carried on. It is cute!

Today I made Owls progress, hooray!

And I worked my latest handwork piece. hmm...

Today I have been daydreaming about a bird feeder. I am a backyard birder and am bereft of a feeder.

A stack of Merit Badges placed on an alter my Man built in the apartment.

This little guy flowers often, sturdy, well loved little guy.

Still working the City Tea page. Overall photos soon, I bet. I am a little tired and so will remain quiet today.