
Something old (above), and something very new. Green Gold leaves sprouting!


Something old (above), and something very new. Green Gold leaves sprouting!


Grab a cuppa and a muffin, this is a long one. 🙂
It’s time for Jennifer Belthoff’s Love Notes postcard exchange. Woo Whoo! This takes place four times a year. For this round, the option was given to use snail mail or email. For three weeks my postcard partner and I will exchange emails based on a writing prompt. But you know me, I want to send painted postcards. I plan to send the originals when it is safe to be out and about.
I sent an ecard greeting to my partner earlier this week, the prompt was, “Together”. This is what came to mind.
The tree in front has buds. I swear they were not there yesterday, and today they are. Bright green-gold buds!

Big Train, Little Trains, Cows and a Starship
I’ve been meaning to share this, but as it turns out this is the perfect time for it. Are you up for a mini-virtual day trip?
Early in March, we visited the Scottsdale Railroad Museum. We walked through the Peoria Depot and learned about the Merci Trains. The Presidential Roald Amundsen Pullman Car was next. Below are a few of the photos I took. Follow the link to watch a very interesting video on the history. It’s a short one.

They have a glass partition in the dining area for protection. Here is a floorplan. It is for the Ferdinand Magellan, but the layout is pretty much the same.



Next up was the 10,000 square foot model railroad building. WOW! I never knew there were so many different sizes of model trains! I took lots of photos until my phone died. But somehow I managed to get only one good shot of a moving train. Haha. Most of my images were of the miniature cityscapes.
First up a huge globe.



Had to laugh at the lego cacti.

Throughout the exhibit, there are orange hands you can touch to activate the displays. The spaceship rose out of the crater. Cue the Twilight music. Do do do do, do do do do.



Goodbye Santa Fe!

My photos don’t do justice to the displays. There was so much to see. In every direction. There is more information here and each gauge group has a link to better photos and even some videos as well. The whole time I was writing this post, the Conjunction Junction song was in my head. Anyone else remember Schoolhouse Rock?
I hope you enjoyed the trip! And if that isn’t enough to fill an afternoon, take a look at the world’s tiniest model train! WOWzers!

I sat down to clean my palette, but instead, I started to paint. I used long strokes on the Saguaro, instead of blending patches of color. I used a blue Le Pen to define. Looking at the scan, I noticed that the cactus and the foreground were too much the same.
I left it overnight and then added blue Posca. Now it’s a bit too much like the sky. Haha. That is what learning looks like. Sometimes.
Had fun in the process, more fun making the animation. FUN!

Loved this true cerulean blue sky with a swish of puffy white clouds.

One clean palette, empties refilled.

New palette filled and ready to go. I bought this palette months ago, 40 or 50% off. Room for six more colors. I sorted my colors before I started filling the wells. I still goofed somehow and ended up with two empty slots. But that gives me room for new colors. My list of wanna try hues is long. Naturally.
I probably shouldn’t have included the two orange colors. I rarely use them. I’ll have to think of something fun to use them for. “Think. Think. Think.” As Pooh would say.
It’s still a wonky collection. But I do have warm and cool hues of the primaries. I’m working on the color chart next. If anyone is interested, I can share that in the next post.
