Author: Becky

I know, I know

I previously posted a photo here of a painting called Piano Man. It looks like something I’d use for Mood Monday, but music I’m listening to made me look up art with pianos. The red guitar was a bonus. The painting is oil on canvas done in 2019 by Adriaan Lotter.

I need to leave the names below so I can find them again later. They’re helping me start the seventh book. I’m hoping their mid-century, easy-listening instrumental music is what I’m looking for.

Les Baxter
Ray Conniff
Martin Denny
Percy Faith
Heinz Kiessling
Sven Libaek
Henry Mancini
Annunzio Paolo Mantovani
Piero Piccioni
Tito Puente
Nelson Riddle
George Shearing
Werner Tautz
Cal Tjader

Since I gave you something pretty to see, I’ll leave you with something pretty (titled “It Never Entered My Mind”) to hear. =)

Inspirations post (delayed)


I keep several of my journals handy in case I want to use them for different things, and among those is a journal I labeled “Inspirations.” I created that one quite a while back, and here’s what’s in it.


The inside front cover page decorated with these stickers, because various birds in the corvid family are part of my inspirations.


The first page has this postcard of a Rothko painting. Seeing Mark Rothko paintings in person, reading books about his life, and collecting art books with photographs of all the paintings I haven’t seen all fall under the category of “inspirations.” I put a Rothko painting in Three Fortunes in One Cookie as an homage to Rothko’s work.

A couple of weeks back, I ordered some stencils with small patterns or shapes that I wondered if I could use on some of the wee canvases I paint, and I practiced with a couple of them on this page using gel pens.

That’s it! Those are the only pages with material in the “Inspirations” journal after all this time. Recently, as if I needed another one, I picked up this journal that appealed to me, also with the theme of inspiration.

The gel pens weren’t working that great, so I decided to try my fine point Sharpies.

And use the new journal to organize all the various creative projects I have in mind to do, working them into my writing schedule as well as other non-creative activities I need to take care of.

I knew Sharpies would bleed onto the following page, so I put a plastic sheet between pages. I don’t care if the ink shows on the page backs, because I’ll probably use those pages for mini collages that provide visuals of things having to do with characters or plot lines in the Neverending Saga.

Time will tell if this more disciplined approach toward balancing my creative projects works. I have lots of ideas of things I want to write, paint, collage, etc., and one thing I know about myself is that creativity begets more creativity. For example, there’s a project I began in 2021 related to one of the books in the saga. I’d put it aside to do other things, and this week, two years later, I finally finished it. I can’t share it because it’s a gift (as yet ungiven).

I can share this. Last Friday was Marika’s birthday, and since the first Spirograph painting I did (using INXS lyrics) was for her birthday in 2021, I was game to do another. When she asked about a possible painting using lyrics to “Wildflowers” by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, I decided to do something similar on a couple of small (3-inch by 9-inch) rectangular canvases.

I really enjoyed painting those.

I like the way so many of the things I attempt: doll fashion or dioramas; painting, coloring, and collaging; and the journaling, fiction, poetry, and lyrics I write, can all blend and overlap to inspire me.

Tiny Tuesday!


Trying to decide if there’s something crafty I can do with my Magnetic Poetry tin, which was damaged in the Harvey flood of August 2017.

Especially the interior.

When Tom took it down off a high shelf for me, he could tell something was inside it, and it turned out to be magnets that were once on the refrigerator inside the Doll House at The Compound. I’d forgotten all about my David magnets, which I think were from our late friend Jeff. After my mother moved away and the Doll House was empty, it became a guest house, as well as a place where my business was located, my dolls were in display cases, and it was available for friends and me to use for meetings and social gatherings.

Later, when Timothy moved to Houston, the Doll House became his home, and I think he may have added the magnetic words that were also in the tin.

For your Tiny Tuesday regard, here are some of David’s fun fashions. I guess I’ll leave out the unclothed version, since exquisite art seems to be labeled as X-rated by people who see only through the lens of sexualizing all things.

Inspirations (a blog post on hold)

On Saturday, like many of us, my eyes have been on the news about Hawaii. I just read that the death toll has risen to 89, and that number is expected to increase. The property damage is extensive, some of it to historic places.

Earlier in the day, I spent a lot of time writing a blog post and inserting photos, and when I went to do some editing, changes to the blog host’s features caused me to lose all my work. I was upset for a while and decided to take a break before I rewrote it. Now I know it can wait until next week.

I’d rather acknowledge that our fellow citizens in Hawaii are suffering. I know people who live in Hawaii, and I hope to figure out something I can do, or where to donate, instead of focus on things that don’t matter a lot in the scheme of things. This link to a Washington Post article provides links to reputable aid efforts.

Much love to our beautiful state of Hawaii and its residents. Aloha.

Thursday is for thinking

Yesterday was a little bit of a challenge because of come-and-go headaches and not enough sleep. Think I’m getting too much screen time. Though I managed to fall asleep around midnight (last night), I woke up at four AM, drank water, took something for headache and muscle pain, and probably fell asleep for another three to four hours, which to me is a WIN.

So today is a day of trying to stay comfortable (the heat wave continues, and the headache does, too) and away from the computer. I colored this.

This is very much in line with characters in the Neverending Saga. Maybe one of them has had a period of “finding herself,” and I think that’ll happen later for a male character in crisis, but most of the characters have an ongoing process of creating themselves and building their lives with purpose and deliberation.


Thanks to thinking while coloring (this is my writing journal, after all), the left side of those pages is now filled with ideas and possibilities for book seven’s first chapter or section. I’ve paid some bills, responded to calls and texts, and have a dinner menu planned.

It’s Zen time.