Yearly Projects « karenika

Review: Little Monsters

Little Monsters by Adrienne Brodeur
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A beautiful and touching story about a family, kids who lost their mom at a young age and had a dad that was brilliant and yet difficult to grow up with. Complicated relationships as they are preparing for their dad’s seventieth birthday and more and more secrets start unraveling.

Brodeur writes with subtlety, compassion, and kindness. Her characters are complex and you can’t help but feel for them. This is a touching and beautiful story about how complicated our relationships can be with those closest to us.

with gratitude to edelweiss and Simon & Schuster for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

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The Joy of Art – July 04 2023 at 04:41PM

Painting: today’s fun with watercolor. These pages are meditative and joyful and simple.

#art #watercolor #willajournal #willajournalscourse #color #joy

The Joy of Art – July 04 2023 at 04:10PM

Writing: today’s quote with thanks to Gibran. A good reminder of choice.

Love lettering in my @willa.wanders journal. Highly recommend both of the classes.

#art #lettering #collage #willajournal #gibran #khalilgibran

The Joy of Art – July 04 2023 at 03:39PM

Making: another page in the @lizelayne five things signature of my @willa.wanders journal.

So grateful for summer and quiet moments.

#art #collage #willajournal #fivethings #journaling

Today – July 04 2023 at 11:09AM

Reading: City People

New vacation day, new ARC.

#random #book #netgalley #mystery #reading #arc

Today – July 04 2023 at 11:08AM

Listening to: She Gets the Girl.

Reading more LGBTQ+ books and this was on the list.

#random #book #audiobook #ya #lgbtq? #reading

The Joy of Art – July 03 2023 at 04:59PM

Playing: Another inspiration by @willa.wanders is this watercolor willa journal where I get to play with color every day.

Once I’ve filled up the whole thing, I will go back and letter every page, too. But for now I am just basking in the joy of playing with color every day.

#art #watercolor #color #willajournal

The Joy of Art – July 03 2023 at 04:57PM

Making: The best part of a holiday weekend is all the time I get to play play play.

I’ve discovered @willa.wanders this year by taking her class on lettering which was life-changing for me. I then signed up for her journal making class which gave me endless amounts of joy.

Now I get to practice lettering in my Willa journal daily.

#art #lettering #quotes #collage

The Joy of Art – July 03 2023 at 04:54PM

Writing: I just finished the June Five Things class by @lizelayne and have loved waking up to her invitation to pause and her simple and yet thoughtful prompts and her inspiring links every morning.

I was on such a roll that I decided.to continue my daily list making by redoing the prompts she’d shared for the February edition.

If you haven’t taken her classes before, I highly recommend them.

Loving doing them in my @willa.wanders journal.

#art #collage #fivethings

Review: A Beginner’s Guide to Sketching Buildings & Landscapes: Perspective and Proportions for Drawing Architecture Gardens and More!

A Beginner’s Guide to Sketching Buildings & Landscapes: Perspective and Proportions for Drawing Architecture, Gardens and More! by Masao Yamada
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is a different and interesting book on how to structure your sketches for a scene with buildings and landscape. It focuses less on how to draw the bits of a building but more around how to make decisions around where to frame the elements of the scene, how to get the proportions and perspective right and then how to break down the structures of the drawing to get the scene to match what you’re looking at.

It’s unlike any other book I’ve read on this topic and I think for that reason alone, it’s a valuable addition to your library of art/sketching books.

with gratitude to Tuttle Publishing and edelweiss for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

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Review: My Murder

My Murder by Katie Williams
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

3.5 stars.

This is a well written story that has the most interesting premise. I think the blurb doesn’t do this book justice as the mystery at its heart doesn’t really unfold until way too late in the story and it’s not really a mystery story. I think this would be much better marketed as a speculative literary story. I thought the ending was also rushed and not clear. But I still enjoyed the writing and it’s unlike many other books I’ve read.

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