Random Fact # 1

Recently, the very talented artist, Joan Yoshioka, nominated me to list 8 random facts about myself. I am then to nominate, I think, 8 other bloggers to do the same. As I'm a little late to get my facts started, I won't nominate anyone unless they wish to be nominated so, if you're interested, please let me know.

I'm going to list my 8 facts over several posts and, hopefully, illustrate each one.

Random Fact #1 - I LIKE spiders! Well, I should say I have more of a 'you leave me alone and I'll leave you alone' kinda relationship with them. I do think they play an integral role in our environment by helping to keep the insect population down so I refuse to kill a spider unless it is venomous and a threat. We tend to get the occasional Huntsman spider popping in for a visit and my kids know not to kill them so, when they see one, they usually call in the big guns......ME! With the help of a broom, I manage to give the spider a free ride out of the house....no harm done. Well.....gulp.....there was this one time that a Mr Huntsman refused to cooperate and climb onto the broom willingly. It happened to be on the wall beside my sleeping daughter's bed and was completely defiant! I won't go into what happened next but let me just say I still bear a guilty conscience about it to this very day.

Spider - Graphite in A5 Sketchbook - © Serena Lewis
My reference image was courtesy of PD Photos - Thank you
Click on image to enlarge

Inspired by a fence.....an Emu to watch over me!

I was looking outside my bathroom/ensuite window the other day and, there in the fence, was an Emu staring back at me. Can you see it? Or am I the only one with a quirky imagination? It's there........I swear it!


Anyhow, I was quite fascinated with the emu watching over me so I felt inspired to draw one and here is the result using the fence image as my initial guide.

Emu - Graphite in A5 sketchbook - © Serena Lewis

Click on images to enlarge

This and That ~

I've been very busy over the past week so sorry I haven't posted before now.

NEWSFLASH - We are finally getting some rain!!! It has even fallen in our dam catchment areas which means we are now given an extra week of grace before being hit with Level 6 water restrictions. I'm not looking forward to that.

This week, I decided to refurbish the desk in my room. This poor old desk has been through the mill as far as makeovers go......in its original state, it was a timber laminate look with black desktop (never got a pic so you will have to use your imagination). My sister was throwing it out because it had seen better days so I decided to take it and do what I could to give it a new lease on life.....it was then changed to purples and pinks for my daughter's room.

My daughter eventually relinquished it to me and I quickly changed it to whites and pinks when I went through my Shabby Chic phase......

In recent months, I refurbished it in greens but then felt it clashed with, more than matched, my room so I changed it yet again.

It's finally ended up like this to fit in better with the sea/beach theme of my bedroom.......

What do you think?

Today, I had one of my students over to paint and, unbeknowns to her, to celebrate her birthday which was yesterday. We had a lovely morning and feasted on pavlova! Angie also bought me a lovely bunch of tulips as a housewarming gift. Thank you so much, Angie!!!
Aren't they lovely?! I've taken lots of pics so you may well see them featured in a future painting.

Well that's all for now but stay tuned for my next post where I will tell you about the emu in the fence. ;) Admit it, you're dying of curiosity, aren't you???!!! Remember, patience is a virtue.....

I've been tagged for being NICE!!!

I have been tagged with a 'Nice Matters' award from my friend Romona King of Northbrook Designs. Thanks, Ro! :) I am to nominate five people who qualify for being nice. Well that's the easy part because I know a lot of nice people. My main problem will be finding ones who have blogs and/or ones who haven't already been tagged.

My nominees are:

Debra Jean of For the Love of Art. This lady has an infectious, bubbly, caring and fun personality and anyone around her can't help but smile and feel better about their day. She is also a fabulous artist who is involved in a Memory Box program. This program supplies keepsake boxes, painted by artists worldwide, to hospitals where they are then gifted to parents who have suffered the loss of a baby. A very noble cause and, sadly, a much needed one.

Chezza of From the River's Edge. Chezza is another lovely lady with a great sense of humour and is also a wonderful artist.

Sandy of Sandy's Art Space. Not only is Sandy a wonderful person....she is also our art group's computer guru and ever helpful when someone finds themselves in computer mayhem.

Stapeliad of Stapeliad. Weird....I just realised that I don't know her 'real' name. lol I met Stapeliad online via our Blogs and we also frequent WetCanvas, a worldwide, online Artist's Community. In the time I have known Stapeliad, I have found her to be a very caring, genuinely nice person and a wonderful mother. We share a lot of common interests and she is a very talented artist.

Bradley of Brad's World of Music. I may be a little biased here because Bradley is my son but he is genuinely deserving of the 'Nice Matters' award. Bradley is truly an inspiration to me. He has been legally blind and hearing impaired since birth and this has not held him back from his two main loves in life, computers and music. He touches the hearts of all who meet him because he has such a polite, caring and friendly nature. I couldn't be more proud of him if I tried.

Okay, Debra Jean, Chezza, Sandy, Stapeliad and Bradley, you need to copy the banner above and nominate your 5 friends now.....thanks for being such NICE people ~

NOTE - Please don't feel obligated to carry on the 'tag'. It's just a fun thing and I would hate for anyone to feel pressured by it.

My Studio!

Plumbing problems are all fixed now. It turned out not to be a broken pipe but rather, a blocked one so it was an easier fix....YES! The plumbers said that a lot of rubbish ends up down the pipes from tilers and other workmen and it can sometimes build up to a solid block so, when we moved in, it brought the problem to the fore. Also, nearly all new homes have water suppressors installed which cut down the water pressure in an effort to conserve more water. That didn't help the problem either. I'm just happy things are back to normal again. We're lovin' the new house and haven't even missed the old place.

I unpacked and set up my art studio in the garage over the past couple of days. I'm RAPT!!! I have so much more room now as I made sure that my studio was the priority here, unlike the last house, where my studio gradually squeezed its way into a little corner of an already full garage. So, here are pics of how it looks so far ~

Major drama with our new house

It's been a crazy past few weeks with our move and then getting the previous house ready for final inspection. All went very well with that, thank goodness. So you would think that we would now be able to settle in and enjoy our new house, wouldn't you? WRONG!

After a few days we have noticed problems with waste water draining away far too slowly and the front lawn is now very soggy with water visibly sitting on the surface. Not a good sign. I use my washing machine and the waste water fills the laundry tub instead of flowing away unseen. We hear very loud, gurgling noises coming from toilets or sinks if water is in use in other areas of the house. The builder was called in and we have found out that there is a broken pipe under the front lawn. Just my luck! Thankfully, they will be fixing the problem on Monday but, for now, we are faced with a major inconvenience as we have to be careful of how much waste water is leaving the house at any one time so it doesn't back up too much. As I am one to try to look to the positive side of a situation, I will say that it could have been worse. At least, it will only be the front lawn being dug up and nothing inside the home will be affected. PHEW!

Apart from that, we LOVE our new home! I still have a lot of unpacking to do but it's mainly studio stuff in the garage. I plan to set up an area in the garage to use for my art studio which I can hardly wait to do so I get painting again.

Here are a couple of pics of our lounge -



OH, and I've been tagged by Joan Yoshioka! I have to share 8 facts about myself so stay tuned for more info on that.