Week 4 Self portrait and some ETSY/blog love.

Another week has flown by and the weather has been pitiful!  

Lots of rain and I'm so over it!  More rain to come according to the weather reports. There was flash flooding in some areas of Brisbane which had everyone feeling more than a little nervous after all the severe flooding we had last year. 

Aaron's first week of high school went well.  He's a man of few words but he did say he liked it better than primary school.  I wonder if he'll feel that way when all the assignments start rolling in? lol

In late November last year, I ordered a beautiful necklace from Tracy over at her Pranalight ETSY shop.  It arrived before Christmas (early December, in fact) and so beautifully packaged.

 Inside was my new necklace!  I fell in love with it the moment I saw it on Tracy's ETSY site.
It's beautiful, natural and grounding.  I love all the cut-work!

And here I am wearing it!

WEEK 4 - 52 WEEKS OF ME 2012 PROJECT

To see more of Tracy's lovely creations, pop on over to her ETSY shop or visit
Tracy's blog.

 In other news, I finally had my Gynaecology appointment only to find that MY Gynaecologist was still on annual leave.  They had assumed I was just back for a follow-up appointment.  Anywhoo, it was determined that a hysterectomy is a must but, because they classify it as major surgery, I will still need to see my own Gynaecologist because he will be the one performing the surgery. He will also discuss pros and cons plus which type of hysterectomy I'll be having. There are three.  So the waiting game continues.....

I've been feeling out of sync the past few weeks which is why I haven't been around much in Blogland, sorry.  I feel like my muse has run away too.  I have lots of ideas but I just don't seem to be good at the 'doing' part.

I hope to catch up with you all over the coming week.

~ Love, light and peace ~

Week 3 in 52 weeks of ME project - self portrait

This past week has been quite busy with setting Aaron up for his first day of High School tomorrow.  

Uniforms, shoes, books, haircut, food etc.

He's all set now!

It's exciting to see him reach another milestone in his life.

He's very nervous, poor thing, but I'm sure he'll be okay.

We've been putting up with constant modem drop-outs when online over the past year or so.  Over that time, it meant many conversations with our internet service provider technicians.  Our phone line was tested and retested.  Then, as the problem worsened recently, we worked through a process of elimination with various PC equipment.  Finally the modem was pinpointed as being the culprit. So I bought a new one today and we're in heaven again. NO drop-outs...YAY!

I almost forget the weekly self-portrait again this week so I had a quick photo session in my room this afternoon.

Week 3 - 52 Weeks of Me 2012 project

With Aaron back at school this week, I may be able to settle back into a daily routine which I hope will involve lots of time for art.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend...
ours is just about over being late Sunday night.

~ Love, light and peace ~

Week 2 - 52 Weeks of Me 2012 - self portrait

Hi everyone!

I'm still in vacation mode with Aaron on school holidays for yet another week so I do apologise for being AWOL of late.  It's been so nice not having to follow a set routine.  Surprisingly, I haven't been doing much in the way of art but I have been doing a lot of reading.  I've also been doing some house rearranging which has prompted a lot of ideas for future painting tasks involving furniture and fabric.

I recently read Dean Koontz's latest novel - 77 Shadow Street - and it started me on a reading marathon.  I'm now re-reading some of his older novels.  Dean Koontz novels are a weakness of mine.  I just can't resist them.  My current read by him is Dark Rivers of the Heart.

YIKES!  I almost forgot about my self-portrait for this week!  It was fairly late in the afternoon when I remembered so I quickly snapped the shot below.  I love lying on my bed to read...it's so comfy!  That white blob of fur at the base of the bed is Cody, my dog.  He loves my bed too.

Week 2 - 52 Weeks of ME 2012 project

We have attracted a family of butcher birds AND a family of magpies over the holidays. Aaron started feeding them back in December and then I kinda joined in. Now, they come right up to the window, or under the front entrance, to demand their food each day.

There is another member of this butcher bird family but it wasn't in the shot.  They seem to take turns at sitting on the fence on guard duty while the others eat. The plan is to feed them until their babies are a bit older.

The bird in the shade is a young magpie. It's parents are nearby.

We experienced a terrible heatwave this past week. It was SO hot and humid!  I sure wish we had air-con. Yesterday brought some rain, and again today, so things have cooled down a little thank goodness. How's the weather in your neck of the woods?

~ Love, light and peace ~

My workspace and my word for 2012

Prior to new year I bought a trestle table to use in the studio so this prompted some reorganisation.

I packed away all my acrylic paints which I had on those shelves now holding my sketchbooks. I figured that I haven't used my acrylics all that much since I've been mostly sketching.  However, if needed, my paints are still easily accessible from a cupboard in the garage.

For now, I want to focus my workspace around my sketching in ink, pens, coloured pencil or watercolours.

I placed all my coloured pencils into jars in groups of colour and, yes, I do plan to remove the jar labels at some point. I'm more set up now for sketching so I'm a happy little Vegemite! :)

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MY WORD FOR 2012

My regular readers will be aware that I haven't had a very good run with health over the last year and a half and these medical issues are still ongoing.  A hysterectomy will be needed in the coming months to resolve a uterine condition and that will be one major health hurdle dealt with at least.

SO, my word for 2012 will be HEALING.

Each night, I will light a candle and say a prayer before going to bed. I will ask the Universe/God/Creator/Non-physical Source for HEALING for myself, for others, for abused animals and for Mother Earth. I hope this nightly ritual will bring about positive outcomes for all.

~ Love, light and peace ~

A new year, a Buddha, a self-portrait and a sketch

Hi everyone!

We had a lovely New Year's Eve watching movies and then, at midnight, we toasted out the old year and welcomed in the new one while listening to Auld Lang Syne on the radio. That song always brings a tear or two to my eyes.  Beau and Aaron went off to bed but Brad and I stayed up a while longer. I dragged my tired body off to bed at 2AM only to be up again just after 5AM. It seems I can't shake my early bird habit no matter what time I go to bed.

Just prior to the new year, I bought a Buddha for my kitchen. I'm amassing quite a collection of them now.  I love the Tibetan/Indian style of Buddha best because he has a calm, peaceful and tranquil aura to me.

 I think this Buddha goes quite well with the reds in my kitchen too. May he help me to remain calm amidst the chaos of cooking the evening meals in the kitchen.

In 2009 and 2011, I attempted the 52 weeks of Me project which entailed taking a self-portrait each week.  I've never been a photogenic person in photos and I'm usually the one in the group with my eyes closed....nearly always captured mid-blink.  So I took on the SP project as a personal challenge and a way of battering down those insecurities about my looks.  I managed 19 weeks of self-portraits in 2009 and, last year, I managed around 34 weeks of self-portraits until my health issues arose and put a spanner in the works.  Hopefully, this year I will do even better.

I snapped this photo earlier today for WEEK ONE in the 52 Weeks of Me 2012 project.

OH, and as promised, here is the quick sketch I did on our day trip to Burgess Park last week. I got to use my new KOI watercolour field set for the first time. YAY!

I'm not the greatest at landscapes so I found some leaves to sketch.

I finally settled on my word for 2012 and will post about that this week.

I hope 2012 is off to a great start for you all!

~ Love, light and peace ~