RED!

In my younger years, I used to hate the colour red, especially for home furnishings or clothing.  I think I've only ever owned one piece of red clothing in my whole life.  It was a red T-shirt and, even then, it was given to me by my son who re-organised his own wardrobe at the time.  You can even see me wearing  said T-shirt in THIS post.  I must admit that, in the past five years, the colour red has really grown on me although still not in clothing because it totally clashes with my complexion.  

So what's all the 'red' talk for, you ask?  Well, I'm always on the lookout for the perfect bag which is not an easy task considering I'm the type who carries everything but the kitchen sink.  There's my sketch journal and sketch supplies to consider too so I need a good-sized bag. Well, about a week ago, I was browsing the bag shop when this beauty caught my eye.  It was available in black but the red completely mesmerised me and, yes, I bought it! I also sketched it in my journal which worked in perfectly because #3 of the EveryDayMatters challenge was to sketch a wallet or bag.  Btw, I bought myself a matching red wallet but didn't sketch it.  Maybe another time.

This pic was after the first layer of watercolour

....and this was the end result after a couple more watercolour layers.

Pencil-free sketch using Faber-Castell Artists PITT pens and watercolours in large Moleskine sketchbook.

I am lovin' my new red bag!!

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Unfortunately, as much as I wanted to participate in the APR challenge this week, I had to give it a miss.  When my usual deadline date rolled around, my lower back was killing me and did not want to let me focus on the task at hand.  The type of pain that wakes you up in the middle of the night is never good. :(   I'm only allowing myself short stints at the computer.....heat packs and painkillers are my friends at the moment.

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We've had a few winter weeds pop up in the yard of late and some of them have such pretty flowers.  I don't know what the name of this weed is but just had to snap a pic of it's flowers.

(UPDATED - I have since found out that these are Wood Sorrel/Oxalis flowers)

Pretty, aren't they?

Well I'm off to rest my back some more.

I hope you all have a fantastic weekend!

~ Love, light and peace ~ 

Inspiration and poop??

I've been busying away with some sketching but I'll post my efforts over the weekend.

Today, it's all about inspiration and poop....well probably not the latter for real, 

but more something that makes me think of the latter.

The other day, Aaron wanted to test ride his new bicycle so we went for a walk 

to the local shops.  Well, I walked.....he rode.

On the way, I snapped some pics for inspiration.

Australian Wattle!

There was this one with it's little fluffy yellow balls.

And then there was this one which was more in the shape of yellow spikes.

And then there was this......

......which, to be frank, kinda made me think of some sort of animal poop dangling precariously in a tree

waiting to drop at any moment on passers-by.

There were all varying shapes and sizes and they appeared to be attached to the wattle tree
with the long yellow spikes.

Common sense tells me that they are some type of seed pod??

But in varying shapes and sizes??
Some look mud-like yet they don't appear to be insect nests.

Which begs the question....

what the heck ARE these??

You'd think I would know the answer being that I've lived in Australia practically all my life.
Perhaps some of my fellow Aussie bloggers may know the answer to
my burning question???

Added Update - PUZZLE IS SOLVED

After researching the puzzle for a couple of days with no success,
I gave it one more try this afternoon after publishing this post and
FOUND THE ANSWER!!

Okay,
these lumps that look like poop ARE

Rust Fungus Galls!!

You can read all about them HERE.

Essentially, they are fungus galls that kill part of the wattle trees.
Numerous insect varieties have been known to lay their larvae inside the fungus.

So much for my 'common sense' theory...hehehe

SO, there you have it!
I can sleep peacefully tonight. :)

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More inspiring photos to come......


~ Love, light and peace ~

Pear-brained!

Just skimming in again this week with the Artist's Play Room challenge.
I have a terrible habit of leaving things until the last minute
and then I find myself racing against the clock.
Will I ever learn?!

I was somewhat pear-brained this afternoon as
the challenge this week was to portray some pears. hehe

Unfortunately, it's not the greatest picture because the lighting isn't the best indoors
being late afternoon.

There are only two edible pears in the photo below because...
well...I got kinda hungry and couldn't resist the temptation.

Pencil-free sketch using Faber-Castell artists PITT pens and watercolour in Holcroft A5 sketchbook

~ Love, light and peace ~

Superstition and comfy shoes

I didn't even realise that it was Friday 13th until someone drew my attention to it earlier today on Facebook.  I guess tonight we will be watching a movie from the horror or supernatural genre.

It's become a bit of a tradition actually.

An older journal entry for Friday 13th

Do you do anything special for Friday 13th?

Are you superstitious?

Care to share any superstitions you're wary of?

I think I'm superstitious to a degree because I will avoid walking under ladders.

I hate the thought of breaking a mirror....
well who wants SEVEN YEARS of bad luck, I ask you??!

I once postponed my son's surgery because it fell on Friday 13th!

I should really blame that one on my friend tho
because she was very superstitious
and had my head filled with all sorts of horrible scenarios
if he were to go ahead and have the surgery on Friday 13th.

And, SHE was a nurse!

I must admit that I was relieved once the date was changed....

talk about paranoid!! lol

However, I don't worry too much about spilling salt so

you won't ever see me throwing salt over my shoulder.

The devil be damned!

The salt superstition stems from the belief that the devil waits behind your left shoulder.

So, as the spilling of salt was seen as a bad omen, throwing even more of it over your left shoulder was effective at warding off the devil by stinging his eyes with salt.  After doing this, you would escape the evils that were set to befall you for spilling it in the first place.

Interesting, huh?!

Anywhoo......

We've had rain pretty much ALL week so I'm not in the best of moods.  

I always start to feel a little down after too many days of rain.
Mind you, I've been under the weather health-wise so that hasn't helped.
Darned uterus has been giving me trouble.
The good news is that my hysterectomy has been rescheduled for August 9th
so not long to go now.

 Last week, when the weather was sunny,
I snapped this pic of Cody doing a little sun-worshipping.
I'm not much of a sun-worshipper myself but Cody
loves grabbing his piece of sunshine whenever he can.
Even in the heat of summer, he likes to lie out in the sun despite all that fur.
Crazy dog!

I've been keeping busy with the crochet despite being on the unwell side this week.  

On the art side of things......

If you're into journal sketching, I'm sure you will know of Danny Gregory.

He has written a few books on the subject of journal sketching and creativity.

Danny is a true inspiration!

He started the Yahoo group - Every Day Matters - named after the title of his first book. 

I'm not a member of the Yahoo group any more but, 

when I recently discovered an Every Day Matters group on Facebook, 

I quickly signed up. 

It was through Danny's books and the Yahoo EDM group that I discovered my love for illustrated journaling.

Danny has recently started sketching the Every Day Matters challenges over from scratch 

so a lot of us are following suit.

Challenge #1 - Draw a shoe

Pencil-free sketch using only Faber-Castell artist PITT pens and a little watercolour in my large Moleskine sketchbook.

I absolutely LOVE these cheap, clog-style shoes!

I bought them last year and I'm only sorry that I didn't buy two pairs  because they are SO comfy!!   Ah well, such is life, I guess....
I doubt I'll make it for the Artists Play Room challenge this week  which is a shame because I liked the idea of illustrating a recipe. Maybe another time.
I hope you've all been enjoying a lovely week. Until next time....
~ Love, light and peace ~

Red and white

The theme over at Artists Play Room for this week was either red and white, Canada Day, or 

Independence Day for the US citizens. As I'm neither Canadian nor American, I went with the red and white theme. This was a dilemma in itself because I really don't have a lot of red things in my home apart from in the kitchen. 

Then it struck me......Ahhh yes!

The red and white kitchen canisters would be perfect!

Pencil-free sketch using Faber-Castell Artists PITT pens, coloured pencils and watercolours in large Moleskine sketchbook.

I'm thoroughly enjoying my personal challenge of sketching in pen only.
The results have a loose, illustrative style which I really like.



~ Love, light and peace ~