Tea and tofu

Tracey Potter posted a photo on Instagram of a tea she liked 

and I just had to try it for myself.
It was delicious!
All natural flavours so not too sweet.
I had mine hot but it would make a great thirst quencher if chilled.
It even made its way into my illustrated journal.

I started with a quick pen sketch
in my large Moleskine sketchbook
using my trusty ZIG Millennium 005 pen.
I used a Uniball Vision Elite pen with blue ink
to stroke in the 'Tetley' background.

Followed by some watercolours.

Final detailing using Faber-Castell PITT pens
in black and sanguine
plus a Uniball Signo pen in white to fatten up 'Tetley'
which looked quite anorexic in the early stages.

One thing that I'm loving at the moment is

I made a stir-fry noodle dish with this
a week or so back and it was SO delicious!
It might just make it into my sketchbook one day. 

Catching up...

While I haven't painted every day since I last posted,
I have done something creative each day 

whether it was with brush, pen, hook, or camera.

I spent a few days on the silhouette bonsai project

adding two more layers of paint
and doing some re-shaping.

I'm now finishing off rough edges
where the Burnt Umber slipped over
onto the canvas sides.

After tidying up edges, 

I'll do two coats of varnish 

before it can go to it's new home. 

The full dimensions are 145cm (57") wide by 104cm (41") high.

To check out posts by other AEDM members for Day 19, click HERE.

On Wednesday, I had the pleasure of babysitting 

one of my two gorgeous granddaughters 

while her parents did some gift shopping. 

We had a blast! 

Naturally, we painted
and Mikayla created a masterpiece 

for her Mummy.

Then it was "Simon Says" time with the Wiggles. 

Mikayla is obsessed with the Wiggles!

All this activity just plain wore her out. hehe 

During our painting session, 

I did a quick watercolour sketch too.

Watercolour butterflies in pocket Moleskine watercolour notebook. 

I roughly detailed with a Faber-castell PITT pen.

The past eight days have been very busy 

with what seemed like a gazillion appointments varying between 

doctors, specialists, vets, and meeting with people
from the Aged Care Assessment Team for my Dad.
I'm pleased that I managed to squeeze in any creative stuff in at all.

I'm looking forward to a quiet, relaxing day
where I can just veg out.

We've had severe storms daily for the past seven days, 

One of the storms graced us with TWO INCH hailstones!!

Brad and I were at my parents' house
when one of the hail storms hit.

It sounded like a heavy shower of rocks
was continually pelting the roof.

Luckily we had covered my car with carpet rugs and quilts
or I'm sure it would have sustained some hailstone damage.

Some areas had hail the size of tennis balls 

so I'm glad we escaped that at least.

Of course, poor Cody was extremely stressed.

His body shivers violently non-stop
and he pants like crazy which is a worry
because it can lead to dehydration.
I had a very scary time
once before with Cody and dehydration
due to storm stress.
You can read about that HERE.

In light of the daily storms,
I sought advice from our vet.
As we all know, stress can be damaging to the body,

so the vet prescribed some Xanax (a sedative) for Cody. 

It initially made him very drowsy and clumsy 

which is what it's supposed to do, I guess. 

With last night's storm,
I lowered his dose by half and,
though he was still stressing a bit,
his shivering was much milder.

and he seemed calmer 

without being drowsy and clumsy.
The vet said that his memory of the storm
would be lessened too which appeared true.
Normally, he would fret for a while after a storm,
but he seemed to calm down fairly fast.

A pic of Cody, taken in October, a less stressful month.
Bless his little heart.

I think that catches me up for now.

~ Love, Light and Peace ~

Remembrance Day

They shall not grow old,
as we that are left grow old.
Age shall not weary them,
or the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun,
and in the morning,
we will remember them.

Image above is shared from Facebook. 

LEST WE FORGET

I found the above video on Pauline's blog 
and just had to share here too.

More info on Remembrance Day HERE.

Day 4 of AEDM - Hooking again

No painting today.

No sketching today. 

I did some hooking instead....

Yes, crochet does fit into the creativity guidelines for AEDM. YAY!

I have made four of these gorgeous ripple blankets over the past three years. 

One for each of my two granddaughters

one for Aaron (#4 son) 

and one for my lounge room.

This lovely will probably end up in my lounge room too 

as you can never have too many blankets to snuggle under 

while watching TV or movies in winter. 

I started this blanket earlier this year

and there's still quite a bit to go. 

I like to make them big! 

I'm not even at the halfway mark yet 

but there's no rush with winter 

being another eight months away.

To check out posts by other AEDM members for Day 4, click HERE.

Day 3 of AEDM - A wise old owl

I had a fairly busy day so didn't get time 

to work any more on the multi-canvas painting. 

However, I did manage a quick pen sketch 

of a recent dollar store find.

Pencil-free sketch in Holcroft A5 sketch journal using ZIG Millennium and PITT pens. 

I was going to splash some colour on but not enough time.

To check out posts by other Art Every Day Month members for Day 3, click HERE.

I'm also linking up this week with Sunday Sketches.
To join us each week on Sunday Sketches
Click the graphic below -

Day 2 of Art Every Day Month - More progress

My progress on the multi-canvas painting 

isn't too noticeable today as I mostly gave it 

a second coat of paint and extended the tree right tree branch. 

One more coat should do it before I start on the foliage.

It's hard to get a decent pic of the whole piece 

because it's quite large. 

The full dimensions are 145cm (57") wide by 104cm (41") high.

To check out posts by other Art Every Day Month members for Day 2, click HERE.

I spent the morning catching up with blogs then,

Reece (#3 son) called in to visit which was nice. 

He's quite happy with how his painting is progressing. PHEW!

Yesterday, I trimmed all the dead flowers
from my Kalanchoe plant.
This was a pic I took in October
when it was in flower.
So pretty!

See you tomorrow!

It only took me a year to....

....finally get started on Reece's request for 

a multi-canvas painting for his bedroom. 

But hey, I've had A LOT going on and 

luckily for me 

Reece has been very patient. 

There are SEVEN canvasses all up 

in varying sizes.

This was the first coat 

This is a partial first coat of the bonsai-style tree 

which Reece wants portrayed as a silhouette.

It's that time of year again for Art Every Day Month and 

I debated whether or not to participate this year 

with so much on my plate

but here I am again, all signed up!

Click on the graphic above to see the work
of other members taking part in this month's challenge.

There's no guarantee that I'll be able to post every day
but I'll sure give it a try.
Come join us!