Trees, teas, and butterflies

This time of year is always extra busy for me as I'm sure it is for everyone else too. Lots to organise and do. Bradley and I will perform in the 'Sing for Health' choir this Wednesday. We only had one hour of practice per week for five weeks with our choir master. We also practise at home when we are able. We will have a quick run-through of our songs just before the performance. Exciting and fun!

We will be singing five Christmas songs this year —

• The Little Drummer Boy / Peace on Earth 
• O Come, O Come, Emmanuel 
• White Christmas 
• Winter Wonderland
• Jingle Bell Rock

I can't believe that Christmas is almost upon us. I confess that I'm not really in the Christmas mood yet. I find I get more into the Christmas mood after I've done all the Christmas food shopping and all the stresses that come with Christmas are out of the way. We no longer have our huge fiber-optic Christmas tree but I absolutely adore our little tabletop tree. I think it's SO cute!  

A few weeks ago, I was very excited to learn that I'd won a prize in a competition I didn't even know I was in. How about that?! Apparently, my Woollies Rewards card automatically put my name into the Twinings Tea Promotion when I'd bought some tea in my regular grocery shop. I was very surprised when they rang to congratulate me. A couple of weeks later, this Twinings Tea Chest came by courier. YAY!

I was then able to go to Woollies and select my own teas for FREE. Gotta love that! I do love the Twinings green tea and we have the camomile tea very night before bed. It really does help me to sleep better.  I don't mind a mint-flavoured tea either. Nice and refreshing.

I haven't been doing too much in the way of sketching. I did a quick pencil sketch of one of the Christmas trees on display at the Mater Hospital when we were there for choir practice which I've yet to put a splash of watercolour on.

I also added another butterfly — the one on the right — to the double-page spread I was working on a few weeks ago. This one is called 'The Redspot Sawtooth' and it's not quite finished yet.

I'm linking up with Sunday Sketches this week.  To see the work of other participants, please click HERE.

Butterfly sketches completed

We've been having incredibly hot, muggy days here in Brissie. We had another violent electrical storm come through last night and more are forecast for the coming week. Two people have been struck by lightning so far from two separate storms.  I do not like our summers at all. See yesterday's post to read about our own ordeal when caught in a violent storm last Wednesday.

Just a quick post today 

I finished off the butterflies I started last weekend.

They went from this 

To this

I was pleased with how they turned out. 

They are done with a mix of watercolours, coloured pencils, 

coloured ballpoint pens and ink pens.

I'm linking up with Sunday Sketches again this week. 

To see the work of other participants, click HERE.

Happy Sunday to all!

Graduation, formal, and some sketches

Aaron's Graduation ceremony went very well. I was quite emotional and will admit that more than a few tears were shed. Aaron is my last of five children to graduate and leave school and I'm so very proud of him. 

For the ceremony, Bradley and I were sitting beside a Religious Studies teacher who visits the school once a week. She had been invited by several of her students to attend the ceremony.  She was so nice and we had a lovely chat.  I was quite touched when she gave Aaron  a garland of chocolates, even though he wasn't one of her students.

After his Graduation Ceremony 

Here he is with his best mate, Travis.  

They are suited up for School Formal photos. 

I feel like I blinked and my baby grew into this amazing young man overnight. 

Where did all those years go? Sniff—sniff—

He is now on a much deserved break before hitting the work-force.

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Bradley and I are currently watching the Crowded House concert which is being aired LIVE from Sydney.  Crowded House is one of my favourite groups from the 80's.  Don't Dream It's Over was my favourite song by them and I still use it as my mobile phone ringtone.  Click HERE to watch/listen on YouTube if the video doesn't work for you.

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I have only managed one sketch this past week with another in progress.

I am thrilled that my blood pressure readings are coming down and I hope to be off the medication before too long.  All thanks to a vegan diet — more on that in another post.

And here is my work in progress

I am sketching a variety of butterflies —
will post when completed.

I'm linking up with Sunday Sketches this week.
To see the work of other participants, click HERE. 

Happy Sunday to all!

INKtober: the last sketches I managed

I tried and failed but I enjoyed taking part. I had an emotional week which got in the way unfortunately.  So these are the last two I managed to get done for the INKtober challenge. Both are on a somber note but the reasons for sketching them are very close to my heart.

I sketched this greyhound in support for a protest rally held in Sydney last Sunday. The rally was to voice opposition against the overturning of the greyhound racing ban in NSW. Thousands of these beautiful greyhounds are killed every year because  they don't make the cut in training or they don't do well on the track. 

On top of that there is the horrific live-baiting scandal that was uncovered last year, where several greyhound trainers were found to be using possums (a protected species), kittens, piglets, and rabbits as live bait in training. This despicable treatment of innocent animals was exposed via hidden video taken by animal activists. Live baiting is illegal so you'd think it would be enough to warrant an immediate shutdown but, yet again, it's a battle because the almighty dollar always seems to take priority. 

Greyhound racing is a cruel industry that should be stopped and we will not give up the fight! 

And the last one I managed to do. 

Day 24 - A chicken who doesn't have a great life either in yet another cruel industry. 

"Humanity is accruing an enormous debt of karma by its treatment of animals."~ Eckhart Tolle

Linking up with Sunday Sketches this week. 

You can see the work of other participants HERE.

INKtober: More daily sketches from week 3

Oooooops, running a little late....no excuses 

apart from the fact that I completely forgot to do my blog post yesterday.  

So a recap on the past week of INKtober sketches. 

I post these daily on my Instagram feed is you are interested in seeing them earlier. 

I recently purchased Season 11 of Supernatural so, before I watch it, 

I am doing a recap of all the previous seasons again as a refresher. 

You may guess that I'm a huge fan! 

So I thought it fitting to sketch some of the cast for INKtober.

Jared Palecki who plays Sam Winchester. 

Sketched entirely with ballpoint pen. 

Jensen Ackles who plays Dean Winchester

Sketched entirely with ballpoint pen

Jim Beaver who plays Bobby Singer
I didn't quite get his squint right but we live, we learn, right?

Done entirely with ballpoint pen

Felicia Day who plays Charlie Bradbury 

Charlie was one of my favourite characters on the show

I loved her quirkiness!

I was disappointed that I lost the likeness with this one 

but when sketching directly with pen, 

you have to learn to live with it. 

Then I decided to sketch a little robin with coloured ballpoint pens 

and a 005 ZIG Millennium ink pen (it's extra fine). 

A quick ink sketch of a fake succulent plant I have. 

Trying to loosen things up a bit here. 

Sketched with Platinum Carbon and Lamy Joy fountain pens. 

I LOVE my fountain pens!

Another loose sketch of my left hand this time. 

This was sketched with a Platinum Carbon pen 

followed up with Sumi black ink applied with a brush.

Speaking of my left hand, 

I will be making a doctor's appointment today 

as it's been over three weeks and I'm still dealing 

with a lot of pain issues. 

It's strange because I can use it normally 

apart from certain positions.

Linking up with Sunday Sketches (a little late). 

To see the work of other participants for this week, click HERE.

INKtober: More daily sketches

It's been quite a challenge but I have been managing to keep up 

with the INKtober daily sketching this past week. 

All inked up

Thanks to Marcelo Cunha over at Sktchy for the reference image.

Splashes of colour with Dr Ph Martins inks

Sketched with Platinum Carbon and Pentel pocket brush pens, 

then a light wash here and there with Sumi ink.

Thanks to Gustavo Romano over at Sktchy for the reference image.

Sketched with Platinum Carbon and Pentel pocket brush pens, 

plus a light wash of Sumi ink.

Thanks to Jordan Shelton over at Sktchy for the reference image.

I couldn't help but smile when I saw the reference image so just had to sketch him.
Sketched with ballpoint, Platinum Carbon, and Pentel pocket brush pens. 

Thanks to Vincent Cuevas over at Sktchy for the reference image.

Sketched with ballpoint, Platinum Carbon, and Pentel pocket brush pens. 

Also some Sumi ink. 

Thanks to Hannah Chaffee over at Sktchy for the reference image.

Sketched with ballpoint pens in various colours plus a little white ink.
Oh, and some SUMI ink for the black.

The green base is watercolours. 

My own reference image.

Sketched entirely with a Staedtler brown ballpoint pen. 

I like the softer look of this one. 

Thanks to Marcelle C over at Sktchy for the reference image.

I'm linking up a little late with Sunday Sketches this week.
It's actually 6:30 on Monday morning here.
To see the work of the other participants, click HERE,

Aaron, my son, graciously passed his Spring flu over to me
 so I woke up feeling miserable with a clogged head and
a sore throat that is very painful when I swallow.
I'm still dealing with hand pain from my fall.
It could be worse but maybe
I should see about trading myself in
for a newer model?

Life goes on.....

Sunday Sketches: My morning coffee

A very quick post today as I'm feeling so tired after my late night trip to the hospital emergency yesterday.  I didn't get back home until after 1am and didn't get to bed until after 2am.   You can read all about it on my previous post HERE as well as see my first Inktober sketch.  I have today's ink sketch done but the artificial lighting is terrible for taking photos at night.  I will photograph and post it tomorrow morning instead. 

My foot is doing much better today thanks to the anti-inflammatory medication and resting it.  My hand is still in a fair bit of pain though.  If it doesn't ease in a week, I might go back to my own doctor just for a second opinion.  I would have felt better had they done an X-ray.  A chap from the Plaza's Centre Management rang today to check up on how I was doing which was a nice gesture. 

As you know, I've been quite busy with online classes of late and I will share more about that in another post.  For now, I thought I'd share a journal page I did last week. 

Brushwork first 

Followed by the ink

The finished page

I'm linking up with Sunday Sketches this week. 

To see the work of other participants, click HERE.

Sketching and lettering fun!

I finally finished the double page spread in my Moleskine A4 watercolour journal.  The full spread is 58.4cm/23" across both pages.  I have been working on it here and there between the Sketchbook Skool Creative Lettering class videos and the subsequent homework.  I'm still behind on homework but I love that the classes are available indefinitely so there is plenty of time to catch up.  The lettering class is amazing and I'm already implementing some of the ideas into my journal.

I adore pelicans!  

While I love ALL birds, the pelican would have to rate in my top five favourites. 

Linking up with Sunday Sketches again and I'm actually on time this week! 

To see the sketches from other participants, click HERE.

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Now, onto some of my Sketchbook Skool Creative Lettering homework from the past week. 

I can't tell you enough how much I'm enjoying the class. 

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The weather was lovely today so we went for a drive to Forest Lake.  We stopped along the way to pick up some lunch at Zambreros Mexican restaurant...my favourite dine-in or take-away!  Their vegan burrito bowls are SO yummy!  Jalapenos and lots of spicy Verde sauce for me...LOVE their Verde sauce! I took this photo of one a while back. 

Another reason I love Zambreros is that, for every burrito or bowl you buy, they donate a meal to someone in need.  How lovely is that?!  This was a photo I took of their wall earlier in the year  so the amount of meals given would be much more now. 

There was lots to see at the lake and I will share more pics in my next post but I just HAD to share a few of the cygnets with their parents!  It's the first time I have seen baby swans in person.  And look at that, I even caught an ibis coming in to land and didn't realise it until I looked back on the photo later. Cool!

These cygnets were a decent size but they still had a soft down instead of adult feathers.
They were SO darned cute!

I will post the rest of the Forest Lake photos in my next post.
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Today is Father's Day here in Australia and

 it's my second Father's Day since my Dad passed away.
I still hear his voice in my head a lot,
especially him singing songs.

I miss him every day.
Love you, Dad xo

Sketching, painting, and creative play

I'm still working on finishing the double-page spread from our trip to Wellington Point last weekend. I decided to do a pen sketch from one of the fig tree photos I took that day. I gave it a stylised look which I really like it and it gives the double spread some interest.  I was inspired by Jeremy Collins, a climber and artist/illustrator.  I have his book titled Drawn and I also bought his documentary movie which featured him sketching. The book is amazing and so inspiring filled with his sketches and hand lettering among many photos too. You can see a great review of the book which includes lots of pictures HERE.

Here is the link to the trailer in case the video trailer won't play for you -
https://vimeo.com/100062478

Drawn trailer from Jeremy Collins on Vimeo.

Linking up with Sunday Sketches again this week...and again, a little late. 

To see the work of the other participants for this week, click HERE.

I never did get around to posting photos of the other two abstract/decorative pieces I whipped up for the new colours in the house.  These were done in a flash, free-hand, and they were a lot of fun to do. The one below is in the family room area.  I went with a pattern to kinda tie in with the cushion.

And the following is my bedroom.  

It was impossible to get a decent photo of this one due to the lighting in my room 

but, trust me,  it looks so much better in person. 

When I was driving home from dropping Aaron at school through the week, I noticed a large group of ibis in our street.  I just had to stop and take a pic as it's been quite a while since I've seen so many ibis together in our area.  

No doubt they have been pushed off their local habitat as even more housing developments are being built in our area.  It worries me to see even our local bush areas bulldozed down for human take-over. Where do they expect the wildlife in those areas to go?  It makes me so sad that we often label displaced animals/birds as pests when the real pests on this planet are humans. Our numbers have multiplied to unsustainable levels and we literally destroy whatever is in our path. It's always the innocent who suffer.  I am trying to live more consciously and be more aware of the footprint I leave behind.

I had the pleasurable company of these two adorable artists on Saturday.  Mikayla on the left and Maddy on the right.  We had a wonderful day together!  Painting, sketching, doing collage, even a picnic in the back yard....it was a blast!  I adore time spent with my Grandkids!

 I'm working my way through some online courses and having lots of fun! 

I'm thoroughly enjoying Andrea Joseph's Creative Lettering class.

 We even played with graffiti....my name in graffiti below. 

These are all quick and rough references for future use. 

There are tons of graffiti styles to play with.

And that pretty much sums up last week.
I hope you all have a lovely and creative week ahead.