Christmas ornaments, Christmas day, and our choir

I finished my Granddaughters' Christmas ornaments 

just two days before Christmas. PHEW!

They are recycled lightbulbs.

Mackenzie's 1st Christmas

Madelyn's 4th Christmas

Mikayla's 6th Christmas

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Regular readers will know that my son, Bradley, and I 

joined the Mater 'Sing for Health' Choir back in 2014. 

We come together for six weeks, twice a year, 

and practise for our main performance 

in the Mater Mothers' Hospital Foyer. 

For our Christmas carols this year,
we had SIX performances all up.
Two performances on the 14th 

for the Mater staff Christmas party. 

Three performances on the 16th... 

one for the Mater Volunteers' Christmas party,

our main performance in the Mater Mothers' foyer, 

and one at the Mater Child Care Centre. 

Our last performance was on the 17th at the
2nd Mater Volunteers' Christmas party.

Photo is courtesy of Mater Queensland

Bradley and I had so much fun 

and it is always a pleasure to sing 

with such a great bunch of people. 

Our choirmaster, Ruani, is simply the best! 

Her choir assistant, Mairead, 

helps us Alto's stay on track with our harmony. 

Mary, Brad's Occupational Therapist, is 

the one who started the choir. 

We are very grateful to her for inviting us to join.

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On Christmas morning,
Bradley, Aaron, and I went to
Michelle's (daughter) and Alex's place.
My granddaughters were so excited
that Santa had visited them. hehe
We had a yummy brunch there.
I made my own style of baked beans
and also took along some
Linda McCartney sausages
to fry up for us vegans.
We had a lovely time!

For Christmas dinner, I made a vegan roast
and roasted veggies, drizzled with mint sauce,
and vegan stuffing.
It was so yummy!

Photo courtesy of my son, Bradley.

For Christmas dessert, I made a parfait style of vegan mango 'cheesecake',
with fresh mango puree and loosely crumbled gingernut biscuits.
I didn't have proper parfait glasses so settled for some regular glasses.

It tasted divine!
Even Aaron enjoyed his and he isn't vegan.

All in all, we had a beautiful Christmas!

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It is now Boxing Day afternoon here in Australia.
I steered clear of the stores today
with the Boxing Day Sales on.
Businesses were expecting huge crowds.

I hope you all had an amazing Christmas!

Enjoy the holiday season and stay safe.

Love, light, and peace to all.

Christmas celebrations, choir, and ornaments

I hope you all had a beautiful Christmas!

I was actually quite sick with sinuses and asthma 

but I did manage to put on a smile 

and spend time at my daughter's house 

for Christmas celebrations with my beautiful family.

We all had a lovely time!

 Michelle got a selfie-stick from Alex for Christmas
and it was put to good use on Christmas day.
I want one!

 Michelle wasn't feeling the best either
but we both put on happy faces,
with a little help from some Christmas wine, perhaps?
I only had one, I swear.


******************************************************

On December 16th, our Mater Sing for Health Choir
sang Christmas Carols in the Mater Mothers Hospital foyer
after only four weeks of practise.
On December 17th and 18th, we repeated our performance
at the two Mater Volunteers' Christmas parties of
approx. 100 people at each.
We were very well received by our audience
and we even had them join in for a Christmas round at the end.
We all had an absolute blast!

 Photo courtesy of Mater Hospital - Queensland


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I haven't been doing much in the way of sketching

but I have been painting.

As always seems to be the way,
I was frantically trying to finish ornaments in time for Christmas.
I had planned to start them early, like in September,
but my life was turned upside down when Dad became ill
and ended up in a high care aged facility,
so I kept putting the ornaments off until later.

Since the birth of my granddaughters,
I started a tradition of painting them a Christmas ornament  each year.

This year, I decided to recycle two light bulbs.
I have done similar in the past
and they are a lot of fun to transform.
Do you like my state-of-the-art bulb holders? hehe
Plastic bottles filled with pebbles for weight,
then the bulbs held in place securely with Blu-tack.
They worked perfectly!

First up, two coats of All Purpose Sealer.
That stuff is fantastic for using on slick surfaces.

Then a few coats of Jo Sonja Warm White.

Now, the fun begins.
Scarves first up.

Then, their little faces.
Brown eyes for Maddy,
Blue eyes for Mikayla.

And, of course the Christmas holly.

All dressed ready for the Christmas tree
wearing polar fleece for hats
adhered with Helmar quick-set Craft glue.

Just hangin'!

You can see the ornaments I painted for previous years
at the following links.

2013
2012
2011
2010
2010 (part 2)

I'm feeling almost human again today
and I'm looking forward to babysitting Mikayla and Maddy
while Michelle and Alex take in a movie at the cinema.

It's been pouring rain since yesterday and I'm loving it!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend!
Any plans for New Year's Eve?

Painting ornaments

When Aaron was a baby, 

I started painting him a Christmas ornament each year 

which I stopped the year he turned ten.

I then started the tradition for my Granddaughters, 

Mikayla who is now three 

and Madelyn who turned one last month. 

For Madelyn this year, 

we decided on a Santa. 

For Mikayla, 

a snowman. 

I started with some rough sketches.

After sketching directly onto the ornament, 

I did some blocking in. 

Here's a hot tip - 

Red can be a fairly transparent colour and therefore 

difficult to get a nice, solid block of colour. 

I use orange paint in my first couple of layers 

as it blocks in quite nicely. 

Then I paint with red over the top. 

Works like a charm!

The back of the ornament.

I also paint up a matching gift box each year.
I keep the gift boxes very simple
as time doesn't always allow me to be fancy.
I always say I'll paint the ornaments and gift boxes
in June or July but it never happens.
Maybe next year...

I was so eager to finish Mikayla's ornie 

that I completely forgot to take 

step-by-step photos, sorry.

Google Plus added snow for me!

If you're interested in seeing Mikayla's and Madelyn's

Christmas ornaments from previous years 

check out the following links -

2012

2011 step-by-step

2011 finished ornament

2010

Now, I can get back to varnishing 

the multi-canvas I painted for Reece. 

Busy, busy.....

Does this count for Sunday Sketches, I wonder?
I did sketch the ornament designs.

Painted ornaments

Hi everyone!

It's been such a busy week leading up to Christmas 

and I'm sure you all know what I'm talking about.

I have been a little lax with my daily sketching too 

but only because I have been busy painting instead. 

As is my tradition each year,

I painted Christmas tree ornaments for my granddaughters,

Mikayla and Madelyn.

This will be Maddy's first Christmas and Mikayla's 3rd.

Inspired by this post,

I painted some paper-mache gift boxes and used white 3D paint to decorate them. 

I deliberately kept mine more simple and child-like.

It was the first time I'd used 3D paint and I found it impossible to control the flow 

of the paint but I kinda like how it turned out. 

They make me think of cakes decorated with white icing.

A close up view of each

  

To finish the ornaments, 

I applied a gloss water-based varnish 

and white ribbon.

It was Aaron's birthday yesterday....

my baby is now 14!!!

I found this (below) on this page on Facebook

and thought it might be a nice idea for 2013.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and 

a Happy New Year!
If you don't celebrate Christmas,
may you enjoy a Happy Holidays.
Love to all! xx

~ Love, light and peace ~

Mikayla's finished Christmas ornament

Hi everyone!

Well, Christmas is over for another year. I had a lovely time on Christmas day. We had a bit of a movie marathon, pigged out on nibblies, and then ate a delicious roast dinner. We were so full, there was no room in our tummies for dessert so, we will be having the Christmas pudding with custard for New Year's Eve instead.

Just thought I'd show you all the finished ornament I painted for Mikayla, my beautiful granddaughter.

I glued Christmas-themed craft paper onto a Papier-mâché box and used double-sided tape to attach the ribbons halfway up each side of the box.

It's a wrap!

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I've had more bad days health-wise lately so, yesterday, when Beau offered to drive us out to our favourite picnic spot in the country, how could I say no?  The weather was perfect and it was so peaceful and relaxing...just what I needed. I had told everyone to lather up with sunscreen before we left the house to go to Burgess Park but I ended up being the silly one who forgot so I copped a good dose of sunburn.  It didn't spoil the day though.

I'll post pics from our day trip tomorrow.

~ Love, light and peace ~

Birthdays and a Santa ornament

Hi everyone,

I'm sorry I've been absent from Blogland lately.  I've had quite a few ups and downs with my medical ailments and, at this stage, no end in sight.  My blog also had it's 5th blog anniversary on December 15th but my plans to do something special failed due to my health issues.

Aaron also graduated from Primary school and will start High School in the new year. He will officially become a teenager on December 23rd...yep...the big 13!!! Mikayla turned ONE on the 10th!!  Michelle arranged a fabulous rainbow-themed party for Mikayla and we all had a fantastic time!!  Mikayla loved all her presents and lapped up all the attention.

Isn't she adorable?!!

I decided to make a start on Mikayla's 2nd Christmas ornament today.  Last year, Mikayla was only a couple of weeks old on Christmas day....my, how the time has flown.

First, a quick sketch using chalk pencil.

Next, the first layer of acrylic paint.

Then, another layer with more details....almost finished here.

Just a little more to do and then I will spruce up the rest of the ornament.

This is the ornament I painted for Mikayla's 1st Christmas last year.

I haven't done much in the way of sketching lately. I've been feeling quite down but hope to drag myself out of the doldrums soon.

For now, I have a lot of catching up to do.....

~ Love, light and peace ~