Day 8 - AEDM & Nablopomo - sketch & inspiration

unfortunately, i'm not a happy camper today.
yesterday, i bought a BOOST juice - green tea mango mantra - my favourite!  i've had this same juice heaps of times before but, after drinking it yesterday, i immediately started coughing and wheezing and feeling heavy in my chest. WEIRD! i'm still dealing with the asthma fallout.

 needless to say, i was only up to doing a small sketch in my moleskine watercolour sketchbook.

first the quick pen sketch using my pigma micron pen

then some watercolours and journaling

for reference, i used some photos i took last week of some morning glories growing wild near the creek just down from our house.

aren't they lovely?!

to view the creative posts of other AEDM members for Day 8
click here.

i think i'll get an early night now so until tomorrow

~ love, light and peace ~

Day 7 - AEDM & Nablopomo - art journal page & inspiration

today was crazy busy so i didn't get a chance to achieve much at all

i also got to spend some time with my gorgeous granddaughter, mikayla.
SO much fun!

anywhoo, a background for one of my art journals will have to suffice for AEDM today

i used the end of a paintbrush to write words into the wet gessoed background then, when dry, i applied some acrylic colours.

serene

blues and greens RULE!!!

love

joy

still heaps to go but this is as far as i got

before i do any more art i will need to do some serious tidying up at my art desk. what a MESS!!! how's a girl supposed to work like this?!! me thinks i need to get some tips from my dear friend rita who is always so neat and orderly.

to view the posts of other AEDM members for Day 7
click here.

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more inspiration for you

my desert rose (b. Adenium Obesum) is flowering!

now i'm off to watch another episode in the final season of SMALLVILLE.

i'm looking forward to catching up with blogs tomorrow.

~ love, light and peace ~

Day 6 - AEDM & Nablopomo - messy abstract & inspiration

hi everyone!

for some time now, my 12 year old son has been asking me to paint an abstract for his room. he wanted one like the one i did for my own room a short time ago.

my abstract

aaron's room also has a blue/green colour scheme but i created his with more drama than mine....and minus the purple at his request.

as you can see from the end result below, they are similar but different

i had a pretty bad pain day with my right arm so i think that showed through too

i managed to snap some of the stages to show you

it's 30" x 15" in size on gallery-wrapped canvas

finished and in place on my son's bedroom wall

to view the posts of other AEDM members for Day 6
click here.

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and look what happens when i stand still for too long

my dog, cody, comes over and parks himself right on top of my foot!
he's so cute ~ lol

~ love, light and peace ~

Day 5 - AEDM & Nablopomo - mandala in progress

another frustrating day of procrastination!

in the end, i settled on creating a mandala which is obviously not finished yet.

the mandala is 8" diam.

i've always enjoyed creating mandalas and, days ago, when i saw a FREE mandala course was being offered via willowing's ning site, i immediately signed up for it. the course starts on november 14th so, if you're interested, you can sign up here.

(ADDITION - so sorry, everyone!  rita just brought it to my attention that you need to sign up before you can actually view the mandala class link.  the sign up is to willowing's (tamara laporte) NING site where you will find lots of goodies and a supportive art community.  once you register to willowing's art community, you should THEN be able to access the FREE mandala class link provided above) 

to view the creative posts of other AEDM members for Day 5 click here

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more inspiration

an australian bottlebrush flower

i hope you're all enjoying a beautiful weekend!

~ love, light and peace ~

Day 4 - AEDM & Nablopomo - Mexican Friendship Circle

i have to admit that i struggled all day with procrastination and, in the end, i had to quickly make a decision and do a very fast pen and watercolour sketch which is still unfinished.

my mexican friendship circle

to view the posts of other AEDM members for Day 4
click here
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the kids and i went to visit my brother in hospital this afternoon and we were very relieved and happy to hear that all the tests from his surgery came back clear.  he may be minus one kidney but he is now cancer-free...YAY!  the bestest news EVER!

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here are more inspiration pics

they are called canna phasion lilies

the leaves kinda steal the limelight from the flowers don't you think?

these ones graced the gardens at our local shops
such rich, vivid colours!

i'm hoping i will be able to get more on task with the art every day challenge as the days go on.

~ love, light and peace ~

Day 3 - AEDM & Nablopomo - another sketch

thank you all for the great feedback on yesterday's post!

i'm afraid today's post will be shorter as i'm battling a rotten migraine probably due to the heart stress test i did earlier today....my neck is so stiff and sore.   good news - they didn't find any abnormalities! YAY!

anywhoo, before the migraine reared its head, i managed to quickly start another life sketch. i just need to splash on some colour, more details and writing.  again, i sketched directly with my trusty pigma micron pen.

the sketch is of my buddha belly plant (botanical name - Jatropha podagrica) which has been flowering for a few weeks now. 

the leaves are 2½ times the size of my hand!

to view the posts of other AEDM members for Day 3
click here.

by the way, my brother's surgery for the kidney removal went reasonably well.
we pray all the test results will be clear.

now, i'm off to lie down and will hopefully wake up minus a migraine

~ love, light and peace ~

Day 2 - AEDM & NABLOPOMO - sketch

i decided to do a quick sketch of the lantana mandala i photographed yesterday

so, out came my small moleskine watercolour sketchbook, my pigma micron pens, some felt pens (textures) and watercolour crayons.  i sketched directly in pigma micron pen and followed up with the felt pens before moving on to watercolours.

i tried to keep it very loose

and i was fairly pleased with the end result

considering i rushed it due to lack of time this afternoon

a couple more lantana photos for inspiration

hard to believe that, in queensland, these shrubs are viewed as noxious weeds

to view the posts of other AEDM members for Day 2
click here.

~ love, light and peace ~

breakfast, waterfalls, self portrait & skydiving!

hello dear readers,

i hope you're all enjoying a beautiful weekend!  our weekend started out with storms, winds and heavy rain throughout saturday clearing to a beautiful fine day for sunday.   i had a delicious sunday breakfast of natural greek-style yoghurt, strawberries and blueberries drizzled with a little honey.  i don't like honey normally but i found it was a nice compliment to the tang of the natural yoghurt.  my mum has been singing the praises of honey for quite some time now so she will be pleased to know that i actually had some.

on saturday we had the waterfalls and flooding in the back-yard again. i'll be glad when houses fill in the vacant lots behind us so that decent drainage will be installed.  thankfully, this was only one day's worth unlike the flooding back in january. see this post.

week 40 in the 52 weeks of me project

i am still in love with my latest abstract painting!

i was anxious all morning while waiting to hear from reece. he and his girlfriend, sarina, were skydiving for the very first time!!! YIKES!!!  i was particularly worried about sarina because she really didn't want to sign up for it when the event was being planned but reece talked her into it.  we were all feeling for her.  at last, reece called to say that all was well and i'm eager for him to get home so i can get ALL the details.  he did say it was an AWESOME experience!   sarina was glad she did the jump but felt quite sick afterwards so had to lie down for a while, poor thing.  i can't wait to see the footage and, needless to say, i'm very relieved that they both have their feet firmly planted back on terra-firma.

~ love, light and peace to all ~

Happy October!

october has arrived and it's a lovely time of year here in queensland, australia.  beautiful, warm days that aren't too hot or too humid.....yet!  my money plants (crassula ovata) have been flowering since june when i took these photos. i have them sitting at the front entrance to the house as it's supposed to bring good luck according to feng shui.  i love their plump leaves with the red edges!

my chilli plant is flowering and sprouting chillies again too...YAY!

aaron has been on school holidays over the past couple of weeks and we've been quite busy shopping, spending time at michelle's, watching movies at home, and generally kicking back.  he starts back at school on monday and i'm going to miss him.  one of the movies we went to see at the cinema was - 'RED DOG'.  an australian film based on a true story about a red kelpie dog who goes in search of his master and the people whose hearts he touches throughout.  it's set back in the 70's so it brought back a lot of memories for me.

aussie lingo, aussie humour, aussie mate-ship, 70's music.....LOVED IT and yes, i cried!  

it's definitely one i would watch again.

click on image to see more about the movie and a trailer

have you watched any good movies of late?

~ love, light and peace ~

SEVERUS SNAPE

pencil-free sketch using pigma micron pens and gouache

i recently finished reading the harry potter series of books and enjoyed them thoroughly.  it was only after i watched the last movie - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two - that i had the strongest urge to read the series and i'm so glad i did because you always get so much more detail in books.  i cried buckets in that last book....my eyes were sore from crying.  am i a sap, or what?!

without going into too much detail and spoiling the plot.  severus snape was the man we loved to hate and, in the last book/movie, more was revealed about this man which shed some new light on his character.  i have to say that out of all the harry potter characters, snape was the one who left the biggest imprint on me, hence my choice to sketch him in my journal.  it was a toss up between him and dobby, the house elf.  i am still enjoying the challenge of sketching with only pens, not pencils.  a little risky, yes....but the little mistakes just add more character and, besides, perfection is overrated, don't you think? well, that's my story and i'm sticking to it. lol 

alan rickman played the role of snape perfectly!

are you a harry potter fan?

if so, which character did you feel most affected by?

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we woke to a very foggy morning on tuesday and it turned out to be a hot day

i always find fogs kinda eerie and this one was particularly so because i felt like i was alone amidst it.  you see, i drop reece at the bus stop at 4:45am most mornings and there is barely any traffic on the road at that time.

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the weekend approaches...

at this stage, i don't have anything in particular planned so it will be

a play by ear but i'm hoping i will find time to do some art.

whatever your plans,

i hope you enjoy a beautiful weekend.

~ love, light and peace ~