MONDAY PHOTO-A-WEEK

This will be the last Photo Monday for 2009! I'm not too sure if Linda, our group leader, plans to continue with the Photo Monday group in 2010 but I'm kinda hoping she will. I have thoroughly enjoyed participating and getting to know our group members throughout the past year.

I thought I'd share a quick sketch I did today of the purple vacuum cleaner I bought at the Boxing Day sales. Yes, you read right.....it's PURPLE! I don't think I've ever seen a purple vacuum cleaner before but I LOVE IT!

Now, from vacuum cleaners to gardening......a few weeks ago, I noticed a sweet potato shooting sprouts so I sat it outside under the pergola. I didn't have the heart to throw it away so it went from this -

to this -

For seven years now, we have lugged around this potted avocado tree from house to house. It belongs to Beau and he grew it from seed.....it's huge and weighs a ton! Beau has begged me to put it in the ground on numerous occasions but, we have only lived in rental homes and, I seriously doubt that a landlord would want THIS type of tree in a small suburban back-yard. It would grow huge if it were planted in the ground! We have heard that potted avocado trees can take up to seven years before they start bearing fruit. It must be getting close.....

In recent months, Beau decided to plant yet another avocado seed and, as you can see from the pic below, it's doing quite well.



Of course, I'm certainly not looking forward to lugging TWO huge potted avocado trees around in the future.

I can only hope and pray that the mango seeds Beau potted a short time ago don't take....

Love, light and peace

Soup for dinner....YUM!!!

We have pretty much recovered from the hustle and bustle of Aaron's birthday celebrations and Christmas. Yesterday, Aaron and I braved the Boxing Day sales to take back a movie DVD - Ice Age 3 - which was missing a disc. Yes, it was one of Aaron's Christmas gifts though I do LOVE the Ice Age movies myself. So, we arrived at the shopping plaza before the stores opened and I was quite surprised that there really wasn't a lot of people lining up for the infamous Boxing Day Sales. Of course, it was raining very heavily at the time and it continued throughout the day so that may well have had an impact. Anywhoo, Aaron and I arrived at the mall for 7:45am - we exchanged the DVD, had McDonald's hotcakes for breakfast, and were back home by 9am. This gal does not muck around!

Today has been pretty much about kicking back and relaxing. I got back to doing some arranging in the garage as it got put on hold for a couple of weeks when the workmen came to repair the walls etc. from the termite damage. I also rearranged my new studio area a little more so that I could fit an extra table in there. I LOVE IT!!

I decided to make some creamy cabbage, corn, and vegetarian bacon soup for tonight's dinner. It's soooooooo DELICIOUS! This soup is now a family favourite and it's a recipe I found here at Vee's cooking blog. I pretty much stick to Vee's instructions though I do use vegetarian bacon in place of real bacon and I use cornflour at the end of the cooking time instead of regular flour at the beginning of the cooking time. As Reece and Aaron are not veggie lovers, I've yet to convert them but the way I see it....it's their loss ~ :(

pigma micron pen and coloured pencil in A5 sketchbook
Click on image to enlarge

It's my understanding that Americans don't celebrate Boxing Day so, for those who don't know about Boxing Day origins, check out this link.

Love, light and peace

OH what a night!!!

A couple of months ago, Bradley won two tickets for Beau to go and see Fleetwood Mac in concert. Beau chose to take Bradley and, last night, was the big event!!! However, all went to hell in a hen basket when I got a call from Beau early on in the evening to tell me that Bradley was vomiting.....OH NO!!! Luckily, he made it to the Men's Room in time but, unfortunately, it put an end to their big night out. This was to be Beau's very first concert too but he only got to see the support act. Naturally, we all felt so bad for both boys.

On a positive note, the tickets didn't go to waste as Beau gave them to a couple of people who were waiting outside. They were very appreciative and offered to pay for the tickets but Beau refused being that Brad had won the tickets for free anyway. I guess someone else had a great night out instead. Would you believe that Brad did not vomit since then though he was running a fever and feeling very sick. He's on the mend today as it's one of those 24 to 48 hour tummy bugs. I don't know if it was my mind playing tricks on me or not but I felt queasy when I woke up this morning and it continued for most of the day. Thankfully, no more signs than that.

Thank you for all the wonderful comments I received for my blog's 3rd birthday!!! I hope next year will be even better as I have a few plans up my sleeve.

Love, light and peace

It's my blog's 3rd birthday TODAY!!!

Pigma micron pens & coloured pencil in A5 sketchbook
I can hardly believe it's been THREE whole years since I first started blogging!! During that time, I have met the most amazing people who I now feel privileged to call my friends. We are kinda like one big, happy family and I am so very grateful for the regular visits, comments, and the support everyone have given me. THANKS to each and every one of you! Yes, that means YOU too!

Love, light and peace

CHRISTMAS TREE, MAGENTA BUDDHA AND TERMITES

Hi everyone!

I'm still here but have been a little preoccupied with other things this past week such as a little painting and sketching, some Christmas shopping, more clearing in the garage to make room for tradesmen to work, and watching DVDs with the kids. I also caught up with some blog reading which I always love to do. In fact, I probably spend way too much time doing that but hey, what can I say....I love reading blogs!

The heat has been absolutely horrible this past week and I feel like it zapped all my energy. It's truly sauna-like conditions here with the humidity so high. At 11pm last night, it hadn't changed which made for a very uncomfortable sleep. Forecasts say we may get a storm tonight so, hopefully, it won't cause any damage like the last one did but will cool things down instead.

On Monday, we finally put the Christmas tree up. It has always been our family tradition to put the tree up on December 1st and then take it down before the New Year enters. This year, we held off and waited for Beau to be available as he bought us the new tree last year and he's the only one who remembers how to fit it all together. It's one of those fibre-optic types with lights so there are electrical cords everywhere.

Pigma Micron pen, ZIG pen, & coloured pencil in A5 sketchbook
Click on any image to enlarge

More sketching.........Mum gave me a Buddha many years ago and I decided to give it a new look. Previously, this Buddha was the typical dark cherry red colour but I have now gone with a bold magenta. WOW! What a difference! I painted the frame of Michelle's print in a pale yellow-green and it sits beside the Buddha and they compliment each other perfectly.

Watercolour crayon, ZIG pen, & micron pigma pen in A5 sketchbook

OH, remember those termites we discovered way back in September? Well, it took the landlord/property manager three weeks to actually do anything about it which happened to be when I discovered a second area of termite presence, on top of my constant phone calls and emails. They finally had the termite control guy come out to check it out. Thankfully, he said the termites we had weren't the aggressive type. He then came back two days later and drilled tiny holes in the suspect areas and loaded the wall cavities with a pesticide of some sort. Now, two months later, they have come back to repair the damage. The repairs involved cutting out the wall area and removing the internal nest and damaged wood and plaster/gyprock. Each of the various tradesmen who have been dealing with us over this issue have said that we were very, very lucky that the termites only caused damage to two small areas. Someone up there must have been looking out for us. Mind you, the pic certainly doesn't look like it was small damage but I guess the tradesmen have seen a lot worse. All that nest you see in the pic was pulled out from inside the wall cavity. Incredible, huh?! That small section that is cut out in the pic was only cut out so they could remove the nest. They actually took away three feet of the wall in width, from cornice to skirting.

Today, the plasterer came and put up the gyrock sheeting ready for the painters who will hopefully finished the job early next week. I'm just so relieved that it will soon be over with and things can get back to normal around here.

How has your week been?

Love, light and peace

First day of summer & a messy space

Yes....summer is here!

Micron pen and coloured pencil in A5 sketchbook

Click on image to enlarge

Today, Michelle came over and helped with more sorting, de-cluttering, and organising in the garage. We still have quite a ways to go. We managed two car loads to the local recycling station and/or dump and there is still more to go, and to organise, and to put away as you can see by the pics below. I'll just be glad when it's all done because all the lifting and sorting is playing havoc with my back right now.

All the mess you see in the pics has been moved out of cupboards and shelves so that we can re-sort and re-pack them into different areas to make more room. I doubt I'll get much done tomorrow as my back is usually always worse the next day but, over the coming week, I'll gradually make my way through it all.

I'm currently using the new Blogger Editor and I'm not too sure if I like it yet. I'm used to working in the HTML section but this new editor doesn't have the option to upload pics in the HTML view....not sure I like that.

Anywhoo, I hope you are all off to a great start for December....YIKES!!!
Christmas is nearly here, folks!!!

Have you done your Christmas shopping yet?

Love, light and peace

Lunch, good company, and severe storm...

Today, Brad, Aaron, and I went over to Michelle's and Alex's house for lunch. Alex's Mum, Karen, and her partner, Alyce, were also there and we all had a lovely time together chatting about this, that, and everything. Michelle and Alex spoiled us with a delicious lunch of homemade quiche and salad. I had the mushroom and tomato quiche and it was so YUMMY! It was a perfect lunch for the hot, humid day.

Pigma Micron pen, watercolour crayon & coloured pencil in A5 Sketchbook
Click on image to enlarge

Whilst we were still there, a pretty bad electrical storm moved through bringing some hail with it. Shortly after the storm passed, the boys and I headed home. I was shocked to see so much debris from the storm lying all over the roads on the way home. Michelle and Alex only live a 7 minute drive away and, as we got closer to home, the damage seemed to get progressively worse. YIKES! There were tree limbs and branches lying on the road and, only two roads from where we live, the power-lines were down which I think was due to fallen trees. The whole lane had been blocked. It was scary and also quite surreal. In the pic below, you can see the power lines down and lying on the road in the left-hand side of the pic.

Click on image to enlarge

As the storm hadn't long passed through, residents were out directing traffic safely into the oncoming lane while they waited on the emergency crews to get there. Thankfully, all was well when we arrived home. I had been worried about Cody due to his fear of storms and being home alone after a very hot and humid day but, luckily, Beau arrived home just before the worst of the storm hit. I was relieved to find that we still had power to the house so we must be on a different power-grid to the fallen powerlines. I rang to check on Mum and Dad who live about a 12 minute drive away and, thankfully, they were safe and sound but without power. Needless to say there will be some cleaning up to do for emergency crews over the coming days.

I'm dreading summer when we get a lot of these types of storms and they can cause a lot of damage. We have some huge trees behind our back fence that I've always been wary of during storms.....I try not to worry about it but it's hard when I know they would cause a helluva a lot of damage if they fell our way.

I hope you are all enjoying a beautiful weekend......we sure did, apart from the storm of course.
Love, light and peace

It's that time of month again...

.....where I give my grey roots the treatment. It's one of those jobs I hate to do but have to do because I'm not quite ready to let those greys shine at this stage of my life. Actually, I'm not sure if I'll ever be ready so, for now, I'll just keep buying my INDOLA hair colour and developer.

Pen and coloured pencil in A5 sketchbook
Click on image to enlarge

Aaron made some delicious peanut butter cookies for afternoon tea...YUM!!!

I hope all of my American friends had a lovely Thanksgiving and are fully recovered from all the festitivities. Many of you are probably still feasting on the left-overs, right? While we don't celebrate Thanksgiving here in Australia, I have thoroughly enjoyed reading about all the Thanksgiving plans on everyone's blogs. Enjoy your weekend!

Love, light and peace

I'm all set!

Pigma pen and coloured pencil in A5 sketchbook
Click on image to enlarge
Just a quickie today as I've been feeling a little on the blah side. Anywhoo, I was recently inspired by this post over on Ricë's blog so I bought myself this beautiful planner/diary for next year. I can hardly wait to start disciplining myself into using it properly. Usually, I buy the A4 size which ends up sitting on my desk gathering dust like the rest of the ornaments. By March, I barely give it a glance and then, by June, I put it away in the cupboard as a lost cause....out of sight, out of mind. That won't happen with this baby because I deliberately bought the smaller A5 size so it will fit perfectly in my bag. So, it will be pretty much with me all the time and there will be no excuses for giving up on it this time around. I've always been a Page-A-Day fan and have never settled for anything less....well, ya just never know when I might have something to say. It also has a monthly planner which has one month to one page so I can check monthly appointments etc. at a glance. I'm going to be one organised woman come next year....I hope....

Love, light and peace

This Is It - Michael Jackson

Today, Bradley, Aaron and I went to see This Is It, the movie showing the dress rehearsal, and behind the scenes footage, for Michael's concert before he died. We LOVED it!! Michael's talent was phenomenal and the way he interacted with the crew, dancers, and musicians was truly beautiful. I only wished we could have seen more. I admit to shedding a tear or two at the thought that he truly is gone too soon.

graphite in A5 sketchbook
Click on image to enlarge

Love, light and peace

From the studio

Micron Pigma pen & watercolour crayon in A5 sketchbook
Click image to enlarge

There was painting going on in the studio today but it wasn't by me. Barb, my student, came for an art class. She liked the new studio too because it provides lots of natural lighting through the window. This year has been a crazy one for both of us as, between us, we have missed so many classes due to illness, surgeries, holidays/vacation, and appointments. It felt great to be back in the saddle, so to speak, though it will only be for two more weeks before the Christmas school holidays are upon us and we take a break from classes until next year. Hopefully, 2010 will be a lot more productive for Barb and I as far as our art goes.

OH! I just realised that next year will be a no. 3 year in Numerology and 3 and 5 are my personal numbers in Numerology so.....look out!

Thank you all for the words of encouragement re. me getting back into the studio yesterday after what seemed like a very long painting drought. You are truly the best supporters a girl could have! I'm so glad that my muse has finally come home to play instead of traipsing off to God only knows where. I'm going to have to sit that girl down and give her a stern talking to.

'til tomorrow.....
Love, light and peace

A scary night....

Pigma Micron pen, graphite and markers in A5 sketchbook
Click on image to enlarge

After the unbearably hot day yesterday, we did end up getting a storm that hung around for nearly 3½ hours. Luckily for us, we didn't get the worst of it but poor Cody panted with anxiety for all that time. He seemed to settle after the storm moved on but, about an hour later, he let me know he wanted outside. However his behaviour was anything but normal.

He raced outside, pushed his face into the wet grass, raced back inside, and began frantically trying to rub himself all over the tiled floor. I picked him up and noticed his face was red and very hot under his furry coat and his nose felt dry and very hot too. He was extremely restless and panting again. The heat radiating from his body had me quite concerned so I took his temperature and it was 104.6°F! I immediately googled it and was quite frightened to read that this temperature meant a high fever and was quite dangerous in dogs. The normal temperature range for dogs is between 101°F to 102°F. All Cody's symptoms pointed towards heat-stroke, which made sense, given the terrible heat of the day and his continual panting for 3½ hours. He had become severely dehydrated though there had been no obvious sign until he started behaving erratically.

Cody's body was a mass of angry red splotches which were also very hot to the touch. He refused to drink water and even turned his nose up at ice-cubes. I was worried sick! It was midnight so I wet a towel and wrapped him in it making sure that I was continually moving the towel around so that his arm-pits and face were being soothed with fresh coolness. After 15 minutes, his temperature had dropped to 103.3°F which was a good sign so we (Brad & I) repeated the wet towel treatment for a while and eventually managed to get it down to 101°F. I was so relieved but I can tell you that I had very little sleep after that ordeal. I kept waking every half hour to make sure he wasn't over-heating again.

Now that I know Cody can be effected in this way, I will be keeping a very close eye on him during our hot, humid summer days, particularly when they are followed by a storm. He is doing much better today though a little worn out from the ordeal.

I was very grateful to be able to 'google' help which was invaluable to me in this particular instance.

On a positive note, Michelle came over today and we did a little more re-organising. My new studio area is pretty much set up apart from a couple of cosmetic details. I hope to share some pics with you tomorrow.

Love, light and peace

Storm in a box

You may remember that I had to post and run yesterday because I said a storm was headed our way and I needed to shut down the computer. I could hear the thunder in the distance and, looking out the windows, there was a strong wind but......

......it turned out not to be a storm after all. I came to this realisation when Aaron informed me that the so-called storm I was panicking over was actually the sound effects from Beau's Xbox. I swear all the action and bombing from the Xbox sounded just like thunder.

How dumb am I?! lol

Graphite and Pigma Micron pen in A5 sketchbook
Click on image to enlarge

Today has been unbearably hot and summer hasn't even started yet. I hate this hot, humid weather! It's the high humidity that makes it all the worse.....so uncomfortable. I felt bad for Aaron who was sitting in a hot classroom with only fans to cool them but fans really do nothing but circulate the hot air in this type of weather. When I picked him up in the afternoon, he came down to the car feeling sick and exhausted from the heat. The teacher told the kids it hit 42°C/107.5°F inside the classroom! To her credit, she did turn the classroom lights off and put on a movie for the kids to watch instead of doing school work. I think we may well get a storm tonight. I just hope it doesn't hail.

Love, light and peace

Organised......

....and minus three box loads of DVDs and books. I LOVE it!

This is only a small part of the big change coming over the next month or so. Michelle is coming over tomorrow to help with more de-cluttering, this time in the studio.

I hope you are all enjoying a lovely weekend. Today (Sunday), Mum and Dad came for lunch and an afternoon of dice games - Yahtzee and Zilch. We all had a lovely time.

Micron Pigma Pen in A5 sketchbook
Click on image to enlarge

Love, light and peace

Remembrance Day

Pigma Micron pen & coloured pencil in A5 sketchbook
Click on image to enlarge
More info on Remembrance Day at this link.

Love, light and peace

THE ARTIST'S WAY & another sketch

last week my blog friend, robyn, mentioned that she was going to work her way through the book, the artist's way written by julia cameron, for the second time and invited readers to join her. i only read her post a few days ago and decided instantly that i would like to participate. i bought my copy of the artist's way back in 2002 and, since then, i have worked through this book two times fully and have re-read the book for a third time. i am so excited to be working through this old favourite once again. if you would like to join us, robyn has set up a blog here specifically for our artist's way group. you can go to robyn's profile page where you will find her email address. just let robyn know that you would like to join us and she will then add you to our list of participants.

the artist's way is basically laid out over a twelve week course which you commit to following in the introduction chapter. it's all about discovering and recovering your creative self. if you are feeling blocked, feel like you have lost direction, or just want to encourage your creative self to be more prominent in your life, THIS is the book for you.

robyn can correct me if i'm wrong but we will be starting off the first week on wednesday, august 12th. (see update below) don't let that put you off though.....i remember when i participated in the soul coaching journey last november, i came across jamie ridler's book blogging group by total chance, only a few days before they were about to start the soul coaching book. the desire to participate was strong so i raced out the next day, bought the book, and threw myself into the course over a 30 day period. it was full-on, involved daily blogging, and i had an absolute ball! i met so many wonderful women some of whom i still keep in touch with via their blogs. IT WAS SO MUCH FUN!

UPDATE - as we've had some newcomers sign up for the artist's way group, robyn has postponed the start date until wednesday, august 19th. this will give everyone time to get a copy of the book and read through the introduction chapters in time for next wednesday's start. there is still time to join us. i'm sooooooooo looking forward to it!

with the artist's way, it will only involve posting once a week for the weekly check-in. we will be reading each weekly chapter, writing our morning pages privately, going on an artist's date once a week, and doing some of the weekly tasks that julia cameron lists for us. at the end of each week, we can blog about our week on our own blogs and/or our artist's way blog. it's not too late to come along and share the journey with us.

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another everyday matters sketch notched up on the weekend
graphite & micron pigma pen in A5 sketchbook
click on image to enlarge

love, light and peace

emergency room, desk makeover complete, and quick sketch

none of us got much sleep in the wee hours of yesterday morning.....we ended up at the hospital emergency for three hours because beau had what we believe was food poisoning. he'd eaten KFC chicken the night before. anyways, he ended up on an intravenous drip as well as needing injections and tablets to keep the vomiting at bay.....the poor thing looked like death warmed up but, thankfully, he is doing much better today. beau also spoke to a friend earlier today and found out that she ended up very sick after eating KFC chicken from the same outlet on the same night that beau did....a coincidence? we don't think so. we are now wondering how many other people were effected.

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i finished the desk and i LOVE it!!!! so much so that i've decided to paint a large matching canvas for the wall behind my bed. i think it gives a nice tropical feel to my room.

the completed desk door
acrylics on MDF - 15"x15"
click on any image to enlarge

and assembled

i just have the wooden stool to paint white and then cover the seat with white vinyl

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i also did another quick sketch today.
the everyday matters topic was to
draw a jar or tin of food from the kitchen

graphite, micron pigma pen and coloured pencil in A5 sketchbook

love, light and peace

sketchbook entry - hematite ankh

we had another lovely winter's day today. brad and i did a bit of shopping in the morning and then we ate lunch while watching another smallville episode. i'm looking forward to watching season eight...according to brad, it will be released for sale next month.

i did this quick sketch in the afternoon
i've had this hematite ankh for years now and i love it!
it feels so cool and smooth to the touch
graphite & micron pigma pen in A5 sketchbook
click on image to enlarge

love, light and peace

nature sketches and progress on desk make-over

a quick sketch of treasures we found after aaron and i went for a nature walk this morning

pigma micron pen and coloured pencil in A5 sketchbook
click on any image to enlarge

this is aaron's sketch
i love when we sketch together!

coloured pencil & felt pen in A4 sketchbook

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i have been busy painting the desk the past couple of days

here it is prepped and ready for the first coats of paint
i had to wait two hours between each re-coat


and here it is painted in white and blue


i still need to paint a design on the door that hides the drawers area of the desk


and also the wooden stool

i hope to have more progress pics to show over the coming days

love, light and peace

flus and eye inflammation

a very quick sketch today
graphite, pigma micron pen & coloured pencil
in A5 sketchbook
click on image to enlarge

it's that time of year when colds and flu are prevalent here and mothers are in high demand. reece was off sick with flu today and aaron was off from school with an inflammation in the corner of his right eye. it looks like the beginning of a stye though hasn't worsened any. i've been using a soaked teabag to soothe it and so far, so good. i took reece to the doctor to see if he needed any further treatment than the over-the-counter flu medication he's been using.

needless to say i didn't get to tackle the desk today.....but then,

tomorrow is another day