I'm a lucky girl!

This is the beach bag that Michelle and Alex bought for me 

a few years ago but, being that I rarely get to the beach, 

I find it perfect for holding my crochet projects. 

I love it because it's nice and spacious!

Well, a few weeks ago, I received a lovely gift by mail

from Tracy at Pranalight. 

The colours are so ME!!

 Here it is rolled out. 

Isn't it lovely?!!

It's a crochet hook holder/roll 

and I LOVE IT! 

It's beautifully sewn and just perfect!!

It could be used for pens or brushes too I guess but 

I was in dire need of a crochet hook holder because, up until now, 

I'd been using a small plastic bag to hold my crochet hooks.

How on Earth did Tracy know this was just what I needed?

My crochet hooks are now dressed in style and LOVIN' it! 

Thanks so much for such a lovely and thoughtful gift, Tracy.
It made my day!

By the way, Tracy creates such beautiful things, and
you can check out her online store HERE.

I am also the proud owner of one of her necklaces too which
I bought a couple of years back.

I've been quite busy this past week but will fill you in more in the next post.

~ Love, light and peace ~

Colour swatches and sketching....

Hi everyone,

I hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend!

Aaron is currently on school break so it will be nice having him home for the next couple of weeks.
It's hard to believe the first term of school is already over.

The other morning I woke to a beautiful dawn sky with pink clouds.

It was so pretty!

You may remember that I treated myself to some art goodies a month or so back.

As it's hard to tell what the watercolour pencils will look like once they are activated with water, I decided to create a colour swatch chart for them to make life a little easier.

Now, I will be able to tell at a glance which colour I need to use.

The chart was created on a sheet of A3 CANSON Montval Watercolour 300 paper (300gsm).

I haven't been sketching much since my last post but I have been doing a lot of reading. My copy of 'An Illustrated Journey' by Danny Gregory finally arrived and it was well worth the wait. This book makes a wonderful companion to 'An Illustrated Life' which I bought a couple of years back. I LOVE sneak peaks into the illustrated journals of other artists!  SO inspiring!

I actually did feel inspired to do a quick sketch yesterday.

I sketched my new stainless steel water bottle using Faber-Castell PITT pens, watercolours, and watercolour pencils in large Moleskine sketchbook.

Hopefully, this sketch is a start to many more.

It's time....

....to dust off my blog and get down to business!

I feel like I have been out of the loop for ages due to my eye problems.  I have only been able to visit Facebook mostly due to the fact that posts there are relatively short and sweet (sometimes not sweet). So it wasn't as big a strain on my eyes as trying to keep up with blog posts or even write my own posts for that matter. Too much computer time had my eyes feeling very dry and like sandpaper, then they would run with uncontrollable tears.  The good news is that I have my new glasses now and, yes, I can see clearly again....FINALLY!!! I LOVE them!!  Only after wearing my new glasses did I actually realise just how bad my poor, old eyes had been, even with wearing my old lenses.  Luckily, my eyes hadn't seized up like they did once before.  This time around, it was purely a case of badly deteriorated vision in close up, as well as, distance vision. This stands to reason considering my last eye check-up was six years ago....long overdue.

Thanks for all the comments, emails, and well wishes in my absence.

I have much to share but I'll spread it out over a few posts.

For now,
some plant inspiration from my yard and potted garden.

It feels good to be back!