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‘The secret of your future is hidden in your daily routine.’ Mike Murdock.

30 Sep

Well I am not sure what that quote says about my future . . .

routineI admit I like my routines.  I always have.  And I’m pretty sure the dogs like them too.  We all know where we are meant to be, what we are meant to be doing, and when. We can handle the odd disruption of course, life tends to get in the way sometimes, but generally the girls and I are creatures of habit, and our routines are kind of comforting. Well, they were . . .

I have had a three day-mini-break this week.  Three days off work to get some jobs done at home that needed doing, to do some writing, some sketching, (some shopping—ssssshhhh—don’t tell anyone), and, hopefully, some relaxing before the new school term kicks in.

Sounds great, except that today is Friday already (how did that happen?) and I haven’t done any writing, or sketching . . . (okay I did do a bit of shopping) . . . I still have those jobs to get done . . . the nasty head cold that I have been fighting off for the last week has again kicked in with a vengeance and . . . oh yes . . . the girls and I are currently playing host to a 4 month old (absolutely adorable) Cavoodle pup called ‘Cinder’ . . .

So routine? I don’t think so.  Not this week . . .

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Cinder.

 
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Posted by on September 30, 2016 in Uncategorized

 

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‘When the flower blossoms, the bee will come.’ Srikumar Rao.

27 Sep

Stories from my Sketchbook . . . 

And not only the bee—apparently every other bug, grub, creepy-crawly and eight-legged beastie known to man as well . . .

antsIt’s early in the season yet but it’s already starting to feel like a scene from ‘A Bug’s Life‘ at my house. It started on Saturday when I was cleaning out my pantry (oh joy).  All was going well until I noticed a packet of oatmeal which seemed to be taking itself for a walk towards the back corner of the cupboard.  Looking more closely I realised said packet was being carried aloft by hordes of tiny black ants.  Sigh.  What should have been a fairly easy tidy-up job turned into a major ant-eradication program.

And it didn’t end there.  While out walking the girls I had my first sandfly bite of the season, which means I am now going to have to slather myself in ‘Rid’ from head to toe every time I go out to the letterbox or hang washing on the line for the next six months.  So much fun.

scaredMabel also encountered this year’s first ‘blowy‘ which sent her into complete tailspin.  (Mabel got stung by a bee when she was a tiny puppy and she has never gotten over it.  Her little face blew up to twice it’s normal size and she looked a bit like a freaky cartoon character.  (I didn’t tell her that though, she was traumatised enough as it was.)  Now any time anything buzzes past her she has a bit of a meltdown. Spring and Summer can be very exhausting times for Mabel.)

Add, to that the fact that we have now come into ‘tick season’ which means I will have to be hyper-vigilant with the dogs medication and daily checks and . . . wait for it . . . best of all . . . I am now also anticipating (with barely concealed terror, I might add) the arrival of the first monster spider (and I say first, because I can guarantee there will be others), which is bound to appear in my bedroom any day now.

Ah yes, the joys of Spring.  It’s just as well the flowers are so pretty . . .

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Hibiscus rosa-sinensis

 
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Posted by on September 27, 2016 in Uncategorized

 

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‘There are no mistakes. Just happy accidents.’ Bob Ross.

19 Jul

Stories from my Sketchbook . . .

I’ve been practicing perspective again—what I see is definitely not what I get on paper.  (Or perhaps it is. Perhaps it is my eyesight that is off?)  Anyway, I liked the quintessential ‘English-ness’ of the photo below, so decided to copy it.

rippingIt turned out to be quite a challenge—but not because of the perspective (I’ll keep practicing.)  The challenge came because I seriously stuffed-up the water-colour version of the window-box flowers—and it all turned into a horrible muddy mess.  Sigh. Watercolour is hard.  Bearing in mind that I had promised myself that I would no longer rip pages willy-nilly out of my sketchbook whenever I got the huff with whatever I was working on, I decided to play around in my ‘toy box’ of artist materials to see if I could remedy the situation.

Gesso is my now new best friend.  I had a large pot of it in a drawer (which had never been opened and had probably been there for years) and as I really had no idea how to use it, I just started experimenting.  The picture was stuffed anyway—what harm could it do?  I discovered (after a couple of less-than-stellar attempts) that using the gesso allowed me to literally ‘paint over’ my muddy mess, and if I added colour to it as well I not only got great texture but also an end result that kinda-sorta resembled a mass of flowers.  Who’da thunk?

(I also discovered that one of the drawbacks of using gesso in a sketchbook was that these two pages stuck together every time I shut my sketchbook for the next two weeks—but we seem to have got past that small hindrance now, so it’s all good.)

All hail the ‘happy accident’.  Thank you Bob Ross.  🙂

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Posted by on July 19, 2016 in Uncategorized

 

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