I missed my first birthday...

Gosh, it's been way too long!  I can't believe I missed the first birthday of my little blog, and I really can't believe that it is now over a year since I started it!  Anyway, for all you lovely people who visit here from time to time (EDMers etc) I would like to offer a little **GIVEAWAY** as a way of saying thank you for all the support and comments and, well for just quietly reading my ramblings over the last twelve months.  It is all very much appreciated you know.  The main part of the giveaway will be a set of three of my polar bear cards...

...they have been left blank so you can use them for anything really, just as a snail mail treat to send a friend, who doesn't like snail mail from time to time?  I will also add something 'Yorkshire' to the package and, after everything I said in my last post about Mail Art, I will add a little artwork to the parcel itself, just to make things a little more interesting!  If you approve and fancy owning the eclectic collection just leave me a comment here.....  I will draw a name from a (Santa) hat on Saturday 11th December.

Sadly I still don't really have much finished artwork to offer up at the moment, but not because of lack of inspiration this time thank goodness - rather a case of life getting in the way.  I do have these little tomato sketches, not the most exciting subject but I just loved the colours and had to have a go at painting them.  Really good fun and all good watercolour practice!  They cover EDM 24 - because technically they are fruit, right?



I am also working on this little fella, a snowy fox.  I started him a few weeks ago, with the intention of creating another Christmas card - then life intervened.  I'll try to get him finished this weekend though, no excuses - I'm on my own, then maybe I could at least make up some cards to share with family and friends this year.  Hey, if I get it finished I'll add one to my giveaway!  Here he is in his half finished state:



...pop back soon and he'll be here all finished :o)

Once again here in the UK we are in the grips of icy, snowy wonderfulness.  This has meant that for three days the school I work at has been closed, which means things must be really bad because our school hardly ever closes!!  After two days of horrendous car journeys at the start of the week though, I'm just grateful I didn't have to struggle in - I have also had a streaming cold, you know the type where you feel really, really ill but you can't justify time off work?  So, luckily I have been able to stay tucked up and warm and today I am feeling much more myself, though with a bright red nose and still unable to move more than 6 feet away from a box of hankies!

Oh, and Scout thinks the snow is marvellous!



Hope you are all cold free and keeping happy!  Back soon, L xx

You say it's your birthday

I have had such a busy few weeks (months) in my proper job I have hardly found time to produce any artwork.  Which has made me feel very sad.  It was my husband's birthday last weekend and I didn't even manage to get his birthday card finished on time!  I have worked on it all this weekend and when he gets back from walking the dog, I will present it to him!  I hope he likes it....

Each picture basically represents a band he loves - so he has to work out which bands they are!  He will, he's a music anorak, nothing will pass him by!  If he really likes it I'll frame it up for him.  I really enjoyed doing this.  Some of the images were more successful than others I think, but they were all universally fiddly to do as each square is around an inch and a half across.

The lack of recent artwork other than the above has made me have a look through some old images I have on the computer.  As this post is about Paul's birthday I thought I'd post this picture too.  A watercolour I did last summer (in daylight - when can we have proper daylight again???) - part of a series of studies I did trying to master painting snowy mountains.  We had visited Zermatt in Switzerland a couple of years previously and this picture was an effort to portray Paul with a dramatic mountainy backdrop.  Still not sure of the success of this piece, my sky wash is a bit weak, but I am quite fond of it because of the memory it evokes - so, here is Birthday Boy in the Alps!

  

Right, the light is disappearing on another weekend (where do they go?) so I'd better go and do something useful.  I have more time to myself again now, and from next weekend a week off the proper job - yey!!!  So, hopefully I'll find time to have a go at a couple of the EDM challenges I have been wanting to try - my fingers are itching to get cracking.....

We come from the land of the ice and snow....

....though perhaps not from the land of the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.... !

I thought I'd put this picture from the BBC website (in case you haven't seen it - if you are outside the UK it won't have been broadcast on your EVERY news bulletin) showing the UK under it's blanket of ice and snow.  It is a NASA picture and quite breathtaking I'm sure you'll agree?

I find myself at home again because of the weather - so am starting on a little mail art project I have decided to work on!  I'll post pictures when I have something to show - the final piece will include some of these flyagaric toadstools!  I have decided to make the piece to look like an illustration in a children's book!  Watch this space! x

Snow (hey oh)....

No artwork to post today - even though I had an unexpected day off work yesterday because of the snow.  Snow days are the best, a real excuse to just relax and not beat yourself up for being lazy, for just one day!  Actually I wasn't too lazy, I did get a couple of little jobs done that I have been putting off for a while (never a bad thing) and I have  been thinking about 'pictures and projects I'd like to tackle in 2010' - coming up with some good (?), fun, silly ideas.  Watch this space....

I also spent some time looking at other peoples artwork and found the BRUSH - PAPER - WATER blog, posted by Chris Beck (see my list of blogs).  It's a lovely blog, with some fantastic work by different watercolour artists so I thought I'd share.  I've also listed his own blog - 'I'm painting as fast as I can...'.

Just to brighten this post up, here's a picture of my doggy, Scout (after the little girl in one of my all time favourite books 'To Kill a Mockingbird').  We'd just got back from a long, snowy walk and she was waiting patiently for us to get the house door open so she could run to her comfy bed and get warm.  The snow was blowing in her eyes, so she's blinking a bit.  I've also noticed in this picture that her face is showing more grey fur - aww, she's getting a little older and it makes me feel sad!

If your'e a UK resident (or anywhere with lots of snow....) I hope you can enjoy it rather than have to drive in it (me in half an hour) or, get stuck in it!