A quick reminder!

I just noticed that JoyJam is up on this blog and after my week decided that I needed to remind me, that there were some things that made me smile!

1. Receiving support from my beautiful daughter at just the moment when I was feeling completely overwhelmed.  I am so proud of you and love you so much Ash!!

2. Spending time with my ever so gorgeous grandson!

3. Spending a day drawing while watching the tennis!

4.  The kookaburras laughing in our garden (who wouldn't smile at just the sound of these wonderful birds) and we are blessed by them several times a day.

5. The evening 'debrief' with the love of my life!

 What were the 3-5 things that gave you joy this week?

Creativity Abounds

The New Year has seen me spending mountains of time nurturing my creativity.  In the first few days of the month, I have looked at the first lesson of Tam's 'Ultimate World of Whimsy' and as a result created this:

Tam taught us how to draw whimsical people and cute little creatures - so much fun!  The quote by Christine Castro Hughes, came from one of the books I was given for Christmas 'Desire to Inspire' by Christine Mason Miller.  So far I have read the first few chapters and am in fact finding it incredibly inspirational - ah and there is my chosen word!  I am also creating some cards to go with the first activity in that book, but will leave them for show and tell until I have finished a few more.

At the end of last year my gorgeous daughter gave me a book called 'One Sketch A Day'.  It is a visual journal in which you can record a sketch each day.  I decided to start it on January 1st, and so here are the sketches up until today:

They are only small and are very quick sketches, so far usually done in about 5 minutes or so!

Not done yet!  I have also completed last week's lessons for Jane Davenport's 'I Heart Drawing' class where we were focussing on drawing walking figures:

and the torso with natural breasts and uplifted breasts!

Last Friday I was absolutely thrilled when I was able to go to the Matisse Exhibition at GOMA in Brisbane.  The exhibition was brilliant and well worth the three and a half hour drive there and back!  I had one of my very dear friends with me.  It was Coralie I thought of as I toured galleries in Europe; all the time thinking that I wished she were with me as she would love it.  Coralie is an art teacher and it was just amazing sharing this experience with her.  I learnt so much about different art processes that I never really understood before.  Finally I know for sure that I was right all those time I was thinking of her when I toured the other exhibitions! Just one small aspect of the exhibition was the 'drawing room'.  It was set up with an area to eat and drink (yummy, yummy food!), a musician playing clasical music on the violin and then there were still lifes set up and drawing equipment so you could do as Matisse did and draw!  The photo below shows lots of people doing just that!  Such a beautiful atmosphere!

I bought a book filled with images of the Matisse works we saw on display and when I came home that night I sat and drew one of his drawing from the book and a quote from the exhibition into one of my art journals.

Today I managed to finish the piece for the first week of the free online course I am doing with Strathmore Online.  It is called 'Doodles Unleashed' and is being taught by Traci Bautista and I have to say it is fabulous!  The fact that it is free is amazing I think and I would honestly say that if you have time you should absolutely consider it!  I did this piece on a 30 x 30cm canvas board and am so glad I did.  I have only really done my work in journals and decided after a few prompts from a friend that I could indeed use canvasses!

I had poured some drawing ink into a container to use on the piece above and didn't like wasting it so decided to grab a journal and a book off my shelf  and see what happened.  I drew this and am quite pleased as a first attempt to draw with brush and ink - no pencil, just ink!

I was going to paint him with water colours, but was not sure that the drawing ink is waterproof so decided not to risk it until I have checked.  He's not perfect, but he is cute I think!

Add to all this art that I have been at the gym four days a week, spending time with my grandson and keeping up with the chores around the house (well sort of!) and I have to say it has been a fabulous start to the new year!

Welcoming 2012

The New Year 2012 has dawned and I have to say it is with some degree of nervousness and excitement that I am here!  The past two years have been so jammed packed with adventure that my imagination is drawing blanks when I think about where to from here.  We have travelled, made friends, and I know I have discovered many things about myself that have been some of life's most valuable lessons.  I was asked before leaving London what my plans were when we arrived back in Australia and I have to say I felt rather stupid because I had no response.  I had the plan to come home to Australia to live again and that was it!  I didn't know where I was going to be working and I didn't know how I was going to keep myself moving forward in this life.  All a bit daunting really.  I am still really unsure about all of this.

In the next few weeks I will start a new job in a different school.  I will be returning to teaching in a Special Education Program in a local mainstream high school, but have no idea how this program is operated!  I am not sure what will be expected of me and am worried that it will all lack the excitement and interest of my London job.  I am so worried that after two years of life feeling so, so brilliant that it will seem mundane.  Not one to sit on my hands and let that happen, I have decided to take steps to ensure that I keep moving forwards!

I am currently enrolled in 5 on line art courses!  I have another 4 weeks to go of Jane Davenport's 'I Heart Drawing Class' (absolutely brilliant!!!) and today I start a free course with Strathmore (4 weeks) being taught by Traci Bautista and then also today I start on the 'Lifebook' course with Willowing and with the Lifebook course came access to another two Willowing courses (for me 'The Wonderful World of Whimsy' and 'Awesome Art Journals').  So you can see I plan on being a busy girl!

Having said that I have also decided than rather than make a New Year's resolution that I would follow the lead from a few blogs I have read lately and choose a word to guide me for the year.  After much to-ing and fro-ing I have chosen the word 'inspiration'.  I have decided that I really want to keep reminding myself to be open to inspiration from all sorts of sources and that even when something is getting up my nose I can reframe and use it as a source of inspiration to move towards better things.  I also know that I need to keep using my skills and talents to be an inspiration for others, it brings great joy into my heart.  I keep reminding myself of all that has happened in the past few years and how wonderful it has all been.  I want to use that as an inspiration for myself and others as to how wonderful life can be.

Here's the latest from my art desk.....still needs some work, but that's OK I thought I would share it with you anyway!

So maybe this year is one for me to regroup, seek inspiration and work out where the next big step in this adventure will be.  Hey if you had asked me in March 2004 if I thought all this was possible I would have said 'no way'!  Life's biggest turning point for me in this phase was on the 9th April 2004 when I literally fell in love at first sight!

Celebrations!

Today is the longest day of the year here in the southern hemisphere.  It has been the most glorious day in Hervey Bay! A breeze has blown all day and that has kept the humidity down.  I have been busy most of today: going to the gym, doing a bit more Christmas shopping, doing some ironing, sewing and drawing.  I also wandered my garden with my camera for ten minutes again.  We have some beautiful flowers at the moment.

The hibiscus are stunning.

The frangipani are always a delight, but these ones don't have the perfume of some!

 For the past few days these two have been regular visitors (they spent most of today day feeding in our back garden but did zip around the front for a dip in the pond!)

To me the day's most important celebration is that of the birth of this wonderful lady 89 years ago!  I won the Mum lottery on the day she gave birth to me.  She is one of those truly amazing women.  Incredibly intelligent, strong and resourceful.  I love you Em as do all of your children and grandchildren (happy birthday to you too Kylie!).  We are all blessed to have you in our lives!

A Week of Smiles!

Just had to do a 'Joyjam' entry today because it sure has been a week full of lots of things to make me smile!  Tuesday was a brilliant day.   Lunch with my two beautiful children which included sitting listening to the story of my daughter's last day of her first year of teaching (all the other teachers had one or two students from their calsses turn up for 'clean-up day' - Ashy had 15 of her Year 6 class!  My son's story was no less inspirational as he told me how he had led a major project to help a mate in need.  He co-ordinated an incredible effort to help out.  Just makes a Mum's heart swell to hear the stories that her children are going ahead and making a real difference in this wonderful world of ours.

Major smile number two for the week came when one of my wonderful friend and I went to see 'Cold Chisel' on Tuesday night.  The concert was fabulous, but I think the biggest smiles....well actually belly laughs, came as we ran to the car through torrential rain after the concert!  We were both completely drenched and at times running through ankle deep water, splashing like two five year olds and laughing hysterically!  It was topped off by the rain stopping just as we got to the car and then the two of us singing along to 'Cold Chisel' songs as we drove home. Sometimes it is absolutely the simple things in life which bring the greatest joy.  Here's a 'long arm' shot taken of Jane and I before the concert....mmm it's a bit off centre .....I think I need to practice these more!

Next big smile was all day Wednesday when Jane and I visited an art store, had lunch in one of our old haunts from years ago and then found some bargains in 'Spotlight'!  Just got to love this sort of shopping with a friend!

Thursday's smiles came when I had the chance to talk on Skype with some of the students I taught in London and a few of the wonderful staff members I was inspired by in my time there.  I miss these people incredibly and to have the chance to chat was just brilliant!

.....and today I just had to think of some of the things I am grateful for to start smiling all over again!

• the ability to go to the gym to keep fit
• my art which continues to be one of life's true treasures

• receiving things in the mail (60 new paints!...ooohhh can't wait to play with them!).  'Lots of colours' has always brought a smile to my face!

• being blessed by loving and being loved by my darling

Who wouldn't be smiling I say!!!!

Gate Crashers and Visitors

This week has been another very busy one.  Today is our youngest's 20th Birthday.  I can't believe that the little 12 year old boy I met when I started going out with Richard is 20 already!  Sam I hope you have had a fabulous day!

I have joined the gym and have started to try to get myself fit again!  I need to strengthen up and get my flexibility back!   I was there four times last week.....let's see if I can keep that up!  I also did a lot of creating throughout the week.  Here's just some of what I made:

Do they say something about my moods this weeks...meditative and yet full of energy?  Well the second one was done as a sketch initially the right way up as I drew.  I then realised that my journal was upside down when I drew her so decided to try to make sense of her that way and this is what came along.  It was a huge challenge to try to get the shading and the highlights in the right places when I was thinking of her being upside down.  Let's just say an interesting challenge.

A couple of weeks ago we went to my friends' 10th Wedding Anniversary party in Maryborough.  It was a lovely evening held in their carport.  This little guy decided to gate crash.

That's my hand behind him to give you some sense of scale.  I would say he had to be at least about 20 cm or 8 inches long!  I had to get a photo of him because my friend in London has some he keeps as pets and I thought Simon would just love to see this one!

There were more interlopers in my week!  On Friday I decided to do a little bit of gardening.  There was a Eucalypt seedling in the front garden that I decided needed to go so I reached across it and got the nastiest sting on my upper arm from this little guy!  I have no idea what sort of caterpillar he is but my goodness he packs a punch!  He stopped me in my tracks.  I needed to come in and put an icepack on the sting, take an antihistamine and sit down for a little while.  This morning I decided the price he needed to pay was to be my model while I played with the macro lens on my camera!

While I was out there I also spotted this chrysalis and decided he could model for me too!

I think this next story though takes the cake for the week's excitement!  I was laying in bed reading last night (a real book, not my Kindle) and Richard decided he wanted to go to sleep.  I knew at one point I had a reading light on my bedside table so I decided to have a scout around for it.  Well I nearly jumped out of my socks....except I wasn't wearing any!  When I turned around there were two little eyes looking at me!  This is who they belonged to:

She is an Eastern Dwarf Tree Frog and is about 2.5cm long (I can fairly confidently say 'she' because the males only grow to about 2 cm).  She was sitting under my lamp I guess hoping to catch any bugs the light attracted. She is the third one we have had in our house since we have been home.  I keep catching them when I can and popping them back outside.  We have had so much rain lately (about 150 mm or 6 inches this month and we are only up to the 11th!) that I guess they think it is moist enough indoors for them!  I can hear them right now out in our garden....they are noisy little devils too!

Another joy I had this week was to go to watch Harry perform at a local retirement village.  His Kinda group were singing Christmas Carols there.  It was delightful and best of all was his comment when I asked him if he had had a good time.  His response.....'Oh yes Grandma!  I just love being on the stage!'  Oh he melts my heart!

Our Creative Side

Our house has become a very creative one in the past few weeks!  Richard has been busily working on his new model railway and finally received the track underlay from America late last week so he could start laying the track.  He he was at the weekend:

It took him quite a long time to do and seemed to be very fiddly, but the part he has finished is looking good!  There are three big sections to the model and the final one has a turntable.

This is what I have been up to at my brand new studio desk!!:

I have had my sewing machine out for the first time in definitely more than six years, and may be even eight or nine!!  I can't tell you at the moment what I am making (Santa surprises!), but I have to say that I am loving doing it!  I have a view out of that window directly into some Frangipanis and have to say that I have lovely chats with the butcher birds and kookaburras that come to sit in them! One of the great things is also that I have the iPod dock we had in London in the room and can have it playing as I create.  I just love it!  My storage unit it made from the old TV unit.  I will be painting the walls and furniture and hopefully making a patchwork quilt for the bed that is behind my chair so that it becomes more like a daybed.

I have also done more work on my latest art course:

This is meant to be like a fashion mood board.  The girls were traced from photos from a web site and then coloured to suit my theme.  I really enjoyed this challenge.