Good bye November, Hello December

November all filled in. If you click on a day you can see all the details. The blank calendar is here

So here comes December...

One - gesso over two pages and then  squirt on acrylic paint and spread it around.

Two - get lots of green and add layers and patches of different tones, rub them in and rub them off again.

Three - Add a bit of printing with bubble wrap and sequin waste stencil in black and red and mix it all up.

(close up) - and a bit of paper doily stencilling in blue

Four- more stamping and adding lots more textures

Five - stick on the squares and label the days of the week - cut the letters for December out of 'optic' sticky back plastic - twiddle  about with gold and silver gel pens and I'm ready to go!

Flying through

Been a bit busy this week.  I haven't had time to do a lot of journalling or anything else art wise until today when I prepared my December calender pages which I will share with you when the month changes.

I have been out twice this week at our favourite venue,  The Stables at Wavendon near Milton Keynes. Last Tuesday Mr T and I saw Ralph McTell and on Friday we saw Thea Gilmore. I had intended to include some YouTube footage but the system wasn't playing today. I also had an evening with girl friends and went to an old friend's birthday party last night. No wonder I felt a bit pooped today, our evenings out are usually only once every couple of weeks or so these days.

Dreams

I have to believe I am living my dream.

I can spend as much of my time as I like here...

 ... my work station with my four journals - the A4 'Pink Pig' spiral bound, large and small moleskines and my little handmade book. (More of that another time)

The sun shone this morning and Marvin called me into the garden to play, but like most cats was quickly distracted by the birds on the feeder for which I am grateful, for I really do feel the fool turning in circles on the lawn with a garden cane for the cat to chase!!

and here is Marvin wishing he could fly

and the winners are ...

After a ceremonious draw by Mr T I declare the winners to be:

Duncan

Eileen

Chris

Printed Material

Lalabibaby

Barb

So as soon as I get your address I will be sending off your envelope. I am really excited as I will be posting to Thailand, Australia, Scotland, Wales and to my own county of Bedfordshire. Your three cards will be randomly selected as I am putting them in envelopes so I won't know who is getting what, except it will be one of each design.

You should be able to e mail me through my blog profile.

I am sure I shall do this again sometime as it such fun contacting people from all round the world - have a great week.

Hi there

I'll be making my draw tomorrow and will be contacting the winners soon (I have a bit of a busy week coming up) - whether they think they are lucky will remain to be seen!
Meanwhile here is a water colour exercise done by my sister Janet she has posted on flickr. She is really pleased but is not very confident in her ability, so if you have moment and are registered with flickr please drop her a line by clicking here, she would be so chuffed to get some comments.

Janet's ivy leaves

Morning

(Please click on the photographs for a larger view)

Although I love painting and drawing sometimes it is photography that just touches the spot.

Earlier this week the sun was shining after a rainy night and everything was glistening  from the light of the low sun. This is an ornamental crab apple tree in my garden and each apple had a drop of water hanging on it. The shadow of the fence was deep but the sun caught the fruit giving it a wonderful glow and the blue sky was captured in the drop. I am so pleased I took the two Open Collage of the Arts photography courses, they have given me tools to capture what I see. I was delighted with this shot - especially with the way the stem is also glowing red. It has only had the minimal adjustment to the contrast.

Initially it was these back-lit leaves that attracted my attention making them glow against the dark holly tree. A large aperture ensured a shallow depth of field throwing the holly out of focus, the sparkling water on the leaves giving the 'bokeh' effect much loved by many photographers (In case you are wondering 'bokeh' comes from a Japanese term used to describe the out of focus area of a photograph especially when lights form little discs of light)

Indulge me ...

I wrote this in August and just found it in my journal, so I thought I'd try layering it on a painting I had done of 'snow in summer'
I am not normally taken with writing, but on reading this I remembered the afternoon well. It  started as just a list, and I am not claiming any literary merit, but what a blessing keeping a journal is, otherwise this magic moment would have been lost.

There is still time to enter my draw, I am delighted so many of you have responded, but sorry that it will mean some will be disappointed.