Coming out of hibernation a bit at a time

Since the Light is returning i am less inclined to sit and quilt and listen to books on tape ....

I am SLOWLY starting to paint...

I have been looking back through my sketchbooks for old ideas never followed through on,

There are tons,

And here's my stack of books since 2011, and some random images from them. 

Totally random, obscure things...

I think i can see improvement, but what i put in them remains the same...

I put everything in them.

Lots of the images i have never used for anything and i would like to see if parts of them could be used in fabric with some manipulation in photoshop, (i don't mean the ones i have shown here).

Hopefully i will film a few flip throughs of them soon.

And looking at them it dawns on me why i haven't done much sketching in a book in the last year, compared to 2012 &2013, which is when many of these are from, and it's because i ran out of the strathmore visual journals and went to other sketchbooks. I don't like the paper in the other types i had as much.

Note to self; stock up on strathmores!

 

still quilting....

 

Can barely get one medallion done before starting another....

"Falling Into Mandalas"

I have just been working a bit on an e-class on how I paint mandalas, just getting started really so not much by way of advertising to show yet...

Here's a few in progress shots of one of the mandalas I will show. I hope to have about 6-8 videos along with about twice as many mandalas... I am excited to be painting again, it's been at least a month I just didn't feel like it. (Only wanted to do english paper piecing) The quilt is coming along nicely, but oh, so slow. More photos of both projects soon...

Happy New Year

wow....with just one click I accidentally lost my template for my blog... yikes. I am sure there may be a way to get it back but if I can't it will give me a reason to redesign the blog again..anyway, in the meantime...

I may be a bit behind with these new year thoughts but i am finally getting back to blogging. just took a little break for a few weeks as I only felt like quilting, and we had all the kids home which was great. still haven't painted much, but have been reflecting a bit on the past year and the future year as it seems most bloggers (and nonbloggers) do this time of year.

The good thing about blogging though is I can easily go back and look at my year in pictures and see what I have accomplished.

In 2015 I started off in January carving.... birds and walking sticks...

moved on to a few other projects here and there in February...

by March I was starting paintings that I never finished even though my WORD last year was COMPLETE...

In April I painted this guy that I had stuck in a pile and forgotten all about...

In May I was still sketching and making mandalas and I had big news... MY MANDALA BOOK!!!! which is what I worked on for months and will be out this year, April 1st!...

June was about my garden

and rhubarb, and my son and working on mandalas for the book and enjoying the summer weather.

July was terrifying and so much fun. A road trip across the country with my daughters I never imagined but will never forget!

I faced so many fears; driving in cities, ziplining, heights, rapids, more heights, flying, etc etc etc,

August was about drawing flowers as I had met my deadline for the mandala book and was ready for a change...

September was filled with canning and more flowers and designing fabric...

October I decided to finish a coloring book I had planned for so long, and also was featured in heART magazine's coloring book issue.

I made some new carved birds and their stories in November and they sold out that week, and I worked on making up inspirational, self affirmation , meditation cards to be put in the shop, but they aren't there yet, soon I hope.

 December; I made some tiny muse's that are still available in the shop,  and continued on with the quilting ....

I looked at my resolutions from last year...

eat more vegetables and less sugar

hike more

do taichi and yoga more

finish the novel

finish the children's book

be thankful more

notice beauty more

pay it forward more

laugh more

spend less time on the internet

clear out clutter

simplify

most I didn't accomplish, but all things I still want to work on.

I did also set a goal to read 25 books, and I managed 24 with the help of Audible,

and logged with the help of Goodreads.  

(if you are curious and if you click on that link it will take you to my page where it shows all the books I read last year. it shows 23 as I forgot to add the last one I finished... 'a winter sea')

it still counts as reading if you listen

that way you still have time to quilt or paint or walk. 

As I am still quilting so much now I have very little to show as far as sketching or painting but until I do, here are some new doodles in my notes during a class I had to take for work....
after class I glued them into my sketchbook to cover a page I hated.

For 2016 I have lots of plans!
lots!
and lots!
and so many things that are just about to be finished so I will have LOTS to show.
see you soon...