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...

Garden tour

I have been meaning to post a tour of my garden all summer, the first of these photos were taken a month ago, when I had cucumbers still. They have long since been pickled.

I have just a small area of raised beds, but this year we added at least three more beds than last year. Plus we added a bunch of old tires filled with compost, where we planted herbs and tomatoes. 

Cucumbers and broccoli....

Carrots and onions...

Zucchini...it's finally all gone. We made zucchini fritters, zucchini chips, canned zucchini bread, steamed zucchini and I have one last one I have been meaning to make into zucchini Pie but haven't got around to yet.  Here's a link to my pinterest board for zucchini and/ or marigold recipes...

Basil, silver mound, lemon thyme, winter savory and oregano and lavender and orange mint....

A new bed; sweet potatoes...

I will post soon with all this week's harvest and what we made out of it all... 

 

in the meantime, here's a peek into my sketchbook. This page came about after the botanical sketches I did, and the gardening, it just naturally merged into a tangled web of flowers. I have so many new ideas for this... a new e-class (i know, I know... i haven't even finished the mandala e-class), a series of sketchbook pages and even acrylics. I have started about 5 pages already and will show you as I go hopefully.

oops, sorry, this seem a little blurry as it's dark inside now...

 

At some point I need to get back on track and finish the mandalas i have started. My deadlines have come and gone and been met for the book and I will let you know when it will be available!!!!

And I will have more details about the mandala coloring book edition of the heArt journal online magazine!!!!

my raised beds...

I showed you my new unplanted raised beds a month or so ago, I have planted a few with herbs, one with peppers, one with tomatoes, one with cukes and dill, etc etc. Here's a few pics of my rocks and plants a few weeks ago...

 looks like the store labeled that wrong...

Until this year, I hadn't had a garden in YEARS, so maybe this is normal but it seems my garden is busting out, way more than I expected. I am loving checking it everyday. It's close to the house so I can step out my door and see that the peppers have grown overnight!. And so far no bunnies or deer have eatten a thing. I did three things different than last time I tried a garden and it got eatten by a woodchuck.

I put little pill bottles of vinegar around in between the plants....

I planted onions and marigolds in front of the peas and tomatoes, and there are alot of pepper plants all over...

I have 2 outdoor cats and 2 dogs that pee all over the yard....

whichever one has helped I am grateful for, because the garden is doing soooo well!

 here are some pictures from this morning in the rain...

 there's another new garden ornament....

Isn't it EXCITING!

5. things that make me happy

1. My kids helped my husband and I make some raised beds and I am excited to be able to plant soon.....We built them 4'x4' and 10 inches tall.  We lay down newspapers over the grass, (well this one has cardboard instead of newspaper), then added a layer of old leaves, then compost mixed with just a little vermiculite and one bag of soil for all so actually very little soil added in. We have a huge compost pile that has been unused for years so we had enough for 5 squares and two long beds. 

 In between the squares is going to be flat rocks surrounded by gravel eventually I think...

2. My youngest didn't help but he was good and didn't try to run off the whole time we worked! and that is a wonderful thing, truly. He's on a 3 week good streak in his autism classroom at school. (If only we could figure out why, and make sure we keep doing what ever it is that turned his behavior around....)
I talk about him as if he was litttle, but as you can see he isn't anymore....

 

3. I have been having fun sketching and planning where things will be planted...

4. Making painted rock herb markers...

 I draw it on using my regular tip gel pen, then I add thickness along the edges...

woodland guardians

watching over my artwork

 judgmental  critics?

Then I spray them with a varnish, i have tried all different kinds, any will work.

5. My daughter is back home from New Mexico and excited about helping plant as well!