Daffodils in the new home

Yesterday I took a break from unpacking and sketched the first daffodils blooming at the new house. I only spent about ten minutes on it, but really enjoyed doing it! I have to get back to pursuing my goal of sketching every day this year. This past week I've not done so well...

I'm part of an online art group called Everyday Matters, and there is a weekly challenge of something to draw. They are currently at week #157 or so, and I just recently joined. Therefore, I am going to be doing some of the older challenges mixed in with other things! Here is #1- a shoe. The daffodils fit #76 (flowers) and #124 (something yellow).

Stuff everywhere!

These last few weeks have been pretty (!!) hectic and stressful, but with the very generous help of an amazing number of friends, we moved into our new home this past week! We spent the first night here Saturday. Whew! Now we are surrounded by boxes and trying to figure out where to put everything. We've determined that we are going to release a lot of these things that we haven't used in years to bless others, and we're going to start using things we've "saved for a special occasion."

One example is the nice china that we got as wedding presents- we've hardly ever used it! Why is this?? I've decided that it's silly. Of course, now it's all in boxes and I need to find a place to put it where I can get TO it in order to use it, but that's all in good time.

Meanwhile, why did I save that beautiful tea dress from our wedding tea 21 years ago when I've not been able to fit my left elbow into it for, oh, 15 or 16 years?? I've got the husband! I don't need the dress to remind me of the special occasion. But it is so beautiful...

This home is at least 32 years old, just a few miles out of town, surrounded by pecan trees and a couple of ponds we're welcome to fish in, daffodils are already blooming in the front and there are crepe myrtles at the corners (I can't wait to see what colors they are!) and azaleas near the house. The house itself has more space than we had, and a wonderful place to homeschool! We've been assured by many friends that our neighbors are wonderful, and we've already seen evidence of that. How God has taken a very stressful situation and used it to bless us mightily!

The back yard:



And here's the combo den, school room, tv room, family room. Take a look at the shelves! Of course we've already filled them and have boxes of books leftover to figure out what to do with... :



More good news is that our email address stays the same and so do our cell numbers. The land line had to change, but that's okay! We're blessed. David caught 6 fish yesterday, and we had them for supper last night after church!

Come visit in a few weeks after we've had time to sort out everything!

Snow!

Well, today in central Alabama we had snow! They predicted anywhere from 1 to 6 inches, but we ended up with about 1/2 inch here. However, it was a lot of fun watching David and all the neighborhood kids play. They had snowball fights and built snowmen (small ones) and got really cold. A really fun day!



One night this week I did a quick sketch from a photo in the files of Watercolorworkshop to try to keep my goal of sketching every day this year. The blue in the sky completely dropped out of this scan, but the rest is pretty close. It was fun.



I also did a sketch of some cactus flowers, using a reference photo I took in the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham last year. I'm finding I like my sketches better when drawn from life.



Have a wonderful holiday!

2008

Lots of artists' blogs I've read in the past couple of weeks have mentioned their art-related goals for this year. I have decided that the only one I can realistically attempt to accomplish (with everything else I've got going on) is to sketch every day. It can be a quick 3 minute one if needed, but I do want to try to keep my hand fresh. I know I won't have time to paint that often, since that requires clearing off the kitchen table and getting out all my stuff. :)

This past week we collected ants for David's new ant farm and have had a blast watching them dig tunnels! Fascinating. That first day, I did a quick sketch of an ant while watching them through the magnifying glass. This is with pencil on a note pad- one of those freebies from a business.



Another night this week I did a quick sketch of a grapefruit and a bell pepper for a scavenger hunt item (from Wetcanvas). It was done at night in very poor light and the colors show it!



Then this evening I did a sketch of the three tadpoles that we've had since August!! These things are huge. I think they must be bullfrog tadpoles, which can take as long as three years to become mature frogs!! Yikes!! I don't know how much of those three years they are tadpoles, but we may have taken on a longer commitment than we knew! :)



I hope your 2008 has begun well!