New Years Eve

So December as been a pretty amazing and eventful month and as such I should have posted way more on here than I have because I have loads of cool things to share but for some reason every time I sat down to blog about something I just couldn't get a decent page out of me. So that's been no good. I have had concerts and my birthday and not to mention Christmas to share all about and perhaps it has been overwhelming but that is still no excuse for the lack of posts especially when I have interesting things to talk about.

So today be New Years Eve I was thinking I better get some stuff down but I will definitely have to give proper attention to everything later.

So for now another sneak peak,

 

 

I only have a few pages left but I am struggling a bit for the harder letters, why does the end of the alphabet have to contain v, w, x, y, and z. Hopefully it will all come together soon, I am hoping for a stroke of brilliance later today for most of those letters.

 

 

 

From M to R

So December has been a busy beginning to the month so far! I am so full of Christmassy Spirit this year its unbelieveable, so I have been busy getting Christmas presents sorted, even though there are a couple people on my list who are stubbornly not letting anyone know what they would like! So hopefully Dixon and I can figure them out soon!

I have found quite a bit of time lately to do a whole bunch of wee paintings and some secret paintings, that are admittedly, not so secret anymore. I will have to do a post another time of the wee paintings cause for now I have some hints of the next few pages to be sent, though they may not make it out until after Christmas. But by then quite a few of them should be sent over so even if there is a wait at least it will pay off in the end.

 

 

Unfortunately there was no Dr. Sketchy's this month and according to the website, next month doesn't have one either, but I am hoping that because there was no December one that January will step up!

And in other news, I have a green thumb! I don't know if everybody had this but in school when you're young, we got to grow Sweet Peas from the seed in class. Everyone elses sweet pea grew and then they got to take them home and plant them, mine didn't. This was followed by a catcus which I over watered and it shriveled and died. So I am proud to announce my Christmas tree is growing!

Infact this is a little bit of an older picture and it is about double in size! I am going to have to find extremely tiny baubles for it though!

Ho Ho Ho

I am slowly but surely getting some Christmas cards together and posting them out later this week, its been a lot of fun making wee watercolours for each card. So I hope the people who get them will like them! These are a few different ones I have done so far and a few cards ready to send out, so a few people can expect some soon.

Hopefully I will get a few more done this week so I can get the rest of the cards I want to send out in time for everyone before Christmas.

 

 

K and L

A few more sneak peaks at the new painting for A is For, can you guess what they are?

 

 

Perhaps I will get some more done before the day is over!

Lea Pearl Smith

 

My sister and her husband had their baby the other day, a beautiful baby girl, they called Lea Pearl Smith after both of their Grandmas. She was in fact born on the same day as Tyler's Grandma, Pearl, and Pearl would have been 100 years old that day!

So a huge CONGRATULATIONS to Camille and Tyler!

So it is very exciting to be an Aunty and that is what the Secret Paintings have all been about!

I didn't take the best photos of the paintings but perhaps I will get better ones another day, but they are now with Camille and Tyler!!

 

 

 

 

Dr. Sketchy's

On the weekend I went to a live drawing session which some people probably have heard of called Dr. Sketchy Anti Art class. I have been wanting to go again for ages, I went to my first one about two years ago and haven't been back since, mostly cause I was too nervous to draw in public. I personally love drinking and drawing at home, its a brilliant way to spend hours and suddenly look up at the clock and realise you have been drawing/painting/getting pissed for 6 hours. But in public that is another thing  entirely! So I worked up the courage to ask my sister and my husband if I should go! Becuase if I told them I was thinking of going I would have much more of a push to go than if I just thought of going! And lo and behold they thought it was a good idea, so I tricked myself into making the plans to go.

Now I would be more than a little bit of a liar if I didn't say that I was thinking of just hanging out in town instead of heading to the Jazz Bar while I was sitting on the bus into town. In the end I made it there and was still particularily awkward for the first hour or so, some of the people who were there were so awesome, and there I was sitting with a wee cup of tea, scibbling out a mess of people.

Not that anyone was making me feel uncomfortable, just my awkward wee self, I decided a wee Crabbies Ginger beer would be nice and to just doodle something for a bit and out popped the pirate head you see below. I found my groove!

Now I definitely want to go back and do some more drawing so hopefully I make it to the next one in December and then the next in February! It was a really really fun way for me to learn to draw differently and more quickly because you really need to get the people down on the paper before the five minutes is up!

 

 

 So its a good thing I have Caryn and Dixon to tell me to do things because without them I wouldn't have had such a wonderful time!

All Hallow's Read

I was thinking the other day that I really really should have done a post about this about two weeks back cause it would make a lot more sense, but because it is something I think is pretty cool I am going to anyway.

A wee while back I was snooping around Neil Gaiman's blog and found out about a new tradition he wants to start around Halloween. A slight groan could be heard from Britain, they don't really do Halloween enthusiastically as it is, let alone another tradition. I have seen more people dressed up in real costumes for a Bachelor party let alone Halloween, which is mostly dress in your pants night. But this tradition is a a little bit different. I'm not the most articulate so this video illustrates much better than I could ever tell you.

 

 

So you give a scary book this Halloween! Well I suppose I am a little late on spreading the word, but I am excited because my book I have sent hasn't arrived yet! So I am still quietly celebrating All Hallow's Read, while waiting for Marsha to get her book, so that next year hopefully I can do this again, on time. If I am lucky!

So for more information and book recommendations they have a website!

All Hallow's Read

Busy Busy

So I had another productive Saturday off I managed to put down the videogame I couldn't put down on wednesday and actually paint! Something about when Dixon is away to go skating, I can really be productive. So here are some wee previews.

 

These paintings are turning out to be a lot of fun! I am really enjoying thinking them up and putting them out there. I do need to get onto the next few soon, because I think I have a lot of painting to do in my future! But so far it has been fun. Its made me draw and paint things I normally wouldn't think to paint.

 

The newspaper was giving away free lego all this week and because the shop that you had to collect it from is not close to my route to work or home from I haven't got any of it! Buuut Dixon got a lift to the shopping centre and picked it up for me even though he isn't the biggest lego fan let alone Lord of the Rings fan. My own little orc!

 

And finally last but not least it was my awesome brothers birthday and through the magic of technology I was able to send him a birthday present on time and everything! Though not a card, thats still coming!! Sorry!!

I did get him one of the best movies of our childhood!

 

The Haar

haar (pronounced hahr)

A haar is a type of cold mist or fog from the North Sea which frequently occurs along the East coast.
The east-coast haar has lowered temperatures in Edinburgh in the morning and evening recently.
The word is of Dutch origin, coming either from Middle Dutch hare, a biting wind, or Frisian harig, damp.

 

The past few days whats known in Scotland as the Haar has been rolling in over the Firth of the Forth and shrouding Edinburgh in a thick fog, the strange thing is I don't think that I have ever noticed it this thick and constant before. It was a pretty cool sight to see.  In all my time here, I don't think it has ever looked like this and that is what makes it so cool about living here. The fog I remember would be super strong in the morning and you would turn on the radio, hoping with your fingers crossed that the buses wouldn't be able to drive through it, but it seems it would almost always dissapate before getting your day off school. So you would still have to get all bundled up to go walking up your driveway anyway. We needed more fog like this!

It has turned out to be one of those things that when you didn't know it was called something and you have never heard of it before. Now that I know it is called The Haar, I heard about it all day from different sorces, its so weird when that happens.

 

And so the pumpkin carving begins, its was a mystical magical day the day before so what a day to start the pumpkin carving off with a bang. I haven't carved a pumpkin in a few years and this is the first time it is not your classic Triangle eyes, nose and toothy grin. I think it came out pretty awesome if I do say so myself. When I started I wanted to try one of the stencils that seemed simple, and cause the Bride of Frankenstien didn't seem to have too many pieces I thought it was an ideal choice, plus its supppppper cool! It was actually quite hard, all the wee bits are super hard to get at especially when you don't have a range of tools, just me and my pearing (pairing?) knife against the world. Though however long it took it was well worth it. Gonna carve some more with Dixon this weekend!

Busy Week

 

So its been a bit of an interesting week, mostly a lot of work, but also I went to the dentist. Its been some time since I have been to the dentist and the verdict wasn't amazing but not as bad as I thought it would be. I went in for a chckup and left with a filling and a substantial amount of money seemed to have dissapeared from my accout. But getting them fixed now is better than no teeth later.

 

Its also slowly but surely turning into fall and the leaves are finally changing colour, making it feel a lot more like fall. It really is getting me excited to carve some pumpkins.

 

 

And I have been productive with some more secret painting!!

 

 

Day Off

Yay, day off! I mostly tried to do some drawing, bits of it I am happy with, other bits not so much. At least there was some drawing taking place. Hopefully some more soon.

 

 

In other news I am going to go see Frankenweenie today, for you guys over in North America, you're thinking oh whats the big deal. But for Britain we know its not out until the 18th. Hayley managed to get us some free sneak peak preview tickets for tonight so that pretty cool! Plus free tickets to a movie you already wanted to see is pretty cool! So I am watching the Nightmare Before Christmas to set me up for later!

 

 

Also,

Edinburgh was being kinda beautiful last night.

 



Fun at the Botanics

Me and Dixon spotted Bigfoot in the redwoods at the Botanic Gardens, it was a rare sight to catch on film!

 

 

I also have a new tattoo but no photos good photos of it yet its an awkward one for me to get a photo of so heres a sneak peek.

 

 

Something Special

I did some painting again, finally! Its been ages! But it was a lot of fun but only a preview of it for now because it may just turn out to be something bigger

 

 

Off To The Inlaws

Off to Gail and Gordon's today and I mostly got caught up playing Super Mario Galaxy and totally missed my bus, but every cloud has its silver lining!! The swans were out with their rather large children today! Every other time I'm by here they are either not out or I don't have a camera! I just wish I brought my holga!! That's what I get I suppose for not having it on me!! This bus is going to be ages though. So this is coming from the app, so we will see how this looks once I am done!

The Royal Botanical Gardens

Dixon had a couple weeks off this month, I unfortuanetly couldn't get time off or these photos may have been somewhere entirely different. I did have my regular days off which were pretty awesome to spend some time with him. Instead of doing the usual which is nothing, we went to the Royal Botanic Gardens for a change since it was an awesome day!

I really want to go again and get into the greenhouses, I don't care if you need to pay, they look awesome. So you will probably see more of the botanics again!