Still sick but up and stuff to show you

Been signed off work for yet another week - having no immune system means that this viral chest infection is going to be here for a long while.  I hope to be well enough to go back to work on 11th May.

I am out of bed now and although coughing loads every time I move or speak I am able to sit very still in the workroom :-) - I did also step into the garden - find fresh air does help. So here are photos.

I have done three journal pages - they are a bit similar - same colour and same techniques but I hope to get a bit more adventurous.
Not sure why the photos sideways on when they are saved the right way up !
Left is my old A4 recycled diary sketchbook, right here is my new A5 landscape sketchbook

here is my other A4 sketchbook 

The garden looks lovely and spring/summer like. The Iris are looking good - fallen over so I have staked them.  

Most are very dark but in the corner there is a pale one !

 Then the Clematis Montana has gone absolutely mad on the fence and the one on the wall opposite is a double one.

 

And finally my pot apple tree - I hope that each of these blossoms will become an apple - here's hoping

Some mono prints

As promised here are some of my new mono prints - this is just a selection from the 100+ that I made.  Sorry this post is photo heavy :-) I just love them all.  My next sketchbook (yes the next one!!) which is going to be a landscape A5 size (not tried landscape before) may include some of these colour mono prints extended.

2012 - Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all my blogging friends. Hope it's a good one for you. I decided not to make resolutions as I always make the same - to lose weight, exercise more (once the knee op is out of the way) etc. This year my family suggested we all write a list of our top 5 wishes - they could be mundane to the ridiculous. Any thing we really would like if it was at all possible - to have or to achieve. Then we would spend the next year trying to achieve these top 5 desires and to help each other achieve their wishes too. My list is currently 12 items long. I did ask my daughter to help choose the top 5 - she did help but only suggesting the top 4. I will not tell you which ones they are but will try to achieve any of these (written in the order I thought of them not the order to achieve them):

1. Go to New York again
2. Go to Venice for the carnival
3. Visit my dear friend Jan
4. Go Riding
5. Spend a weekend at a health farm
6. Dye my hair purple (have it bleached first to make it vivid)
7. Build a vanity unit and cover the pipes in the downstairs loo
8. Buy a 'good' orthopaedic mattress
9. Buy a dress (not had one for years)
10. Buy some really good quality saucepans
11. Tile the kitchen
12. Get a Kindle when they are in colour.

Then there are the four art related wishes - have these every year :-) :

1. Exhibit my quilts/costumes
2. Make more costumes
3. Make some small art pieces to sell (like the cuffs)
4. Go to the quilt show at the NEC

There I have written them down - now let's see if I achieve any!!

In the meantime I have been following the Sketchbook Challenge with great interest throughout 2011 and have decided to try my hand this year. Click here to get more information. I may not do every months theme but I have decided to try mostly because the January theme is 'doodling' and it means I can zentangle. So what I have done is used my New York skyline picture (see previous posts) and filled it in.... this is it up the right way...

but it also looks good upside down.....

and on its side!!

All look OK but a bit busy - don't think I will use the filled in for anything else.