AEDM - An Aussie image - the beautiful Xanthorrea

As promised, an image that is purely Australian :)  And it's close to  my heart, as in the beautiful bushland behind our house, there is a veritable treasure trove of glorious grass trees, emerging from the iron rich earth.

Considering I did this drawing in the semi-dark and couldn't really tell which colours were which in my pencil box I think I did OK.

Don't forget to visit other AEDM creatives ...

AEDM - my union flag

Today's offering is based on an embroidery design my friend created the other day as well as the fact I'm missing the UK quite a bit at the moment.  It's always worse at this time of year as Christmas approaches (it's really not that far away ..) and I start to miss family more and more and wish it would snow.  Hardly likely to happen here :)

My homesickness makes me seek out stories from home and my book of choice this time has been 'The Ten Second Staircase' by Christopher Fowler.  I discovered Mr Fowler quite by accident at our library earlier in the year when I picked up one of his books because it had a Union flag on the front and the title was intrinsically English - 'The Victoria Vanishes'.  That was enough for me!  Now I generally follow the maxim not to judge a book by its cover, but this time I was right to do that.  I find the Bryant and May detective series very witty, the stories fantastical but believable in the same moment and I love the combination of logic and the esoteric.  I'm also getting to like the sound of London, the scene for the stories; visiting in my teenage years as a 'country bumpkin' from Devon at the time, I found the capital city intimidating, whereas now I'm becoming curious about it's history.  Simply brilliant, but don't take my word for it, read the books for yourself.  I felt a little saddened that I had to explain to Big B (who was very young when we left the UK) that the names Bryant and May were taken from a brand name for matches, but even he could see the wit in that.  I'm trying to convert him too.  You can check out more at the author's blog.

And if you want to be inspired by more art every day this month, check it out here ...

thinking about it, my next pic will be something from my life here in Australia, just in case people start thinking I'm unhappy here, because I do like it!

AEDM day 3 - my garden coloured in

 

As promised, here is my picture from yesterday coloured in. 

And the story behind it?  Yesterday at meditation we were invited to go to our 'happy place' and I was immediately transported to the gardens at Castle Drogo which I had visited with my dad earlier this year.  We came to this beautiful lawn divided by paths, with a large garden gate to each side, and through this particular gate I could see the beautiful rolling hills of the Devon countryside.  I felt so at home :)   I also discovered that the head gardener there is a very good friend of my sister, so it all felt linked to my family and the country of my birth.  This picture is a happy picture; I felt so peaceful and content whilst creating it.  Now I have my happy place in my head, and on paper so that I can share it with others.

Where's your happy place?

Visit another happy place for more art every day this month ...

AEDM - day 2 - A work in progress

Here's what I'm working on today - only in black and white, a quick sketch whilst I cooked dinner.  Next time you see it, I'll have coloured it in :)  And it will have a little story attached too.

Art Every Day Month - day 1 (for me)

I have a little secret ... haberdashery wise I mean :)  I've told you about my ric-rac and buttons fetish before, but have never shared my secret love for ... bias binding.  And I don't mean shop-bought, mass produced bias binding, I mean the handmade, pretty patterned kind, that can be custom made to match the outfit you're making.  Sad I know, but even sadder is the fact I've been doing a happy dance tonight because I managed to make 4.2 m of bias binding out of 2 shirt sleeves.  The shirt is being made into a new blouse for work, and I need the binding for the neckline and armholes - so I custom made it - it took a couple of hours and now I'm a happy bunny indeed :)

Other blogworthy news is that I've found something else to give me creative blog prompts for the month of November, you can read more about it here and join up too if you want to.  As my first day is 5th November, a very important day in British history, I felt inspired to sketch my own little bonfire as we don't celebrate the date here in Oz.  It's helped me dust off my watercolour pencils and paintbrush too as I've decided to do some more arty stuff; it will be interesting to see what I've created in a month's time.