U is for….

This fun challenge is brought to you by: http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/

and today is the letter “U“

The theme of my blog and this challenge has been about “family” because they are my job and they are who I spend the most time with so I have introduced you to most of them one more for letter “W” coming up, so these last few letters are starting to get tricky…so I am using “U” for “U”pdate!

I had endeavored to do my blog daily I’ve pretty much succeeded and along the way I do the odd challenge, like the NABLOPOMO which I did for Nov, Dec,January and February. I don’t know why I missed March but never mind, it did the trick which was to write each day with a prompt (or not) which was provided.. you can find out more about those monthly challenges here: http://www.blogher.com/blogher-topics/blogging-social-media/nablopomo. I am lucky that my family support my blogging and allow me to use their funny, weird and wonderful stories I asked them all before I wrote about them… actually all except for Kit and Jarrah.

Another challenge I’ve been doing is “A year of Australian Writing” and that is run by Pip Lincolne over at :http://meetmeatmikes.com/2015-a-year-of-australian-writing/ When I signed up for this I said “I am NOT buying any more books” ha! yeah right!! I did find a bunch on my bookshelves of Aussie authors..I also ended up at a Church book sale in January this year and I asked the lady who was working there do they have an “Australian Author” table? she pointed me to the place and I was chatting to her saying “I am doing a reading challenge to read only Australian authors” when one of the other ladies in the hall said “Are you blogging with Pip Lincolne?” I said “yes I am” and she went on to tell me that Pip is a friend of hers and although she’s not doing it this year she’s done challenges with Pip in the past! Small world! but it was also helpful because she and her friend went on a mission and found me a bunch of books from Aussie authors I’d not heard of and it’s scary to buy on someone else suggestions, but I read Nikki Gemmel’s “Shiver” and I brought her other book which she wrote anonymously called “The Bride Stripped bare” I haven’t started it yet though.

     

Here is a small sample of what I’ve got piled up waiting to read..

According to “Good reads” I’ve read.. 12 Australian books and one I gave up on.. so far this year!!

 I am currently reading “Adam’s Empire” by Evan Green which is a nice long book.. What I do with my books is part of a much larger challenge which I began in 2007.. the goal was “To read a Million Pages” When I have finished a book I try to do a book review on it.. so keep watching for those any book lovers out there.

As of right now I have read :180,432. Clearly this will be the rest of my life goal.

Another thing I started doing on my blog was a weekly check in with my Bible studies, but even I got tired of that, This week Bible study returned it’s been on a break and so we have just started “The Book of Leviticus”

This is the colour chart we use and so my bible is now getting very colourful.

 With the colour chart method

Close up of how different lines are coloured differently.. I am too pedantic most don’t do that.

Book of Leviticus we just started it this week, 

My Sister-in-law was eager to try a new crochet pattern so she made me this book mark

Another thing I was regularly blogging about was my Garden. Over the summer season I designed and planted a vegetable garden, I really enjoyed it, but now I’ve decided to give the garden bed a rest due to the fact that we are going to be going away travelling.

And finally the reason I started this blog so long ago, was to share my art with my pan pals who did not have Facebook. so I started a blog. Recently after becoming a Grandma I stopped doing art because I was so busy gazing lovingly at these little people.. but then late last year I realized I missed  my art, I miss the”getting lost” in my art, some days when Star Son was at school I could paint from 10 and till 3.00 pm and even forget to eat, and sure it was not something that I would share with others, but it was my way of chillaxin’ and maybe even running away from the real world. I had been doing online classes with different teachers, learning different skills and compiling them all in an art journal. This year I decided I was taking back my “Art time”   So My cousin read about her here: https://kimlhine.wordpress.com/2015/04/14/l-is-for/ we have decided that once a month we will escape our houses and families and do an art class, one day or half day a month..

January we went to Woodend and did a “faces” class where we learnt to use different mediums and techniques.

February- We won a place in an art class held by Perth Western Australian Artist Melini Parker.

You can read more here: https://kimlhine.wordpress.com/2015/03/17/art-course-first-for-2015/

March-  We started doing “Life Art” classes, having no idea we would be painting naked men or women.. we lasted two weeks.

 

Not my greatest of works, but hey it was an experience.

April- We did a 2 hour class with Melbourne artist Gayle Stone.. more inf here; https://www.facebook.com/gayle.stone.50

An Intuitive art class and we made a big mess but it was fun..

Intuitive art with Gayle stone.

Also in April, we did a two-hour class with Julie at the local art shop learning to use “Gelli Plates”

I brought the Gelli Plate to use for other things at home

Also during this time I have been working on a few little projects at home.

My Mother-in-law has recently gone into a care facility fondly called “the retirement home” you can follow along here: https://kimlhine.wordpress.com/2015/04/07/f-is-for/ So my Star Son said he’d paint her a painting for her wall, I was allowed to help.. which translated into “you do it I suck!” so i had such a good time doing it and I was happy with how it turned out, I decided to do another one for myself…

Tanny’s version- Pugaliscious

My Version called “pugs ‘ n’ kisses“

Pugs’n’kisses #2

Tanny with her Pugaliscious painting Easter 2015

 

Pugaliscious on Tanny’s wall.

I love it so much and I don’t even like pugs!!

Then I started doing my first oil Painting, I haven’t even played with oils before, so I signed up for a course with Lucy Chen go here: http://lucychenfineart.com/  because she was going to teach us to paint “The Girl with the Pearl Earring” which is my favourite painting.

So that my friends, is an “U“pdate on what I’ve been up to recently outside of the A-Z blogging.