Happy New Year 2026

(Photos of the London Fireworks last night/this morning from the TV)

Happy New Year and I would like to send you good wishes for 2026. Yet again, the year seems to have gone quickly, so it is time to look forward with plans for 2026 and revisit aims from last year.

(Photos are from my Care December (Green Edition) journal) 

Read interesting books - this has continued and I have read 78 books this year.  Some I have enjoyed were: the Shardlake series by C.L Sansom, A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes, The Garden Against Time by Olivia Laing, Over My Dead Body by Maz Evans, The Mitford Girls by Mary S Lovell and The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer.

Be Creative using what I have - this aim will definitely carry on in 2026 and I have completed my online art journal course, continued my slow drawing online classes and have continued to explore watercolours.  I have also made cards all year, which I enjoy very much.  I have a few sewing projects to do and various book-making projects on the go too, so there won't be any shortage of creativity in 2026.  I have several online classes which I also need to focus on.

Get rid of or donate things I no longer want or need - this has stalled somewhat this year, although I have still been taking the occasional things to the charity shops. I need to get this going again and and really make an impact.  I am going to decide what I wish to keep going forward and what I don't, which is what I did with my books.

Take more notice of nature - I certainly did this while I worked in the garden. Birdsong is such a joy, as is to be able to sit with a cup of tea and enjoy the peace and quiet.  Living in a city, this is not always easy, but early mornings seem to be a good time. We had such a warm Spring and hot Summer, so I perhaps wasn't out there all that much during that time.  I need to purchase another water butt to help with irrigation.  Chris has been busy at the allotment, and we need to work on our plot and get the raised beds in. 

Visit gardens - I have not been anywhere again in 2025 so I would really like to visit some this year. York Gate and Hemingford Grey are still top of my list.    

So, these are my plans for 2026.  I wonder how I will get on?

I hope 2026 will be a more peaceful and a happy one.

Happy Christmas 2025

 

For those who celebrate, may I wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.  My photos are of some of the Christmas cards I made this year.

As seems to have become traditional on my Christmas post; here is the quote from one of my favourite Christmas carols, "It came upon the midnight clear", written by Edmund Sears in 1849.

 "Yet with the woes of sin and strife

The world has suffered long;

Beneath the angel-strain have rolled

Two thousand years of wrong;

And man, at war with man, hears not 

The love song which they bring;

O hush the noise, ye men of strife,

And hear the angels sing." 

 

Again, this year, I wish the men of strife would hush and there could be some peace in the world.

To end on a positive, I quote from Desiderata (a 1927 prose poem by Max Ehrmann):  

"...And whatever your labours and aspirations, in the noisy confusion of life, keep peace in your soul. With all its sham, drudgery and broken dreams, it is still a beautiful world. Be cheerful. Strive to be happy."

May I wish you a happy, healthy and peaceful festive season.

Wanderlust 2025 - part four

The final twelve weeks of the art journaling course have been full of challenges.  The theme was 'Leaps and Bounds' and a lot of the lessons involved working outside a journal, on canvases,  etc.  However, I didn't want to make 3D objects as I really don't have the space for them, so I had to think how to translate them to 2D, to be able to keep them in my journal. (I think I will be doing the same next year when the course is aimed more at intermediate artists and will be focusing a lot more on 3D).  Above was Kate Crane's lesson on inchies, twinchies, ATC (Artists' Trading Cards) and Moos (half a business card size), so working small.  This lesson took me more time to complete but I really enjoyed it.   

Making ATCs from a masterboard was the next lesson and I turned the page over to cut it out, so the images really were a surprise.  Adding gilding flakes to each card made them look even more special.

Making matchboxes and filling them with interesting little bits and pieces, based on a printers tray, was the next week.  My 'printers tray' is flat, but I was happy with how it turned out.  I added a stamped image from one of my hand cut stamps, a piece of paper I made a few years ago with flowers and foil added into it, cut into a heart, some leaves and flower heads from the garden, a key die cut, an old postage stamp, a tile cut from a magazine, a piece of my handmade felt cut into a star and a tiny letter. 

Working with and on teabags was the next week's focus and sewing the teabag and stamping on it was included, so I had a go. It was tricky, but I got there!

This was based on an assemblage in a rusty tin, with another tin containing lots of bits and pieces. I made my own 2D version using die cuts, embossing, texture paste through a stencil and lots of bits of ephemera. 

Making a wrap closure for our journals was the next lesson, so I altered this into making little fabric 'cards' in pockets instead. I kept the same four seasons idea.  I used calico as the base, painted, collaged and sewn on. The backs of the cards have book pages stuck onto them for added strength.  

You can see the 'cards' better here.

A canvas family tree with photos attached inside painted lids was what I transferred into a journal page.  I used an embossing folder to add some texture to the die cut frames.

Finally, something completely different.  There is a load of writing underneath the paint, but no-one can see it now, which was the whole idea. Reflecting on things that have gone well, or challenges overcome was one side and 'what if...?' questions on the other.  I kept this simple and was going to add some words but decided I liked it as it is.

I think next year's course will provide me with more challenges - we'll see how I get on!

Hellebores in December and a new purchase

As you may know, I do like hellebores. I have some in the border, but most are in pots.  I didn't mean to start a collection, but I might have done so.  They are perennial, easy care and flower during winter and early spring. The flowers stay on until later in the spring, so they are really good value plants.   These are all in pots and all bloom earlier than the ones I have in the border.    Above is Winter Princess Victoria, with emerging leaves and flower buds.

This is one of the Ice and Roses series, much further ahead than any of the others, which is one of its selling points, I think. 

One of the Credale series, (either single white or double pink picotee) just tentatively showing new leaves and the tips of other leaves or possibly buds poking through the soil.

Reliable Eric Smithii Winter Sunshine, with lots of buds.  This one probably needs repotting now.

Here is my latest addition - Winter Ballet Lulu.  This series has larger flowers and the plants themselves are about 45 cm once fully grown.  In pots, they all remain a little smaller.  These flower earlier than many of the others and apparently stay flowering for a longer period.  I am in good company with my purchase as on Gardeners World last Friday evening, Adam Frost was planting some of the Winter Ballet series, but the white ones, in his garden. 

The flowers are big, bold and beautiful.  I look forward to seeing them through the Winter and into Spring.  

New woodless watercolour pencils

I have been looking at woodless watercolour pencils recently and the Distress ones by Ranger and Tim Holtz seem to be all over the internet.  However, I couldn't really justify the price of those and of course, there are six different sets to correspond with all the different colours in the Distress range.  I looked at a couple of other brands and these came up in my search.  They are Koh-i-noor 'Woodless Coloured Sticks' and for the price of one set of the Distress pencils, I got double the number of crayons (24) in a good range of colours. (I have a large number of Distress products, I use them a lot and they are good quality, but I am trying to look after my pennies a little more carefully!)

So, of course, once the pencil crayons arrived, I swatched them. You knew I would, didn't you?  The pencils feel quite satisfyingly substantial in the hand, which is to be expected as they are pure pigment,  but not so heavy as to make them uncomfortable.  There is a cover around them to stop the pigment getting on your hands.  I haven't yet had to sharpen them, but I have no doubt they will sharpen well and you can keep the sharpenings, add water to them and use them too. There is a good selection of colours and they blended out with water very smoothly. I have been having a play with them and am really pleased with my purchase.

Hydrangea and camellia

The last of the hydrangea leaves has now fallen and these were the most stunning colour, so I had to get a photo. This is Hydrangea Merveille Sanguine.

Down at the bottom of the garden, Camellia Yoimachi is quietly flowering away.

I do like these delicate white flowers, with just a hint of pale pink on the petals. They appear on my blog with regularity as I so enjoy seeing them at this time of year.

Really pretty and brightening up many a dull grey day.

Cards and cake

My nephew has just bought a house and was saying he needed some art for the walls, so my sister suggested some of  my slow drawings.  He looked through the many patterns that I have drawn (since joining the slow drawing group in 2023) and decided on nine.  I got them done for him and have since sent them to him.  Here they are above, in one formation, but it will be interesting to see how he chooses to put them together.

This was a card for my sister-in-law, using the Sizzix stencil, which I first mentioned here.

I sent this card to my nephew, with the nine drawings.

This was for a colleague's birthday.  She has several cats, so I often make her a cat based card!

This is the inside...

...and the back.

Here is a card for my husband's big birthday.  I put the numbers on balloons on the inside, just in case he didn't want to be reminded of his age! He loves 'Snarky Cats' stamps by Tim Holtz and Stampers Anonymous, so these usually make an appearance on his cards.

Here's the back.  Yes, I did mention cake, didn't I?

This is the 'Russian Roulette Revels Cake' which I make as a birthday cake, as it is a great recipe that is moist and keeps well (if you can stop yourself eating it!).  This is the very indulgent version with chocolate fudge icing, but the butter cream icing version is just as good.  

Revels are a chocolate covered sweet, with various fillings, such as toffee, Malteser, orange, chocolate, raisin and the dreaded coffee (I really don't like that one and often seem to get one on a slice!) There was an advert about Revels from 2001, when there was also a peanut one, but these were then removed due to allergies - the advert sums up my dislike of the coffee one!

I have made myself feel hungry now, so am off to have something to eat!

Colour swatching

I have said it before and no doubt will say it again, but colour swatching makes me happy!  I was watching Alison Bomber from Words and Pictures on Youtube this week, as you do, and she was doing some swatching with paints she had had for a while.  This reminded me that I have had the same brand (Kuretake Gansai Tambi) in a different colour palette that I hadn't swatched yet.  They are a creamy watercolour which does have some opacity, but will water down to give more transparency.  I have been guilty of keeping them 'for best' but actually, that is a silly idea as I bought them to use!

So I added more pages to my swatch book and had a very happy time testing the colours and adding water to them.  Above you can see the results.  

I have made a swatch book  and all the paints/pencils, watersoluble media etc. are gradually being added to it so that I can see what colours I have and how they look.  Hopefully then I will use them all a bit more!

Here they are again - a bit of colour on a very grey day!

Flowers and Fireworks

I have had a flower-filled few weeks recently and have been really enjoying the additional colour they bring.  Above was a 'Just Because' bunch of flowers from my lovely husband, "I thought they were your colours" - they were!

Then there was a bunch of dahlias to add to the display from a fellow allotmenteer.  

Then there was a bunch of chrysanthemums from a different fellow allotmenteer.

Finally, a colleague at work gave me these roses and lilies as a 'thank you'. I have been so lucky!  

Having discovered that my camera does have some settings for various things such as Fireworks, Portraits and Low light (see here for the post about it), I decided to have a go with the Firework setting.  After a slight problem of not remembering how to access the settings, I downloaded the manual and then found the setting.  The photos were better than previously, but as these were taken from a distance, they aren't all that great.

I obviously managed to move the camera when I was taking this one, but I rather like it. (I don't think professional photographers need to be worried though!)

More Autumn colour to enjoy

The garden is definitely changing and autumn colour is more in evidence.  I was stopped in my tracks by the fiery combinations of leaf colour from the blueberry Goldtraube and hydrangea Pinky Winky on the patio.  I had to rush in for my camera. 

Smaller things are also bringing joy with this little cyclamen. The others finished flowering a while ago, but this one is having a late flush.  I do like its crinkly-edged leaves too. 

The salvias are still flowering as well.  Above is Cerro Potosi with its bright fuchsia flowers. This one is in a pot and I really should get it planted in the border.

This is another salvia Cerro Potosi which is planted in the border and which has decided to grow up through the magnolia. 

Here it is again, with the last few cosmos and helianthus flowers.  I have been planting some bulbs and gathering leaves for leaf mould.  I expect I will be able to gather up a few more this week too.