Making my own labels - a mindful activity

Two of the makers I follow on Youtube have been using a stamp set (Stampers Anonymous - Tim Holtz - Curator) to create their own labels.  One was Alison Bomber from Words and Pictures here (from around 46:39 minutes in) and the other is Toni from Crafty by Toni here (at about 4:00 minutes in).

I stamped the image and then used watercolour to colour them, which was very relaxing and enjoyable. I have done some more neutral colours using Payne's Grey and Quinacridone Gold, but here I wanted some more colourful ones.  I have since had a lovely time cutting them all out and now I have a good selection for whatever I want to add them to.  I can thoroughly recommend it as a mindful activity!

Sunrise

It is not often that I am up early enough to see a beautiful sunrise, but I managed to catch this one.  We live in a city, so don't get the wide open views of landscape that my sister (who lives in the country) would see.  However, this was a beauty.

I went to get my camera and capture it before the colours changed.

It is a stunning combination of blues, pinks, lilacs, oranges and golds.

It made getting up early that bit more bearable!

In the garden late December/early January

I ventured into the garden to see what was braving late December/early January weather and then got sidetracked so am posting this now.  Above is one of the Nemesia Melody series...

...and here's another...

...and another.  They are good value plants.

Hellebores were in flower. Here is Hello White Pearl.

While Hellebore Ericsmithii Winter Sunshine was just opening up.  The hellebores in pots always seem to flower before the ones in the ground.

There was a cyclamen coum and the start of some snowdrops.

Jasminium nudiflorum (winter flowering jasmine) was bringing its own sunshine to a dull corner.

Camellia Yoimachi flowers enticed me down to the bottom of the garden to look at them more closely.

The ever faithful winter flowering honeysuckle was also in flower.  Of course, a week or so after taking these photos, we had a week of frost and temperatures only just above freezing during the day. Everything was flattened by it, but has recovered.

A present to myself

I recently treated myself to some hand made metallic watercolours from The Art Spirits, who have an Etsy shop as well as their own website.  The paints just contain pigment and a binder and are made in the UK.  I had previously bought a silver and a gold watercolour from them so I knew they were really good quality, creamy, easy to use paints.  I used the gold a lot last year and it was so much better than any of the branded gouache/watercolour paints I have.  I decided to go for a twelve half pan set and happily chose my colours from 'glistening darkness' to 'true silver'.  The paints came beautifully wrapped and packaged, with a few extra little surprises added in.  Even the paper that the individual pans are wrapped in is really pretty, and is linked to the colour inside.  I shall use the papers in collage work this year. 

So, here is my selection, all unwrapped and ready to try.  The pans have a magnetic strip on the base, to stop them sliding around (or falling out).

There are little flower shapes attached to the inside of the tin ready to have the colour swatches added.

Here they are all filled in.  Of course, the photo gives no idea just how metallic the paints are, but they are wonderful!  (I think you can tell that I love them.) 

Happy New Year 2025

Happy New Year and I would like to send you good wishes for 2025. Yet again, the year seems to have gone quickly, so it is time to look forward with plans for 2025 and revisit aims from last year.

(Photo of Big Ben off the TV at midnight)

Read interesting books - this is never a difficult one for me. I have read a total of 88 books this year, including all the Brother Cadfael murder mysteries. Other books I have enjoyed are Divine Might: Goddesses in the Greek myths and Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes; Frank and Red by Matt Coyne; Berserker by Adrian Edmondson, The Socialites by Caroline Lamond and Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher.  I have (of course) also revisited Miss Marple stories by Agatha Christie and various other books by Jane Austen, which I read on a pretty regular basis.  Reading interesting books will definitely continue through 2025. 

(All the photos above and below are from the Care December 2024 course - the Pink Edition)

Be Creative (using what I have) - I have certainly continued this aim, having signed up to lots of interesting online courses. (In fact, I need to actually do some of them this year as I took on rather too many all at the same time!)  There is a Colourplay course, a sketchbook course, a mixed media collage course and a gratitude journal course, amongst a few others! 

I am becoming increasingly fond of watercolours and want to work through the abstract watercolour book I bought. I also would like to work through the collage book.  Over and above all that, I would like to focus on lino printing and gel printing more.

I continued to do the Wednesday slow drawing class with Amy Maricle and loved that quiet and relaxing hour, so that will be continued.  I am also enjoying using pen and watercolour together, so I hope to develop that further. I completed the Whimsies, Words and Watercolours course, with Joanne Sharpe and enjoyed learning how to create interesting lettering styles. Colour swatching continues to be one of my favourite things to do and this course included quite a lot, so I was in my element.  I have bought a few more supplies (of course!) but I have used many supplies I had but had forgotten about, so that has been good.  I am starting to notice what supplies I use the most and what I can possibly donate, which leads me nicely on to...

Get rid of or donate things I no longer want or need - I have done really well this year, probably halving my book collection and donating lots of things to charity, to let someone else enjoy them.  I need to continue this into 2025 as I still have far too much stuff.  I would like tidier areas and spaces so this will continue to be a focus.  It isn't something I find particularly easy to do (as I am a hoarder!), but I am encouraged by my progress so far.

Take more notice of nature - I have done this through gardening as well as when I am walking home after work, or walking anywhere, enjoying the changing seasons.  Birdsong is a delight to me and I never fail to be uplifted wherever I hear this. The mixed media art journaling course (Wanderlust) often focuses on nature, so this also encourages me to get out and be more aware.  I have pressed some flowers and leaves from the garden, in order to be able to use them in my journal.  

Sadly, I haven't visited any other gardens this year either, which is something I do enjoy, so I would like to put this right in 2025. I still have these two gardens on my list: York Gate near Leeds (described as a beautiful Arts and Crafts garden) and The Manor at Hemingford Grey, near Ely, (which was the home of Lucy M Boston who wrote the Green Knowe stories) so I must make an effort and get out there.

Those aims are now plans for 2025 and it will be interesting to review them again this time next year.

I hope 2025 will be a good one for us all.