An Unexpected Sunday ....

My plan for the day was to draw up this great pencil box

that I bought when I went and got Phantom's school supplies the other morning

the pencils are actually completely useless as they are HB

and I am a 3B girl at the minimum

but the box is fabulous isn't it...

anyway I drew it up and was excited to get into the studio and get it started

until I came down to the studio and found the paper curled up into a sodden ball

due to the crazy humidity thanks to the fact that is is bucketing down

and I mean huge buckets that could hold a whale

not piddly little kiddie buckets

we are talking biblical proportions

Thanks to the remnants of Cyclone Oswald

our normally sedate and lazy Moreton Bay is a churning mess

and there is water everywhere

and even the storm run off at the end of the street is looking pretty impressive

The rain is coming sideways on impressive wind gusts

which had unexpected upside

as it gave all the windows down the eastern side of the house a good blasting clean

and it also managed to travel across our covered entertaining area

come in through the dining room window 

and the table was getting a good washing before I realised

it is a testament to my style of cleaning 

that I actually considered leaving it open thinking the floor looked like it could do with a wash

but thankfully common sense has prevailed as we have had inches of rain since

and the floor wasn't dirty enough that it needed inches...

So I am reduced to sitting in the studio making notes on ideas

while I watch the pool turn into a water feature as it overflows

not the Sunday i had planned for the return to Sunday Sketches 

after such a long break

but I am crossing fingers and toes that it all slows down soon

and that everyone is staying dry and safe...xx

My last two post links are here

just click on the title and it will open in a window for you...

Prawn Day ... 

Adjusting the Attitude... Sort Of ...

Prawn Day ....

This weekend we have a double celebration

not only is it the last weekend before school heads back

but it is also Australia Day

and to celebrate our house will be eating loads and loads of prawns

which made it the perfect subject of my painting today

there is something about the gorgeous colours of the shells that I love

and I have been wanting to have a go at painting them for awhile

so sat down and got this sketch done as a tribute

I did think of doing a painting of a jar of Vegemite again

but it seems to spark the whole debate about the merits of Marmite and promite

which are both plain disgusting in my book

so I took the less controversial route and went with a couple of prawns...

you will note I said prawns .... not shrimp

bloody Paul Hogan and his throwing shrimps on the barbie

drove us nuts the whole time we were living in Florida

not because the joke got old very quickly... although it kind of did

but because we don't call them shrimp

shrimp are like little bait prawns... or really little kids

as in... check out how short he is... what a shrimp

so throwing shrimp on the barbie would be kind of dumb

because they would slip between the grill thingies

not much of a meal there

In fact we never even throw them on the barbie at all at our place

Sinus man would freak at the thought

he pretty much inhales them as fast as they can be peeled

and in a gross twist, he has been known to suck the heads

which makes me throw up in my mouth a little bit any time I see it

I like a perfectly peeled and cleaned prawn

and  a nice sauce to dip it in

or better yet in a spicy Thai noodle dish like a Pad Thai

and you will never , ever, see me suck a prawn head

I wouldn't even be tempted even if George Clooney turned up with a plate of prawn heads

and said he would snog me senseless if I would suck just one

no siree that is just pain disgusting

and quite frankly it is lucky that Sinus has so many great features

because sucking prawn heads could be a bit of a deal breaker

So Australia Day is about to dawn

and in true Queensland fashion it is bucketing with rain

and expected to continue in epic proportions all weekend

so it is just as well we aren't the throwing them on the barbie types

Happy Australia Day to my fellow Aussies

and a happy weekend to everyone else...xx

Linking up with Paint Party Friday 

Here are the links to my last two posts ...

Adjusting the Attitude... Sort of ...

Holiday Hangover ...

Adjusting the Attitude... Sort of...

Have to say that the holiday hangover is persisting

no doubt helped along by the crushing realisation that in order to go back to the beach

we actually have to survive first term

and before that starts next week

I have to get uniforms, bags, stationery lists

and all the other sundry back to school rubbish sorted

But rather than letting all this get me down I am attempting to adjust my attitude

instead of focusing on the mountainous list of chores to be completed in the next week

I am focussing on this being the last back to school

EVER!!!!!

let's all here it for Phantom being a Senior....

Attempting an attitude adjustment also means that

rather than focusing on not being here at Coolum

not walking on this glorious beach

and not feeling those cooling sea breezes

I am going to focus on not having to avoid stepping on these bitey buggers

every afternoon on the incoming tide the bluebottles invaded the waves

making the walk along the beach fraught with all sorts of danger and stress

due to me being someone who manages to combine the attention span of a gnat 

and the coordination of a stick

it is a miracle that I didn't stand on one

thank goodness for Phantom's eagle eyes

though she didn't have to push me out of the way of them 

with quite as much enthusiasm as she displayed

So my solution to the not being at the beach blues

was to draw up the blue bottles as a reminder

that not all is perfect up there at Coolum

and while it isn't quite the same taking a stroll out to the pool in the afternoons

it also doesn't have the perils of stingers hiding out to grab your feet

Not quite sure I am quite fooling myself yet

but thinking it is worth a shot....xx

P.S ... turns out that Blue Bottles is the Australian term

they are known as Portuguese Man O War in other places

when  I went and asked Phantom and Sinus if they knew the correct name

 they both said everyone knows that

turns out everyone except me!!!...xx

My last two posts have been about the beach as well

here are the links...

Holiday Hangover ... 

Holiday Haze ...

Holiday Hangover ....

You would think that I would have come back from my break at the beach

bursting with inspiration and creativity

but instead I find myself doing some half assed sketches

and sort of catching up with some emails and things

and kind of getting the studio in shape

and trying to ignore the fact that the house has little drifts of sand everywhere

coutesy of the mutt

but most of the time I find myself dreaming of being back at the beach

listening to the pound of the surf and smelling the sea air 

and looking at some of the photos I took you can understand

wanting to try to extend the delusion of being on holidays

it is a great beach and is insanely quiet

despite being right smack bang in the middle of summer break

we swam in ocean and pool

Mushu the wonder mutt doubled his body weight in sand every walk

and had a great time barking at those pesky waves

we lay around and read a squillion books

I lost all the card games except one I think

and I may have cheated to do that ... just a bit

we didn't finish any crosswords despite starting about 6

and being very creative with some spelling

and everyday we went for rambling walks on the beach and board walk

Phantom would get a quite a way ahead on the board walk

not because she is especially speedy

mainly because I was always falling behind while trying to get the sand off my feet

which necessitating me hopping on one foot while juggling flip flops, camera 

and bits of sea glass and pebbles and things that I had collected

and almost falling over and tipping over the handrail into the scrub

so she heartlessly used the opportunity to get some distance

from the possible embarrassment of her mother doing a half pike into the bush

but I got the last laugh and got a rare photo of her butt

But now I find myself sitting at the computer

sadly drawing a tube of Flow paint that I left out in the insane hope

that the flow would indeed start

and I have a few little sketches I did at the beach

but can't find the motivation to scan or photograph them to share with you

so you are getting this sketch of laptop, camera and paint tube

not exactly holiday inspiration is it

but the first one is always the toughest after a break

so crossing fingers and still slightly sandy toes that the paintings start to flow soon

happy Paint Party Friday ...xx

Holiday Haze...

This is a scheduled post

which means if you actually see it then a small miracle has occurred

and I didn't stuff it up as I usually do

which will be an achievement in itself

scheduling a post for when we go to the beach has always been a bit dodgy

but maybe 2013 will be the year I manage to organise it...

Apologies to all you snow bound and cold wintry Northern hemisphere folks

but payback is a cow

 last July while you were writing about summer fun

I was shivering and cursing you all

so feel free to hurl a few curses my way

I will be able to handle  it

because I will be in that salt water and sunscreeny haze

 that makes everything seem wonderful

You will note I didn't say sun and sand haze

because I hate sand

even the gorgeous looking powdery white stuff that we get here in Queensland

it gets everywhere and the bloody mutt seems to store the stuff in hidden pockets in his coat

I am actually considering weighing him before we leave home

and then again before we leave the holiday house

and if he weighs more than half a pound more than he did when we left 

he will need to be dunked in the pool again to try to shake the sand out of wherever he hides it

because at random times over the next two months

he will somehow manage to get it everywhere

most notably on my reading chair which drives me to distraction

but sand nightmares aside 

by the time you are reading this I will have had a glorious week

lying around reading books and trashy magazines, swimming, 

pretending to not hear Sinus and Phantom fighting like 4 yr olds

rather than the 45 and 16 year old that they are

we will have started 20 crosswords

and have finished none

taken the dog to the beach and laughed ourselves sick

at how he gets a shock every time a wave reaches his feet

seriously, every time a wave touches him

he jumps then runs in mad barky circles like it didn't just happen two minutes ago

we will have eaten our body weight in fruit and ice cream

and played about 20 games of three handed canasta

of which I will win

exactly none

and I will have been asked for to cast the deciding vote in what will be heated discussions

between Phantom and Sinus over earth shattering issues

like is it worse to have a pickle shoved up your nose or have an ant in your ear???

In short we will have had the same holiday we have every year

and in all that I will probably do the same amount of artwork that I did during our last visit

which I am going to throw in here just to rub it in a bit more...xx

The Resolute Tomatoes ...

I planned on my first post of 2013 being full of all that positive start of the year stuff

mainly because I did actually make a resolution this year

and not the resolution you would expect

I didn't take the cheat's road and choose things I achieve every day

like being terminally clumsy, eating chocolate or drinking too much tea

and I didn't go crazy hard either

I didn't plan on maybe cleaning out the pit that I call a handbag

I didn't resolve to take over the world

to stop laughing at the dog when he trips up the stairs

or stop pulling Sinus' finger when he asks me to

and I wasn't like Phantom who made the resolution to be less awesome

so the rest of us could  feel a bit better about ourselves

I kid you not that is what she said

no confidence issues there it would appear

My resolution was to buy no novels all year

I was going to read from the vast library that we have

and finally get to the many, many books that I have been wanting to read

now this is not a torturous resolution as we have an insane number of books

we have a six metre wall, which I think is about 20ft ish in non metric speak

which is full to the very high ceiling with bookcases

not to mention a wall of bookcases in Phantom's room

and two other bookcases which are full to the brim

and we said it would be okay for me to get books for presents

so I was figuring Mother's Day and Birthday were going to be about books

so should be easy right

I lasted exactly three and a bit freaking days

seriously ... couldn't even go a week

went to the shop this morning and lasted through Phantom buying two books

and walked out of the book store feeling like I was little miss resolution queen

and then in another store I saw it ... the perfect holiday read

 which is the next book in a series I have been reading

I swear to you I had sweaty palms and my breathing was instantly shallow

and I stood transfixed trying to work out how long it was until Mother's Day

when Phantom swoops in and gives me the

who do you think you are fooling eye roll and puts it in the cart

and with that the resolution was done baby

I didn't even protest ...I am a weak, weak soul

 and what does all this have to do with the tomatoes I have painted you might ask

well not much at all actually

they just happen to have survived despite being completely neglected

and were an awesome little surprise that I noticed while having a swim the other afternoon

and because they are obviously such independent hardy souls

I thought they would be a nice symbolic painting regarding being resolute and all that

probably should have drawn an empty chocolate wrapper

that might have been more fitting ...

Happy New Year to you all

especially my friends over at Paint Party Friday

and hope you are having better luck with your resolutions...xx

My last two posts were ...

The Blog Awards 2012 Part 1 ...

Part 2 ...