winter's slow pace

Seems to me what I want to say in this blog is exactly what I said in the last one. So dark, so cold, so dreary. !! Funny how winter does that to me. While I do like watching it snow, and sledding is fun, I have to admit, that I do prefer three months of winter. The winters here are sooooooo long! Oh, and cold, but that goes without saying!

For my friends in Australia - to show you what I sometimes wake up to here in Saskatchewan!!


That's minus thirty. With the windchill it was about minus thirty. brrr

But there are some beautiful things to see when its winter.



This is the view out of our back windows - sunset over the neighbourhood with all of the icycles that are hanging off the back drains.

And this is the ice that formed on the car on one of the nicer days. It actually freaked me out a bit as I wondered about getting myself electrocuted next time I tried to plug the car in!


And some frost patterns from the back window - things we dont see in Australia and I love to look out the windows at them. You can never quite capture the beauty of them with the camera.




Now, even with all of this winter beauty, you might have noticed a certain lack of colour in the landscape. Needless to say, I had to add some of my own in....


my new hair! I thought I would go as red as I could get it. Just in pieces - I thought it would hide the grey (ha ha - I think it just accentuated it!) I love it - I dont even mind the red that is now on all of my collars, my towels and my pillow cases!! Thats the price you pay! he he.

And finally, a sneak peak at my picture of Autumn. Part of me wants to just suprise everyone at the end when I'm done. I am really happy with how it is coming along - and absolutely amazed at how much this picture and Autumn herself, look like my sister. I think it is the freckles and the delicate skin.


Now, off to colour some more. !!

Late Winter movement

What a bleak and cold winter this is - naturally. It is winter, right?

Well, I've been a little on the creative side - but mostly a lot on the cold and waiting side. Waiting for spring I think. Waiting for that trip to Australia perhaps?

Ahh, to walk in the trees and see and smell the ocean and to see my friends. I cant believe I only have three weeks. I'm sure my husband who will be looking after the kids on his own is thanking God it is only three weeks.

Anyway, I thought I should grease the wheels so to speak and actually get this blog going again - the post christmas, new year entries didnt materialise. I watch my friends write everyday or at least every week... and I feel inspired... but at the same time a little lacking in the get up and do it department.

So, what I have done is to start something I have wanted to draw for a long time.

This is the picture of my son Halyn. I did it a couple of years ago as a project for a breastfeeding advocacy group that I was working with. I was supposed to hand over the finished piece, but fell in love with it. So, I kept the original and we got it scanned and now a print of said piece, hangs in the breastfeeding room at West Winds Public Health Centre.


Anyway, being totally suprised and inspired by this work, I fell in love with the idea of sketching all of my kids and this is what I've started. A picture of Autumn - none of the photos I had of her were crisp enough or had enough detail for me to use for a sketch. So, I got her in front of the window for lots of light and started clicking.

This is the photo I'm basing the sketch off....


... and so far, I'm nearly done one eye!


Nothing like diving back into your art to get you feeling cosy on the inside. I dont want to put the pencils down... but I guess I had better go and take Autumn to school!!

Now I just cant wait to get back to it this evening.

enjoy the late winter sun on all of this snow.