51st entry...Hold on.......!!!!!!!!!!!

To all you out there 

In the cold winter air,

May I humbly say 

I shall call it a day

'Til Christmas is done

And  New Year's begun...

So - from me to you

I bid you adieu!

Do visit again 

We'll continue the same...

A Merry Christmas to all

And do have a ball!

Your Artist so clever

The greatest for ever...!

Sarah Orchard

50th entry........

All my babies under one roof....how MAGIC is that!!!
I bid you 'Good night' x

49th entry...and what a momentous day it is...

'Why?' you ask...'what do you mean why!!!! '....it is my beautiful, gorgeous, fabulous, lovely sons 20th birthday this very day!!!!!!!
Should have started my story after Christmas - might copy and paste the first part after January 1st.  I seem to have so much to do...who hasn't!

A VERY SPECIAL MEMORY TO CHERISH...
Met a lady today, at work, who is a very remarkable and beautiful lady! ... She kissed my hand which brought tears to my eyes! I feel very humbled and shall cherish the connection between two people!!!

Final shop, I hope, tomorrow - might go park and ride rather than park and drive - home!!!! Shall have to sit with all the 'bobbly' people though - shall put my trance face on and live another world...my saviour!
So did you like the card of the cyclists that I did for my boy? Tee! hee! he said it was his and I was not allowed to scan it...but I never did do as I was told!!!
Off to see and listen to the Christmas songs on the tv...awaiting half of my babies coming home the morro....

48th entry...a quick diary...

..I know that I am a bit of a 'dawk' at times, but I excelled myself today! Why oh! why you ask...Well I thought my lovely son - who is 20 tomorrow...was coming home not this Saturday but the next one...had it in my head to do some present shopping for his birthday/Christmas presents next week etc - lucky his room is sorted, sort of...- but it is THIS SATURDAY - YEAH......
Meanwhile Christmas cards done, and most delivered...and this is a personal, yearly one for my lovely boy that I am sharing with you!!

Christmas card to my boy... 2010

So there we have it...until tomorrow; recap - presents nearly all wrapped - decs all up - house dusted ready for the onslaught...

47th entry...so sorry...

life has been so racy...and so I have left you waiting!
My girlie was here, now she has bumbled off to Chichester...in my car!!!!
Done the Christmas tree...7' tall - in our little sitting room - but it looks good!
Started to wrap my 'secret santa' pressies...only five more to wrap and one more to make...a very special one for a very special person!
Quite stressed out at the moment which considering life should be enjoyed it tres irritating!
So there I leave you...the 'Once upon a time...' will continue but be patient as Christmas is taking a front stage over my art, and my art room is closed off with furniture until the New Year...!
Bonn appetite... 

46th entry...and guess who's coming home in time for supper...!

...yes my luscious girlie! Sooooooooo I'd better tidy her bedroom of all the Christmas 'stuff' that I have dumped in there!!!!

So here we go...I have been intending to do this for days...it's just finding the time!
Once upon a time, in a big Forest lived some lovely, lovely people...It was the middle of a cold, cold, winter and the only place in the whole of the land that had had only two days of snow...They lived in a cosy, cosy bungalow - but not I am afraid to say - made of ginger bread!  Friends of theirs had THAT house...

Bungalow in the big, big Forest.

The Mummy and the Daddy lived there all alone...with their cat - of course! Every one has a cat, or so it seems!
The boy and the girl that lived with them went away on a 'journey of life' but were coming home very soon - however that is another story...
Well on this day it was a cold, murky day and the lady we shall call Mummy, I think, decided to go out in the big Forest for a walk, to blow the cobwebs away - not REAL cobwebs mind - a fuzzy brain sort of cobweb! She put on her big walking boots - no puddle slashing today for her - so boots, for the crunchy hard ground!  Her thick, cosy very, very, VERY old green coat was on and a cap. It was rather a splendid cap with a big peak and furry bit - it actually wasn't hers it was her lovely son's, the one on a 'journey of life'!!  All togged up, and her sketch bag and camera, off she went ..into that very big Forest....
- to be continued....
Oh some one is knocking at my door so I shall go...

45th entry...life is back to nearly normal...thank goodness!

So a lovely day with my boy and lunch out with my gorgeous daddy...

I have been looking at some of my work...and the St Ives ones. So I have split them apart to appreciate them more!

Jigsaw series -  St Ives - Habour 1

Jigsaw series -  St Ives - Habour 2

I think they are rather lovely - done quite quickly - and clearer to appreciate now that I have split them up - sounds like twins - I do want to attempt to do a larger version of my Jigsaw design, more of  a landscape rather than an individual composition... so much to do!
Have one more 'home-made' to make; 'stockings' virtually completed, Christmas cards to write tonight....
Off to have my shower my leettle pomfrit....!

44th entry...off to our private viewing...

Day's been good! Off to open our exhibition....then see my boy not having seen him for two whole days!
Do I have a shower - it's SO cold...don't want to take any layers off!  Can understand why people in the past didn't bath...and it's so dark! Gosh! what a grumbling wench I am....
Home-made curry for supper, rice and onion bhajis.

43rd entry....I sit here all alone...

in my semi cold home....nobody here to talk to my dear...awaiting the morning to be near....

Sloe gin label

this is my entry for the day...hope you like it...please do I say!

Have had my supper; egg, tomato and chips...my tummy is full but still got sore lips from the central heating being constantly on...the house is empty, everyone gone...the weekend I look to; the house starts to fill...taking away this cold winter chill.

So for now I leave you, big world out here and wait for tomorrow when my munchies are near!!!

42nd entry.....Christmas cards nearly ready to go...phew!

painted, printed, cut, folded - just need to write in them, address and stamp the envelopes after I have found the box of envelopes in my art room! Finally pop them in the letter box, and get one of the others to deliver the local ones on foot. I don't do that bit.....
Went for a long walk in the forest this afternoon to warm myself up - got SO cold I had to put another layer of clothes on, that made 4 all in all.....walked about 3 miles loving the beautiful silver birch trees absolutely covered in frost even at 3.30 in the afternoon! Saw a bird the size of a magpie, but with rust colour on its body....what is it? Will have a look through our bird books.
Have added my 'Chinese Whisper' painting that I handed in to the Sarum Artist group yesterday - we each started with a favourite painting - for me it was one of  Amedeo Modigliani, 1884–1920, Female Nude (c1916).
I did a transcript of it, then passed my version on and picked someone else's etc etc...so this is a transcript by me from one of my fellow artists. 

Jigsaw series - Paul Signac 'The Red Bouy, St Tropez' 1895

This is a copy of the original work.

I hope that you enjoy this ....am off to sit in front of the TV awaiting my little man to skype us...how exciting is that!

41st entry...and I sit here alone....

as my boy is still in the office! Have put our exhibition up in Sarum College - looks good! Private viewing on Thursday after we give blood for the 56th time. Done some more present buying in town - gosh! I hate spending money!...and then visited our 89 year old next door neighbour at the local home he is staying in for a week before coming home after a fall that initially took him to hospital for a few weeks! I bid you good night until tomorrow - gosh roll on the Spring.........

40th entry...da! daaa!

So off to Morrisons we did trot...ten o'clock on the dot...arriving to do the weekly shop...bought every thing except the mop...spent a fortune as we do...back home to the internet to view!
These are what I went and did...

St Ives - Harbour
(inspired by Moira Ross - Sculptor)

plus this one but keep it 'under lid'!!!!...as it is but a small surprise...for one of very many guys...who, special in the heart of one...was reasons for it being done...!

Girlie and 'boy'

The day is ended, curtains closed...let's get to bed a'for I'm frozed!!!!

39th entry...oh! my....

"So where is my 'Winter wonderland!" raged the Snow Queen..."But it SHALL return soon..." she said in a churlish manner, stamping her foot!
And so off to my life class I did go....
Pastel pencils,  I now realise need to be revamped as my pallet is **!?*...however my 3 minute pencil sketches, for the warm up and my 10 minute watercolour sketches, of which this is one, are ok!

Life class - Nude man.
4th Dec 2010

We, my boy and I, have been for a walk, and I have completed three of my Christmas 'home-mades'; printed off some of our family Christmas cards and shall now heat up some left overs for our supper!
Tonight I shall sketch the 'St Ives' ...and tomorrow complete it, put another layer of wax on my logs, and paint my pebbles!
Meanwhile STRICTLY HERE I COME.....
see ya tomorrow!

38th entry...what a productive day, and so pretty from here indoors...!

...although feel awful as our more elderly villagers have just walked over to delivered papers to us...in his eighties - makes you feel VERY small!
And what have you been up to today that was so productive? I hear you say...WELL...we have thrown out our old computer giving more room for my lovely boy to work! I have spent the morning re-arranging the middle and sitting room, and though I say so my self it looks extremely good! Wait until the guys come home and won't they moan that I have changed everything around...!

Redwing...Winter is  here!

very easy to mix up the Red wing with the Field fare, well I find it so...

'Dancing Fairies'

'Hallucinating Rabbits'

So my pictures have been added; I feel better now that there is some more of my artwork on here now!

 Do love writing my Diary...funny how life is...looking to doing a Jigsaw on 'St Ives' saw that program on BBC4 'Art of Cornwall' and thought what fabulous scenes they took of the Harbour! Such fabulous colours!
Off to a 'Life Class' tomorrow...see ya!!!

37th entry...YEAH! Who's the Snow Queen now...Ha! Ha!

...and I have been skidding all over Salisbury - you want to see my hub caps -couldn't find the curbs...!
Am still fiddling with my website; God I need my shoulders massaged! NO... not my boy, he hurts...thinks it's good if it makes you recoil...and now onwards to supper! Spaghetti Carbonara - the proper way!
Tomorrow I shall scan and upload my 'fairies', bird and 'hallucinating Hares'...after we have moved our computer table around or along - any way it will get a good bit of polish...I wish not to hear any rude comments!
SO could you please, all my imaginary friends, go to my website and make a comment!
Thank you!

36th entry...count down time...17 days until we are all together!!!

Worked this morning and have spent most of this afternoon re-designing my website. I just got my head around how the new system works..... and then I lost it!! I now know how to save it bit by bit but cannot for the life of me arrive at the same colour selection ...blast!
NO SNOW... today either and although I have not been cold myself my lovely boy has been!
On with my website - don't visit yet until I have finished all the irritations!
Meanwhile see you the morro'...will try the fairies!