Bear today, Gone Tomorrow...

Bears still very much on my mind at the moment, especially with the US government planning to pass a law to allow the killing of bears in national parks in their dens (mothers and cubs), from the air or with baiting as part of 'wildlife management' - this also include wolves.  I'm praying it will not get past the Senate but with the current regime I am not holding out much hope.

So a little watercolour I painted yesterday from a snap I took with the live cams on Explore.org.  I wonder how much longer there will be anything to watch...

Bearly There...

Since the end of January I have been in the throes of a very bad head cold which settled in my sinuses and caused all sorts of problems - headache, nose ache, face ache, toothache and a general feeling of ickiness.  I ended up on antibiotics, and am now recovered - thank goodness!  Consequently, there was not much art and craft work going on.  However, last week when I started to feel human again, I began the above watercolour.  It was finished yesterday, with the addition of white acrylic for the water splashes and a bit of colour pencil to add texture to the fur.  When I manage to get a decent photo in daylight, he will be up for sale in my Etsy shop.

Bears & A Doily...

 I'm not feeling terribly inspired this week - since getting the kitchen back in order there have been other outstanding jobs to be getting on with, such as shampooing any carpet trampled on by workmen's dirty boots...  I did squeeze in a quick half hour watercolour yesterday, a mother bear & cub taking a nap.  Hoping to start something a bit bigger this week, if I could only think of a subject.

I'm waiting for a delivery of yarn before I can get on with some work - taking far longer than usual - and in the meantime I crocheted a doily from an old pattern book I discovered while sorting out the stuff in the kitchen.  I also found a pile of very old knitting patterns from the sixties, mainly sweaters.  Not sure I want to keep these - if anyone is interested, drop me a line!

January In A Nutshell...

 It feels like I didn't do much throughout January, but on the other hand I did an awful lot.  This was the last painting in the series of square animal portraits, a raccoon.  Acrylic on board and about to go into my Etsy shop.  I haven't touched a paintbrush since as I have been trying to sort out the finished kitchen.  Once the workmen had left, it was up to me to then bring all the boxes and books downstairs once more, sort them out and find homes for everything.

 This was hampered half way through by a nasty head cold which took the stuffing out of me for a few days. However, as of last weekend, I think we can consider the room done.

 We added a few extra touches - a shelf here, a couple of small cupboards there, and I was able to hang the pictures in some semblance of order rather than willynilly as they were before.

 It's all very white and clean looking - which is what I was after as I am quite an untidy person by nature, so this way I am forced to keep up appearances!

So far it is working very well indeed and I can't quite believe the amount of space we have - I threw away very little considering the amount of 'stuff' we have.  We seem to have gained a fair amount of extra cupboard space - either that or I am being better organised!  Whatever the reason, I am thoroughly enjoying our new look!