Surprise! I'm Back!

Hello out there to any of my followers who might still remember me after a three-month absence from my blog.  We're still here...Charlie is doing a little better with his blood counts following his last radiation.  I had a total ankle replacement in Charlotte on January 9, which has left me in non-weight-bearing status since then.  We go back to Charlotte on January 26, and hopefully will get rid of the giant heavy cast and switch to a walking boot.

On Monday, January 29, we go back to Sarasota for Charlie's six-month check-up at Dattoli Cancer Center.  We are looking forward to the warmer weather and visiting with family who live down there.  We have had an exceptionally cold winter so far here in the North Carolina mountains, so it has been a good month to hibernate inside.  Even though I stay on the couch all day, I can see outside through our glass door and big windows.  Here are some visitors that I spied on one of the snow days.

I was really getting motivated to finish organizing my basement studio when deer season arrived, then  Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Had to add air beds downstairs for company and a table for a gift-wrapping station.  The painting side is in pretty good shape, but not the fabric/quilting area.  Maybe when we get back from Florida.

I did paint some winter scenes and a Christmas card before  I got laid up.

Snowy Woods

Snowy Woods was this year's Christmas card.

Light in the Forest

I started Light in the Forest four years ago.  One of my former workshop instructors, Karlyn Holman, wrote a step-by-step tutorial in Watercolor Artist magazine about creating a snowy woodland scene.  I did not like mine at all and put it aside.  Four years later I got some new ideas and am very happy with this luminous scene.  In fact, it is sold!

I have done a little art journaling, as well.  My brother Chris sent me a photo of a very angry screech owl he encountered while mowing his grass, and I tried to paint him.

Here are my last three journal pages for the Monthly Art Journal Challenge Group on Facebook.  The moderator always suggests a theme for the month.

November:  Glitter


























It's a little-known fact that when my husband and I ride the Gator through a dark piny section of our mountain, he often quotes lines from this beloved Robert Frost poem to me.


December:  Poinsettias


















Inspired by a watercolor painting on Pinterest

January:  the year 2018

I painted this luminous angel some time ago, but never finished the page.  I used a white Sharpie paint pen (extra fine point) to add the journaling, halo, and flower.

I have done quite a bit of Bible journaling while recuperating, and will post some of those pages next time.

Thank you to my sister-in-law Alice Turner for requesting that I start blogging again!  I needed a nudge!