Merry Christmas

12 Days of Christmas Turtle dove. Water colour and inks. Journal

It’s the night before Christmas already here in Australia and we have just about finished preparing for the big day.  Only a couple more presents to wrap and the ice-cream to set.  It has been a really tough end to the year, but we have rallied and are now ready for our two day Christmas festival.  With the children now gown up and with commitments of their own, we have had to spread Christmas over two days.  Its tough, but we are willing to go there.

This gives us the opportunity to have both the traditional and Australian Christmas fare.  My mum and brother love the full english tradition of turkey, ham and plum pudding.  I have to admit I have always struggled with this and with Christmas being 35C it isn’t the most fitting for our summer season.  The Australian Christmas is usually seafood, mangoes, avocados, ice-cream and loads of fresh berries or it is in our house.

12 Days of Christmas

I have been up early and to the market to get all the seafood and fabulous deli treats. My sister and I love to cook, so we are baking for a couple of weeks and have loads of fun planning our festivities.

12 Days of Christmas

Now these are something I prepared earlier, in fact I started them last year, but didn’t get them finished on time, so I have finished them for you now, I hope you like my version.

I hope your Christmas preparations are going well and everyone just has a lovely day with friends, families and loved ones.  I would like to thank everyone for their support and kind words this year, you really keep me going and I appreciate it so much.  So have fun everyone I will be.

The back room is decorated and ready for Christmas

 

Last two drawings – Bali Journal

Cafe Bunete Ubud Bali. Watercolor and ink

I just realised how long it has been since I last posted and it has been ages.  My day job has been totally flat out and I have just not had enough energy left to draw.  But it is slowing down a bit and I have had a chance to finish the last two drawings in my Bali journal.

The above drawing is of a cafe we dropped into during the heat of the day to cool off before we went to the spa.  It was so inviting and the bright silk cushions were so lovely and bright in the dim coolness.  The food and service that we had in Bali was excellent, but the thing that stands out most in my mind was the lime drinks.  I wasn’t able to drink alcohol while I was away, (when I get too tired it just gives me a headache, alas for all the lovely cocktails I couldn’t sample), but the non-alcoholic drinks available were awesome.   Some had lime and mint, others had spices like cinnamon and two or three vanilla pods.  Vanilla pods were clearly cheaper there than at home.

I am really happy with the layout of this and the next spread that I did, I think I am finally getting the hang of journal page layout.  I like the visual link between the pages where the drawing either goes onto the next page or the little illustration links across.  This gives more interest to the journal pages and makes it a journal rather than a book of different drawings.

Cafe spread Watercolour and ink Bali Journal 2015

Taksu Spa Spread Water colour and Ink Bali Journal 2015

The Spa drawing is of Taksu Spa in Ubud and it is a divine place. The Spa complex spans a creek bed and you climb down into the creek gully into this wonderful  alternate universe with pavilions floating in the pools, water lilies, ferns and aerial roots from the figs above hanging down.  The treatments were also pretty good too.

Taksu Spa Ubud Bali Water colour and ink Bali Journal 2015

Well that is all of the main drawings done for the journal, I just have to add some photos and neaten up a few pages and it will all be complete.  It has been a magical trip and I have really enjoyed making the journal, even though it took much longer than I had hoped.  Like all these things I have learned such a lot by doing it and the memories from this trip are saved in such a wonderful way.

Karen