Overview of my creative year

2016 was a not so productive year creative-wise. Which shouldn't come as a surprise, since we moved into a new house and had a lot of renovation work (which is still not finished). Still trying to figure out a way to get into a daily art-making habit. Maybe in 2017 I'll figure it out ... ;-)

January: most of January I was working on my first very large canvas. I called it "Take me home again", because it reminded me of the colours and the spirit of Australia. It was sold through the gallery.

February: the month of the 29 faces challenge. And I managed to make them all! Tried out a few new things like scribble-faces and weirdo's :-) Here's an overview:

March: in March I had very little time because I had to start packing all our stuff in order to move in April. I did have a market and made quite a few things for that, like this dot-painted mirror.

April: the month of the move, and so little time left for playing :-(  About the only art-like thing that I did was make a wallpaper for my newsletter-subscribers....

May: I started painting a kind of mural in our toilet, and finally played in my artjournal again.

June: getting stuck in the toilet and trying out ideas in my artjournal ....

July: In July I was featured in the "Colour me positive"-challenge, and I could choose a quote for that week. I chose one of my favorite quotes "never regret anything that made you smile", and made this mixed media piece that was given as a prize in the draw two weeks later. It is now in Canada :-)

August: another quiet month artwise. We went on vacation with the family, so that left little time for artmaking. I did work on a new large canvas, and during my holidays I got into drawing lyricsgirls again. Here's one:

September: wanted to do 29 faces but in the end didn't even start. Busy with ongoing projects, like my large canvas, the toilet, some smaller paintings and again more artjournaling:

October: since my other painting was sold, I had to get a new painting into the gallery. I finished my second large canvas and called it "Carry me away". I was fed up with all the terrorist attacks this year and wanted to escape the harsh reality through the colours and figures on my canvas. 

November: I finished two calendars for 2017, an English one and a Dutch one. If you still need a calendar for 2017, please have a look in the sidebar, where you can find the links to both. There's now a sale going on of 20% off through Jan 1st. Just type in the code YEAREND20 at checkout. I have had wonderful comments from the people who bought them already, and I am very happy that they are liked so much :-)

December: I finished the biggest project for this year: the make-over of our toilet. Although I think it might become an ongoing project, since I like to add tiny little bits every now and then ;-) 

Well, that's it for this year! Thanks for following and encouraging me along the way! I do wish all of you a safe trip into the new year, and most of all everything that's written here:

And don't forget:

I'm linking this to Paint Party Friday as always. A big thank you to Eva and Kristin for making it possible for artists to connect on a weekly basis and encourage and inspire each other. Kudos to all of you ♥

And of course I'll be ending this year with some funnies :-)

And on this "positive" note, I'll end this blogyear :-) Take care and I'll see you in the next year! ♥ ♥ ♥

We build too many walls doodle

I finally made a doodle again! That's ages ago, and I had forgotten how meditative it can feel making marks like that.

That's all I did this week, creative-wise I mean :-) I'm linking this to Paint Party Friday, 

Only one more week and it's Christmas. And this year I'm in charge of organizing the family Christmas dinner get-together. Meaning: cooking for 25 people .... Waaaahhh!!! Just thinking about it makes me want to crawl in a hole and not come out until the new year has started.

After (and if!) I survive that, I probably will just curl up on the sofa and do absolutely nothing for a whole week.

Soo, I wish all of my blogreaders the most fantastic Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa or whichever holidays you're celebrating. May you find peace and love and happiness, and may you be able to celebrate together with loved ones.

something to remember .....

I'll end this post as usual with some funnies :-)

See you in two weeks time with an overview of my creative year :-) Take care and enjoy your day ♥ ♥ ♥

Makeover of our toilet

Well, I'm still changing some details and adding things every now and then, but I consider our toilet practically finished now. At least, the walls are finished. We will also put a new floor in there, and some other smaller things still need to be done.

I'll show you the progress-pics in this post, but I will warn you: lots and lots of pictures! Ready?

This is how it all started:

You can see here how small it is. It's not very easy to work in a small space like that, and taking pictures is even worse. 

 started out with yellowish - orange-y colours

 adding some greens and blues

and finishing it off with red. All the colours I used in this toilet are used somewhere else in the house, except for the red. 

 adding details with stencils and stamps

 it's a small toilet, but it sure takes some effort before all the walls are covered ...

 adding some text as well (you know me... always have to add quotes everywhere ;-) )

I started out wanting to fill the walls with flowers. But then I started seeing all these faces in the marks, so I thought I might just start with a few....

 and some animals as well...

 not forgetting the flowers :-)

I have been working on and off in this toilet for about 6 months, and in the meantime we got a new toilet, so in the later pictures this image isn't visible as well anymore. Which I kinda regret. 

okay, so far we've had the in progress pictures. Now I'm starting with the images how they are now (and how they will probably remain)

corners are a bit hard, and he's getting the foot of one of the other images in his face. Oh well ...

this is the part above the door

 ventilation still needs to be installed ... 

Well, that's it! Some people probably recoil in horror when seeing this, but I had fun doing this, and if I get tired of it I just take a paintbrush and go over it. Easy as that, right!? 

But for now these creatures can stay :-) This must be the biggest project I've taken on, and in the end I really had enough of it. The middle of the walls is fun to do, but the corners and the low and high parts are really difficult. The toilet is so small you can't put a ladder in there, so in order to reach the higher parts I stood on the toilet lid. And sure enough, just a few weeks after we had a new toilet, it went crack, and I found myself with my feet in the water .... So in case you're thinking of doing something like this: don't stand on the toilet lid!.

I love it when I need to go to the toilet at night. I just take a small flash light, and it is as if I'm sitting in a kind of dark but friendly forest, surrounded by beings that protect me :-)

Okay, that's enough for today! I'll be linking this to Paint Party Friday, just click on the link to see some wonderful creations. I'll be finishing my post, as always, with some funnies:

And last but not least:

Thanks for your visit! Hope your day is going great, and your weekend will be filled with joy.

See you next week ♥ ♥ ♥