This has been a crazy month.  I thought to have some downtime between the end of my drawing time and the start of my painting class, time I could spend continuing with my drawing practice, improving and cementing what I learned.  But life had other plans.  I got exactly one drawing in.

With the two Easters celebrated here in Lebanon and Ramadan, ( Read more... )

As you may (or not) remember, I was doing a drawing class online.  It began back in January and the final segment--a 30-day drawing challenge--just ended a few days ago.  It was a lot of fun but very time-consuming.  I drew a lot, met a lot of nice people, and decided to take the next two modules from this teacher, one about confident brushwork and ( Read more... )

... where you think, "Oh, I should really post," but then something else comes up.  Before you know it, it has been weeks--or months, maybe years :P--before you sit down and make the time.

So here I am making the time, but I have no one thing I want to make an entire post about.  Therefore, have some hodgepodge:

--I started an online drawing course ( Read more... )

I made a galette des rois yesterday.  And all the filling leaked out.  Ugh.  Since I had invited G over to eat it with us, I had to make another, pronto.  This one turned out much better and very tasty.


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There are some delightful things about this apartment so far:

We have hibiscus growing along the front porch, and they attract Palestine Sunbirds. So pretty! and they have nice vocalizations. I don't have a good lens for capturing wildlife, so have a short video:

Click to view

Since it has been a bit rainy, we haven't had a chance to be out in the garden ( Read more... )

I wish you a Happy New Year on this 17th (!) anniversary of the day I started my blog.  I cannot believe that much time has passed since I started this thing.  It really blows my mind when I think back on sitting in our guestroom/computer room in Sancerre making my first post ever at the bequest of online friends ( Read more... )

Merry Christmas, friends.  I hope your day is/has been a blessed one.
We had a lovely time with friends here in our village, and we will likely make it a tradition if we are in the country for Christmas again (already we are planning to be back in France next year...)
We have a week to move apartments.  Provided we can get the keys to the new place ( Read more... )

I like to imagine that come January, say, 4th or 5th, our life is going to be fairly calm, just drifting along in an unhurried, relaxed way.  The move will be past us, we should be settled in with few social engagements, and I will be able to write and do art and potter around the garden and...

Yeah, I know it is only a daydream, and there is ( Read more... )

If I were into self-humiliation (newsflash: I am not), I would show you a picture of my house.  How did it get into this state?  After seeing my messy art palette, you might deduce that I am just not a neat person, and you would not be far wrong (but artist palettes are not a good indicator of mess-prone personality).  I don't enjoy messiness; I ( Read more... )

I don't like wasting things, which is why my watercolor paint palette looks like this :


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