Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Happy New Year



Hope you are having a wonderful day - how exciting that it is the first day of a new year!  And with the word exciting, I want to say that I am not selecting just one word for the year; I am selecting a letter: the letter "E".  I had thought to use the word "explore" for this year as I want to explore in many ways - travel, painting, pastels, books, cooking, language, poetry, crewel embroidery......but then I thought that one word isn't enough (that's another E) as I want to evaluate, eliminate, edit, embellish, embroider, embrace, emerge, experiment, exaggerate, encourage, energize, and that's just the beginning!  So this is the Year of E - for ME!

Above is my first pencil sketch for the year (also posted on the Sketchbook Challenge flickr page) - sweet Hana posed for me - and then I just had to do a quick watercolor sketch of her also.

I exceeded (another E) my 2012 Goodreads goal of 100 books - I read 103 but this year I want to paint more and read less so my goal is 80 books.  I have also joined the http://warthroughthegenerations.wordpress.com/  book challenge and plan to read 4 - 10 books that are related to the American Revolution, some fiction and some nonfiction.

I don't think that I mentioned that a friend loaned me season two of Vera, a British mystery series - I loved it! The series are based on books by Ann Cleeves and are only available in the UK but another friend of mine who used to own a mystery bookstore has three of the books and mailed them to me.  I am so excited and can hardly wait to begin reading them.  I will return the books to my friend in April when Dan and I go up for a short fun trip to Jacksonville (where we lived for 10 years).  Dan is going to play golf while my friend and I discuss the books at PF Chang's - fun fun fun!

And by the way, my main Christmas present was a Kindle Fire HD - yayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! I love it! I also received lots of dark chocolate, some pastels, a giftcard to Starbucks, and I will be receiving the second season of Game of Thrones when it comes out in February - I am such a lucky girl and so very thankful! And I won a Basic Grey kit from Paperissues - thank you Cassie!

Hope your day and year are filled with joy, and thanks for stopping by.  I have a pork butt roast in the crock pot with sauerkraut, and I made some Texas caviar with black eyed peas so not only will we have a delicious meal but we will be stoking up the luck for the new year with every bite!
Chris


3 comments:

Julie Tucker-Wolek said...

Ohhhhhh I have been wishing for a Kindle Fire! I bet it's amazing!! I loveeeeeeee your cat painting!! It's beautiful!! And YAY for the letter "E"!!! That's perfect!! Happy New Year!!

McMGrad89 said...

Your cat has so much texture. I love your painting. Hope your year is wonderful.

Deana said...

Sounds like an EXCELLENT year for you! Love that watercolor of Hana. Always love your paintings, especially the one of yours I have in my kitchen! Enjoy your Kindle Fire & have a wonderful 2013!