Thank God that year is OVER!

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Happy New Year everyone! Welcome to 2021.

I am not going to rehash 2020. It had some good points where we got to spend time with our daughter and Cleo. But it had bad points, too. Who knew we were going to lose Cleo so young. We lost some family, friends (not to the pandemic) and other fur babies. I am glad 2020 is over.

Here is how Cleo would have celebrated the new year.

Merry Christmas 2020!

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Well we made it to Christmas! It has been a tough year, for sure, but we are all making the best of the situation. I get to meet my new Grandkitty today.

Today’s post is the stocking that was supposed to be posted on the 11, but John and I liked it so much that it became our Christmas Card. Thanks to Vistaprint, I received them by the 18th and they went out on the same afternoon. That’s the beauty of printing out labels.

My homemade Christmas card started years ago when I was working for a telecomm company and I wanted to give everyone a gift and the best way to do that was to make a Christmas card. Recipients liked them so much that they hung them in cubicles or framed them. It grew from there.

To cut expenses this year, I went the postcard route, which is less expensive and easier to frame. This year’s card started as a pen & ink sketch and then I added the color with Procreate. I started to get a little carried away.

The stocking is based on the one we got from Pier 1 many moons ago and I changed the colors and pattern a bit. We still have the stocking, but no fire place so it is hanging from a side table in our dining area. The fireplace is actually the one we had when we lived on LI based on many photos and sketches that I have of it. I miss having a fireplace.

I don’t usually post my holiday cards but since it was done for the challenge and I have run out of time to do another, I am posting this holiday treat for you.

MERRY CHRISTMAS! Season’s Greetings and here’s wishing for Peace on Earth and Goodwill to EVERYONE.

Christmas Art Countdown – Day 22

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I don’t know why it is but this time of year, especially since I have gotten older, I crave things with peppermint. I take my supplements, especially in the winter, but I can’t seem to get enough of the minty stuff around Christmas. I am fond of mint chocolate chip ice cream year round, though, but at Christmas I want peppermint in anything desserty. I should probably look it up. There’s probably a health benefit to peppermint and why it is my body craves it, especially in the winter.

The only problem with commercial food is they use too much sugar. I am not really a big fan of sugary things so I like it when I can make my own stuff and downplay the sugar and really bring out the mint. That’s why I usually won’t eat candy canes unless they taste more like mint and less like sugar. I ate a candy cane stick yesterday and I was like “where’s the mint?!” Blech!

Both of my kids like minty things this time of year, as well. When they were little, candy canes would slowly disappear from the tree. Nowadays they like Andes mints and peppermint bark. Whoever thought of mint and chocolate together needs to be canonized a saint.

I am glad that with only 3 days to Christmas, today’s prompt is “candy cane.”

Enjoy!

Christmas Art Countdown – Day 20

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I had all sorts of ideas that I wanted to do for the word “cabin.”

Backtracking a bit, it is very important for artists to have sketchbooks or paintings with lots of subject matter. (And to catalog said sketchbooks, of which I have not done yet, so you know where to find stuff…) I have over 100 sketchbooks, and when I did manage to count, I had over 600 paintings (no, they aren’t all masterpieces nor are they framed.)

The importance of all of these works and sketches is to have material to draw from to create all new work.

Coming back to the prompt of “cabin.” I had a painting of a cabin I did many years ago and I did a sketch earlier this year (before the pandemic) of a winter nocturnal. From those two I created the image below…And I had a lot of fun doing it.