30 drawings in 30 days - Last set

#21/30 - Parco archeologico Scolacium, Roccelletta di Borgia, Italy

#22/30 - Pen & Wash exercise, from Cathy Johnson Art Tips  

#23/30 - Golfo di Squillace, Italy

#24/30 - Anthurium

#25/30 - Hosta

#26/30 - Torre Cavallara, Catanzaro Lido, Italy

#27/30 - Sedia di vimini, Catanzaro Lido, Italy

#28/30 - Athelstan Recreation Ground, Kingston upon Thames, UK

#29/30 - Summer Trees

#30/30 - Il porto, Catanzaro Lido, Italy

The last 10 drawings have been a completely different story. Say that the motivation begun to fade away, say that we came back home, say that I went back to work, say that the last 10% of a project takes 90% of the time to complete...I finished the last drawing this month! Shame, I know. I managed to do drawing #29 at the end of October, but really lost any motivation to do drawing #30 until the new year. But I finally did it and along with a new scanner I was able to put an end to this torture (this is what does to me any unfinished project!). Overall I'm glad I did it, even if it took more than 30 days. I will do something similar again, but maybe joining some group projects this time to keep things more interesting.

You can find the previous two sets of drawings here and here.

The 52 project: week 4

And I'm still very grateful for this project.

Although I only get to spend evening and weekends with little Miss O, although I'm taking crappy pictures with my phone, although she keeps moving every time I try to take a pic....I love snapping those moments when we are together, having fun and being happy.

Your first trip to IKEA 

(and yes you are not really allowed to have chips!)

Evening play

In the supermarket trolley

This week you:

Sighed (and laughed afterwards) every time you drank a cup of water (even during the night).

Refused to get your hair dried.

Had your first molar cutting through (or so we thought! We discovered you had the top two out already :)).

Had your immunisation shots and you did brilliantly us not so much!).

You had a lot of fun with your mama at the pool on sat morning.

Note: My goal in following weeks will be to improve my picture taking, this week has been not so great. I'm currently using my Iphone as my camera needs new batteries, they have been ordered, so fingers crossed they will arrive soon.

Blueberry muffins recipe

This is a very quick and easy recipe, you can't go wrong! I somehow managed to do the mixing and the baking while Olivia was having dinner last night, and that, believe me, it's a proof of what I'm saying!

It had been a while since I made muffins, or baked anything for that matter...and really after the holidays it has been a relief not having any evening treat lying around the house. But last night felt like we needed some homemade cake and with only one egg in the fridge, muffins were the answer. We did enjoyed them in front of the tv last night with a glass of milk and at breakfast this morning with espresso.

The 52 project: week 3

I'm jumping in late into this project, but I'm just happy I decided to take the challenge. It came at the right time. Just last week I was stressing myself out thinking how a year had gone by since Olivia was born and all the memory keeping I was planning to do resolved in a massive archive of bad-ish photos without any comments or thoughts. Right after sharing my concerns with my not-so-bordered other half, I discovered the 52 weeks project. It was through one of my old, if not one of the first, favourite bloggers bluebirdbaby. I liked the idea, I liked what I saw, I like what it could come out of it. So here it goes.

Bath time - our favourite time of the day

Dinner time - Having fun with your hair

This week:

You slept in your bed until the morning for 2 nights in a row.

You played hide and seek with your plate and had food stuck in your hair.

You learned to stay up late.

You laughed at your papa doing the moonwalking.

30 drawings in 30 days - Part 2

#11/30 - La Capanna - Roccelletta di Borgia, Italy

#12/30 - Spiaggia - Roccelletta di Borgia, Italy

#13-14-15/30 - Doodles

#16/30 - La Terrazza - Catanzaro Lido, Italy

#17/30 - Living Room - Catanzaro Lido, Italy

#18/30 - Hibiscus - Catanzaro Lido, Italy

#19/30 - Wet-on-wet excercise

#20/30 - Golfo di Squillace, afternoon mist - Catanzaro Lido, Italy

I was hoping to get a new scanner soon, after my old one broke down a long while ago. But since that hasn't happen yet, I got my drawing scanned at work. Here is my second set of drawings which were done back in August. I loved the challenge of finding the time everyday to do a little sketch. I must confess we were on holiday back then visiting my parents, and it was not much of a time issue, more like getting the inspiration going...trying to fight the apathy that comes with doing (almost!) nothing all day and a 40degC average temperature! But I stuck to it and I'm glad I did.

These were mostly on the spot sketches, with the exception of #18 which was done from a photo I took in my granddad's garden and #19 which was an example exercise from one of Cathy Johnsson mini classes. And the doodles of course are pure imagination...

Christmas Holidays wrap up

It was awesome! We spent the holidays in Italy visiting our families. We were up on the mountains until Boxing Day and down to the beach until the Epiphany. We had snow, Miss O met her first cousin, we exchanged presents, we had cappuccino and cornetto for breakfast (almost everyday!), we walked on the beach, we went skateboarding, we enjoyed the sunshine and the warm weather, we loved have family around, we had our first sleep through the night (pure bliss!), we had lots of good food, we went to the local market, we had ice cream. WE.HAD.A.REALLY.GOOD.TIME.