Chilling out on a Saturday

Our household is recovering from a nasty bug. We're all exhausted from the lack of sleep so we've been letting the children relax and watch films. That is, when they're not playing chase and whack games with their dad.

This morning I had a lovely time with my daughter. I made a wedding anniversary card for a friend and my little girl sat with me, making tiny door signs for every member of the family. It was lovely to see her working hard at her signs.

She also left a few pictures in my journal. She's fascinated right now with houses and castles. Aren't they cute?

Here's the card that I made:

Halloween hee-ha

I'm afraid that my picture-a-day project has been neglected. Blame it on now having two kids at school, one of whom is always ever so eager to read her school books and practise her writing and counting skills. The other child is a bit of work, needing constant reminding to do his schoolwork and practise on the piano. All in all though, I can't complain about the kids' schoolwork—they're both doing ever so well.

Here are a few pictures done in the last few weeks (once again photographed instead of scanned, sorry!):

A colour pencil portrait one of my favourite musicians, Natalie Merchant

Leila, the girl cat

A sketch of a character I'll be developing into a series of illustrations (I hope)

And here is a picture I did today to greet you all a happy Halloween with. I was aiming to draw a scary picture, but I ended up drawing this half-normal, half-freaky girl with colourful clothes, wielding a pencil and a paintbrush. Hmm. I'm not quite sure what the message is here. That all artists are freaks? That anyone, even a girl with a bird's beak, can be an artist?

Her name is Helene, by the way, and she'd like to wish you all a fun-filled Halloween!