Finding joy in the everyday

Artist: David Walker Based in the UK Uses spray painter to create these works David Walker seems to be one of a few who doesn't tell us very much about himself on his website, so I know very little about him. But here is an extract from an newspaper article by Street Art London: Once a fan of only black and white (with a little bit of pink thrown in for good measure), David now paints with in explosions of colour following his discovery of a little treasure box of spraypaint tucked away in a studio. His portraits are realistically surreal – the sort of images that make you stare for ages. "I’m drawn towards the idea of making something beautiful out of what could be classed as lo-brow materials and methods. I don’t use brushes because I want the pieces to raise a question about graffiti and traditional painting as there can be strong preconceived ideas about both. People are normally quite surprised the work is made from spray paint and I think many are al...

I don't often buy a cookbook just for the illustrations, but I did the other day as I just loved the drawings. In our local shopping centre we have a bookstore that sells most books for $5 (a few are $10 or $15) and they have an excellent range of cookbooks. With my slight addiction to cookbooks (and books in general) I couldn't help myself and I have bought a few.  But my favourite is the one below " With Heart and Soul " by Roxie Kelly and friends, illustrated by Shelly Reeves Smith.  Fortunately, even the recipes are good - so I was thrilled with this $5 purchase. Its even got a special bookmark! However, this single purchase has lead me to buy (or request for Christmas) the rest of the Roxie Kelly cookbook series that have been illustrated by Shelly Reeves Smith and my 2013 calendar is also illustrated by Smith.  So my $5 purchase did turn out to be a little more expensive but giving me hours of enjoyment with more to come. Isn't this pretty ...

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you:  not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. John 14:27 No Christian should be upset, anxious, stressed or having sleepless nights over the US election results - why? Because the Bible tells us so. These results comes as no surprise to the Lord, as he knows all things including the results of this election. Christians need to stop being negative a b out the results, i nstead do as the Bible tells us to - PRAY for our lea ders - no matter what you think. Nowhere does the Bible tells us to; hate those in power who we don't like, verbally bas h  those on the "wrong side"   (or their families) or whinge and complain as this attitude goes against what we are asked to do.  Nor do we to pray for th eir demise or s pread hatred and intolerance's.   We are t old to " love all men " . I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplicat...

Do you celebrate your wedding anniversary? Do you remember other peoples wedding anniversaries? Ours tends to come and go and is often forgotten. It's the 27th of December (not that I want you all to remember this date!) and gets lost between Christmas and New Year. We don't do anything special and we don't give each other gifts, but it should be something we celebrate, especially after 22 years.  However I would like to remember my son's wedding anniversary (1st of August) and make sure I mark the occasion with a card and a gift that matches the year.  Why? With many marriages ending in divorce or young people just not getting married - we should make a deal out of wedding anniversaries as they important and do mark a special occasion (or milestone), especially in this day and age when marriage isn't seen as important.  And its fun to find a gift to match the special day.  I tend to use the traditional anniversary list.  *** ...

Artist: Chri LaPorte American artist This is amazing and no it is not a photo. It took over 1200 hours and 100 H2 pencils and completed by Chris LaPorte. This is one very talented man.  The painting above spans 13 x 26 feet and is based on a 80-year old photo that he found in his mothers basement. The photo was blurred and in poor condition, damaged with age, but he used it as inspiration to create this master-piece as part of the ArtPrize 2012 in Michigan.  In 2010, LaPorte hand-drew"The Calvary", a photorealist drawing of 63 World War I American cavalrymen in the 1921, winning the same art prize he won this year. 

Letter to the editor, Women's Weekly, 29 March 1941 How very pleasant to hear a young man who wishes his future wife to possess such decent qualities. It would be a better old world if all men thought the same but, believe it or not, Mr Frost, quite a number of your sex think a girl is not a sport unless she smokes and laps up cocktails. In fact most men appear to prefer that kind of girl.  Your expressed preference for the home-loving girl came as a pleasant surprise to one at least.  Still true today.  I wonder if Mr Frost found the perfect girl that wasn't into smoking and cocktails and going off to parties.  It would be hard to find a girl these days that was home-loving. 

We lived in the tropical north of Australia for 14 years and one of things I missed most was the inability to grown roses - they don't like humidity (and nor do I). The first thing I did when we moved south to cooler conditions was to plant roses.  I wasn't successful with some, but others have flourished very well.  Here are a few of my favourites in the garden.  Five or so years ago I cleaned out a section of my front garden that had become overgrown, an area I hadn't touched before.  In the process of removing all the plants I found a tiny thin rose bush, a foot in height - hard to call it a bush as it only had a single stem and a few leaves. It had been hidden from sunlight and water for many years but had not given up and was struggling to live. I dug up the rose and planted it somewhere sunny with better soil and gave it water and fertiliser . In the first year it grew a little but no roses to be seen. The second year it produced one small ros...