Red Wings

This is one of my favorite all time photos from this past summer.

I saw some birds I've never seen before, like this amazing red beauty.

Beauties & Bees

I am going to skip Food Friday this week cause I just want to show you these beautiful flowers...

I don't know what they are but there sure did amaze me when we came across them when biking.

Spectacular Beauty

It amazes me, how different each and every sunset is, the beauty is so much I can't take it all in...

I hope I never ever ever become the kind of person who doesn't notice all the spectacular beauty!

Blessed

We had two deer grace our court the other night.

We sat and watched them for awhile but then left them alone to munch on the cedars in peace.

 

Such Magnificent Creatures make me Giddy to be ALIVE.

 

 

In the morning we could track their path by the beautiful footprints.

I was practically shaking with excitement just knowing that they walked right by my studio windows and knowing that our trees gave them a much needed snack.

 

 I feel like our house has been blessed. Ahhhh LOVE!

Hope On Wings

A new mixed media called 'Hope On Wings' by yours truly, inspired by

Love, Inspiration, Strength & above all else HOPE...

"Hope is the thing with feathers

that perches in the soul,

And sings the tune without the words,

And never stops at all."

(one of my favourite poems by Emily Dickinson)

This piece is dedicated to two beloved souls:
My niece, Karly, a strong, unique & inspiring little girl who makes me so proud to be her Auntie.
and
Our precious girl, Ella Luna, a strong little rabbit who loves us like no other.

Happy Valentines Day Lovelies

XO M & The Bunnies

Abundant In Strength

A new coloured pencil illustration.

"Abundant In Strength"

Just wanted to hop in quickly to show you this new image...

I've been a busy bee and have so many other new pieces to show you.

This Wednesday, I'll be guest posting for The Courage To Fly Blog Hop, so do make sure to hop in for that.  There's some amazing women, sharing some amazing stories on this fabulous blog hop being hosted by Marked By The Muse and it's not to be missed.

XO A very studio busy Mandy & 4 rain gloomy bunnies XO

Breakfast...

This week's theme/topic for Illustration Friday was 'Breakfast'...I am abit late but this is what my brain conjured up for that topic, ha ha...



When I showed Jonathan the final results this evening his first words were "Ohhh she's cool & kinda creepy..." which is exactly what I was going for, ha ha.

I don't know if this concept comes from my dislike of breakfast!...I've never been big on breakfast-y foods or eating early in the morning...my tummy is usually not ready for food till oh 12-2pm!!!

Or perhaps it was sparked from my sitting outside last night, after the war in my poor noggin subsided, I was sitting in my favourite rocker enjoying the cool evening breeze, wrapped up in a blanket with sketchbook on my lap as I watched all at the same time; Roo stretched out eating raspberry leaves, a chipmunk sniffing Ella's tummy whiles Ella munched on yarrow, a grey squirrel hanging upside down to get birdseed out of the feeder & 2 chickadees sitting side by side on a branch up above all this furry sweet action...all of this was happening without a span of a meter...wonderful, ha ha...so this illustration could also be stemming from my connection with nature & earth...hmmm one never knows what my whimsy filled brain will come up with.

(If Your Interested In Prints of This Illustration They Are Available In My Shop)

Hope you find her quirky & enjoy...have a wonderful weekend, see yous next week. XO M & the Buns.

New Illustration "Fauna & Flora 1"

I am so excited to show you all one of my newest illustrations. This little sweetie is suppose to be our beautiful Jin. When she was sick a few months back, I was doing some sketching to keep myself from going crazy with worry and the drawing has been sitting there in my sketchbook calling to me and whispering 'come on, colour me already, I bet I'll be something extra sweet...' and well I think it turned out to be just that...I love the simple message, I love the soft colour, I love the serenity in it and that sweet delicate little birdie, & of course the subject matter, ha ha...What do you all think? I think more of these little beauties are to be conjured up...

(Prints are now available in the shop. The original however has been adopted, by me! ha ha.)

I hope you all had a great weekend...we sure did, (I'll share some photos soon), despite the heat we still managed to jump in the car for a few hours of adventuring, we spent lots of time by the water, had some great meals, picked over 20 litres of strawberries which included a super fun tractor ride, ha ha and we also fit in lots of gardening, yard work and most importantly of course, the buns got oodles of time outside, so needless to say we're all somewhat pooped but ready to head into this Monday & what will be a very busy week with happy hearts. Thanks for hopping in...come again soon, I've got lots of new stuff to show you all. XO Bijou & The Buns.

An Old Illustration to share with you

Hi Everyone, today was so lovely and I was reminded of an important and old adage "Seize The Day". The skies were quite stormy looking but it was still a beautiful day with many flowers blooming and birds chirping, the sound of the pond and a gentle wind rustling all the trees. I almost didn't go outside but I thought, today is the perfect weather for myself and the rabbits, not to hot, not to cold with wind to keep the mosquitoes away. So, instead of staying inside from worry that it would rain any minute, I hustled all four rabbits outside, including myself and my coloured pencils and we just had a glorious afternoon working away and playing outside. Hazel was so sweet and kept falling asleep with her little nose twitching away in the air only to be woken by the cawing crows, then she'd fall asleep again as soon as she heard my assuring "Hazel, it's fine, your too big for them to steal" ha ha. So yes, I was reminded that you should just not worry and do things anyways because the outcome may be wonderful or at least something to learn from...and in my case today, a perfect working day surrounding by happy bunnies and not a drop of rain.

So anyhow, I can go on and on can't I, even about the simplest things! I hoped to have new imagery to show you today but I just don't, everything I am working on currently takes longer than 1 or 2 days and a couple of the images are a surprise which I can't share with you all quite yet. So as I am still in the mode of Saturday's tea party, I have selected this older illustration of mine to share with you today. It is full of whimsy, fairies, mother nature and living trees, I hope you like it. I did this image long ago as a cover ideal for "Emily of New Moon", because I grew up just adoring all of L.M. Montgomery's fictional works. This one is done in pastel with coloured pencil on canvas. I am really hoping that tomorrow I'll finally be able to introduce a new friend.