Daily Doodle: Week 4

homespun by laura daily doodle colored pencil sketch vintage beach cruiser bike

I fell behind a bit with my Doodles last week.  I had hoped to catch up by Sunday so I could finish January with an even (odd!) 31 Doodles, but came up short at 28 Doodles.  But that’s 28 more Doodles than I’ve ever done in a month, so I’ll take it!  Plus, I spent a couple of hours catching up yesterday morning, and have now pulled ahead – I have one extra Doodle in my sketchbook!

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Daily Doodle: Week 3

homespun by laura paint my vacation sketch shakespeare garden central park new york city nyc watercolor fence with flowers

I’m really excited to share this week’s Doodles.  There are 9 in all; the first 8 were all done in preparation for the final Doodle of the week. It’s the biggest watercolor (both in size and in detail) I’ve ever done.  In fact, the only time I’ve ever painted anything larger was this 2’x3′ acrylic on plywood painting I did for our backyard a couple years ago.

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Daily Doodle: Week 2

homespun by laura daily doodle flamingo watercolor

I’m sitting here listening to a David Bowie record (yes, an actual record, complete with the sound of the needle scratching against it!) on the new record player I got for Christmas.  I finally set it up over the weekend and we’ve been listening to records ever since.  We have a small but cool selection, all collected from thrift stores, estate sales, and flea markets, and it’s been a fun way to work for the past few days.

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Daily Doodle: Week 1

homespun by laura daily doodle ladybug colored pencil sketch sketchbook

One of my goals for 2016 is to do some kind of art every day.  Anything that will help me to improve my artistic skills (as I haven’t drawn on a regular basis since middle school) is fair game:  the Daily Doodle can be as simple as a quick 10-minute sketch or as involved as a full watercolor painting that takes two hours, or anything in between.

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How to Reveal a Surprise Trip + Rediscovering my Love for Watercolors, d our Trip to NYC | Homespun by Laura | Create a scrapbook of photos or hand drawings as a gift to reveal a surprise birthday or Christmas trip!

How to Reveal a Surprise Trip, Rediscovering my Love for Watercolors, and Our Trip to NYC – Part 2

Welcome back for Part 2 of the post with the longest title ever! 

I’ve never planned a trip by myself before.  I’ve never surprised anyone with such a big gift, either.  As the time to reveal my plans got closer, I started to worry a little that the Mister wouldn’t like it or that when we actually got there, the trip wouldn’t live up to the hype I’d created.  Also, what if I’d planned too many activities for each day and we wound up rushing from one to the next without fully enjoying each one?  I’m happy to say all these worries were unfounded; somehow I’d allowed the right amount of time for each event and we even had time to wander for a while with no destination.  I just couldn’t stop worrying for a couple of days there.  

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How to Reveal a Surprise Trip + Rediscovering my Love for Watercolors, d our Trip to NYC | Homespun by Laura | Create a scrapbook of photos or hand drawings as a gift to reveal a surprise birthday or Christmas trip!

How to Reveal a Surprise Trip, Rediscovering my Love for Watercolors, and Our Trip to NYC – Part 1

The Mister had a big birthday this year, and I spent the three months leading up to it planning a surprise trip to New York City to celebrate.  I bought the tickets, made the reservations, and planned out an itinerary that I was totally pumped about.  The next step was to come up with a fun, exciting, and original way to reveal it since it was his gift from me. 

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