Welcome to September! Blimey didn’t August fly by. Pumpkin Spice Lattes are upon us and Halloween supplies are appearing in the shops.
I though I would share a few things I have been liking lately –
Creative Bug draw-a-day challenge was a success for me in August, I made at least part of an art journal page every day following prompts supplied by Dawn De Vries Sokol in a daily video on Creative Bug. Follow my progress at CatsEatDogsMakes on Instagram. September is a little different in that they have a competition running for a new instructor. So I am going to have a go and use prompts by Jennifer Orkin Lewis who is August Wren on Instagram and well worth following if you like gorgeous paintings.
Harmony by Carolyn Parkhurst is such a good read. If you are looking for a good book, I would recommend this highly. Very character driven and a great story so far (I am about three quarters through).
I have had Art Inc by Lisa Congdon from the library for a couple of weeks now and I need to read it. I am terrible about reading non fiction, I just don’t get around to it. So I was delighted to read about the challenge over at Meet Me At Mikes blog to read 10 pages a day through September. I have no problem with novels, but my non fiction reading needs a push and here it is! So I am joining with Pip and her readers to read at least 10 pages of non-fiction a day for the month of September. I am hoping to finish Art Inc and get another book read or at least started. Yay! #10pagesaday for the win.
Have you been making Instagram stories? I have made a couple but I see lots and I want to make more. They are fun to watch and make! However I am still a bit of a noob at them and don’t know quite how all the buttons and whistles work. Thankfully I found this ace post from Xanthe Berkeley about making a great Instagram story using stills, videos and Boomerangs.
Get Messy Art Journal – Season of Music is here I have finished last week’s project to make 10 pages using 10 songs. Last week I made 5 pages and now I have the second five to share. I deliberately made the pages quite quickly, waiting for everything to dry before I could carry on was the most time consuming part! I have thoroughly enjoyed this exercise and I will be picking another 10 songs to make more pages.
Ladies Drawing Night by Julia Rothman, Leah Goren and Rachael Cole is a beautiful and delightful book full to the brim with lovely photos and inspiring ideas. On my first quick flip through I saw lots of ideas I would like to have a go at from pattern making to painting with a sumi brush and India ink and drawing figures. Makes me want to gather some willing friends and have our very own ladies drawing night! Pens, paint, sketchbooks, snacks and wine – I am in!
Lots of good things around! I hope you have lots of good things going on and have a fab weekend.
Happy Friday x
Clare Davis Etheridge 
Love the pic with the brushes and books! I really must pick up the Lisa Congdon book. I still have Big Magic unopened on my shelf! I’m a bit like you and find it tricky getting stuck into those non-fiction books too! I’m playing along with ten pages a day so I’ll be interested to follow your progress. And how do you even do a spiced pumpkin latte? We saw these advertised when we were in the US this time five years ago. Gosh, they love a pumpkin, don’t they? Do they ever eat it as a vegetable or is it always turned into a sweet dish?
I am the same with Big Magic, I have started it but not finished, hopefully I will get a start on it when I finish Art Inc. Starbucks are the boss of Pumpkin spice lattes, but I make my own syrup and add it to my coffee (much cheaper!).
Pumpkins rarely get eaten at all here, squash generally are popular in soups but pumpkins are most often used as decorations!
I love how you get creative every day. Those spiced pumpkin lattes sound interesting – I’m not sure I understand them though – do they have coffee in them at all? Or is it like a hot chocolate, but pumpkin flavoured?
Spiced pumpkin lattes are coffee with frothy milk and flavored syrup added. All the coffee shops make them at this time of year, I make my own syrup which saves lots of money!!