Queen Anne's Lace

I tried something different and drew with a white gel pen on black coldpress paper. It was a challenge to draw light instead of dark. I kind of like how this drawing of Queen Anne's Lace turned out. It's one of my favorite wildflowers.


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Azalea

Here's a photograph of an azalea taken in Texas before the winter freeze.


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My Hygge Home by Meik Wiking

My Hygge Home: How to Make Home Your Happy Place (2022) is a book by Meik Wiking. Wiking is the CEO of The Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen, Denmark. Hygge (pronounced hoo-ga) is a Danish word that describes a feeling of coziness, comfort, and well-being.

Wiking studies happiness through surveys conducted by his institute. He describes his institute’s results as well as those of other researchers. The book provides the reader with digestible statistics from various studies that indicate what components in a home bring people happiness. He couples these stats with anecdotes and personal stories. There is advice about lighting and the functional placement of furniture to make your space your own. Making a hygge home also involves spending time with loved ones, sharing meals, playing together, cooking, and growing plants and food together.

Some of the advice to make your home more hygge may seem to be common sense, but the book provides a reminder to make your space your own and to have it say something about you. The one downside is that there were a lot of stock photographs in the book, and most featured phony-looking, grinning people. They detracted from the authenticity of the book. I much preferred the illustrations throughout. They were charming.

Purchase and read books by Meik Wiking:


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El Paso Park

Here are a few more photos from winter in El Paso, Texas.

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Winter in El Paso

Here are a few photos from this winter in El Paso, Texas.






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Basement Ghost

Here's a pen and ink drawing for this week's Illustration Day theme: "Basement."


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Lizard

This sneaky lizard was spying on me as I worked in the garden today.

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Fish Swimming

Years ago, I used to take part in a weekly art challenge hosted by a website called Illustration Friday. Artists around the world contributed illustrations based on a weekly theme. The website is now defunct, but today I came across a revival of the initial challenge at a website called Illustration Day.

I was so excited to find Illustration Day at the start of this new year. And, of course, I want to participate in the challenge again, so I drew a pencil sketch of a little fish swimming for this week's theme: "Swimmer."


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