Advent Calendar 24

The last image in my calendar. Happy Christmas, Everyone : )

Advent Calendar 23

I'm looking forward to a mince pie later on, when I have done the travelling : )

Advent Calendar 22

Time for some present wrapping, whilst the Christmas puddings are steaming : )

Advent Calendar 21

My thoughts are now turning to food shopping. Brussels sprouts are a personal winter fave, along with yummy roast parsnips. My mum always liked to have a fresh pineapple at Xmas, hence the one in this box.

Advent Calendar 20

A little romance under the mistletoe before last minute xmas shopping!

Advent Calendar 19

The xmas tree is not indoors yet, but here is one of the pink glass heart baubles imagined hanging from it!

Advent Calendar 18

Bringing my tree indoors, and decorating it is one of the things I hope to do later on today : ) I love xmas trees, and always enjoy looking through the decorations box and remembering the histories of the baubles. This year I have some lovely pink glass hearts to add, too.

Advent Calendar 17

I've painted these angel chimes from memory, and I've not seen the real things for 8 years!

Advent Calendar 16

I deliberately waited today for it to become dark outside: it did not feel right to attempt the pretty xmas street lights during daylight hours! These were inspired by the lights in Highgate Village : ). A real challenge to paint in watercolour, and that is probably a very good thing about making this advent calendar - I dreamed up the ideas for each day without thinking how easy or otherwise the images would be to paint!

Advent Calendar 15

Xmas shopping has been today's main activity so far - present giving is something I really enjoy: ). Oh yes, and I did find some mistletoe on my travels!

Advent Calendar 14

Today's advent painting: a reindeer eating a carrot. Last night on the local news I saw a feature about a pet reindeer, including her really eating a carrot, as well as travelling on trains, going to the pub etc!

Advent Calendar 13

Mistletoe for 13th day of my advent calendar : ). Usually, I have bought a bunch of mistletoe by now, but so far this year I have not seen any - I wonder whether the rain this year has affected it's growth? Anyway, it made it hard to be sure I'd chosen exactly the right shade of green for the leaves!

Advent Calendar 12

The mittens on the carol singers were inspired by today's very cold weather!

Advent Calendar 11

The idea for today was originally a snowman, then I got to thinking about how my young nieces would dress a snowperson, so here is the snowgirl!

Advent Calendar 10

Another very late in the day post! A glass of mulled wine is very xmassy, and not the easiest thing to paint; )

Advent Calendar 9

We do make Santa lists in my family, so that is what inspired today's advent painting : )

advent Calendar 8

Today's painting is a robin! I love to watch birds in my garden, and there is often a robin : )

Advent Calendar 7

Today's image was inspired by a very old Christmas decoration I own, which I suspect is Victorian: brass bells and paper holly with wax holly berries: )

Advent Calendar 6

Day 6 of my advent caendar paintings! Last posting date by second class post to UK addresses is 17th December it seems.

Advent Calendar 5

Rather late today, but here is my fifth advent calendar image : )

Advent Calendar 4

Here is today's picture. I usually make Xmas puddings towards the end of November, but have not done so yet! Maybe if I dig out the recipe I use and post it here, I will be inspired to start stirring myself; )

Advent Calendar 3

Here is today's advent image : ). As well as having fun with the painting, I'm also learning a lot about scanning: the images are painted on the same block of water colour paper, so I have to isolate the the right part to make into a jpeg!

Advent Calendar 2

Here is today's advent illustration. I'm experimenting to try to get the image to display here more like it's real size, instead of enlarged!

Advent Calendar 1

It was fun painting this holly: )