Family updates and painting

I'm a bit behind here as I'd planned to blog once more in February, but better late than never... 

Actually Leiya didn't send us as many photos of Luka in February and instead we saw a lot of videos and spoke with him in person.  I don't know what March will bring, BUT I'm warning you!  April and May are going to have a lot of Luka photos because....  Leiya and Luka are coming to Japan from the middle of April!!!  Tony will be joining them in May so we are going to have a lot of family outings and together time!  We are very excited but realize how much we are going to have to adjust our living situation to fit in a 2 year old.  Where will everyone sleep?  Where will we get a car seat?  Etc. etc.  It all sounds like great fun!

So here are a couple of Luka photos I got in February.

I do't know why he was wearing his hat in the house (or is that even Luka's hat?)  He is looking more and more like Tony these days.

And Leiya said Luka-kun joined in a library storytime though he was one of the youngest...  

As for Takumi and Julieta, Julieta sent us some videos of snow falling in the town where she works!  That was a great surprise but the mountains near their home were just beautiful after the snowfall!

There are mostly sunny days in their city though.  My beautiful daughter-in-law!

Date nights out and about.

I have been enjoying Skillshare immensely and go from one teacher to another hopefully learning a new skill or technique to use in painting.  I joined another class with Barbara Luel (I'd done a class with her on the rooms of my house) and tried neighborhood scenery.  The lumber factory seen from my sewing room window.

While taking a lettering class with Amy Stewart, I needed a painting to add lettering to and so I tried this from a photo Takumi sent me when they were visiting Idyllwild this month.

I picked up a friend from the nearby train station and enjoyed a day of chatting and good food.  Later I sketched the station from a photo I'd taken while waiting for her to arrive.  And then the added lettering.

And from last week's picnic with obentos, I tried depicting the shrine nearby.  This was my thought out painting...

...and this was my loose style scribble painting.  I really haven't found a style of my own yet...

And finally, Chip sleeping on the window sill...