The Sunday Challenge!

Not THAT kind of sundae.

Today is Sunday.  And Sundays can be a bit...  Well, they're great days for sleeping in late, lazing about and pottering around the house.  But if you don't have plans and that's all you're getting up to, Sundays can get a bit same-y.  With that in mind, I decided to spice up my Sunday by issuing myself a challenge.  I was going to have a go at something I had either never done, or something I hadn't done in years.

Now, me being slightly ridiculous, I had many ideas, from carpentry (I don't even know where that came from!) to geocaching, before I decided that, seeing as I'm not feeling too great today (I've had sinusitis for over three months now - I'm wondering if I'm in line to set some kind of record), I'd pick something sedate.  I settled on painting.

I don't even remember the last time I actually attempted to paint a proper picture.  And by "proper," I mean something a little more impressive than the artwork I sometimes create at work with the kids at nursery, masterpieces though they are.

I dug out some old watercolours and found an A3 sketch pad I bought years ago for some reason or other and I set about trying to decide what I was going to paint.  Several ideas went through my head, including James Bourne's lovely face, although to be fair, his lovely face is in my head most of the time anyway...

In the end, I decided to try something that I love in a very different way; cherry blossom.  Yes, I would paint a cherry blossom tree.  Or at least a few branches (this was my first go, so I figured a whole tree might be pushing my artistic skills a little too far).

I won't lie to you.  It didn't turn out brilliantly.  I had hoped that I would discover a hidden talent for painting, but... Well, that didn't happen.

What did happen, however, is that I had something to focus my attention on for several hours and I was testing myself by trying something I had never really done much of before.  And even though the end result won't be gracing the walls of any major art galleries, I was actually quite proud of it.

And so I've decided to try to come up with a weekly Sunday Challenge for myself.  Obviously some Sundays I'll be busy and I'll have to skip a week, but my goal is to make this a regular thing.  So ideas for Sunday Challenges will be very welcome!  And if anyone else fancies getting involved - please do!

Oh and because it would be a bit silly to end this blog without evidence of the challenge I set myself this week...

Ta-daaaa!

Here's to the next Sunday Challenge!  Bring it on...