Happy, Sweet Days...

It's been a busy day in our little house. Well, for me at least as Ive been drawing for the most of it! New ideas are presenting themselves for paintings left, right and centre. Oh yes, Im having rather a time of it with old Mr Inspiration of late!! Ive also found myself waking up in the wee small hours, only for an idea to burst forth and bring me into the land of Wide Awake - at 4am this is not a good thing, and although it's exciting to have so many ideas to play with, I would be happier with a good nights sleep under my belt and the strike of inspiration at about 10am instead - preferably with a nice cup of tea.

But I don't suppose us creative types can pick and choose. Inspiration visits at random and I am always grateful for it, as it usually leads to something good.

As well as all this sketchy doodly activity, Ive also been busy with line drawings as you can see from my first picture today.
I have thoroughly enjoyed doing them. Here's a couple more for you to see.

Now what could this one be about...? Bedtime story? Homework in PJ's? Saturday morning comics? I'll leave it up to your imagination!

This one could be called 'A blustery afternoon' I think...


So, art wise, things are progressing. Things are also progressing quite nicely with the RR which has become a bit of a late night habit for me, something to settle down with last thing before bed. I don't think this picture does it great justice, we are suffering at the mercy of gloomy days here in Yorkshire and so the lighting is not so good for photographs. But you can get an idea of how its going I think!

Now, Im sure it's not just me, but cold weather and dreary days bring out the baker in me. We have been very busy of late, me and the Tiny Chef, creating all manner of scrumptious delights from Blondies and Brownies to Cupcakes and Sponges. And I have to say when Im not wielding a sketch book, or crochet hook, my mind is very fixed on deciding what treat to make next. And its not going to be much of a problem because yesterday our nice postie brought me this from the wonderful land of Amazon.

Oh people...for those of you who do not have this on your shelf, but who like to indulge now and then in these decadent little mouthfuls, then this is one to get. With things like Coconut Cupcakes with Pink Vanilla Buttercream and Caramel Cupcakes, Im rather overcome to say the least and it wont be long before these are given a whirl in our kitchen. Of course, I'll have to run it by the Tiny Chef first, see which ones she likes the look of best!

For now though, we are munching our way through generous slices of orange cake, the scent of the oranges in the kitchen when we were zesting and juicing was just like being in Seville! Oranges and lemons always remind me of warm sunny climes and are always happy little fruits in my mind. Is it usual to think of fruit in that way? Probably not. But thats me all over - ever so slightly bonkers!


Well, its about that time where I say 'Im off' and it usually entails a nice cup of tea and a bit of something sweet and naughty. But not today, having indulged in two slices of the orange cake already Im keeping away from the cake tin and instead Im going to announce that in the next week or two, I will be doing a little giveaway.

Yes.

And its going to be a nice one. Im telling you now, so that you can spread the word - more the merrier with these things methinks, so do pop back now and then as it will definately be happening sooooon!


I hope you have weekends full of sunshine and surprises - they're the best kind aren't they?! I'll be visiting your blogs as soon as Ive space for another slice of cake! So, thank you for stopping by today, it's lovely that you did!

Love Julia x

When a blanket became a cushion and other stories

Hello!!

It feels like a bit of a Ta-Dah moment here - although its also confession time. The next BB is now officially a cushion cover and its the most Juicy and delicious cushion cover in our entire house.
I think I have mentioned before that Im a total harlot when it comes to crochet and Im easily tempted and seduced by new projects and new wool.
Anyway, I got to the last white round on the glorious summer grannies (yes, Attic24 ones if anyone was curious) and I thought to myself...hmmmm, yes. This is definately cushion fodder. It had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the fact that I had been sent delirious by ripple blankets Id seen on various flickr sites, no, it was suddenly just very cushiony looking and so it now sits awaiting its back which Im hoping to make this weekend.



Ive also been working on some characters, that is to say, when I haven't been looking after the Little Person who has the most croaky voice and bad cold - its making her extremely crabby but the little nap she has taken today has given me a couple of hours grace to get the paints out again. So, below is an example of a character that Im in the middle of creating. Im still not too happy with some of the facial features, hence the back view! But Im going at it with determination, I wont be sending them in until Im 1000% happy. This is a sketch/painting and the character is a naughty mischievous little girl Im calling Mo.I even think her hair looks like it belongs to someone naughty...!



Anyway, at the weekend I finally went into our overgrown jungle of a garden, armed with secateurs and some serious intentions to clear up. The whole place had been taken over by crawling nasturtium creepers which had turned squishy and yellow from all the snow. I spent two hours cutting back dead things and raking up old fallen leaves and other such rubbish and I began to uncover the tiniest green buds in the hard soil - after that freezing winter snap we all had it was like manna from heaven seeing these early signs of spring coming through. A broken pot found languishing in a corner revealed a pleasant surprise:

...and as by this point spring was most definately in my bones, I picked up this cheerful little primrose at the garden centre (it was only 65pence!!) and it now glows radiantly on our kitchen windowledge, cheering me up everytime I look out of the window into a fog drenched back garden that is now covered with yet another layer of snow.

So...back to blankets. As I was saying before, I had a yearning to make a ripple blanket and I think that I just really fancied a change from doing lots of little squares, which although pleasurable and fun are sometimes a bit of a faff. I think I was hankering after something a bit different, and when the Little Person in our house peered over my shoulder at the ripplesome lovliness that is Lucy's blanket (at Attic24) and said 'will you make one like that next Mummy?' then who am I to say no!?!

I looked for some scrumptious colours that I could use to create a fabulous rainbow of a blanket with - and I discovered a tremendously beautiful colour palette from this wool, Sublime Cashmere Merino Silk DK and found this website which has a fantastic selection and picked a few out.


Yes, this blanket will take along time, yes it will cost me alot of money (but I dont mind, its going to last a lifetime and be handed down through the generations) and if I buy the wool in batches then it doesn't cost lots and lots all at once...does it. :D


Im looking forward to getting started on my new ripple blanket, the wool arrived today...

Im having to sit on my hands until I can start it later! The photograph doesn't do the colours justice, they are rich and sumptuous with glorious names for colours like Nest Egg, Shortbread and Periwinkle...oh I just have to keep scooping them up, they are so very soft and Im going delirious again just writing about it!!


Other things that have been happening here this last week is that Ive started to practise yoga. Oh goodness me, how long has it been since I subjected my little bod to anything more energetic than a gentle walk? Ive stretched muscles I didn't realise I had, but Im feeling rather nice and Ive treated myself to a couple of good DVD's to do at home as there is no decent yoga class close enough to us in this far flung country backwater!! It's certainly a nice antidote to the general mayhem that is life in our house! Also, the niggling pain at the base of my spine that Ive had these last few weeks has seemingly (after just 3 sessions of this wonder exercise) disappeared! Hurrah!!


I hope you all have scrumptious weekends, Im hoping mine has lots of little pockets to crochet in, and also if the weather brightens and the Little One is better, we hope to go to the garden centre to get our seed compost! Oh yes, already our little propagator is waiting to be filled with seeds, which we sent for from the fabulous Sarah Raven the other week, picking interesting things like Crystal Lemons (little round cucumbers) and Munchkin Pumpkins (teeny tiny ones) to grow. Can't wait!!


See you all again soon, thank you for stopping by my blog, its a pleasure to see you here!

Much love
Julia x

Another Blanket is Born (and some other bits and bobs)

My dear blogging friends!
I was overwhelmed to receive so many wonderful comments from you about my new painting and the Big Blanket. I can't tell you how much they made me smile, and how much it meant that you all took time to write them. Thank you very much, from the bottom of my little skippy-happy heart.


Needless to say, on the crochet front there was a slight anti climax when it finally dawned on me that the BB was well and truly finished. What's a girl to do??? Oh its obvious isn't it!! Start another one of course!! And thats a wee corner of it above there - I have to tell you that my inspiration for the colours in this one came from some photographs of Seville I'd been looking at. The whitewashed walls of the old houses were drenched with beautiful and vibrantly coloured flowers, and the juicy orange trees in the little squares quite inspired me! So upon realising I did not have any white wool, it was hurriedly purchased on Saturday in John Lewis (who have a splendid selection of Rowan at the moment, and 15p a ball cheaper than most of my favourite internet wool shops!! Hurrah!!)


New Blanket began in earnest on Saturday afternoon. The little squares are quite fast to do and I can easily whip a couple up in 10-15 mins while the pasta is bubbling on the hob! (I think this counts as obsessive crocheting doesn't it?)


Now today was meant to be an art day - but I had one of those rare and untimely moments of utter creative blockage. I sat and stared at the paper, meddled with some inferior sketches and scrunched it all up and threw it (mindfully) into the recycling bin.

The best thing to do when creative flow stops flowing in one particular medium, is to mess about with an entirely different one. I had a yen to crochet some more little squares, but I had to be strict with myself about that - today was Art Day, a whole day with Little Person at Nanny Mum's and so therefore it was a day designated for other things.


So I thought Id have a go at the Valentine's cards that the gallery had asked me to supply.
And I remembered that somewhere online, a month or so ago I had seen the most inspiring idea of sewing writing paper. Some of you may have seen this, and its brilliant - I can only apologise for not having a link to the original piece I saw but I thought Id try my own hand at it and embroider some little love notes to turn into cards...and here are a couple to show you!

...and this one here is a bit different, playing about with a heart theme...

I had tremendous fun making them and as I sewed, I had a couple of ideas for the character work I need to do for the Agency...Oh yes. I had a terrific email on friday, and it said that another couple of publishing houses had been pleased with my work and taken copies...and...asked to see character studies and line drawings! The character studies involve drawing the same little person/animal over and over in different positions, with various facial expressions. It is to show that I can create characters that would be recognisable throughout a whole book no matter what they were doing.


So that's what Im doing next. And line drawings, which as most of you will know are black ink on white paper usually.

Busy busy...as usual... :D

And so, to relax this weekend, despite the gloom and the cold we took off to Old Moor RSPB reserve and had a good walk around. Little Person was delighted to go into the bird hides and peep out through the windows. She didn't quite understand the concept of being quiet so as not to disturb the birds, and at one point announced quite loudly (and much to our amusement) that 'it would be quite nice to have a cup of tea in here!'

At which point we had to get out of the hide as we were laughing so much.

I was quite taken with the colours though. Faded browns and greys were predominant with the odd russet bull behind the reed beds giving the scene a warm burst of colour against the milky blue/grey sky.

As late afternoon approached, a large flock of geese came into land. We could hear them calling in that lonely distant way that they seem to have, darkly sillhouetted against the lilac clouds.

Before I go...its Award Time.

I was given this sunshine award by Louise Broomhead
and the rules state I have to pass it on to another 12 bloggers who are inspiring and delightful!
Well here I encounter a humungous problem. You are all inspiring and delightful. I can't bear to pick just 12 of you - its far too difficult. And so Im about to break blogging protocol and be very naughty.


I think you're all marvellous, you all bring me huge scoops of joy and inspiration and so I would like to invite each of you to take the award to your blog if it cheers you and proudly display it there - and if you wish to send it to 12 bloggers yourself then that would be lovely too!


Oh dear, am I terribly bad for doing that?

I hope the bloggers who do take this seriously will forgive me for being a little lame, but I honestly would struggle awfully trying to choose 12 favourites, when I have at least 120 favourites if not more...! (but then again, sharing sunshine with everyone seems to me to be a rather pleasant thing to do, especially in dreary January!)


Well, this was rather a long post! If you've got this far, well done!! Thank you for reading my ramblings today, and Im now off for a well deserved cup of hot tea and to sit down and do some character sketches.

See you all soon!!
Love Julia x x x