Hello :)There is rather an exciting 'something' happening in my crochet bag. My gorgeous new wool supply is rapidly becoming a gorgeous Rainbow Ripple blanket (henceforth known as RR). Ive even splurged on a couple of extra colours, a lighter shade of green to balance out the darker olive shade (I wasn't too happy with it sitting on its own in such a dark manner!), and a bright blue. These will be added to the ripply layers that follow.
Oh my goodness, its so nice to crochet ripples though, after many moons of creating grannies that needed 4 colours or more its a pleasure to glide up and down these little ripply hills with no need for changing wool shade every few minutes. Which makes it quite a fast thing to do, and ulitmately very relaxing (although you must stay on the ball with your counting, several times Ive cocked up and had to undo a whole row!!)
We are really feeling spring here in fits and starts now - starting to notice that the evenings are lighter for just a little longer which is heaven, and then there is an occasional 'feel' in the air when the sun shines that makes you suddenley very happy and heart skippy. The irises in my green pot outside the back door have produced their first beautiful flower, and Im called to filling jam jars and the like with outrageously bright tulips!
I can't choose a favourite flower as I like so many, but these do bring a much needed shot of colour into the house after such a long, cold and dreary winter. Just the tonic I think!Another necessary tonic in our home is of course, chocolate. Its a staple food here as much as bread and potatoes are!! And how tempting are the shops right now with their shimmering pink and red foil wrapped delights, all dolled up for Valentine's Day! I couldn't help myself, two little bags of caramel hearts found their way home with me the other day, I was completely seduced by them!!
I think with the days getting gradually longer, and a chat with a friend yesterday about holidays it was only a matter of time before I got seriously thinking about where we might take ourselves this year. Serendipitously, my copy of Coast magazine appeared with the post (a timely visual treat) and a visit to the library to return the Little One's book stash resulted in me finding the Time Out book of the Seaside, now thats a nice book to get your hands on - its crammed full of all the best beaches in the UK and the pictures and descriptions are fantastic! Needless to say I am now spoilt for choice, the South West beckons, yet so does the Norfolk coast, the Gower and Northumberland...Scotland looks as wild and as beautiful as the Caribbean in some photographs and the Isle of Wight conjures up some wonderful nostalgia from the time we lived there for a couple of months one hot and splendid summer...Anyway, as I was flicking through Coast, my eye caught sight of this photograph...spot the crocheted granny blanket in the corner! I love this little room, leading out onto a tiny garden!
Meanwhile, on the art front...Oh goodness, time is slipping away from me at the speed of sound these days. I am making slow progress at the moment with my painting, although the character is ready in all her guises in my sketchbook. Ive done a couple of paintings of naughty Mo so far, this one is almost finished and the minx is clearly running away from some grave misdeed judging by the crafty look on her face! I just need to tweak a few bits, add a bit more depth and detail here and there and the background needs playing about with too. But you can get the gist of her now I think.
This weekend Ive got a few hours grace to work on these properly, so the images will be all packaged up and heading South in a few days. It's the Bologna Book Fair in March too, so Ive also got to make a mini portfolio of my illustrations to send to the Agency so they can take some examples of my work with them when they go. I wish I could make myself small enough to travel with them!! :D
Anyway, Im off to visit a few of your blogs now - cup of tea on the table and a nice chocolate brownie baked by me and the Little Miss! Thank you to all of you who have stopped by, its always lovely to see you! Do leave me a little note if you like and I'll make sure I pop by your blog to say hello!
Have a magical weekend, filled with sparkling surprises and love!
Julia x
