Sleep Day 1

New month, new blog project: ) In my eternal quest to never again have a migraine, this month I am exploring whether increasing the amount of sleep I do has any effect. This is something I've not considered before, given my natural dormouse tendencies - I have no problem going to sleep, and generally do not wake in the night. Anyway, I thought "sleep" would keep my mind focussed! The first painting is of the household's sleep expert - my lovely cat :)

Happy Halloween

I made this Halloween banner for my Directory of Illustration portfolio!

Autumn gardening 10

The window box looks far better after a spot of painterly gardening! In my mind, it now has a neatly pruned  pink geranium (strictly a pelargonium I believe), which will most probably continue to flower for a while, and some bulbs all neatly tucked up in the potting compost ready for spring. Those of you with good memories will recognise the floral hand trowel from my spring gardening project: )

Autumn gardening 9

The window box is looking very tatty now, so time to tidy it, and maybe plant a few spring bulbs to grow alongside the geranium.

autumn gardening 7 and 8

This was the sight that greeted me when I opened the curtains this morning: snow! Unheard of in October in London. What was great was seeing the snow against the lovely yellow and orange autumn leaves for the first time.

I hate being cold, so after a brisk walk to enjoy the snow crisp air, dreaming about spring flowers in my warm living room seemed a good plan!  Pink tulips are a favourite : )

Illustration Friday - "Repair"

Rather late because I was away for the weekend! The illustration is based on repairing a fluffy bright pink beanbag for my niece in September - she was so pleased : )

Autumn gardening 6

The telephone comes in handy, too: my garden backs onto a railway line, and there is a serious problem with "invasion of the triffids", as a friend so eloquently put it! It is telling that Network Rail's automated call directing system has "vegetation" as an option. Anyway, they have now chopped back the mixture of sycamore tree, brambles, russian vine, and bindweed, etc which was overwhelming my garden.

Autumn gardening 5

A frequent visitor to my garden: a sleek, plump squirrel, who busies herself digging up the spring bulbs, and burying instead peanuts that I guess she has pinched from a bird feeder nearby!

Autumn gardening 4

Here is my third gardening prunings/sweepings bag. My virtual garden is far tidier than the real life version now!

Autumn gardening 3

There is such a lot of clearing to do in autumn that I use all of my garden waste collection receptacles! This one is a pretty, round and floral, and it  folds neatly into it's own cover for storage.

autumn gardening 2

There are heaps of clippings, prunings, cuttings, etc to do at this time of year. I am so pleased the local council collects the plant matter for turning into compost1

Autumn gardening 1 and the rest of autumn wardrobe

September flowers, or as they used to be known, michaelmas daisies, which very unfairly, I dislike intensely. They are a pretty flower, but to me symbolise the end of summer, which I hate!  I decided that I'd paint the counterpart to "spring gardening" that I did earlier this year  as my October blog project : )

This is the final image in "new autumn wardrobe", and is not so much "new" as newly renovated! It's my fabulous long black wool coat - very Victorian style - and I have had it re-lined this year. The woollen outer part was in fine condition, but the lining had disintegrated to the point that every time I moved, I heard a ripping sound. Luckily, my Dad knows someone who does that type of repair at a most reasonable price : )

Pink cord trousers are an essential staple in my autumn/winter wardrobe, and unfortunately my current pair is wearing threadbare now! I'll have to keep an eye on Per Una, since that is where they came from. Being quite long-legged, I often find difficulty getting trousers that fit.

Autumn wardrobe day 8

I've been a bit slack posting here, although I have done some more paintings. The truth is that living space is undergoing some improvements which mean that the scanner is temporarily quite difficult to get to! Hopefully, this state of affairs will be put right at the weekend. In the meantime, here is the lovely soft woollen beret I'd like to have. Unfortunately, the dreaded moth got my last one.

Autumn wardrobe day - the real thing

Here is the first of the lovely marine blue angora gloves that I am knitting! The painted vision appeared here as Day 3 of "new autumn wardrobe"

Autumn wardrobe day 7

Another lucky find in charity shop: enough creamy white mohair to knit a jumper or cardigan! I just need to decide which, and whether lacey or plainer. 

Some lovely new navy blue cotton socks, now the days are growing cooler.

Autumn wardrobe day 6

A lovely soft, warm woven wool scarf, to go with most of my clothes (not the jacket of many colours ; )). So far, I have not seen anything at all like this in my travels, although I have noted that Catherine Hayward is now making some gorgeous scarves: www.treacletoffee.blogspot.com and http://scatterboxtwo.blogspot.com.

Autumn wardrobe day 5

Here is another charity shop bargain: 10 p this time, for a very pretty blue rose hair tie. It reminds me a fairy story I vaguely recall from years ago about a quest to find a blue rose: something which does not yet exist in nature.

Autumn wardrobe day 4

New-to-me Mandarina Duck: a £1.00 bargain from a Traidcraft shop, which was easy to clean up. It is a great bag, with lots of compartments and room for sketchbook, etc.

I also like to have new gloves every year and as money is tight, I have loads of wool and can knit well, I decided to knit some in the round this autumn! The big plus is I can make them exactly how I want, from the lovely, dark marine blue angora.

Autumn wardrobe day 3

Some lovely summery-coloured, soft loose trousers to keep me warm when I do my yoga practice over the autumn and winter months to come : )

Autumn wardrobe day 2

The "jacket of many colours" as shown previously in a photo of me wearing it! It is a wonderful jacket - stylish, warm and goes with lots of my existing clothes.

The animation did not work - back to the drawing board

Somehow or other in making the animation - which did work - I've not succeeded in "saving" it! So it is back to the digital drawing board for me: all good practice.

I've been away in Yorkshire, staying with a sister and her family, which was delightful. Tomorrow, I will be back to my usual painting routine, and adding more "new autumn wardrobe" illustrations.

experiment to see if animation has worked

New Autumn Wardrobe day 1

I've decided to paint the counterpart to "new spring wardrobe" as my blog project for September! 'Starting with my gorgeous new blue suede shoes, which I love to look at, but have not yet taken to wearing as that will mean putting away my beloved Mephisto sandals for the year, and admitting that summer really has departed for 2008.

New storage

As mentioned in the Illustration Friday "clutter" post, I am having a blitz on improving storage in my flat, and was helped on Sunday by finding this chest of drawers in the street! The first photo shows pretty much how it looked when I spotted it. The second one is the result of some elbow grease and polish. I could make a new drawer front for the top drawer, but I quite like the symmetry of the open shelf at top and bottom. My plan is to use these drawers to store the knitting, and needlepoint kit.

More money + more fave food

A "lucky penny" is the one you find in the street! I've found money in the street so frequently that one year I logged it all: in 2006 I found a total of £8.61. When I find a coin, I often think of the phrase "London's streets are paved with gold".

Smoked salmon and cream cheese bagel = comfort food on the go for me!

Illustration Friday - "Clutter"

This week's Illustration Friday topic of "clutter" rang bells for me. It's quite tricky to visually differentiate between untidy mess, and the feeling of oppression from being surrounded by stuff and materials, etc for projects being worked on!  In fact, I am having an autumn cleaning and re-arranging of storage blitz.

Sunday evening

I've sadly neglected my blog for the past week or so, although I do have some new paintings to post! Fact is, I was ill for a good week with virus, etc, so not had much energy for doing basic stuff like scanning. Fortunately, I am almost completely recovered now : ) 

I have also bought a fab new jacket for the autumn!

Then today I found a pine chest of drawers on the street, so I am going to be doing some minor repairs and cleaning, then using it for storing my knitting and sewing kit and projects.

Music Festival day 15, and another money image

At festivals, I mostly drink water and fruit juice so that I don't become de-hydrated and headachey, but it is nice to have a hot drink from time to time. Freshly ground black coffee is my favourite of what is on offer. One of the first things I do at a festie is scout out the stall which makes the best coffee! The cakes look delicious too, for later on.

"The king is in his counting house,

Counting out his money" from the nursery rhyme "Sing a Song of Sixpence": this particular image has always sounded very lonely and sad to me, so that is what I have tried to show here.

favourite foods encore

I've never been able to decide between peaches and raspberries for my ultimate favourite fruit! I love to eat both, so this would be my ideal summer dessert: beautiful, sun-ripened peach from the south of France with juicy, sweet deep red raspberries from Kent : )

Music Festival day 14, and another money image

This is singer Aayjemaal painted from a sketch I made of her at Womad 2004.  Aayjemaal and her band were performing traditional music from Turkmenistan. It is the opportunity to see performers like Aayjemaal which makes Womad such a special music festival. : )

Another "money" image: my Dad is treasurer for a local organisation.  One of Dad's colleagues regularly presents him with an old (clean) sock full of loose change as a donation to the charitable fund!

Music Festival day 13, more food and money

One of the nice things about music festivals is the children: this little girl was dancing in  front of the band, then bowing at the end of each song!

Lemon sorbet is my favourite ice cream: I had some last week when out with my cartoonist friend, Chichi

  

Another money idea! There is something more real about holding cash, than looking at bank statements.

Music Festival day 12

Portaloos are an essential and unavoidable part of the music festival experience! Usually not pleasant, but thanks to Tracey's Hygiene Crew, toilets at Womad  Charlton Park this year were kept very clean and user-friendly : )

Music Festival day 11 + more food

A mobile phone has proved to be a very helpful addition to regular music festival kit: strictly not for making/receiving phone calls (you can't hear each other anyway), but having the means to text to make arrangements about where to meet is very helpful eg main stage, between disable viewing ramp and the mixing desk : )

Borscz aka beetroot soup. Hardly seasonal, but a huge winter favourite! I love eating beetroot anyway, and soup with sunflower seed bread and butter is wonderful : )

Music Festival day 10

I always carry sketchbook and pen with me, and there are times at music festivals when I want to sketch what is going on. Generally this will be in time between bands, although in the case here, the man on the right was watching Paprika Balkanicus. 

Music Festival day 9

There is a wide variety of food to choose from! 

Often in the evening I get a mediterranean stir fry from the wonderful Manic Organic. Their food is great, and I love the way they pretty up the guy lines, etc of their marquee with silk flowers : )

 I'm off to Womad now, so it will be a few days before the next images.

Music Festival day 8

Who to see perform next? There is such a wealth of good music to choose from - inevitably also some time clashes! In this fantasy programme, I'd find it very hard to choose between seeing Neneh Cherry and Ernest Ranglin - in fact, if the stages are close enough together, I'd be tempted to watch half of each set.  By the way, the action currently on stage is roadies moving equipment around, preparing for the next artists.

The blank time slots in the programme present ideal opportunities to get something to eat..

Music Festival day 7

Watching the first band! My friends and I generally like to sit/stand very close to the mixing desk because the sound is best from there. This means we are never at the front.  Over the weekend, I went to two music festivals: this image is an amalgamation of things I saw at both. One of the festivals was http://www.london.gov.uk/rise/.

I've been having problems working out how to make links, but may have just succeeded! So hopefully, this will take you to my website:

http://www.clare-tovey.com/. 

Music Festival day 6

The next activity is to study the programme, and work out which performers we definitely want to see - hoping for no performance time clashes! Plus which artistes we might like to see at times no "must sees" are on stage.

By the way, today I have given my blog a shiny new header : )