Organising Knitting day 3

This is a cute cropped cardigan, using some fabulous Noro wool yarn. So far I have knitted the back, and cast on the left front side. 'Not bad progress, since the yarn was only given to me about ten days ago! Oh yes, and I am knitting this project on a circular needle - less possibility of dropping stitches making it this way.

gardening project 2009 day 8

I bought these lush-looking petunia plants at the farmers market : ) It will be a surpise when they flower, because I do not know their colour! They are destined to be added to the window box alongside the pink and red perlagoniums.

Organising knitting day 2

This pretty bag was knitted from cotton ribbon last year. Then I lined it with some vibrant cotton fabric printed with dolphins, etc. The project got stalled when I decided that the natural colour wooden plaited handles I had purchased with the yarn simply did not go with the bag! Last week I bought some clear acrylic ones, which will look great : )

Elderflower tea

Inspired by the hermitage's wonderful description of elderflower fritters, here is my recipe for elderflower tea: Take a couple of huge heads of elderflowers from a Gloucestershire garden. Remove insects. Put into a paper bag, preferably brown, and hang in an airing cupboard until the flowers have completely dried out, and begun to fall from their stalks. Store in a pretty tin or glass jar. Boil some fresh water. Put a few of the dried flowers into a much loved china cup. Pour the boiling water over the flowers. Watch the flowers gradually unfold, and the brew turn bright yellow. Sip slowly and enjoy! I love the memories of early summer this evokes in the depth of winter.

June - Organising my knitting day 1

Joining the wonderful on-line resource that is ravelry has encouraged me to finally sort out and organise all my half-knitted projects! I thought it would be fun to do this by identifying one a day, and painting a tiny illustration of it for my blog, so here is the first. 

In fact, this is a new project: I realised at the Stitch and Bitch London meeting last week, that I need to have a simple project on the go for when I am chatting and knitting! I am making a gorgeous raspberry pink bolero cardigan from a Marion Foale pattern that I had saved from years ago: )

gardening project 2009 day 7

The long cold winter killed off some of my perlagoniums, so it was easy to be tempted by these beauties at the farmers market yesterday: )

Animals and ankles

I painted this bat and dog for a children's illustration competition recently: there were nearly 1,000 entries apparently, so odds of being short-listed are very tiny, but I did have all the fun of painting the three pages for my entry, and they are good additions to my portfolio : ).

The connection with ankles is that I am recovering from spraining my left ankle very badly, so am envious of the bat's ability to fly, and the dog's confident ready to play stance! It continues to be interesting to note the healing progress, and move through life at a slower pace, paying careful attention to how much movement my ankle can bear at any one time. Ice packs and arnica have proved very helpful, too.  The key this weekend seems to be to do a little involving standing/walking, then rest again with my ankle propped up. Thank goodness for the football cup final on tv yesterday, and knitting! This afternoon I am off out to watch the London Roller Girls being filmed for Blue Peter : )

CPSIA petition

Hi,
I wanted to draw your attention to this important petition that I recently signed:
"Re-Think the CPSIA"
http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/rethinkthecpsia?e
I really think this is an important cause, and I'd like to encourage you to add your signature, too. It's free and takes less than a minute of your time.
Thanks!

Blue gloves update

The lovely blue angora gloves were languishing half-made, but thanks to joining the wonderful Stitch n Bitch London last week, needles are being wielded again. It is brilliant knitting with other knitters : )

Gardening project 2009 days 5 and 6

The promised paintings : )

Sadly neglected blog

Hello again! Life has been extremely hectic for the past almost four weeks: a couple of illustration deadlines which required a lot of time spent painting. Me and my home are showing the signs of neglect now, so it is great to have a day to catch up! The good news is that I found some empty paint containers : ) The seeds have yet to be sown, so the vegetables will be late summer varieties. Paintings to be posted later.

Gardening project 2009 day 4

I'm hoping to find some trade-size empty emulsion paint containers: they would be perfect for growing salad leaves!

My plan is to paint the outside of the containers with left over emulsion paint;  pierce drainage holes in the bottoms, and spray the outside with WD40. Apparently, this works to deter slugs and snails!

Gardening project 2009 day 3

I will be buying some small bags of potting compost (peat free, of course), to start the seeds off. It will be small bags because that's all I can carry on foot and the bus! Hopefully, I will be posting here regularly again from now on: I am still amazed at how having a nasty cold affected my ability to paint last week. It would appear that I do technical things when I am painting that I am no longer conscious of - assessing whether the painting is dry enough for the next layer, etc ; )

Gardening project 2009 day 2

I need some large tubs/pots for the lettuce growing, and funds are tight, so I am keeping a weather eye on skips!  Today I am puzzling over why the cold which ambushed me on Monday afternoon has affected my ability to paint: in fact, I have been working on this picture for three days, and the paint, brushes, etc have not been behaving themselves properly. Mysterious.

Gardening project 2009

This is the first painting from my new blog project: gardening 2009! Over the Easter weekend I began tidying my tiny garden, with a particular eye to growing some vegetables and tomatoes this year. I eat vast quantities of salad leaves all year round, but have been previously deterred from growing my own by the way slugs demolish tasty plants in my garden, and my dislike of using poisons to control them because of the effect on the wildlife.  A friend passed on a tip she was given at the allotments: grow salad leaves in a tub which has had the sides sprayed with WD40! So, I am going to give this a try. 

daffodils

This morning I went back to the park to see the daffodils which have now replaced the crocuses under the trees : ) I do love spring.

Still spring cleaning!

Work life took an unexpectedly busy turn, so I am still spring cleaning! The good news is that builders next door have completed their work, so I am now enjoying being at home again : ) 'Looking forward to getting back to some serious painting, too.

Spring Cleaning

Spring has arrived in London, as evidenced by my photo of beautiful crocuses under the trees in Waterlow Park : ) I love spring, and how days are growing lighter, and plants are waking up, plus the intermittent sunshine. The latter has prompted me to embark on much-needed spring cleaning! The plus side of cleaning and tidying is finding again things I'd mislaid like Ladysnail's delightful green lion postcard print : )

Rock and Roll

I'm still learning how to use Painter. This is a piece of work in progress that I am having fun with at the moment. Today, I discovered how to use the text palette!

Introducing Crufc : )

This little chap is a present I've knitted for someone very special. This humpty's name is Crufc because he is sporting the colours of a particular rugby club ; ) Since I last posted photos of humpties, I have been working out how to knit them with fewer seams to sew up afterwards, and have at last come up with a good method for making the legs!

New yarn, new shoots

In my travels by bus last week I spotted a knitting wool shop which looked very interesting, and I was looking for some black and some red yarn for a very special humpty, so yesterday I paid the shop a visit. It is real gem: a real old-fashioned needle craft shop in the most unlikely road. I found the yarns I was looking for, plus an amazing fluorescent green - it truly is almost luminous, although this is not evident from the photo!  Then today I walked through Waterlow Park, and spotted this shrub with gorgeous red shoots of new growth next to a pink hellebore: spring is truly arrived : )

Collages and bureacracy

This month has boringly been largely consumed by bureaucracy. The good news is that come April, my accounts will be ready for Taxman!

Something more pleasurable that I have also been grappling with are "the sun and grasses and flowers" collages made from prepared water colour papers. The first one I did last year, and was not at all happy with the depth of the colours, or my skill with scissors! After I switched to using tubes of water colour paint, I decided to try again, and the other two are the result. 

cheeky girl and dragon

It's great to be regularly painting again: it feels to me like 2009 starts here! The cheeky girl is up to mischief in the snow - I wonder who will be the target for her snowballs? The dragon and dragonfly clefs are growing in my mind's eye, too :)

Snow

The views from a couple of the windows in my flat. It is very unusual to have such deep snow around here: there must be 8" or so, as you can see from by comparing the depth of snow on the wall with the gate post! In the back yard, snow has buried my Xmas tree.

Chinese dragons!

Today I went out to photograph the fabulous red lanterns I'd spotted in China Town, and came across dragon dancers celebrating the Chinese New Year of the Ox.

Cheeky girl and re-establishing work ethic

The wretched flu completely interrupted my plans for January, including painting. Usually, I start my working day with two hours painting, which is a great way to make sure I don't put painting - my favourite - to the end of my daily "to do" lists!  I did not want January 2009 to be the month that I do no painting at all, and feel massively better this morning, so I have painted this cheeky young lady. She is licking her lips looking at cake, and wrapped up very warmly against the icy cold of the snowy street. I am also painting my first dragon!

Here be dragons

I'm a huge fan of fantasy and SF, and have a small collection of dragons, but have not drawn dragons myself before. These three have appeared in my sketchbook over the past few days, and I am excited about them: I do think they have potential for further development, possibly for greetings cards, or maybe even a story, given that that they count dragonfly clefs amongst their friends! What do you think? I'd be interested to hear : )

21st January update

Hi again. I am so almost better, and am very pleased to be drawing again : ) I am also in the process of setting up an etsy shop for selling cards and humpties, so watch this space! 

In the meantime, my lovely pal, illustrator Sarah Miskelly, has just set up her new etsy shop selling gorgeous and cute plushies. Do take a peek!

Plans

Well, I have had the flu which delayed somewhat my start to painting this year. 'Almost better now, and today I washed palette, dusted my painting desk, and cleared some viewing shelf space for lovely new work : ).  It feels so odd to have not painted for about 3 weeks - I'm looking forward to wielding a paintbrush again tomorrow, and I have some gum arabic to add to the mix as an experiment!

Rose scarf is mine

Here I am wearing Catherine Hayward's fabulous rose scarf which I was lucky enough to be given for xmas by my brother and his family : ) (Those of you with long memories will recall that it was on my wish list )

I'm looking forward to seeing what wonderful new creations will appear this year on Treacle Toffee.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! I've begun 2009 with a lurgy, so it will be day or so before more paintings appear here.

Secret Santa

Here are my fabulous Secret Santa gifts : )  Someone has clearly noted well my passion for stationery, and for using water colours!  The little pink cherry blossom notepad has the  palest pink branches printed throughout, while the vibrant sunflower tin contains water colour pencils and will fit neatly into the back pocket of my handbag : ) 

Xmas tree

I've been away from here for a while: I had not allowed at all for the fact that this December marked the tenth anniversary of the death of someone who had been very dear to me, plus what would have been his birthday, and that I would as a consequence find myself grappling ghosts metaphorically and in my dreams for much of the month. 

Anyway, today is the  winter solstice, and I have marked it as usual by decorating my christmas tree : ) I'm looking forward to the days growing longer again, and getting back to my sketchbook and that wacom tablet!

Advent Calendar Day 5

Today's mince pie is still work in progress, even though it is partly eaten!  I'll finish it off tomorrow - the digi painting that is - when I'm less tired, so eye and hand co-0rdination should hopefully be better ; )

Advent Calendar Day 4

Inspired by the news of heavy snowfalls in the north: ) My snowman is "forever blowing bubbles" ; )

Mainly for my own benefit, I'm going to include notes of how I did these. Today I began to discover special types of water colour layers to play with. Again, this started off with digital 2b pencil on the canvas, some of which I erased later on. It was followed by various layers of digital water colour, including the first which I used "wet entire layer" on. This is the layer with the snow laden sky, and palest pink tinged snow. The Hammers scarf and hat were painted on two separate layers to stop the colours mixing! 'Makes a change for having to wait patiently for paint to dry; )

advent Calendar Day 3

'Not sure I'm improving yet ;) 

Advent Calendar Day 2

A small person has hung their Xmas stocking very early! 

My friend Catherine has made a delightful wish list on her blog: www.treacletoffee.blogspot.com! 'Some of her favourite items on etsy.  This scarf Catherine has made is on my wishlist: rose scarf  : )

Advent Calendar Day 1

For my advent calendar this year I'm going to try something a little different: I've set myself the challenge of making a seasonal image each day using my trusty Wacom pen and tablet and Painter! I've had these tools for quite a while now, but not spent the time really practising to become adept with them, so each time I pick them up it feels to me like starting anew. Anyway, the challenge of producing something new for here everyday in throughout advent seems a good way in : ). Oh, and I am sure I will be posting some "real" watercolours here, too! 

Sleep Day 5

Finally got flat back into workable order! So, can get back to painting : )

He is sleeping in on a Saturday morning: I'm really envious because I'm unable to stay asleep once it is daylight, unless I'm ill.

Furniture moving

Hi - I am very busy at the moment moving furniture around in my flat to install a plans chest! This is very exciting: I had been looking out for a compact plans chest to store water colour paper, paints, etc, etc for quite a few years, then came across a lovely one 10 days ago. Physically getting it into my flat has been an interesting challenge - not least because the cupboard used as an interim measure for the storage of said water colour paper could not be collected until today, and the plans chest was delivered on Saturday. So the past week has been a saga of moving furniture, contents of cupboard, etc around, and a consequence is that space and time for painting has not been easy to find, not to mention the scanner usually lives on top of cupboard/plans chest, so has also not been usable! Anyway, today should see getting my flat back into good working order.

Sleep Day 4

Babies have the wonderful option of being able to sleep anywhere!  I really envy this one, who is all tucked up in the baby stroller, and clutching a favourite toy, possibly even one made or painted by my lovely pal, Gretel: www.allaroundus.blogspot.com.

Shameless plug for Distorted Loop!

Distorted Loop is a fab blog by my pal, Jonny: http://distorted-loop.com/ He always has the latest news about digital media tools (iphone, that type of thing), plus some fab interviews with interesting musicians like Banco Da Gaia, The Charlatans, Peter Gabriel. Enjoy!

Sleep Day 3 and something completely different

Fortunately for me, I rarely see the clock in the small hours because I am generally asleep. I feel sorry for folks who suffer from insomnia - very debilitating I understand, and frustrating. Whereas when I do find myself awake in the middle of the night I tend to think of it as bonus reading time!

It's yonks since I have drawn anything of like this! Artpen work today for texture practice for a course I am doing.

Sleep Day 2

One thing to entice me to bed earlier in winter is furry hot water bottle : ). 

Only the second day of more sleep, and I am definitely feeling benefits, not least that I've had to cut down on my workaholic behaviour so that I have time for life! 

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 :)