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 : )