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!