Holey-Moley

Just one week to make, a nice summer sweater for me...and yes, it is supposed to have runs in it, I didn't drop stitches willy-nilly!

If you like my necklace, it was made by Sybille at Magpie Magic a while back just for me - I simply adore it and wear it a lot.

Shop Update

These two sets have been knocking around for weeks now, just waiting for me to get my act together and make them a couple of food bowls & some toys. I'm afraid I got a bit sidetracked knitting myself summer sweaters instead - whoops!


This is the smallest cat have made so far - he's a mere 3 inches tall on his tippy-toes. He is knitted in some lovely soft sock yarn and has 'proper' cat eyes. He has a hand-sewn felt bed lined with the cutest Japanese cat print fabric plus a bowl, can of food and a toy mouse.


This little bruiser is larger at 5 inches tall - you've seen him and his skull & crossbones coat before, but now he has a smart knitted bed and blanket, a bowl and a couple of toys.

Both sets are now going in to my Etsy shop.

I have finished the raggedy knitted t-shirt.......but I can't photograph it until it is dry and that is never going to happen if it doesn't stop raining!


Ooh, while we're at it, don't forget the witch's cat giveaway - one more week before the draw so if you'd like to win the wicked little cat above, click here and leave a comment.

Things To Do When You're Home Alone....

This summer has been the first ever where my daughter has had her arranged activities continue throughout the holidays. As a result, I have been given the luxury of two days a week to myself - it's been great! Today, I did this......


This little cupboard has been on the wall for years but was plain wood and dusty and shabby compared to my new bookshelves. So I have spruced it up with a couple of coats of white paint, some cute ribbon (no gingham, Midge, no gingham!) and now it fits right in with the rest of the room. I also did this.......


The shelf is another reject from the re-furbished dining area - it used to be blue. Some more white paint, then moved to a corner of the bathroom with one of my prize shells and a hastily improvised little garland of cockles & sea-glass on string. Thank goodness for my little Dremmel and it's drill bit.

I did a spot of this......


...planting out some bright orange pansies to replace the tired looking petunias in my wall pots.

I've walked this.......


Now here's a view of my dog you won't see very often - completely cream-crackered ( it's rhyming slang......) and panting after a very exciting walk with a lively lady black labrador who really got him running and playing for the first time in ages. I don't think we'll hear much from him for the rest of the day!

And now I'm going to do some of this......



...followed by a bit of drawing. Bliss!

One Fish, Two Fish, Dead Fish, Blue Fish

Apologies to Dr. Seuss! The other day I bought some bream for our supper the next day. They were so pretty that I suddenly remembered a Japanese artist's work I had seen on a blog whereby he had made fantastic prints using dead fish. I thought I'd have a go........


First I prepared some sheets of paper by laying down a pale turquoise watery wash.


One one of them I laid a couple of sheets of cling film and allowed the paint to dry - it's a great technique for creating a watery texture.


Then I washed the fish, patted it dry and proceeded to paint it with a diluted Indanthrene Blue acrylic mix. Rather than press the fish on the paper, I pressed the paper on the fish, grateful that the previous washes had left the paper more pliable.


I made several sheets of prints and this was about the best one - luckily it was on the cling-film textured sheet. It was all a bit disappointing - I think the trick the Japanese artist had was to use a larger fish with more defined scales.


Finally, when it was all dry, I used indigo watercolour to go around the outlines and emphasize various features - fins, a few scales, eyes. I also brought out the lovely flowing shapes of the background with a deeper turquoise mix and a little indigo.

It's not exactly what I had in mind, but was a fun experiment - don't think it will be repeated however.

We didn't eat this particular fish you'll be glad to know! The ones we did eat were delicious.

Now what's that funny smell............

Shady Swan

Almost every Sunday (when the car park is free) my daughter and I take the week's bread leftovers and go and feed the swans and geese up at Fleet Pond. It's usually a bit of a bun-fight with feathers flying and many a squawk. After they'd finished last week and started to disperse, I got some nice photos of a lone swan that followed us as we walked along the path. I've spent the past week painting it in watercolours. As always, what seemed simple ended up being a lot more complicated - those reflections needed a great deal of thought and planning out! The colours in real life are richer than in the photo - no matter what lighting conditions I used, I just couldn't get it correct.

I tried printing with a dead fish yesterday......more on that another day if I can make something out of my slightly dubious results....

Gone But Not Forgotten...

For the past week, the old wall unit from my kitchen has been blocking our hallway - I tried very hard to donate it to charity but to no avail. Apparently, these units are ten a penny and nobody wants them any more. So after seven days of having to sidle sideways in and out of the house, and do a diagonal shuffle to get into the downstairs loo, we broke the darn thing up and it is now a stack of kindling awaiting a trip to the tip. Behind the unit on the hall wall (I am going somewhere with this!) are several paintings that have been up there for years. After dropping & breaking one while wrestling with the unit, upon re-framing it and hanging it back up there, I realised this wall is a bit of a memorial to dead pets!


First as you come in the door is a little acrylic I painted of Jasper in a typical pose. As a terrier, he was obsessed with chasing small (and large!) furry creatures. Can you find the squirrel?


Next is a watercolour I painted of Jasper and our first saluki, Luke, on one of our favourite walks. This is a path behind our house which takes you past an overgrown pond and on to a couple of fields that have lain fallow for as long as we've lived here. Great for doggy exploration as it is teeming with wildlife. This is not a particularly good watercolour but it evokes such happy memories that I love to look at it.


This is a self-portrait I painted over 12 years ago - I can tell that by the fact I only have one dog and still have my conure! I entered this in the BP Portrait exhibition - didn't get selected, but the six months it took me to paint were invaluable in experience. Working from a mirror is extremely hard, as well as putting the animals in as obviously they weren't going to take part in sittings! I think the bits I enjoyed painting the most were the hands (so difficult but yet so satisfying) and getting the fabric on the sofa right. I don't like the very stern expression on my face - it's hard not to frown when concentrating that hard!

I don't have the conure any more either - I had to bow down to family pressure (they were fed up with his noise & getting bitten) and give him away to a friend's husband who kept aviaries. I thought he would be the safest new owner for my little parrot - how mistaken was I! He thought it a good idea to play Long John Silver around the house with the parrot on his shoulder.....he also thought the bird would stay there if he took a walk down the garden. Bizarrely, when talking to a fellow dog walker several months after the bird's escape, she mentioned a little green parrot that landed in her garden during the previous summer - it was indeed him, but she had been unable to catch him as he bit her and flew away. I wonder how long into the winter he survived?


And this has nothing to do with the above, it is just a selection of some of what I have managed to grow in the garden this year. Not in any great quantity however, but if all the tomatoes ripen at once we could be in for a glut.

On the needles at the moment - a 'raggedy' t-shirt, which looks terrific on the model in the magazine but will probably elicit remarks such as 'did you know you've snagged your jumper?' when I wear it.
On the easel - a watercolour swan with a myriad of reflections & leaves.


Don't forget to enter my giveaway for the witch's cat if you haven't done so already - still another fortnight to go until the draw.

...Wish Me Luck As You Wave Me Goodbye.....

After my disappointment earlier in the week, I made the snap decision to enter a couple of paintings in the national Society of Wildlife Artists exhibition up in London at the Mall Galleries. I have only entered this exhibition once before over ten years ago, was rejected and did not have a good experience at a critique afterwards when I was publicly humiliated by the head honcho who told me I should get myself a little sketchbook and try making some sketches of my cat - did I have a cat? - after watching Eastenders......patronising or what? This left me very apprehensive of ever trying again as I felt I just wasn't ever going to be good enough. However, this man is no longer in charge, I am older and wiser and if I don't try, how can I ever get my work accepted?

So, I framed up the above in the space of an hour - for once everything went really well, no stray dog hairs, no slips of the hand while cutting the mount, and above all, no smashing the glass while wrestling it into place - and I'm good to go. Keep your fingers crossed for me - at least they won't be chucking me out because my name begins with B!!