Wet & Windy...

 Poor blog, how I have neglected you this year!  I am still working on things I cannot show yet, mostly for Nudinits.  I have not painted in weeks, not sure why, perhaps life getting in the way and the subsequent lack of inspiration.  I have started a painting this week which has sparked my enthusiasm - during the summer the hop plant I planted took off like a rocket and smothered one side of our pergola.  One clear sunny day I spotted the pale lime green hops against the clear blue sky and loved the contrast between the colours, so photographed it for future reference.  I started to paint it in watercolours but it was all too small and fiddly and I lost interest, abandoning it not even half done.  This week I began again on a much larger Dalerboard and some bright acrylics - watch this space!

We went on a week's holiday to the Isle of Wight the first week of September.  Typically, summer chose that week to come to a crashing end with torrential rain and gale force winds.  We were staying in a wooden cabin by Calbourne Water Mill and for the first part of the week spent a lot of time staring out of the window at the trees thrashing in the wind (not a red squirrel in sight!) and praying for the rain to stop.  We did manage to dodge the showers long enough to have a couple of walks in the woods and to take my daughter for a hilarious game of crazy golf in the mill grounds.

 A cream tea at the mill cafe was definitely in order too.

The latter part of the week was dry and sunny so we did go to the seaside a couple of times - only to discover that dog friendly beaches were few and far between and the ban on dogs did not end until 30th September.  So no beach for us this time, which was a crying shame.

 But it was good to get away, visit with family,  and we came back home feeling refreshed and ready to get going again.

I shall try to post here more regularly from now on - hopefully I shall have more arts and crafts to show soon. 

  

The Holiday Let...

As soon as we found this rusty shack while exploring the countryside on the Isle of Wight, I knew I had to paint it.  So that is how I have spent the past couple of weeks, taking a break from bears and thoroughly enjoying the challenge of getting this right.  It is painted in watercolour, which can be a bit unforgiving if you make a mistake.  There was one area where I had been a little heavy handed with the masking fluid (I'm not telling you where!) and when it was removed I thought I had maybe ruined the whole picture.  But with a little work and a few touches of acrylic paint, you wouldn't know.

Apart from the building, I also enjoyed painting the little 'doorway' through the undergrowth into the next field, with the sun shining to illuminate it.  It makes you wonder what you would find if you followed the path...

This will be in my Etsy shop shortly once I have taken some decent photos of it in daylight.

Next up - back to bears...

Growing.....

The faux-fox stole is coming along nicely now - he just needs some back legs, his belly sewing up and a fastener.  Considering this began as one of those 'I could do better than that' moments after a glass of wine one evening, it's not come out too bad!  I have even written down the pattern as I went along just in case this needs repeating.  I'm in two minds now as to whether to put this one on Etsy and repeat it for the original gift (not until May) or to just keep it for the gift and make another one at a later date.  If you'd like one made for you, get in touch!

Ever since my parents died, over  fifteen years ago, I have been trying to get my hands on the family photograph albums as I had no pictures from my early childhood other than a couple of battered black & white baby photos.  One of my brothers had various boxes of memorabilia after their flat was cleared, one of which was brought to me a couple of years ago but it only contained the really old pictures of when my mother was a child - fascinating, but not what I was after.  This month my brother discovered another box stored in his loft and delivered it to me yesterday - jackpot!

This is the house I grew up in on the Isle of Wight - Debourne Manor, which dates back tothe 12th century and is mentioned in the Domesday Book.  We lived in half of it, but owned all the grounds which consisted of an orchard, vegetable garden, walled front garden, massive driveway & lawn, a pond and a couple of acres of woodland.  No, we weren't rich but my dad was a canny estate agent and I think this was either a bargain or some sort of deal!  It was a wonderful place to grow up and I spent most of my time outside wandering, making dens, fashioning my own bows and arrows, bothering wildlife, collecting flower petals for making paint or perfumes, collecting acorns and chestnuts for fairy meals, just returning home for meals.  On rainy days the house was big enough to explore, particularly the attic where I had a dolls house and could cut myself off from the outside world altogether. Do I need to say that the Narnia books were my favourites and I was always searching for that magic doorway!

It would seem that even then I enjoyed sitting in the sun with a good book and a dog at my feet - not much has changed in the past 40 years!

A cup of tea in the garden - nope, my tastes haven't changed there either.  Thankfully I don't have to wear tartan pinafores or get my hair cut by my scissor-happy mother any more, but I wouldn't mind a pair of those red Clarks sandals.

Now I face the gargantuan task of scanning 6 albums of photos and cataloging them all - that could take a while.

My tomatoes have finally poked their noses out of the soil - I was beginning to wonder if they were duff ones, but it has only been a week.

Cucmbers too.  On the other hand, marigolds, cosmos and a few of the other flower seeds are racing away.