Busy Summer...

 At the beginning of the summer I received a very sweet commission - to knit replicas of a couple and their rescue collie, Brogan.  I thought it would not take long...how wrong I was!  Work suddenly took a busy turn and I had to squeeze knitting these in to any spare time I had...which was not much.

 However, we got there in the end and the family is now complete, ready to go to their real counterparts.

Another commission, one of a pair of small watercolour flower paintings.

Work has really stacked up this year - not complaining, but I need to either give up sleep or take on an assistant!

Bonnie

Bonnie is now complete and ready to go off to her new home.  I have used Derwent Drawing pencils for this on Canson pastel paper, using the reverse side of the paper to minimise texture.  This time I used gouache for the white highlights of the chest fur rather than my usual acrylic - a bit of an experiment.  I found that gouache gave a softer effect which suited this painting, but was not great for using pencil over. Swings and roundabouts - luckily I didn't need to go over with pencil very much on this occasion.

The Object Of My Affections...

I may possibly be in love...with a pencil sharpener.  For years I have been buying my battery operated sharpeners from the local stationers and while they were good enough, they never seemed to last.  They were also very greedy, chewing up my expensive pencils like they were licorice sticks.  My last sharpener barely made it through a year before getting a piece of pigment stuck and then never working right again. 

Yesterday I got the new sharpener in the post - I promise I am not getting commission from Derwent, but it is one of theirs and I am completely emtranced.  It has four pencil widths, two sharpness settings, and - get this - a setting for an extra long, sharp point.  It even sharpens at the optimum angle for minimum pencil wastage. As I sat there re-sharpening the pencils I have been using for the current dog portrait, I just kept exclaiming 'wow!'.

So I can now continue this picture secure in the knowledge that there will be no more innaccurate lines due to blunt pencil points, no inadvertently spoiling work already done by using a woefully clumsy drawing tool.

But first I have to bake a tardis cake - shame there isn't a machine to do that for me!

Long-Legged Maurice

Maurice the Moorhen is finally complete - what a steep learning curve this has been!  It's the first time I have had to design a plush toy from scratch and I'm really happy it turned out as well as it did.  The feet were a nightmare!  I sewed the felt so carefully but then had to turn all those long thin toes inside out before stuffing them - incredibly fiddly and took about half an hour for each foot.  It was a matter of gently trying to turn each toe within itself before carefully inserting forceps and trying to nab that little point without destroying it!

But with perseverance, I got there in the end.  Moorhens are funny birds - look at the length of those legs! Now I have to do it all over again but with wire legs.

On the easel at the moment - Bonnie, a commission.  She's (sorry, was :0( ) a gorgeous looking dog with lots of lovely coloured long hair, so I am thoroughly enjoying this one. Once again, I am using Derwent Drawing Pencils on the reverse side of pastel paper.

On the needles, another ram scarf, Dr. Who, and something I wish I could show you because it is hilarious but I can't!

My tomato seeds have not sprouted yet - over at Soggibottom they are well on their way. I wish I knew her secret!

Give a Dog a Home!

This little chap is now up for sale in my Etsy shop - I hope he can find himself a good home now his dreams of being a film star have been dashed....

Very soon it will be my 1000th post - good grief!  I am planning to hold a giveaway - not too sure what the gift will be yet, watch this space!

Let It Snow......

...no, please don't!  I'm not a big fan of snow, despite it being so pretty.  It's all very well if you have nothing better to do, but when you have to go to work, get the shopping (carried the week's fruit and veg home from the market in a rucksack this morning - good job I'm a sturdy lady!) and walk the dog, quite frankly I could do without it.

Luckily the dog decided today that he quite liked it - yesterday he went on strike during both walks due to severe problems with ice-balls forming under his feet.  Not a happy boy at all!

Today was different though, with the overnight temperatures freezing the surface of the snow, so he managed a good run and some exploration.  I'm sure we saw Mr.Tumnus down here somewhere....

Maybe not!

Lots of pretty dried seed heads against the snow - everything has a blue tinge to it as this was very early in the morning, with the sun just coming up over the horizon.

Still, all this cold does give us the excuse to have some of this after our exertions - hot chocolate and raspberry sponge, yum!

There have been some shenanigans on the sofa too - cheeky pups!

Collie-wobbles......

Hey you!  What are you doing up on the sofa?  Off you go.....

...that's right, get down now.

I said 'get down' not 'lie down'!

Oh come on, now you are just being silly.....

...no, I don't want to play and no, you are not cute!

OK, yes you are cute, but it's no use giving me puppy eyes - off!

This little guy was a prototype for the animated film but half way through knitting him I remembered that I should not use yarn that is very fluffy or it will produce the KingKong effect when filmed in stop frame - obvious fingermarks!  But I completed him anyway, as I needed to see what the markings would look like and how to do his feet in a slightly different way.  Whilst he won't be starring in a movie, I am sure once he has some accessories and is put in my Etsy shop he will find a good home with someone who won't care how fluffy he is!

Instead of messing about with toy dogs, I should really be getting on with this...

...but I'm having trouble.  It's been planned for so long that I think the execution of it is just not measuring up to the vision I had in my head.  Either that or it's a bad case of the winter blahs.  Whatever it is, I'm not 'feeling it'.  It will get finished regardless - again, perhaps someone out there will like it better than I do right now.