Bet & Gambler

Here is the double horse portrait completed - a pair of carriage horses apparently. This has been painted/drawn using Derwent Drawing Pencils and acrylic bodypaint. Although enjoyable, this picture required a lot of preparation as it involved several photographs of various sizes and clarity which had to be made into one composition as well as correcting the 'wobbly lip' on the left hand horse.

It has now gone on it's way with a happy customer, so I must have pulled it off!

So I can enjoy a day off before starting on the next horse - a slightly unusual looking fellow which should be a lot of fun to do.

Teeny-Tiny Kangaroo & Joey

Here it is, the cutest kangaroo you will see today! It is just 4 inches tall, hand sewn out of felt and even has a baby joey peeking out of the pouch.



This was terrific fun to make, although it was another 5 hour project, one hour spent cutting out the pattern alone. I've adapted it as usual - no wire in the legs and they are jointed instead of fixed for added fun - thank goodness I had invested in a 3 inch needle recently! I'm sorry to say, the joey is fixed - wouldn't it have been fun to have been able to take him out? But he is just a head and neck and glued into the pouch.



This is going straight on to Etsy now!

Those Bears Get Everywhere!

Yesterday we had a couple of visitors......one only stopped for a few minutes, the other is here for good. Midge from Soggibottom Cottage in Devon popped by on her way to visit her daughter and brought us a lovely hand-made bear as well as some other goodies.


The visitor that stayed quickly found a friend and they shared a cream tea with some delicious clotted cream all the way from Devon.


Unfortunately, the new bear's first day was not without it's perils.....don't be fooled by the innocent expression here. While we went out for lunch, he thought he would get to know the bear a little better.....when we got home, the bear really did have a 'soggibottom'! But that was all, thank goodness, and we have decided that this bear will have to live up in Stacie's room away from curious dogs - I think Midge must have stuffed this one with kibble, he just won't leave it alone!

Mini Flamingo!

Well, you all know my weakness for flamingoes - I've painted them many times and named my Etsy shop after them - so when I came across a Japanese pattern book that included a tiny felt flamingo, it just had to be mine.


I thought this would be fairly easy to make as it didn't have too many pattern pieces, but in actual fact it took me roughly five hours as it was extremely fiddly. It only stands 5 inches tall, so you can imagine the thickness (thinness!!) of the legs, neck and beak. I also preferred to add a few of my own touches - the black end to the beak, embroidered 'toes', and I have omitted the wire from the legs as I always like my little creatures to be as child friendly as possible.

This will be going on to Etsy within the next couple of days after I have decided whether or not to attach a chain or ribbon in order for the mascot to hang...perhaps I will allow the customer to choose.

Next on the agenda is a kangaroo.....with a pouch....with a baby joey inside....eeeeeee!!!

Pink Mitts & a Chutney Glut

My daughter always looks enviously at the things I knit, and although I do make things for her, they are few and far between. She has been spoilt the last couple of weeks though, as she has acquired a pair of knitted socks that had been languishing in a cupboard waiting for the final toe to be completed, I'm knitting her a sweater and last night I whizzed up these cute little wristwarmers out of some sweet pink yarn that has been knocking about for a very long time. They were a surprise, so it was terrific today as she stroked them covetously, saying pointedly how nice they were, to be able to tell her they were hers.


We have one small apple tree in our garden which usually produces a few sad shrivelled fruit each year. This year it has for some reason produced a bumper crop. We have had apple pies, apple crumbles, given them away, and there is still half a tree's worth out there. Today I used up a large bagful together with the last kilo of homegrown tomatoes to make chutney. A lot of chutney. I've not made this before.....who knew you had to boil it for over three hours? Now the whole house reeks of vinegar, as do I!

It has been a lot of fun this year making jams, jellies and preserves in such abundance - even my son has caught the bug and has made pickles, chutney and is currently brewing his own rice wine. We'll be able to have a taste of summer throughout the long British winter...

Have I Shown You This?

I'm not sure if I have blogged this painting before.....I did it quite a while ago, before I had a blog...before I had a computer perhaps. It has been painted in watercolour, with a few touches of coloured pencil to add texture here and there. It's not for sale, as I used a photo from a book or a magazine as reference and really don't want to fall foul of copyright. Instead, it graces the wall of my living room - I really like how the watercolour has worked on this and it was a huge pleasure to paint at the time.

In the meantime, I have nothing current to show at the moment - the double horse portrait is ongoing, quite near completion. I am knitting a shawl, which is painstaking and only half way there. I am awaiting a new Japanese pattern book for felt animals.....if it is half as good as it looked on the computer screen, I'm going to be having fun over the next few weeks!

Hephaistos, The Magician's Cat

With Halloween approaching, what better time to make another black cat, this time with his own accessories and to be for sale in my Etsy shop.


Hephaistos is a smooth haired black cat, knitted in simple acrylic yarn but with the same demonic red eyes as my last witch's cat. He has wool jointed legs which mean he is poseable, a set of black whiskers and a crystal hanging from his red collar.


He has his own book of spells, an orange bowl with a picture of a bat on it, and a tasty fishy for dinner. His bed is black felt lined with red & white starry fabric. If you look closely at the spell book, not only is the cover hand embroidered, but there are paper pages inside with actual spells written in - they might not work though, bear in mind they were written by a cat.


This was a fun little project, although with the fish being less than an inch long and having embroidered scales, I think I need to get out more......


I'm just about to put him on Etsy - I'm willing to make more of these if necessary!