10 minute sketch no.4

This is one of my cats, her name is Wanda and she and her sister Pixie came form the SPCA.  She is very fat and has a very furry stomach, can't meow and spends a lot of time sleeping.

 I tried to draw her tonight and amazingly she didn't move the minute I put pencil to paper.  I had a bit of trouble with the shading, and I will blame it on her tortoishell markings.

And here she is showing off her stomach in its full glory, in a large nest that my younger daughter and I made out of wisteria cuttings last year.

Inky frocks

"WHEN I AM AN OLD WOMAN I SHALL WEAR PURPLE

With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter."

by Jenny Joseph

I try to avoid wearing black.  Having worn mostly black through-out my teens and early twenties I then decided it was an easy option and I really needed to brighten up.  A bit of colour is essential, but then I have found all these nice black pieces of clothing on the web...

Very pretty black embroidered dress

I love the styling on this picture from need supply and the model has cool tattoos.

the funky black jacket is obviously not a dress, but it is black and very tomboy chic.

 grey layer dress is grey not black but is also not colour so I think it fits.  

 Miss Selfridge dress has frills and buttons and pretty flowery material and also long sleeves to keep your arms warm and hide your bingo-wings

How fabulous is this frock by designer Leila Sham?  Its just quite rockin'

And I want this dress from Madewell.  Their site is full of lovely, easy-cool dresses, tops, pants etc.  Those boots are great too. 

10 minute sketch no.3

 Tonight it was a portrait of my older daughter.  Playing chess on the computer.

And then my younger daughter wanted to draw her dad.

He does not have hair like this I would like to point out, this was the comedy hair version. but the profile was so good, she is only eight.

10 minute sketch no.2

 In the summer we had a wild bee swarm in the garden for a night or two and they flew away leaving us with this beautiful little papery bees nest on a twisty corokia branch.  It has been sitting around the sitting room decoratively for a while now.  

I did my best, which is quite frankly not good enough today, what was I thinking with the honey-comb? but as the idea is merely to draw and excercise those braincells then I feel I have achieved something today, even if its not  good.  I did prefer the blackbird.

10 minute sketch. no.1

I decided that I would do a 10 minute sketch every day.  10 minutes is not too long to take out of my day . so on the walk to school with my little one this morning we found a dead blackbird, perfect material for a quick sketch (or two) so I picked it up and we walked to school with blackbird dangling, I think it had a broken neck, and it made the other kids go "oo yuk" when we got to school which is always good.   

 It was so pretty with its little feathers and its orange beak, I was rather sad to throw it away and would have liked to draw some more, but 10 mins is 10 mins, we have to have some rules ( although I did do two 10 minute sketches in the end and had to stop from doing some more).

The idea is that they will improve as the days go on.  But I did enjoy the brief experience.

And I found this cute little number from Leila Sham over at Charity and Bees blog, which is now sadly finished.

nice boots

I found a good site for shoes and boots, lulus has some really cool footwear, well I like it.  These are just some favourites I picked out from the boots, but there are lots of different styles and types. 

 You would need some cool strides to wear with these, or maybe a pretty girly frock, silver mini skirt or a fab hat.

 Seems to be I have a riding/rugged outdoor theme going on here.

These ones above made me think of the Muppets.  Animal the drummer comes to mind and the blond hippy lady.  A bit like Beatle crushers with heels and fringes.

paper garlands

I have had some productive days in the garden recently, and it is almost, almost, not such a mess any more.  I have weeded and mulched, weeded and mulched and moved a few grasses around. Today more weeding and mulching and also managed to get some making done, of paper garlands, which was quite satisfying.  The creative urges must be satisfied occasionally.  These were made from magazine pages cut out with my new circle cutting gadget which is just splendid.  The idea was taken from a magazine Christmas issue maybe Inside Out.  It was a few years ago now so I'm not entirely sure.

 (above) Bunting made from magazine pages now decorating my daughters bedroom.  The photos from magazines make such lovely decorations with all their variations in colours.

 r and g cut out and stitched together tons of circles. A table full of circles.

 I love how they get on with these things all by themselves quite happily.  It's very satisfactory.

It came out very long and very pretty.

(above) I cut out not so many and stitched them together slightly differently,  a circle on both sides with a layer of tissue paper in the middle 

I chose pretty pink, red, green, blue, yellow, black and some neutral  colours  It looks so pretty in its little 3D way.  It is a present for a friend so I hope she likes it as much as I do.

slips as dresses

Three of us girls ready for a night out in London in the mid 1990s, waiting at Homerton Station in the east end for the train to take us to Hampstead, ho ho, this photo makes me laugh even now.  A nice petticoat and a lovely tree curtain dress.  We had style in those days, ha, and then I was browsing the web when I came across some photos of some cool chicks wearing slips.

Lulu Chang

Gemma Rowlands

Style Hive

Style Hive

Style Hive

They are all pretty and bring on a wave of nostalgia.

sea-side

This morning we went to the beach for a walk in the fresh sea air.  It was a little fresh, but the sun was shining, so we could climb on tree stumps and dig holes under big drift-wood trees on the sand all with a good mountain back-drop.

 The kids have a competition for a google logo at school at the moment, this was my contribution.  A bit shoddy on the quality control and finish.

When we were driving home we saw a little sea-lion ( it may of course be a seal so correct me if I'm wrong) swimming in the sea, we parked the car to take a better look.  The little sea-lion climbed out of the water and climbed up the sea-wall and had a sun-bathe. We kept looking out for killer-Whales in hot pursuit but none arrived.  It was really close to us and posed rather well for the camera.  I managed to focus better on the concrete wall than the seal lion unfortunately!

day in the garden

i have spent many days in the garden this week, yet I have achieved very little.  Below is a photo of our vege garden in a rather overgrown state of disgrace.  Also the half painted side of the house.  I have moved and stacked a delivery of wet firewood, done much weeding and started on moving a truck-load of mulch.  Still much mulch to move.  And then a garage to clean, Oh joy! 

So I found some nice gardens on the internet.

 Landscape garden design

 pretty lawn shape

 desire to inspire

above and below from elite home design

above and below house interior design

 an outdoor fire would be divine especially if it cooked pizza aswell.

japanese moss garden, looks cool and tranquil.