jamjar

Working on my shed has taken a back seat as I have been busy finshing off the paintings that I am submitting to Holmfirth Artweek.

All three seem to have their head in similar postions which I hadn’t noticed until I grouped them together for framing up.  It is a lovely exhibtion to be a part off, and as it is open until 10pm Monday to Friday, it is quite a big social occasion and is alway buzzing with people wandering around looking at the exhibits and the craft market.

“I know a bank where the wild thyme blows…. ”

 where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

with sweet musk-roses and with eglantine. 

 Midsummers Night’s Dream.

     Rosa mundi, a beautiful scented old rose said to be named after Fair Rosamund Clifford, mistress of Henry II 12th century. 

It always reminds me of rasberry ripple ice cream!

Hope your having a lovely mid summers day.

It has been a cold, wet and very windy weekend. which is why Mitten seemed a little cheesed off, wanting to be outside, but too cold to leave the inside of the house, so he hit upon a compromise….

Neither here or there, trust a cat to come up with such an ideal solution.             Mitten wanted to be out in the grass where he had curled up just the other day.

With the sun on his orange fur he lay there half dosing, half dreaming of mice and things that fly, no doubt wishing he could fly.

But for the time being, it is better to stay close to where there are warm cushions to snuggle into and duvets to hide under.

May be the sun will shine tomorrow.

Almost done, well, the outside is.  I am now working on the inside, making it a little cosier hopefully, but I just couldn’t resist adding a little vase of flowers in the window.

Hope you are not all bored with the shed, I will try and post arty stuff soon!

Something is happening at the bottom of the garden ….

With the help of a very kind neighbour, my little shed/summerhouse is starting to come together.

The animals have given it the once over, and seem to approve of it so far.  Need to have another trip to the DIY store as we ran out of roofing felt, then glaze the windows and then I shall be moving in!!

Some new birds are appearing on my table after a little bit of tweeking with the design, this new shape and legs are proving a lot more stable.

The bird at the front is one of the original ones,  although I really like them, they have a cuddliness about them,  they have been very wobbley, and I felt I couldn’t put them up for sale until I could sort out their feet.  I think the main problem was that they were too top heavy, so after some trail and error, I have come up with the ones behind it, there is even a chicken there at the back!

The new project is lurking in the yard at the moment.  It arrived yesterday at 20 past 7 in the morning, a flat pack summerhouse! 

The idea is, that I will use it as a summer studio to paint and create and generally make a mess in.  I have heard though, that a younger member of the family fancies it as a camping den for the school holidays.  Hmmmm, however, we have to get it built yet, which will probably be a tale within it’s self.

Finally, some flowers for you all from my garden.   The vase is made by a potting friend of mine.

Let me introduce you to the new little family that have taken residence. This is momma,  and with the kids….Lively little bunch they are, but one of them is a bit too adventurous for the likes of the other two.

That is a bit too close to the edge.

Elsewhere, at work, we have been enthralled by the talents of this chap, Thompson Dagnall who has turned a dead tree trunk into something truly amazing.

watercolour and pencil.

Easter has long gone along with the Easter eggs, actually I think those were gone by lunchtime if not before! The snow went and then it came back, but then it went again.  Also WordPress has changed abit, so bare with me as I try to find my way around this new format while I write this post.  I am busy with variouscommissions and projects at the moment, which I am really enjoying, so housework has gone at of the window for the time being, alright, alright, it went out of the window a long time ago, it’s just nice to have a decent excuse for once.  Besides the commissions, I am trying to sort my kitchen out - it is a very unfitted kitchen, but not in the trendy sense.  Instead a very old wobbly sink unit, no worktop, gaps that things can fall down and can never be retrived from.  This is a little sketch of it, although we do have a different cooker now… I fancy something along these lines…

(It’s very different putting a picture up on this new look WordPress) My sketchbooks get filled up with my dreams of what to do with my home.  In my sketches, I can move walls and doors and lay lovely solid wood floors.  Funnily enough, the rooms always look a lot more uncluttered than they really are!  Anyway, hopefully, over the next few weeks/months we may actually begin to see some of those dreams come into reality.  I have also been amusing myself with a little papier mache and created these little characters.

They are a wire, card and paper structure with painted decoration.  They need a little tweeking, but soon they will be hopping into my Etsy shop.

Bought my copy of the Independant this morning on the way to work and discovered the suppliment was all about design, with this amazing cover… This is the work of Rob Ryan whose work can be found here and on sale here.   I first came across his work when I read The book of Lost Things by John Connolly (highly recommend)  fab stuff.

Before I go, my son Thomas, has asked if someone out there has got any advice on travelling to Canada.  He wants to travel around about November time to Vancouver.  He will be on a  tight budget and is hoping to stay in whatever is  Canada’s equivalent of the Youth Hosteling Association.  But he is struggling to find information.  Has anyone any ideas on flights and accomodation?

Cheers!

Hope you have all had a lovely Easter,  In the UK this year, we have had the added bonus of toboganing and snowman building activities due to a fine dollop of snow arriving in the early hours of Easter sunday, however, not all were impressed, just look at the expression on Mittens face.

You can almost imagine him thinking ‘I rather preferred the grass as it was’.

I was messing about with a recycled canvas the other night, and this emerged….

just abit of fun really.