Things I have learnt this week.....

Hello everyone!

This week I learnt that it's better not to mess with things when they are kind of OK to begin with because you end up falling down the rabbit hole of trying to "fix" it and get it just right! I did this with my Blog.  It was perfectly acceptable, looked fine but I HAD to go and try and make it better!

I can't leave things alone, I'm always worried I've made the wrong choice and that a different choice will be better!  If you give me more than a couple elf things to choose from my head starts to spin and I may very well spontaneously combust! I went to a lampshade making class the other day....which was pretty amazing but I spent 10 mins standing outside trying to get myself to go in because I was worried they wouldn't be there, I didn't know what they looked like, people might look at me.... Eventually I managed to get in, by now I was pretty stressed out (I think I hid it OK) then we start on the lamp shades.....there must have been 10+ fabrics to choose from! I managed to narrow it down to about 3 I liked but then the familiar voice appeared...."but this one is red you like red" "oh but red is so obvious go with the green" "but that flower pattern is lovely, people will like that"..... and so it went on.  I had to make a decision in the end and for those of you interested I went with the lime green which is lovely and amazing and I'm very happy with!

My beautiful lamp shade!

So at the beginning of the week I decide to change my Blog....I really have no idea why! The same reason that I always ALWAYS upgrade my phone even if I love the phone I have and it's the best phone ever! The same reason that I can't decide which bike to get because there are so many..... the same reason I can;t decide if I should make a new Blog for my knitting or keep the old one I have......I just want it to be perfect and above all I don't want to make the wrong decision......except I'm not sure what perfect is!

What I have ended up with is a slightly different layout (happy with this) but the same banner only bigger and more central....I'm happy that it's more central but the thing is giant and for some reason it now looks dull and dark and the font doesn't work on it now......disaster!

So now I can't decide if i should leave it alone or make a completely new banner.....I wouldn't even know where to begin with that! I tried using another digital piece I had done but although I loved the colours it just didn't seem right :-( I feel a little deflated now, I just wanted my lovely Blog to look amazing! But this is typical of me, I should be used to it but I'm still annoyed.  Annoyed at myself really!

Oh well, I will have to keep it as it is for now and try very hard to decide what is best to do......I have a slight feeling of Deja-vu here......

Summer Of Colour 4 Week 1

Heeelllloooo everyone!!

So it was the first week of Summer of colour! I was soooo excited to start this year and I'm so glad I decided to play as I'm having great fun already!!

The first colours that were chosen were Aqua Blue, Yellow pink! I LOVE bright colours so this was like a dream come true for me! I was totally ready to get stuck in only for this week to be one of the busiest weeks I've ever had!! It was getting on in the week and I still hadn't started EEK! Then i realised some crochet Grannie squares I had been working on were Aqua blue and a plan started to form............

I've been teaching myself to crochet recently! It's going pretty well but I now have about  a million granny squares with slight defects hanging around the place :-P I might make them in to a blanket just for fun so i can remember how terrible I was at it! Anyway, I decided I would use my granny squares for my first summer of colour! Sadly i didn't have any yellow wool on me so I had to improvise....

Ta-DA.....I have to be honest it's not the greatest thing I've ever done but by the time I got to the pink square I was actually producing granny squares without mistakes! Go me!!

I have a lot less things to do next week so hopefully my contribution will be a bit better!! Now I'm off to go practise some more crochet and have a nose at all the other lovely (and much better) contributions to The Summer Of Colour :-)

Summer of Colour (Strawberry and Lemonade Punch)

Hi guys :-)

This weeks summer of colour challenge was again a bit of a challenge for me! Mainly because I just haven't had the time to sit down and think properly about it!! The easiest route seemed to be to go literal again so that is what I did!!

I kind of like the colours in this but its not as creative as I would like!! Last time I said I felt like I should apologise but I won't do that this time! I will pick out what I like best about it! I really like the swirly pattern (I like swirly patterns, what can is ay :-p) and I love how the yellow and green go together!! I used my Moleskine again which is good as its pages are finally being filled!! I would like to start using the back of the pages but I have this thing about doing that......I'm the same with notebooks haha!! I also used pencils! I need better quality pencils I think but the colours are nice!!

So on to next week :-) I've seen the prompt which is Wild n reckless sherbet! This is a very funky coloured icecream which once again makes my mouth water :-P The good news is I already have some ideas so hopefully I will be able to produce something I am more happy with :-D

On a completely different note.....here is a photo of my Cat Lupin.....

She was trying to sunbathe but having trouble what with the lack of sun :-P Ahhh isn't she the cutest?!?

Anyway I am off to look at some strawberry lemonade punch art :-D All this talk of ice cream really makes me wnat a bowl...yum!!







Summer Of Colour: Baseball Nut (Fail)

Hi everyone :-)

It was a close call as to weather I was going to get this weeks Summer Of Colour done!! I had real trouble coming up with anything and the thing I did do in the end looks nothing like the Baseball Nut ice cream picture that was posted :-( I was going to do another ATC but I decided to use my Moleskine in the end!

I feel the need to apologise for this :-S I mean really, what does this have to do with baseballs or nuts?? :-P On the plus side I like the effect I got by just outlining the ice cream in the middle and i love the swirly background!! The colours don't show up great but the pinks are supposed to be the sauce that swirls through the ice cream and the yellow is the vanilla! I chose yellow because vanilla to me screams cream and I don't do cream haha!! It kind of looks like a mishmash of sherbet rainbow and mint choc chip......... I used coloured pencils and a black marker on this! I love colouring with pencils although the ones used here were quite cheap and not blendable at all :-P

I have yet to look on the Twinkle Twinkle blog for the next colour prompt but I am excited! I'm hoping I can pull something a bit better out of the bag this time!! I'm just off to look at all the other fab pieces of art :-D See you at the other side!!

Summer of Colour (Mint Choc Chip)

Hey everyone! So to week two of the Summer Of Colour Challenge! This weeks prompt was Mint Choc Chip (my fave flavour of ice cream might I add)! I must be honest I found this one very hard! I don't know if it was because I've been having one of THOSE weeks so my brain just wouldn't switch on!! Anyway I went literal with this one so I should introduce to you.......

Mr Cool Mint.

I used my pro markers to colour him in! I'm not sure I really like the blue background but it fits in with the Mr Cool Mint theme ha ha!! I've never done an ATC before and I found it hard to put any extra detail on him :-S All in all I like the idea but I think it could have been done a little better!! Also I think his choc chips look a bit like acne hahaha!!

Oh well I tried something new which was fun, and I will deffo be doing more ATC's in the future! So on to next weeks colour.....I can't wait to find out what it is!!

In other news, my lovely friend Carmen sent me a gift.....I will write a special post about that....but I just wanted to say thank you to her.  We only "met" quite recently but I like to think we have become good friends :-)

Celestial Sugar Skull!

I have not been on here in waaaaaay too long!! I would love to say it's because I've spent all of my time drawing but it's not! I've been working and trying to strip gloss of my stairs and knitting some bits......real life things haha!!

I have done a bit of drawing though, more Sugar Skulls of course! I do need to branch out one day but for now these work for me :-P

I wanted to do some sort of theme so I went for Celestial sort of! I'm not sure I hit the mark though, what do you think??

This is the almost finished version! I tried to use blue and yellows but I'm not sure the colour scheme is quite right! The silver is my beloved sharpie (I must get more of those) and the rest of the colours are my letraset pro markers! I love these pens so much!! I was once on a mission to collect all of the colours but I didn't even get halfway there.......maybe I can start again haha!!

I don't know if I should line the drawing with black or go for the dark blue.......decisions decisions haha! I always line with black as i like the very graphic look so maybe i should try blue for a change!! I also think I need to work on the skull shape. It's not looking too bad though!

In other arty news, me and my friend Katie (check out her website, she makes amazing paper cuts!) are going down to London in July to see the Summer Exhibition! I have been dying to do this for years so I'm sooooooo excited! The tickets are booked and everything! WAHOO! You can expect lots of photos from that trip!!

Anyway I hope you have all enjoyed your Diamond Jubilee weekend :-)

Blind Contour Drawing!

The idea behind blind contour drawing (from what I could gather) is to find a picture/photo that you like and you copy it, the difference being that you don't look down at your paper and you're not supposed to lift your pencil off the paper!! In all honesty I really thought I was going to HATE this! I can barely stand my drawings as it is so to do something that is going to so obviously (in my head) not be great was not what I wanted to be doing!

But I gave it a go and you know what, it wasn't that bad!! The lessons I'm following on Paint Myself Pretty say to do this particular lesson with Giraffes so that's what I did! I do like Giraffes and it was fun trying to find cute pictures to use!



I honestly can't believe they came out so well! I know I haven't put any detail on them but I thought that was a step too far haha! Also I did take my pencil off the page to do the eyes etc of some of them which I know was cheating a little but we can keep it our little secret right?? ;-) I'm glad I gave it a go! I suppose it just goes to show that you just don't know how something will work until you try it for yourself and i should stop being so scared :-P

I enjoyed it so much that I plan to use the technique on some other animals I like......I'm thinking Panda's next! Who doesn't love panda's?!?

See you all again soon :-)

It's raining cats and........cats??

Recently my friend told me about a Blog called Paint Myself Pretty that was doing the 'lessons' from an art book with the intention that you can follow along and, post about it and link to the original Blog! So i thought why not?? (By the way you should check out the Blog as it's very pretty!!)

The first lesson was drawing cats..........

Yeah......If you ever needed proof I draw like a 7 year old this is it!! My cat has a giant head and looks like he might kill you if you met him in a dark alley!! I only did two as I got very disheartened by my efforts! That is the usual course with me and my drawing!! I have been known to childishly scribble on pages that aren't going right *the shame* Trying to be positive......I kind of like the body I did!! The page on the left is supposed to be what I wore that day........I'd rather forget that drawing happened ha ha!!

It occurred to me that I had once drawn a cat that I liked! He is more a character than a real life cat but I'm proud of him and that is VERY rare!!

I haven't finished colouring him in but here he is in all his glory!! I actually got the idea from a Digital illustration magazine I used to buy! He appealed to me as he has a moustache that reminds me of my fave detective Poirot ha ha!! I think it's safe to say I'm better at colouring than the drawing bit!!

So I'm afraid that is all I've had a chance to do this week!! It's not that I don't have the time, it' more that I don't know what to draw when I do have the time!! I still haven't completed the face on my little wooden doll either!!  I've tried out eyes on a piece of paper trying to find the best ones! I want them to be simple yet striking!! Hopefully I will get around to that this week.....wish me luck!!