Postbox...

 I was asked to knit one of these...it is about 4.5 inches tall.  It was quite fun!

Hare Today...

 I painted this months ago and it has been sitting in my spare room until yesterday!  It was commissioned as a birthday present for a friend and  I had to keep it secret for all this time.  Thankfully, the wait was worth it, she loves the painting.  

Painted in watercolour on paper, and it was a mixture of several reference photos and a little imagination.

  

Angel...

About ten days ago, my daughter in law asked if I would make my granddaughter her angel costume for the school nativity.  Of course I said yes, and straight away went about searching my fabric stash for suitable material and ordered feathers and star tinsel.  I made the dress first, adapting a pattern I had for a child's party dress.  That turned out nicely, and (thankfully) fitted her perfectly.

Then I set about the wings - I had been looking forward to constructing these.  As you might have guessed, I like a challenge!  I made a paper pattern, which I then used on a double layer of white felt.  I sewed around the edge with the sewing machine and also added some pliable florists wire to the top arch of each wing in order for them to stay upright and in shape.

Then it was time to sew on the feathers...each one individually sewn on and then glued at the tip of the quill.  This took way longer than anticipated, especially as I had a bit of a thing going on trying to get my daughter a doctor's appointment. (Five phone calls, two texts, an online consultation form, and being told twice that I was not authorised to speak about my daughter's health as she is over 16.  She has Downs Syndrome...sigh...it took a week, but she did get seen.)

Anyway, three days after starting the wings, the feathers were attached - I was left with just three in the pack!  I then sewed a piece of the dress fabric around the middle section for the wings to blend in with the dress, and added two pieces of elastic to go around her shoulders.  The halo was some tinsel wrapped around more florists wire and the wand was hastily made with gold ribbon and more tinsel.

As the costume had to be handed in to the school by Friday, I just managed it in time.  Apparently my granddaughter loved it!  I can''t wait to see her in the play in a couple of weeks time!

As to any other arts and crafts, I seem to be having another break - hopefully I'll get some enthusiasm back soon!

Walker...again...

After several months of ennui regarding painting, I feel that I have got my enthusiasm back at last.  The Explore.org bear cams went down a week or so ago, so to counteract my withdrawal symptoms, I started a watercolour of the bear known as Walker using one of the snaps I took from the website.

I am really happy with how this one turned out - the background was painted with a load of splashy greens and browns over a little masking fluid, and with a sprinkle of salt to add texture.  It's always a gamble to do this, but this time it worked perfectly.  The bear took a while - he has an awful lot of fur!

This one will be in my Etsy shop soon once I have got a decent photograph in daylight (daylight?  What's that!!) as this photo has made the painting somewhat lighter than it actually is.

Up next - I don't know yet, but I am raring to go!

In the meantime, I have finally finished designing and writing the crochet patterns for Nudinits that have taken up half of this year.  Keep an eye out for them!
 

You're My Lobster...

 A while back I bought a lovely little book - Mini Amigurumi Ocean by Sarah Abbondio - and enjoyed making a few of the cute little creatures when I had a minute or two spare.  One of them was this adorable little lobster, who now graces the cistern in our marine themed downstairs loo!

A friend of mine saw him and asked if I would make this: 

 

A miniature crochet lobster wearing a Santa hat...it's a good job I have known this person for decades so am hardly surprised at the request! 

Summer Hops...

Back in August I spotted a view of the hops growing on our pergola against a bright blue sky that made me want to paint them - the contrasting colours just sang.  My first attempt was in watercolour and I soon became discouraged - I'd chosen paper that was too small and consequently the drawing was a nightmare, and the subsequent painting was tight and fiddly and just frustrating to do.

So I ditched that one, and started a much bigger painting in acrylics on canvas board.  I didn't bog myself down with a highly detailed drawing - in fact I started by just painting the pergola against the sky, nothing on it at all.   Then I just loosely marked in the shapes of the hops and let the paintbrush do the work as I went along.

As Autumn kicked in and the light began to fail, I was working under electric light a lot of the time which really changes the colours, so had to check occasionally that I was getting them right by taking the painting outside for a look. Thankfully everything was OK!

This was quite a departure from my usual subjects, but enjoyable nonetheless and was a welcome distraction from reality!  It is currently for sale in my Etsy shop.

Next up...not sure, but it will be in watercolours and splashy! 

In A Pickle...

This year in the garden was a bit of a strange one - a chilly Spring followed by a relentlessly hot Summer meant things were a bit different.  Seeds grew slowly and stopped growing for a few weeks when the weather was cool which in turn set them back considerably.  Some things didn't make it when the heat kicked in - not a single courgette this year compared to last year's glut.  My carefully nurtured tomatoes in the back garden were a bit of a disappointment but the tangle of random tomato plants that sprung up on the remains of the old compost heap in the front garden were amazing.  We could recognise some varieties from tomatoes we'd bought at the supermarket, except these were much tastier!  There were so many large tomatoes that had not turned red by the time October came around that I managed to make about 4lbs of chutney.

 Runner beans were quick to start - we had one lot to pick and then with the heat they faltered, only to get going again at the end of the summer and we had a bumper crop for a couple of weeks.

 One vegetable that really took off this year was the cucamelons.  I grew them from seed and they looked a bit shaky to begin with but then suddenly went berserk and there were more cucamelons than I could eat!  Luckily, after watching Gardener's World last week, I found out that they can be pickled, so I picked the remaining ones and gave it a go.  Looking forward to seeing what they taste like!

On the easel at the moment, a large acrylic of the hops on our pergola.  The hops were another roaring success and look so pretty draped along the beams - I took a snap of them in mid summer against the bright blue sky which is what I am trying to capture in paint. It's not my usual thing, I'm finding it challenging but it's getting there.  Think I might go back to bears after this...