This Morning

Frosted grass underfoot made that noise I love so much this morning. The crisp crunching of ice on leaves. I took my camera along with last nights scraps of tea, snippets for chickens.....and cockerels.






Bluest clear skies, tiny glitter sparkles, fairy diamonds in the sunlight.

The first door is opened

As December said hello with an icy breath this morning, many children and adults would have been opening the first tiny door on their advent calendars as my son and daughter did.

As a child I found these little calendars a magical part of the run up to Christmas. I especially loved them if they had glitter on and if each little door was thoughtfully positioned in places that would really open, such as a window, door, basket lid or box.
My parents always kept each years calendars so when the box of decorations was carefully lifted down from the attic, my two sisters and I loved to ponder over the old ones reopening them and enjoying seeing the pictures again.
I have carried this tradition on keeping all of my children's calendars.





Each year it seems to get even more difficult to find traditional picture Advent Calendars. The high street shops are swamped with the chocolate variety usually bearing a picture that has no significance to Christmas at all. I feel it is a little sad that children are not satisfied with the simplicity of a picture and have to have a chocolate instead. I am not the cruel mother one might hear of in fairy tales denying my children a chocolate one. In fact a couple of times we have had them, but on both occasions, they admitted that they had missed the little pictures.

Many many moons back, I had the opportunity of illustrating two advent calendars.
I thought I would share them with you:



The one below was published large, but also made into a greeting card calendar. This one is my 'special'copy.My sister found it on sale in Harrods!






What did you open this morning, Chocolate or picture? :)

Its finished!....I think?

I am going to say the painting is finished.
I have fiddled around with it today, adding things then removing them because they were not quite right. Its strange how all of a sudden you reach a final point. I shall put the picture away for a while, then, I might add something later? Probably not though, as I think I have achieved the feeling in the picture that I wanted.




Changing the subject, look what treasure I found on the shelf of a charity shop the other day!


A candle with a leaf from the 'Glastonbury thorn' just waiting for me to buy it, only £1.25
I shall light this on Christmas Eve.

Wishing for Dragons, Golden Geese and white bees

Down in the village there was talk of a north wind bringing snow this week.
A tingle of excitement shivered my bones as I stood in the post office, and heard this. I love frosty cold weather and especially snow. Each day I have been closely watching the skies with a beady eye for any hint of white bees swarming.

There have been some beautiful moments of light to capture.





The bird painting has been a little neglected this week. Time had to be given to other things.
There is still lots to do to pull it all together. But its getting there, snails pace.


In between odds and ends and snippets of time, I scratched and scribbled in my sketch book, with an idea I had for Illustration Friday 'Pretend'.
I didn't manage to get it done in time to participate this week , but thought I'd show it anyhow.





Dragons and Golden geese really do exist. Who said anything about pretending!

A little bit more progress

What a dark,damp,drizzle of a day. Gentle rain falls so fine it could almost be mistaken for sea mist. As the south coast is about seventy miles away sadly it isn't.
Its rain, and its the type that makes my hair go excessively curly.
The birds in the garden seem to be enjoying it as they are all singing a merrie olde tune this grey morning.

My birds are coming along slowly....






Lots more still to do on all areas!

Work in Process

More birds, but this time they will be two dimensional.
It feels good to be painting a picture on canvas again. This one was a sketch I did a couple of months back, and has been sitting patiently waiting to be turned into colour.Could it be symbolizing myself, surrounded by birds? Canvas is quite new to me, as I have always worked on watercolour paper. I feel it forces me to work bigger and doesn't let me get obsessive with tiny details, which I sometimes do.



Lots more work to do yet....

and........................ November Magic.

Good Morning Mr Magpie

Are you superstitious?.....

Do you 'touch wood' for reassurance, just to be on the safe side? (sometimes)
Do you make sure 'not to place your newly bought shoes on a table'? ( my Mum stuck by this one)
Do you cover mirrors in a thunderstorm?( my Nan used to)
Do you let the other person come down the stairs first before you go up, so that you don't' 'cross' on the stairs? ( my children don't)
Do you open the front and back doors on December 31st, to let the new year in and the old one out?( we always do)

And.... if you see a magpie, do you tip your hat and greet him with:

"Good morning Mr Magpie!"

I consider myself to have a few magpie tendencies. No, I am not a thief, but have a bit of a liking for silvery sparkly things. Not the expensive diamond ring sparkly things, thats not me. Items such as craft glitter, a shell with a silvery sheen, the odd christmas decoration, my old crystals, glittering starlight, fairylights, icicles and hoar frost covered cobwebs.

I am fascinated with the tale of magpies being attracted to shiny things and would love to peep into a nest to see how much of the tale is true?

As you can see, I've been busy with another hanger, my own Mr Magpie.
He is complete with his own sparkly treasures and is roosting over at my Etsy shop.
I do hope he doesn't steal anything whilst he's there?
And now I MUST get back to doing some painting ( the paper and canvas kind)

Inspired by the sea

Inspired by the sea, here is my latest hanger offering .....






This magical whale is available to buy now over in my Etsy shop!

Blowing The Cobwebs Away

A few days spent in rainy Penzance staying with my sister, helped to blow away some of the Autumn cobwebs in my mind.
And of course, lots of fun was had with cousins!





Now back home and its Halloween.
Few braved our long dark garden path to the sweet treats that were waiting.

Ghosts with wings

Superstition and Magic surround owls like a velvet cloak. Their call on a moonlit night can send chilly shivers up a spine.
There are far too many tales to tell relating them to macabre predictions and witches and wizards. I love to hear all the tales and half forgotton beliefs, but just as a lover of all birds the owl holds a special place in my heart.
I particularly love the barn owl, with its distinctive ghost like appearance, it was described as a bird of death by William Wordsworth, and gave rise to legends of will o the wisp and jack o lantern which both spirited away travellers and children.
With the 'spooky' time of year just around the corner, I decided to make this barn owl hanger......


Adorned with jingly bells and an antique cut glass crystal to make magical rainbows. It will be flying over to Etsy. SOLD

Sadly barn owls are in decline due to loss of habitat. If you would like to help or find out more, then pay a visit to The barn Owl Trust a charity dedicated to conserving barn owls.

Lost in the midst of mist

Yes, more drawing, cutting and sanding!
Three, dare I say it..Christmas... (ssshh) commissions and orders of Polar bears, magpies, owls, reindeers.......



Inside my head it is foggy. Obscured by clouds of wood dust. And yes, could this be the reason for a somewhat blurry photograph? ;)

Wooden animals are following me into sleep, where I run through misty forests......

But in the garden this morning everything is bright.
Yesterdays raindrops sparkle in the sun, treasures of a fairies jewel box.



Time for a mug of hot chocolate me thinks!... then back to more sanding!.....

Bonkers for Conkers

We love conkers! or if we call them by their proper name, Horse chestnuts. Even though the children are getting older, they still want to go and collect conkers and get excited about finding them, especially the one's that are still enclosed but just beginning to peep out of their green spiky shells, which I think look like elf hats. I love the colour of them and their rich waxed wood appearance. We went to collect "just a few to string up around the porch" but came home with a basket and carrier bag full! ( this is NOT all of them in the picture)
I asked " What are we going to do with them all??"
The reply I got was "Plant them" :)
I think we will be giving away young Horse Chestnut trees from our garden gate in the near future. About 300 or more!!

The Autumn sunshine brought us a visitor........

When we had searched for him back in the holidays by the river, he was no where to be seen! And now here he was, glittering lace wings displayed, almost on our front doorstep!

And finally a sample of some of the finished hangers that I have been working on. Some will find their way to Etsy, others to a little local shop.

Sugary

For Illustration Friday.
Just sketching sat on the doorstep in the sun, and this character sprang to life.
A bit late, but never mind.

A beautiful day

What a beautiful day it has been today! Blue skies, warm sun on my arms, and bees and butterflies, enjoying the last of the lavender and michelmas daisies. One thing that I always look forward to this time of year, is the sun low enough in the sky to shine through the crystals that are hanging at my window and decorate the room with little dancing rainbow lights.
I have collected old chandelier crystals for many years. All of them were bought from car boot sales for next to nothing. They are strung up on fishing line at two windows and I've still an old cigar box full that have yet to be added.


As winter approaches, there is even more of a show. Today, just a few rainbows.


If you gently move them, they dance around the room. Many crystals have been chipped over the years by little hands wanting to see the 'fairy rainbows'. But that doesn't matter, as they are still beautiful.

Prints for sale on Etsy!

I've finally got around to putting some prints for sale on Etsy. Something I've been meaning to do for a wee while.

Its been a bit of a frustrating last week, not being able to settle finishing things off as fast as I would have liked. We have had workmen in and out, fitting us a new central heating system. It still isn't finished and the Electrician is coming back on Tuesday. (Groan) Still, must not grumble, hopefully we will be all snug and cosy this winter.

In between interruptions, the wooden creatures have gradually been coming to life.





Some of these will also be finding their way over to Etsy very shortly.