New item on Etsy

This heart is about to be listed on Etsy , if anyone is interested?
Its handpainted and signed on the back.





Its been another glorious early spring day here again. I would have loved to be out in the garden, but sadly we had to go shopping for new rugby/football boots for school. Oh well, hopefully the sun will shine again tommorow.

Parcels and Toads

What a lovely surprise I had in the post yesterday!
A Parcel from Celia over at Purple podded peas.



A comment I had left on her blog had been chosen for ' a little something'
Well this little something was so gorgeous , I just had to share it!



These beautiful hare cards! I love them!
Sorry family and friends, but these cards will not be sent, but framed and put on my wall :)
Celia creates the most wonderful lino prints.So don't forget to stop by her blog and have a peep into her Etsy shop. (Thankyou Celia x)

Today the sun was shining and Spring had most definitely arrived.
How could I possibly refuse a day in the garden?



I captured the first daisy on the lawn...



Found the tiniest of toads.....



and disturbed his lunch!....



Then came indoors and listed this on Etsy......



Have a good weekend !
x

Castles and white stags

Its half term this week ,which of course means no school for the children, and if we're lucky, time to get out and go adventuring!
We all love castles in this household, so decided as the weather looked good, to venture abroad ;)
So, over the severn bridge we travelled, into beautiful Wales. Luckily for us, only an hours trip.
Our first stop was the magnificent ruined Caerphilly Castle.
So many stories and secrets of times gone by within its cold stone walls.





With the sun shining and a definite feel of spring in the air, we sat and ate our lunch in the same place soldiers had, hundreds of years before us.
Just a few miles down the road we continued on to our next port of call.
A very different but equally beautiful Castell Coch...





This castle was built on the site of the original Castell Coch by a hugely wealthy Victorian. Whom you can read about here.
A fairytale castle with beautiful windows...



Walls hand painted and illustrated with characters from Aesops Fables....





Starry painted ceilings adorned with birds and gold....




And woodland views...



A lovely day out! We are now looking forward to our next castle adventure......

In between times I've done these....

Some things that I love

A little while ago I was very kindly given this award.


Thankyou Julia at: East Of The Sun West Of The Moon.

To accept this award I have to list 7 things that I love. This isn't difficult to do, so I,ll play along...
I won't include family, as they know I love them already :) x

1. Sparkly things and turquoise green



2. Snow!

Don't worry!.. I,m not going to post another snow picture :) Although I could quite happily snap pictures and pictures of it as I LOVE it! And, I'm sorry but I can't guarantee that there will not be any more pictures of it this year ;)

3. Beautiful old doors and windows.

(These are from the gorgeous little fairytale cottage in the grounds at Stourhead in Wiltshire)




I would love to have a front door like this....



4. Notebooks.
I fill them with scribbles , sketches, ideas, lists, books that I must remember to read, music that I have heard and want to hear more of and snippets of stories that dance inside my head, that hopefully I can pin down into picture books one of these days not so far away.



5. My garden.
Especially in the spring when the air is filled with the scent of apple blossom, the cowslips are in flower and the lawn a carpet of daisies.



6. Birds and birdsong

I dare not imagine what the world would be like without a sky full of birds and the beautiful songs they sing.

7. The night sky

I could just sit and stare at a starry sky and the moon for hours.
Last summer we all decided to sleep under the stars. Not in a tent, but just on camp beds and duvets on the grass in front of the front door. I fell asleep looking at star filled heavens. Luckily it was a saturday night, otherwise the postman would have thought we were a little strange. Our neighbours did I think?

So, thats my seven things. I am supposed to pass the award on to 7 other blogs, but as there are so many wonderful ones out there , I don't know who to choose?
So I invite anyone to play along.

Now I really must get on. This week has flown by in the blink of an eye and seems to have been filled with domestic jobs and silly little but never the less important things that have had to be seen to, therefore I have very little to show for it creative wise which is quite frustrating, but I'll survive :)

Winter wonderland

The Snow Queen visited us again last night ...







With her icy breath and swarm of white bees, she tranformed the garden into a magical place for snowmen to be born....



and cats to go adventuring.....

More Hearts

We had been hoping and watching the skies. Crossing our fingers and toes. Listening to the weather forecast and sniffing the air.
And at last... we have some snow!!! :) :) :)
You have probably gathered that we like snow in this house.... very much!



Yesterday I spent many many moments just gazing out of the window watching it fall.
And walking outside letting the snowflakes settle in my hair and on my eyelashes.



When the children came home from school, we stayed out until twilight having snowball fights and throwing snowballs for Jasper our cat to chase. Its the first time he had seen snow and absolutely loved it. He used his paws to push the snow like a snow plough then would suddenly jump up and charge around the garden excitedly. (I wish I had caught him on camera)


Its cold, but we are happy.

Whilst not playing or looking out of windows, I have been doing these.....
More wooden hearts that will be listed on Etsy shortly.
These however are not hand painted, but are decorated with printed imagery from cards I have illustrated in the past. I'm afraid the hand painted ones are so time consuming I have decided to only do them very occasionally.


Stay warm everyone!

Harlequins, ammonites and tea

Its 11 am. That means time for a tea break! So, let me take a moment to introduce you to our visitors....
They have been with us since mid November and will probably stay til around early March? They don't take up alot of room and do not require feeding. They have visited us annually for 10 years and mainly prefer the two south facing bedrooms.What am I talking about?....................Why Ladybirds of course!


So pretty and so useful in the garden. But take a closer look because all is not as it seems!

When we moved into this house and first met our annual visitors, they looked somewhat different.Mainly smaller with two or five spots, these were our native ladybirds. We rarely see these anymore because, we have been invaded by the Harlequin Ladybird!
Harlequins are considered the most invasive ladybird on earth.Apparently they arrived here in Britain in 2004 and are now gradually spreading across the country.
The bad thing about them is that when food is scarce they will eat our native ladybird, butterfly and moth eggs.And even bite humans! (Have only just found that out...yikes!) There is loads of information at the Harlequin ladybird survey here.
I sent some hibernating ones to Cambridge University to be correctly identified a couple of years ago when I suspected we had them. The survey are keeping track on their progress and habits, so if you suspect you have any near you,then please contact them.

Well, my mug is empty now. So,..... I'll let you take a peep into my sketchbook.





I've been working on ideas which will hopefully evolve into a painting, soonish?

The Water Horse: Legend of the Deep Trailer

We sat down and watched this after tea last night.
If you have children, they will love it!
If you don't, then the child in you will!
Mine want to go on holiday to Loch Ness this summer now!

Two Hares and Thank you's

Outside the sun shines but everything is wet. The garden sparkles with last nights raindrops.
My green house is calling to me, reminding me that I have a large bag of sweet peas ready for planting....
I have been inside finishing these two 'Valentine' inspired Hares.
They will be leaping across to Etsy later.

I can't believe that soon this blog will be 1 years old!
Since starting it, I have been amazed at the number of highly talented wonderful creative people there are living all around us. Whether they draw or paint, sew, knit,write, bake, garden .... it is a delight to open a door into their world and see their latest creations, how they have spent their days and what is inspiring them.
What amazes me even more though is how they can still find the time in a busy day to generously promote other peoples creations.
I would like to say a 'Big Thank you' to anyone that has linked me or taken the time and trouble to mention my work in their blogs. x

Annette has so kindly put my work in her beautiful animal inspired Etsy treasuries on numerous occasions. Please take the time and pop over to her at:
Dragon house of yuen She makes the cutest Arabella rabbit bags.

And Thankyou also, to Danielle at Notes from the Rookery. For featuring me recently in her Etsy treasury. Danielle does the most beautiful watercolours of Rooks, horses and Unicorns. Go and take a look!

Thankyou x

Love is in the air

Phew... Am I glad to have finished these Valentine hearts!
I'm not very fond of fiddly things!
I'm pleased I did them, its something that I haven't done before and variety is the spice of life... so they say... And, of course it all helps to keep that old wolf from tapping on my door!
Many of these are now hanging for sale in a local shop that I sell to.



Then I had a go at some individual ones.....



I enjoyed these more, but still fiddly. Hmmm....maybe I should get my eyes tested?
These in the bottom photo will be listed later this evening on Etsy.


Its been a beautiful day here with the bluest skies.
A robin flew across and sat himself merrily on the hawthorn branch as I was pegging my washing out. I'm sure he was speaking to me, he came so close. I think he was telling me about the beautiful white maidens that have appeared...

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Contained

Playing about in my sketch book....This is my submission for Illustration Friday 'Contained'




I'm Alice's white rabbit again though, as its a little late.

Hearts and too much red

It is quiet here.
The sweet twitterings of hedge sparrows and a gentle purr of a ginger cat around my legs, are the only sounds today. Hobbits are back to school and all festive decorations have been safely packed away til next year.
The house seems so bare. I am especially grateful to the odd ray of sunlight that twinkles into our home.


With many layers and my thickest socks and gloves. I ventured out, set up tools and cut a basketful of this and that. As I was finishing my last one it actually started to snow. Quite a magical moment... cutting valentine hearts in the snow. Forgive me for not taking a photograph. Obviously using an electric saw when it begins to snow is not the safest or wisest thing to be doing. I hurried to finish, so no time for a picture.




Now warm inside and painting....
Whoops!...A little bit too much red came out here! :)

Cakes, trees, and a recipe for new year

As most people these past few days have probably been doing, I have been taking time to think about the New Year ahead and what I hope or think it will bring.
I've been imagining the idea of the New year a little differently ....

Firstly I thought of it as being a bit like baking a cake....
The basic ingredients being the necessities or everyday things in life. The variety of cake we bake, what we add, or what we decorate it with, are our decision and based on what we have pre planned or have in our cupboard at the time. A cake, (especially one that I've baked) never seems to turn out the same. Sometimes its perfect, other times it sinks and something doesn't turn out quite so well.... Similar to the ups and downs of life.

Then I imagined that The New Year could be a tree....
Bare branched, waiting for new leaves to grow. Each new leaf could be our plans, dreams and hopes. Some might get pruned, eaten by caterpillars whilst others will mature to Autumn and produce fruit on its branch. Some will fall and set a seed for a new tree to grow.

Then, I had a little play about in my sketchbook...



So whatever 2009 has in store for us all...
Let the adventure begin!

Me,I will continue to walk my path and see where it will lead, letting the stars shine on my face whenever I can.



May they shine on you too!