A little drawing to remember our friend George, who passed away earlier this year.
Rest in peace George, you’ll always be remembered.
Posted in Sketchbook, tagged art, dog, drawing, komondor, pen and ink, sketch, sketchblog on September 17, 2017| Leave a Comment »
A little drawing to remember our friend George, who passed away earlier this year.
Rest in peace George, you’ll always be remembered.
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged basenji, beach, fruit pudding, haggis, herston, Inverness, komondor, Lorne sausage, macaroni pie, orkney, scotland, Scottish breakfast, seaside, shiba, shiba inu, stornoway black pudding, tattie scone, yesnaby on September 16, 2015| Leave a Comment »
I’m on holiday in Scotland at the moment so the only thing I’m working on is my holiday sketch journal.
That’s a deliberately poor photo, by the way, as I’ll share my sketches properly when I get back at the end of the month.
For now, here are some of my holiday snap so far.
Posted in Sketchbook, tagged art, blackburn, bolton, diary, drawing, Inverness, journal, komondor, leek, nhs, orkney, pen and ink, scotland, sea, seaside, shepherd's hut, shiba inu, sketch, sketchblog, Staffordshire, sunrise, watercolour on September 28, 2014| 2 Comments »
I’ve just got back from a two week holiday to the north of the UK, and it didn’t go quite as smoothly as planned…however here’s my travel journal for the trip, enjoy!
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged beekeeper's quilt, bookbinding, carved pumpkin, chelsea flower show, cockerpoo, colin salmon, coptic binding, crochet, despicable me, dogs, drawing, eoin macken, gardening, grow your own, hallowe'en, illustration, jack russell, kensal flea, kew gardens, knitting, komondor, minions, mymsin shiba, painting, peacock, pen and ink, puppies, puppy, seaside, sheringham, shiba, shiba inu, sketching, snow, sue perkins, taxidermy, tea, toft alpaca, vegetables, watercolour, year review on January 6, 2014| 3 Comments »
I don’t think I did a review of 2012, but I’m feeling the urge to do one of 2013. It’s been a funny old year: frustrating in some ways and yet hugely rewarding in others.
January was a quiet month. I made some beautiful books, and then went to the seaside for a few days…
With February came snow, but also sunshine and the opportunity to catch up with friends (of the two-legged and four-legged variety). Bookbinding also went on, and there was some dabbling in machine sewing too.
March was busy busy busy! Commissions, an awful lot of sketching, more snow, knitting, and even some redecorating…
April was remarkably warm, filled with seed sowing, gardening, my birthday, and the joyful discovery that sketching dogs is fun!
May was another hot month, and once more full of gardening and dogs, with the added bonus of the Canal Cavalcade and the Chelsea Flower Show…
June kicked off with a visit to Kew Gardens, and the fine weather continued throughout the month. There was a lot of gardening, enjoying the fruits of my labours, and also some new glasses (which I like very much, so you’ll have to excuse the very rare selfie)…
July was an absolute scorcher, and there were many days spent painting and drawing, harvesting veg and cutting flowers galore, and just generally relaxing in the garden.
August saw me house and dog sitting for three weeks, which was absolute bliss. I also got to meet some actors, draw some more dogs, and have a bit of fun with minion illustrations… oh yes, and we found out that we were expecting a puppy!
The summer finally seemed to come to an end in September, with the weather finally starting to cool off. Our puppy was born on 9th September, and his birth precipitated a lot of frantic knitting and crocheting! I also tried dyeing things with elderberries, making things with felt, and visiting our new puppy.
October saw the start of a warm autumn, and it was a month of quiet crafting (I finally finished my Beekeeper’s Quilt!), and a lot of puppy visiting. I also learned two new skills: how to make a sari blouse, and how to taxidermy mice…
November was the most exciting month of 2013 for me, because it was when our puppy finally came to live with us! I also got to masquerade as Santa Claus, and had a stonkingly good time at the Christmas Kensal Flea … but a lot of my time was spent with Loki (whose favourite place to sleep is still on my lap)…
Finally we made it to December, which was full of bookbinding and other crafts, playtime with the pup (and as you can see, my lap is still his favourite spot for a nap, no matter where we are), and generally just enjoying life.
Overall 2013 has been a pretty good year. I’ve made a lot of beautiful things, sold a lot of beautiful things (yay!), and got a beautiful puppy who has brought so much joy into my already happy life. I just hope that 2014 is as good!
Posted in Sketchbook, tagged birds, daffodils, dog, drawing, illustration, komondor, orkney, pen and ink, puppy, sketch, sunday sketchblog, wildlife on April 28, 2013| Leave a Comment »
More little sketches of Pebbles the pup this week…
Not as good as the last lot, I definitely think that the watering can series is my favourite so far. I ran out of photos to work from, so I turned to some other hairy beasties…
Meet George (the big one) and Hoolie. They’re komondors, and are owned by friends of mine who live in Orkney. Hoolie is one year old this week, and will eventually have a fully corded coat like George’s.
A couple more sketches, the last two for this book as I have finally reached the end of it.
I always feel a bit emotional reaching the end of a sketchbook, but do enjoy looking back at everything and of course there’s something exciting about a new book and all those blank pages to fill!
I think I’m on my tod for the Sunday Sketchblog this week, Hayley‘s got quite a lot on her plate, and Jenna got married yesterday so please join me in wishing her all the best!
Posted in Uncategorized, tagged dogs, dogs by tim flach, komondor, post, puli, socks on April 24, 2012| 1 Comment »
I’d planned to write about a recent project today, but I’ve come home from work and been ambushed by two unexpected parcels. Both made me smile very much so I thought I’d share the love.
First up we have some gorgeous socks (I love socks, they’re a bit of a weakness of mine) and yummy treats (although my dentist would disapprove), together with a photo of two of my furry nephews.
Courtesy of the lovely Anna. I will have to get my pins out and model the socks later this week 😉
The second parcel is a birthday present from my friend Jayne (who spoils me absolutely rotten, she’s very naughty!)…
An enormous and beautiful book! I’ve had a quick glance through it and it’s full of gorgeous photos, I can’t wait to curl up with it and pore over it properly 🙂 Is that a komondor or puli on the front cover though? I can’t tell, can anyone else hazard a guess?
Yesterday was a busy crafting day and hopefully I’ll get a chance to share some details about it tomorrow. Right now though I’m cold, still slightly muddy as I’ve not yet got changed out of my work clobber (I was completely distracted by the parcels!), and in desperate need of some lunch so I’d better go and sort myself out.