portraits from the museum

Just a few of the ladies and gentlemen I met last Thursday.




Sorry, I've not been particularly inspired to draw anything yet this week.

the weekend

A rain-lashed trip to Barmouth and Dolgoch Falls.

Happy New Year

How was your Christmas? Mine was OK - nothing mindblowing, but good in its own way. Did the usual family stuff, then saw friends for New Year before heading to London to redecorate my old flat. Now I'm exhausted...

I'll be back and blogging again from Monday onwards. Have a good weekend, all.

house hunting and the weekend

View from Offa's Dyke Path near Bodfari. Photo by the husband.

We spent a windswept and squally two days in Wales, looking for a house to rent. Happily I can report that we have found somewhere! It is a little converted stable in the grounds of an old rectory. The last occupier was an old lady who taught piano until the age of 93, and the piano is still in there. I think we will ask to keep it and try to find some piano duets to play! There is also a stair-lift, which we will ask to be removed :-) Fingers crossed that we can secure the tenancy, as the rent is cheap but the area is stunning. There is a footpath just opposite that leads up into the Clwydian Range, from which there are gorgeous views of the Vale of Clwyd and places as far away as Snowdonia.


Bwlch Pen Barras.


Bwlch Pen Barras.

I hope you had a good weekend. I got to see my family and make fun things to eat, like black sesame daifuku-style mochi, ice-cream mochi (hilarious and messy fun). I helped my dad make wontons for lunch, which was just the kind of thing I was hankering for last week. His filling is so much better than mine and I can't work it out, even though I use the same ingredients. Like him, though, I am a cook who feels her way around the composition of a dish rather than following a recipe, so I suppose I am just getting my proportions a bit wrong!

the weekend...

was lovely. Seeing my university friends in Devon, eating lots of food and messing around in the countryside. The drive to and fro wasn't too much fun but it was well worth the trip. I miss them already. (That's the husband with the red jumper around his waist. I am, as usual, hiding behind the camera lens).

I'll be busy again this week and then we will be going up north to find a house to live in. I'll keep trying to stop by and write something here. Hope you had a good weekend too.

My Daddy

Happy Father's Day. I love you so much.

the weekend

was wholesome. We went on a pleasant 6 mile amble between the villages of Cavendish and Clare in Suffolk, and took in a few antiques in Clare. I nearly bought an oversized tweed 1970s jacket suit for £12 and a Scandinavian enamel milk churn but in the end I bought neither, which only serves to increase my thrifty wholesomeness I think. It was all very Constable and bucolic, and the weather made for some interesting light in my photos. All that farmland makes me yearn for something a bit more wild, though. Something a bit more Welsh? I haven't adjusted any of the colours because I'm on the computer with the colour problems so sorry if they are a bit off. That said, the light really was weird on Saturday.





On Sunday I finished off my little sewing project and puttered around in the garden, which has gone BOOOOOMPH!! in the last week (yes, that is my onomatopoeic word for 'the goddamn bindweed has shot up and is strangling my lavender etc.'). I also made some lovely Finnish style gingerbread biscuits and a tasty fennel risotto. Achievement!

a few more from Japan

because I am still jetlagged and have nothing to say for myself this morning apart from 'is it Saturday yet?'. We both woke up well before 6am, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed but I suspect, like every day this week, I will be in a drooling stupor by 3pm. I might wake up later and say something useful, though.

a quick hello from Japan

Two things to note so far:
1) I cannot deal with eating so much SALT! I swear I am dying, even though the food is great. Will tell you all about it when I get back.
2) I have been sleeping too much

The picture above was taken in Tokyo wholesale market at dawn on Monday. It was amazing. Hope you are all keeping well! x

seriously...

I think I'm going to have to wind down the blogging for a few days - this deadline isn't a joke any more and I am falling behind by the minute. I mean, animating a pair of lungs throwing themselves off a diving board is not to be laughed at. So I will be posting lightly this week, and then I will be away in Japan for the whole of the following week.

Hopefully I will see some amazing and inspiring new things to talk about, and maybe get some drawing done whilst I'm there. It's hard to get excited about something when you've got no time to think about it much. But I know I am really looking forward to it.

Today I thought I'd show you another photo of my family - this time with my wonderful Dad in flip flops and some quality knitwear.

this picture rocks

My sister looks like a little Liam Gallagher type here in her khaki parka. Look at the furtive expression on her face! Priceless.

Snow!

Some of these were taken early this morning, the last two later on when it was brighter. That is the back of our house with the snow slowly melting off the thatch.

as promised...

Here's a creature I did for a pitch recently. OK, so I promised I would draw something new, but I got too excited by the snow falling outside and went into the garden to freeze my ass off taking photos instead.

some lucky person...

is going to get these silly egg cups in their Secret Santa gift next Tuesday, complete with awfully hand-crocheted egg cosy hats and something else. I am having Christmas lunch with my dear old friends at 12foot6 during which the giving of useless and slightly ugly gifts is a tradition. Please excuse the terrible night-time lighting.

I have been working on a few small illustration projects, none of which have really yielded much to look at, I'm afraid. So I thought I'd share one of my favourite ever pictures of my sister and I. The colours, the poses, the hands, the clothes! Everything is just perfectly sweet.



I promise I'll draw something to put up later today. I promise!

sketchbooks and the weekend

Can you imagine how overjoyed I was this morning to receive a big package containing ten sketchbooks and a paintbrush? I bet your imagination can only glimpse my gleeful capering. Yeah, I'm that sad - I even sniffed the things like a drug. I feel like they are going to save me somehow...

I am determined to cheer up this week and write about jolly things. I had a good weekend. The husband and I went for a cheesy English day out at the seaside in Southwold. Luckily we escaped the rain all day because we were on the east coast and it was pissing it down everywhere but. It was marvellous fun. We ate fish and chips and played in the sand. The light was curious that day, and the sky was immense.