What a week!

What a week! First we had a burst pipe which flooded the outhouse, then the car started overheating, and last night the gale force winds blew out the boiler's pilot light and wouldn't let us re-light it :(  Add to that my busiest ever work week ..... and you have one very frazzled being!!

On the positive side, I have finally found the courage to get out the baritone and join a band :) The first week was pretty scary as they were playing quite tricky stuff .... but this week was much easier .... practising for a concert. Much to my amazement I was able to play nearly all the music!

Today I had to relax with a little word art - another version of my word for the year. Hand drawn this time, then digitally blended with some plant images to complete the effect.

Having Fun!

Everyone's idea of fun is different, but for me ... fun is playing with images, colours, shapes and textures. Here are a couple of my latest playtime results!

The original images were hand drawn with pen and ink, scanned into the computer, then digitally blended with altered photographic  images to produce a pleasing end result!

Playing with words!

Thanks to my friend Sue, I have just discovered a new fun website. You can find it at http://www.wordle.net/. You feed it some text of your choice push the create button, and it creates a random design from your text. As I was thinking about my new word for the year, growth, I fed the wordle with a dictionary definition of growth and this is what it came up with

..... well sort of ..... there are all these fun buttons for you to customise the colours, and then I couldn't resist adding a little photo editing of my own by blending in a christmas photo! (if you want to see a larger image, visit my flickr photostream here)

Why don't you take a trip over to the wordle site and have some fun!

Happy New Year - 2009!

Happy New Year to you all! I just can't believe that it's another new year already! 

So much has happened in the last year, and so much is still happening. I am at long last starting to get my business off the ground, which is partly why I haven't been posting to flickr or blogging for so long! I have been busy designing new logos and a brand new look for my website which I uploaded this morning!! Check it out here.

I've chosen my new word for the year - growth - but I haven't got round to illustrating it yet ... something to look forward to! [Last years word - transformation - soooo described my year!] Have you chosen a word yet?

I'll just leave you with a few of my favourite Christmas images.

Lazy Week

I'm having a really lazy time this week! The children are on holiday from school, so no need to get up early - which means I can work through the night without having to worry about getting up in the morning - my kind of life!

Since the wonderful sunshine last week we have had a full range of weather including snow! Thankfully it seems to be getting warmer again now, and the sun has been shining again.

I have been working on a new series of zentangles this week. The original zentangles are drawn by hand in pen and ink, then scanned into the computer and digitally altered. First I have cut the zentangle from it's background which then allows me to add a drop shadow to make it look 3D.

Then I have used the image to generate a pattern for the background to which I have added colour. The first zentangle has had it's colour inverted.

I have finally managed to finish my largest zentangle to date. I started it ages ago but was daunted by the sheer size of white space to cover and left it while I waited for inspiration. The original size is 5" x 6".

Yesterday was an even more amazing day - more like summer than spring! My good friend from uni, Aaron, came over for lunch after which we went out with our cameras to take photos. (He just likes to make me jealous with his new SLR!)

The hedgerows were alive with all kinds of insects: these are a few that I managed to capture!

These ladybirds definitely think it is spring

I wish I knew the names of some of these insects, but it is not something I know a lot about!

But they are definitely enjoying the sunshine!


I just managed to get a picture of this bee feasting on the pollen on the blossom, but unlike the bee of the other day, this one was definitely in a hurry and didn't want to stay in one place for too long!

I must get back to updating my art journal soon! I got as far as planning all the entries the other night, and sketching out rough plans for them, then I fell asleep! There has just been so much going on this week.

One last photo before I go - one of the beautiful flowers in my garden.

Where did March go?

Where on earth did March dissappear to? April already and now the clocks have gone forward the evenings are getting lighter - it really is beginning to feel like spring is here!

It was certainly a lovely day today. The sun was shining, so I took my camera and went out to see what I could find.

This bee definitely thought it was spring as he buzzed about getting his fill of the pollen! There were plenty of flowers for him to choose from.

Walking along the sea front just above the promenade, the paths weave over and across each other, making interesting patterns and in many places the cuttings are held back by stone walls. I really liked the textures and patterns that these two walls made.

I walked down to the promenade and discovered this dried seaweed hanging on the railings

- obviously left over from the last time we had stormy weather!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter to everyone! I love Easter, but I haven't enjoyed the cold weather we've been having! I went out on Sunday while it was snowing to take some pictures before it all melted! This pot had been blown over in the wind!

As you can see, we didn't get very much snow, and within an hour of it laying it had all melted away! It lasted a bit longer in a few places, like along this rumble strip which runs up the middle of our drive.


I don't know where the time has been going just lately, but I have been busy keeping my art journal going, and creating new zentangles.

This is today's entry - some small zentangle boxes. I quite like the effect they have when they are joined together like this. I think I will have to try some more complex patterns based on this theme!

I've also been drawing zentangles on small tags. This is good fun as they only take a few minutes, but they look quite effective!

I'm hoping to try my hand at some more books later in the week ... I really want to try some coptic binding! I'll post the results when I've had a go!

Where did that week go?

My goodness me - where on earth did that week dissapear to? I can't believe it's nearly Sunday again! If I post all this weeks photos today this will be one very long entry ... so i'll just post the ones that I haven't put on Flickr.


This is the second hedgehog book I made last week. I was pleased with the overall effect, but dissappointed with some of the details ... more practice needed!

On Wednesday, I finally managed to successfully make a working Jacob's Ladder mini book! I have been trying for months, but couldn't get the balance right ( you need a certain amount of weight in the pages for it to work smoothly). But this time I got it right (old beer mats)!

It works beautifully!

In the process of hunting for instructions to make the Jacob's Ladder book, I came across another set of instructions for a Jacob's Ladder book which I used for a birthday card today. I forgot to take a photo before I sent it off, but I'll make another one soon, and I'll photograh that to show you. It certainly went down well. It's ten year old recipient reckoned it was his best card, and went round showing it to everyone!

Books and Pens and Washing!

After a busy Saturday, I had a really restful day today! I made my second hedgehog book yesterday but forgot to photograph it, so you'll have to wait to see that one! I put lined paper in it so that I could use it for writing notes.

I spent my WH Smith's voucher on Wednesday buying "The Artist's Way" by Julia Cameron. I've thought about getting it for a while, but couldn't decide if it was a good idea or not, so when I saw it on the shelf on Wednesday I took it as a sign that I should buy it! So I've just started my first week of the course. I'll let you know how it goes!

I treated myself to some new fine line marker pens yesterday, so last night I had to try them out! Here's the result -

Today I added this to my art journal -

Now I'm off to write my lesson plan for Tuesday's computer class!

Hedgehogs and Art Journals

I have finally done it - created my first hedgehog! The last time I did any serious bookbinding was ?? years ago when I was at Art College in Rochester. So I was a little rusty and very glad of this helpful tutorial from jackie at TJ Bookarts. But I really enjoyed it, and I'm sure I shall be making some more very soon!

That said, it must be very tiring work - I was half-way through uploading this post last night when I fell asleep! ... Must have been al that excitement!

Today I have been playing catch-up with my art journal.

Now I just have to catch up with my Paper Adventure layouts, and I'm right up to date!!

Winter sunshine on the beach

Today the sun was shining, so I headed off to the beach to take some photos! These are just a few of the photos I took. As usual, my landscapes look at shapes, reflections and shadows rather than traditional postcard views.

I really like the shape of this promenade shelter.

The shadows cast by these railings were quite amazing. Add the fact that the sand had been sculpted by the wind and you get some very interesting shapes.

In the winter, the sand is built up into high ridges to act as a sea breaker to the high winter tides. This makes walking difficult because of the deep soft sand, so boards are laid to make access to the lower beach easier.

I just really like the shape of these seats!

After an hour, my eyes were streaming - my ears were aching - and my fingers were numb! It was really good to get back in the car which was lovely and warm from the reflected sun.

Time to go cycling?

What a beautiful day it has been today - I started thinking about getting out my bike ... until I looked in the bike shed, that is ...

... then I decided I'd stick to taking pictures round the garden for now, and couldn't resist this lonely crocus in the sunshine.

But I will get my bike out later this year!

Mothers Day

Today was a sad day in many ways - my first Mothers Day since my mum died.

I thought the children were going to forget about it, but they surprised me with a card, some chocolate, and a W.H. Smith voucher - which I am very much looking forward to spending! Thank you!

My journal only has one page for the weekend, so I chose to do a page illustrating Mothers' Day.



I chose the daffodil as its petals are supposed to represent the six letters of the word mother. I miscalculated the number of petals on the first daffodil I drew, and so had to make a new daffodil to stick over the incorrect one. So todays entry is my first journal collage!

Being Creative!

I really feel that this year is becoming a properly creative year. Apart from the fact that I have managed to update my blog regularly since the beginning of this year, I have been trying out so many new creative avenues, and discovering abilities I never dreamt I had! My latest endeavour has been to start an art journal. The inspiration for this came mainly from the amazing journal entries published by Ann-D on the Creative Mom Podcast Flickr group pages.

I bought myself a greatly reduced page-a-day diary and cheated a little bit by creating this image of my word for the the year on the the page for January 01! Then I left lots of blank pages and made this entry for yesterday.

It was such a cold, windy and miserable day yesterday that I decided to create this warm sunny image to cheer me up! Both images have been created using fine line permanent markers for the outlines and Derwent watercolour pencils for the colour.

Time Flies!

I really don't know where this week has gone to! Speaking of time - I made this layout with a photograph of my brother's back to front clock the other day.

I've been having fun since Tuesday night with my car overheating and pouring steam out of the radiator - much to the consternation of other motorists! ... but it seems to be sorted now, thanks to the ever helpful mechanics at my local garage - I really don't know what I'd do without them! I really must remember to put water in the radiator ;)

Today I had fun catching up with one of my friends from University. If you're looking in Aaron, this is what I did with the first daffodil and your lettering ...

What do you think? Definitely a transformation! I did a little bit of tweaking with the lettering to fill in some of the gaps, but I'm really pleased with it now - Thank you!

When I got home today, I spotted that the snowdrops had opened out and just had to take a photo.


Don't they just look like little people!