Friday 29 July 2011

Better late than never!

Well, a few weeks ago now the very lovely Jane from Teawagon Tales passed on a bloggy award to me. Her post about it is here. I am only just getting round to posting about it - I am very disorganised! Now, I think that the rules are that I'm supposed to write seven facts about myself. Well, I thought I would do it in picture format, and also, I only have six! (What can I say, I'm a rule-breaker, baby!) I hope you enjoy them.







I'm quite new to this crafty bloggy world, so these awards have probably done the rounds a lot already. I will pick to pass these on to Teacups and Bunting, No Knitted Knickers, Sweetpea and Sailor and The Leopard Anchor, all of which I think are comparatively new still (but all delightful!) and might appeal to you if you haven't heard of them yet!

I hope you all have a fabulous weekend x

Sunday 24 July 2011

Ten in ten!

Well, the other week I did this post which was seven days in seven photographs. I had been having a little nosey at Tales from Cuckoo Land and enjoyed this post, which was a brilliant spontaneous day in pictures type affair. Cuckoo made the fab suggestion that she try my idea and I try hers. So here is my effort, ten pictures in ten hours! (OK, it's ten pictures but it's not quite ten hours. I wasn't as disciplined as Cuckoo! I couldn't persuade my phone to repeat an alarm every hour like she did, so I had to rely on myself to take the pictures every hour, and a couple of times I didn't manage it! So it's more like ten in sixteen really!)


Getting ready to go into town and wrangling my fringe unsuccessfully

Having a coffee at Terry's in the Potteries market

Picking up some skincare in Hanley Lush

Stopping for a coffee and a very naughty pain au raisin. It gave me the tummy ache, but it was totally yum!

Back home, sitting at my mum's dining table and enjoying the warm weather with the back door open

My brother and I made an amazing fruit salad, but when I went to wash the strawberries we had a man overboard situation and this little fella plopped into the washing up bowl!

Apricot Swiss roll after lunch. More naugtiness. Delicious though.

Tabitha getting sleepy in the evening

The fruit salad. It was divine!

Reading my book before bed
I was on leave from work and went to stay with my mum, so this is, unfortunately, not a normal day for me! It was much nicer and more exciting though. Hope everyone has had a good week!

Thursday 21 July 2011

Stormy weather

I had some lovely comments about my little sketch in my last post, so I thought I would show you something proper wot I drew! A couple years ago, Mr Doodle and I went on a little weekend to Robin Hood's Bay in North Yorkshire. It's a beautiful spot near Whitby and Ravenscar, a little town set on the side of the cliff, with beautiful little crafty shops and a little grocer's, and a lovely beach. It was February when we went, so not exactly a spectacular day weather-wise, but I took some photos of the beach and bay, and from one of those I drew a sketch which I gave him for a birthday present.

It's now on the wall in his room (I framed it and everything, although it took a while to get a frame I thought was right) and it makes us smile whenever we see it. (I realised when I went to watermark the pictures that I didn't take one showing the frame, so you'll have to take my word for it that it looks good!)




I put that middle one in to show you it has my signature on! I realise the reflection off the glass probably ruins it but I didn't want to take it out of the frame in case I smudged it or something!

My mother recently went on holiday to the seaside (New Quay in Wales) and got some great pictures of rocks and splashing water, which I have earmarked for replication in pastels - they have great texture. I do like seasidey pictures! What do you like to draw?

Thursday 14 July 2011

Inspiration: Howl's Static Blog Post

I re-watched Howl's Moving Castle at the weekend. The art is just beautiful, and the story so romantic. I haven't read the original book yet, but I have it, courtesy of a very kind friend. I think the images are beautiful and inspiring. They even make me want to paint landscapes in watercolour. (I suck at watercolour!) All images from Google:





I drew a quick sketch of Howl myself:


I have ideas buzzing round in my head and I've been thinking about them on and off all week. It's harlequins and card suits and chess boards and the flash of the gold of a necklace... Hmmm. It is nice when something plants a seed of an idea!

Sunday 10 July 2011

Seven in seven

Seven days in seven photos!

A cup of Earl Grey after work

My wool arrives!

Yummy stir-fry for tea

My gorgeous headband from Beauxoxo

A hook case dry run

Chocolate cupcake!

I finally got my mitts on it.

I hope you've all had a lovely week.

Saturday 9 July 2011

On the case

It was my mother's birthday on July 1st, and since she is very much into crochet herself at the moment, I thought a good gift might be somewhere to keep her hooks. I started with a very simple pattern from here, and adapted it so it was taller and wider!





I got the flower pattern from this month's issue of Mollie Makes, which I managed to track down in my local WHSmith. At first I thought I'd be disappointed because I couldn't spot it with the crafty stuff, so I decided I'd do a quick recce round the rest of the magazine section just in case while I sent Mr. Doodle to buy a ticket for the Euro Millions. As he walked off, I turned around to see a separate stand of 'featured' magazines, and lo and behold, there it was. I couldn't believe my luck! (It later ran out, as I didn't win the lottery. Ah well!)

Wednesday 6 July 2011

New things and a little project complete!

I have been doing things veeeery slooowly these past few days, as the sunburn I mentioned on Sunday was actually a lot worse than I realised and by Monday it was agony. I had coated myself in Factor 50 but somehow missed a small patch on my back and it now resembles bacon! Crochet has been the perfect activity - it lends itself to leaning forward, and is distracting without being too complicated, so the past couple days I've been making some hearts out of the end of a random ball of wool. I decided to make them into a little garland, and I also had a first attempt at Picot edging. Today I stitched the hearts to the 'string', and voila!



I didn't realise how apalling the light was! I am photographing it now anyway though, because my mornings and early evenings are currently spent cleaning and treating my burn! Silly sausage. I hung it around the top of my bed. The colours don't really go, but I couldn't care less - it is bright red and has hearts, so I love it. It will make me smile when I wake up in the morning and don't want to go to work!

I also had a delightful moment of happiness yesterday when I received a couple of parcels through the post. On Monday I only owned two crochet hooks - a 4mm and 2.5mm, one of which I half-inched from my mother! So I decided to change that and by Tuesday I had these:


They are colourful! My hook collection just septupled! (If that wasn't a word already, it is now!)

I also wanted some odds and ends to make some little bits and bobs like flowers, little toys or dolls and shapes of various descriptions. So I hit the internet once again and yesterday I got these:



I want to climb into the pile and roll around in it! They are all DK and are crying out to be made into happy little things. I think some little amigurumi dolls might be on the cards. I love the bright colours, and there are loads of little balls so lots of possibilities. It was a little parcel of pure happiness.

Have you had any exciting things through the post lately?

Sunday 3 July 2011

Lazing on a sunny afternoon

Yesterday I went for a lovely walk, ate some lovely food, and bought some lovely things. It looked a bit like this:



It was a glorious day and I got a bit sunburned. It is years since I've been sunburned, and I am very careful with suncream because I'm very pale. Unfortunately, I hadn't realised I'd missed a spot on my back, so I now have an attractive red patch and stink of Sudocrem. That'll teach me!



I went with my mister to a lovely local restaurant for lunch. We had some yummy food - mine is a 'vegetable stack' burger. I didn't eat the bread so for me it was just a vegetable stack! It was very nice though. Then we had ice cream from Thorntons. Mine was one scoop of rum n' raisin and one of raspberry cream. In a tub, because I don't eat wheat. (Hurrah for the tub, no cone for me!)



We had been to a car boot sale first thing, where I picked up a lovely project bag for my crocheting. I have been spending far too much time online looking at yarn in lots of wonderful colours and I'm finding it hard to know where to start, but at least now I'll have something lovely to put it in! We also nipped into Ryman where I found a set of soft pastels (I don't do oil, dahling) and also some A3 black card, so Thunderbirds are go on the old jellyfish project. I think that's what they call progress!

I am currently sitting at my lovely desk listening to Bif Naked and glancing every now and again at the postcards I received from my mother and brother who were on holiday last week without me. They had a glorious time at the seaside! I am hankering for some seaside action and Mr Doodles has promised to take me to the beach next weekend. Let's hope the weather holds, and if it does I am being super duper extra careful with the Factor 50 this time round!

I hope you're all having a lovely weekend!