It's about time!

Hello.....I am still here, alive and well (almost!). I have just had the busiest week ever with an exhibition opening at work (I work in a commercial art gallery) and a tea party today for Miss G who turned 4 this week. Hopefully this coming week will be more peaceful and I'll sleep easier.

Grace had a lovely birthday and her gorgeous Daddy made her a visual treasure hunt to find her box of treasures. Each clue led her to somewhere in the house where the next clue was and the final picture was on the computer showing her where her pressies were hiding (under the kitchen table!). She loved it and had so much fun doing it....thank you Daddy X






Here are some pictures from today's party and the cake that you see Grace with was made specially for her by one of my sister's friends and it was truly amazing. It tasted like a shop bought cake and it looked amazing. Miss G loved it.

Looks like I'm not the only one

I forgot to post this the other day. Hubby came home with the Metro (free paper found on public transport routes) the other day with a reassuring article affirming that my knitting is not madness or a bit odd (I knit on the trains to and from work and I get a few strange looks!). The article is worth reading and gives some handy websites for patterns and wool etc.. Looks like knitting is making a much deserved comeback.

Neglect is a terrible thing.

I have been neglecting my blog and I think I am having withdrawal symptoms...I'm irritable, tired, anxious! Or I could just be busy being a mum ha ha x I have still been busy creating things but I just haven't had the chance to show you all. On Monday I took a day off work to concentrate on my paintings and to hopefully get some natural daylight...ha! It ended up being the dullest day ever and worked all day with the lights on, but I did get a big-ish painting almost completed and worked on the other two. I'm still not overly happy with them. I should post them and let you tell me what you think, but only constructive criticism would be allowed....telling me they are lovely won't cut it!

Thanks to my beautiful friend next door (LauraBaillieDesigns) I have 4 commissions of gloves and I sold a couple of drawings last weekend. Happy days.


I've started my Christmas cards and busy trying to think of creative things to make for Miss G's butterfly tea party which is a week on Sunday. I thought of butterfly paper chains and butterfly cakes so any other ideas would be appreciated.

Miss G and I are chillin after a busy trip it Ikea and Marks and Spencers who has 20% off everything today...sooo many people! Definitely an incentive to do all of my shopping online this year.

All at once

I have been meaning to post most of this for the last week but just haven't got round to it! Such a busy and creative week. It started last Thursday when Miss G and I had a day and home (which is not the norm) as the weather was howling and it was just nice to bum around in our PJ's for half the day. My lovely neighbour Laura gave us some gorgeous beads and wee cardboard boxes and Miss G had a bead set left over from a few Christmases ago so we decided to make more bead bracelets and decorate the boxes with sequins and beads having covered them first in PVA. I must admit that I did most of it as Grace was having way too much fun playing with all the tiny beads, mixing the colours up and spending half the time on her hands and knees picking them up off the floor. But I must admit she did a really good job of finding all the escapees and she is still finding them as she found two more on the chair in the kitchen! Who knows how they got there as we were doing the boxes in the living room!

This beautiful hedgehog was created by Grace at nursery and has pride of place on our mantelpiece.

Grace also helped me make the invitations for her birthday party. It's going to be a butterfly tea party with butterfly decorations, a butterfly shaped cake and butterfly inspired food etc. I know butterflies are a bit out of season but I think it's a shame that her birthday is so late in the year so we thought we would bring a touch of spring/summer into the house for one day before Father Christmas descends on us. As you can see I drew the invitations and Grace coloured them in with her paint set. We had red ones and yellow one and green ones...such a clever wee soul.


Grace had her play mate Leah over today for some creative doings and here are two of the plasticine jungle animals that we created (I did the elephant but Grace added the green ears!). I love plasticine but I get a bit neurotic about the colours getting mixed up!

Since my final year of secondary/high school I have been doing life drawing of some sort so I was thrilled to discover that there was a local drop in class which is only £3 for two hours (very reasonable). I was a bit rusty so i am only going to show you the drawings that I was semi-happy with. I'll try and post my drawings every Wednesday/Thursday so you can see what I get up to. Hopefully my drawing skills will improve and I can gain a bit of confidence. Is there anything you have been wanting to do again that you used to do or want to learn a new skill etc?


Sorry this has been such a long post but I've been dieing to share with you what we have been up to. How has your week been?

Drum roll please.......

As you might have suspected I have decided to open a knitwear shop on Etsy. It's called KnitTwits and I opened it this morning with just two items for sale but I have at least another five items to add in the next few days. I hoping to sell fingerless gloves, leg warmers and scarfs, but I have grand plans to learn how to knit big chunky bed socks, beautiful hats and mittens. So as always watch this space.

In all its glory

I am so happy with my second Treasury on Etsy and had lots of fun creating it. I got the idea from my magazine Easy Living (see below) that I get on a monthly basis (thanks to my lovely Mother-in-Law for generous subsciption) and they had a gorgeous Christmas Gift Guide with a whole page of Russian themed pressies saying there is a "current vogue for all things Salvic". Anyway, it caught my eye but I think I prefer my fellow Etsian's take on this new trend.

I am still knitting like a demon and still really enjoying it. I am desperate to learn how to knit socks and hats and I am considering opening up another shop on Etsy with my knitted wares so watch this space.Some fingerless gloves still to be finished....

Another Treasury

I managed to bag myself another treasury! I thought this time I would do a Russian inspired treasury as every magazine I open at the moment seems to have lots of Russian themes. I hope you like it.

http://www.etsy.com/treasury_list.php?room_id=19366

The Cocker's New Coats

I thought I would share this gorgeous photo of my ma and pa's four Cocker Spaniels who have had their haircut. Going from front right anti-clockwise we have Phoebe, Scarlet, Millie and Dexter. Don't they look handsome.