Purrr

Photography and Obsessive Tendencies

The other day, the sun was streaming in onto my desk. As usual, there were amultidude of items strewn around. Three of these were my staple gun, a pebble and a white piece of paper.

You might think it a bit strange, but I became a bit obsessed with the textures there and had to take a load of photos. Can you see the fantastic contrasts there? The absolute white, the transparent, pool-like blue through the plastic and the earthy, solid, completely real stone.

 
I'm not sure if this just looks like an insane person talking, or if it's OK to get a bit obsessed with things like this sometimes!

On ths same day, I was walking back from the post office, and a few big gusts of wind blew up, knocking the spring Magnolia petals off the trees. It seemed incredibly poetic to me. If you look carefully here, you can see a petal floating off...

and after:

xxx

Whooooo Are Youuuuuuuuu?

I finished this little one last night! It was so much fun to paint, I'm working on two more Alice paintings today!

"Alice In Wonderland - Who Are Youuuuu?" (5 x 7 acrylic on canvas)

She's right here.

xxx

Vintage Postcard Ladies

I've been so looking forward to sharing these with you! They were finally delivered this morning by our friendly postie.

As you have loved these images so much, I thought I'd make a proper effort and make them into authentic-looking vintagey postcards, by using an old design, scanning and rehashing it just a touch, then popping it on the reverse of my own Parisian lady images. The printers have done an excellent job of bringing them to life. YAYs all round for AwesomeMerchandise!!!

Who could resist scribbling here?

Not me...I couldn't help but imagine a little lady very similar to the ones depicted, using one of the postcards to write to her friend back in London Town:

I'm keeping a stash for myself, but there are some for you too! They're here, in the shop!

xxx

Bodiam Castle

Hello there! Did the weekend treat you well? We had a lovely trip out to Bodiam Castle yesterday...photos at the end of this post. Firstly, I promised to show you a few more of Wednesday's Update items!

Two new Jane Austen ACEOs!


...and prints of the new (now sold) Lizzie/Darcy painting!

Lots more prints coming soon, too...and more updates here both tomorrow and Wednesday. Woohoo!

Bodiam is such a picturesque place, I found it difficult NOT to take good photos, so all credit goes to the original architects and Nature, not me. Hee hee :)

Inspiring medieval getups!

Koi in the moat. It's obviously cleaner than it used to be when the castle was inhabited!

A castle pixie, which we happened upon!

...and my own version, available as an 8 x 10 print (I'm afraid the original is spoken for) on Wednesday!

More update doodahs tomorrow!

xxx

Free stuff!

Anyone like free stuff and colouring? Me too! If you're at a loss for something to do this weekend (or indeed, if the kiddos are), grab some lovely hues and have a go at this ;)

View this photo

xxx

Yarn and fluff.

Ahhh - this is one tiring day! I realised how horribly dusty things have become around here (how does it seem fine one minute, then you turn around and BAM! The dust bunnies are everywhere, hopping around under your feet, on top of door frames, beding the bed head (sneeze!), so am off play the cleaning elf in a  little while. For a quick break, i'm sitting in the front room with my little girl, a steaming mug of coffee, a cheese sandwich and this:

Really hoping it will turn into something gift-worthy pretty soon!

Happy Friday and weekends!

Alice sends her regards, too (to you, as opposed to her right foot...)

xxx

 

...once in a while, this happens...

Yup - I'm on a vintage kick again. My head is simply filled to the brim with vintage decor and dresses - how very girly! Bleugh! Love it!

So, one way of satisfying the urge for wonderful oldey-timey things is to just paint them. Here's the first of a few ladies who will be hopping over to the shop. In fact, she's already there!

Original acrylic painting - The Green Wall (5" x 7")

I wonder if I can get a whole gaggle of these lovely ladies together. Talking of gaggles of lovely vintage ladies, check out these gals!

Toodlepip!

xxx

Chai Glorious Chai!

Yes - it's time I extol the virtues of this amazing beverage and share a few of it's spicy possibilities with you.

Most of us are familiar with the usual beloved cuppa here in the UK, but we rarely take it further. I dare you to be a tea adventurer!! OK it may not suit us all, but I know that most of you will be up for it!

Sweet, spicy, milky and the perfect refreshment for an afternoon at home. Ahhhhh! My favourite version is a simple mix of black tea, cardamom and cinnamon. You might like to experiment with other possibilities, mainly using the sweeter spices like ginger, nutmeg, coriander seed, liquorice root, star anise, peppercorns (whole, not ground ot chopped - too overpowering - unless you like that kind of thing!), cloves, a pinch of saffron if you're feeling flush, and even rose petals - YUM!

This is my favourite recipe for the moment:

I wish I had some nice rolled assam to hand, but alas, the good ol' PG Tips will have to do ;)

Cinnamon & Cardamom Chai

1 cinnamon stick (waaaay superior to powdered)

1 cardamom pod (green, not black - I find the black too smokey in flavour)

1 tea bag

1 heaped teaspoon demarera sugar

Glug of milk (dairy or non-dairy work equally well, depending on your taste)

I have a bit of a thing about cinnamon!! Look at the grain on that baby!

Break off a piece of your cinnamon stick - a couple of inches will do fine. Then crack open your cardamom pod, just so the liquid can infuse and swirl around the seeds inside while it brews, but not so much that the seeds spill out - that just makes it annoying to drink!

Pop them in the bottom of your cup and boil your water.

Pour water over your spices to just an inch at first, to help them infuse nicely, then swirl for a few seconds before adding your tea bag and topping up your cup.

Leave the flavours to sort themselves out for two minutes, remove the tea bag, then add your sugar and milk.

ENJOY!

OK - back to work I go - I'm hoping to finish the previous post's painting in the next couple of hours :D

xxx

 

"The ideas dictate everything, you have to be true to that or you're dead." ~ David Lynch

Don't you agree?

Hello! I've been beavering away on a few different projects the last couple of weeks, so haven't been putting energies into keeping in touch with you guys :/ Sometimes I wish I could be one of those people who can survive on four hours of sleep per night, or even six, but I seem to be at my best on eight or nine. Plus, as the fantastico Dina (whom I don't see nearly enough, but we're planning on meeting up again with our respective sketch books soon) reminded me last week, on a short jaunt around the city - even people who claim they can get by happily on so little sleep are probably just kidding themselves - surely it can't be healthy...can it?

Tea at the Tate!

Recent projects:

A close up of two young cold-water fellows who will be joining the shop very soon! Meet Mr Beluga and Mr Narwhal! I can't get anough of those littIe smiles all whales seem to have! There is a little more work to do on them, but it won't be not long now :)

...and a few more peeks at the Twin Peaks dollies and scenery for the update this WEDNESDAY 25th Jan!!:

Can you recognise them?

Misty Mountains!

Thanks for reading and thank you new Facebook followers! (we're >>HERE<< in case you haven't found the FB page yet :)). It would be great to meet you!

xxx

Twin Peaks Fest Here I Come!

Busy busy this week!

I'm so excited about the Twin Peaks Fest UK.

Originals of Josie, Audrey and Coop and the Llama are being framed as we speak and I'll be picking them up either today or tomorrow to take into the TP gallery on Friday morning!

This feels like the culmination of my 20-year obsession with this series. I don't even care if nothing comes of it and I end up selling nothing! What a weirdo!

I've had some trouble getting new business cards printed up in time, so I'm making some extra special ones up here instead (see photo above) ;)

Wish me luck!

xxx