In the garden and doodling

Hello, today has been another glorious spring day and early this morning I took heaps of photos of what is flowering in the garden at the moment.  I am also overjoyed that both my bush/dwarf beans and climbing beans have germinated and are bursting out of the soil.  Because I have so many photos, I've put some into collage form to make it easier than scrolling on forever through this post.  Flowers first.

While snapping photos, I saw this bee drinking nectar from Ajuga flowers.

I love this next photo, so happy with how it turned out

These are the bush or dwarf beans.  The fuzzy bit in the photo is the netting we have in place to protect the plants.  Unfortunately it doesn't stop the slugs and snails.

Climbing beans.

So in amongst the gardening the last few days, I've been popping up to the studio for an hour here, half an our there and had some fun doodling with pen and water colour pencils.  Some of these little doodles might make it onto a card.  I've not done this type of sketching for some time and feeling rather rusty.

I could have reduced the size of these images so you can't see all the rough bits and mistakes but I'm really not bothered.  The yellow flowers in the white jug with the blue pattern is my favourite.  Lots of improving to do.

Wishing everyone a lovely weekend.

Anne  xx

Nature journaling

I though I'd try my hand at a few pages of journaling about nature.  I used found images, commercially made stamps, home made stamps, sketching from found images and lettering.

The home made stamp images are in the top middle and right hand side of the page.

 This Sunday I leave Melbourne for a two week visit to see my lovely mum in Western Australia.  I will hopefully have some nice country images to share with you.

Anne  xx

My week

Last weekend our family travelled to Bendigo to see my niece perform in her school production of Les Miserables.  

 My niece pictured below played the role of Eponine.  We were amazed and wowed by her singing voice and acting abilities.  The whole production was fantastic with the music performed by a combination of teachers and students from the school.

We stayed the night with my brother and sister-in-law and were treated to an incredible brunch including this platter of wonderful fruit,  followed by hot drinks and this yummy orange drizzle cake made by a family friend also staying over.

  

 The late night proved just a bit too much for Miss Genevieve who snuggled under this gorgeous quilt made by my sister-in-law.

 

 After brunch I went for a stroll out in the garden and discovered the family cat Mr. Mistoffelees sunning himself.

 

On the drive back to Melbourne we past Hanging Rock a former volcano.  This isn't a very good photo, it's much more interesting formation up close and personal.

Monday was my sister's birthday so we decided to go to the Acorn Nursery, one of our favourite places to visit where we can not only enjoy the flowers and plants for sale but the wonderful food at the cafe and wandering around the gorgeous gift shop.

I made this birthday card for my sister.

Hubby has been working on tidying up part of our back yard where our bins are kept.  We have pavers from previous projects available to use as the base.

While he was moving dirt he came across this Land Crayfish which I've blogged about before.  Our chook made short work of him and was gobbled up in seconds.

I've been working on some more illustrations/sketches for card making purposes.  It's such an enjoyable thing to do but I really must get back to my oil painting which has been somewhat neglected the past few months.

The creative pursuits certainly helps keep me calm during times of worry.  My Dad spent some time in hospital a week or so ago as he was having problems breathing.  He is home now and has oxygen available to him when he needs it.  It is sad for me to see this once strong farmer unable to do very much anymore due to his health but am so happy he is in good spirits and I get to speak to him everyday on the phone.  With my Dad not well, Mum is basically doing much of the work that use to be shared between them which is tiring for her.  Not that she is complaining, she never has or will and is so appreciative to be able to care for him.

My sister and family are visiting them in a week or so to be followed by hubby and Charlotte early November and then when Genevieve has finished exams, she and I will visit in late November, early December.  I am indeed very fortunate to be able to visit so frequently not only to see them but to help where I can.

I hope you all have a lovely week ahead and thank you so much for stopping by.

Anne  xx

Working companion

Hello, how are you?  Today the sun is shining again which is lovely and it's quite warm, a very pleasant 22C.  I've washed and hung a blanket on the line with the hope that it dries before it cools off late this afternoon.

I thought you perhaps might like to see my working companion.  I need good light when I'm sketching and that usually means on the living/dining table.

Looking for ideas and inspiration.

Fiddling around

Stripey, my purring working companion.  He was so happy to be sitting on me and was smooching my chin.

 

Yesterday when I made my morning latte, I had a happy little accident with the milk, a heart in my froth.  Unexpected things like that bring a smile to my face.

Anne  xx

The benefits of elbow grease

Hello!  How is your weekend going so far?  We've had sunshine today, the perfect day to be up a ladder and using a little elbow grease.  Where live beautiful though it is, has some draw backs.  It is cold and very damp in winter and slime and green muck tends to grow on everything outside including the guttering.  I wanted this 13 year old guttering to look like new again.  This photo doesn't show just how grotty it really was.

 

 And here we are at the end of the day, no sunshine but lovely clean guttering and eradication of all spiders and webs.  My arms have had a very good workout.

 This week I've been fiddling with a pen and watercolour pencils to make a few cards for Father's Day, one for my lovely Dad and one for my hubby.  Dad received a card with this sketch on it.

 

This was inspired by a photo of a vase of flowers taken at Chateau de Villandry in France.

   

  The sketch below is on the card for hubby.  Luckily he never looks at my blog so he won't have seen this when I give it to him tomorrow for Father's Day.  This sketch was also inspired by a photo taken in France.  After visiting Monet's gardens, we had a lovely meal at hotel down the road.  The had beautiful gardens to explore and this little/big pot was tucked away in a corner, planted with Impatiens and flanked by a large pillar and huge chunk of stone.  Trying to create the patina that was on the walls is very hard with watercolours, I might try this same photo in oils one day.

 I prefer the first sketch.  The Impatien sketch was done quite quickly today in between elbow greasing and when hubby was out visiting his black and white camera club exhibition in the city.

One of the other things that has been taking up my time this week is genealogy.  I'm researching my Dad's Mum's family and certain members are proving to be quite elusive.  It is so much fun and I had a very good friend come over on Thursday to help me out which was wonderful as she has quite a bit of experience with genealogy.

Wishing all the wonderful Dads a wonderful Father's Day tomorrow.

Anne  xx

Doodle bird

A few days ago I was doodling in my sketch book which I use for ideas for card illustrations and stamps.  This little bird evolved and I decided to turn it into a stamp which I've called my Doodle Bird stamp.

 

Sketch book doodles.

Doodle Bird stamp and images.

A slightly cleaner Doodle Bird.

My thanks to Chantal of Chantal Vincent Art (see the button on my sidebar), for inspiring me to have a shot at making my own stamps.  I am happy to say that my technique for carving stamps is improving.

By the way, check out Chantal's blog for a gorgeous free twitter hummingbird design for your blog.  You are so generous Chantal.

Happy creating everyone,

Anne  xx