2012

May this be a good year for us all!

Merry Christmas and Happy New year!

A fiery set of four: Wine glasses

I've been wanting to do this for a long time, and I just couldn't get the courage to try it until now.

The long stems are green: with black, and touches of red - to reflect the colours in the petals.

I thought a nice dramatic black centre would be just right. And, when you finish your wine, a bloom will be staring right back at you.

I signed them all, on the reverse of the bottom
- there, but not in-your-face ;)

Where's the wine, already?!

They've only just been completed, so I need to let them dry for a day; bake them; rest them for a bit, and then they'll be ready to be packed.

I've planned these as a Christmas gift for a dear friend. I hope she'll like them. And use them!

A little green bottle

I tried something new this time: I swirled paint around the inside of the bottle - instead of painting, or daubing it, on the outside. It's taken a long time to dry, and I'm not entirely convinced that I like the effect. Ahh well, it may grow on me.

I tried it with two bottles. Why? Because after squirting paint into the first, and swirling it around, I found that I'd used too much. SO: the next bottle jumped in to finish it all up.

(These are two bottles my husband found on the beach. And when he saw them, he was pretty sure that I'd enjoy painting them :)   I think they were brandy bottles - clear and colourless, and just about 7 inches or so tall. They're a little concave at the back: just right to slip into your back pocket, and fit nicely over your bum? That kind.)

To state the obvious: this one's painted with a rose, rose-buds, and little-bitty leaves, in metallic acryllics - white, black, and a touch of red.

Metallics never photograph well - with or without the flash. It's either the camera or the photog  :(

Christmas-ing up my place a little

I've resisted the urge to do this for three years, I think, but this year, I thought I'd do a little bit to festive up the place a bit ;)

So, here are some pictures of some 'corners' of my home. I've yet to take shots of the candles, and votives and candle-holders of snowmen and Father Christmas, and loads of others... well, maybe later. And maybe not 'loads'! Hahahahah!!!

Isn't this the cutest snowman ever? Hahahah. My daughter gave him to me, for Christmas years ago.
I painted that poinsettia, and the paint isn't quite dry, as can be seen. I just free-handed the outline in gold,
and when it was dry, I filled in the red, and then the green.

Another side of the same fabric box (from Ikea), with holly, this time. 

This is the one-stop-centre at my home: everything gets chucked here: handbags, car keys, money, sunglasses, everything!!! It has
a life of its own, and will be weighed down with stuff, and beg to be cleared. Let's see how long it stays this way . . . .

I love these big, red balls! I've also got a couple of green ones, here, but they hiding ;)

This wooden soldier is my mum's, and he stood sentry at her place,
until she moved in with me a few years ago. He says he's happy
 to stand guard near my radio, cd player, and never-used-tv! 

SO: the 'real' reason I was so enthusiastic about painting Christmas-y stuff, was to finish up my gold-glitter paint. Even after all
the projects I'd thought of, I still had some left in the bottle. I found this box (Ikea again, how ever did you guess?!!!), and decided
to free-hand this design until I was down to the last drop :)

It now will sit pretty on the table int my reading corner -  just inside the door, next to me rocking chair!

This was the first project I did, actually: the placemats, for Chuan and me. I free-handed the outlines, and then decided that
I would only fill in the green and the red. Otherwise, it would be overkill, I think. See those wispy bits? I was going for
those christmas-tree-type spiky leaves. I think I failed miserably here :(

The two placemats I did: and we'll be eating off them - on plates, of course! - tonight, and all through the Christmas season. They are really very easy to
look after: just pop them in the washer, and then the dryer, and they're clean again, and good to go!

My doodly pig!!! Chuan gave me this pig, with paints, a lonnnnnnng, lonnnnng time ago, for Christmas. I never got round to painting
it, poor thing. Yesterday, when I wanted to - the paints were all hard as stone. Surprise! Surprise! 

A view of its other side ;)

And there it is, sitting pretty on a dresser :)

Thank you for dropping by!

Leafy shelf

My husband has been busy around the house lately - must be the rain, I think - which is keeping him away from his first love: fishing!! ;)

One of the projects that was finished recently, was this shelf, for my bathroom. I needed somewhere to keep my face creams and whatnot, and finally it was done.

It was so pretty, I decided to paint on something simple along the side - and I kept to the same palette as my bathroom, which has basically green (with cream) floor tiles, and cream (with green) tiles half-way up the wall.

Just finished :)

We must have a close up, to show that I've yet to master my curly-cues. Sigh.

And now, weighed down with all the stuff I need for my face, and then some ;)

Irises on a black bin

I decided to paint irises, this time - faithfully following the style of Donna Dewberry's one-stroke flowers. I needed tall flowers for this tall bin, and her irises were perfect for the role.

I always have paint left over, and this time, I attacked the cover of the Davidoff coffee bottle: and it could now be a pencil holder, or for a keeper of brushes, or whatever you like :)

When both projects were dry, I covered each with two coats of Mod Podge, sanding them down in-between coats. I love the way Mod Podge brings everything together nicely, and gives it all a lovely depth and glow.

Just finished, but not yet top-coated - on my untidy desk!

Not my best picture, eh - taken with the flash off, and in the room light.

The bin, all ready to be used: with a liner fitted, and sitting next to the girls water bowl :)

Now, it's the other one! Hydrangeas

I painted the cover of the other pouffe yesterday. No need to say any more . . . .

(I know it says, The English Cottage on the pix :(  I exported a bunch of them from Picasa and lazily added the watermark to all. I've posted pix of my girls asleep on the other blog.)

My black pouffe gets a facelift

We've had this black-box-like-Ikea pouffe for years. And it's been relatively safe and unmolested for most of its life, except when I yanked off the fabric cover and washed it, once in a while.

Yesterday, I decided that it needed a facelift, and so I painted its face!

The pictures below tell the story:

I'm keeping this one small, because it is the only one I have,
but it's so blur. Sigh. It's the 'before' shot, yennyways,
and they always look like this :(
That's TOFFEE, btw

Two shots of it - above and below - with my other two girls: Jolie and Bella.
 It's dry and ready to be sat on :)

   

And the close-up, warts and all . . . .

I painted this is ordinary acrylic paint. I didn't bother with the fabric medium because, I felt, this didn't need to feel soft. For the same reason, I didn't rush out and get fabric paint. 

When I'd finished, I let it dry over night, and when it was completely dry, I put it in the dryer to set. It could've been ironed on the wrong side to 'set' as well - but the dryer is the easier option for me.

It will wash normally, and be just fine. I know. Because I have a tee-shirt blouse that I painted months ago, and it's still bright and chirpy after many, many washing-machine washes, and drying in the dryer.

Fabric painting is different, and the techniques I needed to use were also different. So, I did enjoy doing this piece :)

Doodling on a whachamacalit!

My husband says it's called a 'cutlery drainer', and I usually call it the forks-and-spoons thingy, so yah, I don't know what it's really called!

It comes in plain white, from Ikea's kitchen department - and it can be used either at the sink, or as a flower pot.

Yennyways, nothing can be plain white, and stay plain white, in my house anymore - it screams: DOODLE ME!!! So, I did - and here are two views of it, already in use - above my sink.

I'm-a-loving it :)

An amazing carnation

Looks too easy, doesn't it? That's because he is a brilliant artist, that's why! Watch Miguel Rincon create this carnation, and its leaves upside down with seemingly no effort at all.

London and Lyon

I'm back in London, after spending the weekend+ with my daughter, her husband, and his family in Lyon. I haven't taken many photographs because my son-in-law has a new camera and he's snapping away at everything, and he's promised to send me his shots. But, until I get them, I've decided to put up some of mine here.

The opening shots are of London's King's Cross station ...

King's Cross St Pancras

a detail on a column

It's cold, and the leaves are turning to yellow and gold - except in this
little alcove

And now, on to Lyon:

The view from atop a hill, looking down on Lyon

We arrived at the basilica just as the bells pealed for the start of mass. So, we didn't get too much of a look-around inside. The outside was magnificent enough, I feel, to not make me feel too bad about missing the inside.

These details - above and below - are for me, and my doodly-art ;)

A sneaky pix of the inside while mass was being sung. We were there for about
five minutes. Brought back a lot of old memories of church-going-times for me.

The clear-blue skies of Lyon, on Sunday, were amazing.

It was tough getting down the huge steps; but a lot tougher climbing back up
to the top.

Roses, and rose-hips, growing right in the centre of town

A decent shot of the basilica, atop the hill, from Vieux Lyon