My hydrangea

Today, I decided to try my hand at painting hydrangea. It is a beautiful flower, with huge blossoms, blue and pink, and white. Simply lovely.

I practised for so long until the petals started to resemble the real hydrangeas! It wasn't easy at first, until the coin dropped, and then it started to come together. And so, here is my practice sheet. As usual, I cannot waste the paint left over on my palette, so in the corner there are some strange yellow leaves! Hahahah!!!

Another little pot

Here's the third in the series, this time with red roses:

This one will also be heading out to Kulim, as a gift :)

Making-over an old bento box

My pal Emily sent me a couple of these bento boxes, and here's one of them that I've decorated with yellow roses, edged with a bit on 'embroided linen' ;)

Blue flowers

I don't know if these flowers actually exist in real life, but they're something I love to paint, and so here they are, on another one of those little pots:

This is also a gift, so the many views I have taken are really for me - to remember what I've done, and how I did it.

One-stroke cherry blossoms

In light of the fact that it will be celebrating the Chinese New Year soon, I am in gift mode again. First I did the rose bowl for Chuan's sister, and now this one, for my favourite sister-in-law. When I first went home to Kulim, she was the one who opened her home to us, and made us feel very welcome. Something like that isn't easily forgotten, and every year, I try to take her something special. I hope she likes this, and the other one I have planned for her.

It's a little glazed flower pot - for either a plant, or a little bunch of flowers.

I am quite pleased with the way it's turned out :)

I bought this clock for Chuan, for Christmas, many many years ago. I thought it had a nice old look about it - like the clocks of our youth - and it's been on our shelves since then. It had a couple of tole roses painted on it, and some leaves and curly-cues.

When I started painting, I said that 'one day' I'd paint over them not-so-very-well-done roses. And yesterday was the day it happened. I had been itching to do it for a bit, and Chuan said that my roses are much prettier than the originals (that's why I married him ;), so I did it. And here's the result. I should have taken a 'before' shot, but by the time I remembered, it was too late. SO: you'll just have to take my word for it that this is an improvement.

(I added on a couple of roses on the top, for good measure. Actually, I had extra paint on the palette, and I couldn't bear chucking it! Hahahahh!)

Here it is, back in its usual place on my bookshelf. 

Here's a view that captures one of the roses on the top. 

Here's a close-up of the 'new' roses, and more dust. 

A place for my earrings

I was looking for a way to keep my earrings sorted, and my Chuan reminded me of the way I used to do it at our old place: stuck to a piece of styrofoam, that was stuck on the wall!!!

He rummaged around in his room, and came up with this piece. Of course, he suggested I paint it, and I thought that was a brilliant idea. 

After it was painted, I decided to crochet a little hooped thingy, to enable me to hang my dangle-y earrings with ease. I fixed this to the styrofoam with map-pins, and voila: here it is:

It's really light, and sticks on the wall with double-sided tape

Even the sides weren't spared ;)

A close-up of the roses. Can you see the little daisy-like emboss on the styrofoam?

Chuan says it's important that you see where it is, in relation to the rest of my walk-in-closet! Hahahah!

Here it is, with the full load of all the earrings I own!

And here's a better view of the crochetted thingy I made, for easy hanging of the dangle-y earrings :)

My studs just need to be plonked into the foam. I keep their backs in a little bowl on the shelf next to this.

My mug tree

Usually this mug tree is expensive. But, at a newly opened Giant supermarket near here, I found this one for only RM7.90, which I thought was a steal!!!

It's not of the best quality, of course, so a little bit of paint and some happy sunflowers made it a suitable addition to my kitchen!

A little bowl of roses and rosebuds

This will be a Chinese New Year gift, for my sister-in-law. Chinese-new-year red roses and rose-buds. It will be filled with jelly-bubbles and a daun pegaga (Asiatic penny-wort) plant. If I have the time, I'll update this with a picture of the bowl with the plant happily growing in it :)

As usual, I've photographed the bowl from all around - so I will remember how it looked, and see how I can improve on my roses! Yes, there's always room for improvement.

Heart of flowers

A dear friend celebrates her wedding anniversary in December, so I painted this for her, and her husband: she is the E and he is the S.

I took my time over this, starting with the background, which I painted in pastel-green and cream. I painted a three-petal design on the green stripes in warm white, and edged it the stripes in old gold.Then, I painted in the vines, plotted in the places for the roses, and put in the leaves and ferns. 

Then, I painted in the roses, the rose-buds and the forget-me-nots.

And since it is no longer with me, I have these pictures to remind me of what I did, and how I would improve it were I to paint something similar again.