Going Chunky!

A while ago my Hubby acquired (as men do) some oak blocks of wood.  Although he mentioned it in passing and I was half aware of him having fun in the garage with his log splitter I took little notice.  I did notice however our new style kindling wood sitting pretty by the wood burner.  Then one weekend he arrived home with more and this time BOY I took note!!!

OAK! lovely OAK, Chunky OAK, Blocks of OAK not scrappy  slithers of off cuts that you'd burn!!!

  

Before he got the axe out I helped myself to the nicest bits and stashed them away on the shelf in my studio.

I look at them daily and have ummed and aahhed about free standing plaques? or cutting them into stacking blocks? 

.......then a commission came in........a commission for one of my House Plaques.....

 

I have done this design for a while now, its an adaptation from my doodle houses I turn into New Home Cards.  I love doodling houses, flowers and gardens...they remind me my childhood tv days, watching Playschool and programmes like Rainbow where life was innocent, detail didn't matter, flowers could be bigger than windows, colours were vivid and birds always sat chirping on Chimney pots.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDFUnLDxCZo

So I got busy......and Muddy Puddle who is generally quite 2D got CHUNKY!

These are the first two......My theory behind them is everyone's house is a different style and has a scheme, we all have a colour palette that sums us up.  Our décor in all the 5 houses we've owned has always been reds, plums, creams and greens.  My mum on the other hand is blues, teals and terracottas and my friend red, blue and cream.

 More shapes, more sizes, more styles and more colour schemes will follow soon.......

Christmas all Packed Away

From a blogger who hasn't blogged for the last 10 months, it only seams appropriate that I put 2012 to bed by saying farewell to Christmas.

As you may know I am truly obsessed by Christmas.....I love every minute.....from going decorations over board, to hanging up stockings, to leaving Santa a snack, to sprinkling reindeer food, to making sleigh tracks in our gravel, to eating turkey for days on end, its just the best!  

Today we took the tree down and boxed up all the decorations.  So to cheer me up I have just down loaded the contents of my memory card.  Over a cup of tea I have enjoyed a truly red, white and green slideshow over and over a good few times!

So............

from Gangnaming round the tree.....

.........to Santas new style snack........

........to eating far too many sprouts........

 .........its Bye Bye Christmas.....and its all packed away :( 

Spring Cheer!

My kitchen table is looking rather Fun, Fresh, Bright & Spring like this morning after a bit of impulse buying this weekend. Believe it or not I don't really like shopping and like it even less at the weekend when its busy, but needs must when your daughter comes home on Friday with a hole in her school shoe!

So off we popped to Worceseter yesterday, I'd rather have been at home enjoying the sunshine so I only parked for an hour.  But didn't we do well, as well as the school shoes I managed to grab a few bits for me!  On on route from car park to shoe shop and back again I couldn't resist......some new (rather funky) pumps for me for when the time comes to ditch the boots, a Cheery Cherry Blossom Mothers Day Card for my mum and the brightest yellow flowers I have ever seen!

Love the feeling that Spring is in the air, enjoy the sunshine x

 

Doodle Time!

As a Member of The Kuretake Design Team I have been called on to get doodling with their pens!  They are hosting a new challenge over on the Kuretake Blog this month and the theme is 'Doodle Mania'.

To get the challenge under way the Design Team have been doodling mad in every way they know using a variety of their pens.

I decided to keep mine simple.....

5 pens, 5 colours, 5 minutes

I had great fun filling the page!

The whole thing was created using their Painty Pens.

Do pop over to the Kuretake Blog over the next few days where you can see more of the design teams work and find out more......

Dotty Followers

(All Available on Joy)

I've had a little influx of new 'Followers' just lately and I wanted to just take a minute to say.....


 Hi, Welcome & Thanks for Staying x


I'm sure some of you out there have a vision that I dress head to toe in Polka dots, I have to say I've thought about it.....but other than a few Dotty Scarves and a Polka Dot Sun Dress thats it.


I often think of you all too.... I doubt very much there's 180 Spotty Dressed Followers out there but I can dream! 

....and the Award Goes To....

This week I have kindly been awarded the Liebster Blog Award from Dinki Dots. I have to say I was a little surprised as my blog was very neglected last year. There's no excuse I just lost my way a little and never seemed to find the time to write a decent post. I wasn't sure how many of you out there I was actually reaching these days. So thank you Dinki for having faith in my blog, I'm now doing quite well with regular posts & I receiving this has given me even more reason to keep it up!

So onto the award.....

The Liebster Award is awarded to a 200 or less followers blog in the hope that it will bring new visitors and followers to their blog. If you are happy to accept the award the steps are:

Thank the person who gave you the award and link back to them.

Post the award button on your blog.

Pass the award on to 5 bloggers who inspire you.

Leave a comment on those blogs to let them know.

Like I say having been a bad blogger last year and being out of touch with some of you thinking of 5 has been a hard one. My first thoughts were my good old faithfuls that I have followed for sometime on here & on face book. I love their products, am inspired by their success and have even made the odd purchase or two! I straight away thought Sara At Kitty Eden, Becky at Dots & Spots, Kirsty at Sixty One A and The fish (not) at Crafty Fish, but these are all huge success's with huge quantity's of followers so are unable to receive the award.

So I have thought and I have come up with 3 that make me smile. They are right up my

street....fun, bright, fresh, colourful & a little quirky twist!

MOO BAA CLUCK

A fellow Mum and Fellow Painter of Wood and A Very Talented Illustrator

http://moobaacluck.blogspot.com/

THREE POTATO FOUR

An Art Teacher With an Amazing Imagination & Hair Probably Full Of Glitter!

http://sandy-chibichan.blogspot.com/

ARTWORK BY ANGIE

An Old Friend From Art College Days Who's Business Is Currently Taking Off Big Time!

http://artworkbyangie.blogspot.com/

Gabs, Sandy & Angie I do hope you accept the award, you all more than deserve it x

A Valentines Gift From Heaven!

When I came down stairs on Valentines Day to find my hubby had left a little pile of pressies on the kitchen table I have to say I was surprised & flattered (a card would be pushing it some years!)

But when I got down to the opening that emotion turned to shock and elation, just look at this book......Orla Kiely, Pattern....... I say a book, its more than a book, its like a huge encyclopedia of beautifulness on every level.

The cover is a tactile texture, the pages are thick, smooth & glossy and the content, well I'll still be oohhing over the content in 10 years or so.

Stunning photography....

Perfect layout.....

and pure pattern every step of the way....

So I had a challenge on my hands having received a gift like that......I had planned on cooking a nice meal after the kids had gone to bed but I figured I'd best go the extra mile and add some little extra touches as my way of saying thank you.

Having consulted my 8 year old daughter we embarked on our mission (which she thought was great!). First she made a menu, then picked snowdrops from the garden, then helped me with the table.

(all this was hidden from view when he returned from work)

Then whilst he was in the shower she picked his clothes (with a little help from me swaying her off the idea of a tie!) and laid the menu & clothes out on the bed. I in the maentime created the table and began on the food.

The menu was...

Pate with Cheese Boule Toast

Cannelloni with Tomato & Mozzarella Salad

Chocolate Cheese Cake, Strawberries & Cream & A HEART SPARKLER!!

The whole thing went down very well and making that extra special effort even after 22 years together was well worth it xxx