A Quick Update on the Temperature SAL

Spent this morning getting caught up on the Temperature SAL

Don't all those lovely warm colours around the outside make a difference to how it's lookin
In unrelated news I've had the chalk pastels out - here are some bubbles I drew, not quite sure I got them right, but it was fun playing with all those colours

Online Advent Calendar - 22nd

Welcome to day 22 of the on-line advent calendar, as organised by Jo of Serendipitous Stitching
For your advent picture I'm sharing this lino-printed poinsettia card I made

Also a picture of my "Geek-mas" tree. Extra brownie points for anyone who can identify all the fandoms. 

Jo also asked us to share our favourite Christmas song. Lots of my favourite songs have already been chosen, but I thougfht you might enjoy this - the Sans Day Carol, a traditional Cornish Christmas Carol.

Happy Christmas to you all

The Village Show

It was the annual village show last weekend, and I thought you might like to see some pictures.
Prize winning vegetables:-

Not that I can claim credit for any of those, other than the very tiny cherry tomatoes in the centre and a bundle of rhubarb

There were some lovely flowers as well (again none of these are mine)

We did rather better in the Art and Handicrafts section though, winning lots of classes between us as well as three Best in Shows

Mr Penguin, who I've shown on here before won Best in Show - Handicraft

and I got a 1st with this floral arrangement in the class called "Beachcombing"

Eloise got a second place with this life drawing:-

Naomi won the class for Celebration Cake

 and got 1st and 2nd with her pastels (you can see her winning one. of ballet shoes.in this picture)

The large watercolour painting of silver birch trees in mad colours is mine and took Best in Show - Art. I suppose I ought to buy a frame for it...

Village Show

Yesterday was our Annual Village Show. Here are couple of snaps of some of the flowers and vegetables.

And these are some seriously impressive parsnips

No I didn't grow them. I did get a 2nd place with some rhubarb though.
We did rather better than our measly one 2nd place card on the cookery and handicrafts side though, bringing home three trophies and a few class tickets.
Here are a drawing and a pen and wash I did which came first in their respective classes

I also got the cup for Best in Show - Handicrafts for this cross stitch.

I think the judge was mostly impressed by the fact that it's done on black 32ct fabric.
Naomi and I did some of the more involved entries between us, and got the cup for Best in Show - Cookery with our "Afternoon Tea". Ours is the second one in the picture, with the blueberries and strawberries scattered through it, not the one nearest the camera.

And the trophy (it's a rather impressive cut glass bowl) for a themed display based on a novel for this Pride and Prejudice themed entry.

Naomi also did really well with her baking, missing out on the cup for most points in cookery by just one point.
Lets just say we are going to be eating a lot of cake for the next couple of days.

Pinterest Project Time

Anyone who reads this blog regularly will know I'm all about the Pinterest. I'm always finding ideas, projects or recipes on there to try.
With wildly varying degrees of success.
There have been pinfails, too painful to share. Yes, cheese and pear tart, I am talking about you.
But there have also been minor successes, and I've had a couple of those this week.
The first pin that inspired me was of  a pyramid shaped zipped pouch (tutorial at handmadiya) made from upcycled jeans.
Upcycled jeans, honestly, how could I resist? Here is my version.

I tweaked the tutorial slightly so that the zip was attached on the outside, because I had a pretty lace effect zip and I wanted to show it off. The two panels of cream lace either side of the zip are also upcycled. I'll let you guess from what. (Hint: what garment might have two matching curved lace panels?)
My second pin find was this beautiful illustration of Daenerys by Marta Deer. I am in awe of  this lady's work.
I used the original artwork as my inspiration for this drawing in pastel pencils on dark paper.

The dragon scale effect is made the same way as Naomi's scale effect makeup in the last post, by dabbing colour through a pair of stretched fishnet tights. Not something I'd ever thought of keeping in my art box before...

At Last! Some Stitching!

Yay! I finally did some stitching. This little Holly Girl is part of a design from a French cross stitch magazine (De Fil en Aiguille - Nov/Dec 08 issue), that I acquired from Sally (Thanks Sally). There are loads of lovely designs in it so expect to see more soon. I stitched it using orphan threads from my "I am never going to stitch that hideous cover kit but the threads might come in handy" bag and made it up into an ornament with a gold ric rac edging which is a bit sparklier than it looks in the picture

And another view of Prague, this one drawn with Derwent  pastel pencils on black Murano pastel paper

Dandelions Again

Given the one-woman campaign of genocide I wage on them in the garden I seem to have quite a soft spot for dandelions as a decorative motif. I saw this tutorial for "pomdelions" at Flamingo Toes, and decided I needed some in my life.
Plus I'd just bought a rinky-dinky gadget called a Multipom, which allows you to make multiple pom poms at the same time.

I repeat. Make multiple pom poms. At. The. Same. Time.

So, I knocked out a bunch of pom poms in less time than it takes to say "are you finished with that cereal box yet I want to cut it into circles?".
I left them a bit shaggy instead of tidying them up as per the multipom directions because I thought that was more dandelion-y, and pretty much followed the tutorial, except that I made my calyces from felt not crepe paper, and I hooked the florists wires through and secured with green tape rather than hot gluing them.
Here they are on my hall table. (Next to a less than awesome watercolour of Naomi)

Too much fun for words. Anything in this house that stands still for long enough will soon find itself decorated with pom poms...

Grow Your Blog Winner, Gifted Gorgeousness, and a Spot of Art

Thank you for all the kind comments on my Grow Your Blog post. There were 47 in all. Mr Random.org picked out a winner for me and that winner is Karin G (Gingko et Coquelicot).Karin, I've emailed you, could you please let me have your postal address.
Also, because it's the fifteenth of the month it must be time for Jo's Gifted Gorgeousness SAL
This month it's fallen nicely as it coincides with reveal day for the Needlecraft Haven Valentine Exchange. For this one we had to stitch a card and send a pair of socks and matching skein of thread.
I got this beautiful card and fab unicorn socks from my anonymous Valentine.

And this is the card I sent. The design is a free one from Appleseed Prim, and it is stitched using crescent Colours - Bing Cherry on an orphan piece of linen.

Finally, I'm feeling brave today so I thought I'd pop a spot of art work out there, dandelions in watercolour and ink.

Avast Ye Landlubbers

I do like me a bit of a brooding pirate.
Here is Colin O'Donoghue as Hook from Once Upon a Time. I make no apologies for having shared this picture before. It bears a second glance I think.

Anyway, I've been playing with my pastels again. Drawn myself my very own Captain Hook.
Quick swashbuckle round the Spanish Main anyone?

Fun with Felt and Playing with Pastels

Here are some fresh and fruity felt coasters (ooh the alliteration, my English teacher would be SO proud) I made in the vain hope that we might actually get a summer. The original idea came from The Purl Bee via Pinterest. I didn't use their templates though, I cut concentric circles with my cuttlebug and winged it with the segment pieces.

And, also based on something I saw on Pinterest, a cuddly toy camper van, because everyone needs a squishie VW. And because I had some orange felt left. I've got yellow and green left too. I feel a fleet of vans coming on. I  used a bit of  vintage braid for the hanger, I thought it went with the seventies hippy feel, and I gave it a little Cornish bumper sticker, which you probably can't see due to the rather blurry picture. I should have made the logo a bit bigger I think.

And finally for something completely different :-
a drawing, in pastels, of the frankly ridiculously handsome Mr. Tom Hiddleston, as Loki Laufeyson, from the movies Thor and Avengers Assemble.
By me, for Eloise, who shares my admiration.

Another Carnival and Vintage Pretties

Fun and games for all the family on Saturday, rigging up the float with a generator and lights for Launceston Carnival.
(Eagle eyed readers may notice that this picture was not taken in the dark and the lights aren't on, - it was before the parade - but you can see the disco ball and crystal prisms).
It was a lovely Carnival, and the girls got a 2nd place (you can see the blue certificate on the float).

In the 2nd picture you can see a, well actually I'm not sure what to call it,  picture? embroidery? a something anyway that I made.

I downloaded the wonderful French Haberdashers' receipt image from The Graphics Fairy (if you aren't familiar with this wonderful blog you really need to check it out), printed it out onto cotton photo fabric, then I appliqued it to a piece of linen, embellished it with ric rac, ribbon, and vintage lace and buttons and stretched the whole thing over a frame canvas style. I'm really pleased with how it came out.

Bulbmania

We went to the Eden Project yesterday, because Naomi wanted to see "Bulbmania". The place was packed, but we had a lovely day out. The first picture shows some of the bulbs. The next one shows Eloise and David, and I have captioned it "You look through this bit".
The girls got to plant some lettuce seed to bring away, and we all had a go at an art activity called "The Big Picture", where there was this big picture (you'd guessed that bit, hadn't you?) cut into little numbered pieces about the size of a matchbox, and you took one and reproduced it, using the crayons/ felt pens etc provided, onto a bit of card about the size of paperback book, and they put it in the right place on the mural.

Finally LOL at me today! I've been rushing around all day today, convinced we were going to a party tonight, and I've just looked at the invitation and realised its tomorrow! Good job I noticed before we went there I suppose!