Winna Winner!!!

I am so sorry it has taken me until now to announce the winner of my little giveaway... I don't know about you but I have had a really hard time using my Blogger account this last week?  Anyway, fingers crossed I will get to the end of this post and it will actually upload!

So, as you can see - the winner is the lovely Winna!  I will be in touch as soon as I finish this post and will put the finishing touches to my parcel tomorrow.  Though I have decided to leave sending it until after the festive season, then hopefully it won't risk being lost in all the extra Christmas post whizzing around our little planet....

Back very soon! L x

I missed my first birthday...

Gosh, it's been way too long!  I can't believe I missed the first birthday of my little blog, and I really can't believe that it is now over a year since I started it!  Anyway, for all you lovely people who visit here from time to time (EDMers etc) I would like to offer a little **GIVEAWAY** as a way of saying thank you for all the support and comments and, well for just quietly reading my ramblings over the last twelve months.  It is all very much appreciated you know.  The main part of the giveaway will be a set of three of my polar bear cards...

...they have been left blank so you can use them for anything really, just as a snail mail treat to send a friend, who doesn't like snail mail from time to time?  I will also add something 'Yorkshire' to the package and, after everything I said in my last post about Mail Art, I will add a little artwork to the parcel itself, just to make things a little more interesting!  If you approve and fancy owning the eclectic collection just leave me a comment here.....  I will draw a name from a (Santa) hat on Saturday 11th December.

Sadly I still don't really have much finished artwork to offer up at the moment, but not because of lack of inspiration this time thank goodness - rather a case of life getting in the way.  I do have these little tomato sketches, not the most exciting subject but I just loved the colours and had to have a go at painting them.  Really good fun and all good watercolour practice!  They cover EDM 24 - because technically they are fruit, right?



I am also working on this little fella, a snowy fox.  I started him a few weeks ago, with the intention of creating another Christmas card - then life intervened.  I'll try to get him finished this weekend though, no excuses - I'm on my own, then maybe I could at least make up some cards to share with family and friends this year.  Hey, if I get it finished I'll add one to my giveaway!  Here he is in his half finished state:



...pop back soon and he'll be here all finished :o)

Once again here in the UK we are in the grips of icy, snowy wonderfulness.  This has meant that for three days the school I work at has been closed, which means things must be really bad because our school hardly ever closes!!  After two days of horrendous car journeys at the start of the week though, I'm just grateful I didn't have to struggle in - I have also had a streaming cold, you know the type where you feel really, really ill but you can't justify time off work?  So, luckily I have been able to stay tucked up and warm and today I am feeling much more myself, though with a bright red nose and still unable to move more than 6 feet away from a box of hankies!

Oh, and Scout thinks the snow is marvellous!



Hope you are all cold free and keeping happy!  Back soon, L xx

Drum roll.....

..... I just interrupted my husband during his stint of gardening so that he could pick the winner for my giveaway!

..... and the winner is......

Yey!  Thank you everyone who joined in this bit of fun.  It's lovely to be sharing something finally.  Now I must send an e-mail to Revelle and ask her to pick her pic!

Back soon with lots of new stuff, I'm having a very productive day so far..... x

Dance to the music

A quick post of a picture that represents something I need - inspired by the EDM group challenge:

Yep, for me it's music...  I always have it playing and, since I saved up for my first Sony Walkman (1983 - remember?) I've always had a selection to take with me whenever I'm out and about.  My husband and I finally upgraded all our music systems a couple of years ago - we'd been running on a system made up of elements of my old Hi-Fi set and his, both well over 20 years old  :o) ...overnight we changed this to the best new digital stuff we could afford and also bought a really lovely new turntable because we have hundreds of albums still on vinyl (which we still regularly play) as well as all the CDs and digital downloads.  In fact we are about to start digitising all the vinyl so we can upload it to our iPods.  Oh my little iPod how I love it!!  I carry it everywhere with me, play it in the car; plug it into computer speakers when I work alone in the library in school holidays etc,etc.

This is a very quick sketch, rough around the edges but it conveys the message well enough.  The album it is set on (I had been listening to) is 'Desperate Youth, Bloodthirsty Babes' by TV on the Radio if your'e interested - great played loud!

I never properly learned to play an instrument, though can play lots of them by ear, but I just can't get beyond the most basic sheet music.  My husband is a musician though, he plays a bass.  Played bass, he hasn't been in a band for a while now.  When I first met him he was in a band called The Keep.  Amazingly a video of them playing their song 'Sit Down' has turned up recently - filmed back in 1989!!!  Where did the time go?

I will be making the draw for my giveaway on Saturday.... do leave a comment at this post if you haven't already - if you'd like the chance of receiving one of the items!

TTFN, L x

First ATC swap....

Just wanted to share my first ATC swap with you.  I am a member of UK Handmade and a lovely lady called Kella set up an ATC swap group that I decided to join.  I have never done anything like this before but, ever up for a creative challenge I though it would be a great idea.  The theme for the swap I joined was 'songs'.  This seems to have been approached from lots of angles, I've have just noticed on the Flickr group that one lady has done 'the dawn chorus'... well you can't really get much lovelier music than that can you?

The card I received was from Jane who makes the most beautiful crocheted items and her 'card', I don't really want to call it that because it's made of the most gorgeous golden silks and velvets and beads, is inspired by the most recent album by Corrine Bailey Ray...

Lovely isn't it?

I had to send my ATC to Kella (check her beautiful craft work here) this time.  I think I have mentioned the group Eels before, there isn't an Eels album I don't like and many of their songs I absolutely love.  So I chose, without even realising I was chosing to illustrate yet another Wild Thing, the Eels song 'I Like Birds':

On the back I collaged lots of astronauts and a rocket launch, an auto-car and lots of little birds which I then covered with a layer of tissue paper with my details written on in bestest, neatest handwriting...

I loved making this and can't wait to have a go at another!  Keep an eye out now for the little sparrow - he'll be turning up in jewellery very soon!

Oh, and don't forget to leave a comment on my previous post to be entered for the giveaway!  Ta ta for now, x 

Update and giveaway!!!

Hi all! I have meant to post an update about my Mail Me Art 2 envelope for the last few weeks now but kept forgetting! Oops!

Basically, I found out just before Easter that my piece had arrived safely at its destination, and hadn’t in fact been dropped on a leafy lane to be buried under falling leaves, lost forever..... You can see my effort and the hundreds (literally) of other fabulous Mail Art pieces if you follow this link:

http://mailmeart.com/going-postal/gallery/mail-me-art-two/?album=1&gallery=14

It doesn’t matter whether or not my effort actually finds its way into any new book that might get published. I just really enjoyed being inspired by the other artists and making the effort to take part. This design by Michael Hacker (http://www.michaelhacker.at/) was the winner for the month of January (when my envelope was received by them):

.....and quite right too! Simple and fun, a great design, I love it!!  It's of an animal though - I'm biased!!

Now, finally.... the GIVEAWAY I have been promising forever!!!

Just leave me a comment here, and on Saturday, May 8th at 1pm (GMT) I will draw a name out of a hat to win one of these:

Sorry, the detail in the photograph isn't brilliant - the polar bear looks a bit washed out here, but the original paintings feature in my previous post so you can get a better look there.  These pendants are 2" square, the pictures are prints of the original paintings, printed on Bockingford Inkjet 190g/m paper and treated with protective spray that protects from UV damage etc.  The reverse has hand coloured paper where I have signed and numbered the piece.  I am sticking to limited numbers of five of each piece, these are the first of each run for these images.  The prints are sandwiched between two sheets of glass that are sealed with lead-free, silver content solder.  If you win you can choose either the polar bear or the wolf and I will finish it off as either a pendant attached to a silk ribbon necklace OR a miniature for you to hang on a wall somewhere.  If you decide to take the polar bear I think he'd make a lovely Christmas tree decoration.  Anyway, it's up to you - I am happy to post anywhere - not just the UK. 

Good luck!!

Oh, and sorry the giveaway has taken so long - hope you think it was worth the wait!   :0)  x

Oh, oh!!  Etsy shop to look out for real soon.....

I've been waiting for tomorrow all of my life...

Pushing two weeks ago I promised a giveaway and I have to apologise because I still can't post it, because I haven't been able to finish it, because of the mess up with the computer (see earlier rant) which had led to several unforseen knock-on glitches...... grrr!

Deep breath...... and...... relax.

I've been putting all my positive energies into more sketches and paintings though, and have been really enjoying myself.  The enforced delay has also made me look at another (and I believe hopefully better) way of finishing off the jewellery pieces so, of course, there's a good side to all the glitches....  and hopefully, as soon as I can post my long-awaited giveaway you might think it was worth the wait  :o)

My obsession with all things bear like continues.  Why?  I don't know but I'll run with it.  I need to perhaps visit a wildlife park to see some in the flesh,  do some sketches from life, though I'm not sure where I would go.  Here is my new polar bear picture... I'm going to turn the image into cards I think and adapt elements of it for the jewellery:

I sketched the bear after watching a beautiful National Geographic documentary about Russian wildlife.  The same programme also inspired this picture:

Tell me why is it that bears and wolves (and lots of other animals) look like you should be able to walk straight up to them and sink your hands and face into their fur without having your face ripped off?!!! 

I'm going to have my dinner now - and blast out 'Soul Mining' by The The - one of the few 80s bands I still listen to! xx

Come on baby, and rescue me!

I am not posting as regularly as I'd like to, but just to tide over the next couple of days until I get my 'giveaway' organised I decided to share this story....

My friend sent me one of those e-mails - you know the type, one that goes around the world and no one knows where it started.  This is just a fabulous story though and I'm sure you'd enjoy it too.  So here are the pictures and the words that came with them.  I don't know where they originate from, but whoever took them and shared in the first place, a great big thank you!  Oh, being in the UK I had to Google the location, so in case you weren't sure - like me - Donner Summit is in California.

"A bear was walking across Rainbow Bridge (Old Hwy 40) at Donner Summit, on Saturday when two cars also crossing the bridge scared the bear into jumping over the edge of the bridge. Somehow the bear caught the ledge (see unbelievable photo, below) and pulled itself to safety. Authorities decided that nothing could be done to help Saturday night so they returned Sunday morning to find the bear sound asleep on the ledge.

After securing a net under the bridge the bear was tranquilized, fell into the net, lowered, then woke up and walked out of the net.

There is a moral to this story you know.  This old bear made a wrong move and found he was hanging by his nails.  Somehow he was able to pull himself up onto the ledge where he saw he was in a very bad, impossible situation and what did he do?  Yep, he took a nap and sure enough the situation took care of itself while he was asleep.  The moral is that when confronted with a bad situation sometimes the best solution is take a nap.  So next time you see someone asleep at work, they could be just problem solving!!"

Right, I've got lots of work I should be cracking on with now..... think I'll go for a nap xx

One step forward (two steps back)

Exactly a week ago today I was sitting in front of my PC with a growing sense of doom as the anti-virus software was telling me that file after file on my computer was corrupt and being removed to quarantine.  After an eight and a half hour scan (!!!!) the whole thing ground to a halt when the anti-virus software finally 'stopped responding'.  You can use your imagination as to the language used by my good self to describe both machine and software at that stage.  A week later - PC returned to 'factory new' conditions; iTunes library lost; all my internet favourites vanished into the ether, though luckily (amazingly) all my documents and picture files were ok and saved by the nice man at the PC shop - I'm back.  The reason for the problem?  Bullguard anti-virus software company released an update by mistake which basically told the system that all my program files etc were corrupt, though they weren't, and so the computer (for want of a more technical way of putting it) ate itself up from the inside out!!!  Aaargh!!!!  So now, my little plans of beginning to sell my artwork online have been setback by a good few days.  I'd hoped to launch everything this weekend, I shall work my little socks off to get things started next weekend now.

There, rant over!  I do hope that none of you lovely people who stop by here have been troubled with the same problem. If you have, and you haven't been to the Bullguard site yet since - they are saying on their forum that you can ask for a subscription refund, you need to e-mail their payments dept.  Good luck!

Just to brighten this post up - here are some quick design sketches I have been working on this week for my Wild Things jewellery....

Watch this space next week as I am going to run a little giveaway of one of my necklaces, to say a big thank you to everyone who has offered me words of encouragement on my art since I started this blog!  You'll need to get your name down to be in with a chance of getting the goods! 

Oh, and I promise, no more venting of spleen! xx