A bit like Christmas?

 Last week also I had a HUGE parcel of cheeryupiness! It felt a bit like Christmas, I didn't know what exactly was inside, so it was exciting. It is so lovely to be sent samples of your work like this, these are some new Christmas designs that I worked on a while back. 12 packs of cards each with 6 samples in, Wow, delightful. Once again they have done a very good job with my Illustrations. I like the pattern work they've put on the edges etc and inside.

I am totally delighted with my samples, such a professional job. I can't use them all to send at Christmas, due to the captions, but I can use the Special friend captions, so they may make their way out to special friends of mine! I hope you can see them OK, and if so, do you have a favourite? I can't quite decide just yet? See you all again soon. :)

Last week I shed a tear....

Actually I sobbed some of the time, as Last Thursday, the 5th July. would have been my beautiful friend Micheles birthday. She sadly passed away 3 years ago now. We were the same age, although she was adamant that I was older (by 3 months). I still so miss her, she was such a loVely person, with so much to live for, her beautiful family. I really don't know how her husband has coped, but he does have a good family around him. They were a creative couple as you will see here.
I can remember her phoning to tell me she had lung cancer, and then telling me not to get upset !!!!
It was terminal, even though I spouted on about the wonders they can perform nowadays, it was too bad and she knew this. She was so brave through it all, although she only lived for 6 months after knowing. I wanted to post this, because her husband created such a wonderful booklet for her funeral, I keep it with me and can see her smiling face every day. It makes me smile. It shows her lovely children, 3 girls, one older and then the twins. The two of them created a range of cards around the twins. She was so creative, thinking up scenarios and making props etc. I will show you her smiling face now, I've wanted to show this for a while and now the time seems right.  As it says on  the page of their wedding photo, 'There are things we don't want to happen but have to accept, things we don't want to know but have to learn, and people we can't live without but have to let go.'

We painted white tulips on her coffin as she requested, and had to say goodbye. I still question why and struggle with it. But I know there are many others who go through similar things. Just needed to share this with people, she was too good a person to be forgotten. I think you can see some of the card designs on the 'Double trouble publishing' website.

Lino cut course

Pamela Dodds our tutor.

Working away

 Hello there, a couple of weeks back, I enrolled for a lino cut course at our Art House centre.  We had a lovely instructor, who came from Toronto. Pamela Dodds was very informative and easy going, we could ask as many questions as we liked and the group as a whole were very creative. I am always amazed at how creative people can be in these classes. The work produced was to a very good standard. I enjoyed it very much, I love the varying textures that can be produced using this method. I'm hoping to incorporate this process in some work I'm doing. We only had 3 hours total, I tend to panic after an hour, and everyone seemed to be at printing stage by then aaaagggghhhh. I was still cutting away at the lino, this was partly due to the fact that I'd forgot my specs, and couldn't see what I was cutting really. I will show you some more photies of our class, it was a fantastic £5 well spent!! I love learning new techniques. See you again soon.

My sketch and lino block

Initial prints

Talented pieces of work

Pamelas work process samples

Showing the process of adding colour

We've had so much rain yet again, but with the rain come the beautiful double rainbows :) This was taken from my front door looking across the street.

Red hot and ready!

The bees and the birds love the red hot pokers!

This is a little blurred sorry!

Almost enough raspberries for a pud, YUMMY!

A few little red hot shots for the next summer colour on the blog :)

Floral colour

 Hello there blog friends. I've been absent a while, still lots to do, and catching up with some gardening too! The artworks above are some I've recently worked on. I keep reading all your lovely blogs and this week have noticed a Flickr photo posting feast going on with a colour theme. I thought I would add my personal little version so far. My photos are nowhere near as good as ones I've seen, but I felt like joining in! So here are one or two snapshots from my garden on the colour theme, starting with green, then yellow (which I didn't think I had anything of until I looked out this morning and bang, the St Johns wort is there) and today pink, which there are various shades of in the garden right now. I will be back soon, probably with more colours and some arty pics, see you soon :)

The bees love these, but have trouble keeping on the stamens.

Bits of pink, I love this Erigeron Profusion

Found a home in my garden, another favourite of the bees!

I'm in Tesco!!!!!

 Hello there Blog friends! Just a quick little update of some work done previously. I had an email from the lovely people who created some gift wrap and bags from some floral work I did last year, to say that it is in Tesco now, whooppeeee!
I called in and sure enough, there I am on the shelves!! I love how this looks even if I say so myself, it's bright and cheery and pretty all at the same time! I stood there in the store and felt quite proud, I didn't tell the cashier when I bought these bits this time, but I was excited. I am daft sometimes!! But it's always a thrill to see my work in a shop, and they did such a lovely job combining my artwork with spots and stripes.

 I have also had work in the 'Next' stores, this was a while back now, but I still like the images. I was thrilled when they created a gift wrap from the same images! These are in my portfolio now, but it's ages since I did them.

Finally a design also in 'Next' for wedding. This was also done some time back, I had a phase of creating these black line images, using a cut off straw and black ink! Hope you like my shopping trip? See you again soon :)

Jubilant Jollifications!

J H Dowd Illustration sketches

 Hello blog freinds. I was trying to think of a title for this post that would tie in with all the Jubilee celebrations that are going on around our little island this past few days! When I thought of this one, I remembered these wonderful illustrations that are in a book I have 'People of Importance' with all the illustrative sketches by J H Dowd. I love them, the book is signed and dated 1935, so fairly old. Hope you like them?

 My own little nod to the British flag, which is being waved all over the country as I write, came about 2 years ago, when I could see this trend for the flag symbol appearing on Everything!! Out of necessity really, I created this little teacosy and below a lavender scented bag, both in faded denim, which I love. My intention was to create lots of these, and sell them on Etsy or someplace. But the artwork took over and I've just been so busy with all that. I only have a borrowed 'old' sewing machine anyway...

Arnclffe

We've been out in the lovely Yorkshire Dales walking today, lots of flag waving going on all over in the villages. I've just watched my favourite 'Paul Mcartney' as the final act in a concert for the Jubilee, and beacons are being lit (4,2000) throughout the country on hill tops everywhere. We saw one being set up, whilst in Littondale today.

We walked through fields of buttercups, daisies and red clover, past old barns and houses, it was a pleasant day indeed. See you all again soon. Hope you get to see some of the celebrations from over here, wherever you are in the world! :)