Monday montage

Hello folks and I hope you are cracking on nicely with this new week!

Here are a few shots from our weekend...

Saturday involved a lazy pub crawl around Grassington with great friends ~

Sunday had us popping back over to Saltaire for a second weekend in a row (Titus dear, we really must stop meeting like this!) for the food festival ~

later I spent the evening sketching, supping from a vintage glass and catching up on TV whilst the mister cooked a slap up (& damned tasty!) dinner ~

What did you get up to over the weekend?

Sarah

x

A Peeking Pixie & a confession about inspiration

Hullo friends!

My head is all hurty from trying to install a widget on my website...I tried and tried then tried some more but I still couldn't get it to work [I suspect I'm being a bit dim] - thankfully, Martin (tech support) is on it, I hope!

Sooo whilst he does his thing, I'll tell you about my pixie pal.

When did I first spy him? Let me look [flicks through sketch book] ahh yes...I first spotted the wee fella on the 22nd of April of last year (yup, 2011). I finished doing what I was doing and rushed off to jot him down along with some ideas and then forgot about him for a few weeks.

He must have been whispering to me because, on the 9th May, I had another sketching session of another couple of ideas. And that was it. He whispered every once in a while just as a gentle 'don't forget about me' reminder, but I could never find the right way to create him...you now, I couldn't fix on the appropriate medium (is that correct?)

Then yesterday, after having a couple of attempts at lino cutting, the night before [well technically it was Soft Cut cutting but what they hey] I decided to have bash at turning my wee pixie pal into a stamp.

He was ever so fiddly for a novice like me and I was quite concerned that I would fail to capture his little expression - shy but hopeful, and so very inquisitive - but I did! I confess to having done a number of little happy dances accompanied by excited giggles. I think George worried his old mum had finally lost her marbles [ that happened eons ago but let him have his illusions ;)] and happily set about printing some little Moleskine journals had been waiting for just such an occasion.

So he's free, my little Peeking Pixie has been let loose in the world and I think he's going to have a blast.

Okay, the confession about inspiration time....this is where I first saw him, well actually just the top of his hat [he was too shy to peek properly at this point].

Can you see it?

This is the view from where I was *ahem* sitting [yup, I was 'paying a call' as the polite folk say...hey inspiration crops up when you least expect it!]

After I'd showed George my stamp yesterday evening, he then excitedly took me on a tour of all his Door Pals...you know the little creatures and people who hide in the knots and grain of your wooden doors? No? Go and have a look now [when you've finished reading], I bet they're dying for you to finally find them! We have some shared ones and we each introduced one another to new Door Pals. Ahh, he is his mother's son, poor kid ;)

Top left: this is a strangled goose to me but to George it' a ghost

Top right: we both have this one - a big beaked bird with a raised eyebrow

Bottom left: a little critter with a brown muzzle and a crazy-dude fur fringe

Bottom right: this one is George's own and his favourite...two peachy bum cheeks ;)

Do you see creatures and friends in strange places? Do share...

Sarah
x

Tuesday

Morning!

so what's everyone up to today...jobs? office? creating (if so...what?)? plotting?

my day so far has gone a bit like this...

wet through and chilly after getting caught in the rain on the walk to school

thinking that wellies are a darned good idea in this weather! [though maybe not when filled with plants]

taking Henry for a stroll around the house...see, he likes it!

being knocked sideways by sudden and glorious sunshine, flooding in through the windows

rushing to the window to take a look before it vanishes again [til March?]

cracking back on with filling up my Etsy shops
[quick question - do those of you who work in various media - eg, stitch, paint, pen - keep everything in one shop or split them out? I currently have three shops, one for painted items, one for stitched and one for drawn...Ditsybird, Ditsybirdsews and Ditsybirddraws. I'm now wondering whether to put them back under one roof but worry that it will look a little chaotic and very full...any thoughts lovelies?]

•••things went slightly awry at this point as school called to say G had been sick...cue dashing to car (so he didn't have to walk back home in the rain feeling all rubbish like and sore tummied); collecting of boy; getting him home; him deciding to do his homework (I know, me too!); phoning work to arrange working from home for 2 days (48 hr rule - great if it's a bug - not so if he's pulled his tum and run too soon after eating); rearranging the car service booked for tomorrow; popping back up here to finish this; heading down to make a coffee and finally, coming back up again to continue with the Etsy fillin.

I hope you're having a fun Tuesday!

x

PS three posts in three days...one, two three, faint! hehe

Monster doodle

Morning!

So on Saturday morning, inspired by an online course I'd signed up to, I decided to drag out one of my old doodle designs - one that I used to do often...you know, whilst waiting for reports to run at work, hanging on the phone waiting to be connected etc...

It wasn't until I'd started it, that I realised the size of the task I'd embarked on as, in typical Ditsy style, I'd only gone and picked my largest (A4) sketchbook to work in, and my most complex doodle.

It took a quite a while to complete over the course of the day ~ with breaks to get on with jobs and enjoy trips out ~ and I considered bailing on a few creaky-wristed occasions.

I am chuffed that I stuck with it as it looks brill* completed and you don't get a sense of the intricacy when it's only part way through. If only I could find an actual commercial use for it ;)

Due to RSI issues with my right arm & wrist, I hadn't done any serious spend-yonks-working-intensely-on-one-design doodling or drawing of any kind, and had forgotten just how therapeutic it is. My mind cantered then wandered and eventually it pretty much settled into a gentle idle, once I'd got into the groove of repetitive action.

I'd highly recommend it as a form of relaxation, if you're that way inclined.

So, do you doodle and, if so, how often? (<- I now have some vague Pet Shop Boys lyrics in my head "which do you choose, the hard or soft option"?!?!?)

x

*in my humble opinion only

A Makers' fair and some doodling

A good Saturday morning to you all!

a promising start

So far my day is going swimmingly and I intend to work very hard at making that continue ;)

I had a monster headache yesterday that resulted in a monster migraine in the evening - which was, quite frankly, badly timed for I had the whole evening to myself and had planned on doing some making of some sort. Instead I read blogs, The Simple Things mag (so very very good - the first magazine in yonks that I have read, I mean actually read and not just oohed at the lovely pictures). Where was I?

Oh yes...blogs, mags and then I signed up for an Alisa Burke online class*...Doodle Delight...took some co-codamol (really there was no other choice other than sitting weeping quietly in a darkened room) and went to bed.

[*this sounds like I just thought yeah I'll do that and did it, dead rash like and everything - actually I've been umming and ahhing for at least a year about whether to take one, and which one I'd choose]

This morning, whilst I have a lingering *hummmm* at the top of my noggin, the migraine has gone! Hurrah!

So up I got at 8.30 (very early for me on a weekend...I do love my lie-ins), switched on the laptop, made a brew and then looked at my emails - the class links were all there...be still my stupidly over excited heart!

eek!

I have since spent the morning 'studying', doodling, supping tea and generally feeling quite wonderful.

And better still - this afternoon (once my boy is back from his pa's) I'm off to the Saltaire Makers' Fair to lots of lovely and terribly creative pals on their stalls, and hopefully chat and get started on the Christmas shopping....I know, I know, but realistically there aint a whole lot of pay days left between here and there and a girl must spread the cost.

this is the kind of studying I like!

Wishing you all a fabulous weekend!

x