Yesterday:

Paper Plain

A little time ago I painted lots of illustrations for the company Paperplain. They are now available to buy through their website.

You can see them here and here.

They were a lot of fun to paint and the lady behind Paperplain is very nice indeed. It was one of those jobs that makes you happy to be a painter.

Slinky-Minky

I've seen a Mink swimming around the marina. I also heard reports that he's been eating the baby coots. It is still amazing to see non-domesticated mammals around, I just don't expect it.

When did I become afraid of moving forward?

Remember when you are starting out on something and you push and strive and try to be better and better? You take leaps of progress, bounding forward down the road of 'learning something new'. And then you reach a place where you are happy with yourself, with your work, with your accomplishments, and you tread water for a while.

But then, after a while of spreading outwards, you become too scared to make those big leaps forward, because what if you fail! You have something to lose now. You know you aren't crap, but you also know that you aren't the best that you could possibly be. That there are new adventures and avenues to explore. That it might stop you feeling complacent if you head in a new direction and try things that may not work out. That it takes emotional energy to go back to not being so good at stuff again. That people may laugh whilst you are learning because you are meant to have learnt everything already.

It's the ego that gets in the way. Stops you from getting better. It's a delicate thing, and sometimes you've got to shove it aside and stop it controlling you. Because it didn't control you at the beginning, or if it did, it only drove you to get better, and it was a tiny thing, embarrassed at your efforts. You've got to remind it that if it lets you play, experiment and be care-free for a while, that you'll come out the other end greater than you ever were. And happy too.

zombabe II

Zombabe.

Dunny Kami

I bought a  Dunny.



I sprayed it white, ready to paint up.


I used my new Golden Acylics to turn it into my very own Kamikaze Kitten character.






She just needs some wheels and a spray of lacquer and she'll be all finished.

Collaboration

This month Steve and I collaborated on a set of images for Rock Sound magazine.
I was really pleased with how they turned out








Here are the originals:

Gardeners' World

I've got an illustration running in the next few issues of Gardeners' World Magazine.

a tiny step closer to Self Sufficiency.

This evening I planted some seeds. Rocket Sky Rocket, Round lettuce, and Lavender in my special Christmas pot with the wooly jumper.

It feels good to know things are growing. To know that in not-too-long there will be another thing we don't have to buy. And thanks to the 360degree windows in the wheelhouse, we should be able to grow some things year-round.

Home

Hmm, our new home just doesn't want to change her name to Serenity, so we're going to keep her as Peter.

Birds I have seen from the Wheelhouse.

We've been busy. Oh so busy!

We've ground rust off the living room wall- behind where some cabinets, that we removed, were. We've Hammeritedit, and then overpainted with white.

We've painted the cast iron roll top bath turquiose- where it was once a rusty brown colour. (only on the sides- it would be silly to paint the INSIDE of the bath turquoise).

We've painted virtually every wooden surface in the bathroom white- where it was once dark brown ply-wood. This has taken about a million coats to do.

We've had someone round to cost up moving the Anthracite stove from the bathroom into the living room, where it will be better placed to keep us warm.

We've bought a pump for emptying the black water tank (poo tank to you and me) so Hopefully, we'll have a usable toilet again. (the tank has been full for 90% of the time we've owned this boat)

Which leads me tooooooo.....

....we've arranged for a guy from Saniflo to come and look at our toilet next week as it seems to be filling our black water tank in 5 days- constantly pumping water through.

We've moved the scroll saw and DIY benches that we found in the fo'castle (storage space at the front of the boat), to the third bedroom. We also discovered rolls and rolls and rolls of loft insulation in there ready for us to use up.

We've Hammerited surface scratched on the deck, ready to spot paint. She got a bit scratched up when we were moving all our belongings aboard.

We've had a diesel delivery to keep us in hot radiators.

We've had so many wonderful guests. I absolutely LOVE having people over to our new home. There is plenty of room for them to stay aboard too. Breakfast with friends is brilliant.

I've been training hard for my roller derby bout on Saturday 19th Jan. Go Team Pink!!!!

We held a Soul Space service on Sunday in the very smartly renovated Saint Lukes Church.

We've been without internet for nearly a week because those clever guys at BT broke the line into the marina. It then took them many days to work out what on earth they had done.

Steve's been doing the post production on some awesome shoots he did between Christmas and New Year. I've been lending my wikkid cutting-out skillz to speed it all along.

I've been daydreaming about planting seeds and growing veg. I can't wait! I'm just short of some compost, and when money needs to be spent on so many other important things right now, it is going to have to wait.

Period House Magazine November 2007

Hope, Balance, Roots

*************************

Hope means embracing change.
Rarely do we nurture Hope for things to stay the same.

Hope propels us forward, through hard times. It prevents life from becoming stagnant.

Hope cannot exist without imagination. The ability to see how things 'could' be, and how things 'should' be.

Hope+Adversity=Change.

Change is hardest to make when you have everything to lose. It's easiest when you come to the end of a cul-de-sac, but when you've gone that far down a dead end, there is a long walk back the way you came.

Hope is the key to Faith.

Country Living Magazine August and September 2007

Weight Watchers Magazine

Here's some work I did in Weight Watchers Magazine.

Pulling herself together.

More socks

Still experimenting.

Kitty Kitty

Another little character painted up.