Capturing the changing seasons

Bonjour!
I hate to say it but the seasons are changing again; darker evenings and it getting colder too. I'm feeling less motivated to do work in the evenings, so instead I have been taking lots of pics to capture the joy of flowers before they fade away until next year.

I do love a bit of gardening, but sadly I have no real size garden to speak of- its a 1m x 2m patch, and lots of plant pots dotted outside my front door. So instead I tend to refer to gardening as potting. I have had some beautiful flowers this year.  These were my favorites...

My  late blooming Nigella (love in a mist)

Nigella (love in a mist) seed pod

The first beautiful flower -Nigella (love in a mist)
image courtesy http://flowerinfo.org/nigella-flowers

I used flower identifier to find out what they were (do not do this as I've just been told by my sister-in-law who was the gardener in Bournemouth gardens that the flower I originally thought was a cornflower was actually Nigella.The first one to appear was a beautiful blue colour, then months later these pink ones appeared. They tend to start out with light petals and get darker and more intense in colour as time progresses. Aren't they unusual!

More common Cornflower
(Can you see why I was mistaken?)

I have had many beautiful flowers from a £1 country flower seed mix. If you are a gardening virgin and want to get started (next year now) then keep an eye out for these packs in bargain stores. They are FAB and so easy to grow too! You could sow a wild flower meadow...Bliss

I've got loads of seed pods collected in wooden dishes, saved and drying out for planting next year... I'm looking forward to seeing the results...

Cornflower & Sweet-pea seed pods

Although the bright colours are disappearing from our gardens, there are still some beautiful forms to be found in the remaining seed pods & 'skeletons'. 

seeds...

a skeletonised seed pod

I also LOVE Forget-me-nots. Here is a picture of one of my lovey cats Bumble-bee, pottering through the swathes of Forget-me-nots that were in the flat upstairs' garden. It was so beautiful! Sadly they wont be here next year as it had now been turfed.

Here I will leave you with a collage of photographs I have taken in my 'not garden' and my parents garden. So many beautiful flowers, colours... Oh and insects too! 

I hope these colourful pictures keep you feeling warm for a little longer, or until the leaves start turning gold. xxx

Inspired by the Illustrated Life

Hello there readers!
Hope you are all well and not too wet and soggy after the miserable weather we are having!

After all the madness of the past months (my 1st craft stall, working 4 jobs and squeezing in my 'colouring' whenever I can) I decided it was time of a few days off. What do you do when you have time off? Retail therapy of course! So I hopped on the train to Plymouth only to remember how stressful clothes shopping is, returning instead with a few bars of chocolate and a fabulous book called An Illustrated Life by Danny Gregory. Full of images from the private sketchbooks of creatives, this colourful and varied compilation inspired me, and put a smile back on my face.

The artists that really appealed within were Mattias Adolfsson (his neat and considered sketchbook compositions and quirky characters are beautiful), Danny Gregory, Noah Z. Jones, Tommy Kane & Elwood Smith.  Elwood's sketchbooks contain a collection of characters quickly drawn on various bits of paper and later stuck. This made me realize its not necessary to carry round a sketchbook - I find it hard to remember my phone and keys when I go out!

At this stage I have to admit I haven't really kept 'proper' a sketchbook for the past 2 or 3 years! Terrible I know, but I tend to do work spontaneously, here and there on bits of paper, or from one sketch book to the next. Shamefully, I  haven't kept a regular sketchbook (just for the sake of it) since university! I like to get on and create whatever final image I have in my head, but this takes longer than anticipated (due to my lack of experimentation & planning) so I think it's a good idea to start up a sketchbook again.

An insight into the way I work... messy sketchy pages and paper

 Quick  Space Mice sketch ( for my nephew Josh)

Final image

I
I've bought a hardback sketchbook, using one end for recording my RANDOM THOUGHTS ( I have many throughout the day, as you will see), and the other PROJECTS. The first mark in an empty book is always the hardest, but once I decide to not worry about the outcome so much, my 'random thoughts' are captured, and safely stored away for when I need them. Here is a crazy thought I can share with you that came to me whilst cleaning. Note the post-it note scrawled quickly whilst at my cleaning job - just enough information for me hang on to the idea until I get home.

post-it...

...to sketchbook...

Well that,s all for this post. Hope you enjoyed my ramblings. I will be back soon with more sketchbook goodness. Floral project to start me thinks!

PS. In the meantime if you want to see more of my illustrations you can visit my facebook page or my website. Oh and I'm on twitter to!

Whats next...

So here I am, blogging at last. I love to talk and have lots to say so this could be interesting; an insight into the busy mind of a creative, full of ideas, things to do and lots of ramblings.

So whats next? Well after my first craft stall at Trewether Farm Charity Fete (check out my facebook page to catch up on this if you are new to me & my work), I have compiled myself a huge list of things to do in order to get closer to my goals. I love lists.

Over the next few months I will be focusing on my sketchbook (see next blog),  broadening my market; designs for boys, Yummy Mummies & Ladies that Lunch, working on a book project about PONDLIFE, with all of this contributing to my next exhibition in march. Now I've cracked the blog (hopefully) things should be easier. Lots to do so best get cracking.