Jane Austen Postcards

 Hello! Happy Thursday (where do the days go?!)

This is today's workspace. Four commissions for a lady, and a couple of little extras too. 

 Kickstarter...

Some of you will already know about this project I've put up on Kickstarter. I'm so excited about it!

  

 

It's a new Jane Austen postcard pack, and you get to win rewards if you pledge a bit towards it (the more you plege, the more you win, as you might have guessed). 

If we go over the intended target, I will be able to add extra goodies to each reward, no matter how much you have originally pledged. 

The reverse will look like this:

 

Please come and help us out here >>> Jane Austen Postcard Pack <<<

Hope to see you there!

xxx

Festivities, please!

Today, our weather is oh-so-British:

I swam into town and back with the post for you lovelies. Really hoping your recentl christmas orders arrive in time - the best I can do is post the morning after they come through...GMT that is.

 

 I'm loving the way th bookmarks look when they're all packaged up and ready to go, especially with the toadstool-backed free ACEOs :)

 

I haven't had a moment to get down to any proper Holiday decorating yet! Somehow, I feel terribly guilty, epecially with Amelia in the house! So...the rest of today will be dedicated to scrubbing and cleaning up, then we're getting the tinsel out tonight, after the school disco!

Weeheeee!

 

xxx

Wuthering Heights

"Wuthering Heights" 12 x 12 acrylic on gallery-wrapped canvas.

CLICK HERE TO SEE PAINTING ON ETSY.

I hope I've done some justice to Emily Bronte's original description:

 

"Wuthering Heights is the name of Mr. Heathcliff's dwelling. 'Wuthering' being a significant provincial adjective, descriptive of the atmospheric tumult to which its station is exposed in stormy weather. Pure, bracing ventilation they must have up there at all times, indeed: one may guess the power of the north wind blowing over the edge, by the excessive slant of a few stunted firs at the end of the house; and by a range of gaunt thorns all stretching their limbs one way, as if craving alms of the sun. " (Wuthering Heights. Chapter1)

A little photography has been in order recently to prepare for this painting. I'm so lucky the skies complied :) I just switched the direction of the lighting around a little.

 

xxx

A Vintage Patina

Hello there. I trust this week is treating you well? Listen to me - you can blame series 3 of Downton Abbey for that rather toffee-nosed language.

 

Talking of vintagey-style things, we visited the Imperial War Museum in Waterloo on Saturday and I took a few snaps. (Sorry I didn't get to post them on the Facebook page yesterday - I was floored by another migraine).

Amelia tries out the Anderson shelter. "No - I think I prefer my own bed..." There's a surprise...

 

Although that chair looks comfy!

 

Let's see what's on the radio...

 

Make ourselves a nice cuppa 

 

...and have a little slice of pie. Apple? Rhubarb? Blackcurrant?

 

Lovely! Oh and I've been designing a little bit of packaging for the new magnets, which will be popping into the shop within the next couple of weeks:

 

Hoping you're warm and well-fed this week!

 

xxx

 

 



 

 



 

Bridges and Blooms

Back from an amazing holiday! Really, the Balkans are something else.

I think my favourite place Was this - Mostar. The bridge is absolutely mind-boggling. Something in your mind tells you that it can't possibly stand, can't possibly have held up to people crossing it for almost five hundred years, but it did, until it was shelled 63 times in the war and finally fell in 1993. There are still many stark reminders like this around the city:

Yet, in 2004, the Old Bridge was rebuilt with the stones which had fallen into the river below and is as beautiful as ever!

People are again jumping off every day :)

 

 

The first job on our return was to finish Amelia's wall mural!

 

She loves it!

Today, I've been packaging orders and gently getting back into a normal routine during Amelia's first day back in school (and at juniors now!).

A nice cup of tea

Checking up on the garden :)

Huuuuge sunflower!

Yum!

Multicoloured chillies!

I brought some garden inside, seeing as the Japanese Anenome is flourishing so well.

 

I'm going to take Amelia out for a little walk after school - see if we can find some cob nuts!

 

Hope you're also having a lovely late summer.

xxx

 

 

 



Sparrowgirl

Well, who knows what we're up to today - I've written this in advance of posting it so you have something to look at while we're away (not that I think you can't live without my amazing words of wisdom - or incoherent babblings...)

This is the preliminary drawing for the painting below - Sparrowgirl. It was painted over Springtime, hence the Hawthorn leaves and flowers. I have a real soft spot for Hawthorn. Its gnarly but delicate bark, its tiny, pretty flowers, the berries (said to be good for the heart and for digestion - but don't go nibbling any old berries - I'm only going on what I've heard, not hard evidence!) and the history and folklore of the plant,also known as Mayblossom.

I remember a story that I heard a few years ago, when I was living in Lampeter,Wales. It involved the chopping down of an ancient Hawthorn tree to make room for a road. Not long after the road was built, and the tree disposed of, a huge crack opened up in the Earth in the area where the tree had stood. No matter how people attempted to fill in the hole and make the road useable again, the same thing kept on happening. Eventally, the road was abandoned and no more efforts to build one were made. They say it was because the faeries had been angered by the destruction of their sacred tree.

I love those stories!

Sparrowgirl will be for sale in the shop in September :)

Thank you for reading!

xxx