Day in the studio

Open studios is getting scarily close now and I haven't even started thinking about it thanks to work suddenly picking up in recents weeks, so I thought I would start setting aside some time to concentrate on my paintings. With the little one starting playgroup two days a week this is becoming easier, plus I have given myself a kick start by spending the whole day in my little studio working on my canvases.

I am reworking old canvases as well as starting new ones, I think the fog has started to clear finally. I had to be strict with myself and make a few difficult decisions about my work - what I want to do and where I see myself in five years time and which means letting go of a few things and clearing out a lot of old stock and projects I am frankly never going to get around to doing. Scary but essential if I am going to succeed :D

And again...

These are my third attempt at these pendants, the second ones were too pale so I tried different images this time. I've changed the type of knife I've used to cut them and rolled them a little thinner too. Just got to sand and varnish them and attach a chain of some sort and they will be finished. I'm doing a kids workshop for a charity event in Newmarket next month so I will taking some along with me if I'm happy with these. A neat way of bring my art and jewellery together!

Happy Birthday Beautiful!

Blooming

I hesitate to comment on the weather because the last time I suggested spring was here it snowed again, but a lovely warm afternoon in the garden with my two little helpers it really looks like the weather has turned finally.

The lawn was mowed, flowers water, weeds pulled, the greenhouse washed to remove the green slime that was covering it.

And this time we ventured round into the front garden to see it awash with beautiful forget me nots and left it well alone.

Pendants

I've been thinking of doing these for a while now as I already sell jewellery locally and thought it nice to sell pieces with my art on too. Trouble is they were not as easy as I thought so bought this fab little tutorial from Analiese Designs. Et voila! Still need a bit of practise to get it perfect but I'm pretty pleased with the result so far.

In the Pink

Two weeks of Easter holidays have flown by so it's back to work for me (but who can complain when work means doing the thing I love the most and getting paid for it!) I have been sorting through my stock and either getting rid of stuff I have been hanging on to 'just in case' or actually finishing off things I intended to do but never got round to. Such as this pretty little notebook, made from an album I made yonks ago when I was first learning bookbinding. The book itself was a disaster but the pages still good so out they came and were rebound. I actually got two out of it, one has gone into my new chalkhillstudio.etsy.com shop, the other into Chalk Hill Studio proper. Why two shops?

My main website is for UK customers only as 90% of my business is for custom work and dealing with people in a different time zone is tricky when you need answers quick or have a large wedding order to complete so I opened an etsy shop for those wanting Chalk Hill products without the complications. In fact it has made me rethink what I sell and as a result am developing new exciting ranges as we speak. All I need are a few more hours in the day!

Snow!

Think I spoke too soon when I said yesterday the cold spell was over, look what we woke up to this morning! Just two days ago we were sweltering in bright sunshine round London, good old British weather :D

Pressie

A quick thanks to my brother who bought me an early birthday pressie - he knows all the best bookshops in London! I've put more pics on the Chalk Hill blog.

Tales from the greenhouse

Now the cold spell seems to be over (maybe) our seedlings have come up in leaps and bounds since last time, now we have cherry tomatoes....

pepper plants....

lots and lots of carrots.....

sweetcorn.....

rocket and coriander in abundance. Still waiting on a few more herbs and the courgettes but looking good so far!

London

The easter holidays are nearly over *sob* so we took a quick trip on the train to the natural history museum in London to see the dinosaur exhibition.

Spent so long round this little bit we didn't get time to look round the rest of it but did spot this beautiful fossil.

After lunch we did a bit of shopping and sightseeing, here is Big Bill (ask my daughter)

and two tired but happy faces on the train home :D

A blank canvas...

...or rather lots of them turned up today. Only 2 whole months left before Open Studios so I really need to knuckle down and get painting. I've been brave and ordered large 80 x 60 cm ones as well as my usual, plus three natural linen ones, but what I am going to do on these I don't know, they are just too nice to touch!