do you mind if i knit

Egging myself on.

Hello! D'you have a good Easter? I hope the bunny made a deposite of choccy goodness, and that you haven't gobbled it all up already!

Like I have.

Mostly.

Chocolate doesn't seem to last long around me these days.

It's those little praline eggs that are my downfall. Wrapped in that pretty foil, which needs to be peeled off very delicately, because I like to keep it and hoard it, quite why, I don't know.

Hugo made sure that I got a bright and colourful bunch of flowers to accompany my praline eggs, and they are sitting on my desk looking very jolly.

I've been spending most of my time at my desk, for what seems like forever.

Hugo has been helping me enormously, because he's been working on framing my pictures for me, the one's I'm doing for the gallery and florist. I don't know what I'd do without his angel help.

It's been work, work, work, work, work, for a long time, and you know that saying "too much work and no play, makes for a dull boy/girl" (or something like that)?

I think that saying could probably be directed at me at the moment, but you know what? Needs must.

I have been able to fit some knitting in, and for me, that's playing. I'm on to the striped top section of my dress, see the pattern here:

There's a couple of people on ravelry knitting this dress too, one of the ladies wasn't happy with how the finished piece looked on her, which makes you think, doesn't it? All that knitting, and then not happy with it. Of course, this hasn't put me off, because in my optimistic manner, I'm hoping that I'll be able to wear my dress when I've finished it. I've already started making some tweaks to mine, because I think this pattern is for a tall person, and I'm a small person.

My tweaking involves less knitting.

I'll take some photos of my progress for my Friday post.

So, there's been lots of work going on here, and a fair bit of chocolate guzzling, which I don't feel at all remorseful about.

And now I have to go, because my Mother-in-Law, Susan, has just arrived, and we're off to our Wednesday night knitting group. See you Friday! Love Vanessa xxx

zzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Hello dear reader, very nice to see you here today, hope you're well? Yes? Great! Just what I like and need to hear, because I feel like a heavy vehicle has rolled over my head today. Is there a term for the condition of 'post- busy-weekend-with-family exhaustion'?

I collapsed on the sofa with the dogs earlier, covered us all in a blanket, and we had a snooze. I could not concentrate on work at all. When I woke up, I drowsily thought I should probably walk the dogs, and said in a high pitched, feigning excitement kind of voice "walkies". But there was no wagging of tails. I feel like I've come down with the lurgy, which annoys me, because I know it's just a bit of tiredness, and I'm actually being very lazy.

My sister rang earlier, and we talked on skype. Our computer is too old to have a camera, so they can't see my image, but I can see them, and I couldn't believe it! They looked fresh as daisies, happy as larry, like cats who have got the cream, and that's after a seven hour car journey home yesterday! And here's me, feeling like something the cat has dragged through a hedge backwards.

I thought I'd show you a picture of my studio space, demonstrating there's no work going on in there at all, (and I always think it's nice to have a nosy into people's work spaces, don't you?)

Taking lots of photos of roses on their last legs does not count as work Vanessa.

I like to think I was demonstrating the joys of prolonging the lives of cut flowers, in taking these photos. Changing the water in your vase every day is meant to help preserve their longevity. I cut a bit off the bottom of the stems, with each change of water (I'm not very good at refreshing it on a daily basis, I have to admit). And the long term result of the nip, nip, nipping is short stemmed roses, being moved from tall vase to short squat vase. And the petals from blooms that have given up the ghost, sitting prettily in this old blue French serving dish. I like to think it looks like it was used to serve brioche or croissants, (something yum anyway).

The promised 'bright eyed/bushy tailed' me didn't fully materialise today, though I have great hopes for tomorrow! I'm hoping my tail will be bushy, and gleaming with good health after a good night's sleep.

I might go and try another "walkies" on the dogs, this time with more of an authoritative tone.  Cheerio.  Love Vanessa xxx

The tools of my trade.

Hello my dear readers! I could give you all a great big HUG! You probably don't realise just how wonderful you are, do you?! No you don't, I can see you're thinking, "what's she want to give me a hug for? What have I done to receive such loving sentiments?!!" Well, I've just been sitting down and reading all your fantastic comments about my painted tags, from my last post! When people say nice things like you did, it has a very positive effect!

I must admit, I love giving out compliments. Maybe I'm too forthright with them sometimes................... for instance, men think that if you say something nice about their jumper, or whatever, that you're flirting with them. But I'm a very happily married girl, and flirting is the furthest thing from my mind. If I see that someone is wearing a nice top, or piece of jewellery, I can't help myself, I just have to tell that person they look great, whether it be man, woman, or child (I always tell my Niece and My husband's Nieces and Nephews they look nice if they're wearing a lovely dress or whatever). Maybe people just aren't used to getting compliments? I'm used to giving them, I like giving them. Sometimes people squirm when I compliment them, because they don't know what to say.
When I get a compliment, I always say thank you in a happy way, with a big smile on my face, and then the giver feels like their compliment has been appreciated.
So what I'm saying is thank you, with a big smile on my face, for all your wonderful compliments, you're all very generous.................. and I now feel very, very happy!

I have a sneaking suspicion my camera is giving me signals that it's failing. One of the buttons isn't working properly, and that's ringing alarm bells for me. I use a little digital camera, a Canon IXUS 40, a 'focus on your subject, and press the button to take a photo' type camera. I love this camera. It was a gift from Hugo some years ago, and I like the photos it takes. This little trusty camera is one of the tools of my trade, along with my watercolour paints, brushes and pencils. Life would not be bearable without it! So I need to start the arduous task of researching what new cameras are out there. Any suggestions? I'm a bit of a techno-phobe, but I think I might be ready for a more complex camera..................... something that takes amazing photos preferably!

I'm hoping for a camera as reliable as my paints and brushes. SLR's are good aren't they? I don't know what SLR stands for................. And nothing with instructions that could potentially give me a Migraine. So, I'm not asking for much!

I've been meaning to show you this newspaper cutting all week, and forgetting. Maybe you've heard about the Mersham ladies, from the Afternoon Club? (I love their name for their club, Afternoon Club, it's so genteel). The Mersham Ladies from the Afternoon Club, have been knitting small replicas of the buildings and environs of their village, over the last twenty-three years. How wonderful is that? Have a look here.

I've also joined a "swap". It's the first one I've ever taken part in, and i thought it might be fun, having seen them on other people's blogs. The theme is roses, and it was set up by Melanie, at A Country Dream.

My swap partner is Sarah, at little house by the sea.

I sent off my goodies today, which were great fun putting together, I just hope Sarah likes my gifts. It was harder buying and making gifts, than I thought, because buying presents for someone you don't know is tough, you just don't know their tastes. I will let you open the box and have a look at my gifts, when I'm sure Sarah has opened it first! Some time next week!

So! Friday has come around again! And here in England, there's a Bank Holiday on Monday. There are always two Bank Holidays in May, don't know why. I'm not sure what Hugo and I are doing this weekend, or for the Bank Holiday, so I'll play it safe, and say I'll be back on Tuesday, all bright eyed and bushy tailed! I hope you all have a great weekend, and I look forward to chatting with you again on Tuesday. I'm off to make myself a Shandy, put my feet up, and crochet. What a great way to start the weekend, don't you think?! Love Vanessa xxx

My little world of safety, security and happiness.

Hello ........... You o.k? Perhaps you're sitting with a cup of tea, having a quick break from the chores, or work, or whatever? I'm sitting here, with my tea, in a multi-coloured spotted mug, having a little break from work. You may already know that I work from home, and have a studio in one of the rooms in our house? Yes? Perhaps you work from home too? The other day someone asked me if I ever get lonely, and I could answer that immediately, with great confidence. No, I never get lonely at home on my own. I'm not strictly on my own. I've got the dogs, but a lot of their time during the day, they are baby-sat by our neighbor, who I think wishes they were her dogs! Even when the dogs aren't here, I don't get lonely. I love being at home, and I love being in my studio, painting and drawing. Being in my little world, which is very secure, very safe, and very, very happy. The photo above is the view from my desk, in my studio. Shame about those buildings the other side of the wall! It's the job centre, and sometimes I see people moving around inside. I find myself wondering if they ever sit there and look at me, working at my desk. There's something fascinating about each of us being able to see each other. Unless I have the blind down, because of the direct sunlight. When I first moved into my studio, and positioned the desk infront of the window, I had a debate with myself about what I should put on the window sill in front of me. A debate? You might ask? It's not as strange as you might think! A window sill can be a depository for lots of distracting things, and distraction isn't good for me. So, at first it was completely empty. But that seemed a bit harsh, and totally uninspiring. Then I tried out various bits and bobs, postcards, ornaments. But I worried about them being damaged by the sun. So my bowls I use to mix large quantities of watercolour in, seemed to be the solution. I love these bowls. They're a mix of old french coffee bowls, and cheap and cheerful buys. The same with the jugs, which somehow made their way onto the window sill. And no worries about sun damage with these, as far as I know. Untill this morning, I've resisted putting flowers in the jugs............. if there's one thing I find distracting, and positively lethal to my concentration, it's flowers. I find myself sitting and staring at them, looking at how they're positioned in the vessel, which makes me want to stop work and paint them. Not good! Which is what was happening before I broke off from work to have a cuppa and a chat with you! You know what I forgot to mention? The radio! That's one of the primary reasons I'm never lonely, I have Radio 4 for company. How could I forget my beloved Radio 4?! That station is a huge part of my life. I listen to the presenters voices, and have images of what they look like. I listen to the plays, the programmes, and my day is mapped for me. I know it's lunch time soon, because 'You and Yours' has come on. At the finish of the afternoon play, it's three p.m. Only an hour till my cup of tea! Radio 4 is like a friend, which might sound strange, but never-the-less, is true. I think I'm very fortunate to be so contented and happy, aren't I? And to be doing a job I love. It's a shame I can't show you what I'm working on at the moment. I have to wait untill it's published before I can do that. I was just thinking about my crochet. Thank you so much for all your wonderful comments, you've all been spoiling me rotten with comments over the last week or so, it's been very exciting! I've been asked for the pattern for my crocheted granny quares, which on reflection, I can give you without breaching anyone's copyright. Because my square is partly a pattern that is a classic pattern, and one which seems to be in all the crochet books, so I'm guessing it's not a copyrighted pattern. And it's partly a pattern I've cobbled together from various different patterns I've seen, so in the process I suppose I've made it my creation, and again, I won't be breaching anyone's copyright by telling you all about it in a blog post. So I feel safe to tell you all about it, which I'm very much looking forward to! I thought I'd do the full picture and explanation thing, so that hopefully, anyone can do the pattern, whatever level they're at. That will take a bit of time to put together. So how do you feel about me working on it over the weekend? Then I'll put it on the blog for you next week? How would that be? Would you like that? I'll give you all the details of the yarn I've used, and any other info I think might be useful too. I'm so pleased I've been asked for the pattern, I can't tell you how great that makes me feel! Anyway my good friends, the doggies need a walk, and then I need to finish the painting I'm working on, I'm determined to finish it today. I'll have to love you and leave you I'm afraid. Love Vanessa xxx

My new studio revealed!

Friday! Gosh, doesn't the week go quickly. Friday.......... (Please let this weekend be a weekend of gentle relaxation)............. we haven't finished hanging the quilts yet, so I'm very sorry, but I don't have any photos of the newly decorated bedroom for you. I promise, promise, promise I will put up photos for you on Monday afternoon. (Because I'm now putting up my blog in the afternoons, about four, or five-ish, more like five-ish, U.K. time. It's so it feels more real, and more enjoyable for me to write my day-to-day. Rather than what was beginning to feel like a series of essays, which I'd write the night before, and publish the following morning). So I thought I'd substitute pictures of the bedroom, with photos of my studio, which I should have really shown you a while a go. I kept on telling myself, as it wasn't quite finished, I couldn't show it, because I wanted it to look like one of those perfect studios you see on well known blogs. This is the view from the door to my studio. I have to sheepishly admit, I did have a tidy before taking these photos, and a small amount of 'arranging' went on too! Yep, it's about as tidy as it's ever going to be at this moment in time! It's a lot easier to keep tidy than my old studio, which I miss only a tiny bit. I love my new studio though. Those pink walls! I step inside, and the effect of the colour is "JOY"! I'm going to take you on a 360 degree tour of the room now................ So, in the above photo we are standing in the doorway, looking in towards the left of the room. I'm now going to carry on taking you in an anti-clockwise spin. Moving on round to my desk.............. ............. My desk........... the window............. My desk and the plan chests in the background. It is nice to have the plan chests in my studio. They didn't fit in my old work space, so whenever I needed a sheet of paper or whatever, I would have to fetch it from indoors, which isn't ideal in the pouring rain. And glancing down to the floor, (breaking out of the 360 degree tour slightly), is a teeny tiny, itsy bitsy doggy. Douglas. He's always with me in the studio, Ellie, being the independent, fiesty little madam that she is, is usually somewhere else. Douglas is in his brand new polka dot bed. He had a really good long investigative sniff of it before he clambered in, very thorough he was. I wondered what on earth could be so fascinating in a new bed. And on we spin, past the plan chests, round to the door. Oh look, there's all the stuff I dumped in the corridor to make my studio look tidy for the photographs, you can see through the doorway, not very good 'styling' that, is it?! We're coming to the part of the room where all the arranging took place. It's not quite finished, because I have stuff in boxes, waiting to be re-discovered. Maybe I should re-phrase that, I have more clutter waiting to clutter up my work space. That shelving on wheels you can see in the above photo, it used to be brown. Brown didn't look right with the new look studio. So I went for bright turquoise, which felt a little frightening at the time. I even went through a "I don't know" stage............ But with things on it, and the shelves filled, the colour isn't so intimidating, it's gorgeous, (to me anyway!). Some of the furniture in the above photo was in my old studio, some is newly acquired. Like the trolley with the Cath Kidston bag sitting on it. (My prize bag. A Birthday gift from my very generous sister). The trolley.......... well, that was a sale item from Ikea, once brown, now painted a blue colour. And the pink cabinet resting on the green cupboard? £45 from and antiques shop on our trip to North Yorkshire last month. I thought it was a good buy, and I didn't have to paint it, and I luv it............ My precious Cath Kidston bag is also doing a reasonably good job of hiding the ugly photocopier............... We're almost full circle............ Full circle! So there you go! The new studio on display! I hope you enjoyed the tour? Now for the weekend, which, in my head, I imagine is going to be relaxing and craft orientated. That's what I'm imagining. Whether or not it actually happens is yet to be discovered............. Have a wonderful weekend, and see you on Monday with pictures of the finished bedroom! Love Vanessa xxx

Hearts and tea towels.

We have enough tea towels in our house to open a tea towel shop.............. well, o.k. that's a slight exaggeration. But we do have a lot of tea towels, which I've collected over the years. So a few hanging up as decoration in my studio aren't going to be missed from the kitchen................. Yes, I like tea towels. I have favourite tea towels. Tea towels that when I come to use them, (there's a rotation system going on), I think, "ooh, it's you again............... how nice". Yes, those are the sort of thoughts that pass through my head. Tea towel thoughts, you could say. There isn't a work top, table or wall space in my studio that isn't groaning under the weight of objects. Sometimes, to use one surface, I have to do a complicated manoeuvreing of objects, and as you can see, even the sink is utilised as storage space, that is, until I need to use it................... But onto the subject of hearts, which have taken over from the tea towels in honour of Valentine's day. It was always a day of disappointment when I was a teenager. I never got Valentines cards because I was terribly shy of boys. My first boyfriend came on the scene when I was eighteen. But now I have a husband......... well, it's now a reasonably safe bet I'm going to get something on Valentine's day............... isn't it Hugo?! (He reads my blog).................. Have a lovely weekend, and happy Valentine's for Saturday.................

My dirty little secret.

I've always liked flowers. Not cool when you're at art college, or at least, that's what was made clear to me by my peers at the time. So it was something I slowly eliminated from my art work. But now I'm thirty-six years old, I'm able to let flora and fauna back into my work, without any embarrassment or guilt............ well almost. To a certain extent, painting flowers does feel like a dirty little secret. Being into gardening, and flowers, wasn't the same as painting them. I think I was seen as a little eccentric............ someone my age gardening, just another of Vanessa's strange little ways, but acceptable because it had an element of mystery to people in their early to mid twenties. I could name plants, like Auriculas, and grow them from seed. I'd give away plants I'd grown, all most hilarious and endearing. Well, I'm not in contact with any of those people now, so I am utterly and totally free to be my own person. I am............... defiant! And I will set my passion for painting flowers free. That will explain why my studio is becoming a little cluttered with flowers. Not just the freshly cut, or potted variety, as it turns out. Something which has wierdly surprised me. I seem to have been collecting flowers of one kind or another for years. From silk flowers, to swimming hats. I love this swimming hat. I found it in a charity shop, and it reminds me of a photo of myself at about the age of eight, trying to look very grown up, sporting a similar hat, while swimming in the sea. And, it has flowers on it. This tray was another 'find'. Much too valuable to be used......... in my opinion.............. Hand painted plates, by someone unknown. Even this candelabra didn't escape being entered into a collection of objects I was in self-denial about......... Flowers. For goodness sake........... I even bought washing-up gloves with huge pink flowers attached to them.......... How was I kidding myself? A paper weight with a flower in it.......? A tiny dish in the shape of a pansy...........? Who, exactly was I trying to fool? It took about fifteen years, but my affliction has finally resolved itself. I am now doing what comes naturally to me............ ......... I am doing what I enjoy, maybe even love to do. I am painting flowers. I've come full circle..... isn't life strange?

Open studio.

'Take a look at a writer's home,and you might get a glimpse inside their mind'. I read these words once, and wondered if I could apply it to myself. My home is neat and tidy, my studio is a 'flood of disorder', as Jean cocteau once described one of his residences. My studio was once an old coal shed. I had it lined with wood, and installed electricity and cold running water. The reality of having a wood burning stove did not live up to the romantic idea of going in each morning and stoking a fire, so now I have a heater timed to make my arrival a warm and welcome one. It's a haven and an office. My little world, which I cram with 'stuff' to inspire and make me happy. People rarely get to step inside, I have never done an open studio before. Those who have come in, suddenly go quiet, and just stand there looking......... and because it is my place of work, and it's probably a bit overwhelming, I don't get asked to justify anything on display. And then they leave, and don't say a word, and I choose not to probe or question. After all, what can you say when you've just been hit with visual overload. When my niece, Millie, visits, she insists on sitting next to me and painting while I work, sometimes offering to improve on my colours or drawing. Or she just points and asks to examine things. Which makes me think, that's probably what some other visitors would love to do. So on your way out, you might spot mole holding up my books. He's the cuddly toy creation from my 'mole' series of books. If you're interested in seeing the books I have illustrated in my studio, here are some links: Walker Books amazon uk Images of Delight