Trees at Brandon Park

I finished some of my 'for sale' canvases this week, I thought you might like to see these three. They are part of a collection that have been put up in the tea rooms at Brandon Country Park

You can't tell by the photographs but they have been painted in acrylic that has put on very thick using palette knives rather than brushes. It's a great way of painting texture and I love doing trees in this way, it really captures the roughness of the tree bark.

Jan x

Swirly Tree & Daisies on Canvas

What lovely weather we have had the last few days, today we took advantage of the weather and rode to Wells Next to the Sea, a lovely coastal town in Norfolk, it was still a bit chilly on the coast, well it is still March, but lovely and warm out of the breeze, it was great to go out without thermals on.

Wells Next to Sea

We then rode to Hunstanton for lunch, on the way we saw....

Deer grazing at Wells Next to Sea

AA Call Box and our V Max

There are only about 19 of these AA Call Boxes left, some are in museums, this one is on the A149 at Brancaster.
As for crafting, this week I've been busy sewing my critters (see previous post) but no photographs of those as yet, and painting canvases for my up and coming show.

Swirly Tree and Daisies

 

I believe it's going to be another dry and sunny week so I'm hoping to get some gardening in and maybe doing a bit of jet washing before a hosepipe ban comes into force.

 

I'm linking this post to 1st Unique Gifts blog as part of Wendy's Handmade Monday. Please pop over and have a nosey at what Wendy and all the other bloggers have been up to.

Jan x

A few Felt Critters

I've been away all week, spending a bit of quality time with my mum. It's been a great week and although I miss being with her it's nice to be back home, mum lives over 200 miles away and usually when I visit both me and my husband go by road, this time hubby was working so I went by train.

For the journey

It was a 5 hour journey and I was surprised at how quickly it went.

I was armed with magazines, a suduko book and a small sketch book which helped pass the time.

Oh yes, I had a few sweeties too.

Felt Critters

I took with me a bag of 'bit's to do' which consisted of a few bits of felt and needles and cotton, not forgetting that I was going by train and needed to carry everything. I cut out a few shapes and started making these little characters, I think they look a bit like my fridge magnets that you can see here

I'm planning to sew backs on them, add padding and a ribbon loop then these little fella's will probably become key fobs or zip pullers. 

At the end of the week my husband came to collect me so I didn't need to do the return journey by train. 
We arrived home on Saturday evening and on the Sunday we took part in the Eastern Region Ride of Respect  which is an annual charity ride to raise money and awareness for the Royal British Legion. It's a great ride but by gosh it was a cold day.

On the road to RAF Honnington

 This post has been linked to Handmade Monday over at Wendy's 1st Unique Gifts blog.

Wishing you all a happy week

Jan x

Bicycles and sketches

Hello all, another Handmade Monday has come around and what a busy time it's been. 

I have been doing  lots of prep this week for a couple of 'one woman shows' that have been organised for me......ooer, that sounds a bit grand don't you think? 

The first one is to be held over the Easter Period in a lovely little Tea Room at Brandon Country Park. 

I made the fatal mistake of thinking I had lots of time to get my paintings done and organised but as usual have left everything to the last minute.

I 'sort' of know what I want to do, so that's 'sort' of good, I've done a few sketches, so that's good, 

My bicycle sketches

I've transferred some of the sketches onto my canvases, I consider that very good.

Bicycle sketches on 3 canvases

Now all I need to do is get the paintings done and hopefully show them to you in a future post. I decided to go with a bicycle theme, mainly because the park has lots of cycle paths and attracts lots of cyclists. It's a lovely peaceful place to go for a rides or walks and to enjoy nature.
I don't mind the walking bit but I don't 'do' cycles, painting them is one thing, riding them is quite another, they don't like me, really, they don't, as soon as I go near one of these contraptions they conspire against me, go all wibbly wobbly and to throw me to the ground. 

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My second show is at an Abstract Gallery in a Coffee Shop in Newmarket, that's not until November so hey there's plenty of time.... isn't there?!

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Oh and in between these two I'm taking part in a group Art Show to be held at a Local Church in June. I'd better get my skates on.

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Don't forget to check out all the other busy crafters over at 1st Unique Gifts blog

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Have a good week all,

Jan x

Thank you once again...

One of the things I love about blogging is a sense of community and friendship that has built up over time, people we interact with through a keyboard and monitor is like having a pen pal or a friend we can pop over to 'see' and have a cuppa with and maybe a biscuit or two. We impart tips, advice and sympathy when needed. We also give awards for blogs we enjoy, a short while ago I was given the Liebster Blog Award from Jo at  Pickle-Lily (If you haven't already seen it the post is  Here ).  I am thrilled to announce that I have received two more of these lovely awards from

Jill at Christmas Pie Crafts

&

Sarah at Dragonfly Jersey 

These blogs are well worth visiting so be sure to pop over and say hello.

The 'rules' or 'guidelines' for this award are simple -
Say Thank You to the giver of the award and link back to their blogs, so thank you Jill and thank you Sarah.
Choose 5 blogs to pass the award onto, my original five choices are in this post here. I'm sure you will forgive me for not choosing another five.

I have edited my original Thank you post (link above) to include Jill and Sarah. 

Not a lot of crafting from me this week, I decided to take a few days off,  I have the best excuse though..... I have had my daughter and grandson visiting for the week and we have had a wonderful time. We have been for walks, fed the ducks, counted the sheep, collected fir cones, sang songs and had lots of fun. 

They are travelling back home on the train today and now the house seems so quiet, mmmm I wonder how many plastic dinosaurs and spiders I'll find hidden under the cushions and furniture?

I did manage to complete a few items before my visitors arrived, one was this plaque, I haven't had a chance to take photo's of  anything else so I'll save them for another post.

A tractor & a digger for Caden

I didn't get any time to read many blogs throughout the week so hopefully I can now catch up with everyone who takes part in Handmade Monday.

So that's it  from me on a rainy and cold Monday here in Suffolk, I wish you all a good week......

Jan X