drawing Archives - Zeens and Roger

I’ve had a week filled with lovely birthday things. I’ve been out for dinner/lunch, twice, no! three times. I’ve had lots of awesome presents and there has been gorgeous weather. Smashin’.

I got my hair cut off too, so when I went out to dinner on Saturday night (The Five Bells in Clyst Hydon- very nice) I felt all new and swooshy. I didn’t feel so new and swooshy when we went out for lunch on Sunday (The Rock Inn on Dartmoor). A roast dinner sorted me out but, crikey, I felt rough yesterday. I took loads of pictures of Haytor whilst there, which I’ll post in a day or two.

I also finished a blanket, one that I’m really pleased with. I especially love the border, which is the same pattern I used for my granny shawl. It’s Stylecraft Special dk.

At some point this blanket will end up in my Etsy shop. I will sort out a link when I’ve got some blankets and other things in there.

Other things I managed to finish last week were two little bag/purse type things. One is for my unimpressive collection of barely used knitting needles and the other is for keeping small projects in so I can take it out and about. I used the fabric I bought in Totnes shops during the Easter hols. They both need pressing again because I made a very lacklustre job of it.

I had all my sewing laid out on the table. I’ve made a half hearted pledge to take part in Me Made May. Since last week, I’ve worn hand made things already and I made a dress! I’ll take pictures of the dress before the end of May, I’m sure.

Another work in progress is a new shawl. I’m doing a variation of my granny shawl just to play around. I’m using Drops Baby Merino. I went on a Drops spending frenzy last weekend. They had a sale at Woolwarehouse so I went a bit bonkers.

See! Drops. I have an idea.

More Drops. I cannot wait to start this, Cherry Heart’s Victoria shawl. Pattern bought and printed, ready to start any second.

Some lovely presents were received, I got a bunch of fat quarters from my mother-in-law. She went to a quilting shop in Bovey Tracey. I know about this shop but I’ve not been. It’s supposed to be good.

I got lots of fab books. Looking forward to getting stuck into those…

I got these bowls too. I got loads of stuff, I won’t show it all, but needless to say it’s all good gear. One of my favourites is the drawing from the photo at the top. It’s by my friend who is an artist and graphic designer. It’s a picture of me doing me crochet! I guess I should frame it, I think it’s beautiful but then so is the subject matter, obvs.

And then the week before last, I got this wonderful bundle of stuff from Samantha at createitsamantha.co.uk We took part in the #craftblogclub spring clean challenge on twitter. Essentially it was a craft stash swap. It was such a lovely surprise to open up the parcel and have lots of delightful things tumble out. The Power Ranger didn’t come with my new stuff; Three year old thought I should take a picture of it. I have some ideas of what I might do, I’m looking forward to playing around in the next week or two.

I love getting birthday flowers!

Anyway, I’m off. Got a house to tidy and a child to entertain. Can’t watch A Bug’s Life all day. Actually, we did sit down and watch the local secondary school do a live Q&A with Tim Peak on the International Space Station a couple of hours ago (via the internet). I thought it was interesting but Three year old only managed five minutes before going off to look at a Lego book.

On what was a bit of a weird weather day, I decided to try something I’ve been thinking about for ages. Over the past couple of years I’ve been risking jumble fingers by collecting loads of old picture frames from jumble sales and junk shops.

I have now got too many lurking in drawers and other nooks and crannies so it was about time I did something with them. Mostly, the pictures inside the frames are not that good and it won’t be too hard to chuck them away. Sorry Kylie.

I bought mount board and a cutting tool thingy from Amazon ages ago but have only just got round to playing with them properly. I’m not very good. Not sure I’m keen. I quickly gave up on the bevelled edge as my lines were wonky and I was in danger of slicing off a finger. I will try again but I’ll take a break first. Will give it a go in a couple of weeks. I’ve got a lot of frames to get through.

I had a bit of trouble deciding on which picture to choose. I don’t know why, because ultimately, I will be able to frame an awful lot of pictures. Any way, I went for one I’d drawn myself as that is what I fancied. I do have lots of old books to cut up too though. I love old illustrations, especially from children’s books. I’ve got a good collection of them, some of which are waiting to be chopped up!

I’m not sure I even did it correctly, but I’ve played around with it and hopefully stuck it in the frame securely. I used the old picture as the backing and wodged it in tightly. I have avoided buying any pins/nails and hook type things, relying on what is already stuck in the frame.

This is the picture I chose. It looks crappy unfinished, with no colour, but I got my colouring pencils out and I’m actually very pleased with it. Most of the time I’m not really sure what I’m doing, but I know that it’s fun and I’m enjoying playing pencils! Such a dweeb.

I was inspired by the woodland bluebells I saw in Dorset a few weeks ago and I used one of the photographs I took to sketch the scene. Not exactly a replica…hmm.

I’ve got to work on the angled edge of the mount board, I think it’ll make a difference in the presentation. But, I might just be being fussy. The only thing now, is to work out where to hang the picture! And all the others (whenever it is I get round to doing those too).

drawing

Birthday

Playing with picture frames