Sunday Treat

The only other people who live down our lane are a lovely family who keep horses.  They have two Fresian stallions that are beautiful called Volmer and Vector (I think thats how you spell their names) they are carriage horses and used to work for Harrods before they 'retired' to Bob and Julia's.  They do not work so hard these days just little trips round the lanes and its lovely to see them trundling past our house.  I have been out a couple of times with them before and sometimes go and plat up their manes if they are going anywhere special, I love doing that!  On Sunday Julia asked if I wanted to go out for a little ride, they would stop and pick me up.  So when I heard Julia blowing the horn (Bob and his son Ben play the carriage horn at shows and Julia is learning) I skipped out the door and managed to get a shot of them trotting up toward me.

It wasn't a very sunny day but what a lovely thing to do on a Sunday morning, you can see so much more from a carriage over all the hedges seeing views I never saw before.  At first its a bit disconcerting being so high up behind two big black bottoms when you are more used to being on horses backs!  The carriage sways and moves about more than you think it would, it is so much part of the horses and Bob is wonderful with them, he obviously loves them and they respond to the sound of his voice and much as the reins.

Here we are back home again, a real treat and I learn something new every time I go out with them.  Bob is a well known carriage driver and teaches and helps others with their own horses.  He is always away at some show or other in demand to drive other peoples horses, even the Queens!  

Angels

The last few days I have been working on these angels. They are acrylic on canvas.  I quite like the cake angel and might have this one as a print and cards.  I am building up a small range of my own cards that at the moment I sell to galleries but soon they will be on my etsy shop.  Yes I know, I have had the etsy shop coming soon notice on this blog for ages but Ive only got to work out all the postages and I can start listing stuff, must get my **** in gear and get that done soon!

I thought this one would make a nice christmas card and tags maybe.  I am going to do a few more angels for the V&H fair so my stand looks quite festive.                     

We went to Polperro yesterday and Im afraid to say that we were a bit disappointed with the place, so we stopped at Lostwithiel on the way home. It is a sweet little town and one of the few places in Cornwall that you can find antique shops.  My favourite is one called Deja-vu, they always have lovely stuff in there. At the moment I have fallen in love with a dresser that would be perfect for our front kitchen.  Will have to review the dwindling finances and see if we can justify spending quite a lot of money!  Im hoping that the owner might be interested in some of our stuff we need to get rid of and do a part exchange.  Well while I was in there I spotted these lovely animals on wheels and the bunny who sits just right in the toy chair I found in Christine's last year.  I will be using the animals in some assemblages although Im not sure if I will be able to part with the little cat!

Sowing a seed in 'The Sea Garden'

Today I went down to Portsactho to see my friend Christine who owns the lovely little shop, 'The Sea Garden'.  This shop is a treasure trove of  beautiful little items of antique and handmade furniture, jewellery, linen, china and so, so much more.  Christine has a wonderful 'eye' and this tiny shop and I mean tiny is just a joy to be in.

Well, joy of joys, Christine has offered me the above dresser to display and sell my work from.  I am thrilled and of course said yes. Im sure I can pack a lot of stuff onto those few shelves and will have a trial month in December.  My gallery was at the top of the hill from Portscatho and in fact was where Christine started out but like me she found it to quiet and she had the chance to move down the hill to this little shop which is just a one up one down of doll house proportions.  Christine stores fabrics and stock upstairs, even this is beautifully arranged, the girl just cant help herself!  Well here are a few more photos of The Sea Garden if you like any thing or want to see what Christine has for sale she has just started a shop online with www.whatidlove.co.uk  

I have been busy painting some angels for the V&H fair this week which I will show you when they are done and I hope to have a go at making some hand painted dolls too over the weekend.  Tomorrow is our afternoon out and we hope to go to Polperro, will take photos of course!  See you tomorrow.

Friday afternoon in St Ives

We have decided that if the weather is good Friday afternoons are to be our day off and trip out days.  Yesterday we drove down to St Ives which, when its not summer is one of our favourite places.  It was such glorious weather when we got there, its been a real Indian summer this week and its even hotter today!  

We love to just wander round the little streets always getting lost and finding new bits we havn't seen before but we always seem to end up at the beach by the Tate. The sea is always a beautiful colour, the surf was up and there were loads of surfers on the waves, looking like seals in their wet suits.  We had a look in the Tate bookshop, we never bother to look round as neither of us like the modern art they have in there.  We did pay once and were disappointed with what we saw.  Maybe we are stupid and don't understand it, if you have ever seen The Rebel with Tony Hancock that is how we see the art world!  

Wandering a little further we came to our favourite cafe on another beach that has huts at the back, it always makes me think of the 1930s, I can just imagine the bathers and young men playing banjos like a P.G. Woodhouse story.  Its bliss to just sit with a drink and a bit of cake and take in the view.  

There were a few families on the beach, a mother playing catch with her little boy.  A young seagull was stood quite near watching when it suddenly grabbed the ball and flew off with it!  The poor little kid couldn't believe his eyes, the seagull flew, with others in pursuit, off round the corner, we thought they were all off to play their own game on the next beach!  But no it came back and glided round as if taunting the kid.  I managed to snap the little offender and you can just make out the ball in its beak.  Well that made our afternoon!

Mutley Mob!

Here we are, a few of my furry friends to say Hello .  Michele asked to see some of my little doggies and I needed no further excuse to get them out of the toy cupboard (yes I know, Im 46 and still have a toy cupboard!) and take their picture.  

The little fellow on the left was my first find he cost me 50p at a car boot and has such lovely blue eyes and really loves to be cuddled!  Dolly Doodle the Poodle was in a junk shop unloved on a shelf.  I feel as if I have rescued all these little doglets and given them a loving home!  Maybe I should become a registered charity for unwanted toy doggies, I promise never to turn away a vintage pooch.

Thought I should start making some bits for the fair, here are a few gift tags made from new and vintage papers and vintage buttons. Not sure if they are really worth making for what I can sell them for but great fun to do anyway.  

I would just like to thank you all for the lovely kind comments you have all been leaving me. It is so nice to here positive things about my work.  

Heart and Doggies

We went up to Constantine Bay for a walk on Friday and E found this lovely seaglass heart that he gave to me!  It is the most perfect heart shape and the colour is gorgeous.  It was a surprise as we are usually squabbling over our treasure finds and trying to barter with each other for the best bits, he must love me aahh!  I have quite a lot of heart shaped bits of glass and pebbles but this is the nicest one.  It was lovely on the beach, nearly empty and the sea was beautiful (I do have pics if you want to see them?)

These two little darlings were my car boot finds last weekend.  I have a collection of 50s china in this pattern that we use every day, they always cheer me up, so it was great to find these and it wasnt till I got them home that I realized that they have an added feature, if you pull their tongue out comes a tape measure! And they were only £1.50 for the two!  The black one has been mended but they are still lovely. I must collect all my doggies together and take a picture to show you.

Busy Week

After our little holiday last week we have been noses to the grindstone again.  I have been doing my illustrations for the new book The Peppermint Twins and finishing writing the story and E as usual is back designing childrens books.  His first love is making furniture and lighting but he has no time for that at the moment!  I cannot show you any of the new work as it is 'Top Secret' until the book fair but here are some other bits I have done recently.  Morning Tea and New Hat will be available soon on my etsy shop.  I have just got to work out my postage charges and I will be able to hopefully start selling!  The middle one, In Pursuit, was sold at an exhibition I had in the summer but I thought its quite fun and how I feel at the moment.

You might recognize the crow on this ladies hat as I am using it as my header, but I am going to paint a Jane and the Happy Crow soon to replace it.  Well we are off out now in pursuit of some fun before the weather changes for the weekend, not sure where we are going to but I'm sure it will be by the sea somewhere, now its October we can take the dogglet back on all the beaches. A happy weekend to you all, sorry its a bit of a boring blog today but I thought I should say Hi.