little

oh...it's been a funny sort of a week, this week. we had a bit of a crisis in the middle when frank had his finger slammed in a door at a friend's house...i tell you, it was horrible. it swelled to twice the size of his other fingers and the day was spent at a small local hospital having x rays and the like...then the following morning at the bigger hospital having it checked out again. he has a very small fracture on the joint and while it's pretty painful (but thankfully more normal sized) he's going to be fine. thank goodness. he's had a lot of mileage out of showing his x ray to anyone with a pair of eyes...he's very proud. i think he's slightly gutted that it didn't need to be put in plaster ;)

on a different note, i bought some tiny weeny chunky canvases the other day at the art shop...and the above is the result of a child free couple of hours this morning. it's called 'random red'.

i've gotta...

mini shop update going on...you can purchase the above little canvases by clicking here if you so wish. (and yeah, sorry, there's that wallpaper again. get used to it ;)

bribe update

i realised that i probably should have a had a sneak peak of the freebie i'm throwing in with the canvas offer...so buy any of the canvases in the stalk series and you'll receive a little (6 x 4 inches) 'graphix' sketchbook worth around $10, these babies are totally limited edition, only four of this size have been made, two in white and two in red...i'm also changing the deadline until 10pm tonight (gmt) and yes, it's ok, i'm aware that this probably smacks of desperation, hehe

stalk (small dots) & another bribe

i've just listed the last canvas in the stalk series and i am offering a small bribe especially for my bloggy readers...just click here to buy any of the four canvases and receive another nice handmade surprise in your package! just type 'i read blu-shed' in the 'message to seller' box and it's all yours...it's quite important you do that because if you don't you won't get your free goody :)

[ps...you might want to hurry...offer ends tomorrow night 8pm gmt]

what's in a name?

hmmm...when i made the first one of these i called it stalk, i wasn't expecting make more and use the same motif again...so i guess these are called stalk 2 and 3. how original. anyway, these have turned into a little mini series, four in total (haven't got pics of number 4, light v bad today) funny ol' weekend all round really. hope yours was more inspiring!

stalk

i've just added a new canvas to the shop! i'm really happy with how it turned out.

forty-eight

my cheekiness of yesterday was reported by the lovely buyer, lynsey, of cuteable blog fame so another nice bit of publicity today!

talking of canvases, i found this one called 'forty-eight' languishing in my 'inactive' section of etsy. opps. told you i'm a terrible housekeeper. needless to say it's be re-activated and re-listed and is available right here!

good grief...

...i did my last post, went upstairs and bathed the boys, came down to find my inbox flashing, and 'imported' has sold. i can't believe it. thank you lynsey for taking pity on me, i am officially a blog version of a busker (or is a pavement artist a better comparison?)

bribery

ok, here's the deal...the above little canvas is called 'imported' and was made for my etsy shop a while back and i love it. it was posted around the time i could barely keep them in the shop, they sold as soon as i made them. in fact, when i get a bit of time to myself i shall make a new batch. this was my favourite, and it got left behind. it has had thousands of views...and even when the other week the etsy viewing totals got wiped out, it's still one of my most viewed items, even though it's right at the bottom of my shop. i really, really want this to go to a good home. i'm not beyond begging. in fact, if you go to my shop right now and buy this collage (it's 6"x4" by the way) i will also throw in a packet of my gocco printed flat cards and another handmade surprise goodie too. just type in 'yay! it's mine!' in the notes to seller section of the checkout process so i know you read my blog and they're all yours. see? i'm not beyond bribery either.

cock-a-doodle-doo!

i had a bit of fun with my new little canvas today...a photo shoot on my back deck. the sun was shining brightly (slightly harshly in all honesty for pic taking, but beggars can't be choosers ;)

i originally wanted to take a pic of the canvas sitting on a beautifully made wooden shaker-style box (a proper handcrafted one, all the way from the us of a) but it looked terrible. but inside the box i found this little cockerel, how long he's been there i have no idea...but how cute is he? i have amassed an enormous collection of vintage-y style plastic farm animals, saved from a recent cull from the boy's toy box because i just know they're going to be useful in my work some day. much to the disgust of my husband who said something along the lines of

'it was you who wanted to get rid of all this crap, what the bloody hell do you want to keep them for?' for art's sake darling, was my sheepish reply.

oh yeah, if anyone is interested, the new canvas is called 'forty-eight' and is up for sale. and yes, i'm fully aware it's red. again.

black and white and red all over...

...wasn't that a punchline to a really lame joke from my childhood? what was the actual joke? penguins and newspapers spring to mind but i could be wrong. anyway just to announce to the world that another canvas is up in my etsy shop, and it's called 'imported'. so go forth and purchase if you so wish, but hurry, there's only one ever in the world. blimey, that was the hard sell wasn't it? move over pushy car salesmen and women ;)

i love a happy customer

i can now officially post the above pic, the cloak and dagger stuff is no more because my customer, the lovely dom, couldn't wait to give this to his partner, the equally lovely julie, for christmas which was the original plan. i received a really happy email from julie yesterday, so thank goodness, she loves it. it's all about their little girl luella and includes all sorts of things that she loves, like elephants and ducks, a swing and a lot of pink! it was such a joy to make. inspiration struck me, of all places, in our local 'pizza express'. they have some gorgeous paintings on the wall there and one had a lollypop tree in it...i scribbled down some ideas on the back of a napkin with those little packs of kid's pencils they give out, bloomin' useful that! it got my little brain whirring with possibilities and the piece went together like a dream. so tell me folks, where is the weirdest place that inspiration has struck you?

com-mission complete

i've been working on this commission on and off the past week or so and it's now complete. i'm really pleased with it. i'm showing just a corner because it's got personalised info on it and it's for a gift. you never know who might be looking and my customer would not be best pleased if i blew the surprise! you may remember the piece in it's really early stages. it's now stitched and stretched over a frame so it's looking good! blimey, have i just posted about something other than etsy or the kids? yep!

although you don't get away that easily as it's arthur's second birthday today, so they'll probably be pictures of the family party aftermath. not pretty. ok, i'm off to scrub the downstairs loo ready for my guests. have a great sunday!

mini re-stock

two more original 6x4 inch canvases for the shop, just uploaded! the green one is called 'more', the black and grey is called 'power of 3'. have a great bank holiday :) notebooks on their way soon.

tree

apart from a few other things (i'd like to say tidying the house, tackling the ironing pile or cleaning the loo but i'd be lying) i've been laying down the foundations for a piece roughly entitled 'tree' for now. i'm quite excited about it, it's to be a 12"x12" mixed media piece for a commission. it's in the very early stages right now, i just thought you might like to see what i get up to when my mum has the boys. aside from drinking tea and watching murder she wrote repeats and neighbours, that is.

just a quickie...

as the bishop said to the actress! ;)

another etsy canvas called 'honesty'. this will be my last post until sunday, i'm off to the festival of quilts at birmingham nec tomorrow to help set up my friend kate's stand. she has a online fabric shop called quilter's cloth. if anyone is going, i'll be on stand g40, come along and say hi! until then, be good, and if you can't be good, be careful. bye for now! :)

new

more stock for that elusive etsy shop...! the brown piece above is entitled 'kiss' and the blue, 'if in doubt'. i've worked out a way of making the backs look nice and neat too - they were looking a bit ropey. now i've solved that, i'm feeling very smug.

goodness me, i've posted three times today, i think that counts as overkill. see you monday, folks!

developments are afoot...

just a little sneaky peek in what i've been up to today...down at the printers. hmmmm...i smell an etsy shop on the (slightly far) horizon! these have been printed on to canvas and are really sweet.

mrs fisher

pale pink and zingy red for this canvas...i'm getting obsessed...more to come! (i'm sorry the middle pic is a bit rubbish, i forgot to crop it!)

on a different obsessive note, i've been glued to 'heroes' on bbc2. it's a little bit gory (i'm a total wimp with blood and broken bones; my idea of nightmare tv is an episode of 'casaulty') but it's really gripping. and that's quite a recommendation from me, cos i'm not really into comic book/superhero crap. even my husband likes it and he must be the only 32 year old bloke in the world who hated 'star wars'.

3 little flowers

as promised a green collage on canvas. the original was a disaster, so this is actually number 2.