Delamere Forest Walk

P and I went for a walk through Delamere Forest and the surrounding countryside yesterday. It was a beautiful walk and when the sun hit us it was lovely and warm. Spring is almost here!

I also bought some more pastels on Saturday so I could finish off my beach painting with some vibrant turquoises and aquas. There's nothing better than unwrapping new pastels from their brown paper bag!

Just about finished... I've added the pastel and it has given the painting much more depth.

Can you tell what it is yet? ;-) - Acrylic Underpainting

Well it's snowing outside so I decided to transport myself back to summer. I started painting this gorgeous beach and within 10 minutes felt warm, happy and carefree.

This is an acrylic underpainting on Wallis Paper (it literally feel like very fine sandpaper but is archival - it's primarily for painting with pastels - you have to watch your nails and fingertips!). I'm going to use this as a base for my pastel painting.

You can get some lovely contrasts between the soft blends of the acrylic and the more broken colour of the pastels on top when you work this way. The sandpaper can hold many layers of pastel so a very rich surface can be built up.

Congratulations P!!

Spread the Word

The 2nd Worldwide SketchCrawl Day is coming up. Sunday 6th March.

Basically what you do is get your sketching kit together (in my case, sketchbook, pen, brush and water, warm coat, big scarf, furry hat and gloves, chocolate!) and you document your day as best you can using drawings.

It doesn't matter how well you can draw, it's the taking part that counts. And take it from me, it really is good fun, plus you meet people you'd never otherwise meet (great when you're usually isolated all day like me.)

So, wherever you are in the world - why not have a go.

I'm so proud!!!

I felt so proud when I read the email that I actually cried.



P's exam results were all laid out on the page. After all that he said about knowing that he'd failed he's only gone and passed all 3 exams!!! P is now fully qualified!!



Yipppeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!



Well done P. I love you!

Marbling Mad

This is what I've been getting up to today. I bought a marbling kit. I've got some very happy memories of marbling paper at primary school. We would make our own 'best books' using the marbling for the cover. They looked really professional! Anyway... I got a bit carried away and there are sheets of paper drying all over the bathroom. God knows what I'm going to use them all for.

Ugly Cake

My poor cake.



If being wonky wasn't bad enough I had another disaster when it came to icing it. I followed the directions really carefully but the icing was the consistency of single cream. It just wouldn't stay on the sides of the cake, flowing into puddles on the cake board.



I phoned my sister in a panic. We came to the conclusion that adding more icing sugar might thicken it up.



In the end I had more than twice the amount of icing sugar I was supposed to and it was still too runny! So I resigned myself to the fact that it was a 'special' cake, one of a kind and that I WOULD NOT be taking it to the restaurant.



When the candles had been blown out and everyone finally had a piece there were rave reviews.



So it just goes to show, looks aren't as important as what's on the inside!

Bake a Cake

I am attempting to make and ice a cake for my mum's birthday. It is not going well.



The cake has come out of the oven with a big bump on top which I have tried to cut off. I have turned it upside down so it will be nice and flat but there is a gap between the cake and the board. I daren't cut any more cake off because it will start to look like it's been run over by a car, which would be fine if it was just the family who were going to see it but P has arranged for the restaurant to bring the cake out.



I will post a picture of my creation later. Promise not to laugh.