Major excitement!!!

I've just had a lovely surprise... I was on the front page of etsy again!!!!!! Hurray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Here are all the lovely picks chosen by Fern of The Wellington Boot. Thanks Fern for including me!! You made my day!!

hand pulled prints

What do you think? Please excuse the wonky camera angle... the image is a proper rectangle in real life. Rather than the usual white I chose some gorgeous coloured paper with a slight texture to print my carved lino on this morning as a bit of an experiment. The different colours go beautifully with each other. I'm thinking it would be lovely to have a set of different carvings on toning papers as a series.

The ink is still drying on this one... I love this olive green paper. I used the back of a wooden spoon as a brayer. I do have a fancy baren but my spoon is so much better! I don't know why that is, maybe it's because it's how I learned to do it. Maybe one day I will have a proper press... something to dream about. Or should I say, never lose hope ;-)

a new lino print in the works

This is what I've been up to over the last couple of days or so, planning and carving a new block print. I think it's almost finished. I had designed it in my journal/sketchbook, it's basically a notebook I bought which has all different blue and turquoise pages and I tend to use it for everything... list making, rubber stamp thinking, to do lists, ideas when they strike me, designs for cards, prints, brainstorming... etc. This time when I was re-drawing my design onto the lino I completely changed everything except the bird about 5 times until I was happy, remembering to put the text so it read backwards. What I do is carve to a point where I can't bear it and have to make a print to see how it's looking, then carve a bit more. This is waiting for a test print to see if it's finished after I carved the top section away. Hope so!

floss goes to the pub

I read that it's important to get your puppy used to everything you like to do!

We took her into town as well and can I just say that if you happen to be a single man looking for a partner then the best thing you could do is get a puppy! Every time I went into a shop I'd come back out to find Mr P surrounded by women!! Seriously, I've never met or talked to so many people since we got Floss, it's completely changed our lives! Not just that, but the world in general seems so different now we've got a dog. I look at everything in a different light. And going for walks is a real joy now we know we can let her off the lead and she won't just run away. She trots along merrily, stopping to sniff this and that and then runs to catch us up. Now we go for a walk every evening we realise what we were missing before when we just flopped down on the sofa. We never thought to go for a short walk. It was always about long walks at the weekend. Short walks just never entered into it. But we've found out it's so relaxing to go out before tea and discuss our days, get some fresh air and see Floss enjoying herself. It's fab!

I know this blog has been all about Floss for the last few posts and I hope you're not getting bored of it. My life really is centred around her at the moment but hopefully I'll have some other things to post about soon! Bye for now!

puppy's first walk

So yesterday evening, a week after her final vaccination, Floss had her very first walk. It was a very exciting affair with so much to sniff and explore as we walked down the road to the park. Near the end Floss met an adult dog for the first time (other than her mother of course). It was enormous compared to her, a St Bernard I think! And she rolled over on her back and waved her legs around. I think I would have done the same!! :-)

Do you think she's grown? Each morning she seems to have got longer! I'm sure she's turning into a sausage dog!

In other news I've just discovered spotify. What a revelation! Love it! Currently listening to the first of a million kisses by fairground attraction. Have a good day. Bye for now!

Remember this?

It has turned into this:

If you'd like to see what we're growing please click on the photo.

Before the weekend we'd only eaten 1 courgette and a few broad beans and someone said 1 courgette doesn't make a harvest! Well I'm pleased to announce that we've now eaten a beautiful head of broccoli, 1 very tasty rainbow carrot and 4 equally tasty round carrots. The round ones are called parmex I think and are marketed for kids so I couldn't resist ;-) They're beautifully sweet and softer than the rainbow carrot raw so good for salads I think, but cooked the rainbow carrot had stronger flavour. Really delicious! I know it's a small thing but we felt great walking into the garden to get them instead of getting in the car to go to the supermarket. Very convenient!!

As for the bed with the courgettes, this has failed slightly. It was supposed to be the 3 sisters method where the runner beans provide nitrogen for the maize and courgettes, the maize provides a support for the beans to grow up and the courgettes shade the roots of the other plants. The courgettes are doing fantastically well, but I'm afraid the maize hasn't grown fast enough for the beans so I think I will have to start it off sooner next year inside. We're really pleased with the courgettes so not all is lost and the broad beans are doing really well too.

Look what Leanne did!!!

How wonderful is this drawing?!!!! I am so excited to have won Leanne Wildermuth's weekly giveaway!!! I now have a beautiful reminder of how Floss looked the first week we brought her home. It's only been 7 days since the photo was taken and already she has grown. I will be able to look back on this time and remember it fondly! The likeness is spot on don't you think? If you've never seen Leanne's work before go and have a look at her amazing paintings of animals with their gorgeous intricate detail. I've been a fan for years now and I'm really chuffed to have had a pet captured by her!

Floss is doing great. We went to a puppy party last night at the vets which is supposed to give them a positive experience before they have to go and have anything unpleasant happen there. Floss had a lovely time playing although she did get pinned down by her ears at one point by a jack russell puppy. One of the disadvantages of having big ears I suppose!! :-D

Well I'm off to give Floss her tea, so bye for now!