a little lime

When I don't feel very inspired (like lately), it can be a little hard to pick up my pen and do anything with it - I just know that there's not going to be anything exciting happening when I put that pen to paper, so why bother, right? Well, I am a big believer of the more you create, the more creative you become, so although I might be tempted to just take a break (and, admittedly, sometimes I do), other times I like to work through the dry spell and see if I can drag some inspiration along with it. One of my start up tactics is to draw some random circles on the page and just start from there. Here's yesterdays drawing: Not very exciting, and similar to stuff I've done before - but, it got me drawing. Here's some progression pics - unfortunately they are not great because I was too lazy to scan each step, so took them on my ipad - you'll also have to ignore the fact that it is upside down to the finished drawing (I just realised this as I was ...

Wow, this journal has taken me far longer to complete than usual - it spans 14 June - 9 Sept. Generally I get about a month out of my journals, just shows that life has been a little more full-on than usual, I suppose. Here's a couple of random pieces before this one is slotted into its spot on the shelf. poppy/tube: the shape of the flower could use some work but, eh. loopy string doodle:  I love starting with these loopy strings and going from there. Yesterday  we brought down the new Jersey (now called Daisy) to share the paddock with our milking cow, we think she'll be having her calf in the next month or so and we want her to get used to the routine, the sound of the milking machine, etc, etc. Anyway, we decided to extricate our neighbours sheep from the paddock at the same time (she's been hanging out with our cows for most of the year) and return her to our neighbours spare paddock along with our new sheep. Thi...

Do you see pictures in your coffee? Or like everywhere? It's normal right? Well, anyway, I've decided I don't really need to worry until they start talking to me, too! So, this week, after pulling my espresso shot for my morning latte I spotted a daisy with swirls around it in the crema - then I took a photo so I could draw it later - as you do. At one stage, just after the initial line work, I really wasn't loving it - it felt unbalanced, but once I played around and added some detail and more elements, I'm happy with the end result and am glad I persisted. Definitely a fun experiment. Hope your weekend is going great! hx

Curvy lines - what's not to love? If I'm staring at a blank page with no idea of what I'm doing there, I'll just doodle a curving line - usually a loose "s" shape - to start me off. Sometimes I like to be more deliberate and start with a sinuous line that creates a whole heap of stacked paisley shapes then see where they take me. Some examples: http://www.alittlelime.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/the-end-of-another-journal.html Here's a looser version: http://www.alittlelime.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/bunzo-weaver.html Todays offering: I haven't coloured anything for a while, so went with my fave combo of lime green/purple. I'm o.k. with it, I do love the way the centres look all connected (in some spots, anyway) and, well, all juicy :) I probably would've preferred a greyscale version, though. For this design I used my favourite pale lime green marker - it was on its last legs - it took a lot of coaxing and we just barely managed to get ...

Friday.......during school term my FAVORITE weekday - no school, no gym, no after school pickup! So, even when I'm busy, this is usually the day I can squeeze in a little bit of drawing. School term started last week for me so in between that, milking the cow and the other stuff I have on the go at the moment (baby cheeses; sourdough starter, cider ferment and ginger beer) that all require feeding and/or maintenance - I hadn't been up to my little studio in a week. When I did make it up there today I found a drawing that I started last week and then promptly forgot. I had just done some basic outlines of the flowers, so it was fun to finish that off and not have to think about starting something new. I posted some progression photos on my facebook page as I was drawing today if you want to see how the drawing evolved. Here's the finished pic - I like it except for the little flower right near the middle. It has bugged me from the start but there wasn't any way...

My school holidays officially end tomorrow. I am back at school on Tuesday and I still have to work out menus for the term. Urrrgh! I have had a super-busy, but really, really wonderful break - the timing was perfect for our summer garden produce so I've been doing lots of preserving. I've also been experimenting with some more involved cheese-making and finally built up to making a hard cheese yesterday - my first cheddar is curing on the bench. Too bad I don't get to taste it for a couple of months. I saw this amazing quilled portrait on Pinterest yesterday. I particularly loved the scroll-y smoke streams, the little teardrop shapes, the circles, the EVERYTHING! Here's the drawing it inspired: I went mostly freeform and just kept building from the middle. I didn't worry about my colouring too much (don't look too close!), if I went out of the line, I just drew another line and filled it with a different colour to camouflage. Probably why some of the...

It feels like ages since I've posted a random drawing. Here's a couple I did this weekend. Bunzo weaver : in the most recent diva challenge, which was to use bunzo and auraknot together, I really loved the way  Margaret Bremner  extended the tips of some of the bunzo into a "thread" on her zendala. I wanted to have a play with this idea - here's the result - my bunzo "weaver".  Collage: On Saturday I decided to play around with another layered design. This one uses a couple of the patterns that I posted last week - Olb & Drack  . I love using "windows" in these type of designs and must have had the lovely Dawn's wonderful postcards in my mind as I echoed hers here. hx

Here I am, up all bright and early to post my MM for the week - well, o.k., it's almost midday, but I have been up since 6.30am - that counts, right? It's the half way point of my holidays - and though I've gotten a few things done, I just haven't been as productive as I would have like (the heat hasn't helped) so - the next three weeks - watch out! Last week I spent a lot of time re-organising my craft room- a few things lead to this: - I inherited all of my mum's embroidery, materials, beads, etc, etc that she can no longer use, this needed to be incorporated into my own supplies of similar stuff (I now realise, between us we have a LOT). - I had all my 2011, 2012 and start of 2013 photos printed, which I'll be organising Project Life style using my own stash as I still have a lot left over from my scrapbooking years. - I want to document 2013 more thoroughly in photos/journals, keeping up to date with printing out my pics so I can document t...

It has been so consistently hot over the past week - we've had temperatures up to 39C (102F) - looking forward to a bit of respite in a few days and hopefully (please, please) a bit of rain before it gets super-hot again! I might even get some drawing done - right now all I can do is lie on the couch on the verandah and maybe read. Oh, and water the garden......over and over and over again! It is taking a lot of work to help it survive against the onslaught of heat - I'm on an almost constant rotation with the sprinklers (we have a huge veggie garden as well as my flower garden - my poor hydrangeas are really not taking the temperature well). Here's my first Monday Moleskine for the year: I think the challenges start up again tomorrow...........exciting! hx

It is cherry season here in the Yarra Valley - that lovely, shiny 8 or so weeks that we can get fresh cherries from the farm gate. I start to get excited in October. The signs go up around late November and we usually buy 1-2kgs at a time and just gorge on them. So, so good. John bought home a 5kg box tonight, so I spent a couple of hours this evening pitting most of them to freeze. I love to make cherry apple pies when the apples are in season - lucky we live next door to an orchard! This weeks Monday Moleskine - started off with a line across the page again then just went from there. Looking forward to tomorrow's challenge! hx

Our Christmas trees are up. I've added hot pink to my usual blue/silver theme to the main tree/room decorations this year. I also have a small tree in the hallway which is all about lime green. So beautiful, love this time of year!! I haven't had a lot of time to draw over the past week, so have just done a little here and there on this one and managed to finish the shading on it today. Still playing with this style, though I am just about over it! lol! There are things I like, some I don't, but I always learn something :) I also got diverted part way through when drawing the shattuck pattern - the outline & pattern fill reminded me of an artichoke, so I found myself compelled to sketch out a few artichokes to play with later. Monday Moleskine 6  - not sure where I was going with this one - though, I guess, that's kind of the point - I find the design having two strong diagonals throws the balance off a bit, but, still I had fu...

Another spirally design -. I think I'm a little bit addicted. Next time I do one I'll try to remember to take a scan prior to shading - amazing what a difference the shading and heavier linework makes. The idea to organise my patterns this way came straight from Sandy at Tanglebucket - you can find her post on her blog here  - so clever. Love it! I am up to "J" - I tend to go through frenzied stages of drawing the patterns, then take a break for a week or two to do other stuff. I also began working on 4x6 pattern step out index cards (haven't done many) and don't know whether I'll continue with this idea - too much work, so little time. Home today - should be able to play with the challenge! hx

At the half way point. I have been so consumed with drawing another detailed spiral drawing that I almost didn't get this ready - not to mention that John was hogging the computer so I couldn't get on at a reasonable time. Anyway, here is this weeks Monday Moleskine. This one started with the 2 lines down the centre - I probably thought I'd draw on both sides of the lines but this is how it turned out. I think I've cropped a little off the top LHS when scanning, too, as the line isn't really running downhill on the drawing. Looking forward to the challenge tomorrow, and finishing up my spiral drawing :) hx

Erin was on camp this week, so I didn't even have to do the school bus drop off/pick up - this meant extra drawing time! Loved it! Yesterday I played around with a fleur de lys scroll design, lots of shading work on this one to give it nice dimension and roundness. I was definitely over my grey markers by the end of it. Today I wanted to do something a bit different, so I went to my Pinterest board for a bit of inspiration. Two things jumped out at me - Michele Beauchamp's wonderful Spirals and this fantastic image  by Angela Porter that also features spirals - loved the heavy outlining and lines flowing outwards. You can see the influence of both these sources in my drawing. I started with the spiral on the upper left and grew the design from that point adding whatever fitted into the spaces, trying to maintain flowing curves. I also drew out a box on my page before I started to give myself firm borders. I really loved trying something ...

I was not in the mood to draw anything significant this weekend, so I indulged in the mindless pursuit of getting through my patterned tiles -  and made it all the way through to the h's. My little book is looking quite full and I am finding myself stroking it lovingly at odd times, because, you know, uniformly presented, alphabetically organised things just make me happy, happy :) Monday Moleskines: because I felt in the mood to draw one of these today (and also, maybe I'm a little afraid that Mrs Wibbs will spank me if I don't. LOL.), I have decided to continue these till I reach the predetermined *magic* number of 10. I think that's all I've got in me before boring myself silly as I seem to be compelled to doodle flowers and paisley shapes all the time! So, here it is, a nice simple one :) Maybe next week I'll try to start off with a box shape instead of a curved one to see if that alters the direction of the drawing. Challenge day tomorrow - ...

I love Fridays. Yeah, I know, I love lots of stuff......but I really, really, REALLY love Fridays. It's the one day of the week where all I have to do is drop Erin off at the bus stop in the morning - then I don't have anywhere else I have to be all day! I don't even do after school pick-up today! I can draw.....or read......or garden.......or do housework (okay, okay, that last one's actually fake option. pffft. housework. not gonna happen. not on "helen can do anything she wants Friday!!!" So, today I'm drawing - I've just finished up this week's challenge and it feels like the perfect day to catch up on the myriad of patterns that I have yet to put into my log book, go through my journals and see if I've got any half finished ideas/drawings to work on and maybe work on those little pattern organisation tiles I've been doing on and off. So, this weeks Diva Challenge  Mickey. Okay....this was not going to be one that played to my stren...

This one started with some circles with a flowing line joining them across the page. My Monday Moleskine career may just about be over - though it is relaxing, and I'm trying hard not to be judgemental towards my Monday doodles - for me it may be more about the destination than the journey! LOL. We'll see if I get another one up next week :) hx

It has been a long weekend here and the weather has been great! John and I have been gardening for most of it - we put in a new 35 sqm veggie garden bed and I've spent the last 2 weekends filling it, creating a mulch path around it, and today, doing a bit of planting out. John has been working on the other veggie beds. Over the past couple of years our goal has been to grow all of our own vegetables and this year, for the most part, we have done it - I did have to buy some onions and carrots a few times, but that was it. It means a lot of work, eating strictly seasonally, but we love knowing exactly where our food comes from. I did manage to do some drawing this afternoon and here is my Monday Moleskine for this week - just by the skin of my teeth! A bit of smudging from the pen I'm using which is annoying. This one started with the loopy path through the centre and is showing my paisley love. I also added to my granny's bonnet drawing from a few days ag...

I am not really all that comfortable with "doodling" - I usually start my drawings with a bit of a plan - sure, they often evolve and change as I'm working on them, but I generally have a concept to start with. Doodling starts with a random shape then grows from there - nothing predetermined. Well, this is how I am planning to approach it anyway. Some people are incredible at it.......me..... I'd just like to improve and learn some new things. So, I thought I would set myself a goal to get one doodle posted each Monday. I am using the Moleskine journals I bought a while back, they're a smaller format than my usual art journals - I am hoping that not needing to fill a big page will make these a quick and fun exercise each week. I might not necessarily do the drawing on Monday (in fact I probably won't), but I'll post then........until I get sick of it. Which might be in a couple of months..........or next week! So here is my first one: I thin...

I wanted to use paisley shapes in a drawing and finally got around to sketching out an idea yesterday and am really happy with the end result. Also wanted to try out the orange micron pens that I have had kicking around in my drawer - love how it makes the drawing a lot less harsh and, I think, gives it a henna/mehndi look. hx