a little lime

I seem to have a thing for diamond shapes in patterns of late. Here is another one which I've dubbed TRUMPETS: You could stop at any point from step 4 on this one. I really like the way that, depending on where you focus, a different set of trumpet "flowers" come forward/go back in the design (look at step 8 and step 9). I've deliberately put dots in the centre of only one set to enhance this effect. I can't resist giving a pattern a go on a wonky grid to do a 'quality check for versatility' - here's a quick sketch done up to step 6. When I was moving the cows on Friday from the Creek paddock to the Daffodil paddock, I couldn't resist picking some flowers for the house. This paddock of daffodils was one of the lovely surprises that you discover after you buy a property, that first Winter they just started appearing. The paddock had been leased to grow daffodils many, many years ago. We moved a lot of different varieties up to the h...

Hey all, long time no "see". So much has been happening around here, but more about that later........first, onto the new pattern. I've barely picked up a pencil for over a month and once I got back to my desk this week I had a whole heap of scribbles to work my way through. I didn't get very far into it when I found a piece of paper where I had experimented with the tangle pattern Swells by Jennifer Hohensteiner  - it started me thinking about how the aura-ing technique would work with the  Heartstrings  framework to create a kind of inside out version of it. By the way - I have no idea what it is with me and heart shapes but I just love, love them :) This pattern starts off much like Heartstrings , see below for some tips: Drawing tips Leave enough distance between the lines to draw hearts with space around them - unlike Heartstrings you do not want the hearts to touch Starting lines will give you a framework to work within Change up the size o...

Our neighbour has an empty paddock where she kept 3 sheep. Over the past few years two have died, and the remaining one really did not like being alone......so, about a year ago when it saw our cows grazing in the paddock next to her, she joined the herd. She comes when we call the cows, shares their hay and runs behind when they are being herded into another paddock - she's an old dear, so the running occasionally involves a bit of pushing (by us) for her to keep up. So, back to that empty paddock - as our neighbour didn't want the responsibility of looking after more sheep herself, and conveniently we wanted a few sheep to breed for the freezer (and to have cute lambs), over the weekend John picked up some Dorper sheep (they shed their wool so we don't have to shear them). We got a nursing mum and her lamb (a boy - he'll end up in the freezer when he's old enough) and an older lamb (a girl - future breeder). They came from an area with little grass, so poor mu...

John is driving back from....??.....wherever......... (I do know he is at least 2 hours away and will not make it back in time for our afternoon coffee)........with our new Jersey cow (we are planning to milk our girls on a 6 month rotation so that we always have our own milk, cream, etc, etc.). I think I'll call this one Daisy. I've always, always wanted a cow called Daisy........or Buttercup.....or really any name that is not Jersey. Maybe I'll go totally left field and name it Clog. LOL. We once had a dog called Gumboot. I loved the name and, I'll tell you what, no one ever forgot it. I loved him, too. My main girl ended up with "Jersey" by default - all our other cows are beef - Herefords - and when she ran with main herd we just got in the habit of calling her "the Jersey" to identify her. Well, I guess she doesn't care - when I call out "Jersey" she knows who I'm talking to and still comes running for her treats :) Today ...

Daylight savings ended today, so now begins the slow, inexorable slide into winter. I hate winter....the cold, the mud, the constant cycle of bringing in wood for the heater. Urrgh! But, I do love the food - lots of slow cooked meals and puddings. Oh, yeah! Paisley Mooka: This one has been in the works for a few days. When I do a heap of paisley together like this I find it's always a struggle to think of something different to put on each one. The shading was a hassle - it was done after I completed the drawing and is a bit inconsistent as a result. Next time I would shade the outline first before filling with pattern. Pretty sure I have told myself that before........but I forgot.....again!  Hope you're having a fabulous weekend! hx

Don't fall off your chair!........I know it's been a long time since I've posted on consecutive days....but.....as of yesterday - I am on school holidays AND the heat has finally broken, it's been raining AND my lovely jersey girl who lost her calf has adopted a calf whose mother was sent to market, so, we only have to milk once a day now. Jersey is happy/calf is happy/we save a lot of time. A win for everyone. So, you knew I couldn't leave the challenge alone right? The mooka.......it speaks to me. And, yes, it IS  totally normal for me to have a picture of it under my pillow and in my wallet. Uh huh...yep....nothing weird or stalker-ish happening here. Just moving right along....... Onto the pics........ I love connecting up the strings of mooka with these kind of sticky edges.....they're great for hiding a multitude of sins.....like wobbly lines, awkward curves, etc, etc. I go over all my original lines to thicken them up and then curve and fill all the...

A bit of a sad weekend for us here on the farm. Our Jersey cow that we have been grooming to become our new house milking cow started to have her first calf on Friday evening. Saturday morning John and I got up all excited to see the new calf but it had died. So disappointing. Anyway, we have started milking her - she is still a little scared of the milking machine, but is doing well and should have settled down within the week. Love having fabulous fresh, unpasteurised milk again. So, here's the video for Brax: I've had to switch comment verification back on - it annoys me so much, but the volume of spam was getting to me - I think I was deleting around 20 + a day. Also, if you've signed up to follow the blog via email and you're not getting an email when I post, you may not have completed the verification/confirmation process. You need to click in the link in the verification email to confirm your subscription before they will automatically be delivered. Ho...

Today has been the most amazing day in my little corner of the world. One of those beautiful, sunny, blue-skied Spring days that makes you forget all about miserable, muddy winter and has me feeling so glad I live in the Yarra Valley. I seriously hate the cold and cannot wait each year for winter to end. Those of you who live in climates that snow would probably find our winter laughable, but, hey, we do have frost a few times each season, and I can see snow on the mountain caps in the distance.......well, every few years, anyway. So, today. STUNNING. Slip on a pair of thongs and get out in the garden weather (thongs = flip-flops for those of you who just had the truly horrifying thought of me gardening in my underwear). I managed to pull a few weeds, remove the chicken wire fence from around my flower garden (the chickens kept getting in and ripping through my seedlings - we think we have now stopped them from getting over the house-yard perimeter fence, so my flowers are b...

right at the end of winter, for a few short weeks, we get the most amazing display of wattle trees in bloom all over hoddles creek - it's the sign that trudging through the mud to feed my 2 pigsters (muffin and puddin') and the cows (too many to name) is almost over, and spring (please, oh, please) is almost here. I haven't been feeling particularly inspired with my drawing this week, so when I drove down the road tonight to pick up my daughter and the wattle was EVERYWHERE, I knew I had to draw some. I also couldn't help but to stop and pick a whole bunch of the side of the road to stuff into a vase - it won't last long, the blossoms will drop and make an awful mess in a day or two, but, so what. This was quick, simple and cruffle-icious. hx

Spring is coming, I have the proof in my garden - the anemone's are just starting to flower - super excited as I planted around 50 of them this year, with 100 ranunculus to follow up. Can't wait to have these beautiful, bright flowers all around the house in a few weeks. Right now I am having to make do with the daffodils and jonquils. yep. I'm suffering. after a walk around my garden, I couldn't wait to start drawing. The result was this anemone/windflower bouquet (these don't come out in my garden until summer), I love their shape. Another feather on this one, too - I am loving drawing these at the moment. would've liked to use blue/green tones for the leaves on this, but had to work with what I had - I am awaiting my final order of markers & when this arrives, I'll have all the colours (I think) I need. I have chosen more muted/pastel tones in this order as they seem to work best for the soft, watercolour look that I like. hx