Cloud Control

Today, I'm very much liking this tune, by Cloud Control:

cherry blossom

There's a large cherry tree that grows at the front of my house. I've been watching it change all week.  Little buds became tiny unflurled flowers and today the flowers are starting to come out. This little piece that had fallen to the ground was perfect for palette making:

 

cherry blossom

more neat little rows

Neat little rows of an entirely different (non Elbow) kind:

I started making this double sized granny stripe blanket in June last year. I made good headway with it initially but then other stuff took over and I was only picking it up here and there and not really making any real progress with it. Post wedding, I now have a bit more time on my hands in the evenings and I'd probably say I am half way there so definitely on the home straight, and I already have plans for blanket number 2 in colours to coordinate with my yet to be decorated living room.

Mellie wanted in on some of the crochet action when I was taking photos:

those eyes say ' don't you dare move me from my crochet blanket'

mothers day

We've still got a few weeks until mothers day, but thought I'd put together a card design using one the the paisley patterns I've been working on recently, just for fun:

 

Wallpaper

We're embarking on our next DIY project at home and my thoughts are on wallpaper.
I've never really been a fan of wallpaper - probably because my experience of it was never very good. When I was a student I lived in plenty of houses with 'woodchip on the walls' and have since lived in a few houses where the wallpaper was just very dated and not very exciting. When we bought our house and started decorating we always opted for paint over wallpaper.
Our living room is actually already papered - in a quite offensive terracotta wallpaper with a gold motif printed on it. As much as I dislike it, the living room was the one room in the house that need decoration the least which is why we have left it so long before decorating, but the time has finally come.
The jobs to be done in this room are quite extensive. Old wallpaper and picture rails need to be removed, there's a covered fireplace which we'd like to uncover as we can potentially create a recess here for the TV, the walls and artex ceiling need to be skimmed and a bookcase wall needs to be designed and built either side of the chimney breast.
My brain is fast forwarding to the wallpaper bit. We're going to paper 2 walls and paint the other two, but where to start with the wallpaper? There are so many great options to choose from:

I'm loving all these 50's influenced patterns

I really surprised myself with my leaning towards mustard colourways

and some classic florals - bold big prints

I do need to reign myself in a bit here though, for now anyway. I don't imagine we will get to the nice new wallpaper bit any time soon. We'll only be doing the work at the weekends so this will take us a fair few weeks to complete. Operation wallpaper removal will be happening this coming weekend.

neat little rows

Today I'm very much liking this song by Elbow:

fresh and bright

a little bit of Fresh and bright for friday. Ironically, these flowers are anything but fresh. I've had them for a couple of weeks but they're still going strong.

I used this palette to create a couple of spotty flower patterns:

 

I've also entered my paisley pattern into the latest Spoonflower competition. I'd be super grateful if you'd vote for me (if you like it of course!)

There are some really great entries in the comp this time round. I voted for a few but this one has to be my fave, and I think it would be criminal if it didn't win:

 

you can see this sweet design by Bora here

on a similar theme

Still working on a few ideas using paisley. They are turning out to be quite bold graphic images:

Perhaps there's a bit of (indirect) influence from my lovely collection of midwinter ceramics going on here:

paisley

I've really enjoyed working on these (quite graphic) paisleys:

I've used colours that I think just pop from the page. I'm not naturally inclined towards dark backgrounds as they can be very imposing, but I took inspiration from one of my favourite fabrics:

design by Erin McMorris

and I like the way they turned out. I could imagine a dress in needle cord from the top pattern. I should really get some printed and have a go at dress making - something else I'm not naturally inclined towards.

just another manic monday

I never tire of the manics:

matryoshka

Last week I mentioned these lovely spoons that my friend had sent me for my birthday:

I also mentioned in the same post that I needed the measuring cups that go with them. Yesterday, a parcel arrived for me containing the measuring cups I needed:

My lovely husband (I can't believe I am writing 'my husband'. I don't feel grown up enough to be married) bought them for me after reading that I needed them. I wonder if this will work with anything else? I'm in need of some new clothes you see.

In order to build my skills, I'm creating a pattern or drawing in illustrator every day at the moment.
I created this little matryoshka pattern yesterday. The first picture uses the colours from the hyacinth palette I made last week:

thank you cards

I've finished the thank you cards I was working on last week:

There is a lot of thinking, planning, decision making and changes going on around these parts this week. It's enough to have kept me quiet for the last couple of days, and it's a little hard going honestly.
On a much lighter and happier note, we got our official wedding pics this week. So many nice memories of the day captured in little moments. I'll no doubt share a few of them soon.

Hyacinth palette

This last few weeks I've had quite a few fresh flowers in the house what with the wedding and my birthday. My sis sent me these hyacinths which were a lot stronger in colour when I first received them. A week on, they have lost a lot of their colour and are starting to die. They are still beautiful though, and make for possibly the prettiest palette I have made from a photograph:

These are the same flowers photographed a little closer. It's amazing how different the colours are. The palette is a lot stronger with less muted tones, but still as lovely.

thank you

on my to do list this week is making thank you cards to send to my wedding guests. This is the last bit of wedding related making I'll be doing (for my wedding anyway).
I'll be adding some buttons to finish them off and then tying them to recycled cards.

Mumford

Two posts in one day, what next? Mumford and Sons at the Brit awards last night, that's what.