29 Project: Days 265 - 275

This post marks the beginning of the countdown of the last 100 days of the 29 project (and of course my 20's). Yikes!

29 project: Days 265 - 275...

Day 265 (100 days to go!): Saturday 12th February - Pia Wins! This day was the day that Mark and I were actually meant to be moving all of our furniture to the new house...but I had entered a dressage show a while ago. So while Mark and our friends Simon and James lugged all the heavy furniture (thank you!), Pia and I went dancing and notched up two wins...huzzah! Good timing by me.


Day 266: Sunday 13th February - Big Horn. We took a little stroll down through our new village and these guys were hanging out in a field next to the path. The babas were pretty sweet. The mamas looked pretty ferocious.


Day 267: Monday 14th February - Valentines Scallops. A treat for me and my beau. Yum, is all I can say to that...


Day 268: Tuesday 15th February - Stormy Skies. You get to observe the elements at close quarters when you are hand grazing a horse in the middle of a field...


Day 269: Wednesday 16th February - The stoat and the Rabbit. Hand grazing Pia again I spied a little rabbit. I sidled closer and all of a sudden a stoat popped out of the hedge, I was so surprised but I managed to get this awful picture anyway and you can just about see it in the hedge there at the back. Horrified I though it was going to attack the rabbit right before my eyes (which they are known to do), but instead it rummaged around in the undergrowth and dragged an already deceased rabbit out into the open and then stuffed it back into another hole before scurrying away. Amazing nature scenes!


Day 270: Thursday 17th February - So yeah...it was bound to happen again sooner or later, but I didn't have my camera with me today and forgot to take a picture. Arg! Instead Here is a little sketch I made while playing with a fun online tool. It's great fun, have a go yourself HERE.
(I found this via the FABULOUS Gennine. If you haven't already, do check out her blog. It is really rather wonderful)


Day 271: Friday 18th February - Lorry Home. My mama and Pia and I headed off to Dorset where Pia and I were due to contest the regional dressage championships. We have a very cosy living in our horsebox and dined on a Chinese feast, Rosé and some lovely company.


Day 272: Saturday 19th February - Posh Plait. Little Pia getting dolled up for her test. Our friend Verity was on hand to give her this pretty plait. Unfortunately our dressage tests weren't so pretty!!! I went wrong (duh!) and Pia was a bit too over excited and I a bit too nervous, which a good dressage test does not make...Sunday's test was pretty much a disaster too with Pia behaving like a cat on a hot tin roof. A big disappointment after the success of last weekend, but that's horses and sport for you. Thank goodness for encouraging friends and good advice in the aftermath!


Day 273: Sunday 20th February - Broken Down. So after a weekend of dressage disaster we broke down on the way home. Ugh. Bodmin moor in the dark and the rain is not a friendly place, but the kindness of a passing friend in a horsebox meant we could get Pia home and cosy while the lorry was towed. What a fine way to top off our weekend of sporting disaster, eh?


Day 274: Monday 21st February - Back to normality and I was cheered to see that the daffodils are starting to bloom all over.


Day 275: Tuesday 22nd February - Settling in. Our new house is starting to look a little more lived in now and we have music downstairs thanks to Mark and his musical tech knowledge. Hurrah!

29 Project: Days 257 - 264

Here it is! The first part of a BIG and long long LONG overdue 29 project update from the last couple of weeks.

My absence from posting will become evident soon enough...it involves horsin' around (lots of it) and moving house.

29 project: Days 257 - 264...

Day 257: Friday 4th February - Pot plants awaiting the move. I had another dressage lesson on this day and didn't get much time for more packing. So with only a week to go until the big move I decided to keep up a little bit of the packing momentum by moving all the plants into one place. Productive yeah?


Day 258: Saturday 5th February - KARE(A)OKE. We went out in Falmouth to celebrate our friend Tim's big 3 0 birthday and this sign made me laugh. Needless to say, this wasn't one of the establishments we chose to spend our evening in...


Day 259: Sunday 6th February - Packing chaos. ARG! Need I say more?


Day 260: Monday 7th February - Necklaces! Lots of 'em! Trying to figure out how to transport them without tangle mess and breakage.


Day 261: Tuesday 8th February - New Telephone. I treated Mark and I to a house warming gift for the new house. A pretty and bright red trim phone. Small things can make me happy.


Day 262: Wednesday 9th February - What's she seen?! My mama and I took Miss Pia down west for a dressage test riding and advice session with a dressage judge. She was quite excited about things going on outside the lorry...


Day 263: Thursday 10th February - Pia Grazing. Munch munch munch. She doesn't stop!


Day 264: Friday 11th February - MOVING IN!! Finally, the first day of the move came and Mark and I took all the little boxes (that I could lift) over to the new house. We sat on sofa cushions and ate fish n chips and drank beer. The furniture went in the following day...


I don't really want to end on a sad note but Friday the 11th was a day of mixed emotions. We also had to say goodbye to a very dear pony treasure indeed. After 20 years at our stables, little Carrianne had reached the ripe old age of 30 and ill health forced some sad decisions. She was a cheeky and naughty as she was cute and lovable and we all miss her dearly.

Goodbye Carrie Kins.


More tomorrow peeps...

Dogs and cats and dogs and cats

So while I prepare a pretty hefty old 29 project update for you, I thought I would share this utterly bonkers animation that I came across on Twitter earlier today, which I enjoyed very much:


The lady who tweeted it is a very talented illustrator and animator called Julia Pott. If you have yet to be enchanted by her drawings, have a look see at her work. You won't be disappointed: http://www.juliapott.com

About time too...

Happy valentines everyone!

In my usual round and about sort of way, I have finally gotten around to adding some of the paintings I have been making over the last couple of months (and before!) to the shop. Hurrah and hooray!

The three I added today are Loose Horse in the Valley, All the Kings Horses and A Visitor. As you can see, the update has a strong horse based theme! They are available in the originals section of the shop.




I have a HUGE 29 project update for you soon. I have been busy packing and moving house and horsing around doing dressage things with Pia, hence the quiet times here.

Our new house is lovely. It has a woodburner which I am sat in front of right now...Rad.

29 Project: Days 246 - 256

The latest 29 project installment, things I have been doing and things that I have seen this last 10 days...

Days 246 - 256:

Day 246: Monday 24th January - Making me and You. I always like getting to the screen making part of the process when I am making new designs. It's the stage where the design stops being something on a computer screen and actually starts to come to life. Here are the negatives for the Me and You cards...


Day 247: Tuesday 25th January - Printing scarves. I spent nearly all of the day on Tuesday printing things and stocking up a bit and turquoise scarves were on the hit list.


Day 248: Wednesday 26th January - Studio threads. When I am preparing the fabric for the scarves there is always quite a lot of frayed thread. Not all of it ends up where it is meant to be and I appear to have trailed this little lot of colours behind me when I left the studio the night before!


Day 249: Thursday 27th January - Ideas. Most of my products start off as terrible little drawings such as these...I'm afraid my sketchbooks don't often have pages and pages of beautiful thought out sketches! I often have lots of ideas all at the same time and have the get them down quickly with scrappy handwriting and Biro scratches like this:


Day 250: Friday 28th January - New woods to paint on - They need a clean up and the old furniture information removing but these will be the bases for some larger paintings I want to make...I can't wait to make a start, but must sand and prepare them properly first (and get some other pressing things out of the way too...), soon though, soon!


Day 251: Saturday 29th January - Birds and glass. I briefly mentioned it a post or so ago, but Mark and I are moving next weekend. Not far, just to the next village, but packing has started in earnest!


Day 252: Sunday 30th January - Packed Horse - More packing I'm afraid...We did take a break from it on Saturday afternoon and night. The weekend wasn't all constant boxes and finding of things we had forgotten about, that's for sure. There was also some spa time with the ladies and a big chicken fajita dinner too...


Day 253: Monday 31st January - Little curled up cat. No sooner had I sat down, turned my computer on, little Lou Lou came over and curled up on my lap. I hadn't even taken my coat off! Hello Monday...


Day 254: Tuesday 1st February - Light on a leaf. The light was pretty spectacular this evening. Lots of pink and orange...


Day 255: Wednesday 2nd February - Me and You printing. They sold out! So I had lots more to print...Get yours HERE!


Day 256: Thursday 3rd February - Horse Lady. Here I am ready to go horsin' around for the afternoon. Pia and I will be contesting the regional dressage championships in two weeks time so we went off for a lesson. (I don't normally wear antlers when I go riding by the way...just so you know.)

Dreaming of Spring...

Is it just me, or has this winter felt horribly long?

C'mon Spring...do your stuff!