Evachka

Cornish paradise

Well, I seem to publish once a season in here. I need to catch up with the current one before November is over!

Though Christmas is approaching I’ll write a nostalgic post about the summer gone. We went to Cornwall 5 times this year due to family circumstances, and I couldn’t miss a day there without a drawing. This beautiful country just turns my artistic button on! And since we were there last time in August I haven’t picked a paint brush. The button is on ‘off’ position. Magic!

You should visit Cornwall at least once in your lifetime! Put it down onto your New Year’s resolution list. 😉

View from Granny’s top room

View from Granny’s front garden

Clodgey, St Ives

Godrevy lighthouse

On the way from Clodgey to St Ives

The Island, St Ives

View from Granny’s back garden

Godrevy

Clodgey, St Ives

View from Granny’s top room 2

Sea thrift in June

Porthmeor beach

Sea thrift on CLodgey

Clodgey.Tate St Ives is in the distance.

Porthmeor

Hollywell bay, where Drake and Morwenna met so many times (Poldark)

View from Granny’s front garden 2

St Michael’s Mount

Near Galver mine

View from Granny’s front garden 3

St Michael’s Mount

Island in St Ives, from Pitch and Putt

On the Island, St Ives

Godrevy

Needle felting

‘Ello, ‘ello, ‘ello!

It’s been a long time since I posted last .. but then, it’s few spam messages less in your inbox 😉 I post more regularly on my Instagram page.

Meanwhile, I’ve discovered and developed a new hobby, if not an obsession. It’s all started with a birthday present from a friend at the end of last December – a basic needlefelting kit.

And half a year later – ta-da! I’m into making animals, who are soft and poseable and warm to touch and can be almost alive. I never thought that you can say so much through felting!

I take commissions. From £30, including a gift box.

Here are some examples.

And a little film about Arnie the dog.

Venice of Winchester

It takes a very good discipline to DO creative stuff and to keep WRITING about it! I’m not the type. My favourite subject at school was maths – maybe that’s why I like counting the stitches in crochet… but critical writing – 🙄

Anyway, I wanted to share my recent discovery – a wonderful and humorous crochet world of a Russian artist Yulia Ustinova. The piece below was inspired by her work. I was given lots of red yarn by a friend, and for a long time didn’t know what to make out of it, and then suddenly I thought that’s it would be perfect for a ‘Red girl’, which in Russian is synonymous to a ‘Beautiful maid’ (Красна девица).

She’s on a wire armature and can change positions like a real model.

She somehow managed to sign up to some life drawing classes, and was even invited to few temporary exhibitions at the Louvre. A fine example when your creation starts to live a life on its own!

And finally, few pix of the work in progress, because I like studying this kind of pictures on other people sites.

Silvery winter sketching

The winter here in the UK is almost never white, but very grey – lots and lots of various combinations of this colour. As if someone had slid a Saturation bar down (though not all the way to the end) in a Photo-editor. And I love it! Especially by the sea. All you have to do is divide the piece of paper with a horizontal line and paint both halves a different grey, usually a colder one in the sky and a warmer one of the sea (or vice versa on a sunny day but that’s rare 😉). Then the sea has various gradations within its colour. All very subtle, like in a pearl.

It can be an endless exercise of detecting the relationship between the greys above the horizon and below it, darker/lighter, bluer, greener etc. Plus the light changes all the time. Beautiful.

To cut the long story short, all my latest pictures are grey.

Each picture has a location in it’s caption.

Isle of Wight from the Highcliffe beach

Lepe Country Park. The Isle of Wight is so close.

New Year’s Day in Boscombe, Bournemouth. That rare day, when the sky is a warm colour.

Milford-on-Sea

Lepe Country Park. A6 postcard

Lepe Country Park. Boxing Day

Lepe Country Park

Lepe Country Park. A6 postcard

This is a Russian poem, but it coveys the mood very well.

И небо и серое море
Уходят в немую безбрежность.
Так в сердце и радость и горе
Сливаются в тихую нежность.

Другим – бушевания бури
И яростный ропот прибоя.
С тобой – бесконечность лазури
И ясные краски покоя.

На отмель идут неизбежно
И гаснут покорные волны.
Так думы с беспечностью нежной
Встречают твой образ безмолвный.

Валерий Брюсов

Lara

Lara, who turned 13 last month, has been my oldest daughter’s friend since they were few months old, so her birthday present had to be special. Also she is half Japanese and since ‘Amigurumi’ dolls originate from there, I had a little pressure to make this Amigurumi be worthy of its name.

I planned her slightly differently, but at some point the doll took over and started to tell me what she wants… like a hat with a feather, or buckled shoes. I made her a belt, but she didn’t like it. My shoulder was aching by the end of the week from constant crocheting, I couldn’t stop. Crocheting is a true addiction!

I used 0.75mm and 1mm hooks and Anchor cotton no.8. On a wire base.

Here is a little overview of the process with little explanation in the photo captions

The picture wire was a perfect find for making fingers

Fingers are a bit fiddly job.

The legs came a little plumpier than I hoped.

Victorian bloomers

She even has toes, which are about to be forever hidden in the sewn on shoes

Somehow I chose the same colours as my previous big doll! I must be in my blue period, like Picasso.

The efforts paid off – Lara liked it.

Tiny White Faced Owl – Free pattern/step by step

Hi there!

After publishing my latest owls on the Facebook I got an overwhelming response of likes and requests for patterns. I endeavour to write down them all (follow this blog for the updates 😉) but I will start with the teeny weeny one first.

(My original owls below were made using yarn bought in a charity shop without labels. It looks like brushed Mohair yarn 12 ply, and the result is so soft and warm and fluffy! I tried to find it on the internet and it looks like a very expensive wool from New Zealand 😳. The nearest affordable equivalent that I could find is Sirdar Bouffle soft and chunky yarn)

You will need:

Sirdar Bouffle soft and chunky yarn (of similar, something fluffy) for the body . I like the uneven colours of this yarn for the ‘feathery’ feel. (This yarn, however, really tests you to find the next stitch. Half of it was done by intuition..)
Whitish, brown and grey yarns of Rowan Kids silk (or similar lacy fluffy wool) for feathers
white fluffy wool (DK) for around the eyes (thicker than the kidsilk above)
hooks 3mm, 1.25mm, 0.75mm
yarn needle
hollow fill
2 small safety eyes
wire (for one of the owls I reused a wire from an old ring bound notebook)
Beige crochet cotton no.8 for the beak (I used Anchor thread)
Thin jute rope
Super glue
(Optional) a brush to fluff up the owl

Seems like a lot, but not really

Forgot to include these guys in the class photo

This pattern uses US terms :

ch – chain
ss – slip stitch
sc – single crochet
hdc – half double crochet
dc – double crochet  increase
tr – treble crochet
dec – decrease
st/sts – stitch/stitches
stitches into one stitch are separated by commas, ie. , hdc, – means 1 half double crochet in one stitch; , (hdc, dc), means 1 half double crochet, 1 double crochet together in one stitch

The body and the beak are crocheted in continuous spiral.

3mm hook, Sirdar bouffle yarn. Stuff the body as you crochet.

6sc into magic ring (6)
2sc in each st around (12)
sc in each st around (12)
Repeat step 3 for the next 5 rounds (12)
dec around (6)
Fasten off, leaving a tail for sewing. Stuff with hollow fill.
Put a needle through the front loops only and tighten.

Tip: I leave longer staring and finishing ends of the yarn and instead of hiding and cutting them off I use them to crochet the owl ears later.

The result

Use the grey and the brown Rowan kids silk yarns together. 1.25mm hook. I left the ends of the yarns long (about 50cm) when starting the surface crochet chain on the owl’s back and did 9 chains in step 1 using 4 strands. Do I make sense? Hope the pictures can help.

Surface crochet 9 ch onto the owls back in the shape of U, ch1, turn
Sc, sc, 2 hdc, hdc, 2hdc, hdc, 2hdc, sc, sc, ch1, turn
Sc, 2 hdc, (hdc, dc), 1tr, 1tr, 1tr, 1tr, 1tr, 1tr, (dc, hdc), 2hdc, sc. Fasten off

Using two strands of white Rowan kids silk yarn sc around the edge of the wings in a fairly loose manner, starting from the top of the U shape.

Making 4 strands

Step 1 – Surface chain 9

Making 2 strands of white

I use the ends to embroider straight feathers on the back.

Tip: I leave longer strands ends after finishing the wings and instead of hiding and cutting them off I embroider straight feathers on the back, to add colour and ‘variegation’.

Using a thicker white wool and 3mm hook crochet the eyes.

6sc into magic ring (6). Close with ss.
Fasten off and leave a longer end for sewing the eyes on and also to embroider white feathers on her tummy.
Attach the safety eyes and sew the eyes on

Legs

Using pliers and a wire make up a foot (like a 4 leaf flower). Wrap around jute thread around each toe tightening the wire bends in the process. Wrap the jute up the leg for about 4mm and cut jute off, securing the end with super glue. Hopefully it is quite clear on the pictures. (Please, excuse the state of my fingers – I was doing an oil painting in the morning).. Bend the toes’ tips down to look like little claws.

Push the open end of the wire through the bottom part of the owl’s body and repeat the steps making the second foot.

Wrap the Sirdar bouffle yarn around each foot where it meets the body and secure the end with the needle. (No crocheting here!)

Beige Anchor yarn no.8 and 0.75mm hook.

4sc into magic ring (4)
sc, sc, sc, 2sc in last st (5)
sc, sc, sc, sc, 2sc in last st (6)
sc, sc, sc, sc, sc, 2sc in last st (7)

Fasten off and leave enough thread for sewing the beak on.

Ears and circles around the eyes

Surface chain 2 on the side of the owl’s head, turn
sc, sc, turn
sc, fasten off

To finish the guy off sc around outside of the eyes (about 1/3d of the whole circle) with the grey Rowan kids silk yarn (2 strands, 1.25 mm hook). Use the yarn ends to embroider darker feathers on his tummy.

Fluff him up with a brush (I use a speciality brush used to clean sewing machines, but anything bristly would do).

Voila!

Rowan earrings – free crochet pattern

Tada! Here is my first ever attempt to write a pattern. Perfect earrings for the current season. They look much nicer in real life.

If made to sell, please credit the pattern author – EvelinaCrafts.com

PDF pattern can be downloaded from my Ravelry page.

Materials:
4 colours of crochet cotton, no. 8 (A – olive green, B – yellow, C – rusty brown, D – orange/red)
Hollowfill
14 small brown or black beads
0.75mm crochet hook
2 cord ends
2 earrings hooks

This pattern uses US terms
ch – chain
ss – slip stitch
sc – single crochet
hdc – half double crochet
dc – double crochet
dec – decrease
st/sts – stitch/stitches

Leaves

Crochet 16 leaves (8 per earring) in colour A and 6 (3 per earring) in colour B.
1. chain 10
2. skip 1st from hook, sc in next, hdc, dc in each of next 3sts, hdc, sc, ss in next 2 sts and fasten off.

Leaves Cluster

Use colour C to crochet around the leaves. Use 8 leaves of colour A and 3 leaves of colour B per earring. Arrange colours as you please.
1. chain 7
2. sc in each st around a leaf (9),
10th st – sc, ch2, sc,
then sc in each st to the end (9),
ss into the stalk st at the leaf’s base.
3. ch2
Repeat steps 2–3 until you complete 6 leaves
4. ss into 2nd st of the stalk
5. ch1
6. repeat as in step 2
7. ss into each next 2 st of the central stalk
8. repeat steps 5–7 for the rest 4 leaves
9. ss to the end of the stalk and fasten off.
Repeat for the second cluster, mirroring the colours of the leaves. I used spray starch to stop leaves from curling.

Berries

Crochet 14 balls (7 per earring), in continuous spiral wrong side out (colour D).
1. 6sc into magic ring (6)
2. 2sc in each st around (12)
3. sc in each st around (12)
4. sc in each st around (12)
5. dec around (6)
Fasten off, leaving a tail for sewing. Stuff with hollow fill.
Put a needle through the front loops only and tighten.
Put a bead on an appr 15 – 20cm long thread of colour C and thread it through each berry (x14).

Plait together ends of 2, 2 and 3 berries for each earring. Join the berries and the leaves clusters ends together, cut the long ends off and fasten with a cord end. I used a drop of a superglue to keep ends together.
Attach the hooks.

Amigurumi doll Anna, 12.5 cm

This is getting a little repetitive, I know, but having 5 children means that birthday parties they are invited to occur almost every other weekend. By now quite few children in our circle know that I crochet dolls and that is what expected to be a present.

This one is of a 12 year old Anna, my oldest daughter’s friend. She is English, but she came out with a little bit of Ukrainian hint to her somehow. When I started crocheting she even started to look like a Spider-Man, so I had to hide those blue leggings under a long skirt.

Holidays in Poldark country. Week 2.

Cornwall’s countryside hasn’t changed in centuries. In few places farm fields still have divisions formed throughout the Iron Age and are preserved to this day. The feeling that you are on earth as it was created never leaves you, when you’re staring into the sea from a coastal path. Also I haven’t seen such beautiful wild flowers anywhere else on the South coast (though I haven’t travelled very much). They are so soft and tender.

Here are some pictures from our second week in West Cornwall.

A6, 12x24cm and 17x24cm albums, watercolours and occasional markers use on paper.

Wild flowers of Cornwall. Cloggy, St Ives

Porthmeor beach, A6.

Portheras, nr Pendeen

Granny’s garden, St Ives.

Sunset over Cloggy’s rocks

Twilight hour on Smeaton’s pier, St Ives

Porthmeor beach.

Godrevy lighthouse from the Island, St Ives

St Michael’s Mount, nr Penzance

Grey day in St Ives

Carn Galver mine

Holidays in Poldark country. Week 1

I’m a month behind to publish this post, but it’s better late than never.

We spent two weeks in St Ives, Cornwall, at the beginning of August. My husband grew up there and we go for holidays to this blessed place every year. Those of you, who have been watching Poldark, know how breathtakingly beautiful it is. For some reason, I never knew how to paint it all these years before and used to just enjoy the views and the air and the space as an average tourist. But this year, something opened up and I couldn’t stop painting. 2-3 pictures every day.

Watching the season 3 of Poldark, mentioned above, also filled this place for me with live history and charm and that Drake/Morwenna romance couldn’t get out of my heart.

So here are some pictures from the holidays. Watercolours on paper. I painted small – from A6, 12x24cm and 17x24cm albums.

…to be continued..

Porthmeor beach. Our first evening in St Ives

Godrevy lighthouse

Lelant from the Island, St Ives

View from Ben’s brother’s bedroom

The Island from Cloggy

Botallack mine engines

Pemberth Cove

Botallack

Porthmeor, St Ives

Sofia on Godrevy beach

Granny’s garden

Ayr field

A studio for an artist

Continuing the theme of housing our crocheted family members into decent places to ‘live’ I decided to treat myself (as a doll) to a ‘detached’ house, or rather an artist studio. Just as well the Hobbycraft store had a perfect size wooden house for that purpose. It turned out to look more like a countess’ boudoir at the end but never mind.

I meant to take pictures of it ‘in the making’, but was so engrossed in the process that I completely forgot. I can only add that for decorating the walls and the floor I used the offcuts from some discontinued fabric/wallpaper sample books bought cheaply from the local sewing shop. The pictures on the walls are original art, drawn by our children and the flowers are real and come from our garden. You may also see the crocheted portraits of me and my husband on the wall, which sometimes leave the room ‘on loan’ to my ears as earrings.

Wimbledon earrings

I am rushing to get this post in before the tournament is over. I made these earrings few weeks ago, but only just drew the ‘launching’ picture!

Glad it won’t be all Williams sisters final (sorry, Williams sisters fans)… and shame about Murray today.

The only crocheted detail here is the ball. I bought the hooks and the racquets separately and just put them all together.

If I ever get to sorting out my Etsy shop they’ll be there at £4.50.

Amigurumi presents for friends

Having five children means that there are quite a few birthday party invitations we get through the course of the year. Adjusting my late crocheting hobby into a practical one I started to make Birthday girls and boys into little amigurumi figures to give as gifts.

They are crocheted on a wire base and are about 7,5cm tall. I used 0.6 and 0.75mm hooks and Anchor no. 10 and no. 8 cotton threads

Here is Sofia’s friend Merry, who is a keen Liverpool supporter and a football player herself.

And this is Alexander’s friend Daniel, who likes tennis. He is Dutch, hence the orange colour in his clothes.

Self-portrait Workshop at school

Today my friend and I did a workshop at our local school with two lots of thirty 5-6 year olds. We came up with an idea of making collage self-portraits, using coloured card, paper and wool. The children were very sweet and enthusiastic, but only about a third of them in each class rose their hand when they were asked if they remember what they look like! 😄

Firstly, here is the idea step by step. The steps are explained in the captions under each photo.

(We used resources offered by the school, but if you would like more colourful results, unwanted wallpaper would make a great backdrop for the portraits and scraps of gift wrap, flower wrapping paper, tissue paper or magazine pictures can be used for the clothes..)

1. Fold A4 coloured card in half and cut out an oval window on one of the halves. I used Tonic shape-mate cutter.

1 – the result

2. Out of a cream card cut ovals for the faces. The spaces between the ovals make perfect neck shapes.

3. Stick another coloured A5 piece of paper onto the solid half of your card.

4. Trace the oval from the window so that you can see the field where to stick your portrait. Stick the neck, then the head, and the clothes.

5. Close the window and stick it on. Attach hair, cut/made from wool and decorate with embellishments.

3-5. For a boy’s portrait. Oh, yes, don’t forget the ears.

6. Ta-da! Ready. Hats, ties, long hair etc can stick out of the frame to give it a 3-dimensional feel.

The picture in the middle is from a slightly different story, but very similar in making.

And here is a little gallery of the work produced by the children. Many of them truly looked like their authors!

Mini home for Sofia

Lately, I have made quite a lot of stuff to share, but I find it a cumbersome job to create a presentable post with good photography and something to write. I will try to catch up before all ‘the stuff’ goes away as presents or gets children fingerprints all over them.

This is Sofia’s space, the first room in our mini ‘bungalow’, where all my chrocheted children live. I found the ready made wooden house in Hobbycraft the other day, which has 5 little spaces, exactly the amount of my children. (Hobbycraft should give me a commission for this!)

I used lolly pop sticks for the shelves, a toothpick to make pencils and wallpaper and cloth from discontinued sample books, which you can buy cheaply in our local sewing shop. The mirror on the wall slid down while the glue was wet and I wasn’t looking, but never mind!

Oh, yes, and the chair was made from a cork wire – they make perfect chairs, why did we throw them away before??

7×5 inch sketchbook

I was looking for a Thesaurus dictionary the other day and found this old watercolour sketchbook amongst the books. I didn’t think much of these pictures when I painted them, but now, 15 years later (was it really so long ago??) they brought back some sweet memories. Most of them were painted in St Ives, Cornwall (around my husband’s favourite beach, Porthmeor, where he spent all his childhood and youth). This was my first ever summer break there. We’ve been visiting every year since then.

Last couple of pictures were done in Winchester, where we live now.

Porthmeor beach, St Ives

View over the Island and St `Nicholas Chapel, St Ives

Ben

Staring to rain. St Ives Harbour

Right side of `Porthmeor beach.

The twilight hour. Porthmeor, St Ives.

The Island, Porthmeor, St Ives

The Island from Man’s Head, ST Ives.

View from my window in 111, Colebrook street, Winchester.

Beginning of spring. Winchester Cathedral close.

Amigurumi – self-portrait

I started this doll just because I can’t stop crocheting them at the moment. I didn’t have a clear idea who it will be, but wanted to experiment with making her stand on high heels, and also use some nice colours of the Anchor cotton I got from eBay.

And then at the face and hair making stage I decided to make myself. All children are done – they need a mother! At least as a doll I may dream to have a thin waiste line and stand confidently on high heels. Surprisingly, she is more firm on her heels than my previous dolls on their ‘flat’ feet.

Amigurumi Fluffy, the kitten

My last trip to the local charity shop resulted in buying an big ravel of unidentifiable white wool.

Our doll house was in need of a fluffy pet, and if I didn’t have an allergy to animal hair I would be a cat person. So Fluffy, the kitten was born. I looked at the photos of real kittens on the internet while making it. We all love him.

By the fireplace in our doll house

How many more kittens can I fit into this?

Kalina ballerina. Amigurumi

I am becoming an expert on ballerinas – this is now a third one in my CV.

It was an order for a birthday present and a portrait of the birthday girl. This time I bypassed the complications of creating fingers on her hands but experimented with her feet, which can do bending backwards and forwards, like the type of exercises ballerinas do.

I am so much into crocheting toys at the moment, – it’s truly is fun and the results are so nice to hold in your hands. I picked up this hobby only couple of months ago. Where was I all these years before?

Amigurumi ballerina, partner for Daniel

I don’t know why I’m doing this to such an extreme detail – this was only a request of my 5-year old boy to crochet him a ballerina partner for his ballet pretend games. Now my eyebrows go roof-shaped /\ every time I see him bending her legs to her head or twisting her in all sorts of yoga bends. I wonder how long the wire inside her will bear that for or if she will stay so purely white and pink for very long.

The main objective of today’s photo shoot was to capture the ballerina at the height of her career, before she starts getting all sorts of sporting injuries.

Both Daniel and his ballerina partner are about 13,5 – 14 cm tall and were crocheted using 0.6mm or 0.75mm hooks and mostly Anchor cotton threads.

Welcome to Covent Garden!

The idea..

The Execution..

The stars of the Royal Ballet

A scene from the ‘Sleeping Beauty’

Daniel just can’t take his eyes off her

They both are 13.5-14cm tall

Only one ‘prep’ photo this time

Trip to London

Our oldest daughter (Yr. 7) had an inset day at school today, so impromptu we decided to have a day out in London. It was quiet in the centre – not so many tourists, or traffic.. perhaps, following yesterday’s events, or maybe that’s normal for a Thursday afternoon during term time?

Our main destination was the National Gallery. I wanted her to see some of my favourite artists, and I limited them to 4: Van Gogh, Holbein, Velasquez and Vermeer. These artists chose to be represented only by 1 (Vermeer) to 3-4 pictures at the Gallery, so our visit was a concentrated and a fairly short one. But I enjoyed saying Hello to my ‘old friends’, Sofia seemed interested too. Her favourite was Holbein.

A browse in Japan Centre supermarket followed, and then we both got lost in Piccadilly Waterstones bookshop until it was time to head back.

On the train to London we both drew. Sofia did a good one of me. We used SpectrumAqua pens, each colour has dual ends – a very thin and a brushy one.

Amigurumi party bag dolls

Catherine had her early birthday party today. She invited three friends and we went to see ‘Beauty and the Beast’ at the local cinema. Ooh! Beautiful movie! ..though I’m not a very big fan of Emma Watson and there was a bit too much singing to my liking, the film left me filled with romance and a feeling that a true love is full of self-sacrifice. The graphics and the design side of the film were beautifully done too. I’m still in it.

But back to craft.. I made the girls into mini crochet dolls as their ‘party bags’ gifts. So here they are: Hannah, Lauren and Isabel.

Amigurumi Daniel

The last but not least child – Daniel, 5. Unusually for a boy he loved ballet since he was 2 (seeing it first on the TV during the closing ceremony of Sochi Olympic Games in Russia). The Nutcracker is his favourite, but he loves watching (and copying) any other classical ballet, as long as there’s a beautiful ballerina in a traditional ballet dress.

There was no question of what Daniel will be crocheted into. Now he is demanding that I should provide him with a professional partner. No chance he is dancing with one of his sisters… (Catherine, Sofia, Gabrielle).

I should really stock up on my props! The only studio mirror I could find was a bit ‘fishy’.

Amigurumi Alexander

Alexander, my 8 year old son, asked to be a Knight. He even told me what colour doublet (a puffy coat under the armour) he should wear and chose his toy sword on the eBay . All of it was influenced by the BBC production ‘Merlin’.

I had to dig up the Internet to study the armour and its parts and history, and can now show off some old world terminology in a clever conversation (making sure I’m not talking to an expert).

So here he is, in his full glory.

Alexander in doublet — Alexander wearing his red Doublet with the lower arm Vambraces.

– Wow Alexander! You can be a Knight of Camelot! – Catherine! I am!

Carrying provisions from the market – courtesy of http://www.doubletrebletrinkets.co.uk

A spontaneous after the photo-shoot shot. Alexander is the only man standing.

The skeleton start

The X-ray vision of his hands

The belt that you never see

The doublet

He can even stand unaided

Amigurumi#4 – Alice, the ballerina

My first commercial order. Alice, 11cm tall, this time with 5 fingers on each hand, which can be bent individually – very important for ballet positions!

Daniel (5) asked not to give it away, saying – It can be him in our family collection! 😂

My hands are itching to make more of them, but I promised Alexander (8) that he would be the next. He keeps asking me every day ‘Am I done yet?’ So on I go to the next project..

Which position is this? Anyway, the skirt is reversible.

The star performance at the Royal Opera House

*************************************

And here is a little evolution diary

What you will she in her X-ray

I can stand by myself!

Amigurumi #3 – Gabrielle

If you have 3 doughters – you gotta make them all!

Meet Gabrielle, the youngest. She is 3 yo., 10cm tall and can stay unaided when wearing her shoes. She is fully wired (even 3 of her 4 fingers can bend individually to hold things – don’t ask me why I didn’t give her 5 fingers – I don’t know!) and is quite flexible even to do yoga.

– What do you think of your new clothes, Gabrielle?

– I wish my eyes were blue as well, but not bad, not bad, I suppose!

– Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest to fly them all?

– I hope these brunches are strong enough to hold the swings!

– Maaaam, Gabrielle has the best clothes! – Sorry, girls, quality comes with experience.

Gabrielle welcomes you in our family home

————————————————————————–

And now a tiny inlook of the process

Belly button – tick

First wrong face

Nearly there

Amigurumi no.2 – meet Sofia.

– Can I read your book, please, Sofia? You can try on my new red shoes!

– All right then. But save my page!

———————–

– When I grow up I’ll have a pet… like this Hotdog, the dog..

– Naaa, I bet you’ll have a cat!

—————————-

– Sofia, do you want to see my drawings?

– Hmm… The one of the panda is not too bad.

——————————

Meet Sofia, the older sister. She loves reading, so much as she often reads while cleaning her teeth, or walking on the street, not to mention eating lunch or as the last thing before bed.

She took me as much time as painting 4 portraits would. Her sister Catherine acquired new shoes and a sketch pad in the process.

This is when ‘she’ was still ‘it’.

Gymnastics hour – sketches

On Monday evenings my girls do gymnastics, so I have an hour of waiting, when I can do (on not do) whatever. It’s like waiting at the airport – an ‘in-between’ time. There’s a whole row of us, parents, like me, who are hung in this waiting suspense for an hour at the viewing gallery, and some of them make good still models, thanks to the modern technology devices. These are A6 size.

St Ives holidays – sketchbook

Following yesterday’s post about St Ives holidays in Postcards I’ll complete it with the rest of the drawings made then. These should have made it onto my fine art site, but I find that one somehow cumbersome to update..

St Ives Holidays in hand drawn postcards

This was back in August 2016, but since this blog is only couple of weeks old, it may just as well be ‘fatten up’ on some past (but not ancient) material.

I started to carry blank postcards with me in my backpack last year, and I love it! You can catch the memento and post a quick hello to a friend anytime. Even my children started to join me in drawing them, when we are on a walk or a day trip. Most of these end up in a pile on our shelf, but some made it to other people’s postboxes and even walls!

Here is a little glimpse of our family holidays in St Ives, Cornwall (where my husband is from).

Lamorna Cove coastal path. Our oldest’ second name is Lamorna – we had to visit this place…

Porthmeor beach – the best beach in the world.

G and D on the beach. Watercolours and Spectrum Aqua pens.

My husband’s sister requested a postard with all our children in it – here she got it. Marazion, near Penzance.

D at Tintagel Castle, on a bench, devoted to beloved sister Maureen.

Daughter G on Porthmeor beach. Last day of holidays.

Personalised Christmas card

3 D Cards personalised with your own picture, can be ordered in my `Etsy shop.

Amigurumi crocheted doll Catherine

This is my first ever attempt to crochet a doll. She is called Catherine.

She can stand, sit, do ballet poses and turn her head. Note to self – embroider the face next time, and not use the beads for eyes and lips.

The Christmas tree and presents are courtesy of double treble trinkets

Birthday card for a best friend

Greeting Cards, personalised with your photo are now available to order in my Etsy shop

Glitter ball earrings

Watching the final of Strictly come Dancing with these glitter ball earrings on. A good excuse for dreaming about having a long show off neck.

Sausage dog and others

We managed to get a little playhouse at a local dump for £3.

It needs furniture (garden wire is perfect for that) and inhabitants. So far playmobile figures are used, but we will gradually be replacing them with ‘real’ guys. These are my first experiments with crocheting amigurumi. The black cat – is my debut, the sausage dog – crochet no. 2. Crochet hook 0.6mm and a sewing thread.