Inktober 789

Here are the next three...

You can check out the entire suggestion list online or scoot back a couple of blog pages where I put it on as a reminder.

More tomorrow...

Inktober 456

Here are the next three days worth of Inktober using the 2017 prompt list (see yesterday's blog for full list).

If ever looking for inspiration on the internet for what to draw for a particular word... never just Google the word long... there are results there you don't want!

More tomorrow : )

Inktober 123

I have been giving Inktober a whirl this year. 

Previously I've left it to the proper artists (like my husband), if you look it up online the pictures are so professional and mine are just little doodles, but why not?

So here are the first three pictures I did, using the suggested list to give ideas for those of us who can't think of spectacular ideas without help (see end of blog).

The list of ideas is...

Peas in a Pod

Do you know the expression ''like as two peas in a pod' meaning very similar? 

Well here is a felted model of our family portrayed as peas in a pod.

As you can see, we are not that similar as we can be told apart.

Anyway... clever daughter made that! 
(She's the one with the Princess Leia hairdo)

Pokemon Jewellery

I made this necklace for my niece for her 21st birthday recently (well tecnnically I only made the Poke ball)...

 and this

starting with these

and unsuccessfully painting them with model paint which failed and remained sticky forever, then resorting to a good old Sharpie.

The rest of the beads I incorporated into a friendship bracelet made on a circular 'loom' made from a piece of cereal packet.
See https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRtMjpCgogk&t=14s

Every few centimetres I undid one of the strands of wool from the loom, threaded a bead on it and pushed it through the hole in the centre of the cardboard loom, replaced the strand and carried on weaving the bracelet.

The Cacti are Growing!

I promised to keep you up to date on the progress of the cactus seeds that came in a little kit from Texas, and here they are...

They still have the seed pod shell stuck on the top of the shoot but that will pop off eventually.

Some of them had to be potted on shortly after this as they got knocked off the windowsill and scattered. Inevitably, they have not grown much since then as I think they are still in shock... but if they carry on growing, I'll keep you posted!

Gary Numan

We went to the Gary Numan concert in London at the Brixton academy yesterday...

and it was fab! 
The light-show was right in your face

and these photos totally don't do it any justice at all.
The sound was so loud and all-encompassing that it took your ears hours to recover.

All the hits were there, especially the wonderful new album Savage, and so were his family, watching from the balcony just in front of us.

His daughter Persia sang live on the single Ruin and the concert was videoed for future release (which I shall certainly buy as I was too short to see much).

If you want a taster, checkout the Youtube video someone has put online of the opening song from last night https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFLW1_TOz7U

Planting Cactus Seeds

Husband had a business trip to a hot and deserty part of America and brought me back a little plastic egg of a greenhouse containing vermiculite and some cactus seeds.

Here are the contents

- an opened egg, the vermiculite (Wiki says : Vermiculite is a hydrous phyllosilicate mineral. It undergoes significant expansion when heated.) useful for planting seeds when you want to cover them but not cut out the light, and a small capsule of seeds.

Here they are planted with 4 teaspoons of water added, as per instructions...

and sealed back inside their tiny ovoid greenhouse to keep in warmth and moisture.

That was the end of August so stay tuned to see how they are getting on.

Happy Stone

Following on from yesterday's post about our family's fascination with finding interesting stones on beaches...

here, with the addition on only a small mouth, is one of he cutest little happy stones I have ever met...

Drawing on Stones

We love a stony beach - all our family prefer throwing stones or drawing on stones or sorting and collecting stones to just laying on dull sand.

So here is a sample of chosen stones from Bognor beach late this summer - one made into a landscape and one that was just calling out to be made into a seal with very little help from the pen in my pocket : )