First Job of the Day

My first job of the day is go up in to the woods at the back of our cottage, and cut some firewood ready for the evening. I really enjoy this, as it's good, physical work (and much more fun than the gym!) and it also means we get to keep warm for free! I gather old, fallen logs and branches, then saw them up with my trusty old hand-saw. I really, really wanted a chain saw - but then I thought, it's just lazy - get working with a normal saw, the old-fashioned way! Here are tonights logs in my Radio Flyer. It's a cool little red truck which I think is made in the US for pulling small children along! My Radio Flyer is from the 60's and is very retro. I think people here use them for transporting beer at festivals, but I don't really drink that much beer, or go to festivals, so I use it for logs!

Lovely Old Toys

These are my most treasured possessions, some of my old teddies, bunnies and dogs. I have had these toys for as long as I can remember, and they have travelled everywhere with me. Despite the many ups and downs of life, we are still together. I love these things very much, and I'd never part with them.

A Ticket to Ride

I used to love collecting tickets; this was in the days when tickets were little works of art all in their own right, not the nasty computer-generated things they are today, or, (shudder) 'e-tickets'. But times move on, of course, and I use e-tickets now. Here is a collection of tickets - British Rail, London Transport - I love the shapes the Conductors machine made, a different reason for every shape! How lovely!

Christmas pressie idea!

If you have a little one, or know someone with a littlely, how about one of these personalised pictures for Christmas? They are hand-drawn, and each one is unique. You can also choose which furry animals you want! They are in my on-line shop http://www.jumblesalerabbits.com/

Illustration Friday, but it's Monday, again!

Good Morning, brrrrrr, it's cold out there! This weeks Illustration Friday topic is 'Opinion'. Ooh, difficult! But I had a little think, and came up with this one. The mice are attentive students, listening to their teacher, who is telling them about their homework - which is to write an essay, expressing - yes, you've guessed it - their opinion!

I am more important than drawing!

Here is a picture of Magic, aka 'Maggot' or 'Mags', our lovely, gentle little fluffy cat. Magic came to us by way of an advert in the local supermarket (a great place, it seems, if you want a cat, as we were tipped off about Bob there too!) The ad read 'Free to a good home, fluffy black cat. Good natured'. Ah! Who could resist? Well not me, as we got her, and she is the sweetest little thing; really placid and unassuming, not like our big boys!

Woohoo! I have made a new website!

Goodness me! I am feeling rather shocked, as today I bought a 'Mr Site' thingummybob that helps you make your own website. As you have all probably gathered, I am seriously rubbish at computers, but, I have managed to do this! Me! Wow! It's such a cool site, it has a little on-line shop with a check-out and everything! You can see it at

http://www.jumblesalerabbits.com/

And another thing - I had my first Etsy sale today! I have sold a 'Peeping Bunny' card to someone in the USA! Zoiks! I have made three pounds and thirty-six pence since giving up my job! I know it's not much, but one small step for man, etc etc!

I'm so excited, and I just can't hide it. I'm about to loose control and I think I like it......

(Shut up Liz, and go do do some cleaning or something useful!)

Now, what shall I buy with my three pounds thirty-six!

Illustration Friday 'Pretend'

Here's my illustration for this weeks topic, 'Pretend'. This little boy is playing dressing up and pretending to Batman! Another highly interlectual and academic response to the topic form me, haha! Hope you like it.

The Tale of Bobbity Bob Cat

Out shopping in town some five or six years ago now, we bumped in to someone who asked us if we were still looking for a cat. (We had just lost a little puss, and felt very lost without one). The lady worked at a factory rather in the middle of nowhere, and said that a big ginger cat had been living under a portacabin at the factory for the whole of the summer, about six months.....It was now November, cold and raining - not a very nice time to be living under a portacabin! The lady continued to tell us that the poor ginger cat had a nasty wound on its back, possibly caused by a dog bite.

We were immediately concerned and decided to try and find Mr Ginger at the factory, so in the pitch black, armed wih some crunchy biscuits and a box, we ventured out in to the dark night.....

We arrived at the deserted place, located the cabin, and called out, 'Puss, puss, puss'; sure enough, a huge ginger tom cat came running from under the portacabin, and jumped (he really did!) into Liz's arms. He had a cuddle, dripping wet by now, and full of mud, then had a feed of biscuits. We were alarmed at the state of the wound though. It went from his neck all the way down to his tail. It was awful, raw and open - really nasty.

So, into the box with Mr Ginger, and straight to see our vet, who administered antibiotics, pain-killing injections and bandaged him up like something from Holby City!

We christened him 'Bob', and he has been with us ever since. A real character and great hunter. (At least Bob eats his victims, unlike Magic and Bacon who seem to think we would like their mousey offerings alive!)

The road to getting Bobs injury sorted was a long one, as every time it started to heal up, he would scratch it and we would back to square one. I had to put him in a babygro, which for a big, butch cat was not a good thing! However, it did the trick, and now all that remains is a smallish, pink bald patch where his fur will not grow back.

So here is a picture of our beloved Bob-Cat aka 'Precious', as that is what he is - as are all lovely animals, everywhere.

Come and have a look inside my studio!

Well, it's my bedroom, actually. I don't have a studio. That's not entirely true - I have a proper little wooden hut at the top of the garden, but it's so so cold and damp in there at this time of the year. Ideally it needs to have insulation put on the walls, and nice cladding, but that sort of thing costs money - which is one thing we don't have at the moment, so it will have to wait! I do have the most adorable tiny woodburner to go in it, I'll take some pics of that to show you when it stops raining, as it's out in the garage.So, get a cuppa and come and have a look at some of my things. I made the memory board many years ago, and it has some of my favorite things on it; an old photo of my mum and dad, some lovely antique postcards, and some nice words from my friends....a wee bit of Dylan Thomas, and there's probably some Phillip Larkin there somewhere, ah, the angst of my youth!

The fab pencils are my fave medium, Karisma - they're called Prisma Colour now, and difficult to get hold of. So nice to work with though.

The rough guides are places I've been, most of them in my old VW Bus, which I've just sold :(

Enjoy the pics - I'm procrastinating, as usual! But better go now and do do boring, banky, formy-filling-in-type-things!

You can dance! You can jive!

.....Having the time of your life,

Oooh, oooh, oooh see that Bunny, watch that Bunny,

Diggin' the dancing Bunny,

La la la la la la........

Here is a Dancing Bunny for Saturday. I have gone slightly mad from doing lots of cleaning and possibly breathing in fumes!

(Apologies to Abba)

Frustrating day and a T Shirt

Arrggghhh! I really struggle with computers and technical stuff! I 'had' to go for an IT lesson today, to try and learn how to print cards, as I just can't seem to suss it out myself.....Well, it seemed to go OK, but of course, when I got home, I still couldn't make the flippin' thing print properly. Grrrrr.

I suppose I'll have to go back unless a miracle happens. What a clutz I am.

I did manage to produce a T shirt which is here for you to see; maybe I should stick to drawing - maybe I should just go and watch 'Murder She Wrote' on the telly......

Paddington Bunny!

I just wanted to say a little thank you to all the people who have left comments and visited my blog. It's so thrilling for me - I am just starting out doing this, although I'm getting dangerously close to being 50! It's so exciting, and quite a leap of faith, as I gave up quite a good (ish) job to 'follow my dream'. So a very big thank you to all who come by for a look - I appreciate it!

Bacon on a rug

This from Bacon, for Connie xx

IF

Here is my effort for this weeks Illustration Friday topic, 'Wise'. This is a very wise Bunny who is good at maths!

More Bunnies and a logo

We managed to finish another Bunny card today for Scotland Unltd called Bunny Cooking. We also tweeked (what a great word!) our 'company' logo for the back of the cards, so quite a productive day all in all. I was working on my Illustration Friday entry for this week, but it's so dark, and my glasses aren't quite right, so I'll finish it tomorrow in the light.

Artists' Cards

Artists' Cards commissioned these cards twenty-seven years ago - where did that time go? It seems like yesterday in so many ways, yet there are people who are gone, some sadness and regret, which is inevitable I suppose..... On the other hand, thanks to Blogger and the internet, I have discovered old friends who are successful and inspirational, and learned we always have the opportunity to turn things around, change things, make it better, do it right......

Red sails in the sunset.....

I think this was a song I used to listen to when I was at college (mind you, that was so long ago that I could be wrong!) Maybe it was by China Crisis? Anyway, after the bunny seedlings, I just had to put the bunnies in a sailing boat! Ok, ok, I know - enough of the bunnies!

Stop the bunnies Liz, seek professional help!

Bunny seedlings

Susan from Arts Spark Theatre left a brill comment about the Big Bunny planting the Little Bunny - this really tickled me, so I have re-drawn the original illustration , and now Big Bunny has planted lots and lots of Bunny seedlings! Yum, delicious!

Illustration Friday, but it's Monday!

I'm never really sure if you're meant to put your pictures up on a Friday, or draw them on a Friday, or what! (I am a bear of very little brain, it's true!)

My family and other animals

We are having the most amazing autumnal weather, bright blue skies and sunshine, with glorious colours everywhere. The two lovely doggies belong to a friend of ours, they are called Eddie and Happy. I think they look so amazing in their country jackets! Black kitten is our youngest, Bacon who is nearly two. He is a gentle, good-natured and funny little cat, who is very much loved. In this picture he is 'helping' us clear the leaves in the garden, but as you can imagine, we aren't getting very much work done! Too busy playing with adorable pussycat!

More old drawings

This is one of the original Ashley the Dragon drawings I did over 15 years ago; gosh, that makes me feel really old! Yikes! I will post the six actual greetings cards up in a bit, but I'm procrastinating here, and avoiding things I should really be doing' like cleaning, hoovering (as we say in the UK!) Yuk, all that boring old stuff.......And the little dog is a lino print which is not quite as old as Ashley (or me) I really like lino as a medium, and must do more of it sometime.

Sunny Saturday!

Have a lovely Saturday folks! It's a beautiful day here in Galloway - I hope it's nice wherever you are.