Stitchery Fun!

As you may already know, I recently released my first embroidery pattern in my Etsy shop.

Well I’ve had some very talented ladies join my stitching team and have beautifully stitched up this pattern and I couldn’t wait to show you their results!

The above is by Hannah from SpansStudio, you can read all about her experience of stitching this pattern on her blog.



Then we have Nelly’s beautiful version. Nelly chose to make a wall hanging and I think it turned out great! You can see more photos here.





I love the different stitches that have been used in both versions. My team used pastels to fit in with my vintage/country style but you can use any colours you like.

Nelly is now working on a ‘bright’ version for herself, which I cannot wait to see!

The patterns can be used for many different things such as; pillows, wall hangings, hoop art, table cloths, hankies, tea towels, bedding. You choose.

I have more team stitcheries to come, so stay tuned for those. I’ll also be adding more designs to my pattern collection very soon.

If you have photos to share of what you’ve made with my patterns come on over to our Flickr group and upload them, I’d love to see.

Blessings



x

Baking Days

Lately I have been baking a lot, it started because I've had to make some major adjustments in my diet and faced with having nothing sweet and yummy, I took to baking. At first I found it annoying that I would now have to make things if I wanted to eat nice food, but then I discovered some great recipes that actually made baking fun and rewarding.

Now don't get me wrong, I have enjoyed baking in the past and definitely watch 'The Great British Bake Off' every year but now it was a necessity.

Well fast forward several months and now baking has become therapeutic and fun!

So after many baking days and getting quite a thing for it, I had this crazy idea... 'Wouldn't it be fun to do a Julie and Julia!' ie: work my way through a recipe book, one bake at a time.

The idea has kept coming back to me and I thought it would a fun blog post series. So I introduce to you 'Baking Days', where I will be making as many of the dishes from this book Grandma's Best Recipes (new Collection) as my diet allows. Some things won't be possible like anything chocolate or cream filled but I can do most of the book and will adjust the recipes with alternate ingredients where need be.

So first up are ‘Classic Oatmeal Cookies’.

This recipe uses way more ingredients than I was used to, (in terms of grams) make sure you have a big bowl! I substituted Pure Sunflower spread for butter, all the other ingredients the same.

The wet mixture is pretty sloppy but it does go smooth after a while. I found once it was time to combine the wet and dry ingredients that using my hands was a lot easier since there was a lot of mixture and I wanted it to be properly combined. If I had used my kitchen aid it would have been a lot easier and quicker.

I broke the mixture up and rolled it into little balls and put on the baking tray spaced out. Then baked for 17 mins.

I'm really pleased with the results, they are vanillary, buttery, flap-jacky in taste and texture. Lovely just out the oven. Once left to fully cool they still tasted fantastic.

My rating for this bake is: 10/10 for ease of baking and taste.

I hope to do a recipe per week when I can, so I do hope you will follow along with me. This book is one I received as a Christmas pressie and had yet to use, this is entirely my own choice to do and not a sponsored post. {If you wanted to purchase the book, if you click my link above I will get a little percentage, if you wanted to help me out}

Let me know if you have this book and if you've made anything from it, I’d love to hear! To find all ‘Baking Days’ posts, I’m setting up a category so they will be easy to find on the right sidebar.

Blessings

x

P.S I have changed my blog design back to the old one, it just seems to fit 'me' so much better :) x

Christmas Rabbit and his little friend…

I was sketching away the other day and this little fellow appeared. I figured I'd call him 'Christmas Rabbit' but when I sketched him onto the canvas he looked rather lonely. So I added a little robin peering down. Looks like they are having a great conversation!

{Original now available.} Sold thank you!

Blessings

xxx

Christmas Robin

Remember I said that I've been waiting and watching out for birds in my garden, as we recently put up a bird feeder to attract all my favourite little creatures. Well so far no little birdies have found it.

I think our feeder is too high so I am planning to get one of those hooks that you hang the feeders from. {Apparently called a bird feeding station, I just found out}

Well the other day, even though they didn't feed, I did see an abundance of birdies just playing! First came Mrs Blackbird, then two cute little Blue Tit's (my fav) and then Mr Robin! I felt so blessed to see all of those birdies in my garden at once. I hope they come back...

‘Christmas Robin’ cute little original painting now available here.

Blessings,

xxx

Christmas is coming!

I’ve been busy in the studio working on new paintings and cards to add to the shop and I can now happily announce my Christmas cards are now available.

I’ve also listed a brand new set of bunny cards. Both sets come on beautiful brown kraft card with plain envelopes. If you would like larger sets please contact me.

Enjoy!

xxx

Mixed Media Fun

I got an exciting delivery this morning of lovely new wood blocks to paint on and a couple of new paints too. It’s so exciting getting new supplies.

I’ve started work on a really cute little painting, the smallest I’ve done I think. I can’t wait to show you.

Working on this new piece reminded me of some of my previous mixed media work (that’s a clue) and so I have decided to release this little cute painting as a small print in my shop, isn’t it cute!

‘Love Thy Neighbour’ available at Etsy.

Blessings

xxx

Autumn Leaves

It’s been really wet and windy here in Suffolk lately. And sadly I’ve seen no sign of birdies at all? I wonder where they all went? Somewhere warmer perhaps?

We put up a new feeder full of wild bird seed just before we went on holiday a couple of weeks ago now but haven’t seen any birds on it since we’ve been home.

I do hope they come back, I love listening to their songs and seeing the little beauties.

‘Autumn Leaves’ is one of my favourite drawings I’ve done and is now available as a print in the shop.

Stay warm!

xxx

New site design

I’ve been tinkering away at the blog and web shop to give it a fresh new look, what do you think? *EDIT – I have decided to  move my Big Cartel shop back to a gallery format on my website to focus my work back on originals.

I’m really pleased with how it came out and brings all my artwork together. As well as the design changes, I’ve also adjusted my pricing and am now offering print sets which are a great way to own more art without it costing a lot and of course you will received combined shipping.

You can check out the new designs here: http://www.thevintageartist.com/blog/blog/blog/blog/blog/paintings.htm

*Prints etc will continue to be offered on Etsy.

Happy Shopping!

Blessings

xxx

Enjoying the rain in style…

It’s been raining loads in England lately, I’ve seen so many fun wellie boots (rain boots) about. But by far my favourite have to be the spotty ones. Pink or green I’ll take them

Might as well enjoy the rain in style!



This is my first large painting in a long while, I really enjoyed it and played around using acrylic washes for the background and more detailed, thicker paint for the wellies and daisies.

You can see the grain of the wood panel showing through, which looks lovely. The sides are painted black as always to make this really stand out when hung on the wall.

Original is available here and prints too!

Happy splashing!



xxx

P.S It’s actually not raining today (Ssssh!) x

A Tour of My Open Studio…

So there are some inquisitive little bunnies out there who would like to see what might go on at one of my open studios, especially ones that live just too far away to hop over the pond for a visit, so here you go, come in and enjoy…

I’ll be hosting another open studio probably in October so I do hope those of you who don’t live far will be able to come and enjoy some cute art and cake with me

Blessings, and a huge thank you to those who did come!!

xxx

New Art Pendant Necklaces

    

On Saturday I’ll be having my Spring Open Studio where I invite friends and family (and their friends) over to my home studio for a browse followed by tea and cake.

I usually run these at Christmas time and they are always a success, so I decided to run them throughout the year as well.

For this one I wanted to create some new fun products featuring my art without a ton of printing and putting together. Something special and handmade.

These necklaces were way more fun to make than I thought they would be and they turned out way better than I thought they would too. I am so pleased with them!!

They have an original painting on each side, so are a two in one necklace which is pretty cool. I have antique copper square frames, silver squares and silver long rectangles currently available. They come on either a brown or pink (of course) ribbon with a clasp fixing at the back.

These will be available for sale from Saturday at the open studio and then I will be offering them as commissions and possibly in the shop. I’m not sure how many I’ll make once this first batch is sold so make sure you get one while they are available.

This week I’m working on more goodies for Saturday and I recorded the video for The Journal Project today, so look out for that on the blog tomorrow.

Have a great day!

xxx