Another Christmas card

I'm afraid I am taking full advantage of the festive season to create , and post, all things sparkly. I have enjoyed making cards with snowflake themes (even though I haven't seen a snowflake this year). We have had plenty of frost and some sleet though. If it has snowed ... I've missed it!

Creativity has been a little bit on the back burner (unless you count creature creating in Spore) over the last week due to the gift of the above mentioned game and the two of us trying to balance on the Wii fit board (not at the same time!)

Today I have started to tackle my backlog of coursework for college. 

I hope that anyone who reads this is having a season full of festive fun and happiness.

Oh Christmas Tree

Some more experimentation with my camera.

Beach photos

We went for a cycle ride today. Not to the beach but in the opposite direction towards Torrington. Weather grey today. The ride was enjoyable despite this (even though the path was slippy)

A lovely cycle ride is towards Instow. We went there 14th December to test out my camera some more. The days previous had been a bit wet and windy so there was quite a bit of debris on the beach. We went mid afternoon. Here are a couple of photos.

Coloured Doodle

Here's another design that I have coloured with watercoloured pencils. It's the same sort of design as my previous post - influenced by the patterns and designs of Charles Rennie Mackintosh, William Morris, ceramic work of Gaudi.

Christmas cards

I've been busy making Christmas cards and have managed to get them posted off before the last day of posting!! A first I think!

Here are just some of them.

Double Doodle Doo!

Here are the double pages that I can't bear to touch with colour now that they're both finished. I have turned the page and started afresh with a design that will be coloured!

Another doodle

This is a larger doodle - a full page in my moly.

I had intended to colour it in but I'm quite liking it in its 'virgin' state on the silky, smooth, cream paper.

So, I've started another on the page next to it so I can colour that but before it's even finished I'm loving the two of them together - just black and cream .... guess I'll have to do another on the next page!!

Something Lucky EDM 200

Here's my late EDM 200. I'm a bit shaky at the moment (fine motor tremor) so drawing etc has extra challenges. 201 might take some time - straight lines are damn near impossible!!

Doodles in Red

Like Jules at http://www.sketcherie.blogspot.com I like to doodle. It's not a distraction technique from the 'other' art I'm supposed to be doing (honest!)

I do love to do it. It gives me pleasure even on those low days when not much can - just knowing you've created something. I like doing designs in Arts and crafts/Art Deco/Art Nouveau stylee. I guess this is influenced by William Morris (similar to one of my previously posted lino prints)

Anyway, this was created with the sole purpose to turn it into a Thank you card (and it's now winding its way up country).

Car Park at The Burrows!

Today is my Birthday. Am now 38 (or, as Alan would prefer to remind me, entering my 39th year and therefore another year closer to the big 4-0). Hoping life actually begins before then and I'm not just counting down the time to get there!

As I've been a miserable moo, I wasn't expecting great things for the day but it's been absolutely lovely. I've been spoilt rotten with a new camera (Canon EOS 450D). We went in to Bideford and went into J & A Cameras Ltd to look at lenses. The guy, Dan, was really helpful - good, proper, decent customer service. Alan bought me a lens and a tripod (now embarrassingly spoilt). We got a coffee and spicy muffin in The Mill Street Deli (again, good, polite service). It's a dinky little shop with only 2 or 3 tables inside. It's an old Art Deco building (another reason to love it!) We like going in there as it's quiet and the drinks and nibbles are yummy.

This afternoon, we headed to The Burrows so I could practice with my new toy. I didn't concentrate so much on composition - more on holding the tripod under my arm while doing close up shots of sand and stones and getting used to manual focus. I know nothing about aperture, shutter speed etc so I have an awful lot to learn. I'm pleased with the photos I took today though (and as it's a digital SLR, I can practice to my heart's content)