New blog: FINE SCENERY

I'm always stumbling across amazing artists, whether it's online, in magazines or galleries, and planning to blog about them. Of course I always forget, don't get round to it, or wonder if this blog is really the place for it, what with being so hap-hazard n all.
So I've finally started a brand new blog, which already features lovely little illustrations by Brooke Weeber, and beautiful landscape photography by Carla Andrade, plus I have plenty stored in the drafts ready to go up over the next couple of weeks. I'm pretty excited :)
The idea is pretty much to keep rollin' out these interviews from artists who I've admired for a while. If that sounds like your kinda thing, take a look, have a read, and start following :)
finescenery.tumblr.com

Happy Valentines Day

Scribbles for a loved one.

 

Midnight City

For anyone else who was kinda obsessed with M38's Midnight City, but is now a bit sick of hearing it on every episode of Made in Chelsea. The Knocks just gave us another excuse to love it all over again. YESS.


...Alright, I lied. I love it in Made in Chelsea. 

Forever in a Nutshell: The Sketchbook Project 2012

Last week I finally finished my pocket sized sketchbook, said farewell, and shipped it off back to Brooklyn, ahead of the 2012 Sketchbook Project world tour. 

There's no real running theme or style, I just used it as an excuse to try different styles and play with a few different materials. As it turns out, I've realised I quite like watercolours, fine liners, free style machine embroidery and paper cutting. And mountains, always mountains.

Here are a few of my more favourite pages, and I've uploaded the full sketchbook here, if you want to have nosey. Also, stop by the tour if you happen to live in America, Canada, London or Melbourne (it starts in April, dates here).

 

Adam Rabalais - Alternative film artwork

Just thought I'd do a quick post on these amazing film posters by Adam Rabalais. I found these when searching for original film artwork as an extra Christmas present for Adam (my Adam that is), and after hours of scouring various blogs and etsy shops for the perfect design AND film, I went with this Inception print.

Hopefully this will be the first of a nice collection of alternative film artwork for our walls. Take a look at Adam's shop on Etsy.

 

  

A few more of my favourites...

 

 

Sketchy update No.2...

A sketchbook in the making...

I signed up Art House Co-op's Sketchbook Project 2012 quite a while ago, and in true fashion have kinda left it a bit last minute to get started. It's due to be posted back to Brooklyn Art Library by the end of the month, but thanks to some fast sewing, cutting and splashes of watercolour, I seem to be doing not tooo badly considering my late start.

My theme is 'Forever in a Nutshell'. I'm not overly imaginative, so I've taken the literal approach, with landscape scenes tied in with a few nutshells. I'll be sure to post more updates as I fill up the book, but here's a little look so far...


(please excuse my pack of chocolate digestives peeking in, plus my broken fingers in the bottom)

Bows, sequins, ribbon and stripes in one heart

Such a cute little fabric heart from my friend Hannah which she popped inside my Christmas card :)

Season's Greetings from Rudolph and Squirelly

Rather than spend hours labouring over my Christmas cards with prit stick and scraps of paper, glitter and fabric everywhere, I decided to try a different approach, and go with an illustrated design. I had a few others, but these turned out the best when combined with my crappy printer.

Maybe next year I'll even get my act together, sort out decent printing, and get them on Etsy (which was my original plan).

Merry Christmas from Mr Reindeer and Snowy the Squirrel!

Weekend Projects: Tree Hearts & Puddings

Best carried out with a bunch of festive tunes, here's my Spotify playlist if you can't be bothered to compile your own - CHRISTMAS Playlist. Lemme know if I've missed any crackers! (pun intended)

I made these last year and can't wait to get them out again this weekend once we've been to pick out our tree. They're pretty simple and cheap to make, all you need is;

• Ribbon
• Brown felt (for the pudding)
• Cream fabric (the the pudding sauce - I just used the same for the hearts)
• Gold beads
• Coloured thread
• Stuffing

Obviously, use whatever fabric and ribbon patterns you want to match your own decor.

Make yourself a few stencils, something simple like these will do.

 

Pin them to your fabric, and cut out. Each decoration with need two cut outs, so once you have a pair, pin them together. Pick out your matching thread and start sewing together, I used a blanket stitch around the edges to hold them together a bit better. Once you're need to the end, remember to take a break from the stitching to stuff them before finishing. 

For the puddings I stitched the cream piece onto one side of the pudding before sewing both circles together. I used a few gold beads dotted around, and added a loop of ribbon to the back.

The hearts also have one piece of looped ribbon on the back, and a small bowed stitched onto the front.

Dear Santa

Compling my letter to Santa Claus used to mean sitting for hours at the kitchen table with an Argos catalogue trying to decide which games, dolls and novelty items we wanted. As the illusion of our letters being swept up the chimney with a gust of wind faded, so did the carefully complied wish list. 

Christmas lists turned into a trip to the shops, to a scrap of paper passed around the family, to an email, to a few vague ideas across the phone. So this year I've taken back the fun of making my Christmas list. 

(Of course I'm going by the rule of providing plenty of options, with the expectation of receiving only a few... this is just my wishlist.) You never know, it might even give a few ideas of what to buy your own girlie, crafty friend/ sister/ daughter/ girlfriend/ etc.

Clockwise starting top left;

• Fashion Illustration book
• Cartier Baiser Vole
• Topshop ARMARDA Boots
• Screen Printing setup
• Powder Inks
• Barry M liquid eyeliner
• Glass teapot
• Jo Malone English Pear & Freesia
• Burberry Body
• Fabric Scissors

What's on your list this year?

Sneaky Peek - Chistmas designs

Excited to get my Christmas cards finished in good time for sending out this year. I still have a few more to draw out and pick my card colors, but here's a sneak peek!

Weekend Projects: Re-upholstered dining chairs

This is something I'd never had a reason to try before, but since we recently moved to an unfurnished house, we decided to take a trip to a local antiques & junk yard to find salvageable pieces to fill the dinning room. We thought it'd be fun to have four mismatched chairs and each decorate our own... and here is mine!

Being the cheapo that I am, I picked this one merely for the fact that we could get a pair for £5. Bargain! Unfortunately, I forgot to take a photo of the original, salvaged chair, so you'll have to use your imagination - dark, chipped varnish with a sludgy green patterned seat, which probably wouldn't have been so awful, had it not been sat outside in the junk yard.

First off I sanded the whole thing down, dusted it off, then painted a base coat. I then spent an awfully long time wandering around the paint isles at B&Q, before picking out this Victorian 'Winchester Green'. 

The fabric I used to re-upholster the seat was found after rummaging around in the cut offs bin at my local fabric store - never under estimate the scraps! Luckily the original seat filling was still in good condition, so after pulling out the old staples and fabric, it was pretty simple to cover with my new material, folding the edges under to keep it tidy before stapling down.

We've also just acquired a pair Arts & Crafts style chairs, which I'm in the process of sanding, so stay tuned for the results of those. Enjoy your crafty weekends!

Weekend Projects: 'a' letter tote

My crafty friend, Alex Carruthers, always makes people the cutest birthday cards. So when I left it a little late to start on hers, I decided to make a belated birthday present instead. She's not one for fussy accessories, and lugging things around, so I went for a simple tote bag.

The letter 'a' is embroidered using crimson and dark plum coloured cotton, and is backed with two layers of fabric and appliqued onto the bag. I also made a little bow with left over fabric from my re-upholstered chair.

October Obsessions

Website
Thought Catalog
So many honestly written articles which make me realise how I'm not alone in my twentysomething worries. Particularly 'How to make friends after you graduate' and 'Why everyone needs to just accept that they're a creeper on the internet'

Exhibition
The Grundy Art Gallery's current exhibition 'Mass Photography: Blackpool through the camera' is so worth a visit if you're in the area. Full of nostalgic images from the early 20th century British seaside to present day stag and hen hotspot, it makes Blackpool feel a lot more interesting.

Tim Brown - Blackpool Tram (1990)

Music
Which leads me to...

Film
Drive.
I loved everything from the silky scorpion jacket to the brutal head crushing and synth pop soundtrack.

Decor Insipration
Apartment Therapy is so full of beautifully decorated rooms and jazzed up furniture. It's pretty much impossible to not find home interiors inspiration.

Fashion
Getting cosy for winter with my new chunky knits courtesy of the Topshop sale. I'm going heavy on the darks and wine red.

Design
I love these movie poster designs by Alien Corset, which I came across in the Richard Goodall Gallery in Manchester.
Nosferatu seems rather fitting.

Tea of the Month
Roobios - OK I only bought it the other day, so it was a late entry to the month, but I feel it was a good purchase.

Happy Halloween!

Determined to make a decent effort this Halloween, I've gone all out on my pumpkin carving, with a full graveyard scene. I will be sad when the time comes to throw this baby out. 

 

As self entitled 'head of decorations' for our Halloween party, I also made a huge family of bats and mice cut from bin liners to invade the house, along with plenty of spiderwebs and creepies for the bookshelves.

I'm now looking forward to cooking up a treat from all the leftover pumpkin insides...Pumpkin and pecan pie?!

Apparently it's National Cupcake Week. I had big plans to bake a batch of Earl Grey & lemon cupcakes, but alas, I no longer have a cake tray/tin thing, so I've had to settle on a measly - but oh so tasty - stash of cornflake cakes. The lack of hassle and longer life actually makes them all the better.

BUT, I thought this is a pretty good excuse to share the perfect cupcake recipe which I discovered after a trip to St. Andrews a few months back, where Hannah took my to Bibi's Bakery. I try to make an effort to sample cakes on every visit to a new place - mearly in the interest of research purposes of course - and have to say, this place currently takes first spot on my list.

Bibi's Vanilla Cupcakes, Butter Cream and Chocolate Orange recipe - pay attention to the tips as well, always handy for future baking sessions!

P.s. The butter cream is insanely good. I could eat it alone. No lie. 

Fear and Loathing

...Marina & the Diamonds.

When I was in early high school, maybe Yr 7, we were asked to write about our ambitions and how we saw our future.

Amongst other things, I wrote about a bakery that I was going to open. I was going to pay my workers £10 an hour. I thought that was pretty reasonable, all things considered. I would smell fresh cake an bread all day every day, and wear a pretty litter bakers hat and pinny.

Been Better

She's quickly becoming a new fave.

Walk Through Walls

...Kyla La Grange.

I always appreciate photos of other peoples homes, seeing all the little nic-nacs they've accumulated, lovingly displayed as part of the décor. It generally fills me with a mix of envy and inspiration, along with a gentle reassurance, knowing that my favourites are a combination of cheap finds and a bit of D.I.Y. that I can copy.

While I don't have the cute country cottage, or rough walled NYC style loft, we've spend the past few months trying to make a modern Ikea furnished flat feel a bit more like a home, with a touch of floral, a few antique finds and hand made bits and bobs.