A drawing a day

Some time ago I mentioned in this post that I wanted to get back into drawing again. This was something I did quite a lot of when I was younger, but as with many things, it dropped off the radar. So last week I decided to make a commitment. I declared on Facebook that I was going to do a drawing a day, and post the results this weekend.

Portraits are one thing I've always enjoyed drawing, so my wee man and muse was an obvious model choice. This is the first time I've drawn a baby, so I took a photo first, as I didn't think my skills would be up to a life drawing!

For day two I picked some flowers from the garden to draw. This one is a cornflower - not sure that you can tell!

I didn't get a chance to draw something on day three (and the only day I missed, I might add!). On day four I was in the shop, so I drew one of my owl candles that was there.

Day five is a flower from a magazine – I think it was a fejoa.

Day five is a tomato fresh from the garden (I'm noticing a theme here!).

Day six is of a candle that has burned down after I tested a new prototype. The lighting wasn't great for drawing, there were some harsh shadows so I haven't captured it quite right.

Making myself draw something every day has been good - I just found whatever was at hand, which meant I chose things I might not normally have thought of. I will try to keep it up now, and spend a bit more time on them and brush up my skills. I think there maybe some more baby portraits before I'm done!

Which one do you like the best? Let me know in the comments!

Small and sweet for Valentine's day

Valentine's day is a great time to connect with your special someone or to indulge yourself with a little me time. We have a great selection of candles to set the scene, and to celebrate Valentine's day, we have a 25% off sale on soy tealights, floating candles and melts. Sale ends 13th February.

Small candles like tea lights and floating candles are great for creating atmosphere. Find some little dishes or saucers to put tea lights on, or fill a bowl with water and rose petals and add floating candles.

Tea Party

The Rose in Thorns tea party is back, just in time for some Christmas shopping. If you want to shop in a relaxed environment and enjoy tea and cupcakes served on fine china with good company, then come along! It will be held on the 1st December at 3pm - 5pm at my home in Northcote. If you would like to come, just register here and you will be sent address details a few days before the event. You can also rsvp to the facebook event if you wish.

Our full range of candles will be available, so you can take a look over them at your leisure. I will have some candles lit so you can see them in action, and there will be some great specials on clearance items.

Manderley Home and Garden Festival

Next weekend you'll find me at the Manderley Home and Garden Festival. It's an event I always enjoy attending, due the the lovely setting and atmosphere. There will be a great selection of food stalls, live music and dancing and the homestead will have three rooms open to the public.

There will also be a large selection of stalls hand-picked for their quality and originality, so it is a great event to start your Christmas shopping in a relaxing environment. It's on Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th November from 10am - 4pm each day at 3875 Christchurch/Akaroa Highway, Little River. Admission is $15, with children under 12 free.

Evolution

So my blogger dashboard tells me this is my 150th post – hopefully it lives up to that milestone!

As the saying goes, the only constant is change. My life has changed quite a lot over the last few years, and the last few months have been no exception. My wee man is growing and learning at a rapid rate, and it's definitely a fun journey to be part of. While on leave I seemed to keep stumbling upon lots of different artists, which inspired me to get back into drawing again. I haven't made a start on that yet, but I hope to find some time soon. I used to draw people quite a lot when I was a teenager, with a strong lean towards the heart throbs of the time. (I'm guessing that Dear Colleen must have gone through a similar phase herself, with her ever expanding collection of dishes tea towels!) I even managed to put a couple of drawings of Brad Pitt into my Schoot Cert art portfolio. I'm still not sure how I managed to get that past my art teacher! Since then I have mostly focussed on painting, as I thought it was a natural progression, but I would quite like to try drawing again. Here are some of the drawings I did way back then, including the School Cert specimens. Points for anyone who can identify any of the three featured at the bottom!

My workspace also keeps evolving. Last year I posted some pictures of what it looked like after I'd finished setting it up. Since then, it's been entirely redecorated, and I kept posting teasers saying I was going to put some new pictures up. Here are some I took in early May – it's changed again since then, but I still have some more plans for it, so new pictures are going to have to wait!

The room was repainted after earthquake repairs, and I had decided some form of 'duck egg blue' would be nice, and found the perfect shade. So I also painted the cabinet to match, as it needed some updating, and also it's own repairs after being knocked over from the fishtank. The busy 1970's carpet also had to go, so we found a wool carpet in a nice neutral brown, and then we had to get new curtains, as the pink ones didn't go so well!

The room changed again not long after that, to make way for the spare bed which had been in what became the baby's room. It has now gone in favour of a sofa bed, which means I no longer require the couch, which is my pride and joy. I'm not quite sure I can bear to part with it just yet, so it's future remains unknown at this stage.

Sharing the love

A few weeks before the wee man was born, this lovely packages of goodies turned up on my doorstep. They were from The Sisterhood, to show us love from afar as we headed into this new season of life.  It was a very kind gesture, and I must say I did feel loved, it really made my day. Somehow, they'd even managed to figure out what my favourite chocolates were too!

Things are going really well with the wee man after a few difficulties to begin with. He's growing really well, and is a sweet wee boy.

In this last week, when the headlines seemed to revolve around babies, I learned that a crafty friend of mine was in a very stressful situation with her premature baby girl Lily. She had been born unexpectedly in Shanghai while they were in transit on their way back from Europe. She was born at 27 weeks gestation, which in itself would be incredibly stressful. So to have this happen in a foreign country, with a different language and different culture, while away from your usual support networks would make everything much, much more difficult.

They would like to bring her back to New Zealand, but as their travel insurance won't cover this, they need to raise the $250,000 need to bring her back in an air ambulance. If you would like to help out, you can donate some money via their givealittle page, and keep up to date with the fundraising efforts on their facebook page.

A new arrival

Josh and I welcomed little Hamish into the world at 10:51am on the 4th June, weighing 3.98kgs. Now we're settling in at home, and learning about this whole new exciting chapter of life!