Wisley - A Bonsai exhibition

This was an unexpected (and nearly missed) treat on our first visit to Wisley: a little avenue of hedges with pedestals along it on both sides, topped with bonsai trees of may types and vast ages.

There's not much here to give you a sense of scale, but no tree was more than two foot high.

There were plenty more but these are the ones that caught my eye.

Wisley Gardens

Wisley is a garden owned by the Royal Horticultural Society and is found in Surrey

At the moment things are quite bare (we went for the first time at the beginning of April before the month had heated up) but it still has some colour and grandeur.

There are plenty of succulents in the greenhouses (which were lovely and warm on a chilly day) and the Daffodils were out doing their Springtime show.

They look like weird sad eyes!

There are plenty of sculptures and fountains around, so next time we must bring more small change as each fountain requires coins to be thrown into it according to one of our young family members!

We joined as members because we intend to go back in different seasons and enjoy seeing what changes throughout the year.

I'll give you a virtual tour as I visit each time, if you're interested?

Next visit there will be Bonsai and Hot Houses!

Drawings from the Big White Book: many buildings

I drew this freehand, with no guidelines to keep the buildings straight and perpendicular

Consequently, every building leaned over slightly and made me feel dizzy, so I had to pull the page out of the book, cut it officially squiffy on a slicer and glue it back into the book at a slightly better angle on a new page.

I'm happy now : )

Drawings from the big White Book: A Pile of Frogs

Husband likes the frog beanbag toys I devised and I have made many over the years (one now gracing each step of our stairs!)

So here is my drawn pic of them all piled up

And if you want to see any of the original sewn ones, try this link to past pages
http://socklet-world.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/last-of-summerfrogs.html

And this was the one I made him for Christmas this year.

Drawings from the Big White Book: The Sewing basket

If you have seen past blogs of mine, you will know that I sew a lot: not clothing and furnishings, more weird stuff that comes into my head.

So here are the contents of my sewing kit:

And if you want a sample of some past weirdnesses sewn...

And beyond that, you could nip back to my earliest posts in 2013, many of which were about the joy of socks! (making creatures from them that is)

Drawings from the Big White Book: Fairyland House

I love drawing trees, I love photographing Fungi so combine the two and add more!

Same time, same place for more tales from the Big White Book!

Drawings from the Big White Book: A Pile of Mice

I found lots of different photos of mice on the internet and combined them into a pile of mice pic.

 I want to colour them in outrageous colours!

Drawings from the Big White Book: Skull with flowers

Here's another black pen pic

More to come another day

Drawings from the Big White Book: The toys are escaping!

The weird and the wonderful are coming out of the drawers.

I'll leave it up to you to decide which is which  : )

Drawings from the Big White Book: Rabbits in a hammock!

Time for some rabbits in a hammock, I think...

I think I may have to photocopy these so I can have fun colouring them without destroying the original black and white drawing.

I am having such fun doing these : )

Lego Ship in a Bottle: the finished model

Here are the final parts of the process to arrive at this!

All the clear bits for the bottle

Building the bottle halfway then securing the ship inside before completing the bottle around it

Filling the mostly completed bottle bit with little turquoise water-pieces, which can be shaken gently when the bottle is complete (I hear this has caused some controversy in the Lego world as to whether the number of these little watery pieces should be included in the total count of pieces in the build as they are not technically 'built with' - but I love them and the effect they have on the model!).

Pieces for the build of the base, which includes two tiny spinnable globes and a compass with moving (but not operational) compass.

And the finished article

From many angles in case you like that sort of thing

Lego ship in a bottle: the making of the ship

1. The packet

2. The starter pack

3. The bits

4. The ship

Coming soon... the bottle, base and compass!

Husband is trying to get me interested in Lego by buying to my strengths, but not so interested that I will start on his unopened boxes of sets to make : )

Owls: black and white drawing

I thoroughly enjoyed the pattern drawing...

although the middle one looks a little like a highwayman.

Black and White Doodling

I've seen similar things to this in colouring books but, although they are not my kind of thing to colour, they were very relaxing and therapeutic to draw...

More to come on the black and white front.

Big Scary White Book - the finished front cover

Here's the update on the front cover of the book... just after I dropped water on it and smudged it!

I'll post further pictures as they emerge, and they will emerge as I'm not scared of it any more!!!

Big Scary White Drawing Book

I bought this in Hobbycraft

It's beautiful paper that you just want to stroke, but its very daunting to have a big blank white page in front of you and a very black pen in your hand.

This was my start

This was my fence

and this was the half picture (which I have since finished and then spilt water on!!!).

April Bujo

I chose watery but chirpy colours for April pages... but in real life skies, I have only seen the watery rainy side so far!

The Washi-type tape set most of the colour palette.

My calendar and 'To Do' lists were empty at this stage but have been filling up gradually since.

I have yet to do my March picture summary but will be able to show you my March 'art projects' page and my drawing of the effects of the Beast from the East on Britain as soon as I've photographed them.