Long Absence...

Not much time to post of late but keeping up with

all your beautiful blogs

during spare moments keeps me almost on the level ;)  

Do I suffer from insanity?  No, I enjoy it! 

Also enjoying cooking.

Croissants, brandy custard and prunes - upmarket bread and butter pudding - a fave with family!

 And making soap - perfume and additive free.  No photo, it's still maturing.

And knitting RL size dish cloths when my hands are shaking too much for miniatures.

Knitting dish cloths is addictive. 

 Zen knitting my friend Bev calls it,

automatic movements that let your mind roam free.

There have been some moments for miniatures.

Pink for my kitchen. 

Enamel mugs for no.2 grandsons stable.

Egg carton pavers for the stable.

Grandson made a planter box and I had help building a Feed Bin.

  

Pet dishes made by no.3 grandson for his kitchen while he was off school with Chickenpox. 

That lad is good with poly clay!

And a cat bed made by me.

 Second set of dishes made by me for the stable because no.2 grandson didn't have chickenpox

......and had to go to school!

Yellow for grandsons kitchen.

Just small projects for my butterfly mind.

Shabby What? - Shabby Grubby....

Grunge-ing (my own word) a nice miniature is not an easy thing for my clean, neat and tidy brain come to terms with; much as I love the work of real shabby miniature artists who seem to know exactly how much is enough, the process doesn't come naturally to me. 

I can't say I like what I've done.

 

I think I went a bit too far, my husband wants to put it on the kerbside for the metal recyclers.........hmmmm, is that a compliment or a criticism?

At least the banged up cream coloured jug does look more used now, not so 'brand new with artfully applied chips added'.  I don't like the other two jugs much, they were better without the grunge.

I used thin washes of two paint colours, an amber sort of one for the rusted marks and and a dirty brownish black for plain old dirt stains.  Dotted the wash on and spread and dabbed with my fingers.  When there was too much I wiped it a bit with an almost dry cloth, that left a hint of colour in the depths of the brush strokes in the white paint and looked more natural.

Five Minutes of Fun

Table made from card, wire and beads.

Needs some shabbying but I'm nervous about messing up.

Paint effects are not my area!!