sewin' growin' drawin' bakin'

a pair of custom boy dolls

 

me working taken by my trusty work companion Joa

 

another custom boy doll

a little 11 inch custom doll
 

I've been very busy in the studio these last few weeks and I have enjoyed every second of it. I am particularly happy to see so many orders coming in for boy dolls, not only do I love making little boy dolls but I do think that they are so important, or rather I think it's so important that boys have access to dolls to play with.
 In the kitchen we've been baking...

digestive biscuits

and we are enjoying bringing in fresh green leaves from the green house to eat with our meals.

 I am also so happy that all of my herbs have stood the winter (and neglect) and are thriving, meaning delicious herb omelettes. Even better shared with friends!

 

 Last summer I made the pledge to myself that I needed to find an activity outside of the home, something just for me, to meet new people and to try new things. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do apart from something expressive and fun.
I was very lucky and found a wonderful acapella singing group in my local town, about a 20 minute drive away. Even luckier that I found a wonderful neighbour who would babysit the kids for me on my singing nights for free. And I have loved it, they group are so friendly and welcoming and fun. The songs have been interesting and diverse and I have found the release and joy of singing really therapeutic.
However since Christmas I have only made it to singing 3 times. It seems that someone was always ill on that night, or I was just too tired to go after getting the kids into bed, or I had a headache.
 I have been getting a little frustrated with it, feeling I was missing part of my new balanced approach to my life. Then Garry suggested I might try an art class given in the backroom of a pub in our village on a Monday evening, an evening that he never has to be at work and can mind the kids.
So last night I packed up my pencils and a fresh, new pad of paper and went along.

Oh what a wonderful time I had! There were 8 of us in the class, everyone working on different things. The class teacher wanted to start me off drawing. My first exercise was to draw an apple that I saw in my mind's eye...

 Then she set up a little still life of 2 apples and asked me to draw that...

I haven't really drawn much since school, so it was really lovely to sit for an hour and a half, in the peace, with the smell of turps around me just drawing. The time sped by. I knew I was going to enjoy it, but I didn't realise just how much.

 I am really looking forward to next weeks and having the chance to try out lots of new techniques and media and make new friends and spend time away from the house.

 

Funnily enough those weren't the only apples I drew yesterday...

In a few weeks time Rebe's class is making their first communion. As this is something that we don't celebrate we are having a ceremony of our own for Rebe; an apple seed ceremony. I will post more about that soon, but it was funny to have drawn and painted so many apples in a day!