Lunchtime drawing

 I've been working on a new one of my "birds saying bird sayings" drawings on my lunch breaks for the last week or so; here it is in action today.  And some of the other things I spied on my lunch break, before I had to run inside out of the rain...

Bird watching

This is a treasure I've carted around through moving house many times...I can't remember where I got it, maybe the dearly departed Rainbow op shop. It's a little pack of cards for identifying birds, with beautiful watercolours and descriptions on the backs:

Aren't they gorgeous?

I really like the idea of slipping these into your pocket if you're going out birdwatching. The packet says the series also has wild flowers, British wild animals, and dogs. Now doesn't the idea of carrying around cards for identifying dogs seem creepier somehow?

My creative space, the biggest embroidery hoop I've ever seen, and a winner.

My creative space today is more of a potential creative space. Yesterday, on an epic op-shopping trip, I found the biggest embroidery hoop I've ever seen! Here it is, looking bigger than the house!

The ladies in the St. Vinnies were all excited that I might use it to do a giant embroidery. I disappointed them by saying that I'm going to do a big screenprint on calico and use the hoop to display it.

Thank you for all your comments on my giveaway post - I had fun reading about your collections! Today I closed my eyes and drew a winner:

Congratulations Melissa, you've won a pack of my 'A Little Bird' cards! Send me your address to millicentcrow (at) gmail (dot) com and I'll pop those in the post for you.

To see other people's creative spaces take a look over here...

Ruffling feathers

Finding these sweeties in the park cheered me up on a gloomy rainy day last week...

Look at those feathers all messed up by the rain.Whenever I see doves or white pigeons out in public I always imagine that they might have escaped from a magic show, and that there might be a magician out there somewhere waving his top hat in a fury, wondering how he's going to put the show on without the birds!

Birdies

My sister and I made these little birds this afternoon - they're made out of "Cernit" - a cheap kind of fimo. I tried to make some late at night last night, but was too tired and had an episode of bird-making rage which could only be soothed by the dulcet tones of Ira Glass. These are today's birdies:

I made the three on the left, my sister made the two on the right.

Fresh from the oven, 'scuse the not so good flash photo...

They're being turned into brooches as we speak!

Smiling Victorians

I had a lovely day yesterday, staying home and drawing for most of the day. I had a break from the solemn folk I usually draw and drew a little series I've called "Smiling Victorians." Mr Millicent Crow has worked some photoshop magic to turn them into greeting cards and on Monday I'm picking them up from the printers!




The Victorians weren't so into smiling for the camera, but wouldn't you be smiling if you had a bird on your shoulder? Happy weekend to you!

On the first day of Spring

I photographed my newest op shop acquisitions - three little bird candles, which I don't think I can bear to light; I would feel too sorry for them...
...and this gorgeous skinny coffee cup. It looks like it's for drinking coffee so strong you could stand your spoon up in it!
Pinch, punch, first of the month!

His & Hers

I've been making some huias for the Auckland Art & Craft Fair. They started out like this:
I went to the museum to look at some they had there, and they looked a bit bedraggled and mangy (well they have been extinct since 1907) so I had to flesh these ones out a bit.

Now they look like this:
The male huia is the one with the shorter beak, the female has the longer one. They're gocco printed onto calico, reinforced with interfacing and have zigzagged edges. And I have a whole lot of them!

Righto, back to the sewing machine for me. I've got a big pile of zigzigging to finish!