Last week was a time for family. My daughter and Grandaughter came to stay and we had lots of lovely times together, creating clay sculptures, walking down the lane, finding treasures in the garden.
Having a tiny person in the house is such a reminder to slow down, I love that she notices all the little things, a tiny daisy still growing in the winter grass, the funny shapes of clouds, the sound of the wind whispering through the branches of the trees., All the little things that we often forget to take the time to notice in our days.
With visitors to entertain it was a perfect excuse to take a trip to the 'GemRock Museum' in Creetown. A fabulous collection of jewels and gems, such vibrant hues and colours. There is a crystal cave to explore and a trail of gem bunnies that a certain wee person was excited to find. I even came across a tiny carved mermaid tucked away. And to finish off we had a delicious home cooked lunch in the cafe and then a drive through the stunning Galloway forest, a perfect day out.
A few days earlier I found myself over in Wigtown, Scotland's designated book town, a must for any book lovers out there! The reason for my visit was a trip to 'Curly Tale Books', a wonderful treasure trove of a children's bookshop that has agreed to be the latest stockist for my cards! They will be in good company for the shop is stuffed with loveliness of all kinds and is run by author Jayne Baldwin and illustrator Shalla Gray - creators of the lovely 'Beltie' story books. For those of you not in the know 'Galloway Belties' are stripey black and white cows found here in Dumfries and Galloway.
With visitors here and trips to and fro to hospital to visit my poorly Dad, who hopefully is on the mend now, my sketching took a wee bit of a back seat. I have managed a few though and am loving the variety of topics: eye, small bird, cafe life and the colour blue, I am determined to keep my sketches to within half an hour, but sometimes it's very tempting to keep going! I would like to get it down to 20 mins per sketch soon!
For folk interested in joining in the sketch a day but who are not on Facebook, I do have a Pinterest board for where you can find the daily topic as well here.
Do let me know if you join in and maybe we can find a way to share our sketches!
thank you for sharing your illustrations and your discovers
ReplyDeletehugs
Thank you treasure x
DeleteThe way children see things can be very inspiring. A gem museum and a book town? How wonderful! Best wishes for your dad. Amazing drawings!
ReplyDeleteThank you lovely Laura, yes we have a lot to learn from children :)
DeleteAh! I love your watercolor sketches! So lovely! It's been forever since I made the blog rounds.
ReplyDeleteBeen distracted with our craziness over here in the US and way too addicted to the news! Time to balance with creativity!
I wanted to tell you I planned a trip this August to Scotland with my parents. I'm so excited! Although... I went on to see if we will be close to you but it doesn't look like it. The farthest south we get is Glasgow. We are starting in Edinburgh then heading north to Inverness and then doing a bit of a horseshoe ... over to Skye then back to Glencoe. The beginning of the trip is visiting places where my matrilineal line is from. My Great grandma always said, "My father was from the lowlands (a bit south and east of Edinburgh) and my mother from the highlands!" She was a Grant and we are finding out a Cameron, as well.
Anyway ... how far are you from Glasgow? There is a day we are trying to make it down to Kilmartin Glen as well. There is so much to see that I think I might be over planning!
Hi Lucinda, lovely to see you here! I am the same I haven't done any blog hopping for far to long!
DeleteEek, that's so exciting that your are coming over to Scotland!!! Wow what a trip that will be. I love Skye, one of my favourite places in the world! I am about 2hrs from Glasgow, but if you message me nearer the time maybe I can organise a visit up thee to coincide with your visit too x x