Today, it's Effie Trinket...

Have you seen Hunger Games movies?  This is a character from those.  I found lots of pictures of her on the net... not too many that are straight on to her face...but, decided to give this one a try...

She usually has even more outlandish lashes than these .... but, here is the original..

... and.....here is my rendition...

I didn't get her eyes round enough, but, I quite like her ...

Hi, it's me....

Quite literally.... this is me.  Well, yes, of course....I've taken total artistic licence ....and liberties.... but, basically, I drew it from a photo of me taken about 8 or more years ago....

I definitely left out the wrinkles.... plenty of 'em.... because, when I think of me I still visualize me just like this...  well, maybe I was never this wrinkle-free ..hahahhah... but, you know what I mean.... and, maybe I got the neck a tad longer and slimmer...and....oh, boy....

Go on.....have a good laugh yourselves..... I'm here for entertainment purposes only.  Actully, that's why my sweetie, Mr. BV,  says he keeps me around.... comic relief.... that, and the muffins, biscotti and other goodies .... the cheek!
   

Hedging his bets.....

Bernie isn't taking any chances.  He's heard about the Easter Bunny .... but, lately he's been seeing ads on tv talking about the Easter Chicken... and now, he wonders, "who really brings the eggs"? ..

Never one to wait 'til it's too late.... it looks like he found a little pair of bunny ears for his buddy chicken..... he's a clever bear he is ...especially when it comes to chocolate...or "choklit" as his buddy Bob calls it...

I don't really care who or what brings mine...as long as I get sum......

........................still snowing................

...................so ....................I'm still playing.....

Made this face shorter and rounder and placed the nose, lips, and eyes closer to the centre of the face to have her appear younger .....

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also had a play in the kitchen...with some leftover strawberries from the last batch of Mr. BV's lunch muffins I made.  Last time I was at Safeway, I saw strawberry/white chocolate scones and now...I wanted to try them.  But, the tv was on blaring away the news... all bad...and I wasn't concentrating I guess (on scones that is...) .... so, all of a sudden I realized I hadn't added the sugar to the flour.... rectified it....but, then...just as I popped them in the oven... saw the egg still sitting on the counter... dammit..... and further insult... what the? ...there sat the white chocolate square as well... still wrapped.  Sheeeesh!!!

And, then... even worse, for me ... (not for Mr. BV ) ..he loves overcooked baking.... I turned off the oven while I stirred some soup and began toasting big slabs of home made bread to eat with it...I forgot the scones!   After all that...I can't believe they were even edible...but, they are ...and very tasty too, I might add... even without an egg... how is it possible?  Guess I can bake them that way if I want next time I'm out of eggs....hahahahhaha....less cholesterol!  Bonus.

Look at this crumb... still great...

I prefer them a bit lighter than this ..

'specially on the bottom.... but, ehh..... they're okay....

And, I bet some of you noticed.... white chocolate drizzled on top... I was not going to do without that after I wanted it inside them in the first place.... so, I popped the square in a baggy..... put it in a bowl and poured boiling water on top of it... melted the white square and snipped off a corner of the baggy...and drizzled it on instead.  Lovely....

..... plus... had some ginger/apricot biscotti that I just baked the other day and thought I'd give the last bit a try on a few of those as well... haven't had one dipped in my tea yet....just off to do that now...
wanna join me? ... ....

... and, then?? ...I better do about 40 minutes on the treadmill !!!!

Shiva Paint Sticks

Perhaps just a bit tentative yet... but, it does make a nice difference and I'll try to get it a bit thicker next time...

Here is the first one I tried ..
You can see the coloured pencil lines quite clearly..

Then, ...mix up a bit of the paint stick colour... easy to do, not messy and no smell.  What fun sticks!  I just need to learn to put more actual paint onto my paper.  Mix a nice colour for the skin....

...apply to the face ... et voilà !  Smoother and prettier looking ..... Martha used more I know, because portions of the graph lines are not noticeable in many of her whimsical girls....I'll get it.....

A young Shirley McLaine? ...

........ number 4 .....

whoops...

My third gal.....

I've done faces before.  When I took a class on face painting for dolls.  I learned it then, ....but totally forgot I guess...hence the reason to refresh a person's little skills and crafts...

.... and, I forgot... finish off the eyes totally before I bother doing any other part of the face really... see what happened here?  I grabbed a Pigma pen for eyelashes... it was a .05 instead of a .005 .... sigh.... and now they are too bulky and can't be fixed.   Oh, well....now, she is either going out on a dark evening... to a dark club...or ... perhaps she is pretending she is an aspiring stage and screen star...hahahhah.....

They aren't even all the same size or direction...I gave up on them after I got them so bulky and not really what I wanted at all...

Oh, well... there are more girls where she came from...........................

more fun drawing some today ....later.....

Happy Spring!!

... and, our day looks like this.

What do you mean you can't see anything? ... Neither can I!  The wind is blowing at 50 kph... and the snow is driving straight from the north... as well as swirling in every direction because of the winds ... sheeesh...  temperatures dropping to -15C tonight ...

We know it's too early...but, after a few days of +15C...well, ....we got lulled I guess....you know.... right into a false sense of security ... a hope that spring could indeed be just around the corner.  Then, whammo... good ol' Mother Nature whacks us  ... For a nice little old lady she sure can be mean sometimes....

Today I'm doing a different kind of art....

Making muffins..

with a nice warm stove on ...and the scent of strawberries and apples in the air.... mmmmmmm...    and I can't even eat one..... just had some dental surgery on Monday.... can't really have anything firm for a few more days or it will trash the site where the tissue was harvested from the roof of my mouth....  maybe there will still be one left next week.

New online class

Drawing the Girls...with Martha Lever.

Here is my first attempt.... hair seemed to be the hardest part for me...  must look at some styles .. and practice, practice, of course... haven't done any eyes for ages....  since I did my dolls ... they'll be a bit tricky for a bit too... but, these are just fun gals... done on graph paper as you can see.  

The graph is to get a feel for the positioning of eyes nose and mouth and to more or less get things in proportion....  although, they are not supposed to be anatomically correct.... they are just fun.... still looks a bit like an alien.... 

..... I'm back... with my second attempt... and I like her...

I fiddled less with the eyes and used much lighter pencil strokes in the beginning.... although, now that I see her in a photo... I may just add a bit more depth to her eyes....

And... I might just leave the hair like that... my own little idiosyncrasy or style or whatever.... seeing as I don't really have a way to colour it how I want.... yet, anyway.  I may come up with something later .... . what fun just drawing the girls...

Egg-stra stitching..

.... oh, brother....I suppose I could go on forever with the eggy titles...but, I should quit...hahhaha.... but, why? .... it's kinda fun and ...funny to me..... good enough.

Doing some extra stitching on the scalloped edge of the lace on the top of this one.... Karen's little frilly dilly stitch...she calls it Frilly Picot.  I never know if I've got it quite right...but, it looks right to me and with the number 12 Perle cotton and if I pull each stitch pretty tight...I can get it tiny.  Click on the photo to "biggify" and you can see it so much better.  I love it.  And, I think it really enhances the flat lace.  Gives it more body or something... and makes it more interesting to look at.


See the four little tiny scalloped bits on the lace edge? ....  just above the umbrella looking machine stitched flower on the cotton fabric I used for the base fabric?  Those are my little frilly dilly thingies ..... with some French Knots above holding the lace in position.. until the whole egg gets a backing of white silk.




I'm debating what to use for trim on this other guy...and ... more or less leaning towards a bit of this lace on the top end of the egg......

Not much time to stitch today ....but, must do a few each day at the very least.........every little helps, as my Mum was fond of saying.... then she would add...... "said the little old lady who peed in the sea"....... must be an old English saying ..or ... maybe she just made it up .......

Hatching some eggs

I made up a second sheet of fabric in bright whites.  The piece with the flowers embroidered on it was sent to me in a fabric swap organized by the first group I took a class with.

If Lexxie visits my site... which I don't think she does ...she may remember this piece... look Lexxie!  I'm using it.  It is shiny and she loves shiny ... well, actually ...who doesn't? ..hahhaha... I think Magpie is the middle name of most women.

I did the same thing I did when I was making the pin cushions.  Seeing as I just can't visualize things finished without a frame to view it in....I viewed it with my newly made egg template.  Perfect.  Now, I can work away on it ...inside stitched lines...but, always with my viewer nearby.  Grab. Place. View.

Love it....

I decided to make several ...    in the same style as my cushions.

 Here is the first one so far.

I'm egg-cited....

I dreamed up something else to do with my special fabrics and trims.   Egg day is not far off.  So.. I thought... why do pincushions or hangings have to be rectangle or stocking shaped? ..  and drew myself an egg shape too.

Look how cute an egg will be when made from a piece of the fabric I made using narrow strips.  The sheet I got busy and made and then had nothing to do with it once it was done... hahah... except for using as test pieces and perhaps on a page or two of my stitching journal......but, now.... I want to get busy and make me some eggs!

I just want to do some stitching...

hiding...

...in the house.
It's pretty brisk out there ....-24C and the wind is blustery at 25kph ... that means it's ..uhm, .... cold.  Too cold to go out.  The snow isn't conducive to building snowmen anyway..

Pinned a silk backing to my pouch.

Stitched around 3 sides and a portion of the fourth and then, turned it through that opening.  Now I need to close that opening by hand... stitch a portion of the folds closed and stitch all around the outside edges  ... buttonhole around the edges.... ... hmmm... still quite a bit of stitching to do really.  But... happy to get this done today and see how it is going to look... still haven't decided exactly where it will fold over... and..... it's a pretty large pouch...hahhahah...

The back in this folded configuration.... who knows if it will stay like this... maybe it could even be overlapped and have buttons or toggles or ties.... We'll see.