Jessie Lilac Blog

Better late than never! Here's my picture for Illustration Friday , 'Faded' It's been a busy time for me this week so I apologise for not being able to get round to visit you all! Things will settle down in a few days hopefully. :) Thankyou new followers, you are so welcome here, I hope you continue to enjoy your visits! I'm working on some canvas paintings and hope to show you some WIPs very soon! :)

Cambridge City Centre. It is ! Well, it's behind the buildings but only a stone's throw from the main colleges. Compared to Oxford, Cambridge is very small with hardly any traffic in the Town centre, just a LOT of bikes that are everywhere you walk, so you have to watch your step!  The buskers that stand outside Kings College are really good, except for the one who chose to sing and play on an extremely hot day from inside a bin! Yes, all I could see were his two arms coming out from the sides of the bin where you put the rubbish in, playing his guitar. Sorry no picture, I would have but I was in shock at his predicament. One of my favourite galleries there is the Primavera . The reason for this is the paintings by Jane Ray, an illustrator of the most beautiful paintings. They're supposedly for children but I have a couple of those 'children's books' I bought for myself. :) You can read more about her  here . This time I did take pictures....

No words today. ~  sight ~

A lovely weekend was had spent at the home of middle daughter in pretty Newquay. It's her birthday on Wednesday and so this was a kind of birthday celebration too. We'd planned this weekend day for ages and had no idea that the Olympic torch would be going right past her balcony within an hour of arriving there! Not only that, the exchange of torches happened right in front of us. An unexpected start to our visit! I've been to Newquay before and remember the crowds and the shops which didn't make this my favourite part of Cornwall BUT this weekend I discovered another side to it.  One where the hedgerows were filled with pretty colours. A place where the sights amaze and delight. Evenings that belong to a dream. Days spent walking  for miles along stunning coastlines and finding a secluded spot for a delicious barbecue. But not quite as secluded as we hoped..  because someone else had their beady eye on our food! Newquay...

I've been making mixed media paintings on canvas. This one is finished and it was such a lovely sunny day yesterday I thought I'd take its photo in the garden amongst the flowers! The forget-me-nots and aubretia look so pretty at the moment and have started to spread between the cracks in the path, much to my delight!  I have it available as a print to buy in my shop .  The colours are reproduced really vividly as you can see! The texture of the mixed media looks like the real thing! Please click here  if you'd like to find out more. :) ******** This morning I sat in bed with my sketchbook. Not a thing I do very often I hasten to add! I felt as though I needed to doodle. I get this feeling often but usually the guilt of staying in bed a moment longer takes over and I get up and on with the day and the urge disappears under all the layers of the daily jobs.  Today I did a quick drawing and instead of feeling I should have got up, I felt ha...

Yesterday's table. Illustration Friday , 'Kernel' Can I say a big welcome and a thankyou to my new followers. It's so lovely to see you here, I feel honoured to see your little icons there in my sidebar. ♥ I hope you enjoy your stay here and if you need to ask me any questions please feel free anytime, I'd love to hear from you. :) Jess xx

One of my most favourite things in my garden is the lilac trees. This was taken on this sunny Saturday morning. I planted them myself  a few years ago so it's very satisfying when they grow so many beautiful flowers! One thing I haven't done this year is to walk through a bluebell-carpeted wood. I do have a few of my own though, so I haven't missed out altogether. Not quite a carpet but still very pretty. I've been painting on canvas this week . This is a big change for me because for quite along time now all my paintings have been on paper. They're quite small so I'm painting on the table rather than the easel but  I do find that painting a canvas does make a lot more mess than a small sheet of paper,  or it is me?! It really is lovely in my garden this morning. But don't let appearances deceive you.. An evening of the comedian Simon Amstell last night at the Colston Hall in Bristol and during the interval a b...

YaY! I managed to find time to do this week's Illustration Friday word, 'hitched'! Thankyou to Stephanie for asking yesterday about my new knitting project. Here's the cardigan I first spoke about in this post . I've made a start as you can see but the needles and yarn are so much thinner than the last knitting I did so this is going to take me a lot longer do finish than the baby jackets. I'm also very much bigger than Maisy too which goes without saying! You can see the details of this project here on Ravelry. If you're a member do come and say hello to me there, I'd love to see what you've been making too! :)

 What a blissful way to spend a bank holiday, a  forage on one of my favourite Devon beaches.  Look at the colour of this stone! It was probably once part of the sea wall but over time has become smooth and almost indistinguishable from its unscathed cousin high up on the footpath.  What can I say about this? It's so beautiful here isn't it. I'll let the picture do the talking.  I love hunting for pebbles, not any old pebbles mind you, ones that call to me, ones that particularly catch my eye with their smoothness and colour. My handbag was ridiculously heavy when I went to pick it up to leave the beach! I can never resist keeping a few. ;)  I could have sat here for ever.  Devon's a pretty place with its soft green hills. From here at the side of the road you could see right into the distance towards Dartmoor. I'm afraid the photo doesn't do it justice! I think I'd like to live here and look out at this view, watching ...

 Do you remember the jacket I started a few weeks ago?   Click here to see more details!  I liked the results so much, I decided to make another one in a different colour combo.... Well that one's finished too and here it is being modelled by its new owner!  A very happy and very cuddly owner she is too! To see more details of this grey and pink jacket click  here ! :)  I've been neglecting my painting as we've been away for a few days but I've got to get my act together soon as I have an exhibition planned which I'll tell you about in due course. :) Meanwhile, I'm itching to get my knitting needles out for another project and this time it'll be for me!