sparklehound

Today I am mostly dreaming of Paris

A bit of a cheat as this was actually taken on a day trip to Paris back in December. We're going back in March and I'm counting the days!

Something in the air

Hard on the heels of my London Plane Trees post the other day, Kris of the always inspiring Kris's color stripes, has just posted a Plane tree colour palette! I can feel a colour, possibly gocco, version of my sketch coming on, just as soon as I get a minute...

Cravings

Dear Mother Nature

Exhaustive research has concluded that, contrary to popular belief, apples make a very poor substitute for actual candy.

Please review.

Much love
Mali

PS. Love your work.

Today I am mostly...

...admiring my daffydowndillys and strokey-soft pussywillow sticks from Sunday mornings Columbia Road raid and dreaming of spring...

Good enough to eat

I treated myself to a shiny new 45 (count 'em!) pan watercolour set at a bargainous 50% off! I had a great time in front of the tele unwrapping the many many colours.

I love how the wrappers look like sweetie papers; Ginger thought for a minute that I'd had a massive sugar binge (or maybe he was just wondering why I hadn't saved one for him)!

London plane tree

I recently found out (thanks to Alan Titchmarsh repeats, gotta love digital tele!) that London Plane Trees aren't just a key feature of the parks and streets of my home town, but that as well as prettifying the place they actually clean the air by up to 70%! How cool is that? And experts estimate they can live to up to 500 years old and will eventually be among the largest trees in the country.

I love the idea of these trees living for generations and changing the cityscape as they outgrow the streets and take over the parks; it makes me smile. But my favourite thing about London Plane Trees is the seed pods that look like dangly earrings or christmas baubles. I used to pass many dull meetings gazing through the window at the winter branches outside and smile inside.

This was a quick sketch of a the bauble-seeds for a thank you note, but I was quite pleased with it (apart from the grotty light in the photo, I never seem to have my camera ready and keep missing the fleeting rays of winter sun!)... I hope you like it.

image copyright Mali Perdeaux 2008

Inspired by Paola

Paola of Mirror Mirror has started a fantastic new blog: Today I am mostly... The idea is to take and post a photo every day. Cool!

I first came across Paola's blog through her fantastic Mirror Mirror online boutique for a long time; both brighten my day. Thanks Paola!

Anyway, I like the Today I am mostly... plan so much I thought I'd be a blatent copycat and give it a go too:

Today I am mostly... promising my poor hydrangea a jolly good feed!

busy busy busy

...and inefficient if truth be told. Sorry.

Ginger and I went to see Ang Lee's latest: 'Lust, Caution' the other evening. It was stunningly beautiful but Oh. My. Word; It is so s-l-o-w... Painfully, distractingly and almost unbearably slow, to the extent that by the time it finally got round to the action we were both just wishing it would end. The two leads, gorgeous Tang Wei and the ever fabulous Tony Cheung, are great but they can't make up for the fact that the film is a good hour too long. It really isn't a film to take your granny to either - unless she's particularly broad minded - as it features the most explicit sex scenes I've ever seen in a cinema (and yet still managed to be boring)!

Oh Lust, Caution; I so wanted to love you.

I do love our local cinema though - its in an arts centre that opened last year and has the most comfortable seats and generous leg room you could wish for, which is just as well as we keep inadvertently picking epics, as well as funky printed wall-hangings that reflect the cultural diversity of the area... I'll try to get some pics next time, before the lights go down!

This week I'm hoping for Sweeny Todd - I'm sure that in Mr Burton's capable hands, Johnny and Helena will make the time pass far more swiftly!

In other news, I have been going ever so slightly Etsy mad lately, I'll share my goodies as they arrive (I'm so excited!).

(film still from Yahoo Movies)

layers

Today I am wearing:

• under garments (pink)
• two pairs of tights (brown, one patterned)
• two pairs of socks (one green, one dark red)
• one pair of jeans (blue, slightly holey)
• one pair of chucks (pink, once upon a time!)
• one mid-sleeve top (red)
• one thermal-style vest (purple)
• one mid-sleeve jumper (darker purple)
• one hand-knitted cardi (chartreuse)
• one big sloppy-joe cardi (black)
• one scarf (light olive/muddy chartreuse)

Did I mention that its cold in here?

(by the way, the actual colour combination works marginally better than the Paint equivalents above, I hope! Note to self: bring camera to the workshop. And buy PhotoShop for new pooter!)

A spring in my step

Yesterday was dark, grey, very wet and so cold here in London, though at least we were spared the storm-force winds that battered other parts of the country. Listening to the storm warning to shipping as I drifted in to sleep reminded me again of a hymn that we used to sing mindlessly in assembly 'For those in peril on the sea'. It often ran through my head when I lived in Whitstable, 200 yards from the coast, and tried to sleep with the wind and rain hammering my bedroom window almost, it seemed, to breaking point. Winter is a tough time for coastal dwellers, and harder still for mariners.

Today, though, is bright, crisp and fresh; and smells of Spring and new beginnings. I love the light in our kitchen on mornings like this - it makes me want to cook all day. Unfortunately that's not so good for productivity (or my waist line!) so I have de-camped to the workshop to get some work done. The temperature in here (an unheated factory in the east end converted into studio spaces) is a reminder that there is still a while to go until the warmer weather arrives... Thank goodness for layers and blowey-heaters!

I have a long list of art-fart things to do at the moment but I have been distracted by the super-speedy arrival of a batch of Anna-Maria Horner's Chocolate Lollipop fabric with which I am itching to upholster a favourite, very battered, chair that I bagged at a tat-shop in Whitstable a few years back. I've been waiting for just the right fabric to come along and I think this might be it, but I'm holding out a little longer as the sneak previews of her soon-to-be-launched Drawing Room collection look incredible!

I should probably mention at this point that I can't currently sew for toffee! I've been swept along on a blog-wave of beautiful needlecraft and I'm itching to have a go. Fortunately I have a wonderful friend who is a super-talented seamstress and has very kindly offered to show me the basics.

Aren't friends ace?