Author: Dartmoor Yarns

Watercolour Birds

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Watercolour12 Comments

Another quick post to show you my latest painting created by following one of Louise de Masi’s tutorials. It was beginner tutorial for painting a chickadee.

 

I had a bit of a fight with the rock/piece of wood it’s sitting on, because my grey completely separated out into blue and burnt sienna when I painted it.

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But in the end I think it worked out okay.

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Living in the UK, I have no real idea about or interest in chickadees – of course one of the pitfalls of following a tutor who lives on the other side of the world is that they’re more likely to paint animals you’re unfamiliar with. Feeling no real connection to my chickadee painting, I decided to apply the techniques from the chickadee tutorial to a bird I do love; a blue tit…

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Quite pleased with my efforts, although definitely not happy about the breast, but I know what I should have done, rather than what I did do.

Until next time,

Bekki x

Sunday Sevens 2020 #21

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Sunday Sevens14 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Sevens; a post where I share seven or so photos from my week.

Last Sunday Lovely Husband put the glass in the greenhouse and the tomato plants finally had a nice snug home…

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This week I also ‘homed’ the strawberry runners in pots…

The weather has been pretty wet, but we’ve had a couple of lovely sunny days too and all the rain has filled the forest with lush greens that look gorgeous in the sunlight…

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The fox gloves are also out in force…

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You may have previously spotted that I’m no domestic goddess – so I doubt you’ll be surprised to hear that when the vacuum lost suction and I couldn’t find anything stuck in it, I realised it was because I hadn’t cleaned the filters for over 8 years. This is one of them soaking in the sink. They should be cleaned every 3 months!

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Something else that needed doing after 3 months was to filter the damson gin that I set off infusing in March, but I had no problem remembering to do that…

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And finally; Anyone for a quick game of Where’s Harry?

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Hope you’ve had a great week.

Until next time,

Bekki x

Scrap Happy June 2020 – Soap Dish

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Scrap Happy18 Comments

Most of my soap dishes are two part affairs which allow the water to drain off the soap into a space below, rather than the soap ending up sitting in a pool of water as it does in a simple dish. The soap in the utility however used to sit in a dish – probably because it doesn’t get used very often. However, I’ve been doing a lot more gardening and washing my hands in the utility sink afterwards. I therefore decided I needed another self draining soap dish, but where would I find one in lock down?

I looked around for items to make one from and happened upon two scraps of recycling; one of the trays that Harry’s wet food comes in…

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and a tray that blueberries had come in with small holes in the bottom. This tray fitted perfectly inside the other…

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Not only does it drain beautifully, I can also tidy the nail brush and the lose plug into it…

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I just wish I had more ideas for all the other bits of plastic packaging things are sold in.

And now I’ve written all that, I’m wondering if this is using scraps or just plain recycling. But I’ve written it now, so am posting.

If you like the idea of using your scraps, click on Kate or Gun (first two names in the list  below) and join us on the 15th of every month – or just those months you feel like joining in.  Here’s a list of both frequent and occasional Scraphappiers (?) if you want to see what everybody else is doing.

Kate, Gun, Titti, Heléne, Eva, Sue, Lynn, Lynda,
Birthe, Turid, Susan, Cathy,  Tracy, Jill, Claire, Jan,
Moira, Sandra, Linda, Chris, Nancy, Alys, Kerry, Claire, Jean,
Joanne, Jon, Hayley, Dawn, Gwen, Connie, Bekki, Pauline,
Sue L, Sunny, Kjerstin and Vera

Until next time,

 

Sunday Sevens 2020 #20

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Sunday Sevens8 Comments

Welcome to my Sunday Sevens; a post where I share seven or so photos from my week.

Although the week started off bright and cheerful…

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… the rain clouds quickly gathered…

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Can you spot Harry?

… and we had a month’s rain arrive in 24 hours…

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Even I can’t see Harry in this one.

Time to make some nice warming soup…

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Spinach and Mung Bean Soup

… and start lighting the fire again…

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My tomato plants are still waiting for the greenhouse to be put up, meantime I put the 15 extra ones out for people to take…

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I forgot to take a picture until they were all gone.

Lovely husband did however start putting the greenhouse up…

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Hopefully the glass is going in today.

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Hope you’ve had a great week.

Until next time,

Bekki x…

 

t didn’t take long for a

Watercolour Daisy

On By Dartmoor YarnsIn Watercolour5 Comments

I told you in my last post that I’m now subscribing to Louise de Masi’s Patreon channel. Unsure what to start with first, I decided to work through the beginner tutorials from the earliest one she posted. This tutorial was for a white daisy that was actually intermediate/beginner.

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Not too shabby, but I confess I kept following her painting rather than using the reference photo and there’s definitely room for improvement. Still, onwards and upwards!

Until next time,

Bekki x