First came apple sauce muffins yum yum! And then…

My first fresh baguettes! What’s all this about? I hear you ask, well, my Mum gave me her Kenwood Chef recently and I’ve been so excited to try it out! Hubby keeps asking me when we are going to make our own bread, so this morning I decided to have a go. What a nice surprise that will be for him when he gets home tonight Providing it tastes as good as it looks lol

Yesterday I was also in the mood for making a start getting our home into shape. We have virtually the whole house to decorate and since last year was all about getting the back garden re-landscaped we didn’t have any time or resources for the rest of the house. Now we still have some landscaping left to do but since we had to stop over winter we’ve been working inside and Hubby has had loads of prep to do for the hall, landing and stairs. So we just have some plastering to do and I think we will then be ready to paint at last yay! We’ve chosen watercolour green, it’s going to look gorgeous with an off white for the wood work. Exciting stuff!

So I’ve been trawling through Flickr for more vintage inspired ideas for the other rooms of the house. I ordered some gorgeous floral fabric to make a little curtain for our cubby in the kitchen and am trying to think what else I can do with our currently very ugly windowsill. All I can do is jazz up what it’s like already with fabric and jars etc until we can makeover the whole room. I’m going to start making visiting our local thift shops a regular pastime to see what I can collect Fun! I need to make some sort of curtains or something to make the window pretty too. It’s a large window but very old and has a brown laminated windowsill. Perhaps I ought to take some pics next time to show you?

Anyway, I’d love to see any links to vintage style pictures, patterns, ideas etc you might have to inspire me. I love shabby chic vintage so keep an eye out for me won’t you

Back to painting now…

xxx

Today is another ‘Blue Sky’ day which always makes me happy but to make the day even better we now have hot water yay! Oh what a delight it is to be able to have hot baths again in my own house that is lol You don’t realise how much things like that mean to you until you haven’t got them!

Also on the ‘Blue Sky’ theme of the day, I’ve just updated my Etsy shop with five new prints from my new series. I’m currently selling my originals on ebay so if you missed out here’s your chance to buy a print of them, each come matted making them extra special.

If you have any requests for originals or other arty goodies you’d like to see in my etsy shop please leave me a comment or send me an email, I love hearing from you and please stop by my Facebook page, I’ll be having a giveaway on there later today so stop by and check it out!

xxx

The last couple of days it’s really felt like Spring! Beautiful clear blue sky’s and sunshine, it makes me so happy.

Hubby got back from work early today so we could go walking in the park and enjoy the sunshine. Ellie loves to pose for the camera lol.

All this sunshine is so inspiring, I’m sure there will be lot’s more ‘Blue Sky’ paintings to come. The one above is my latest called ‘Wild Flowers’ isn’t it pretty.

I adore flowers, remember me posting about these sweet peas I grew last year? Well I’m going to grow more this year, I just got a new packet of seeds yay I went for a different variety this year called ‘Big Tops’ funny name but they are meant to have a lot more colours in them so I’ll be soaking them tonight and sow tomorrow. I always find the growing process so exciting, seeing them come to life and bloom.

Do you grow anything for your garden? I’d love to hear all about it, leave me a comment.

‘Wild Flowers’ is now available on ebay.

xxx

I just figured out (after having my phone about 2yrs lol) that I can take really cool photos and put them on here and update twitter as I’m out and about! Inspired by the beautiful Marisa I decided to see what my phone could actually do.

The pics above were taken on my phone and I think came out really well, so from now on I’ll be able to take some pics while out and about and upload here to inspire you. Cool huh!

Also, I figured out I can set my alarm clock to play whatever I want to get me up in the mornings. I am NOT a morning person but would like to be and so my plan is to add a cool tune to  my phone and place it on our chest of drawers so that I actually HAVE to get up and turn it off. And surely if it is something I love to hear instead of a blaring ringing I will actually ENJOY getting up and start the day right.

Wish me success!

Hope you are having a great day, I’ll be adding another new painting to ebay today so look out for that.

BTW while I am nattering on…does anyone know how to stop your photos on ebay going blurry for the gallery pic? I can’t seem to get it right, when I sharpen them it only makes them more blurry when they are resized by ebay. When I upload as they are they are blurry too, any ideas please?

Off now to do some work for a change lol

xxx

Ahh remember what warm Spring Sunday afternoon’s feel like? I’m dreaming of them as I sit cold with no hot water and a cranky boiler waiting for a repair! Still I got the heating working so I’m warming up

I had some exciting ideas for new things I could work on next for the shop today, so watch this space for news on those.

‘Sunday Afternoon’ is now available on ebay.

Hope you are keeping warm, we’ve had more snow the last couple of days.

xxx

I’ve been working on this little cutie over the weekend ‘Love Me Always’. It’s the first in my ‘Sweet Heart’ series and I am so excited to be working on these adorable little lovebirds.

I’ve always loved everything cute and it just seems to come naturally that I paint in this way. I do love to experiment now and then with ‘grown up’ paintings but I always come back to ‘cute’. I guess that’s just ‘me’.

It’s fun getting to know yourself and what you love to do, it’s been a long journey to finally be free with my style and really listen to what it is I love. Now I’ve found my style I feel freer to express myself (sounds an odd thing to say) but it’s true. I feel like I can sit and draw without judging myself and let out what it really is I want to express. I guess that’s a good tip for all of us – when we allow ourselves to be truly ourselves and stop judging ourselves, it’s then that we can be free and our true expression comes out. Not only that but when we are truly being ourselves, then we feel happiness.

We all need to express ourselves and share how we see the world and how we would like others to see it too, in whatever form that comes in for you; art, ceramics, photography, gardening, baking etc etc.

So remember, we want to see your view, embrace it and be happy!

‘Love me Always’ is now available as an original on ebay and also as a print at Etsy.

When it comes down to it, all that really matters is Love!

Love never fails.

xxx

Don’t forget you can ‘Ask Me Anything’ (within reason ) it’s anon so ask anyway.

Love

xxx

February is here already! Today I woke up to a beautiful sunny, blue sky morning and for the first time in what feels like forever was able to hang my washing out on the line yay!

This New Year is already bringing new opportunities and changes (welcome ones) which is so exciting, I also wanted to refresh this blog and make it more interesting for you all. I am so grateful to you, my readers and would love to hear from you to find out what you enjoy reading about on my blog and how often you would like to hear from me.

I’ve created a ‘Ask me anything’ form so you can do just that, click the link to ask me a question: Ask Me Now

I will be giving my answers out on this blog and hopefully it will also give me a better idea of what you want to read about etc so we can make this much more fun!

So start sending me your questions and I’ll do my best to answer them in the coming days.

Have a blessed week,

xxx

Love is in the air! I am really enjoying this ‘Blue Sky’ series of paintings. This one looks way better in real life than I could capture in the photo. It’s so cheerful and pretty.

Hope you are having a wonderful day and if you need a little lift, I hope this painting brings you a smile

‘Love Song’ now available on ebay.

Blessings,

xxx

Art has always been part of my life one way or another. I’ve always wondered what impact art has on people and have always wondered how I could make a difference in the world to help people.

Today my desire to help others is bigger and stronger than ever and I’m thinking about how I can do that.

What ways has art impacted your life either in creating it, learning about it or buying it (from anyone)?

What ways do you think art could be used in a more productive way to help others in need emotionally or physically?

If you have a story to tell about how art has saved you in anyway I would love to hear about it, either here in the comments or via email: niki@thevintageartist.com

I know we can all make a difference in this world, touching peoples lives is the most wonderful gift you can give.

Looking forward to hearing from you…

xxx