Sand dunes, rolling hills, seaside and tapas!

I know, it's been ages since I was last here!  I've been so busy travelling and not had a minute to update the blog!

So, without further ado  - here's a quick update of what I've been up to:

First, a few lovely days in sunny, sandy Dubai catching up with my lovely daughter Louisa and her husband Matt.

Then it was on to UK where the weather was really cold and wet,  but I so enjoyed the lovely rolling countryside, charming little towns and villages, spring flowers and bracing sea air!   I had an exciting week house hunting in Devon and Cornwall, but more on that another time!

Next, I flew via Dubai again back to Malaysia with  just enough time to repack my bags and head off for a gorgeous week by the sea in  Bali!  I have lots of photos of arts and crafts that I hope to share with you later!

On our return to Malaysia our other lovely daughter Julie came to stay for a week  - we enjoyed some good meals out including tapas at Pinchos our favourite bar - yum!  On a less happy note we helped Bob, our one-eyed kitty, pack his toys in preparation for his move to his  new home this week:(

We will be moving from KL soon.  We were all very sad to see him leave :( but he has gone to a loving family so I am sure he is good hands.  

Now I have the weekend to regroup before our brother in law Rein and niece Saskia come to stay from Holland! It may be a while before I am able to blog again!

Bird and cats at Hillview

 I managed to get my camera out just in time to snap this Kingfisher through the car window this week!  Not a terrific shot,  but good enough to see those beautiful blue feathers and extra long beak!

It's been while since I took photos of  my cats.  So without further ado ....

Tia likes to sit beside me on the printer.   Here she is objecting to my choice of music this afternoon - Phil Collins 

 

 Boooorrrring!

before long though she was fast asleep...

and a little later I asked her if I could use the printer  ........  I didn't ask again!  I know when to leave well alone!

Bob, on the other hand, shares his possessions!  He enjoys a game of football with us.  This is his  favourite frog (it's a dog toy, but don't tell him!).

One-eyed Bob is very relaxed and enjoys Phil Collins ..

and chillin on the kitchen floor right beside my feet!

Have a lovely relaxing weekend!

Cards

 These are a couple of the pieces I've been working on recently.  Two collages of cats sitting on paper quilts.  I printed the design onto cards.

 

These are some of the other cards I made to sell at a Xmas Bazaar.  I've been too busy to upload these to Etsy and it's a bit late for Xmas now, but I'll put the non Christmassy ones in the shop soon.

 

I've been updating my children's name pictures too - more about these in another post!

 

Illustration Friday

'Duet'

Watercolour paint and pencils with gouache ©Caroline Soer 2011

It's been several weeks since I took part in Illustration Friday. :( Here's a last minute offering for Illustration Friday's 'Duet' which I started happily enough in watercolour, but it wasn't long before I'd made a bit of a hash of it (must be out of practice), so rescued it with my trusty watercolour pencils and gouache!

In Flight x 2, new project and GIVEAWAY!

In Flight #1

The Brooklyn Sketchbook Project has taken up every hour of the day for the past couple of weeks!! Anyway, I'm pleased to report that my 'In Flight' themed sketchbook is finally finished and in flight winging its way to the States as I type! I'm so pleased that I made the effort (I'd only done 4 pages by the start of the new year!) as I really enjoyed the total art immersion whilst I created all the pages! To view them you can click on the image above or use the tab below my header.



You may also notice that below my header I've added another new tab for a page that will lead you to my other project - a new blog called Caroline's Stitched Textiles - not a terrifically original name, I know, but I'm just hopeless at finding catchy names and this was the best I could do at short notice! I've been anxious to set this blog up to document my work on a City and Guilds Embroidery course which I'm studying by distance learning. I actually started this a while back and completed Module I already when I lived in Hong Kong! However, I've been really slow about starting it up again since I moved to KL, but it's full steam ahead now and if you're interested in checking out what I get up to there please do hop over and take a look! Again, you click on the image above get there, or use the new tab below my header.

In Flight # 2

Bob out on a limb!

Now on to Bob, our one-eyed cat. As you can see from the photo he seems to think he is a bird. Silly moggy got himself stuck up that tree last week after being chased by a couple of dogs!

Click to enlarge to get a better view

This photo gives you some idea of how high up he'd managed to climb. One of next door's gardeners shinned up the tree to try to help him, but his efforts only served to make Bob climb even higher and yowl even louder! More attempts to catch him in a swimming pool net had the same effect! In the end he made it down to the ground on that branch, which was eventually sawn off. Fortunately, he was none the worse for his adventure, but I think it'll be a while before he ventures through an open gate again!

Of course, HRH Tia had no sympathy for Bob!

Finally, just a little advance notice of a GIVEWAY on my blog! It's been absolutely ages since I've had one here and I'm feeling in a celebratory mood with the completion of my latest projects, so I'll find something nice for you and be back soon with more information. See you soon!

Gifts in the post

Bird Lady ©Cathy Connolley

I've had some lovely things dropping in my mailbox lately !

Cathy of One Pink Goose recently had a giveaway and I was a very lucky winner of her print of 'Bird Lady'! Thanks so much Cathy - she's lovely! I've been reading Cathy's blog for a while now and look forward to her posts where she shares her own and other artists' work each week. If you haven't already visited her, do pop over to her blog and visit her website which is a treat too - I love Cathy's stylised black and white drawings .

cards by Laurel Gaylord

I've been pampered by the wonderfully caring Laurel of Studio Lolo! She sent me lots of goodies - Poppy napkins -because she knows how much I love those flowers - and a set of her beautiful cards - my favourite is the Magpie! Multi-talented Laurel has these available in her shop here!

Many of you will have met Yoon See of Greener Pastures in Malaysia - she's such a thoughtful person! She very kindly sent me a package of goodies of prints of her colourful art work and two cute little kitties she made herself, to cheer me up after my recent operation. Thank you very much Yoon See - the kitties and you are very sweet!

♥Thank you very much Ladies ♥

Positive /negative

'Keep your face to sun and you'll never see the shadows' - Helen Keller

Thankyou to everyone who has left me a comment on my previous 'Missing' post - I really appreciated hearing from you all and I'm well on the road to recovery now - must be all those positive healing thoughts beamed my way!


The painting above is a watercolour on gessoed board that I made a couple of weeks ago. I painted this building layers with negative painting. Negative painting is a process of finding shapes by painting the surrounding area. I like the quotation by Helen Keller - it helps me stay positive.



Beautiful Charlie - sadly still at large - that's negative. However, I like to think he's found himself some new family or perhaps a vast supply of juicy mice somewhere. I'm thinking positive !



Poor disgruntled Bob - definitely feeling negative! His eye hasn't completely healed after his operation. One more stitch left, so hopefully it won't be long now before he's back to normal. He's thoroughly fed up with his plastic plant pot on his head and driving us mad with his constant yowling. He needs to get outside - that'll be a positive improvement for everybody concerned!





Talking of outside - there was a terrific storm last Friday afternoon. These are a couple of photos I took from the sitting room looking out onto the garden. The heavens opened and in just a few quick minutes so much rain fell that the storm drains couldn't cope, the swimming pool almost overflowed and the water rose several inches, threatening to come into the house. Anxious moments!! Thankfully, the storm abated before the flood advanced further - we kept our feet dry but could have used an umbrella inside as the rain sneaked in after all via the roof - I wasn't best pleased to find the sofa receiving a dousing!

On the positive side we wouldn't have such a fabulous garden without the rain!

Missing

MISSING

Where, oh where is Charlie? Charlie has gone walkabout and hasn't been home since last Friday afternoon - we're very worried and have been mailing 'Missing Moggy' fliers in the neighbourhood - please send him home if you see him. Thank you.



This is Bob. He's missing Charlie! He's also missing one eye, but very handsome on his good side, don't you agree? We don't know how he lost the eye, as we adopted him from the local vet like this. As the empty socket tends to get infected frequently, it's been decided that it must now be sewn up, so he's going for surgery today. Poor Bob!

And this is Tia, who isn't missing Charlie and certainly won't be missing Bob, who bullies her. She misses her perch on this lovely old Mango tree in the garden - sadly it had to be cut down last year :(


Here's a centipede I spotted in the garden last week. I'm still wondering how I was brave enough to get close enough to photograph it! If you can bear to look, you might notice that it's missing something ..... it's headless!


Here's a watercolour painting of orchids I was working on a while back. It's missing quite a lot of detail at this stage. Actually, it ended up in the bin as it was a complete disaster! Ah well, you win some, you lose some!

And finally, I'm going to be missing all of you, my blogging friends, as I have to take time out next week for a little surgery. I'll be back as soon as I can!

New Kits on the block

Bob

Charlie

I've been wanting to show you my new kitties for a while now, so without further ado, please meet Charlie and Bob. Both were adopted from the local vet - we only went for one, but couldn't leave the other behind all alone... Poor Bob, he only has one eye and we think he may have been treated badly in the past as he is taking his time trusting us. Despite the lack of an eye he really is a quite a handsome furry fellow with bent and fluffy tail - he is greedy too and polishes off every scrap, including Charlie's rations! Charlie is much leaner (no wonder!) and is also very handsome - he's a ginger panther! He is very loving and relishes a comfy lap!

HRH Tia, ( ' Oh, Black and White One') is not amused by their arrival on the scene and till recently has been avoiding them as much as possible, taking her meals alone, by room service in the spare bedroom!

Bob is intrigued by Tia, follows her around the garden and dearly wants to be friends!

Tia, on the other hand has no time for young whippersnappers and sticks her tongue out!

Well, raspberries to you too then!

And back! I win!