January in Pictures: Rainbows, Sketches, and a Seaside Sunset

One month of 2017 finished already! How did that happen??

My January was rather busy. I've been juggling DIY and deadlines, doing my best to fit everything into my days and working around all the mess and general chaos created by DIY projects. We've been getting a lot done, but there's still lots to do!

I've begun to settle into my new home, but I have to admit that I'm missing being able to easily pop into London for the day. I've been pining a little for the big museums and places like Liberty...

... but I've been loving being able to take daily walks along the beach and seafront, especially at sunset. Aren't those colours just heavenly?

Here on my blog I looked back at 2016, blogging about last year's crafty projects and Nice Days Out (including a very special trip to Bamburgh), as well as a wonderful walk I took with my dad.

I've also made a start on editing more Nice Day Out photos ready for future blog posts, including photos from the two highly enjoyable photowalks I went on last year. This is one of the photos I took at Chiswick Park station during the first photowalk - I can't stop noticing these kinds of details now!

For my New Year's Resolution, I resolved to read more books and joined the local library to help me do so. I'll be blogging about how I'm getting on sometime soon. Spoiler alert: not having a television or home broadband (because one's in a box and the other hasn't been connected yet) definitely helps you find more time to read!

I've also decided to try and do more sketching and to not be afraid to a) sketch in public and b) show you guys some of my sketches instead of just my finished designs. It feels a bit weird sharing my messy sketches, but I'm going to do it anyway.

This month (apart from secret sketches for things I can't show you yet) I sketched lots of spring flowers as inspiration for some new projects...

... and I did some sketching at the British Museum, too. It was lovely having a busy day in London at the end of the month but I also really enjoyed taking a bit of time out to find a quiet corner* of the Museum and focus on some sketches. The end result might not be perfect, but the process - my goodness, what an absolute pleasure it is to just take the time to draw things.

(*Well, I thought it was a quiet corner - I was in an almost-empty gallery to start with, then a tour of the gallery began and at one point the whole tour group were standing around the same cabinet I was sketching in front of! Eek! It was nice listening to the tour guide as I sketched, though, and I can only hope everyone was paying more attention to her words and the contents of the cabinet than to my scribblings!).

So much of January was dark and grey, I was craving bright colour. I started two new Instagram hashtags for colour lovers and got crafty with a rainbow of felt. I've also been cheering things up by using some of the novelty pencils I bought as a kid, including this fine fellow. All the serious business professionals are using troll pencils these days, dontcha know. 

That felt rainbow became a felt rainbow wreath tutorial, kickstarting the Year of Wreaths I'm designing for The Village Haberdashery. I also started a series of fruity tutorials here on my blog - I'll be posting a new one every week or so this month.

I can't wait to show you February's wreath! I delivered it by hand, since I was in London for the day. I managed to (coincidentally) time my visit for the opening day of The Village Haberdashery's new, much bigger shop. It's such a gorgeous, colourful space - I mean, just check out their yarn wall!

Blimey, that blog post was over almost as quickly as January was. Here's hoping February doesn't fly by quite so fast...

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