CPSH May

Still posting from my phone, which is still very fiddly. So this will be short and sweet!

Emma at The Gift Shed picked this month's topics, so pop and see her for a round-up.

Inspiration: Properly bike-friendly cities.



Graffiti in Seattle



Urban: Seattle again.



Something I Made: Raccoon sketches



Transport: aeroplane!

Sunday Sketchblog #15

Whilst I'm off enjoying myself, this Sunday's sketchblog is just going to be some more of my self-portraits. I haven't been managing one a day, but a couple a week has been achievable.

Week Word: Boundaries

I'm attempting to embrace technology and post this from my phone, so apologies if it looks odd...


Kirst at Camera Kiki chose this week's word, so be sure to visit her to see what other people have done with it.


Just a photo from me, and one that makes me glad we're not driving in this city!

Yes, but do you have a flag?

If there's one thing we seem to be good at in London at the moment, it's flags...

Bond Street, with added flags.

I'm afraid it's going to be rather quiet around here for a few weeks as we're off on a transatlantic adventure! I've scheduled a few posts, and we're not going off any beaten tracks so I might manage the odd update in transit, but apologies if this turns into a travel blog for a little while...

Sunday Sketchblog #14

This is, obviously, a sketchbook page from when I was thinking about last week's Week Word. I decided it looked a bit too much like it belonged in an 80s hairdressers, but I do quite like the black and white.

Oh, look! #8

Things that have brightened my week...

Spring flowers in the rain. Using my vintage tea set. 

Making buns! The swing outside CSM.

Benedict Cumberbatch must have heard a lot of interesting versions of his name, but I think this might be the best...

I might complain (a lot) about how hard it is to find decent cycling gear for women, but this round up of cycling through the ages made me count my blessings. At least I don't have to ride in a corset and boots!

Week Word: Forgotten

I chose this week's word, after forgetting for a while...


My forgotten thing is a bear. Despite being quite grown up, whilst I lived on my own I always slept with a bear. Admittedly he'd usually end up on the floor by morning, but he was always somewhere around the bed.


Now I live with a man, and the man says there is no room in the bed for the bear. I suspect he has a point. So the bear lives on a chair and gets covered in socks and bags.

I was going to work this up into something a bit more polished, but time is not on my side so I've decided to embrace the sketchy.


Go and see what other people have forgotten this week...


Emily at Ready for Adventure
Heather at Free Spirit
Kirst at CameraKiki
Emma at The Gift Shed

And a late one... Peggy!


And I hope she doesn't mind, but I'm going to tag our newest Week Worder, Kirst, to pick next week's word! Pop over to her blog to see what she chooses.

Sometimes...

I mentioned our sometimes it's good to lie project a while back in a Sunday Sketchblog, and here's my finished image. 

I love how far it's developed from the original sketches! I'm also pleased with how the ink work has turned out as it's a new medium for me and I've found it quite fiddly.

This week's word!

I just popped over to the Week Word site to check what the word is for this week, and remembered I'm supposed to be picking it! These are the perils of being away from your computer for a weekend... everything gets forgotten.


So that's what I'm going to go with... 'forgotten'.


Everyone's welcome to take part, just leave a comment on this post or drop me an email to let me know you're playing and then post something on Friday inspired by 'forgotten'. 

This weekend...

Clearly my crossed fingers worked, as we did indeed have beautiful weather at a beautiful wedding in Dorset.

Corfe Castle

All dressed up!

Swanage Beach

Everyone goes to the beach on a sunny weekend...

Obligatory ice cream

Of course, it's raining today so this all seems very far away now. Thankfully I still have a sunburnt nose and the lingering remnants of a hangover to remind me...

Sunday Sketchblog #13

This is from our Calais trip. I must admit, I don't like travelling by ferry very much: too many people, not enough seats, strangely recycled air (despite being at sea and surrounded by windows) and an oddly pervasive smell of chips.


So, to survive it, I plugged in my earphones and drew the 'view'.

Pop and see if Emma's got a sketch for us this week.

Oh, look! #7

Things that have amused me, pleased me or caught my eyes this week...

Getting my bike stuck on the door handle for ages. Coffee. Lots of coffee.

Watching London put its posh frock on before the Jubilympics.

(Instagram: Timballoo)

Sasha Prood's beautiful water colours and illustrations are awesome - both in that they're amazing and that they fill me with awe. (via designismine)

This xkcd cartoon is perfect. Telling people amazing things is definitely more fun than laughing at them for not knowing stuff!

Ever wondered (or tried to remember) how we ever managed to meet up with people in the days before mobile phones. Here's the answer...

Happy Saturday everyone. We're off to a wedding so I've got my fingers crossed for nice weather down in Dorset!

Week Word: Glimpse

Heather chose our word, glimpse, this week. 


A glimpse seems to me to be about seeing something quickly, something you might not have been expecting, and something that might be a bit ambiguous.


Rather than drawing the thing that's been spotted, I tried to catch that moment when you glimpse something and instinctively move to try and see it better... to see if that really is a murderer behind the door, or just a lurking dressing gown. 

Anyone got any favourite mistaken glimpses? Two of mine: Nick spotting a spaceman having a fit at a party which turned out to be some balloons , and a friend who once was sure she saw a dead unicorn on the side of the motorway. Actually some sand bags...


Go and visit Heather to see what other people have been glimpsing this week.

My (Undead) Sister

This isn't what I did last night at art class, this is what I did yesterday to cheer up my sister. 


You might think that painting her as the undead wouldn't be very cheering, but then you haven't met my sister. She went to a fancy dress party looking like this, and I suspect she'd do it all the time if she had the chance (and didn't work in a bank...)

Calloo Calais

What are bank holiday weekends for if not day trips? So we took one to Calais, ostensibly to buy wine to try for the wedding. 

Admittedly, the wedding's not for a year and we're unlikely to remember which wines we liked after trying many of them, but who really needs an excuse to buy wine and drive about in the rain?

Early starts require coffee...

Especially early starts in the rain...

A gloomy view of Dover Castle.

Breakfast, waiting for the ferry.

Pretty French building.

And another one.

And finally some wine!

Sunday Sketchblog #12

I've set myself a new challenge. 


You know those people who take a picture a day for a year, or who post what they're wearing every day? I'm going to try my own version... a sketch of myself each day.


Not sure how long for... the little Moleskin notebook I have has sixty pages so hopefully I'll fill it. Oh, and only weekdays, unless I'm feeling very creative. I need no-plan days!


Here are some of the last week or so.

Oh, look! #6

Things I've liked this week...

Burlesque at a hen-do. A city that never sleeps.

Quilts and prints in an Oasis window. The Barbican!

(If you want to follow me on Instagram I'm timballoo.)

Montezuma's Monkey Bars. Inspired by London, with beautiful packaging and cockney rhyming slang names, these are already pretty amazing... and then you realise that they're 500g each. EACH!

I came across Ekaterina Koroleva's water colours via Pinterest. Beautiful and inspiring.

After an article in The Guardian suggested we should all stop shaving our bodies (well, the ladies anyway; I'm not sure of her position on gentlemen who shave anything other than their faces), this response on the f word seems pretty sensible.

Week Word: Sloth

This week's Week Word is 'sloth', chosen by Peggy. 

First, I have to point you in the direction of this baby sloth video on You Tube. Fantastically cute, and amuses me even more as Nick had never heard of a onesie before seeing it and it's now one his favourite words...

Otherwise, I'm afraid my creativity has abandoned me a bit this week so my contribution isn't really clever or insightful. Just slothy.

I'm a bit in love with that little chap though. Look at his lazy face!

Bits of the Barbican

Yesterday's art class involved a field trip to the Barbican. Rather than sitting and drawing the whole thing (or as much of it as we could see) we had to do lots of quick drawings, focusing on interesting details and how people were using the building.

I'm quite surprised to discover that I seem to prefer drawing with a pen over a pencil at the moment. I was quite terrified of it to start with - you can't rub anything out - but I seem to end up with sketches I like a lot more.