The latest Tilda is finished. 
She poses so prettily.
I have made the dungarees a number of times now and have found a way to avoid having a raw seam around the bib/waistband.
Author: Irish Bees Don't Do Mondays
A blog for me, about the things I like. After Effects, Procreate, Illustrator, Photoshop, Drawing, Painting, Paper Cutting, Sewing, Embroidering, up-cycling old furniture. Whatever grabs me in the moment/
Mind your bees wax
Lots of bees buzzing around a cotoneaster in the garden giving me good opportunities to get some photos of them.
Look at the veining on the wings. They look like cathedral windows. Love the fuzzy jacket. If you’re very gentle, you can stroke a bumble bee. I have. I use my little finger and stroke with the side rather than the finger tip and just stroke the fuzzy jumper area-keeping right away from that abdominal posterior… 🙂
The cotoneaster is covered with tiny blossoms so there were loads of flowers to pay a visit to.
Time for the off. Chocs away! Pretty much a vertical takeoff – they don’t have the sleek aeronautic physique of a Harrier jump jet but they’re efficient and manoeuvre with amazing agility. Harriet jump-jets 🙂
Remember the bag of wooly bits I ordered from Amazon for stuffing the rabbits and Tilda dolls? It arrived today.
It’s huge! Ignore the mess. I tidy up when I’m finished but leave everything out until I’m done.
Time to finish stuffing Tilda’s legs and body and get her done. Stuff to do! 🙂
Tilda
There! Finished Tilda and her dungarees. There is another to follow. She’s looking a bit like Frankenstein’s disjectamenta but she’ll be okay when she’s fully stuffed and stitched together. Her dungarees are nearly ready – just the straps to do so just boring bits left, really. Except for her face – have realised it’s easier to French Knot here eyes before I’ve stitched her hair on so hair will be the last job on the doll.
The weekend was glorious. The sun shone down and gave Ireland a heat wave. Flowers are bursting out all over the garden including these gorgeous red poppies.
I keep the birdbath topped up so the birds can have a bath. I love watching them enjoy the water. My neighbour has an old church font in her back garden which she keeps filled with fresh water for the birds to drink but is probably far too deep for a bath.
The sun is shining down again today – it’s wonderful. My second load of washing is nearly done and will be on the line shortly. Oh the smell of washing dried outdoors on a sunny day. I love sticking my nose into a pile of washing off the line and having a big deep lungful of the scent (except for the time I nearly sniffed a spider up my nose so now I have a look before I have a sniff). I can hear the final spin so will get a bit of a wiggle on and get the washing out and do some tidying up then I can please myself for the rest of the day. Have a lovely day yourself.
Create a Sunburst effect in Illustrator
Sunburst effects lend themselves to retro layouts among other things. They have that 60s psychedelic vibe. This video gives you the basics to create one. Play with the Stroke and Twirl settings to juice things up for your projects.
Create a Sunburst Effect in Photoshop
Creating a sunburst in Photoshop uses the Filter>Distort menu.
Buddleia Circle In Illustrator
Another colourful tutorial, this time from Free School Graphic Design.
I call it ‘Buddleia’ circle cos it looks like a circle of blooms from the butterfly tree to me. Change the fill from solids to gradients to change the look.
Bursting Sphere in Illustrator
Free School Graphic Design Tutorial
The sphere above is fairly quick to do – the tutorial uses 3D revolve and mapping art functions as well as the nifty Pathfinder.
When I set up my rows (then groups) of circles – the art to be mapped onto the surface of the sphere I did mine differently to the tutorial (link above).
I used the:
Ellipse tool to create a circle of 25pt. and the Transform Each (Object>Transform>Transform Each) to create a copy offset by 5pt horizontally (enter 30pt in the horizontal setting to allow for the circle and the space between) then Ctrl>D to duplicate to create a row.
Group the row of circles and go back to the Transform Each option. Change the horizontal value to 15pt and the vertical offset to 60pt.
Group them all together and duplicate the double rows till you have plenty to make the Symbol which is used as the artwork to map onto the sphere’s surface.
Tilda’s Tool Set
This week I have made three Tilda dolls.
I got me a set of hemostats – used in surgery to control bleeding by clamping veins and arteries. In the doll-stuffing world they grip the stuffing and the long nose lets you get into the tiny creases and crevices that need filling.
Spring flowers
Spring is here, at long last. I see birds carrying little bits for their nest building activities; twigs, fluff, scraps of fabric.
The garden is coming to life. A few weeks ago I dead-headed the large and numerous hydrangeas… that is such a chore but they pay me back when they come into bloom in a riot of cheer-leader pom-poms later in the summer. Before they burst onto the scene, lots of little things are poking their heads above ground and saying hello to the world.
Bluebells, daises and bright yellow poppies are popping up around the garden…
Who says there’s no such thing as a free lunch?!
Two of them chomping away on my pink-thingummy potted plants! I left them to it. I have a soft spot for snails.
Forget-me-Nots are everywhere! They make for bright blue splashes of colour and brighten things up beautifully. Things are coming along nicely.
There was time to bake some lemon cupcakes with lemon butter cream icing:
These were flavoured with real lemon (juice and zest). I give them a sprinkle of edible glitter. A bit of sparkle is fun any day of the week, as far as I am concerned.
Words
I still have a passion for collecting words. Kummerspeck is a German word which means grief bacon: it is the word that describes excess weight gained from emotion-related overeating.
Drachenfutter – literally translated as dragon fodder – are the peace offerings made by guilty husbands to their wives.
Then there’s ‘die beleidigte Leberwurst spielen’ – meaning to pout in a proper sulk and translated means to play the insulted liver sausage.
My favourite is Backpfeifengesicht – a face that just screams out for a slap or a fist in it.
Brilliant words.
A couple more, this time from the Cabinet of Linguistic Curiosities:
Twankle – to play idly on a musical instrument
Scurryfunge – to hastily tidy a house – like when you just get a call to say somebody’s just popping round
Panshite – a state of panic, confusion or uproar
Thrimble – to grudgingly repay a debt
Twarvlement – circuitous, long-winded speech
A bit hard to casually drop into a conversation but still useful to know. 🙂
Neon Sign Effect – Rainbow
Spring is here. The sun is shining – le soleil brille! I’m not long back from a 4-day stay in Paris where I attended a series of workshops. People-centric writing, Citizen Data Science, video scripting, review of processes and tools…. interesting.
The building I was in had 14 floors with magnificent views. I could see the Sacre Coeur and the Eiffel Tower a little way in the distance. I’ll post a few pictures taken on my phone when I get a chance.
But am glad to be home. Hello Dublin! I booked a couple of day’s holiday and go back to work on Tuesday and tomorrow night I’m off to the Bord Gais to see Tosca so very excited about that.
In the meantime, am washing the international germs out of my clothes and chilling out a bit.
Finally, I put together a quick neon-sign effect video for fun (based on a tutorial on SpoonBlogGraphics site).
Ta Ra a bit!
No More Mondays 