Handcrafted life on Oregon farm & workshop

Carpenter, house builder, farmer, kayak maker...Haha, there's no way i could do any of this, even if i lived 10 lifetimes... but i like to see people who can. It will rub off on me, please rub off me!

Lower Dens

...and their album Nootropics, also getting a lot of play right now. It's going really well with the Girls Names album, steady rotation.

Just Amazing

I've got to share this Bob Dylan music video it is just AMAZING!!! Click the link, it won't disappoint. You can physically change the channels as it plays, each channel/TV genre plays out the whole video in full. 15, i think, different full length videos that you can flick between. Even a Classic Music channel of Bob performing it. Clever, smart and a great use of technology. How many times will you watch it?

My Mate Mark, A New Blogger

from left: My friend and neighbour Steve, Blogger Mark and me
at the Smugglers, family festival in the summer
... i was in need of a trim at the time! ...still am!

Thought I'd take a moment to introduce anyone interested to my friend (the one in the middle) Mark's new blog, His Own Two Feet. It will be worth a follow as Mark has far more interesting things to discuss than i do here! Mark's a gardener and knows his stuff, but now wants to take his permaculture interests further. He'll be working on his whole garden plot and blogging about that and many other cool things as he becomes more self-reliant. I'm sure you'll soon start to feel his character coming off the screen and i think we'll all pick up some useful tips and knowledge. Welcome Marky!

Girls Names

I'm listening to this fantastic album a lot lately, walking to work, drawing, cooking. I's not the only one working it's magic, i'll share that later. Now go get yourself a copy of Girls Names- The New Life.

Book Project Sketches

Just cracking on with the workload. Sketches all approved for the third book in the Nick & Tesla series, so now i'm in the thick of artworking them all up in their blue tones. Couple left to ink up first.

Houses, Maintenance and Pain

Apart from just being bombed with work and all the drawing that involves, i've also recently been juggling getting this house of ours patched up (and doing tax returns and dealing with a problem car, all the things i hate in life basically!). Anyway, we couldn't put off getting the roof fixed for another winter, so there it is, scaffolding and lots of it, front and back. It feels like it's been up for ever! The builder got it put up, had a look at the problems and then said he'd be back in 3 weeks to do the work!! and it was still sunny and warm then... it wasn't when he returned! The rain has set in and work slows down... and i spend my days thinking of all that water finding it's way into new parts of our house! In the picture you can see my mate Steve (not the builder!), he's been repairing and painting the original sash windows... and now he's painting the brickwork.

The roof is getting there, i'm just hoping for a few dry days! The list just keeps growing though once you start these things. The little garden wall at the front will probably need rebuilding, the front door needs replacing and then there's still the back of the house to do. The house was looking a bit tired when we bought it, but 7 years later and everything is starting to bug me... everything. I tell you, it's no wonder I've become so interested in the tiny homes movement! A few years in a big house and you start to see the problems (in our case it's mainly having too many rooms to fill with junk!!). Just think if you could tidy your whole house in a morning, or just get on some step ladders to fix the roof. We stayed in a caravan the other weekend and it was only a couple of days, but size wise it kind of made sense... as long as i had a big workshop on the same land! We'd probably all kill each other within a matter of weeks (days?) though!  Anyway, I'm not going anywhere for a while, got to knock this building back in to shape and enjoy it for a few more years. It's a lovely, handsome old house. It will have a new coat of colour soon (well, it's now already half painted), you might just be able to make out the colour tests. I'll show the 'after' pics once it's finished... if it ever stops raining!

It's a big old load of scaffolding!

"Hastings On Fire" - Hastings Bonfire 2013

Another of the crazy events that goes on in this great town of Hastings (and St Leonards!). They could all smile a bit more though!

Family Tree Lampshade

I started this way, way back... and i need to get it finished! I really enjoyed just working my way around it. I do like to work freely with lettering like this. I've mainly got Jakki's side to fill up, i'm waiting for the info. Have to figure out how far i take it once it's done. It might go on a tall standard lamp... and i'm thinking it might be nice to incorporate family objects onto the stand, tie objects on, hang little pictures etc, kids baby shoes tied or nailed on.... Or it might go on this lamp base i made, if i ever get it glazed and fired... and it survives, it has a family message on the back. Anyway, I'll see once i get this shade finished. I want to get hold of some more of these old and yellowed paper shades. I've been pretty slack on this blog lately, far too busy drawing, drawing and more drawing but i miss getting things together and out  there to share. It's a tough one to balance. This will have to fill a gap. Oh, the red chair it's on is part of a hairdressers dryer bank that we rescued from a closing down salon, minus the dryers. There's a row of 4 that live in the lounge, with ashtrays in the arm rests.

bit of detail, i should have put my bank account and PIN number on it too!

going back a few generations, i knew Charles briefly.