for the love of butter

We all have vices. Anyone who says they don't is either telling porky-pies of epic proportions or else dangerously deluded.

I've kicked my smoking habit more times than I care to remember, and a month ago for the last time. I have pretty much substituted this filthy habit with an addiction for gallons of tea, which isn't so bad except I drink way too much coffee as it is and am so immune to caffeine I can fall asleep half an hour after a cup of the stuff at midnight (I honestly do just love the taste and smell of it). Dave is an excellent cook and I've been known to polish off an entire cheesecake, unaided, in a weekend. This is basically my sole reason for a gym membership and running habit. It's a dirty vicious cycle.

Most vices answer to a kind of need I think, and some of us (me) just have addictive personalities. But there are some that fly their own little freak flag; dorky vices, not really malignant but that raise their weird little heads in public situations (or, as the case may be, on a blog) to make us blush and raise the eyebrows of those who love us best.

So I'll just come out with it: I love butter. I smother the most disgusting amount of the stuff on anything more solid than butter. I eat butter with crumpets on the side. Plonk a bucket of it on a mountain of pumpkin mash and I'm yours. It's an absolutely necessary ingredient for shortbread, which is incidentally, the perfect accompaniment to my tenth daily cup of tea. It smells amazing when it gets warm and melty. When my metabolism slows down and I need the help of two fat blokes and a winch to get me out of my chair, it will be for the love of butter!

Lewis Carroll very famously used the irony of the word 'butterfly' to brilliant effect in 'Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There', creating insects made from slabs of buttered toast, who live on weak tea with cream. This sort of butterfly would be wonderful I think, but I'd have to snatch a fair few of them to slake my butter-thirst! I wanted my own to be bigger and nice and drippy; kind of like a flying breakfast.

'brown-bread-and-buttered-flies' is available now in my Etsy Shop for you to gaze on while you munch thoughtfully on your breakfast. And, unlike real butter, this picture is calorie-free.

Blessed be those who love butter!

Mel x

their hearts ran away with the circus

Meet Gabrielle and Rosalina, the star act at the Patchwork Circus!

At the precise moment I captured them here, Gabrielle and Rosalina have just performed their famous Glitter Jitterbug dance. Their little cheeks are flushed with happiness as they curtsey and are showered with roses, heart confetti and wild applause. Wherever the circus may go, everyone who sees it cannot help but fall in love with the sweet dancing sisters and their rosebud smiles.

It was a lot of fun as I drew them and got to know them to imagine how they live, and their hopes and dreams. They've been a part of the circus for as long as they can remember. Though they're orphans, they have hardly wanted for anything at all in their young lives: they love the circus and are utterly adored by their patchwork family. Gabrielle is about 15, and Rosalina 13. They looked much more alike when they were younger, and perhaps they don't share the same two parents, wherever they might be, but in each other's eyes and hearts they will always be sisters and the very best of friends.

They have always shared everything in life, including Gabrielle's Roberts Revival radio she got for her 8th birthday. When Rosalina reached double figures at the age of ten, her circus family presented her with a tiny little bundle of blue-grey fur with a heart-shaped splotch over one eye. Louie got his name later on that evening, when the famous Toots and the Maytals song, 'Louie Louie' came over the radio and the sisters discovered their new little kitten loved to dance! Every night he sleeps exactly between Gabrielle and Rosalina, at the foot of their huge feather bed, where they dream of singing and dancing and running away with the circus.



I'd love to hear your thoughts! And, if you love it, you can snap a print of 'A Patchwork Circus' for yourself for $50 on my Etsy Shop; just click on the link marked 'shop' at the top right of this post.

Have a wonderful day my little dancing liebchens,

Mel x



amy

Hullo poppets!

I've kept you in suspense for long enough, so finally, I'd like you to meet 'Amy':

As I mentioned a few weeks back in my post 'in progress this week', 'Amy' was a commissioned imagined-portrait piece for a lovely Darwin lady who just happens to be a vet. She has told me all sorts of stories in our discussion of this piece, about her 'dog whispering' days, taming a particularly aggressive German Shepherd and generally letting naughty puppies everywhere know who dishes out the dog biscuits.

But of all dogs, the Whisperer explained her particular affinity with chihuahuas. Hers especially have such distinct personalities; their particular genetic make-up makes them animated in a way that is both comic and human.

Of course, you'll know from recent posts I'm well aware of these ideas of the domesticated food-chain, and that I am not at the top of it in our house. No, I sit just below Willow who is determined to proclaim herself 'Top Cat' and merely tolerates me because I feed her and have proved myself such a faithful servant. This past week just gone, a well-timed swipe on Daisy's rear ankle earned our baby a day at the vets and us a $340 bill to pay!

When we're not banging our heads on hard surfaces bemoaning the fact that our biggest fur-kid can't accept our littlest, it is fascinating to watch the breadth of emotions that cross our kittens' faces as they go about their days. And I guess this is why we have pets, and most commonly cats and dogs: both are capable of the uglier human emotions like jealousy and anger, but so too are they capable of giving with their whole hearts when you most need it.

'Amy' is a lighthearted little portrait of the potential in harmonious relationships between pets and their humans. Because, at the end of the day, wouldn't it be wonderful to do away with cars and buses and just ride your faithful pooch to work? Amy did discover these benefits, quite by accident, when she found some ChiChi grow at the back of a cupboard. It did what it said on the box, and the rest is history!

Limited Edition, Fine Art reproduction prints of 'Amy' are now available in my Etsy Shop for everybody who wants to share in the fun.  

Have an awesome day wherever you are!

Mel x