I wish everyone a wonderful Easter – and safe travels for anyone that is going away (something I used to do at Easter all the time!)

BTW – I do not observe Easter – to read why check out a previous year’s description.

Morning sketch and walk on a stunning morning!!!

This sketch is an example of what to do when your initial line is SOOO wrong – do you live with the mistake or reinstate and live with the wrong line- see the high awning…

This morning was also the first trial of a strap I added to my pen holder – I pulled it out from the front pocket of my bag and tied it around my waist. Worked great!!!!. (This pen holder is just a prototype but I am getting ready to make a real one soon)

Thought I should then describe in my detail what my pen holder and idea is…..

So – here are two photos of my sketch kit idea…. this is only my hack version to test its functioning – although I have had this pen holder for nearly a year! you can see that the sewing is rough (too lazy to change the overlocker thread colour and I have threads hanging out everywhere from my experimental sewing the other day trying to work out my idea – I had to unpick a number of times)

The pen holder is two-layered to allow for smaller items and used pencils. In between the first layer and the second layer is a slot that I use to hold my ‘credit’ card (for scraping) and a small bit of sandpaper. There is also a pencil sharpening tucked in the front left pocket. The compartments are varied size widths- so can suit one or two or more pens/pencils. I put pencils face down so I can see the colour (hate the way Derwent not labels their pencils) My actual collection of pens/ brushes/ pencils is varying all the time …this is not a refined selection today. A few size adjustments to be made for my real one (the front row is not quite tall enough)

And my new idea is the strap to tie around my waist. I was very taken by the wonderful saddlebags of Isabell Seidel which are a great idea for big sketching days. But I want a smaller kit that I carry in the front pocket of my bag. SO… I have just sewn straps onto my pen holder and then put a false back to tuck in the straps… this is the weak part of the concept at the moment- how to do it nicely!??? I want the straps to be out of the way in normal operation but easily able to go around my waits…. thinking about a clip and an elastic strap…

Bits and pieces (yes, typical Easter food) after a big family day. I haven’t eaten any of them yet although my wee niece attacked the left ear of the Easter bunny! Only one bilby this year (this is the closest thing we have in Australia to a native rabbit!) The strip of paper is because I made a bit of a mess of my first bilby attempt… I don’t rip pages out of my book, but sometimes redo a sketch so that I learn from my experience (the first bilby was rather cross-eyed and it bugged me!!!)