Showing posts with label appreciation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label appreciation. Show all posts

Saturday, 4 July 2015

a heads up


yesterday when I was driving thru town with my mama after having a tasty bite to eat at Topkapis (our fav place for chips, garlic pizza bread and Turkish Lemonade in Edinburgh) we saw a wonderful sight!

the Kelpie maquettes are in Shandwick Place!  oh wow!!!


I immediately parked my car and kindly asked my mama to take some snaps with her phone, which she very obligingly did!
I still don't have an iPhone (yet!), but hopefully I will get my act in gear and get one!

Here is one of the kelpies wearing a church crown :) Nice how it turned out I reckon. You can just see Edinburgh castle in the background.


This is them both together. They are only a few metres high. Impressive!


Just over a year ago I saw an article about the huge ones which live in Falkirk and made it my intention to go visit them. Which I did earlier this year with my papa.
Beautiful art makes my heart beat faster! And in every city I have visited and lived in I have my favourite buildings or statues.
They are truly out of this world - well, nearly! considering that they reach the clouds!


Here's the real ones! Huge eh?

And the first time I saw those wee maquettes was a fair few years ago at Edinburgh airport. I was driving in to pick up my papa, and oh my god! there at the main entrance was these two incredibly beautiful horses! I nearly didn't make it round the round-a-bout, my eyes were transfixed on them, such is their beauty.

So I was delighted for sure yesterday when I saw them again, back in Edinburgh! They had been having a sojourn in Chicago I do believe?

I am sure it won't take long for the horses to be graced by the usual traffic cone, or two. There's nearly a full moon tonight and the town is packed!


Besides, Glasgow set the standard for horses wearing cones and the Duke of Wellington and Copenhagen (which he rode at Waterloo) are always adorned! Bless them :)



It's always a pleasure to drive in to Edinburgh airport because I get to see my favourite fighter plane - the Spitfire!

This is the Spitfire Memorial of the RAF 603 Squadron and during the war was a RAF base. 

Isn't it just incredible that men, brave men, flew these beautiful machines in WWII. 
That pic above is copyright Simon Johnstone and there is a nice write up about the plane too.

And interesting to know that this Spitfire is being cared by Merlin ERD whose Managing Director also flies them, and the Chief Operating Officer of Edinburgh Airport was a member of the Paras!

Nothing better than putting your heart into what you do and where you work!



and here's a heads up - some of these wee hares, up there on cloud 9 at the moment, will be going down into my etsy shop sometime 


sometimes things take a while for me to get round to them
but there's no rush



I just take every day as it comes and appreciate all I have. I'm happy to have my feet on the ground and my head in the clouds :)

So happy to know these horses are here! Will be nice if they come to live permanently in Edinburgh. Here's that beautiful one again, this time with a nice looking warrior-style nose-guard! ha ha


thank you xxx

Saturday, 10 May 2014

..not a creature was stirring, not even a, er tank...


usually I prefer to paint during the day with the natural light,
but being a night owl, I don't usually turn in until after 4ish, and I can just as easily be found daubing the canvas in the wee hours


this tank isn't making too much noise

even though it is travelling at speed in this painting (yeah, really - got lil bits of dirt being flung up in front of the tracks...)
it's nearly finished
sometimes it's best not to 'overpaint' a painting

recognize it? 
it's an M1 Abrams MBT, the Australian Army's main battle tank
so LOVE my military hardware big time!! love love love!!



surrounded by a litter of leverets....

uh-oh! they're all awake! that tank's not so quiet after all then

these pics are all aceo size - 2.5 x 3.5 inches
sorta tiny eh?
cute 'n' tiny


talkin' 'bout cute 'n' tiny - here's some REAL cute 'n' tiny -


totally adorable eh?

my dreams of Wesley are still continuing :)
I have his photo next to me and he looks 'so real' every time I look at him
I can smell him, and feel his fur, he looks ready to hop out and into my lap *sigh*


the hares I am painting are coming along

...at their own pace - as my paintings do

this one has dark rich brown lowlights now, and detail on the ears
- not ready to hop off the page yet



no fur in yet, nor whiskers
I'm still getting the 'feel' of the hare

watercolour dictates it's pace to me
not the other way around

anyway - leverets of another type have been born and have now left the nest



I made these 6 little chaps as a donation for Nowzad Dogs - the charity that helps stray dogs and the soldiers who adopt them, 

and I support them with every sale of a Drive Safe baby Army Hare

and this half a dozen will raise £90 for them
nice eh?

if you are a serving soldier in the coalition forces (British / America / Australian..) with a set of old cams and would love a free hare, plus 2 free hares going straight to Nowzad for fundraising then get in touch with me - my contact details are on that link above
(for EVERY set of Army cams sent to me I make 3 free hares as a thank you - 1 for the soldier and 2 for Nowzad - this is my way of showing my appreciation)



which one will look great in your wheels?

these wee hares are expert back seat drivers, and so willing to adorn your rear-view mirror



each hare is an original, and perfectly 'imperfect'

these ones are made from German Flecktarn cams and it was rather tough to turn out, so I made the ears 'open'
and why not? they look pretty neat I reckon

and like all those stray dogs in Afghanistan, and the soldiers on deployment there, they all have their 'scars' 
~ whether visible or not ~



so if you want to give one of these 6 hares a home, then just get in touch with Nowzad
£15 each and all money goes to the dogs....



....doggies like Anjali and her new litter 

she was rescued by German soldiers, 
so it's pretty good that I've got those hares made in flecktarn 

isn't she such a beautiful lady! soft and gentle and loving, and look at those tiny little puppies
omg! so adorable!


here's a close up of those imperfect ears

blue-eyed beauty...


purdy lil hare...


and one with fully sewn ears but still a bit tatty and with some fawn coloured bits like Anjali
always good to be so individual eh?


because nothing is perfect in this world 


anyway  *yaaaaaawwnn*

times' gettin' on


uh-oh!

someone is out for the count already!

and if the fur-ball at the front is not careful he will be tumbling out of bed and straight into the foody bowl :)

(I reckon he might be dreaming of rabbits eh?)


so here's a little something relaxing 
to listen to
with your bedtime cup of tea




50s pretty cool 
likin' him lots..
I reckon he'd love one of my little hares in his hot wheels



....anyway it's nearly 4am and time to stop stirring

Wednesday, 27 November 2013

thank yous


I have a few thank yous to give


last year for the very first time I started to celebrate Thanksgiving,
that very traditional American holiday,

and my mum and I had a tasty lil bite in Starbucks with our mugs of tea and rolled off 10 things we were thankful for
~ that felt good ~


so this year, it's just me and Wes this Thanksgiving
(my mum is on far.mor duties in Norway)


I find it easy to find things to be thankful for
and every day in my journal I write up a list of 'thank you for...' things
~ that feels good ~


and in the process of giving thanks
and finding things to appreciate

I find that my life is blessed with lots of good good stuff
that comes to me easily, and in fun ways


so, since I said I had a few thank yous to give
I shall now bombard you with them
(I will write in grey and a very small font so I don't bore the sockses off you, and your eyes will get tired from the strain of trying to wade thru them and after a couple of lines you will give up, yawning, and go and make yourself a stiff whisky, em I mean hot cup of tea)
~ this will feel good ~


alrighty Annette, you can start now - I have the peanut speaker up full blast playing Metallica so you can prattle away till the turkeys, er cows come home...

ofcourse you do Wesley :)
so here goes -

thank you for my beautiful adorable rabbit Wesley who sleeps between my feet all the time and if I move them out the way he reaches up to paw my legs in vexation, thank you for my quiet peaceful cosy warm home, thank you for the sun shining warmly on me I totally adore the sun adore adore adore, thank you for my customers all over the world - yay! I love you all thank you for buying the stuffs I make, and thank you for my friends and blog readers and stoppers-by reading all this fodder I endlessly produce hoping to make you smile and even laugh a little perhaps, thank you for my healthy neat little car who passed his mot with flying colours this year as I sat inside the service centre with a tiny baby puppy in my arms nibbling on my buttons that I was holding for a gym buddy mate as he got his wheels checked out, thank you for my excellent affordable gym membership and my super fantastic weights room with everything I need and love cos the weights is what I loves with all my heart and soul and it is my lifeblood my drug my passion and my desire, thank you for the friendship from all my friends all over the world it is so nice to have friends, thank you for the friendship and food-induced friendship from all my feathered friends that I say hello to every day as I feed them and no I don't feel in the slightest that I have to bribe them for friendship as this is all part of the deal, thank you for the little squirrely who always stops to smile at me with a nut in his paws when I have just fed him, thank you for my running shoes which are still runnable and wearable even after 9 long years not bed eh that's asics for you, thank you for my strong healthy fit body which takes me places I want to go and do things I wanna do I'm real happy with my body big time, thank you for my cosy warm snuggly bed with the light blue quilt I love and the covers with paw and hoof and birdy feety prints all over it I adore them so much, thank you for my etsy shop which makes it possible for me to work here at home at my desk with cups of tea and cake and and and, thank you for my delicious cups of lady grey tea, yum yum yum so nice to drink, and thank you for the walnut whips which I just love eating, yum yum yum and I've gobbled 3 down since last night and I don't feel guilty in the slightest and why should I as I've ran 6 miles and spent 6 hours working out yadda yadda yadda but that's just me and I might have another one later tonight, thank you for my electricity supply which gives me hot water and lights and heat any time I want it and a kettle that works at the press of a switch and a fridge that is always on keeping Wes' parsnips nice n fresh, thank you for my fresh water supply that gives me on tap drinking water and delicious relaxing showers, so love my hot hot showers mmm did I say how much I love them, thank you for my bathroom which is cosy and warm and toasty on cold winter days and is just the way I love it, thank you for my sash windows which keep the outside out and the warmth in and I get a great view from them and Wes loves the sun shining in, thank you for the trees with their beautiful leaves in brilliant colours and the soft bed of leaves all over the ground now - if I was a doggie I would be rolling about in them for sure, thank you for my mac and the internet connection and my internet supply company for being reliable and efficient and fast and dependable cos it's not 4 eyes you get from a tv anymore but 4 eyes from a computer screen nowadays, thank you for my family whom I love with all my heart and to bits - they make me laugh and smile all the time especially my brother who skyped me this morning from Norway with my mum beside him and my microphone was not working on my computer so instead of me typing to his talking he picked up the phone to call me and I could hear the ringing on my computer speakers from his phone - as he had his phone on speaker-phone - and my phone's ringer does not work ha ha so I can never hear incoming calls ha ha ha - and as I was about to pick up my phone we all heard my mum's answer machine come on and her personal phone message 'hi this is.. I'm not in so leave a ...' and I fell off my chair laughing as my ultra cool brother hardly even smiled in his faux pas - yup that was a good good morning!, thank you for my life here on earth I love living on this planet breathing such fresh air feeling the sun on me and seeing the beasties every day, thank you for the doggies who come down my street on their way to the beach yapping their furry heads off in their excitement, thank you for the doggies who walk back up my road after their romp on the beach all exhausted and happy and sandy, thank you for my blog where I get to share my work and a little about what inspires me so that maybe a little bit of it may inspire you too and bring a smile and some happiness, thank you for the smiles I receive every day as I love love love receiving smiles and love giving smiles in return smiles feel so so good so so good love smiles big time, and lastly (for just now anyway), THANK YOU for stopping by to read 
much love
Annette xx


Monday, 14 October 2013

Appreciation - the highest form of flattery


I've been asked where does my inspiration for my stories come from?

Well, the simple answer is everywhere really. 

I catch interesting snippets as I pass by people, I see strange and unusual happenings that take me aback and make me laugh, I am reminded of my own cock-ups and stuff-ups - of which there are many! many! many! and in my day to day goings-abouts I gather a very rich amount of priceless stuff to include in my stories

I merely have to change the species from human to hare, leave the individual's name out, and blurr over the facts just a teensy little bit

but I am so appreciative of all these incidents that I am part of and privy to and so appreciative of the individuals who have inspired me

so I am hoping that no-one minds if I ever use a bit of an incident that they may have been in, or may have inspired, in one or two of my stories (it's not the first time, I've been writing like this for years, just omitted all the names that would give the game away, and never bothered telling anyone)
and I am hoping that they take this as the nicest form of flattery
as I immortalise them like a god in my story :)


and before you know it, a rather humorous, maybe even slightly flattering story is mustered up....

Mother Hare Tsuru 

One day at kindergarten, when Tsuru was still tiny, she came across an old magazine on the bookshelf in the corner. She’d already been thru all the books, and looked at all the nice pictures and there, on the bottom shelf, nearly hidden under the big books was a tatty old magazine. 
So with some effort Tsuru dragged it out, but the flimsy cover ripped off in the exertion and wafted onto her paws. That wasn’t a problem though, as it was already very old and very well read, and just as she was about to scrumple the cover up and throw it away, something interesting caught her eye.
She flattened out the page on the floor infront of her and gasped in delight as she studied the picture, then declared to herself that yes, she wanted one of those too. 
And with that, she tore a small piece off the page.
As it was allowed in the kindergarten, to tear books and magazines. They were not precious icons not to be harmed and gloated over, but instead to be read and appreciated, enjoyed and shared, and so Tsuru excitedly made her way over to one of the teachers to show her the old scrap that she wanted to take home. 
Because all torn pages had to be approved by the teachers first, and ofcourse they always were, it’s just that it gave everyone a chance to see what pretty picture or interesting quote would be leaving the classroom for good that day.
Anyway, as she held the scrap in her paw, stretched out in front of her, the teacher nodded approvingly, that yes she may take that home. A couple of the other teachers glanced over their shoulders to see the picture and immediately raised their eyebrows and a few of the babies stopped in their tracks, startled, but Tsuru was already carefully putting the scrap in between her work book and into her bag.

When she got home that afternoon she went straight to her bedroom and stuck the picture above her bed so that she could see it every night before she fell asleep and first thing every morning just as she woke up. That way she would be reminded to always want it. And she smiled happily to herself.

Well, that night as mama was reading her bedtime story to her, she happened to glance up at the nearly naked man with the heavily tattooed arm above her daughter’s bed, and she gasped in astonishment – surely Tsuru was still too young to be interested in the opposite sex, and not even a hare at that. 
Though not being interested in hares was not really a problem, as there was always interspecies marriages and minglings going on with hares and other species, as that was what hares were like, but it must have been all the nakedness which surprised her mama and took her off guard.
After the story was finished mama looked up at the handsome man and said to her daughter that the new picture was very nice, and Tsuru immediately stifled her yawn, grinned excitedly and pronounced to mama that she wanted one of them too. 
Upon which mama smiled sweetly, stroked her daughters head and gave her a goodnight kiss.

Now that Tsuru is all grown up she did indeed surprise her mama by getting one of them. Though it was not a nearly naked handsome man with tattoos on his arm. 
It was instead a tattoo of a Japanese crane. Just like the one that the man had on his arm, flying across his bicep. 
She came home rather late one day rubbing her ankle, and looking a little sheepish and embarrassed, so mama asked if everything was alright, upon which Tsuru proudly revealed her very first tattoo to mama – a beautiful and artistic Japanese crane flying across her ankle. Ofcourse the fur had had to be shaved off and her skin was rather tender and pinky underneath, but the black of the ink stood out well and the tattooist had told her that when the fur grows back in, it would be thinner and shorter and that the black edged crane would still be visible.
Tsuru was very pleased with his handiwork and at the end she gave him a large wicker basket of freshly snipped meadow herbs and some tasty tubers she had dug up, as he had requested and they had agreed on the week before when she had stopped by his shop with her tatty little picture and unusual request. 
He told her to come back in a week’s time so that he could check her skin, and his work, and if need be, to shave some more of her fur off, and em, would it be possible to take some photos that he could put on his tattoo blog? because she was his very first ever hare.
Yes, ofcourse said Tsuru, she would be delighted and had a crazy thought to herself that perhaps a magazine would get in touch with her to put her on the front cover beside a very handsome nearly naked man with some tasteful tattoos? 
She let out a little sigh as she made her way home.

Tsuru is looking forward to sitting cosily on your armchair by the French windows with a view to the garden. Leave them ajar thanks as she will going out most days to visit her nieces and nephews. She’s still not a mother herself, just not found the time yet. But not that she’s concerned about that in the slightest as she is busy with her career as a model.

The day that she had gone back to the tattooist so he could take some snaps of her, he had a big surprise waiting for her and paired her up with a very good looking boy who had some pretty tatts. 
The photo-shoot was so much fun and had gone down so well, and Tsuru and the boy had gotten on great that he had ended up asking her out to dinner! 
Well, well, dinner had been delicious, as she had had the vegetarian option, plus all his salad too and they had talked tattoos all night long, plus he was really very taken with her. Pretty little hare or not. 
They did receive a few stares in the restaurant that evening but they were stares with smiles, which are always the nicest kind of stares.

And the very next day she was in for another surprise - a huge surprise. 
The tattooist had uploaded her pictures to his blog, and within minutes they had gone viral and she was now more famous than any other lagomorph in history, eclipsing Bugs Bunny, the Easter rabbit, the Hare on the Moon, Roger Rabbit and Jessica Rabbit! (not that she was a rabbit, nor even a hare, but still..) and he had been inundated with calls and requests for more photo-shoots of the pretty little leveret!
Tsuru has had a few more tattoos done by him. She’s not really an adventurous kind though, and she did love the first crane that he did for her, so she ended up getting a few more of them flying across various parts of her body. 
Well, cranes do migrate and they do live in flocks so her flock just sort of grew and grew. But, my my, she does look so very beautiful indeed and the artistry is breath-taking. 
She has made front covers of all the most influential magazines ever – Time, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, not to mention all the tabloids and fashion ones as well. 
And she always has a very handsome dinner date every night, who incidentally always has a tattoo.

You are most welcome to come along to the photo-shoots with her if you’d like. They are so much fun and she has had some very novel settings. Her favourite so far has been the mad hatters tea party with Johnny Depp, hmmm, but then there was the one with James Bond in his fast car, that was thrilling, and hmmm, so was the one with Taylor Kitsch and her back on Mars.

She always needs a few helping hands to get her fur in order for the shoots, so if you’d like to come along and groom her too then that would be nice. 
And she is sure that you will be asked out to dinner by a handsome man afterwards. There are always handsome men around her now, and she is friends with all the famous ones, not that she is naming names, mind you. 
What do you mean you are the shy type and wouldn’t know what to say at dinner. You don’t need to say anything, just sit there looking pretty. That’s what she does and it works a treat. Though she does like to talk tattoo, so you could always brush up on your cranes and crosses and roses.




I just hope that everyone is flattered in the process, 

though I am not naming names, but regardless to say that nearly all the boys in the gym that I workout with have impressive tattoos

and over the last couple years I've seen, and admired, and appreciated them all

after all, I am an artist, and a tattoo is a beautiful expression of art
and I believe the wearer wears a little bit of their heart amongst all that ink 
and what is not to appreciate in such a tender expression?


and ofcourse the body that displays the tattoo is also a beautiful expression of art too 

Alex Minsky, US Marine and Afghanistan vet, above, is very impressive, and I particularly love his lower abdominal tattoo 'Don't Laugh' 


and if you are into tatts and baseball caps and roses and ....
*sigh*


or perhaps you are into the Guy Richie/English gent type instead? and his minimalist tatt?
*sigh again*

those 3 boys are all on my pinterest page, so credits in their links there


it's a little princess's birthday very soon
and currently, at the tender age of 8 and 11/12th she is way, way, way into 1D 



appreciating boys who may or may not have tatts already? who knows?
do they even have fur under their arms? and a 'Don't Laugh' tattoo? but would anyone be laughing?
anyway, as to tatts I wouldn't have a clue, and I don't think I have even heard one of their songs either... 

I'm a little bit out of touch at the moment, as my fav youtube song is...


(it's good for writing stories to)

still, I made her a cutesy Scottishy bag with her fav colours - blue and purple(ish)
and put in a bag of edible boys - oh okay then, 1D Love Hearts
and sent it off to Norway. Hopefully it will get there for the big day?
(she definitely doesn't read my blog, so no worries about spilling the beans here)


the majority of my hares all have 'tatts' on their coats
of beautiful does and handsome stags, of delicate roses and leaves...

what's not to like? coats to appreciate and flattering stories to make you smile

it's always nice to have a bit of body adornment that doesn't wash off in the rain, or sweat off in the gym ....


gawd! so over-rated all that body graffiti is all I can say
what's the point of having a tasty rose if you can't eat the bloody thing?

nuthin' nicer than a snow white coat, nuthin' nicer.....


so, a big thank you to my muses for inspiring my stories! 
I hope that you are perhaps not too shocked, and instead a little flattered?
xx