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Come and take a look at all my goodies:

Adelaida's Etsy shop

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Personal Thursday #8 and #9 - Cooking time

During those two Thursdays I did not create anything personal (though created lots of commercial stuff) - I did however cook a bit. Have I ever mentioned that I really enjoy cooking? :)
I don't really like to make basic food and all those Polish dishes that we eat on and on, in every home, every week, always the same - kurczak, schabowe, mielone, pierogi (oh I love them), kopytka, rosół, pomidorowa, ogórkowa and all the rest. I like cooking things that are weird or that take a lot of time to do, things that you don't really have time to do during the week. Or sweets. Oh, those sweets I could bake them everyday :D

So during Thursday #8 I made (together with my Love - it's his hobby too) those delicious stuffed shells.



Gosh, they were amazing. They took about... I don't know.. 2 years (?!) to make but it was totally worth it.

We've changed the recipe a bit because on that day there was a national holiday and all shops were closed. So for the stuffing we've used not only ricotta but a mix of ricotta, Camembert and standard cheese.

So if you have a whole day to spare - I recommend! My family was delighted :)

During Thursday #9 I was getting ready for my littlest sister's birthday party - spooky themed (she was born on 31st September). She has found somewhere on the web an idea for muffins changed into graves. They were quite fun to do :D

But since we were not supposed to eat them and I was in a really big need to eat sweets I also made those cute cupcakes.

They were sugar flavoured with sugar icing - exactly what I needed :)

I think I could share here some of other interesting recipes I've tried and recommend, why not? :)

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From my sketchbook #13

This week I've got a bit more sketches to show (+ plenty of super sketchy sketches in which only I can see some sense; they are not here).

 First I started with drawing myself as I warm up, then suddenly an idea for last week's Illustration Friday topic 'haunt' popped into my mind. I have not done anything more with it since. But who knows what I'll be doing on my Personal Thursday... :3

 Here's a set of Purr's sketches. I've named them 'Purr in college' ;)

 And here are few drawings I've done for a secret project I'm working on right now. Can't wait for the process to move a bit further than sketches!

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From my sketchbook #12

 This time only few sketches - I've been working on projects that have already been sketched in and out and had not much additional time to just draw aimlessly, and that's a shame... Hopefully this week I will draw more ^^

In one of Etsy interviews I've read this fabulous quote 'She believed she could, so she did' and I've decided to play a bit with typography. I hate typography. Yuck! But nevertheless I should be able to make/draw some decent looking letters, don't you think?

*I know that 'believed' is misspelled in some places but I finally got it right, no worries!*

Finally something that will end up as finished illustration! It's for last week's Illustration Friday's topic 'sky'. I know it's late but who said you can not use those topic later on too?

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Personal Thursday #7

I have almost forgotten to show you those cuties! :)

Here you can see sketches for them -- click
And they are available, as a set, in my Etsy shop.

I have so many small pieces of watercolour paper like those ^ that I could draw little sweetnesses every day!

Hmm... I could say 'challenge accepted' but I must get ready for the holiday season. Will accept this challenge in December :D

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From my sketchbook #11

 Here are my newest sketches. This time I have even few from my work to show you ^^

First page: a project for my Personal Thursdays - I did something else this week but the kitty lost in the woods is still waiting for its turn! Second page: Purr on a boat. It could be a short story of how boring fishing can be ;)

 First page: sleepiness! Second page: secret project :3

And here are bits from my work :) Some flowers and cute animals. They will be changed into embroidery or a silkscreen print. We'll see.

 And here's Purr (again; oh Purr, you're everywhere!) explaining how to print printables from my Etsy shop. The final instruction looks super cute :)

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Personal Thursday #6

This week I was quite sick but I still wanted to create something for myself - not a very good idea! I decided to sew a tablet case made of denim (from old pants) + old scarf as lining + a little felt pocket for a screen wiping cloth.

I felt as if my brain was almost turned off. It was as if I had zero control in what was happening. Constant coughing and running nose were not helping me in this situation either. I should have gone to bed!

But I didn't and my tablet has got a new home now :)

Everything that could be sewn crookedly, attached on a wrong side or cut uneven - has been done so! But it's still cute. And the ladybug button is a sweet cherry on top of that cuteness :D

My advice for you - do not sew when you are sick.

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Water - Illustration Friday

Purr is fishing for her breakfast.

I've made few sketches that would be a pretty cute picture story about going fishing. Maybe I will draw them all when I have the time ^^

I will put the original drawing for sale in my Etsy shop later :)

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Personal Thursday #5

I feel like it's been ages since I drew something just for myself. And it was such a nice feeling to do so finally! No deadlines, no specific expectations - just drawing cats :3

This is a kitty lady lost in the woods. And she's been lost for a quite long time! But no worries - she can handle anything.

Maybe I could write an accompanying story?

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From my sketchbook #10

I have shown part of my newest sketches in this post (about making a postcard illustration) but I've got something more going on here!

On Halloween my youngest sister is turning 12 and I wanted to create party invitations for her birthday party. Of course, they will be Halloween themed and probably everything at the party will be about ghosts, monsters, witches and black cats. I've started sketching and then I thought that maybe other people are making Halloween parties too and would love to use some cute party invitations! That's why those 4 designs will go to my Etsy shop as printable PDFs. Hopefully I will make them during this weekend so they can be up and running for a while before 31st of October :)

*****

You may not know it (I have no idea if I have mentioned it before) but for some time I have been making an illustrated diary. I've started drawing small and silly pictures on my wall calender back in the first year when I started dating my Love. On the next year I bought a notebook calendar and was able to draw more. Now it's always a spacious diary/journal/calendar and I draw my bunny story every single day.

The best thing is, when I start reading some of the old calendars, it's actually pretty funny to see what stupid things I've been making. And this bunny-me is quite hilarious! :D

Do tych, którzy są w stanie przeczytać co tam nabazgrałam - ja-królik używa sporo brzydkich słów. Na codzień nie posługuję się tak soczystym językiem, ale do opisywania moich przygód brzydkie słowa nad wyraz dobrze pasują ;)

 *yummy!*

 *cheers!*

 About making a spinach cannelloni: *Is it ready yet?* / *Not yet! Why are you in such a hurry?*

I was not in a mood to work that day ;P

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Personal Thursday #4

What, wait! But where's number 1, 2 and 3?
Will get back to that in a minute, promise! :)

Some time ago I've decided to dedicate one day of a week to my personal stuff. That would be one day that I would do absolutely nothing for my job, for my shop or for my customers - just personal projects. It's a time to try new things, new techniques or just watch movies all day without guilt and without this nagging feeling of everything being more urgent than myself. 

So let me introduce my Personal Thursday blog posts, where I'll show what personal projects I'm currently working on :)

***

It appears that those four Thursdays were just a warm-up for the true PTs - getting used to doing whatever I want, no matter what's on my to-do list can be quite tricky!

PT #1 - I went to sleep. That was exactly what I needed :)
PT #2 - I was reading 'The Magician's Apprentice' by Trudi Canavan. It's so hard to find time to read! Then I finished this cover illustration. I know it's not my personal project but after reading for about 4 hours I felt ready to do something not-personal :)

  
PT #3 - I was on a watercolour workshop that day - painting just for myself.

And this week it was Personal Thursday #4 and look what I did!

Some photos' quality and colours are dramatic - they were taken during night and there was not much I could do to rescue them...

This is a wedding gift that my school friend assigned me to create. It's still not a personal work but I could paint almost whatever I wanted and however I wanted. And it was totally new for me to paint with acrylics on a canvas, then add soft pastels and coloured pencils. Loved the effect, though!

That's all for this Thursday - I will show you new projects next week :)

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Doggie postcard

It's a rarely seen thing here - more dogs than cats!

Some time ago I've been asked to create a super cute illustration with plenty of animals for a postcard for District Dog, a pet shop in Brooklyn, NY. I liked the idea and I fell in love with the overall look of the shop - it's so much different from those I see here in Poland.

But let's get back to the illustration! Here's a bit of the process :)

 I've started with finding my way in drawing animals that were supposed to be on the postcard. I have never drew a parrot so it took me a while to 'feel' it. But I skipped the cat and bunny process - I draw them a lot and didn't really want to make them look different than they usually do. They look just fine as they are :)

 Then it was time for few sketches of the composition. I start with the tiny thumbs, then make a bit bigger ones where you can actually see what's there.

 Then I re-make them to look clean and pretty, for everyone to see and understand what I mean. Green and orange areas are the places when text can be put.

 Transferring the sketch.

 Artistic mess :)

 And the finished picture. I like it a lot :) And this paper is superb - so thick!

 And here you can see a colour composition I've made and the final image. I've made only few minor changes along the way (blanket on the left has got a bit different pattern, there is an additional tea cup, a tea towel hanging on a handle is green, not blue). I usually make changes while painting and add details without further consideration :) It's just how I like to do it.

And here's the actual postcard that you can get at the District Dog :)

Super cute, isn't it?

 Hope you like it ^^

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Watercolour workshop - day 4

This time I've finished my lighthouse picture. It's my favourite but photos don't show all its beauty :/

I will scan it later on and we'll see what comes out of it. Although I'm pretty sure that the scanner will eat all those light colours...

 You may remember from the previous day that I've covered the sea with paper tape (so it wouldn't get dirty from the rocks). It appears that you can use that technique to make really nice walls or rocks ;)

 I've managed to rescue that part, however :D

 Everything all over the place got really dirty while making textures.

 We were playing cards and chess while waiting for the layers to dry :)

 And remember, never take off masking fluid before the paper dries completely - otherwise your lighthouse's window will get bigger than intended :/ Of course I knew about it - but my sister was too impatient to wait and scratched it off!

And that's the end of the workshop. There's also a day 5 - architecture, but I was at work during those classes..

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