Just ducking in quickly to post up a new drawing: Falling.
In progress:
And completed:
Markers+Pencil+Collage using one of my favourite vintage fabrics and the only vintage fabric that I took with me to Hong Kong :-)
No more drawings for the next week or so – I’m studying for this and need to get the mind into study-mode again (eek)!
A few years ago I drew the Little Miss Mushroom Girl. She made it into one of my fabric designs, then she appeared in a free embroidery design, and somehow even ended up on one of my mugs!
I’ve been wanting to do more with this character over the years but always got distracted by other things. So I made some time last week to jot down some ideas around her and finally got to work on making some new drawings.
These two were finished – both done with markers + pen.
I did the second illustration with the intention of hanging it up in the girls’ room, to help remind them that they “can” – meaning that many things are possible if they try their best and work hard at it (clichéd but still very true!). The Mister saw the drawing and thought it meant: “I can … wear many hats”. I like that interpretation too!
As the hours drew to a close on 2011, I was able to squeeze in one last drawing in our hotel room back in Melbourne before the New Years Eve festivities began. It’s been a few days but I was finally able to open my sketchbook again last night and complete it.
This is a drawing I’ve done just for me. I think that sunshiny yellow will be a main theme for me in 2012 – it’s the kind of colour that evokes happiness, hopefulness, and a fervour for life. The drawing also reflects the words that have been lingering in me since January 1 ticked over – “do what you love”. For me, from a creative perspective, 2012 will be about doing what I love, which means finding/making time for it as well. I love drawing and illustrating and I want to develop it further and do more of it in 2012.
Not to say I won’t be sewing or making softies – I hope to do that too but it is taking some time to source all the things I need to start sewing again, and it’s been a challenge to find room for it in our small apartment – but it does mean I will be spending the majority of my ‘me’ time drawing and illustrating. And I’ve been thinking/planning/researching about new ways to present some of the illustrations I’ve made/will make. I’m very excited about the possibilities!
How about you? Is 2012 going to be the year you find/make time to do what you love?
We’ve been in Melbourne since Christmas Eve. It’s been a wonderful holiday so far. Hope you had a wonderful Christmas too. It’s been a blessing to be able to spend time with family again, meet our new nephew, and catch-up with dear friends. There has been lots – LOTS – of eating (just look at my Instagram photos!), and visiting of favourite places, such as the Maribyrnong River track, which is my favourite running track:
{Maribyrnong River trail, Ascot Vale}
I’ve always run this track by myself so it was very special to come back this time and run it with the Mister.
The girls’ first request when we got to Melbourne was to visit their favourite playground in Ascot Vale:
{Essendon Community Playground, Ascot Vale}
Despite some shaky weather around Christmas (heat, followed by hail, storms and floods!), the weather in Melbourne has been fantastic.
Being back here in familiar grounds has been conducive to reflecting on, and being thankful for, the amazing year that 2011 has been. It’s been a year of restoring relationships, experiencing new places, and finding and settling into a new home. This year we:
It really has been an amazing year and I thank God daily for it. I don’t expect we will be traveling so much next year, but I am looking forward to having more wonderful adventures with my family, running another half-marathon overseas, visiting family that I have only ever heard of but never met, doing more drawings and illustrations (and hopefully some sewing!), and finding ways to give more back to the community that we have settled into in Hong Kong. As 2011 draws to an end, I feel very blessed and am very excited about what 2012 has in store.
{Beautiful sunset at Williamstown Beach}
I wish you a 2012 filled with joy, peace, contentment, challenge, strength, wisdom, hope and love. See you in 2012!
As I mentioned in a previous post, I recently traveled to Siem Reap, Cambodia, to do my first half-marathon. It was also my first time in Siem Reap.
The Siem Reap airport is one of the prettiest airports I have ever seen, reflecting Siam architecture. We were picked up by a driver and tour guide that we had hired and our tour guide gave us a great little history lesson on Siem Reap. I found Cambodian food to be so delicious – they have the best green mango/grilled fish/shrimp paste salad I have EVER tasted.
We stayed at the Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra, which must have the most beautiful and tranquil hotel grounds I have seen this year:
Also, the hotel was great value compared to some of the other more expensive hotels in the area – spacious and clean/well maintained rooms, massive outdoor pool, fantastic services at the Spa, very good food, and excellent service overall.
Beacuse we couldn’t walk much after the half-marathon (as expected), we only managed to visit two of the nearby temple ruins. Both were spectacular!
The Bayon Temple ruins:
And the Angkor Wat ruins:
We only spent a few days in Siem Reap but it’s definitely a place we would love to return to next December (as we are planning to do the half-marathon again!). Having a private driver was definitely a good investment (as the road rules are kinda ignored). Our private tour guide was fantastic and made sure everything flowed as smoothly as possible (especially on the day of the big run and getting us to the start line before sunrise!).
The people are absolutely lovely, so respectful and friendly. The history of the place is both breathtaking and heartbreaking – the Angkor ruins are only a few minutes away, as are the infamous Killing Fields. If you are thinking of exploring somewhere different and unique in Asia, please do consider Siem Reap.
I would highly recommend:
Hotel: Sofitel Angkor Phokeethra
Vithei Charles de Gaulle , Khum Svay Dang Kum , Angkor, 0 SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA
English Speaking Tour Guide: Yann Sorn (yannsorn [at] yahoo [dot] com)
Sorry about the rather boring post title up there :-) Work has been so busy lately! I’m thankful to have the opportunity to squeeze in a little bit of time to draw and sketch – loving the fact that a sketchbook and some pencils/markers fit comfortably in my bag and I can take them anywhere :-)
I’ve completed a few more drawings. These are not for the Sketchbook Project but drawings that I’ve done in my larger sketchbook so that I can keep the originals.
I’ve used a mix of Markers + Pen + Pencils for each one:
This one was started at the Ho Chi Minh airport in Vietnam, while we were waiting for our connecting flight back to Hong Kong (from Siem Reap), and then completed on the plane trip back:
I did this one for my daughters’ room after they asked me for a Disney Princess-ish drawing. This was my interpretation:
And with this one, I wanted to try less saturated colours for the skin and less tones. I’ve called this one “Esther” after the Biblical Queen of the same name:
As you can probably tell above, I’ve been experimenting with different ways of illustrating hair :-) I’m really enjoying all this drawing and sketching – such a fantastic way to wind down from constantly busy and challenging days.
This past weekend the Mister and I flew to Siem Reap in Cambodia. A few months ago we decided that we wanted to hit a milestone before this year was out – and that was to run a half-marathon. We found out about the Angkor Wat International Half-Marathon through workmates and decided that it was THE one to do. So we’ve been training for the last month and a half – not the ideal duration to train (probably would have been best to train for at least 3 months) – but the training has been a memorable experience in itself!
We’ve never been to Cambodia and I will write a separate post on our experience in Siem Reap apart from the run. In this post I will focus on the event for all you run-nerds who may be interested in doing this run in the near future :-)
The half-marathon started at 6:30am and we were at the starting line by 6am. The starting line is just outside the ruins of one of the gates of Angkor Wat (meaning the ‘city of monasteries’). It was a sight to see the sun rise over Angkor Wat – an extra bit of inspiration to calm the nerves!
We were told that it was the cooler season in Cambodia – so the forecast was for about 30°C by noon time! Thankfully, it was a nice and cool early morning and though it stayed cool for the next few hours (as the course went through the forest surrounding Angkor Wat), the humidity was quite evident a few kilometres into the run.
This was the half-marathon course:
The course itself is flat all the way (my favourite kind of course!). I didn’t spot any toilets until about the 15km mark, however, there were water stops every 3km. So as you can imagine, there were runners constantly ducking into the bushes to relieve themselves. We even saw a lady run into the bushes and do her business while a wild monkey watched her from a only a few feet away (I don’t think she realised it was there!).
The main highlight of the course was – you guessed it – the scenery and the temple ruins seen along the way:
Including the opportunity to run through the Angkor Thom gate – just maginificent -
Also, there were sweet, lovely, Cambodian children along many parts of the course who were helping collect bottles that runners left behind (for pocket money) and who would stand by the side of the road with their arms outstretched, ready to give you a high five and wish you good luck. I may have high-fived almost one hundred tiny hands!
{The Mister posing with some of the kids who were cheering runners on.}
In all honesty these two factors (scenery and local support) made the kilometres breeze by for most of the run.
The main negative of the course was that there were various parts where you had to share the road with cars, minivans, motorcycles and touk-touks. Having to inhale the smoke they left behind was definitely not healthy, and it was quite a distraction trying to make sure that you didn’t get run over!
As I mentioned, this was my first ever half-marathon. I was really nervous about this run. The farthest I have ever run in 17kms, which is 4.1kms short of your typical half-marathon. Surprisingly though I was feeling okay for the majority of the run and basically ran the first half without stopping. However, once I hit 18km, it was like my whole body decided at the same time that it had had enough! My ankles hurt, my feet were numb and felt like they were going to fall off at the ankles, and my quads and calf muscles started cramping up (which has never happened to me on a run before). My breathing was great, my mind was ready to finish this thing, but my body was just about ready to give up.
So we shuffled for about 2kms. And as you would expect, the adrenaline kicked in with 500mtrs to go til the finish line and we were able to pick up our pace again. Crossing that finish line was AMAZING. We had done it. We were ready to collapse right there and then, but we had done it!
The pain afterwards is something else altogether! We could barely walk for a few hours. Thankfully we had the hindsight to schedule an hour-long massage back at the hotel after the race, then had a huge nap, then spent an hour or so walking around a few temples to try and get the blood flowing again. We also had a delicious Cambodian dinner and then slept for 10-hours straight!
We’re hoping to do another half-marathon in the first half of next year. This time we’re planning on training for at least 3 months and hope to get our fueling strategy before and during the run right. But this first half-marathon was a wonderful, memorable, surreal experience. I’ll never forget it.
Funds raised from the Angkor Wat International Half-Marathon go to supplying limbs to Cambodians who have been injured by the many land mines still in Cambodia, and those who have lost limbs in accidents, as well as supporting work to help prevent HIV/AIDS amongst the Cambodian people. You can donate directly to Hearts of Gold to support these efforts.
Finally got to participate in a fun-run here in Hong Kong! The Hong Kong Disneyland UNICEF Fun Run is an annual run consisting of a half-marathon, 10km and 3km family race. This was the first fun-run I heard about when we arrived in HK back in March and it’s one I knew I really wanted to be involved in. The money raised from the event will go to providing HIV Test-kits to mothers-to-be, and support UNICEF in their work to help prevent the transmission of HIV from mothers to their babies.
Apparently 13,000 enrolled into the event this year! The 10km race was most definitely packed:
The crowd didn’t start thinning out until almost half-way, which meant a lot of weaving in and out. I must say though that the whole 10km course was just beautiful. We started in Disneyland’s car park then headed northwards towards Inspiration Lake, then through park land, then by the sea past the Disneyland Hotel and Pier, then through Disneyland itself before finishing back at the car park. The weather was perfect for a run and thankfully, most of the route was shaded and run on road with some of the course run on pavement. The elevation changes were quite gentle – though I would have preferred more downhills :-)
We spotted a few people running in shark costumes (?!) and this dude putting the fun back into fun-run:
The Mister and I really enjoyed this run and definitely recommend it if you’re thinking of doing a fun-run in HK.
To make it more of a family event, we stayed at the Disneyland Hotel overnight. It was the first time we stayed at the hotel and it’s just so pretty!
At the risk of sounding cliche, it was truly quite magical :-) The rooms are just so lovely, with sweet little gifts and things to take home, and the staff were wonderful.
We had dinner and breakfast at the Enchanted Garden restaurant inside the hotel and not only is the food fantastic (lots to choose from!), Disney characters also mingled with the guests. We met Goofy, Pluto (who was a little crazy), Minnie, and of course Mickey!
The girls were stoked!
It was an awesome weekend. Now the Mister and I prepping for our next (and last) big run this year – we are off to Cambodia next weekend to do the Angkor Wat International Half-Marathon!! I know, a HALF-MARATHON!! My first!! Not sure how I got reeled into that one – but it will be amazing I’m sure. Can’t wait to run by the ruins of Angkor Wat!
I’ve received quite a number of emails regarding what doll/softie patterns I actually sell under my Pattern Press range, which of my patterns are available in books and magazines, and what patterns are available for free here on this website. So I thought I’d pull together one big blog post to (hopefully) clarify.
I have a range of softie/doll sewing patterns currently published and distributed by the wonderful Pattern Press. Which ones you ask? Ta-da! These:
Unfortunately I’m not able to accurately keep track of all the stockists that stock these patterns but I have tried my best and have a list of stockists HERE. If you can’t find a stockist in this list for a specific pattern you are after, please contact Pattern Press and they should be able to point you in the right direction. I do hope to add more patterns to the range but this will most likely happen next year.
I also have patterns that are available in a number of magazines and books. Below are some of these patterns:
You can find what pattern is available in what magazine (title, issue date and number) or what book (title) by clicking this link: One Red Robin Published Projects. If you would like to access these patterns it would be best to contact the magazine or book publisher.
I do have a number of free patterns/tutorials available right here on One Red Robin. Below are some of the freebies I offer:
You can find all of my free patterns/tutorials by clicking this link: One Red Robin Freebies & Tutorials
Please note that ALL of my patterns (regardless of who publishes them or where they are published) are for personal use only – they are not to be made to sell or for commercial purposes. However, if you are interested in using any of the patterns for fundraising/charitable purposes, please email me with the details.
And finally, if you have made any of the patterns/tutorials, I would love to see! There is a flickr group where you can post up your One Red Robin creations: One Red Robin Sewing Patterns: Softies & Dolls
Another drawing using markers and pen in the sketchbook for the Sketchbook Project 2012:
This one is actually inspired by and based on a dress/model that’s in the current Gorman catalogue (and thanks to Pip for pointing me in the direction of this wonderful online shop).
Remember how I mentioned that these Copic markers soak through the page? Well, here’s the underside of the Red-head drawing I did in the previous post:
I’ve learnt to use two pieces of paper under every drawing to ensure it doesn’t soak through to the next page. Though I must admit, I like the way it looks on the underside too :-)
I’d like to try drawing a cityscape of some kind next, but it is quite addictive drawing people. I really enjoy drawing faces. The thing is, when I start colouring them in I always get butterflies in my stomach because I start worrying whether the nose will actually end up looking like a nose. Isn’t that weird?? Must be due to some drawing-a-nose trauma I went through as a kid that I’ve somehow blocked out …. But yeah, drawing noses freaks me out for some reason.
There’s a fact I bet you didn’t know about me :-)
