I was staring at that great big blue pencil on my blog banner the other day and suddenly decided...It's time for a change! I was feeling in a mostly black and white mood that day and so, voila! I snapped my fingers and lo and behold, I found myself looking at my new banner and background. As you might already know, I'm the sort of person who gets lost in details.
Details... I just had a flashback ! I remember my Dad asked me to paint him a sign for a garage sale one day when I was a teenager. His words to me were 'Daughter dear, could you paint me a sign for our garage sale....oh...and please...just plain writing this time....don't EMBELLISH IT!!!'. Well, yes I did make that sign, and I tried my very best to make it plain so that it was easy to read from a passing car. However, my Dad made that fatal mistake of leaving me alone too long with a paintbrush in my hand after the words 'garage sale this Saturday' were carefully and neatly painted. I mean, a few curls and swirls here and there couldn't possibly hurt anyone, could they? Doesn't everyone like a bit of decoration in their life? Surely those big lovely bold letters were meant to be embellished? When my Dad came back to check my handiwork he laughed, rolled his eyes and shook his head. 'You just couldn't help yourself, could you!' he sighed. 'It's OK Dad, you can still read the words on it....just...hehe' I answered sheepishly.
It was the same in classes at high school. I would often hand my notebook into the teacher and get the same written comments when my book was returned: 'A beautifully decorated notebook...it must have taken you hours to do this. But where's your homework??' It was the same with assignments. And exam papers.
The other day I made a chicken and vegetable pie with homemade pastry. It was delicious...I wish I had've taken a photo of it to show you. I was going to actually, but by the time I had turned around to get the camera it had been sliced into pieces and served onto everyone's plate. Anyway I think the main reason I go to the trouble of making a pie with homemade pastry is so that I can doodle on it. This one looked great. It had hearts, flowers, swirls, dots....the lot! All sculpted in pastry and coated with a layer of beaten egg to make it go extra crunchy on top. I think I spent more time decorating the top of it than it took me to make the actual pie. It was so much fun though. Edible doodles...now there's a thought! Maybe I should get into cake decorating or something, I could really go overboard with my embellishment addiction with that hobby.
Oops! That was a long flashback. Get to the point, I hear you shout. Ok well, the blog's new look. I spent some time thinking about making it sleek, stylish, and shiny-looking, sort of minimalist and nice and simple. A place to rest your eyes, a vacation from the craziness that is the internet. I really did try. But it just wasn't me at all. Who am I trying to kid? So instead, I went in totally the opposite direction and crammed as many doodles in as I possibly could. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaah! That's better! Glad I got that all out of my system.
Let me know what you think about the new look, in the poll to the left (if it is still there by the time you read this article). Or better still write a comment below. I would love to know what you think :)
Regards,
Paisleys are great, aren't they? I love 'em. If I see anything in a shop with paisleys on it, it immediately catches my eye. They are so much fun to draw, because they have a lovely flowing shape, and you can make each one totally different just by changing the pattern. Once you have the general shape down pat, you can then add whatever your heart desires. 
