Shopping list inspiration

Such a great start to the week! My lovely print-making course has started again: it's just two and a half hours on a Monday morning when I'm probably at my lowest ebb when it comes to inspiration, but it really gets the week going.

Today, there we were, six of us escaping for a short while the ritual of school runs, shopping lists and broken hoovers, feeling slightly guilty that we were enjoying ourselves in the cramped, untidy metalwork room of our local community college, when we all probably had ten more worthy, less self-indulgent things we should be doing. The pressure was on - new paper, new inks, even new students, but I felt the burden of the backlog of undone post-Christmas chores - I still haven't been to the bottle bank (too embarrassed), I haven't rung up about the hoover warranty, and I really should have been at the supermarket. And bingo, inspiration! So much worrying about the shopping and I produced a whole trolley-load of vegetables.

Red cabbage. Citrus fruit (above). And artichokes...


OK, so they weren't really on my shopping list, but they're such a lovely shape, and I was so pleased with how they turned out as I'm not very good at drawing so I need a good, bold shape to use.

I'm not the only one using vegetables for inspiration. The wonderful Pippin Designs has created this quirky brooch:

And next week, maybe I'll use a different aisle for inspiration. Maybe the cleaning aisle, as on this fabulous apron by Iris+Lily Handmade:

Anything to put off the actual shopping!