"Too much sanity may be madness. And maddest of all,

to see life as it is and not as it should be!"

Miguel de Cervantes, Don Quixote

Well, now i know i'm going absolutely "DOOLALLY"! I went out to the kitchen earlier today to put the kettle on for a cuppa, i filled it with water and flicked the switch....or did I? When i went back into the shop lovely Jo (Twiglet http://www.twiglet5.blogspot.com/) popped in for a visit and we chatted for a little while. After she left i went to make the tea and couldn't find the kettle anywhere!!!!! After searching the kitchen for a good few minutes i eventually found it in the fridge!!! No idea what happened there...but it's been coming on for a while!!!

Just thought i'd share this photo with you, it's the new cupboard we bought for the shop, Gav sold one of our lovely dressers and the lady's been waiting for about six weeks so we thought we'd better get a replacement. This was at the Montgomery auction in the town hall on Wednesday just gone, so we bought it, squeezed it into the kitchen (spiders an' all) on Wednesday afternoon until the shop closed at 6pm, then lugged it around to the shop and painted it. It needed six hours drying in between coats so, at 1am we were up again slapping on another coat of paint and then up early in the morning to arrange it in the shop ready to be open for 10.00am (thats why i'm going mad)- Hmmmmm....no ones noticed yet!!! Those vintage quilts look gorgeous draped over the doors, i had three, but sold a blue one last week, the backing on it was made out of old flour sacks (i cried when it sold....sigh...it would have looked so good on my bed).

C'est la vie!

Day Off

I had such a great week last week, I managed to sell quite a lot of my own art work, five pieces to be exact as well as a lot of my handmade brooches, both textile and painted. It feels so good when that happens. When other people who aren't family and friends look at your work and like it as much as you do, enough to pay money for it, it feels amazing. What's more overwhelming are the comments i get from people saying how beautiful and unusual my art is, i love being able to tell my customers, when they ask, about how it's created and what materials are used etc, this is what is so nice about having my own shop/gallery and what makes all the obstacles that we had to work around to get it worthwhile.

This is currently on my work table, with a few other bits and pieces. Last year i did a series of mixed media collage paintings called "Happy Thoughts Angels" about 12 pieces on recycled cat food boxes. The "Happy Thoughts" theme came from a damaged vintage book i found of the same name. It contained all sorts of happy thoughts quotes and i used them in the collages. I sold a few of these before the shop opened, as i put them in the window and people knocked the door and asked if they could buy them, I have a few left so i've decided to collage them onto the wood panels to hang in the shop. This one (below) i'm re-creating from scratch onto a wood panel, it won't be exactly the same, but it's already sold.

(This is the original one placed onto the wood panel - not finished yet)

I created this for my new blog banner (I may even do a new blog) i've had the old banner for a while and I need change in my life every so often...

"There seems to be some sort of a pretty wilderness out there...."
Detail...

Detail...

Now... I have to show you this it's really exciting. I did a Bird Swap arranged by Lisa on http://www.noodlebubble.blogspot.com/ . My swap partner was Emily Burt http://www.handmadebyemily.blogspot.com/ in Brighton and i got this gorgeous owl, it's so beautiful i love it, thank you so much Emily and also thanks to Lisa for arranging it all, it was good fun.

www.folksy.com/shops/handmadebyemilyshop

"A wise old owl sat on an oak;

The more he saw the less he spoke;

The less he spoke the more he heard;

Why aren't we like that wise old bird?"

One of the things I have to get used to about living in a rural area is that it's difficult to find art suppliers of any consequence. I know i can buy on the internet but when it comes to brushes i have to touch and feel them before i know what will work for me. I have some old favourites but ended up using some of them for painting the intricate parts of furniture for the shop fittings (i.e. around glass on the cabinets) and now i can't find them. I got quite depressed at not having decent tools to work with and i ended up getting some cheap ones form a DIY store to try and make do, but they were impossible to work with, so i ended up going to wrexham yesterday (we were going anyway for something else) in search of an art store, not an easy task, we couldn't find one, and in desperation i ended up in Llangollen where i found a very small shop with a limited range of supplies, but at least i managed to get a decent selection of brushes. They were resonably priced and now i can start painting again.....yaaaaaay!!!!!!

nice...nice...nice...

.....so i prepared some of my smaller wood panels as these have already sold really well.

OK, i'm off to my work room now for a bit of creative therapy and then a nice hot relaxing bath.

Doodles and dreams....

I just have to show you this, i bought it on Etsy from my lovely bloggy friend Micki, The Secret Hermit http://www.thesecrethermit.blogspot.com/ I fell in love with it when i saw it on her blog, she's an amazing artist, please have a look! I've decided (when i can afford it) to start my collection of original art. It's a Moleskine notebook with Micki's beautiful painted illustration on the front with a beautifully written "Doodles, Dreams and Roaring good Schemes"...perfect!!! and signed by her on the back. It came beautifully packaged, thank you Micki, it's a real treasure, i love it.

This is another piece of original art i bought recently from another bloggy friend, Viv Sliwka, Hensteeth http://www.hensteethart.blogspot.com/ - I met Viv at one of her vintage shows in Ludlow recently, such a lovely lady. I love all these wonderfully talented people i've met and i feel honoured to own a piece of their art.

This is my new window display in the shop! Not brilliant, but it's difficult as the window lets in quite a bit of light. I'm limited to what i can put in there as it's right next to the counter and i didn't want people in the shop to have to look at the back of things. The chair i got from the recycling place and painted it a gorgeous duck egg blue and put the pitcher jug and some tea towels on it. I've had really nice comments about it. I'm currently thinking up my halloween and christmas display (hoping my clever sister is going to help me with ideas!!!).

Some different stock in the shop. These cards are gorgeous, they're 3d and are delicate little teapots and tea cups. There are some really nice cards around these days, all very contemporary and these seemed a little old fashioned at first, but people love them.

Gorgeous boxes:

Ribbons galore

Tibetan Bangles

Jewellery Boxes

"I arise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. This makes it hard to plan the day" - Elwyn Bookes White

Aberdyfi

What a fabulous night and day away. It was such a nice thing to do and we feel so relaxed considering it was such a short period of time. Aberdyfi is so lovely but we arrived too late on the sunday evening to catch the fish and chip shop, so ended up in the spar with a sandwich.

I even managed a paddle in the sea!

but avoiding the jellyfish.

This was our B&B

...The room

...and the gorgeous view from the room.

Barmouth

On Monday we headed out on the coast road to Barmouth, never been there before and wasn't sure what to expect, but we had such a pleasant surprise it was gorgeous...and we finally got our fish and chips! ...although i never quite got to finish mine as a cheeky seagull swooped down and nicked it !!!!

I found the most amazing ice cream parlour

Gorgeous chandaliers

Of course we couldn't not have a knickerbocker glory!!!!

Beautiful Beach

This was on the drive back to Montgomery through Berriew when we had to stop to

let the cows pass by