New artwork finished today

This is another set of five in a series (one is missing, it didn't photograph well), the last set was called "Little Blue Houses", this set is entitled "Little Blue Birds".

Gav and i went to Manchester last night to see Roger Waters "The Wall" Live - the experience is best summed up by one of Gav's mates on the Manband Forum:

"Roger Waters and Pink Floyd, until fairly recently when I belatedly embraced very early Pink Floyd, have passed me by. I didn't really know this tour was about The Wall sort of revisited. I only fleetingly knew The Wall was a kind of concept. I thought this would be a gig.....as in a gig. That is a band playing and that's it. At risk of being pretentious, this was so much more than just music, as good as that was. From when the plane crashed into the wall, and onwards, I was as much entranced in the meaning of it all. And I felt there were so many ways of interpreting it. Frankly, that was fascinating me even more than the music, and caused me surprise that so many in the audience were drunk, screaming out as if it was Iron Maiden or Saxon!!. So much so, that i was thinking am I being a bit deep here, therefore at 8am this morning, I googled 'interpretations of Pink Floyd The Wall' to find reems on the subject, so I wasn't alone. In summary, I absolutely loved it, and am still thinking about those vivid graphics, imagery, and I did read a number of the epitaphs during the interval. Amazing".

Here's some footage on youtube it's worth watching

We're feeling shattered as we didn't get in until about one am, it's a two hour drive from Manchester.  The shop opened at twelve today and when we shut at 4pm we went for a lovely walk up to the Montgomery Monument to make the most of the beautiful afternoon sunshine.

 We've beem meaning to get up there for a while to scatter Alice's  ashes (our beautiful cat who died last December).  She always liked to be high up so we thought it was a good place for them to be scattered.  I'm sure it was quite emotional for Gav and as he released them they blew towards home and then settled in the grass!  The beautiful box that the ashes came in we placed in the fenced off hedgerow - it's so beautiful up there and you can see the monument from most directions driving into Montgomery, it's nice to think of her there!

The views are so stunning, the Shropshire Hills in the distance (I think Twiglets house in there somewhere, those are the hills she sees from her window!!)

...and back home, Lizzie enjoyed it too

Look at this beautiful, gorgeous girl, she loves being outside running around, she's smiling

My window boxes i did just before the wedding...still going strong

We felt so refreshed and invigorated when we got back, it's still hard to believe that we're surrounded by so much beauty right on our doorstep, we quite often think how lucky we are and try not to take it for granted.  Our lives are like constantly being on holiday, we never tire of the things we do, we both love the shop (and our other businesses) and all that they entail and when we do go away it's no hardship coming back here.  We have our first anniversary of the shop opening on the 27th May (can't believe it's been a year already), we could never have guessed the success of it in such a small rural location.  We've built up a following too with visitors to the area returning with friends and family and other people telling us they've been told they "must" visit, it's amazed us.

Have a quick look around Indigo Moon, it's looking quite gorgeous at the moment

 New Button delivery (well half of it anyway)..aren't they gorgeous

"Have regular hours for work and play; make each day both useful and pleasant, and prove that you understand the worth of time by employing it well. Then youth will be delightful, old age will bring few regrets, and life will become a beautiful success".
- Louisa May Alcott

Well......that was the best Manics gig i've been to, and i've been to a few!!!! The place was rocking and my favourite song "Motorcycle Emptiness" was the second one they did, but for one awful moment i thought "Design for Life" was relegated to a spoken version by Nicky Wire, but they came up trumps in the end and JDB did a fab solo accoustic rendition of "Everything Must Go" - truly amazing!!

These are some close-ups of my latest brooches i've done by special request of Indigo Moon customers. I've done a huge batch and each and every one unique. Some are in the shop and some are going into my Etsy Shop, once i get the hang of listing again, which i promise i'll do by the weekend. These went out a few days ago and i've sold three already!! They have a piece of an original letter dated 1919 to a Mr Kidson at Radley College Cambridge (where he was training to be a vicar) from his mother. The letters were lovely, but the paper was already deteriorating as was the ink etc, i like to think this is a way of preserving them for another hundred years or so. One lady bought one to take back to Oxford for a close friend and couldn't wait to tell her the story behind it.

Now..."what's this?" i hear you say!

"it's a plug" obviously

"well, it's not attached to anything!  Should it be?"

"oh yes!  it was and should be attached to the vacuum cleaner"

so......" Who unattached it?

"I wonder!"......

"It wuzen me, honest"

"maybe Gavin did it?????"

"ok, ok, i own up, it was me"

"but...you still love me don't you?"

"you can have my favourite toy"

..."well...you'll have to chase me for it first!!!!"

I took these photos of Lizzie today, she'd been for a walk with Viv and Tony down to the canal at Berriew! she was already in the dog house so to speak following the plug incident and yes she jumped in! she came back stinking dirty and soaking wet.  But....awwww bless....she looked so cute and happy...untill she got chucked into the yard to dry off that is!!!

“The most affectionate creature in the world is a wet dog"

Sooooooooo excited....

This is Venue Cymru, in Llandudno and it's where we'll be later...watching the Manics.....yaaaaaaayyyyyyy!!!!

My most favouritest all time, ever, band.....
This is the second time we've seen them at Llandudno, so we're shutting up shop at 5pm today and heading off into the sunset...well probably rain actually...but hey...it's the seaside, bound to be a little sun!!!! We've got a B&B booked for the night and are going to grab fish and chips to eat on the beach (how romantic!!) before the band........so fab!

and then.... on Saturday night....more exciting stuff again.....

This is the Manchester Evening News Arena...

and it's here that we'll be going to see....

...Roger Waters "The Wall Live"

Amazing ...i can't wait!!!

"What have we here laddie?

mysterious scribblings?

A secret code?

No! Poems, no less!

Poems, everybody!

The laddie reckons himself a poet!

...money get back/i'm alright, Jack/Keep your hands off my stack/New car/caviar/four star daydream/

think i'll buy me a football team...

Absolute rubbish,laddie

teacher slaps pupil with a ruler

Get on with your work"

- Pink Floyd

Busy Days...

I can't believe it's four weeks since our wedding, I had planned some major relaxation time once all the organising was over, however, we desperately needed to do our stock take in the shop which is a phenomenal amount of work, and only the two of us to do it. We're now about a third of our way through the list after some early mornings and late(ish) nights. All that on top of two bank holiday weekends (we open the shop on bank holiday Mondays) so we've barely had a day off or a minute to catch our breath. Nicci's been poorly so hasn't been able to help much and Poor Gav's had his music business to catch up with as well as the admin paperwork for the businesses. In addition we've had huge deliveries of new stock and, as we wanted to get into good habits regarding computerising all the stock, it had to be booked onto the computer and coded before it went out on display!!! Happy Days!

Having said that, i did manage to get into my art room for some creating time, albeit later in the evenings. As you know i'm working on pieces for my solo exhibition and am also approaching some galleries to see if they're interested. Here's a sneaky peek at some current assemblage pieces i'm working on:



I've only shown small details of a few of the pieces i'm working on, I have quite a lot to do to get all this organised and prefer for people to see them wholly finished at the exhibition, when it's arranged.

Gorgeous Bracelet
This lovely gift was given to me by my new sister, Cathy. She carefully chose it as she wanted to give me something special as a way of welcoming me to the famiily, but more to welcome me as her sister. It's so beautiful. Cathy, like all Gavin's family is a lovely genuine person, with a kind and gentle heart and soul and i adore her. Thank you so much, i'll treasure it.


And....I just have to show you this...
our lovely picture from Jo and Annie, hand made by Jo (aka Twiglet). This photo doesn't do it justice, it's made of fabric and lovingly sewn together into this gorgeous work of art depicting the front of our shop (Indigo Moon), she's so clever and it's such a lovely, personal gift.

and...Our Chimney sweep, which accompanied us to the church on our wedding day, from our lovely friends Cecilia and Peter, hand made by Cecilia. He sat very proudly at the front of the church and had to be rescued at the end of the service, i'm sure someone was ready to run off with him!

Finally, our lovely new en-suite bathroom!! Ta da.... well...it's not actually en suite yet, the room it's ensuited to (if thats a word) is currently our living room, but hopefully we'll be changing it to our bedroom sometime soon. It's massive and i love the old beams, although i find the old meat hooks slightly spooky and sinister. Gav's going to clean the beams at some point, but there's a huge amount of room in here and the bath is so luxurious, i can't wait until it's attached to our lovely bedroom. The beams run right through into the bedroom and the rest of the bedrooms down the corridor (this part of the house is essentially the attic), we're so glad we got this done, but there's still a lot to organise and decorate in the house, but we're getting there.

"The only time the world beats a path to your door is when you're in the bathroom!" (anon)

"Love begats Love"

Such nice things happening in my life.

Do you believe in Karma? Someone recently quoted to me "Love begats love"... how true that is don't you think? If you have a heart full of hate and spite it will ooze out of you..but..."love really does begat love"and if your heart is full of love and kindness .... thats what you get...

...which is just what i got yesterday when i met up for lunch with Jo and Annie. Fabulous lunch, lots of laughter, funny stories, sad stories, frustrating stories and then back to Annies for a crocheting lesson. Poor Annie and Jo, trying to teach me...i can collage and paint but crochet, knitting and sewing is simply beyond me. I barely got past being able to tie the first slip knot to start off, Annie and Jo were so patient bless 'em, but at least i did get the hang of the basics and now feel more comfortable having a go, well...at least I will after lots more practice!!!

In the meantime, these are the new brooches i've made.

These two were gifts for Jo and Annie, i've made 'ninety one' of them.

The background collaged writing is part of an "original" letter dated 1919 to a Mr Kidson at Ridley College, Cambridge, from his mother whilst he was training to become a vicar.

They sell really well in the shop, and i may even put some in my Etsy shop. Some other good news is that sales of my art have done really well over the last few weeks, i've sold a few pieces, large and small and some even more good news is that i've had two enquiries as to whether my piece of art published in CPS is for sale!!! I really am excited about that however, i have my first "solo" art exhibition planned for August and i'd like to keep it until then at least, but after that i'm happy to sell it....i just have to decide on a price!!!!

This is my wedding present from my lovely husbandwe trekked up to Chester a week before the wedding to find the Jo Malone shop, i'd tried everything else but this perfume is my favourite. My friend, Sian, first bought it for me for christmas a few years ago, it was one of the nicest presents i'd ever had, and since then nothing else will do, at least, for special occasions anyway.

...and...this is whats left of m ywedding bouquet, oh happy days, it brings back so many wonderful memories of a special day, marrying this lovely man with his kind and gentle soul... i keep thinking of it all, how happy we were/are and how happy everyone was to be there sharing it all with us, special friends and family...and special moments....the emails we've had from people saying thank you for such a lovely day
...and all the beautiful wedding presents we received.

How special is my life? I have my darling husband, my gorgeous special daughter and my Lizzie Whizzie to share it with. I have a beautiful home, our own very successful businesses, it's so overwhelming and i've never been so happy in my life.

"When i was in junior school, I was told to write down what i wanted to be when i grew up, so I wrote down "to be happy". The teacher told told me i didn't understand the assignment, I told her she didn't understand life!" - unknown (adapted)