Farewell

New blog here

Thank you to all my lovely friends for following my blog here

time to try new things

off to pastures new

xxxxx

A feast of colour for you this week:

Some new work (unfinished)

(detail)

 I love this picture, it's very whimsical and reminds me of my gorgeous girl

The above paintings were done on canvas, which, for me, is not as easy to work with as wood substrate.  I find canvas too pliable for my collaging, it moves when i'm working on itand feels sort of unsafe.  I do like the finished work but will stick to wood in future.

Whimsical Owl, on wood:

Gorgeous "sweetheart" roses from Gav

These were a thank you from gav for a lovely birthday, which was last Saturday.  We closed up early and dashed down to The Guildhall in Gloucester to see "Wilko Johnson", supported by "Virgil and the Accelerators" (whom gav's just filmed).  Wilko was amazing, i saw him recently at Llangollen Town Hall but I was in so much pain with my poorly back i had to sit at the back through most of the performance, so this time i dosed myself up with painkillers and stood right at the front for the whole performance.....brilliant.  We stayed in a 14th Century Inn in the town for the night, which was supposed to be haunted but i didn't see anything worse than a spider!!

Best buys this week, or year actually, was this amazing new cupboard we bought for our kitchen last Monday, it looks fab

(or at least it will do when my kitchen is eventually cleared of shop stock!)

...and.... OMG i love this..

 my new amazing Carlos Santana tour bag

...and last but not least is all the arrangements for my birthday party! 
The invitations have nearly all gone out, you're all welcome, would love to see you. 

We haveThe Fabulous Cover Sluts providing the musical entertainment for the evening:

Hope you all have a fab weekend

xxx

The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Stranglers, The Manics, Super Furries etc etc etc

 

 

This Eddie Izzard Englebert Humperdinck Sketch is funniest thing ever.

 

I was putting a song list together last night for my party - one song from the charts every November from 1962 to 2012 (it was pretty dismal from 1986 onwards i must say) but Englebert was in the charts in November 1962 and i was reminded of this:  i watched it five times last night:

ENJOY

 

 

 

 

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

 

 

A few weeks ago i did a workshop with Viv Sliwka of Hensteeth Art ,

Viv is an amazing person and her work is so beautiful.  It was a day spent relaxing and enjoying time with lovely creative people.

My needlecase

 Everyone elses needlecases

 

My day off today has mostly been spent reorganising the kitchen, the shop and my art studio, it's like one of those sliding puzzles; we bought a lovely cupboard for the kitchen from the auction,

 

which meant putting the old one back in the shop, but not before we had to move something else from the shop!!  It was carefully organised so that we didn't end up tripping over things, but got there in the end.  I now have another work table in my studio, which is always useful

 This is the table opposite, which is my sewing table and (soon to be) jewelry making table

 my felting table

and this wine box shelving in the cornerfor holding all my supplies, books/magazines

(sorry for the awful photo)

 

This was my kitchen table this morning, full of gorgeous new things for the shop

 

...like these gorgeous silk scarves

 

 

 and these lovely soaps from a company called "Black Rabbit", hand made in Montgomeryshire

 

There's loads more stuff and when i get a minute i'll do an "Indigo Moon" walkaround and show you!

 

xxxx

Rest, Relaxation and a four thousand plus year old tree

Just back from my hols, proving that you don't have to go too far to simply breathe, relax and enjoy life.  I had everything i needed, most importantly the love of my life, then a nice little self catering cottage in a pretty village with a very old traditional foody pub right opposite our front door!  Mix in some quiet romantic evenings with nice food, nice wines and morning and afternoon walks along rivers and ancient churches and trips out to the coast - equals the perfect holiday.  

Harlequin Cottage, Llangernyw

 St Digians Church, Llangernyw

 The oldest tree

 

 I love this, a BT red phone box spotted in amongst the rambling farm buildings from the church, they do get everywhere!  This one's pretty neglected but i'd seen another one ealier in the day in someone's front garden being used as a log store! very innovative.

 Cosy pub, "The Old Stag", Llangernyw

Before i went away i purchased this gorgeous victorian quilt from Ebay, it was very cheap but wasn't in fantastic condition, having a huge hole in the middle. However, i had an idea to make some vintage hearts with it to sell in the shop!

I made these in the cottage one rainy late afternoon and once i was over the initial fright of cutting up this gorgeous quilt, it was great fun.  I'm no stitcher, but these just need some stuffing, a bit of final stitching and some surface embellishments and i'm sure they'll pass for a bargain in my lovely shop. 

 

The smaller ones are £3.75 each and the slightly larger ones are £4.25 each - they're backed with a gorgeous vintage cream woollen blanket that Gav rescued from a local cafe owner (he actually brought it home for the dog!!) and then i had to rescue it from him.

 (Large)

 (Small)

I can't wait to finish them off with little hangers and messages. Watch this space.

 

Finally, here are some photos of a project i've been working on - Altered Books, or perhaps this is more of a hand made book  (3"x3").  It's not finished yet, i've used hand made paper and glued and machine stitched in ephemera elements.  I'd like to add some colour with some painting but haven't decided what will work as yet.

 

 

Tomorrow i'm off to Weston Park in Shropshire to attend a "hand stitched needlecase workshop" with

Viv Sliwka at Hensteeth,

 

 i can't wait, i've packed my camera!