Lovely evening with Jo and Annie last night. Darling Jo, bless her, came over last week and kindly took all my wedding bow sashes back with her where she carefully ironed them ready to tie. Then i went over to hers last night to tie them on the chairs and had a lovely surprise as Annie was there too, which was just as well because she came in handy to hold the knots in place whilst we tied them...he he he!!! Seriously we were a great team and got them all tied in record time and now their looking gorgeous all over Jo's spare bed, safe and sound ready for the day. I can't thank them enough for their help, Annie has done all our wedding clothing alterations for us, they're two of the most kindest and loveliest people I know and i love them to bits - Thank you both

I needed to find some things to do to help me start relaxing and wind down a little before the wedding, so yesterday i made these lovely rose rings.....they were so easy and fun to make and i'd even sold one by the end of the day.Other than that "wading through treacle" is how i'd describe events here these last few days. As if weddings aren't stressful enough to organise we had the misfortune to have to have had the most apathetic person to deal with as regards the booking and organising of the reception venue. With less than four weeks to go i simply asked her last Monday what time our team of caterers could get into the kitchen on the day, to which she calmly replied that they "couldn't" at least not until "after 12 noon because there was a coffee morning there"!!! strewth...we're getting married at twelve and the reception is due to start at 1.30pm - Instant panic.

Anyway, we eventually managed to sort it out and the coffee morning was cancelled, but this was only after a meeting with the town mayor and the threat of complete anarchy in Montgomery with the possible hiring of bouncers to keep people out of the town hall and a protest march down broad street in my wedding dress Ha! It all took it's toll though, the ridiculous woman was incapable of admitting to her mistake of double booking the venue which ended up with words and bad feelings between us and the coffee morning people. I felt drained and upset by it all as well as wasting two days of precious time trying to sort it.

Mind you, my living room is sparkly clean now as a result, i tackled it in such a temper....he! he! he!

I made these cards in the shop today, they're watercolours, i just need to embellish them with some gold inks and can't wait to see them in the shop. and...here's one i made earlier (not)...the wedding cake!! Gav and i put it together yesterday, which wasn't fun, it's a bit wobbly! but we're working on that, we marked all the layers with the dowelling rods and put the pillars in place and managed to just save it from Lizzie by a hairs breadth...phew!!!!!. Obviously it has to have the flowers on it yet and i have some nice pearl headed pins to go around the ribbons. It's all sealed up in boxes for the moment ready to re-assemble, we're so pleased with it, it's going to be fab. I think we've just about reached the point where we can start relaxing and let all the excitement and loveliness take over now. There are a few last minute things to put into place, not to mention the cleaning, but i'm sure it will get done in time, i'm trying not to worry about it anymore. We're all (Nicci, Gavin and me) having a day out in Chester on Monday for some last minute weddingy things, perfume, make-up, underwear etc and then i'm due to have my first hair appointment next wednesday.

I won't have time to post anymore before the wedding but i promise you all lots of lovely photos after the event. Thanks so much to all of you who have emailed with your wonderful good wishes for both the day and with your congratulations and lovely comments on my published article in CPS, it's been overwhelming. I had planned a celebratory evening here at Indigo Moon for the CPS publication but, unfortunately, have run out of time, so am planning an exhibition sometime in May, when i'm, hopefully not so hectic.

"Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow and never stop questioning"

- Albert Einstein - (adapted)

...the plumbers never finished on Wednesday, after they said they would...they were off for two days last Monday and Tuesday with food poisoning. When they got back to it on Wednesday they were set with a few other problems, like wrong adhesive for the floor tiles and the fact that the bath didn't fit into the waste pipes! They disappeared rather quickly on Friday afternoon once they realised that they couldn't finish until Monday! They have to build a plinth for the bath and fit it and sort out a few other things,hopefull they'll finish by the end of Monday and will take all their rubbish...i'll be so relieved....but despite all that the en suite looks fab.

Anyway, thought you might like to have a walk around "Indigo Moon" with me, it's looking rather lovely at the moment:

Button Brooches I made last week...all thats left

They look nice in the dish on the counter

and...this parcel arrived...from the states

25 copies of Cloth Paper Scissors with my feature in

for the exhibition/open evening we're planning at the end of the month

and....(shameful) this is what my work room/studio looks like at the moment

full of boxes and everything we needed to move out of the way of the plumbers, this is one of my jobs for next week...to bring some semblance of order to the place.

I can't believe how close the wedding is now, it's quite scary. We got the cake last week (Gav's in charge of that, i've not got a good reputation with cakes!). All the chair covers have arrived, the bows arrived yesterday and i'm trying to decide whether to tie them all beforehand or leave them until the Friday night before!! We have so many friends travelling here on the Friday (from Leeds to Portsmouth) we're having an open house through the afternoon and a get together in the evening so we can say hello to them properly. It's all very very exciting.
We have a final meeting with the caterer on Tuesday to tie up all the loose ends and then it'll be all systems go, with initial hair appointments, crash diets and most of all, a massive effort to clean the house up so it's ready for visitors.

I bought a very pretty, delicate shrug/bolero last week to go with my dress, it's a lovely cream lace and looks so nice on my shoulders with long bell sleeves. I wanted Nicci to have one in black to go with her dress and got her to try mine on to check for size....at which point she burst into song and an Abba impression, saying all she needed was the platform shoes!!! there's no hope.

MEGAN

My Gorgeous, Talented, Clever Niece

Happy 11th Birthday Beautiful Girl

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Published...

...in Cloth Paper Scissors.

My copies arrived yesterday, i'm very excited

The magazine is always full of interesting articles and i'm proud to be part of it.

The Team at Cloth Paper Scissors were very professional to deal with, always very kind and helpful and nothing was too much trouble.
and.. Ta Da
I've opened an Etsy shop (Tina Gilmore) which i'll link to later as i'm still listing at the moment, here are some of the works about to go on, there are already a few other items on there.

These pieces are part of the "Simplicity" series one of which was featured in Cloth paper Scissors.



This issue of CPS is for sale in my shop "Indigo Moon" if anyone would like a copy email me for details at info@indigomoon.eu

excitement aside.....these were so much fun to do,
button brooches i made whilst in the shop the other day. I was playing around with some bits and experimenting with a stack of wooden discs i had and wondering what i could do with them and as I sell these buttons in the shop i grabbed a few and a bottle of glue and thought they looked great as brooches, I ended up making 43 and sold eight before the shop closed.

and...because I'm so fed up of this horrible cold weather we're having here in the UK (i wonder sometimes if the sun will ever return, it feels so long since we had any warm weather) I decided to encourage it along with an Easter/Spring window display. I bought some gorgeous coloured eggs from TK Maxx in Shrewsbury last week to decorate the branches with and loads of people have wanted to buy them, I could have sold them all tenfold, at a good profit too, but i'm very protective of them, which is a good job because when i went back to TK Maxx they'd sold out!

Now this something i'm really excited about... i was having panic attacks about the horrible blue chairs at the Town Hall for the wedding reception, we were close to having to hire some as i couldn't see them working. Then Gav found these Spandex covers on ebay. We had no idea what they'd be like so we bought one and crept into the town hall to borrow a chair to try it out...and it looked great. I already had some organza ribbon to try the bow and it totally transformed the chair so we've ordered what we need in covers and bows now also managed to get access into the town hall to test out the settings of the reception tables, we had such a laugh rolling them out...and then a rush to put them all back before the jive class started, it was very constructive and of course, now we have our table plan.

Having lots of visitors at the moment too, freinds and family who're attending the wedding requesting a catch up beforehand, it's lovely despite the chaos still going on.

Thankfully, the plumbing work is due to be all finished on wednesday, it's so nice to have central heating and hot water and the en suite is looking really nice.

After that it'll be all systems go to get the house in order before wedding guests arrive.

The shop is picking up again now after the January/February lull, there are so many visitors to Montgomery at the moment and they're all loving it here. The Checkers restaurant and hotel had their long awaited opening evening tonight, the work they've done there is stunning, we can't wait to go there for a meal. Montgomery has quite a lot to offer now.

I'll be doing my own exhibition of my art and celebrating this publication at the end of March with a late opening and will keep you posted of the date and times. I'm off to bed now, I need my sleep! Nos da.

Chaos...

Utter chaos...is just about how i'd describe my home at the moment. I'll post some piccies tomorrow to show you and then you'll all understand why i've barely had time to read any blogs create or join in any fun lately.

In the meantime i just had to show you this from today, it was so hilariously funny. As you can see this is Lizzie, "naughty Lizzie" actually having great fun with me in the yard today picking up all the dead clematis the plumbers had had to remove from the side of the house, but as fast as i was putting it in the bin, Lizzie was dragging it back out onto the floor. After about half hour of this i went into the kitchen for coffee, where she promptly weed on the floor, i was quite cross as she just doesn't seem to be getting the hang of going outside yet and all i said was "who did that?" in quite a stern voice...whereby she shot outside and hid behind the bin. I went outside and this is how i found her, peering over the top of the bin at me. Luckily the camera was nearby recharging it's batteries.

Awww...she looked so cute and funny, i quickly forgave her

This felt brooch was given to me today by a customer, it's so gorgeous and she's such a nice lady.

WOYWW to follow, i've taken photos today because my workspace won't look any different tomorrow, i'm sure you'll be shocked at the chaos!

HAPPY ST DAVIDS DAY

Little Blue Houses

I thought it was about time i did an art post. To be honest i've not had much opportunity to get into my art room recently because we have major plumbing work going on, part of which is having a new boiler an extra radiator in the shop (near the till so i'll be warm - the log burner's at the other end of the shop) and a new gorgeous en-suite bathroom. The plumbers will be here for another two-three weeks at least so I can't promise that i'll be able to do much else until then.

Also the "art studio" or "work-room" needs a bit of attention and is going to be re-organised so both Gavin and I can work in there. The plan is to have all storage space for art materials against the walls (but this will only be halfway up the wall, providing extra drying space for various art pieces) and we want a huge work table in the middle of the room that we can both use. So, with the heating sorted i/we should have a nice cosy room to create in.

ART

Anyway, back to art. These are stacks of watercolour boards i bought recently (about 30 of them). I had an idea to do some sets of art in "series". I decided on a series of five each of different things (...stay with me on this...) The first batch (which are the only ones i've done so far) are called "Little Blue Houses" and i thought i'd share the process of creating them with you all. The plan is to make some short video films for this, but whilst the house is undergoing so much re-organisation it's impossible to contemplate that, i bet the minute the camera was set up the plumber would want it moved to get under a floorboard.

So...this is how "Little Blue Houses" started out "watercolour boards" as said. I have a large supply of old (some of it very old) ephemera specifically to use in my art. I used the originals for these, which i don't always do, they were letters dated 1906 from a vicar near Craven Arms buying a house (or vicarage), i love how delicate the paper is and whilst I don't often use the original copies as i said, sometimes the paper is so wispery thin and delicate i think it's a good way to preserve it. I glued these old letters to the watercolour boards with gel medium and let it dry.

I love the way the brown aged tones come throughI had an idea that each house was to be on a hill, so i used old wall paper scraps to represent this (there are some fab decorative pieces around) and I glued the said "hill" on to each board and put in some background colour. I started with the creamy colour you see here, it's "Golden's" heavy body "Titanium Buff" acrylic, i don't use a paintbrush for this part, just squirt the paint straight onto the board and move it around with my fingers. Sometimes i use an old bank card to move it around or anything that can give that random effect, i have a vinyl roller which works too, but when using that i prefer to put down other colours and just roll over it all the effect can be amazing. Titanium Buff mixes well with other colours too so it's good to start with.

I then added some shades of pale blues, i'm never precise or fussy about the shades of colours, i mostly just pick whatever is nearest, pale greens work well too. These are mostly the background colours, but sometimes if a background comes out well i'll just stick with it and not add further colours.

...as is the case with most of these, but for the sake of variety i added some purple and orange to two of them.

I decided not to paint over the wallpaper samples on this occasion as i thought they were decorative enough for what i wanted, however i sometimes do. I paint a colour and rub it back and then paint another colour etc, until the image shows through or at least a little of the initial colour, especially if the design is interesting.

I used some old book pages to make house shapes, i have loads of these thick books which i picked up from Hay on Wye years ago, the words are a facsimilie of hand writing and it works well. The books are written in french and are full of surnames, which i thought was appropriate for houses. I glued the various house shapes onto the boards and let them dry.

then i painted the houses, blue of course.

Added a flower and a bird and outlined windows and doors with a charcoal pencil.

All i have to do now is locate, amongst the chaos, my fixative spray. I don't normally use this but having used charcoal for detail i can't seal them unless i do as the charcoal comes off, and then find some suitable narrative to go on them and number the houses and use a little gold ink here and there. I'll show you the finished pieces in my next post by which time i'll have, hopefully, found the fixative spray.
LIZZIE

Awwwww...my poor darling Lizzie and her injured tail. This photo was taken the day after the accident, she was still groggy from the anaesthetic!! she's since had to go back to the vets and have a bigger collar put on because this one was too wide and she could reach her tail and kept trying to pull the stitches out.

However, she's a lot brighter these days, but looks funny, every day she manages to up-end her water bowl, as she lifts her head the lip of the collar catches on the rim of the bowl and it goes everywhere. Another week and she'll be back to normal. apart from the shaved tail that is.

EXCITEMENT

I'm so excited (and nervous) that my article is due to be published in the March/April issue of Cloth Paper Scissors, iit's due out on the 8th March. As well as the main feature i was also asked to contribute to the homework page and these are the images i sent them. I won't tell you what it's about until the issue is out, they'll only use one of these images though.

We're busy trying to organise an evening at Indigo Moon to celebrate the article being published. I thought i'd do an exhibition of some of my other work, i'm a little nervous about it as i've not done an exhibition before, but we all have to start somewhere i guess. I've had so many good wishes, support, kindness and encouragement from so many people to do it i thought it was the best next step.

SHOP

The shop continues to do well, January and February have been quiet (but some days have been a lot busier than expected). We missed the trade show last Monday but are managing with current suppliers, especially with jewellery and scarves, which seem to fly out the door as soon as they're delivered. Mind you i do have some nice lightweight spring and summer scarves in at he moment and i think people are so fed up with the cold it's almost as if they buy them to encourage the warmer weather!!!! Anyway, they're selling like mad, Gav and I have some fabulous ideas between us and just need some time to get organised with them.
WEDDING

For those who have been asking, the rewedding plans are going along splendidly, i finally bought my shoes yesterday in Shrewsbury, which is great because i'd almost given up hope of finding any i liked. It's all so exciting and special.

LIFE

Sometimes life just takes over, it's like a whirlwind around you and before you know it time has passed you by and all the things you wanted to do and/or planned have slipped away. As you get older i think you're more aware of this, i know it sounds morbid, but never in my life has a year or two gone by and felt like five minutes. The greatest thing about it all is that it's enjoyable and thats why it's going so quickly i guess. People ask me every day how the shop is going, how business is in Montgomery etc. Today i chatted away to a lady who asked the same question and my answer was "well, we'll never be millionaires" but i added that "having gone out at 8.30am this morning to quickly walk the dog in the horrible rain and cold i came back, sat in my lovely kitchen and enjoyed a fresh coffee, then pottered around the shop for an hour making sure everything had price labels on and was straight and tidy and then casually opened up at 10.00am, and that to not have had to drive off anywhere in the horrible weather and work for other people was better" and she said "well you're already a millionaire then aren't you darling?".

"TIME IS A BRISK WIND, FOR EACH HOUR IT BRINGS SOMETHING NEW...BUT WHO CAN UNDERSTAND AND MEASURE IT'S SHARP BREATH, IT'S MYSTERY AND IT'S DESIGN?" - PARACELSUS