painting on bird tree hill

Icy morning, and the world is transformed

2007-12-14T14:13:00.000-08:00

Embroidery-centric

2007-11-26T12:42:00.000-08:00

Well, the good news is that the sewing machine still works. The slightly less good news is that the foot pedal gets alarmingly hot while it's working, which has a positive side in that my feet (or at least one foot) gets tisty-tosty warm for free, but probably means that if I run it for long periods, I'm risking some kind of electrical meltdown.

What I should do, of course, is take the foot pedal apart, but I can glimpse a rusty spring in there, and I'm just not brave enough yet. Anyway, I don't care. I'm so pleased to have found a machine that works for me, that I just keep shouting out 'This is What I Do! This is What I DO!', rather like the Bishop of Southwark, but more embarrassing to my children.

The pictures are the result of my experiments. The red thing I'm going to add more patchworky texture to, and either turn into a wearable art purse, or experiment with collograph printing using it. The blue tree thing is how 'behind the radiator' piece is coming along. I'm pleased with the effect from scraffito, which cut and frayed the blue silk, and scraped into the watercolour beneath it quite nicely.

Other news is that I've finally bought my own domain and webspace, so I'm going to be putting up a proper website sometime soon - both as a gallery and, hopefully, as a space to sell work, since I'm not selling much through Etsy, and I want to also be able to put more interesting things up - a really eclectic mixture rather than pictures/ craft work. I'm experimenting with a wordpress blog, too, because there's more options for positioning pictures over there. But for the moment, until I'm sure, I'll be sticking around hereabouts.

Seamstress Deluxe

2007-11-23T14:29:00.001-08:00

Welcome to my lovely new-old sewing machine. This, as you can see, is a rather sleek 1950's number, and although lacking bells and whistles and built in stitchery-pokery, does what I want it to, beautifully. It lets me freehand embroider, without the thread breaking every two minutes.

Only had time to draw a doodle on it, and I can't wait to find some more time to do more. Because lets face it, this is the first machine I've had since leaving London that's letting me embroider, and I have been very lucky to find her (note the way I can just lower the feed dogs with one swift movement! No little tacky plastic overlay plates here!

Cake Bag and Scarf Set

2007-11-22T06:50:00.000-08:00

Well, I've been fairly busy the last few days, despite sneezy children and sneezy self. Hot Lemon and Honey helped, as it always does.

Some of the pictures show Rosie's Cake Bag. That's her own home-made Christmas present, and inside it will be a little baking set, with a rolling pin, board and assorted shaped biscuit cutters. So, it, hopefully, really will be a Cake Bag, or at least a Biscuit Bag (but biscuits aren't as pretty as cakes, so we're just going for the path of least resistance here).

Also shown is a sample of some of the long stripey crotcheted scarves I make (and last year, sold). I've had a couple of commissions on these, and so made up a sample, which I may or may not put up on Etsy (prolly won't, because Etsy is slow moving for me, and also I've a focus on prints there, rather than textiles, although I specialised initially in textiles, silk-painting, and mixed media.

The blue tree thing (aargle to more Blue Trees) is a multi-media picture (collage, silk, machine embroidery) that I started work on aaages ago, and then, in a fit of grumpy pique, stuffed behind a radiator (how grown-up of me) and forgot about it. Well, didn't actually totally forget about it, but forgot completely where it was. Well. Here it is, re-surfaced, and I'd love to do some more work on it, and might well be able to because I have found a really good secondhand sewing machine that I think might be up to the not inconsiderable job of machine embroidering through several layers of paper, silk and paint. The current machine I have is a nice basic modern Brother, but it's just not strong enough to happily embroider, although it's fine for basic sewing. The one I go to collect tomorrow is a 1950's sleek green mean machine, and doesn't do any fancy stitchery, but is more suitable for my nefarious sewing purposes. So wish me, and it, luck, please. It's also rather beautiful, and I shall call it 'Mavis' or 'Deirdree'. Shan't decide until I get it home.

I am thinking of building myself a proper website again, rather than relying on Etsy, because I haven't done too well on Etsy, and if I'm going to have an online shop, I might as well pay commission on the payments software as on Etsy. And I can then put up applique commissions (frou-frou, but I loooooved making that bag) and fabric commissions, as well as print commissions and portraits, for sale, like the bag and the scarf above, because, to be fair, I tend to sell more through commission than from straight prints anyway. Ho hum. Not sure what to do, but I think I'd like to move forward in some way. Will prolly end up hopping around sideways, though.

Snow and more Blue

2007-11-19T07:17:00.000-08:00

Blue soap this time. Again, Christmas Pressies, and made by the melt and pour method, otherwise known as cheating, otherwise known as Thinking that Lye is a Not a Good Thing to Boil in a house with two smallish children.

What you do is buy the soap base and melt it, and as you melt it you add interesting things, in my case some blue (and pink) dye and some essential oils (peppermint) and, if you're 'doing' creamy rather than transparent soap, you usually add some botanicals (dried flower/herb matter) and/or some extra niceness such as cocoa butter or almond oil. It is a little like making lemon curd, only less eggy and lemony.

But these are for my children and their friends for Christmas, and so I added extra cosmetic glitter, just because.

What else? Well, I'm getting very excited about the idea of making some collographs and monoprints when I have a couple of days spare. I've been thinking for a while about how to printmake from home, and these two techniques will both be worth trying.

Oh, and we went to a rather lovely bookshop at the weekend. Which bookshop was situated in an old barn in a farmyard, a stones throw from some very healthy looking hairy cattle. My eldest daughter refused the option of being bought her very own Primary School Thesaurus, saying she preferred to use mine, something I am a little keen to avoid, since her carefully looked up use of 'pissing it down' as an interesting 'rain related' verb for literacy homework last week.

Blue trees and rhubarb pie.

2007-11-14T11:35:00.000-08:00

Well, yesterday I made that blue picture, because I wanted to do some painting without ink lines, and felt a bit like painting trees at dusk. I'm in two minds about it. Sometimes I like it, sometimes I think it looks like a bad Christmas card. Although that's inevitable, what with it being Tree and Snow. Dhurr.

Today I made an exciting peg bag for my Mother, because she wanted one. Lovely and delightful as it is (it has rabbits on it), I shall probably not be photographing it for here. Instead I will tell you about Vasnetsov Samolet, because I was looking up pictures of flying carpets, and I really like this one.

Why am I looking up pictures of flying carpets? Because I want to photoshop my oldest daughter much as I did my youngest (that'll be badly, then), for Christmas, and for practise. I thought she might like being on a flying carpet. But things could change. There's that bed in bedknobs and broomsticks, or I could paint up a big patchwork balloon. Or a pedal-power flying machine, or, and, or, and.

On Carpets:

I love them. They're beautiful, and interesting, and properly functional.
They have stories in them, which makes them even more glorious.
They have traditions attatched to them all over.
They are metaphoric treasure.
They are real-life treasure.
I read a fantasy book ages ago about a carpet. But I can't remember who wrote it.

At the moment we're all Narnia crazy, because Daddy very, very kindly lent our household his BBC Tales of Narnia (the oldish one - very teatime drama). But I spoilt the mood by serving Rhubarb Pie and Custard for tea.

The Mead has Stopped Fermenting and is Clearing in the Cold Room. The Apricot wine is ready, but tastes mainly of Old Sock.

Walking this morning.

2007-11-12T12:32:00.001-08:00

Today was the first really frosty morning, so I went for an early walk up on the fields, and took some photographs. I'm not the world's greatest photographer, but I did enjoy it, and I'll use them later.

Then I came home to my warm cottage and finished making two rag dolls for Christmas. Then some work, and then some more work. On Thursday I'm going to make the soap (transparent, with leetle embedded pretties), and I'm going to get crocheting some nice warm scarves, since there's been calls for them this year. Bit late for the Christmas markets, but never mind.

Frosty fields and a carpet bag.

2007-11-12T12:10:00.000-08:00

I should post here more. I am doing things, I'm just not posting about them.

Presently, some of the things I am doing are Christmas related. Not much art-work, because I've taken on a copy-typing temp job to pay some bills, but lots of making things for my children, and some christmas card experiments with photoshop. Hence the picture. I'm finding it very easy to make sentimental (and slightly ghostly) Victorianaish images with photoshop, and less easy to do anything particularly interesting with it, but that's partly because I'm not sure what it's for yet.

My challenge this year is to make as much as I can as pressies. Soap, dolls, chocolate covered marshmallows, red wine with mulling spice - I can do a lot of that. I made some fudge in little origami star boxes for Brownies and for my daughter's teacher. I'll post a pic of the dolls in a sec.

Stuffed Mice and Caravans

2007-10-26T13:09:00.000-07:00

Octoberish. Well, that's my excuse anyway. It's been too long since I posted here, and partly that's because I'm lazy, but also it's because I've:

Been doing some copy-typing of old (I mean really, really old - when spelling had no meaning, and land was described depending on whose land it abutted, and natural features) manuscripts for money (Christmas is coming, and selling pictures does not always make for a fat goose).
Having waaaay too much fun with my children.
Being monumentally uninspired about what I'm making/painting. Which, equally, doesn't make for a fat goose, and this is a bad time of year to be fretting about inspiration.

But, the half-term holiday has done me the world of good (no copy-typing, more fun with children). We have made Origami frogs, my eldest went to a two-day drama workshop, and today we all went to Hartlebury Castle, which is the county museum of Worcester.

And it was brilliant. There was a great deal to do, some craft-themed (Halloween, dontchaknow), like making a pumpkin lantern, and a quill pen, and a dreamcatcher, a spoooky biscuit and some trail-themed (find the frogs).

My five year old liked the frog-trail best, and my seven-year old the lantern-making. Both had a wonderful time, and so did I. There's an awful lot of interesting exhibits in this castle. Some are quirky (the dolls house), some fascinating (the gypsy caravans), some surreal (the stuffed mice playing cards), some cute (the little elephant) and some just interesting and clever.

They do 'themed rooms' which is great for giving children a proper sense of period, and the castle itself is beautiful, with a moat, and walks, and plenty of picnic benches.

There were lots of museum staff on hand, and everyone seemed to be smiley. Another nice touch - skipping ropes and hoops left outside for children to play with during the 'lunch hour'.

So we all came back with inky fingers, arms full of goodies, and smiles.

Toad in the Hole for tea, and I feel like I want to do some work proper tomorrow, which is a good, good feeling.

Ribbons, apples, pears and beetles.

2007-09-30T12:10:00.001-07:00

Well, a busy week, hence no posting here. I've been, variously, doing various bits and bobs to prepare for my daughters fifth birthday on Friday (-amongst other things, we're going to play Build a beetle at the party, which I think is inspired, because Grannie isn't going to get down on the rug and play pass-the-parcel, nor jive around during Musical Bumps).

I've been attempting to do some sewing (for money) for a friend of mine, but in the process have discovered that I'm the Worst Seamstress in the World, and although I can variously experiment with machine embroidery, zig zag through paper, and generally do things that No Sewing Maching Ought to be able to do, I can't sew ribbons on a circular skirt with any sense of accuracy or, err, sense. Drat. That was going to be Christmas money, that was. Embarassingly, friend is coming round to 'give me a demonstration' next week.

This morning, I picked all the pears from the pear tree, and carefully wrapped and stored them. I also finished juicing the ginormous bag of windfall (i.e full of wildlife) apples that my parents gave me. My parents looooove giving me enormous bags of beetley apples. They've done it year after year, and, dutifully, I've gone through them, cutting out the maggoty and mouldy bits, to make Pies. Then I found a Kenwood juicer attatchment at the local charity shop, and, wahooo, two litres of lovely pink apple juice.

I am still waiting for my 'Country Wine Starter Kit' to arrive. Grrrrrrr. Although one child is, nearly as I type, being sick in the sicky-bucket, so it was clearly a plan that temted providence somewhat (that, and the party with all the crisps and the gingerbread men and the sweeties, and the chicken curry to follow...)

I am reading 'Chunky Hand Knits', 'Knit-n-bitch' and something along the lines of 'Crochet is really rather dead cool, even if it can still look rubbish'. I am also reading a 'Miss Silver' mystery. Begone, days of high literature. I shall submerge myself in 1930's easy-reads, and crochet miscellaneous scarves, and eat biscuits by my lovely autumnal fire.

I am also half-way through crocheting a really strange looking spiral scarf, in which I'm using up lots of ends of gorgoeous old wool, scrounged and found from junk shops. I've done the bulk of it, and am going to finish off the ends with a strange mixture of lime-green wool that I've been hoarding for ages. Oh, yeah, I'm making a boiled wool bag, too. Sounds so delightful, doesn't it - boiled wool. What I mean is, I've machine-felted a recycled pure lambswool sweater, in order to craft a dinkety-daisy tote. Better?

Oh, the endless whirl of excitement...but...wait...good things happen...because...

what else? Well, this blog has been tagged. Twice, actcherly, just I've been too preoccupied with my basic sewing failures to notice (sorry). The lovely Sakura has tagged me , and so has the artist known as KoolKookyKreatures. The lovely Sakura I'll go on a bit more about next post, when I'll also post the tagging info. KKK I shall talk about now, because, really, I'd rather do one thing at a time. She makes felty things, and they're yummy.

Here are some things she makes that I think are scrumptious:

The Krabby felt brooch:

The felt cupcake card:

The cutest bird I've seen in a while:

And these fabby cat pins:

Her etsy shop is......daNaaaaaaaa.......HERE

Her blog is HERE

So, there you goes if you're wanting felty funky gifts for Christmas. That aren't mass produced, and are Rather Nicely Original.

I've done a bit of artwork (see pictures), but not that much. Time, time, time, and wonky ribbons.

Why did I put the couch in?

2007-09-22T12:03:00.000-07:00

Well, I eventually got to finish inking the picture, which took a while, and was accompanied by the usual nail-biting moments (no, not really, I'm not quite that demented, yet. Let's call them 'Moments of Mild Worry') of 'will the ink create a huge great splat just at the very end, and ruin the whole thing'. It's OK with watercolours and all their random niceness, but not, not, not, when you're inking over a drawing. Now I've got to decide whether to go on to the next stage with the picture (technically termed 'colouring it in') or do something else - a sepia wash? And, and, and, why did I put the couch in? This baffles even me. I can just about account for the sheep and the snail, but why the couch? I was thinking 'hares, caterpillars' and I drew 'couch'.

What else? Well, winemaking proceeds apace, in that my father has unknowingly lent me an ancient book about home winemaking, via my ex-husband, who kindly retrieved it for me following my father's lending it to him some years ago. Hurrah! I now have recipes, and lots of technical things to read about 'finings' and suchlike. La! How I throw such phrases around as if I know what I'm talking about. We shall see. On Monday I intend to buy a Fermentation Lock for my Demijohn. I shall not have to purchase something for the First Fermentation. Instead, I shall cut corners and use what we popularly call 'the sicky bucket'. I will, of course, sterilize it, first. Hopefully neither child will fall ill before the Second Fermentation.

White. Extra reflective.

2007-09-20T11:53:00.000-07:00

Well, this week I have mainly been painting walls. My kitchen walls, with some kind of ooffy-doofy reflective white paint that's meant to make small spaces look rather larger. It sort of works, although the kitchen, sadly, has stayed Actually smaller. I was secretly hoping for a magical Dulux experience where some large dog came and pushed my walls out, somehow. I have been listening to Frank Sinatra whilst wall-painting.

I have also made the Rosehip syrup. Which tastes gorgeous, and is full of Vitamin C. If you, too, want to make it, then act quickly, and go pick 2 kg of rosehips (this hurts - wear gloves), then boil them in 2 ltrs water, leave to cool, strain through a jelly bag, repeat with 1 ltr water, then add 1 kg sugar, dissolve and boil hard for 5 mins. Put into sterilized bottles. I made one whole wine bottle, and half an olive oil bottle (pictured) full.

I tried to do some pictures for the flickr/etsy group 'self-portrait-thursday', but failed rather dismally, because they don't actually look anything like me, being rather too serious. Damn. Forgot to smile.

I started a 'big' picture, with lots of detail, a patternedy sheep, a couch and a hare. Ho hum. I'll ink it in tomorrow, and see how I feel about it then.

Rosehips and Sunflowers

2007-09-16T06:02:00.000-07:00

This week I finished a cat picture (which I'm really pleased with, and lets hope that its recepient will be, too), and went fruit-picking from the hedgerows, where I've gleaned at least two pounds of rosehips, and lots more blackberries. I was planning on making some blackberry wine, but can't decide whether to make blackberry vinegar instead, and invest in a wine 'kit' for my first attempts, so I can get a feel for the winemaking process first.

I re-read bits of 'The Doors of Perception' (Huxley), but only on-line, because I've mislaid my copy of the book, alas, and also a really interesting pamplet published by 'The Guardian' which transcripted a brilliant interview with Francis Bacon, which you can also read bits of online, here.

What else? Well, lots more bus journeys, some successful fabric-hunts (see picture), and my new brown boots are starting to become less painful. This morning, at the Car Boot Sale, the people-dressed-as-fairies were out in force, which was fun. I found some treasure, too, which was also fun...a damask tablecloth, a tin of linking monkeys, a green jumper, some bellis daisies, and a yummy smelling sage plant. Oh, and lots and lots and lots of wooden coathangers, which I'll paint, I think, or do something with, although I only really bought them because they were part of a job lot which included a really pretty 1950's tea plate. And if you've ever walked two miles with a whole heap of wooden coathangers poking into your leg at every stride, you'll know what my shins feel like now.

Autumnish

2007-09-11T12:12:00.000-07:00

There's a chill in the mornings, and that yellowish light hanging around. Leave, leaves, leaf.

I've been working today, though. Not as hard as I should be, but working nonetheless. Mainly photoshopping, badly. Some better than others, and, like everything, cropping helps. I was stodgily wading around muddily with the Small European Mammal in one of them, but I think it might work now. If you dare to care, say what SEM you think it is please, and then I'll know it is/isn't/might be/not.

2007-09-09T07:45:00.000-07:00

This weekend, we visited Queenswood, an arboretum. A tree collection. There's a plaque awarded to it by the Royal Society of Dendrology, and one day I must take a rubbing of it. The light wasn't wonderful, but it was still a good place to visit. They have Giant Redwoods, and trees that range from pale green through to bright red and purple in colour. The trees haven't started to 'change' properly yet. There's still that lingering end-of-summer feel to the days, but there are also Lots of Blackberries. I've taken photographs to work on with my photoshop experimentations, and some just because they seemed interesting. One day, I'll go to visit Queenswood in the snow, which'll be lovely.

2007-09-07T13:29:00.000-07:00

Well, there was me, swearing I'd post here at least Every Other Day, and here is me, lumbering to and from small villages on a country bus. I've done a few autumny things besides the cats, though, and this is a snippety bit of one of them.

Back to school

2007-09-04T11:33:00.000-07:00

Well, tomorrow my youngest daughter starts school for the very first time. I've embroidered her an elephant on her pump bag, made her some button badges with her name on, and she has a fantabulously cute surprise to come from an etsy swap (more on that later, because I don't want her sneaking a peek).

Today has a real feel of Autumn to it, as well. It's been a gorgeous day - sunny, but with that goldeny light, and a chill to the morning which I enjoy. We went for a walk up the hill after tea, and all was beautiful.

Lazy Weekends

2007-09-02T09:06:00.000-07:00

Well, I've had a lovely weekend, because I've had nearly two full days off. Aand during that time haven't done anything useful at all apart from to cook Chicken Casserole and make custard. And take children to the park. Also, something rather lovely arrived in the post - the beautiful earrings from SakuraJewellery. I've bought them as a present for my Mum. Etsy is great for this kind of thing - the one-off 'special' gift that hasn't been mass-produced, but made at home by an individual designer, and yet isn't exhorbitantly priced, because, of course, buying on-line from the producer means you cut out the gallery owners profit margin.

Anyway, the earrings are really beautiful, they came gorgeously giftwrapped, and I can't do them justice in my pictures here (I never realised how hard jewellery designers worked at their photography). Etsy rocks, and so does Anna at SakuraJewellery with her beautiful designs. Here is a link to SakuraJewellery's blog, and although you won't find another pair of rainbow sprinkle earrings (they're mine - ha) you can see, and buy from her jewellery collections here.

Back to work for me, now. I've got a fun commission to do (someone's rather gorgeous cats - it's going to be fun) and I want to do some persian palacey type things - I'll upload some pics tomorrow from this wonderful book I found from a secondhand book shop called 'Persian Minatures', and I want to play around with the Graphics Tablet a bit more. Hope everyone else has had good weekends, too.

Cats and Tablets...

2007-08-31T13:18:00.000-07:00

...although I didn't have to dose a cat, today (I have done that, at times, though and it is Not Fun. Cats Liketh not being dosed, as all cat owners know.)

Nooooo, a graphics tablet. A very budget graphics tablet, which is small, and came with No Box and was slightly damp, but a graphics tablet nonetheless, and lets not dwell on its provenance too much.

Yesterday I did lots of drawings of cats - line drawings, for the purpose of fiddling with in photoshop, me being new to this game. Today I played with them, first with the photoshop program, and later with the tablet, when I'd finally plugged it in and worked it out. The pictures are the result...although if I do anything else with them, I will, will, will iron my vintage fabric first (great fabric though, isn't it!)

Do they work? I haven't decided yet. I think they MIGHT work if I keep on going. I did a bit o silk painting today though, too. Which was fun.

End of Summer

2007-08-30T02:40:00.000-07:00

I'm sometimes envious of urban life. Not for the shopping, as you might expect, but because grey days didn't seem quite so grey as small-country town grey days. A better way to put it would be 'I'm looking forward to Autumn' - to crisp icy mornings (if we get any), and goldeny brown light, and leaves. But at the moment the garden looks windblown and, yes, grey (even the nasturtiums don't look that cheery) and my beautiful rose tree is all nibbled.

Slugs adore my garden. It's a whole hep-cat slug joint - they come here to boogie, swap slime stories, socialise with all their little friends - and eat the Famous Food.

Having said that, it can't have been a slug on the rose tree, unless it was the Zorro of the Slug World, impressing his friends with his climbing techniques. It was probably a caterpillar.

I am still working on my etsy shop. Thanks to some brilliant feedback from the UK Street Team it's looking better. I'm seriously debating going back to what I know best, and doing some silk-painting, too, studio or no studio. Because I like silk-painting.

Kites

2007-08-28T13:35:00.000-07:00

Kites are nice. The multi-coloured variety, and the birds. There were loads of people flying kites on Broad Haven beach (top tip - it's Very Windy there), and still more flying small nylon beach shelters, having been unwise enough to try to put one up without four people helping.

The kites looked beautiful, though - sunshiney stuff, with a sky that fluctuated from grey to clear blue. In the evening, the children all went home with their plastic kites, and grown men came out (presumably having finished work) with great sail-like kites, which they used to propell them along the waves on their boards.

Anyway, I've been drawing kites, in a kind of cheesy holiday way. I keep wanting to hang on to my fifties textile bird/leaf motif, so that's cropping up, too. I haven't got the kites quite right - one of the drawings, which uses a dip pen and ink, is too dull, and one is too 'loose' - I'll need to re-work it - I like it's celebratory feel, though. I finished, and posted, the postcards for Etsy UK Street Team promotions, so I can finish playing with kites, and draw some more cats, for another postcard collection, this week.

Blackberry Hill

2007-08-27T06:08:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, we went out for a picnic, and blackberry picking, to a place we know, near our cottage. My best friend, who has lived round here all her life, assures me that there used (not when she was a child, but before that) to be a cottage here. Now there's just an uneven mound of blackberry thickets and nettles. But I think it's exciting, and interesting - here and there I wonder if I can spot the remains of a garden - a plant gone wild, or some bricks. You can't go there without imagining who might have lived in that house, once, long ago.

I have been working, too, of course. Five watercolour postcards, and playing with some altered book images. But for now, lets dwell on the blackberries.

Back home to the bewilder

2007-08-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

Pembrokeshire was beautiful, and the holiday was what you get if you choose to go to isolated Wales by public transport and risk the weather - some rainy trundling about on coastal buses interspersed with moments of glory.

The picture to the right is taken through the rainy windscreen of the Puffin Shuttle, a bus that travels windy coastal roads from Milford Haven to St Davids, full of backpackers and surfers. The picture above right is Broad Haven, where we stayed, and there's a sand mermaid, too.

I've sketched a great deal, but am not going to start posting those on the web, or doing much with them until it all sinks in. Took lots of pictures of old tombstones with crazy writing on them, and of the sea.

Things you should know about Youth Hostelling:

Youth Hostels seem to attract two very different types of men. One is lean, active, tanned and does practically everything for everyone - cooks breakfast, strides around with bags, chats happily in corridors of other same-type men about how difficult sheet-sleeping bags are to cope with, but without malice, and sotto voce, with a kind of brisk cameraderie.

The other is a petty domestic despot. Accompanied by wife who does everything, from childcare to all the cooking. They sit, reading papers, while she washes up after their three course feast. They read, in corridors, moaning gently about the facilities, while she rushes around with her four or five children in tow. They make heavy jokes, and complain, leaving snotty notes around for the staff to read.

Youth Hostels, for me at least, are nicer the more eccentric they are. Broad Haven hostel, though clean and beautifully close to the sea, is not eccentric in the least - it is a purpose built, functional building rendolent of Geography field trips and soap. Last year I stayed in the now sadly defunct Llanbedr, which was a gorgeous, dilapidated, grubby victorian mansion, where the staff were friendly but somewhat vague, and sat outside under makeshift awnings, chatting, and all the children ran around barefoot. It was more fun. Next year, I'll try St Davids, and we'll work our way up the coastal path by Puffin Shuttle. When the children are old enough, we'll backpack.

Nicest place we went to - Little Haven is a cornish-style boating town, with some lovely pubs, and a tea-room. But tucked away in the Church Hall there was, first, a craft fair, then a local watercolour exhibition, and Refreshments. All hand-made cakes and pots of tea, with little tables that had chequered cloths on them, and what I suppose could be termed light jazz/swing in the background. It was wonderful. We all sat down, refreshed, for £3. Thank-you, nice ladies of Little Haven.

Strangest thing said to me during the week: 'Feel my cardigan'.

I'll leave you to ponder that one.

Holidays

2007-08-16T03:44:00.001-07:00

Right, am off on holiday tomorrow, to see beautiful unspoilt Pembrokeshire beaches, with hopefully some sunshine, too. So no posts here for a week!

Etsy team cloud challenge

2007-08-15T06:10:00.001-07:00

I'm not sure whether to do more to her, but I'm working on Cloud Woman here, for the etsy Uk August challenge.

Last night, a friend of mine who has been clearing out her Mum's garage, found some old brooches she wore as a child, and showed me this one (I hung on to it to scan it through, because it's just so pretty)

Peter Blake and The Brotherhood of Ruralists

2007-08-15T05:48:00.001-07:00

I was looking for an image I remembered that reminded me of an excerpt from a Byron poem, and although I couldn't find what I was looking for, I did find an image of a picture painted by David Inshaw that I loved when I was a teenager, and think I still love now. The colours of the sky are brighter than I remember, but it has a surreal quality that I really enjoy. And just look at the deep green of those trees, and the blank expression of the country house.

Then, I remembered that Tate Liverpool is having a mayor exhibition of Peter Blake's work, and how much I like Girl in a Poppy Field, shown on the right, above. There's lots of information about him on their website.

Etsy UK Team Sundazy...

2007-08-12T12:16:00.001-07:00

Etsy, that lovely craft site, has a UK Street Team, which is promoting work from individual artists and craftspeople all across the UK. Very, very exciting and special, I think. Because, really, nice home-made things are yummy. True. They're just better, and yummier, and more individual, and more exciting than their production-lined cousins.

Some members of the Etsy street team are heading over to New York to do a Trunk Show. So there's some fundraising going on at a Street Team Shop. Have a look by clicking
HERE
The shop is full of lovely things...

painting

2007-08-11T06:58:00.000-07:00

Hello...

I'm sarah-jane, a painter and illustrator based in the UK. I use pen, ink and watercolour paints, plus some textiles, and I've just started putting pictures in galleries on the internet! Very exciting!

Oh, I have children - most of my sucessful pictures feature them in some way, even if the way is hidden, and I like reading, cooking, gardening. The usual things. Life is a bit chaotic at the moment, as I'm frantically working - pen in one hand, brush in the other, bread in another, doll between my teeth, bears under my arms - and as every parent working from home during the school holidays knows...that delicate tightrope balancing juggling dance. That'd be something to paint in between Indian Elephants.

I've just found a lovely site in Etsy (here), and another one (which I only just got on to this morning) in Trunkt (here). There are some fantastically super-lovely artist and craftspeople on both sites. I'm really excited at the standard of work there. Lovely illustrations in particular, and some of the jewellery is really swoon-worthy. *sigh* Yes, I will post links.

The Master Plan is to get my stuff sorted, then I can really look around and enjoy myself. So, cross fingers, touch wood, circle the magpies I'll be able to sit and meet some people there in between all this bear-juggling.