Exciting.....

is everyone as excited as me at the lengthening days. Just makes me feel better, hoping that warmth will follow soon as it is still a tad cold for a chilly mortal like me.
You are not supposed covert your neighbours goods but a friend of mine has a piece which I love.  It is a representation of a tin mine in Cornwall made in Cornish Slate and Metal.  I decided to have a go myself,    as I had no slate to hand I layered canvas here it is only resembling the original in composition.

My hexie quilt is growing slowly and serving double duty in keeping my knees warm. I found a fleece with a good black edge so that will be the backing , I thought I had nearly done enough but when I put them together I still have a long way to go.

Yesterday was great fun I went to see a friend in an excellent  production of Forbidden Broadway.
Funny parodies of  famous songs. What fun. Lots of clips from other productions on You Tube if you are interested.

I have had my Pinterest fix as per usual and this week the side of me that loves shabby chic is winning. I love how I swing between rust and lace, altering thoughts indeed.
I liked both these ideas which, apparently, started life as the middles of toilet rolls. Not tutorials but I think you can work them out.
From Vintage Inspired

 

The second one brings me to an interesting point about Pinterest.  I wich people would be more careful when chosing their
 links.  You have to have a link to the actual article not just the site, otherwise you spend hours scrolling through to find the item you want was posted years ago or worse you cannot locate it at all.

 This is the case with this one, I was unable to track down the original of these gift tags.

 

Looking forward to a visit to the Spring Knitting and Stitching Show this week.  A little list of neeedles and such but I am sure something else will tempt me.

I don't know why.....

I like pictures of disintegration....perhaps it's my age....this morning I found this link on Facebook one of  the   Through our Hands posts.A collection by Katy Cowan.

One of my favourites.

 I have finally managed to dig out the paints and mediums.
The first was going to be something else and then turned itself into something akin to the view of Black Combe at the top of this blog. 

The "fence" is hessian. I guess I really am homesick at the moment.  The traffic chaos which is becoming the norm around Dartford has me hankering for winds off the sea.
The next one was based on a tutorial in the excellent "wabi-sabi Art Workshop" by Serena Barton.

 

 Making this gave me great satisfaction. 

Something completely different......

Last week was half term holiday for schools and my nephew brought his family to London for a few days.  I joined them at the Science Museum, somewhere I hadn't visited since my own children were small and I can tell you I will be going back, hopefully when it is less crowded and with my "proper" camera which is very good in low light. Just maybe I will get a chance to play on some of the touch screen (used to be push buttons). I did manage a few shots.
Loved this display in the entrance.

 and this had me really excited.( you can tell by the bluriness.)

So much to see, made me feel like this

 Hopefully I'll go while this exhibition is on.


Thursday I had a little play day with my friend and we made wonky houses, I was inspired by this picture on Pinterest from this site

Mine is on the left, I found a place for it.

    I have a new print tray to fill.  Hurrah.
Yesterday I finally managed to play with paint. I a video from France Papillon as a guideand if the result isn't quite up to her standard I had great fun.  The image is one of my favourites of my mother which I altered in my new Corel PaintShop Pro 7 (Christmas gift from son which I learning to love)

In need of inspiration?????

This popped up on my Facebook feed this morning.  A link to an interactive look at "The Garden of Earthly Delights" by Heronimus Bosch.



Not much going to get done round here today!

Little outing.......

...Thursday evening, a special treat, I went to listen to a talk by Janet Bolton.  I had seen pictures of her work but I was unprepared for haw fascinating it was going to be to here her talk about her life and work.  To see her work close to gave a new understanding on her, often long, process of such beautifully simple images. If you have the chance go listen.  One of the things she said, which I think will stick, was that when you are creating "the only person you need to please is yourself."  A very liberating statement I think.

She also made me feel very homesick as she spoke of the wonderful light of the northern counties, in particular Lancashire our shared home county. I gave myself a treat  to this book 

Don't you just love those sheep?

Yesterday was not so good. This may end in a rant......you have been warned.   A friend needed transport to a hospital, so off at mid-day off we went, a 25 minute journey.  She received treatment which in the nature of things took a little while and at 5 o'clock we set off home.  FIVE HOURS later we arrived home . The adverse weather had closed the Dartford Bridge and the area gridlocked.  Now here comes the rant, these things happen but they are made far worse by QUEUE JUMPERS  and people who can't obey the simple rule  which says STAY OUT OF THE YELLOW BOX UNTIL YOUR EXIT IS CLEAR.  We need another river crossing FAR AWAY FROM DARTFORD and we need to NOW. 

You can take your ear defenders off now.

The NFL season has ended, really enjoyed watching the recording yesterday and the BBC presentation team were great.  Now I have to re-think my entertainment whilst sewing. American Football is great because of all the breaks, though I still hate the ad break after the kick return but I digress.

During the play off season I have occupied my hands with this,

This is a vintage napkin, so about 8" x 8". I used grey sewing cotton which was part of a gift from my friend Gudrun who died last year. The white embroidery was on the cloth. Stream of conciousness stuff really but loosely based on Kent my adopted county.

I spoke of home sickness and these wonderful cloud effects, last week,  made me hanker for a walk own the Coast Road.

Photograph by Jim Raven.
Apparently they are called nacreous clouds 
a result of one of the recent storms.
I still think the weather has been worse since we started naming storms.

Decisions......

...I started this blog on the 13th January 2006.  Ten years....feels like five at the  most.  Frightening at my age.  I have been very lax (lazy) of late in posting, in fact the last post was in November last year, so I feel I must give myself a good talking too and decide whether I am going to continue which, I feel, would have to be on a regular basis to have any value.  So while I am dithering here is a bit of an update.

We went to the Samuel Pepys' exhibition at the Greenwich Maritime Museum,  really good displays but perhaps more about the times than the man.

I was a cold and frosty morning one of the only ones this winter, because of the mild weather it looked more like March than January.(The ppor garden plants don't know whether they are coming or going)

Have you noticed how there is always someone in a red jacket when you want to take a photo?
I just love trees in winter.

I have been sewing, another chair back cover completed. This time I took an A A Milne poem for my starting point.

I really enjoy my mind meanders on these and am now looking for another cover to make a third.
For you exhibition last year I mounted the piece of faux boro I had made inspired by the work I had seen here and here . This was mine

I am thinking of taking it off it's mount and extending it, not quite sure how or even why.

One of the reasons for being so remiss with blog posts it the amount of time I spend on my ipad.  A good portion of it on Pinterest.. This is my page
I did think I would try to also mention some of the things I found interesting on here. This is a post on a Japanese artist Junko Oki which I pinned because of this image,


So....there you go.  We shall see.