It all makes work.......

.......for the working man to do!  This just about sums up my life at the moment, the man came to mend the fridge and managed to knock down part of my garden wall.  I've been waiting a week for them to come and fix it.   Enough moaning.

Last week we went to the Summer Exhibition at the National Gallery, looked forward to it because it was co-ordinated by Grayson Perry   and it didn't disappoint.  One of my favourite things about the Summer Exhibition was the smaller rooms crammed with all kind of art, chocolate box next to surreal and people, This year n the first gallery, which is usually reserved for reverential large canvases by Royal Academicians, was hung in the same way on bright yellow walls.  The effect was exciting.

There was a lot of "political" subjects, things to scratch your head over but also things to make you smile,
Want an idea to use up all your old jewellery?

Or perhaps you have an old rug you could re-cyle?

This was fun

The bits Constable left out by Chris Orr RA

as was this

Seaching for the Missing Button at Jackson's Chris Orr.

Our only criticism was that if anything there was too much of a good thing, we were in brain overload when we came out but that might have been due more to advancing years than anything else.  I would love to go again and start at the other end.

The fun started even before we went in as we paid our compulsory visit to look at Fortnum and Mason's window displays. The theme was picnics.
There were chimney pot raised pies,

loaves of bread with sunglasses

and tennis ball fizz.

I have been making journals but haven't got round to photographing them yet.  I would like to make another video but it all takes time which seems to be short at the moment.  Past the longest day.  Horror.

Well.........

..........that didn't last long, thank goodness.  Thanks to the kindness of friends and family and a total melt down when I dropped the apple pie face down on the floor the bored feeling disappeared.  I am not promising to suddenly blog every day and I am still collecting spam comments but here's what is exciting me at the moment.

First a little trip to the Big Brocante at the Hop Farm, we had been to one in the winter so were surprised by the size of this one.  I didn't resist temptation.

If you want tape, I'm your girl. I have already found a couple of uses for it.  It was a real bargain, not something that happens to me often.  I loved the scrap of fabric, book cover if ever I saw it and the books and cards were delightful, I will have to do a more detailed share at sometime.

The next thing to lift me was a video by Nik the Booksmith, I love this woman, the journals she make are wonderful but in this one she is trying eco printing of PAPER. 
https://youtu.be/DyXnnnh0SuU
 Well how could I resist.  I found a lot of other videos and taking bits from each I gave it a try.  These are my garden gatherings.

as pr usual I was too impatient to photograph the process properly but it sort of went like this

and then like this

and then about eight hours later (I couldn't wait 24)

Yeah!!! Happiness.  I put a couple of onion skins in the water so I think that is what made the yellow edges. I also put a couple of spoonfuls of alum in the water. I boiled for about twenty minutes and then let is all cool down.
Here's a few favourites, the blue flower on this one was a brown ganzia....didn't expect that.

 Streaks on this one caused by next piece of paper which was tracing paper and shrivelled in the heat.

On Friday I went to my textile group and we had a fun workshop with Diane, a very talented lady, who showed how to make little animal brooches. This is my fiesta cat.

Right I am off to find a large roasting tin (mine will on do A5 paper) and then I will be   trotting round, with my little ziplock bag, to see my son who has some beautiful deep red roses.

There will now be a short intermission.......

..........or a long one depending.  Life is a bit boring at the moment and I am having a lot of spam comments and not many genuine ones.  Hopefully the world will turn and I will be back with something that excites me and interests you.
Thank you to all those who have taken an interest. 

Lady in Waiting.........

..............No, I haven't been called to higher things it was just I spent a couple of days watching for the post to bring me this little wonder from Seth. It is called "Whispers"

It is one of his Art Deck Series   I love it, there are so many layers and even little marks of gold .
The little squares are fabric to it is lovely to touch as well and the bonus is I now need a trip to London to Muji to buy the clear perspex frame to show it off.

I tried some layering myself, about seven or eight, I think, on one of those 7x5 canvas boards.

 I finished if off with Seth's Vintage Beeswax embossing powder.  I decided it need some definition round the sides so I added  border of  Deep Sea. Being me I had to go just one step further and added one more layer of Vintage Beeswax and then that's when the magic happened. The "border" of blue slid away from the side and I accidentally touched the middle of the right side and it "tore" through to a couple of layers below.  The dark blue is part of the wrapping of my Easter egg. Nothing wasted see.

  
On Sunday I developed a sore throat so having no energy I sat and followed a blog hop from DeeDee Catron 
and was inspired by this  video from Kiss My Creative.
Here is my version.

Sunday was also the day of the London Marathon for people with more energy than me. Because we were having an unseasonable warm sunny day the helicopter shots of London were wonderful so I used my ipad and captured some..

 The city

 Buckingham Palace(lower left) and Horse Guards (middle right)

 The Tower  

Big Ben in scaffolding, the London Eye , St Paul's and the City.

Oh yes....

...RIGHT WAY ROUND this time.

Happiness is.........

.....the clocks going forward and a morning playing with the gelli plate.

Yes my body clock will now be in tune with the mechanical one and I wish they would stay this way.

I found two gelli plate demonstrations which had my fingers itching.  The first one is fascinating but very tricky. It was on the Gelli Arts blog. 

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Af7CJlcuXV4" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

I only managed to get one of the many images I tried to work but oh the joy when it did.

The original image is on the left and that came out pretty cool I thought. I loved the resist image .These are just placed the way they went into the scanner but I might just use them this way. I am now on the look out for magazines which I think might work.
The next one I found was quite tricky too because to the problem I have with revers images i.e. I just get in a muddle.
This one was called Gelli plate Monoprint Cityscapes by Janelle Nichol. This one involves waiting which is also one of my failings.
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/ehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AO19GM19Zs&t=63smbed/0AO19GM19Zs" frameborder="0" allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen></iframe>

This is my one of my own photographs of Whitehall in London.

and this is my attempt.

as you can see it is the WRONG WAY ROUND but as a print I really like the colours and the texture.  I will troll my photos and try again.
Super morning which and also had as a bonus these prints when I gave my plate a bit of a clean.

So that was February....

...and now it is nearly Spring.  The much vaunted "Beast from the East" cold weather kept us indoors for a week,  Funny thing was that although you sometimes think it would be lovely to be stuck in so that you could try all those things you've been you've been promising yourself when it actually happens ...you do nothing.I was not the only one who found this, don't know whether it was the cold or the dullness but all creative juices seemed to freeze.

The first day was sunny and pretty

I moved to the living room to work but even with a six foot table to work on still managed to end up with the same minute working space.

Has a day with the girls where we did a little collaging,  Mine are on the bottom row,

I have made two micro mini journals but haven't photographed them yet. 

 We managed to catch  Darkest Hour    and felt that Gary Oldman's Oscar was well deserved. It has been a good year for films so far this year.

Waiting now for the clocks to go forward and the weather to warm up.

Congratulate me.......

........yesterday I managed to throw away 5 pieces of paper from my stash.  I am hopeless, just can't let go.

I have, however finished another journal, this one took a turn towards the dark.  I blame the weather. I did make a video but it was too big to upload here.  I will have to fathom out the You Tube thing.
The cover is cotton with a layer of matte medium, the photograph is part of the ruins at Nymans with a bit of digital manipulation.

 Intended for the owner to write there own story with photo suggestions of characters, plot and locations.
Hero/villain?

 What strange things are in the jars?

 Strange writings

 Real or ghost?

 Villain/Hero? No tale complete without strange housekeeper.

On evening I went to see Hamilton I arranged to meet my daughter at Victoria station, coming down the escalator I was struck with the Lowry-esque scene in front of me, so I went back up the escalator so I could come down again to take this.

Last year the City of Hull was the City of Culture .  A young friend of mine registered as a volunteer. One of her reasons was because I so bitterly regretted not volunteering for the 2012 Olympic volunteers because I thought I would be too old. She found herself taking in part in many events and this is one of them.


Lastly, do you think I have found one of my ancestors.

 Star of the excellent Early Man

Christmas in February.......

.........on Friday evening I spent one of the most special and enthralling evenings I have ever spent in a theatre.  My daughter took me to see Hamilton at the Victoria Palace Theatre in London.  It was a Christmas present from my son and daughter.    I have been playing the music for some months and this was such a wonderful surprise because tickets are like gold dust and I didn't think I would be able to go for another year.  So witty, so clever and the artistry of everyone involved was outstanding.  I am sure it will never forget it.


There has been some crafting this week. Two collages.

I particularly like the red one, reminds me of Uluru