Silly season

When you spill a sticky drink on the floor do you wipe it up as quickly as possible or do you put three traffic cones round it? That's what they do in Primark in Gravesend on one of the hottest days of the year. As I stepped round the cones I was expecting to see ankle threatening broken floor tiles but no, just a bright pink drink congealing nicely.

A company in Kent has deemed the use of the word "wife" as offensive, after 45 years of marriage I would be highly offended if I was called anything else. When we burned our bras did we know what we were starting????

Don't you just love summer?

Summertime

What a strange nation we are, we must, collectively, spend millions every year seeking the sun and yet as soon as it we have anything like warm we moan loud and long about how hot it is.......
One comment I heard this morning was "Oh it's too hot to look!"

Unblocked

After not being able to create even a mess, suddenly became unblocked thanks to Karen on Altered Books group and her mention of an article by the wonderful Maggie Grey in "Cloth Paper and Scissors". Here are the results of my experiments so far,it is a very exciting technique which I am sure I will use over and over again as the possibilities are endless. I have to say the scans don't do them justcie in the depth of the pieces.

What is it about stamps?

I wonder what the fascination is for the shape of a stamp, it it all those little perforations I wonder. They are collectors items and are beloved by collage artisits. I found a very interesting snippet in the Englishwomen's Domestic Magazine of 1860 where a correspondent was informed quite briefly that "used postage stamps have no value". Just think of all those Penny Blacks etc that must have been thrown away. Gillian Allen of art-e-zine has just done a great tutorial, here's one I made..

Ah well... Farewell...and Fancy that!

England out of the world cup, I couldn't watch and I kept my fingers in my ears hoping that they would do it but.... Ah well........At least the nations blood pressure levels should drop.

I certainly did watch Andre Agassi in his last match at Wimbledon. It's not going to be the same without him, he has been so entertaining over the years, from "long hair" to "no hair" it has been such fun, Thanks Andre, visit us sometime. The world needs characters

and then Murray beat Andy Roddick.... Well his language leaves a lot to be desired if my lip reading skills are to be trusted but he played a good match...we shall see.

Now there's a thing.....

A report has just announced that if you don't build superstores in rural areas the small shops will flourish!

A small gift

In thanks to those who were interested in the dilemmas of altered art I have attached some of my collection of cabinet cards. Please take copies if you like them. I have included the backs of two because sometimes the backs are more interesting than the fronts and they often have beautiful scipts and interesting little motifs. Gillian Allen at art-e-zine has a good collection for a small donation which was what started me combing the antique shops.

Altering the past

I've just entered into a discussion on the Yahoo Altered Books Group about altered books and I threw in my own attitude to altering old photographs. Thing is I just can't do it. Perhaps it is because so many of the photographs I used to look at when I was a child have disappeared over the years and therefore anything that has survived is precious. Having said that I love to alter them digitally or by using copies. Here's a couple "I made earlier".

In Remembrance of Noreen

This is for our friend Noreen in remembrance of a talented and elegant lady who loved her garden.

Come On England

As I seemed to be the only person in the town this morning not wearing an England tee shirt I thought I better make amends. So "Come on England" give us something to cheer about and David......... please stop saying "you know"

New Energy Source

Someone sent me a kind e-mail about my blog and while replying I came up with a wonderous thought. We were told that re: our water shortage, we could not have a de-salination plant because it took too much energy to run one. Well, when me and my friends get together, we can let off so much steam about the various mind boggling attempts of politicians to ruin, sorry, run this country that we could probably power a couple of plants and a power station or two as well. There must be others like us up and down the country, so forget nuclear power, fossil fuels and the rest all you need is a group of old ladies and a newspaper.

More learning

I must remember in future to put images in backwards! The two posts below are a book I altered when practising various techniques. Interesting what you think is marvellous when you first finish it and then looks less so when re-visited!!

AB continued

ABig Learning Curve

I would have liked to display this book on one of those clever things with thambnails that you click on but I haven't got a clue how to do it, so this will have to do. This is a book which, as the title suggests, I learned a lot. Some I pages I like and some I am really not keen on at all but I guess that's what learning is all about.

6 O'clock News

What on earth are the BBC up to with the Six O'clock News?

Intead of being informed in a an unemotional and impartial way the news of this country and the world, we are subjected to watching two or (when and expert is introduced)three or people having what amount private converations. These people either smirk or or use a terrible false gravitas to deliver the "news"."Well, Natasha"....."yes, george"...."what is the reaction Tom, Dick or Harry?" . "special reports" (the answer to this last is usually so obvious a child would know the answer) The two, plastic, "news" readers stand in artificial poses, in artificial settings while they dispense trivia and why does someone have to be flown to Scotland, Washington, Timbuctoo to deliver a few lines?? Presumably it is a the tax payers expense? i.e. MINE

I think I'll get my news from the Internet from now on, or the checkout at Sainsbury's......it will have more relevance.

Water shortage???

I have just returned from two weeks in Cyprus, in those two weeks we had no rain, in fact, they are not expecting to have any rain now until late October.
When we left they were giving the swimming pool its daily refresh and the man down the road was cleaning his car with a pressure hose.
When we left Gatwick two weeks ago it was raining, when we arrived back it pouring down.

Perhaps the managers of the english water companies should take a holiday in Cyprus!!!!

Storyteller

This is the "storyteller" cape I have just made for a friend's school. The children supplied the artwork themselves and it is wonderful. It didn't turn out as my first mind picture but then what does. I hope the children will be happy with it......that will be enough.

Happy Birthday, Your Majesty

I am out of the country on holiday (Yeah!!) so this is a little early but I couldn't miss the opportunity to wish this remakable woman all the very best wishes for her birthday. She is a shining example, in this world of crude "celebrity",of how to behave when you are in the public eye.

Do you think she would consider bringing out a fitness video???? I would like to know her secrets as I would really like to think I could cope with her schedule when I am eighty.

Easter Bonnet

In Her Easter Bonnet

Remember when you wore your new outfit to church on Easter Sunday morning no matter what he temperature.

I have just remembered that in the town where I lived we made pasche eggs, these were dyed or painted and were used to decorate the sash windows of the houses, they stood in a line, each house vying with the next in number and decorative splendour. My favourites were the ones made with a primrose pressed against the shell,wrapped in onion skins and bound in cotton and then boilded. They were so beautiful. On Easter Sunday morning we rolled our eggs, one against the other, the persons egg that didn't smash was the champion. Didn't win anything.....the old ideal of the "taking part".

Happy Easter everyone.

Fastrack to nowhere

We used to live in the country,

But now we live in the town.

We haven't moved,

The council came and tore the hedges down.

They came to build a fast track

To get from here to there.

But thanks to all the traffic lights

I'm not going anywhere..

Oh yes! I am an admirer of Dartford's Fastrack, they said it there would be a bus every ten minutes and indeed there is. I stopped at the traffic light to let one bus go by and 500 yards and ten minutes later I stopped at the next set of lights to let the next bus go by.

Why in heaven's name could they have not have moved traffic to one side of the road and the buses to the other instead of having them criss-crossing back and forth. We have suffered months of road works and disruption and now it seems the inconvenience is to continue for ever.

To get to my friends house (and almost antwhere else I go) I now have to go through eleven sets of traffic lights where formerly there were only four!!!!!!!! I am a punctual person and now I cannot ever set out from home and know that I will be on time........... and the Fastrack goes nowhere I want to be.