Lovely Day!

You may remember from my last post that my husband and I were going to see our daughter in London yesterday. What a full on day we had! Beautiful sunshine and blue skies. After meeting Luce, we caught the bus to Oxford Circus.....



Then walked to Covent Garden, along the way these little fellas were in a shop window, no idea what the shop was, or who's work this is, but I thought it was worth a quick snap!

Covent Garden....I adore this place, so vibrant and alive and always something of interest to see and music being played.

Twisty, turny bridge, oooohhhhh, could you?

Vibrant fruit, in bowls???

Well after a manic few hours and lunch we set off for home and drove into this, just as we left the outskirts of London.

Very ominous....

And it turned into this....now I'm not a nervous car passenger, but I did not enjoy the journey home one little bit. Remember me telling you we had blue skies and sunshine, I would not have believed that the day would turn into raging blizzard, what's going on ehhh?

I also mentioned that I was heading for magma books. I found it!!!!! Oh my, I thought I had died and gone to heaven, book heaven! They have their finger so on the pulse of wonderfully obscure/new/foreign etc publications. Guilt has set in now, as the old plastic took a thrashing and I surcomed to a self indulgent spending spree, oh my, oh my, oh my!

You do understand don't you????? ;-)

Here we go then....

The age of Feminine Drawing ~ Japanese? Totally and utterly divine collection of drawings/art work.

(None of these books have been looked at properly yet, I'm waiting for the right time to savour)!

The True and the Questions ~ Sabrina Ward Harrison A Journal. Page after page of mixed media gorgeousness.

Textiles Now ~ Drusilla Cole. The flock trees on the front would have been enough for me....but the inside makes me dribble, like Homer with a doughnut.

Handmade Nation ~ The rise of DIY, Art, Craft, and Design ~ Faythe Levine and Cortney Heimerl. I read about this and checked Amazon the other day and you had to pre-order it, so I nearly fainted when I saw it, nestling with all the other wonderous books and publications.

Well, there we go...my naughty little secret is out there!

But in the words of Bill Withers ~ Lovely Day!

And just to finish on, my husband took his car for a service last Monday. When he collected the car they handed him the paperwork and we found this highly amusing that the Garage Mechanic felt the need to reiterate the fact that the car was in need of a clean!

Thanks for stopping by.x

Cards by Paula's package of loveliness

I have been really spoilt just lately with so many lovely things given to me and here I am again telling you about another beautiful gift. The lovely paula of
cardsbypaula sent me these beautiful crocheted flowers, so much time and work gone into these, accompanied by a handmade card and embelleshed envelope. Paula's blog is a full of interest and tips and templates, go take a look.
Thank you so much Paula.

When I took these items of beauty out of their packaging.......'necklace' sprang to mind and a few hours later...... tra la...... I fixed three/four crocheted flowers together, which made three flowers in all, if you get my drift, and then got the old crocheting hook out and attached them along with lots of button delights to the chain. My shoulders were up by my ears by the time I had done, but well worth the intense work .... I am really looking forward to wearing it and showing it off.

I've been making lots of these too.........................

and this...................... I have been asked by Stafford Shire Hall Gallery to supply pieces for the Christmas Craft Exhibition. So, one has to get one's finger out!

The envelope that this collage is worked on, is an absolute beauty. Polish in origin, sent to Scotland in 1952. The markings and stamps are so beautiful and interesting. I covered up the address with this photo of the couple from the Album I talked about recently. They obviously have no tie with the envelope but I like the shape of the couple, obviously 'well to do' and looking very straightlaced.

So this is the first of a few pieces I have to work on over the next few days (the picture framer is on stand by)!

I have also been making these corsages....I love making them, very satisfying! I have added them to my Etsy store, just to see if they are of any interest to anyone!

Last but not least, I apologise for the lack of Saturday Shopping List this week, I have quite a bit on. My poor old Dad goes for an angiagram tomorrow, so that's me at the hospital for most of tomorrow. Then on Tuesday, we hope to visit our eldest daughter, Lucy, who recently moved to live in London. I am hoping we can all hop on a bus and head for Covent Garden, one of my fav places in all the world and also head for magma books, one of many shops, no doubt.

Have a good week and thanks for stopping by.x

At last something done

I have been under the weather a little just lately, I think you would call it 'crafter's block', a frustrating, niggling head block, that keeps you awake at night, makes you feel ill tempered with yourself, totally discontented. Well, at last, today, I managed to shake it off and just got on with it!
So odd that once you have overcome that frustrating thing of where you have an idea .,,,,,, and it does'nt work, so you start another idea and that does'nt work and just when you think 'oh sod it'..............'it' happens and away you go, or is it just me?????

So the first item I have to show you is a collage, which I have entitled 'shadow of a memory'. I chose the photo because of the shadow, it seemed to speak to me from the past. In a nice way, of course. Really enjoyed adding lots of snippets of this and that and it is so lovely to finish with the hearts and buttons, that catch the light and lift it.





I also made three brooches/corsages, which I really enjoyed making, particularly because of the muslin. I have only recently started to use muslin and absolutely adore it's qualities.

I think the thing that has been bugging me just of late, is that I wanted to make some greetings cards, for birthdays and Christmas. I am hopefully doing a Fair in a month or so and need to make cards for that and also for the local Gallery.

I wanted to make a vintage ephemera type card, something that has an aged look. I used the pages from an 1982 Ledger, Tana Lawn from a company from London , you may have heard of them...Liberty? ;-) I typed the wording onto linen and added the whole shaboodle together with, guess what, a button! Well that makes a change!

Thank goodness for that, I have some energy flowing again. Self indulgent post this has been ...all about me, me, me!

Have a good week and thanks for stopping by.x

A good to be alive day

Such a beautiful day..... we took our dogs to Cannock Chase, an area of outstanding natural beauty just a few miles away from where we live. A haven for wild life, even though this is a very popular place for walkers and cyclists. We always see deer and the lots of bird life. It is always a thrill to see this little fungal beauty, the slugs have been at this one. I always think of fairies whenever I see these. Not such a good year for them though, as we only came across this one.
This is part of Cannock Chase. Oak woodland, pine woods and heathland.

These are the views I like to draw. I use oil sticks, nice and expressive.
This quick drawing I did last June. More of a visual diary really, as I add text.

Does'nt a bit of sunshine make all the difference?!?

A few quick pencil drawings whilst taking a breather.

The area that we park and start walking from is called 'Freda's Grave'. This particular spot was used by the military in or around first world war time and Freda was their Dalamation Mascot, link here for a little bit of info about the area and Freda.
As we walked back to the car, there were Hawthorne bushes, leafless, but zinging with red berries in the sunshine. Well that was part of my Saturday and now for another bit of my Saturday that I really enjoy. Saturday Shopping List ~ wonderful Etsy handmade goodies. Charlotte has more of this, if you fancy taking a look at more beautiful work.

This week's theme ~ Art dolls, well sort of!

1. BilliesPrimitives ~ primitive mouse doll christmas chair and candle gathering

2. blackeyedsuzie ~ Ghostly Minka - Art Doll

3. bunnywithatoolbelt ~ Bird on Elephant Sculpture by Bunny with a Toolbelt

4. mirkah ~ Jenny Lou the dog 5. littleblackcrow ~ Peter and his boat 6. Elevenmorning ~ Suzzette7. DiamondFolkArt ~ Primitive Folk Art Christmas Angel Ornament OoAK
Hope you have enjoyed my choices.

Thank you all for your comments, everyone is very much appreciated.

Thanks for stopping by.x