Quite a lot to get through here!

I was photographing these two pieces yesterday to pop into my Etsy Shop. Difficult, as they are framed and thus have glass.Definition .... not good.Then I found I had taken these two, which have reflected the bare branches of the Silver Birch above. I kinda like them in a washed out sort of way.

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Moving on, you may remember that I mentioned the idea of having a journal as a keepsake book. With that in mind, I copied one of my illustrations of a sweet girl with her pet Hen, onto linen and added some embroidery, which in turn is now decorating one of those gorgeous Khadi handmade paper books. I can't begin to tell you how gorgeous the paper is. Unfortunately, somehow, I have managed to get a blue tinge on the photos I took today.

You can see here though, the off white of the pages and the decal edges. I just love 'em. I thought that if anyone wanted a name and date putting in, I could always type this onto some lovely linen and apply to the inside orange page.

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Moving on again.....

Here we have Amelia, a little friend of mine since I was a child, next to a piece of work I finished today. Firstly, she is wearing a Liberty Tana Lawn dress. As you will see further on in this post, she is sporting nothing but her birthday suit. Apologies for this exhibitionism, but she insisted on being in the photos to keep the pages from flying around in the wind. She complained bitterly of the cold, so I made her a little dress to cover her modesty. I hope you will not be offended ;-)

'On her Majesty's Service', is a layered up, collaged piece, with embroidery, buttons and very old boot buttons hanging from the bottom edge. I do so enjoy putting these pieces together, it's as if they speak to me, i.e. "no, not that bit, use that instead"....... "yes, that looks good, now add more of that". Blimey, I sound like a mad woman, well maybe I just am!

One of the sweet matchbox covers used.

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AND for the next item......

More pages from my Inspiration book, thought I would show you.

A few snippets of our Ju's work ;-)

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Here, as mentioned, Amelia nudey rudey, shows us the front page of my new 2009 Journal.....bit of a mistake using a deep blue background, (note to Viv...ditch the blue background).And another page.... One of my little collections is fishing fly's. (Have I written that correctly)? I have no knowledge at all of the names of these fly, but they are so technically brilliant and very beautiful that I just adore them. Here is Amelia showing you my matchbox book, (last post). I had to show you more, I am so pleased with the darn thing.

The Seagull matchbox cover is so graphic. So much detail in such a tiny area.

And finally, I wanted to tell you about our little incident in the Sliwka household this morning. I came to my studio early and decided to nip back in doors (studio in garden) for a cuppa and wondered what the black mess was on the sofa. Upon closer investigation, I found my dear black sketchbook (Moleskine type) had been attacked with aggression. I turned to Rosie (medium size terrier cross) and asked if she had done it, holding the outer cover out. She gave the game away when she took it off me and carried on ripping it up.

It reminded me of jackie's Willow, chewing up, what was it, carrier bags?

Well, you could have knocked me down with a feather. We had her at 6 weeks old in 1995 and apart from when she was a young puppy, she has never chewed a thing in her life. What's more she had taken it out of my handbag!!!

So I'm kind of upset but astounded at the same time. Has my old girl gone a bit senile? Or is she rebelling in her dotage, as I hope to do some day?

I shall have to make a new cover, as the pages are not too badly torn. What a naughty girly!

Anyway, I'm sure you need a break from me now, so I will close and thank you very much for stopping by.x