The Closing of 2015

My word for the past year was Progress. I entered the year hoping to move forward with my work and try and find my inner voice. I don't think I have succeeded. I have decided I have had enough of doing courses to try and give myself a qualification I really don't need to prove to peers, well what exactly?  I don't do this for anyone else but my own satisfaction and to scratch that itch. You know what I mean.

I feel, as I did after finishing my City and Guilds in 2012, that if anything I'm being blocked from doing what I want or need to do by doing this course with the Embroiderers Guild. I have the Open Studios in May and I feel nowhere near ready because I have to do coursework. I've missed a couple of opportunities because I couldn't focus because of coursework. I have an exhibition with friends and, yes I know it's a long way off in 2017, but... You guessed it I can't even think of it because of coursework.

I only have three sessions left of this Level 2 and then I'm going to call it a day. I don't need to join an exhibiting group who want me to prove who I am, what I can do or where I am going, I just want to be me and do my pottering and enjoy what comes out the other end.

This year I'm going to slightly cheat and have two words for the year. Two very small words mind. 

Be Me. 

I'm going to just go ahead and create and you never know I may, one day, hear the voice.

Today is the last day of 2015 and the last day of the 31 Day Blogging Challenge, I can go back to weeklyish now.  Thank you for your company throughout the whole year, not just this past month, on here and on Facebook.  I wish you the very best in health, happiness and creativity for 2016. 

See you next year! XX 

Stitching Progress

On waking up this morning John told me I was under strict instructions to play in studio and not the computer. I think the ulterior motive was either to stop me moaning about the fact that I haven't been in there for some time or to keep Willow quiet while her leg heals. Probably a bit of both. I didn't say no so I've had a lovely day.

After a bit of a tidy up I did some more embellishing on the amonite piece,

A little bit of machining too

And then some hand stitching,

Even the paper amonites fitted in.

Very pleased with progress so far. It's quite a big piece at 11 X 30 inches at the moment.

Whilst stitching I started Ben Arronovich's fifth book Floxglove Summer. I'm really enjoying the series. I have to have the headphones on with the machine though.

Willow is doing well and totally ignoring her staples so she's not had the cone on at all.

Tomorrow is the last day of the 31 Days of Blogging and I haven't done too badly! I thank you for sticking with me and your comments too. Blogger seems to have sorted the email notifications out and I have been replying to them, you, directly.

I hope you are not being affected by Frank and are all safe and dry.

 

The Best Laid Schemes o' Mice an' Men

Or me to be precise. I had my Slimming World weigh in this morning and put 2 lb on over the Christmas period. Not bad really.  I will be working hard on making a downward trend from now on.

I was then going to spend time stitching at the machine but little Willow had a bit of a run in with some metal. So, trip to the vet and cone of Shame

And six staples

I'm sure she will be fine in no time but she won't leave my side and for her sanity, and the safety of everyone's knees I've taken up camp on the sofa instead.  Looks like a couple of films and some knitting instead. 

I will set her up under my desk in the morning and try again then. She should be more used to what's happened today by then. 

A Breath of Fresh Air

Today, rather than wallow through the mud and bringing plenty of it home, we decided to take the dogs down to Studland and Knoll Beach.  Lots of charging around in the lovely sunshine. 

Waiting for balls to be thrown.

And playing with your new sister who can actually keep up with you. 

They brought home sand and snores.

I hope this awful weather further north isn't affecting you. 

A Drop In Followers.

This was posted on the Blogger Buzz feed the other day which explains a drop in followers to Blogger accounts over the past couple of weeks. I've only lost three but it was still a bit strange!

An update on Google Friend Connect

Posted: December 21, 2015

  

In 2011, we announced the retirement of Google Friend Connect for all non-Blogger sites. We made an exception for Blogger to give readers an easy way to follow blogs using a variety of accounts. Yet over time, we’ve seen that most people sign into Friend Connect with a Google Account. So, in an effort to streamline, in the next few weeks we’ll be making some changes that will eventually require readers to have a Google Account to sign into Friend Connect and follow blogs.

As part of this plan, starting the week of January 11, we’ll remove the ability for people with Twitter, Yahoo, Orkut or other OpenId providers to sign in to Google Friend Connect and follow blogs. At the same time, we’ll remove non-Google Account profiles so you may see a decrease in your blog follower count.

We encourage you to tell affected readers (perhaps via a blog post), that if they use a non-Google Account to follow your blog, they need to sign up for a Google Account, and re-follow your blog. With a Google Account, they’ll get blogs added to their Reading List, making it easier for them to see the latest posts and activity of the blogs they follow.

We know how important followers are to all bloggers, but we believe this change will improve the experience for both you and your readers.

Posted by Michael Goddard, Software Engineer

Well That Was Rather Fun

We've had a lovely Christmas. Lovely gifts, wonderful food and fabulous company of course. Yesterday went all too fast, not even time to blog, not that anyone is interested on Christmas Day!

Today we did have chance for some creativity in the studio.

But that's as far as its gone!
I hope you've had a nice Christmas too.

Tully, Ellie, Willow, me and Ruger

To Wish You Well

It's that time of year. 

Elsa, Mike, Olivia and Remi arrived for Christmas and things are feeling rather nice and cosy.  I've built several towers from building blocks, eaten too much already and have been sat on by three dogs at once. Olivia has put out her sack for Santa, she is adamant she's been a good girl so we are fingers crossed he agrees. 

Bath time for little ones and bad telly for the rest of us now. The fire is lit and all five dogs are sprawled. 

From all of us we hope you have a lovely Christmas just how you want to spend it. 

I Think We're Ready

Yesterday was spent out and about so actually nothing to blog about.

Today we got stuck into more cleaning! Even the dust had dust on it. It's not perfect, it's not a show home and I certainly don't Do housework as a rule! My forte is more in the department of making mess so I am lucky to have a lovely couple of ladies come in and Do for me. Did you know it's always good to look for OCD tendencies in a cleaner?? Unfortunately for me they are now off until the new year so we had the most of today vacuuming, dusting, moping etc. Oh and another two bags for the charity collection. So, we're there now, ready for guests tomorrow. As long as they don't look too hard!!

This afternoon I coloured the paper amonites. Of course you have to be careful doing this as its dissolvable paper and paint too wet returns it to pulp. A couple of coats and some gilding and they will do.

I'm thinking how I will put them on the piece, if I do at all. They really need to recede in as I want the silk ones to be the focals.
I did start stitching the main panel but literally only just.

I also gave the mannequin a very washed out layer of gesso over the paper pattern covering. I think I will put some wax on it to seal it but at least it's usable now and not missing a couple of large chunks!

I think tonight I earned a little tipple of something so I'm now off to, I think, start Christmas. I hope your all ready too.

A Big Finish!

After over 2 years in the planning and building we are finished. Today the electrician did all his tests, wrote up the boards and signed us off! 

We are done! The house is ours again!  

Between dodging cables, ladders and a few dust sheets I did manage to fill another couple of bags for the charity shop, which is pleasing. 

Creatively I put another layer on the embellished piece and now I'm knitting. No photos today.

Only ten more daily posts after this one!  Thank you for bearing with me. It's been an interesting journey making me think about what I'm planning to do each day. Still not sure if the little and often approach is better than a lot now and then though! 

Have you met Willow?

This is she doing, as John calls it, her best Claudia Winkleman impersonation.

She is the little girl we re homed back in September and she is quite the Ickle Pickle!!!  She often has several adventures a day.  Today's included taking out all my Finnish wool from it's bag and spreading it all over the house.

The other day she found one of my necklace mannequins, luckily without necklace, and decided to eat it.  I am in the process of trying to rescue it!

OK so it won't be as pretty as it was but I have a bit of a plan and for now it is gessoed and drying.

(Willow is a lovely dog and has the sweetest nature.  Her mischievous side has been a steep learning curve after having such well behaved dogs but she is very much worth the effort and, as we are her 5th owners in her 2 years of life, we are more than willing to give her a little slack. )

I also laid out another blanket base.

After embellishing so far.

It still has a long way to go until I'm happy with it but these things take a while before they are integrated.

I did do a little stitching on this one too having found it where it was buried under last weeks coursework.

A nice surface to stitch.  Now tonight do I carry on with a little stitching, do some knitting or carry on with the magazines?

Nothing to See, Move Along

Andy the builder said his goodbyes last night so today we have been pottering knowing that what we move and clean from A to B will stay clean at B without having to be moved again or have stuff put on it. If you've ever had a build you will know what I mean. 

I have stripped beds, hoovered and dusted, found clothes new homes and washed others. John has cleared the back yard and the garage which had been totally taken over, moved one of the cars back in, sorted all the decorating things and cleaned some carpets. If we keep this up there's a slim chance we could be ready for Elsa, Mike, Olivia and Remi to arrive this week coming for Chirstmas! 

During the odd tea break I did manage to put more dissolvable paper into my moulds. I remembered the demijohn warmer I have for silver clay drying and it has been great at drying them.  

Not sure what's in store for tomorrow but I wouldn't mind planning a bit of studio time in! 

A Few Ticks Off the List

Quite a busy day today. VAT quarter paperwork this morning and a mammogram at lunchtime. A bit of a contrast there.

After lunch I put fingers to keyboard and went through my notes to send off the latest section of my coursework before Christmas.

Glad that's gone but I'm sure my tutor won't let me rest on my laurels for long! I have told her the holiday period is for my own work and I will be doing the next session in the New Year.
I have another hanging on the fossil theme in mind. This is dissolvable paper in some latex mounds I made of a couple of my amonites.

At this time of year it's easy to dry things faster by putting them on the radiator but it's been so warm nothing is on to use! I don't think we've seen single figures yet apart from a couple of mornings. It's 5pm on December 18th and its 13C out there.

I did cook this gammon today too. They always have fabulous joints in this time of year and John is a little partial.

During this evenings TV watching I will be reading the latest book by Maggie Grey.

Blog Challenge Day 17

I couldn't think of an any more enthralling title today I'm afraid.

Actually not feeling too bad today! We have some vouchers to spend at Sainsburys so decided to brave it and actually go and spend them on the bulk of the stuff for Christmas first thing this morning. It was surprisingly sane which is probably more than it will be from this weekend.

As we usually do our shopping online with a different retailer it was quite a treat to have a pootle around. We also realised how dangerous it was seeing all the stuff we really do not need to buy and how easy it was to just pop them in the trolley! An awful lot was also put back.

One thing I will buy from Sainsburys when I'm passing though are their flowers. I haven't found another place that sells such lovely flowers for such a good price as them anywhere.

Builder was back today finishing off some bits and I did some accounts and actually had an hour or so in the studio doing coursework.

Bleugh!

Well yesterday was the washout day of this cold. Other than sleeping through a couple of the original Star Wars movies (I never was quite into Star Wars, more Star Trek), and discovering the storyline was still just as lame and the acting as hammy, (Han would be up on charges for harassment in the real world) as I thought it was before, I don't think that was time badly spent, but no blog post.

Today has not been much better but thankfully the bedroom was all mine!  Not an electrician in site!

Well almost all mine.

And my little toe toaster at the foot of the bed.

But I have watched a few Quilting Arts DVD's so not all has been lost. I am actually feeling a little brighter now so hopefully it will all be gone by next week!

Living Life Dangerously

Sore throat decided to wallop me in the back of the nose last night and I have full blown cold now. Electrician is in today fitting lights inside the wardrobes so I can't crawl into bed and sleep it off. Instead I'm dosed up to the eyeballs and in the studio playing with circles.

Yes, playing with a fully armed sewing machine, footless and head thick with cold and Beechams. Possibly not the brightest of ideas.

If I'm bright enough to write this post perhaps I'd better count my blessings and turn the machine off while I still have un sewn fingers and go and do something else instead.

John's turn to play nurse, bless him. 

There are still a few issues with emails coming and going so I will continue to respond here for now. 

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like.....

We've both not felt well today, John still recovering and my throat thing, but we still managed to do a few bits around the house.

I also put the trees up, much to the delight of the dogs.  The main big one in the family room.

Taken on the iPad so not great.  The marginally smaller one in the snug.  

Tully the terriorist is in both of the pictures but what she is doing is rat hunting behind the trees.  I'm happy to report she didn't find any!! 

Off for a bath and early sofa.  The rest can wait until tomorrow! 

Too Tired

Today I woke at 04.30 and went down to the studio. The past few days I have had several ulcers and a sore mouth in general as well as waking to no voice and razors in my throat. The studio was my place of solace rather than being grumpy trying to go back to sleep.

I left the studio at lunchtime to help sort a few more boxes that had been stashed at the beginning of the year before the huge rebuild and it felt good to be rid of them. Back in the studio for the rest of the afternoon and out again for dinner.

All coursework. All under wraps. Not sure if I'm happy with what I achieved today but I'm too tired to assess it now.

Might dive in the garage and loft for the decorations tomorrow. So, so, so not feeling Christmassy yet! Perhaps that will help.

I will let you know tomorrow.

Making Great Headway

Today was spent resolving some of the designs of yesterday, machine stitching it out and stuffing.

I've been working the past couple of days with the company of Kobna Holdbrook-Smith reading Ben Arronovitch's Peter Grant series. I'm up to Broken Homes today. A really good listen and Kobna is one of the finest orators I think I've heard.

I received this in the post.

Some time ago back in September I wrote an email into Twistedthread say that had it not been for my friend Julie taking a photo of it in situ I would never have known that Dragons Ho had won a Highly Commended. It may 'only' be an HC but I'm rather proud of the fact that it's 'only' an HC in our largest international quilt show and it was the first time I had entered something there. They're quick enough to point out the thousands of quilts they have entered into it so to win anything against such large competition is staggering. You don't even hear much of the second and third places, I'm not sure if they have certificates or not and I do hope it's more than that, let alone HC. The young lady I was emailing with said she would mention that perhaps everyone who wins should receive some acknowledgement. So hopefully next year this will happen, even for the little guys with the little prize.

This wasn't an exercise in me trying to have trumpets blown it was more trying to have pen pushers understand the passion that goes into creating these things. Perhaps others could let me know their honest thoughts on the matter.

A Play With Paint

I managed to paint and stitch a panel today. Here's a snippet of it.

I'm quiet pleased with it.

Other than that quite a bit of coursework planning has been done and I hope to take a chunk out of that tomorrow.

John finally surfaced this morning. He's managed to eat something tonight, though he's complaining that nothing tastes right, which I'm really pleased with as he's lost 9 lb in four days.

Back to the lovely magazines this evening and a bit of knitting. I've just started this cardie for Olivia.

I made this pattern before and it was one of Elsa's favourites so I'm doing another in a larger size of course!

 

A Little Light Reading

A busy day today doing nothing creative at all! I did have this little lot drop through the letter box though.

A delicious pile of reading this evening. In fact several evenings!!

A Quiet Start

Not a lot to blog about today. I did my SW weigh in and I've put on a pound. I'm pleased with that after being in Dublin! I'm obviously making good choices!

The afternoon has been spent reading up on subjects for my next session of the course and making a mess on my desk. You know how I feel about giving too much away when a course has been thought out by someone and paid for by someone else so not too much detail I'm afraid!

John is currently a bit poorly with some nasty bug so fingers crossed its only a short lived one.

 

On to Week Two of 31 Days of Blogging

Are you all still here? Thank you if you are, I'm impressed. That's one week of posts you've been following! 

This morning was spent stewarding at the Gallery Upstairs where my Erosion pieces are on display. I forgot to take photos but here's one from the well attended opening on Saturday taken by James Manlow, Bournemouth's Poet Laureate.

Of course there was also lots of arty chatter with my friend Karren who I did the stewarding with. I think we're both benefitting from having each other to nag at about where our art isn't taking us! 

This afternoon I have made covers for another couple of sections of my coursework.  There is so much to try and keep tabs on I find semi binding it now and then keeps it in order and I can put it away knowing it's safe and not in my way.

I had very positive feedback from my lovely tutor, (and I can now say lovely tutor because she has replaced the dreadful excuse for one I had before!!) and she has now passed on my next session. So much for perhaps waiting until after Christmas!  Actually this part seems very enjoyable and I am going to spend the afternoon gathering thoughts, materials and perhaps stitch a sample or two.

Blogger is also having trouble sending out emails to me to let me know of replies so I apologise if I do miss you and don't respond. I think I am going to have to go back to answering under the comments again rather than by direct email until they sort it.

Link to the 31 Day Blog Writing Challenge

Small Finishes

Today has been nice and quiet here.  I managed to make some cord and paper and tyvek beads for a purse.

The purse is a part of my coursework which has now been sent off with several other things.  

Yesterday, while down at Lulworth, I bought several fossils for a future project and this gorgeous palm sized piece of Labradorite.  It looks so lovely on my desk I made it a little cushion so I can admire its flashes of colour. Labradorite tempers the negative side and focuses the energy and thoughts so perhaps it is very much needed in a studio! 

All holiday washing is done and put away so the new week starts a fresh tomorrow.  Have a great week! 

A Bit Blustery!

And we're down on the south coast not being hit by the worst of it!  I hope the hatches are battened down up north.

Last week Andy the builder became a granddad for the first time.  This is a Jelly Roll Race I made for him and his wife as new grandparents.

I forgot to take a photo after it came off the longarm but I did swirls and hearts all over.  I think all grandparents should have a quilt so they have somewhere for new baby to lie or crawl, be wrapped in on the lap and snuggle up in as they grow older.  At the very least it's a lot easier to clean baby sick off of than a sofa!

Today Mike was running an Ultra Marathon along the Dorset coast.

We went down in support to Lulworth Cove and saw some huge waves crashing over the entrance to the cove.  

Of course the biggest of the waves happened just after I had put the phone away! 

Olivia enjoyed her walkabout though.  

 

Good job she had hold of both her mum and Papa's hand as one gust of wind literally blew her off her feet! She was airborne! 

This afternoon I have a date with my studio!