Bereft!

I have just clicked 'send' to Laura with my last module of the City & Guilds.

I was full of needing to to other things a couple of weeks ago and was going to put the C&G aside and do them, then I had a change of heart.  If I carried on with them, the C&G folder would still be there, on the corner of my desk, glaring at me.  A feeling I have been almost dreading each time I picked something up that wasn't anything to do with it.  I girded my loins and hit the last couple of modules hard.

I think (hope) I succeeded.

Now just to wait on the results of 17 months of course work, mostly thoroughly enjoyable, but sometimes frustrating in being there when other things needed doing.  Not the course's fault!! I'm just not of the natural scholarly type and tend to buck the traces now and then.

Now that list of things needing doing.....

Totally out of reach and inaccessible in my head.

I can't think of anything that was on it!

Good job I have it written down in a notebook.

Somewhere.

It can wait.

A glass of celebratory wine calls.

Now did I cover everything that needed doing..........?


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We Have Heating!

New boiler was installed on Friday and there is now copious amounts of hot water.  Of course the heating has been off most of the time because it's just been too warm to come on!  We're not complaining though. 

I had some red paints left over from a Flora Bowly session (I've managed to do 2 of them so far!) so didn't waste them and put them to use in the sketchbook.

The little bits of embellishing from the last post had extra stitch and beading added.  They are now in their A5 cards and cellophane wrappers and in the charity stall box. 

In the evenings I have been knitting this little cardigan.  I am often sitting up in bed until silly o'clock because of partial insomnia and wanted a little cardigan for in bed.  I hate the cold feeling that I have across the top of my shoulders and neck.  I chose this pattern because it is shorter in the length and I made the sleeves 3/4 length too.  I also didn't bother with all the buttons.  It's not bulky and just right to stay comfortable.  (Granny and those bed jackets was onto the right thing me thinks!)

The rugby is calling, I hope you have a great week.

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Eventful Week.

Chris commented that he hadn't seen the blog this week.  Well that's because I haven't managed to type anything as yet but it is really nice to know he reads it.  And just to show you all what a wonderful son he is, here's a little selection of the fabulous sea glass and bits he brought me home the other week.  He has a little pocket in the leg of his wetsuit, for keys etc, and he stuffed it full a couple of times.  Not too comfortable when surfing I'm sure!  I am over the moon and can't wait for more!! (heavy hint there).

On Wednesday June and I took our embellishers to the sewing group to have a play.  She was lacking confidence and a lot of the ladies had no idea what they were so it was a fun morning.  I managed to put together these three little panels.

They look very different when they are put behind the aperture of a card, mock up below, but first I will  hand stitch and bead and put in the fish.  They sell very well as cards and will go in the charity stall pile. 

 I saw this on Facebook and thought it was quite appropriate.  I hope you can read it clearly.

The sketchbooks are still in use but I have now started the Studio Journal course so that is my direction at the moment.  Mind you I'm finding most of the exercises I have already covered in my City & Guilds. This week we had been asked to put washes over some of our pages to do away with the dread white page, well I did that last week as that's what I had already learned.  Both this course and the Bloom True one, which involves lots of smearing and sloshing of paint, have helped tremendously in me 'just doing'.  They have also helped with a little change from sewing!

The doodle page was finished, I just forget to post it last week.

A certain young puppy who shall remain nameless found my 2" roll of masking tape which resulted in a thick layer having to be cut off.  

I haven't thrown it in the bin however as it's quite a nice thickness for one little job.  Very useful.

This is the little rug I have under my desk.  My feet are supposed to be on that rug, it was a gift from a friend who rears Shetland sheep.  I don't have the chance to put them on there very often though!!

Ellie does love her Grand Paw Oscar very much. (Shame I can't post the snoring going on from both of them at the time though.)

Please keep your fingers crossed for Ruger who slipped on the ice last week and hurt his stifle joint.  After a week of rest and pain killers he had an anaesthetic yesterday to be x-rayed.  There is a little damage to his cruciate ligament, nothing requiring surgery thankfully, and it will hopefully stay that way as that can be a long term problem.  Another two weeks rest and anti inflammatory medicine.  

Our boiler packed up on the 9^th, the igniter thing didn’t want to ignite anymore, so we’ve been without central heating for a week.  Thankfully our two log burners are big and can really throw out the heat.  The hot water, however, has been virtually on rations and the emersion bit doesn’t seem to be big enough for the tank.  The repair man arrived late last night with a couple of the parts needed and managed to force it into limited work.  Not too worried about the heat, we've become used to wearing lots of layers and this is a very warm home with good insulation. (Cavity wall insulation does = mice and shrews in the loft however.  It makes wonderful pathways and bedding for them.)  End result is a whole new bolier as the oil has contaminated something or another and it would never work again properly.  Another week gently encouraging the heating to work.

I have some blocks calling me to finish them today, a puppy to play with and my Ruger needs lots of TLC.  

Have a great weekend.

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Some Stitch and Scribbles

I've started to put to use some of the batiks that came through from Hancock's last week.  This makes a change as I usually just hoard them not wanting to cut them or damage them.  You would not believe how I just want to keep them all nice!!  Anyway one phobia broken, I dived straight in!! Fifteen 9 inch blocks waiting to be trimmed and then I will make fifteen more!

A couple of sketchbook scribbles this week. An exceptionally quick group of sketches of the dogs.  I hate the bottom left one of Ellie but I have left it in.  I haven't done my usual thing a spent ages tweaking it or then giving up and destroying it completely.  I will learn from it.  Two more phobias broken.  One a bad drawing I will live with and two I am showing you lot.

And after the alphabet I though numbers would be good.  I really enjoyed this one and using the brush pens again.  The Indian ink in them flows so nicely.

Thank you for your comments and responses to the last post. I do enjoy what I do I just need to find a stronger cage for the little devil on my shoulder. Over the years I have taken several of those Left/Right side of the brain tests. I am always virtually down the centre with a slight leaning to the right, but not by much. I have done them because they often accompany those analysis of left handed people. I am and am not one of them so I like to test their theory. I paint and write on paper with the left hand but paint and write upright like on a blackboard or wall right handed.  I can fly fish and fence (the one with the sword John, not the one with wooden panels) with either hand. I will peel vegetables with the knife in my right hand and then chop them with my left.  I knit and crochet right handed but can do it left handed with a little thought when asked for help by a left hander. No I don't consider myself ambidextrous as this means you can do all things with either hand.

In the past I have taken one or two absolutely enormous leaps of intuition and been very lucky with the outcome so why do I shut that gut instinct away when it comes to simply creating something? You can tell I've been analysing this week can't you!! Lol.  I must say a huge thank you to John who has born the brunt of my strange week yelling at myself and trying to rationalise, it's very out of character for me.  I have had firm words with the ghosts of people in my past who constantly dragged me back on the 'proper' course, the course where the left side of the brain should be dominant. I want to give the right side an airing. Anyway, result is I am going to make a great effort to just DO and not give a flying fig about what is right, proper or expected of me. Don't watch this space too closely though.

Have a fabulous weekend and I hope the snow and ice doesn't slow you down too much!! (Unless you're in Australia where you'd have a problem if it was!!)

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Conversation With Self.

“Oh that’s nice.”

“What is?”

“That is, that they’ve made.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t know but I want to make one.”

“Why?”

“Because I think I can make one.”

“But what’s it for?”

“I don’t know!”

“So why do you want to make one?”

“Because I can!!”

“But what will you do with it once you have made it?”

“I’ve no idea.”

“So what’s the point in making it?”

“Just to see if I can.  I just have to make something.”

“But without a use or a home to go to there is no reason. Everything has to have a reason”

“Why does someone walk around a golf course hitting a little white ball?”

“Exercise? To be with friends? To gain a score?”

“But to me it’s a pretty pointless pastime.  As is taking a walk from A to B and back again.  You have a bit of fresh air and a memory.”

“And if you sit and scribble, paint, stitch etc you just end up with a cupboard full of stuff that doesn’t go anywhere.”

“That’s alright then. We’re agreed that I can just make stuff just because I can, just like I could just go for a walk or have a game of golf.  All absolutely pointless stuff that won’t change the world, just make my world a little nicer.”

“OK, I’ll agree to that.”

“Good. Now go away I want to create and fill my cupboards!”

A genuine conversation I have with myself, and not just the once or twice.  I do envy people who can just churn stuff out whether it has a purpose or destination or not.   Everyone has to have an outlet but why do I have to keep justifying the one I enjoy?

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Rip Off Britain

I finally took advantage of one of the Hancock's of Paducah's shipping free offers.

2.5 yards of 108" backing fabric, five packs of 12 fat quarters (that's 60 in total) ((I know I like batiks!!)), and a kit.

With the VAT and Parcelforce handling fees (£20.51) over here the lot cost me a total of £114.

I will say no more.

Very Happy Bunny.

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An End! Sorta, Kinda...

Only a year on from the finish of the Magical Minis and I finally pieced the last three months.  Twenty five 4 inch blocks to add to all the others, 97 in total.  All I have to do now is make 96 or so connector blocks and put it together.  No rush.

Not many doodles this week.  I really like this one and it was fun to do.

I had a funny five here with the robin.  Not too sure whether to colour the flowers.

And I wanted to play with a set of Faber Castell artist big brush pens I have.

At the moment I'm slowly adding to this page as the mood takes me.

Monday sees the start of the Bloom True painting course with Flora Bowley so I may show you some efforts of acrylics being splashed around.

And I couldn't post without a pup pic or two.  The first one was easy, we just showed them a treat.  The second one however took three of us and quite a few treats and Tully still managed to sneak off at the last moment.  It's still the best picture of quite a few we took though!! 

We will have another go the next time Remi and his Mum and Dad visit.  They grow so fast!

Have a great weekend.

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Bird Watch Time Again

Only seems five minutes ago we were doing this!  Not sure how many we have done over the years but even our records at this property are starting add up and make a picture.

Go to Big Garden Bird Watch to sign up and enter your results this weekend.

If you are on my Facebook you may have seen that this week we have had two visitors in the house already!  This has always been a very avian property, probably because of the high and dense hedges we keep, and we do spend a small fortune feeding them all including the pheasants even though I'm rather partial to having one for dinner now and then! (Not one actually from our garden!)

I will leave you with a few pictures of the visitors, a Robin in the house today and a quite young and small male Sparrowhark visiting in the garage on Wednesday.  We wonder if he is the baby of the male and female we have had around her for a few years.

First Sight of the Sea

It was such a beautiful afternoon today after all the rain this morning that we decided to take the dogs down to Studland Beach.  (Sorry, yes another doggy post).

Ellie has only been 'out' a week and has met mud, puddles, the pond (yes she swims!), hedges with deer and rat runs and hares and pheasants that leap out into the air in front of you.  The beach is something completely different!

Of course Ruger and Tully were straight in, Ellie managed to wet her paws and wisely decided it was cold.

But the joy of running with her two bestest buddies kept me busy too!

If you're wondering what Tully is wearing, it's the latest in doggy flotation jackets.  When you're shaped like a brick you tend to swim like one too.  Though she is convinced she could actually do the Channel I think she likes the little bit of support.  Not bad for a little dog who actually detests rain or anything slightly damp.

Of course there are some out there who swim like a fish with the webbed feet and bow wave too.

We had Elsa, Mike and Remi here at the weekend.  Last summer we very nearly retired our good old faithful, rather stressed Stressless chair and bought a new one.  I'm so glad we decided to wait until after any puppy antics had been settled.  Remi and Ellie may look cute but they had exhausted themselves playing on it for at least an hour beforehand!  We may look at another chair next summer instead!

I Knew it Would Take Time!

But boy oh boy, where has January gone?

Ellie has taken up quite a lot of it, as I'm sure you can imagine.  From tomorrow she is all safe to go out in the big wide world so that will be another huge step forward.  She is growing well and has a few basic things understood.  Mind you going out to the loo when it's pouring with rain isn't one of her favourites, and who can blame her!  Thankfully the dogs have their own area in the house and accidents are kept to a minimum.

We had the Openreach engineers here on Monday trying to fix everything.  Apparently last Friday one of the maintenance teams had been shoving cables down the wrong conduit in their eagerness to fix the storm damage and totally messed up the whole village.  There were crossed lines everywhere, quite a lot of door knocking with messages and diverted calls to mobiles by BT for those of us who had them.  Unfortunately the people we were crossed with didn't own mobiles so we were receiving their calls too, including one at 1am wondering if everything was all right!  By then tempers were a little short.  We seemed to have the most complicated problems because of having two lines, that new fangled internet thingy (not many in the village have internet, see comment about not having mobiles either, talk about back and beyond!) and other things attached like security and fire alarms.  The poor guy we had assigned was backwards and forwards between the exchange, the green box and us for most of the day and he had been given 15 jobs to do that morning!  Mind you sorting us had a sort of knock on effect for a couple of others but he still moaned that his targets would never be met that week.  Hardly his fault.  There were at least six other vans in the village too all trying to sort this mess made by one slip of a maintenance team.  Why do these this always happen on a Friday too?

I have managed to do some very quick bits in my sketchbooks.  Not many as it turns out but at least some. Just mainly sloshing a bit of paint around whilst waiting for a certain pup to settle at 6 in the morning really.

This was pure doodle.  And then a bit of paint.  And an alternative background added so a few mornings worth really.

I found a picture in a magazine and tried blending it into a background.

This one I picked up my pencil whilst sipping coffee and sketched a owl pincushion Elsa had made me but I put him on a branch

Ellie has been very good overall but one morning she did discover my box of willow charcoal.  With a piece that was left I sketched my mug and rug.  I may go back and fiddle with this one.

I can't tell you how hard I find it to do these things!  They are too naive for me!  I really am not used to just sketching quickly, I want detail and accuracy and I struggle with just accepting that all these pictures are OK in their own right.  The urge to rip them out of my sketchbook is huge but I am resisting.  I am not a great natural artist, I have to work at it so I focus on detail. I want to let go of that and just 'do'.

And I have done a little stitchwork.  :-)

 I have to do a few samples this morning for the C&G and this afternoon Elsa, Cat and I have a girly time in Salisbury booked.  Something to do with a wedding I believe, lol!

Thank you to those who commented whilst we were out of connection and those who emailed.  Hello to some new followers.  I have a lot of blogs to catch up on and I apologise if I don't manage to comment on any for a bit, there's a lot to plough through as well as life to live!! I've missed you all.

Have a great weekend.

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Incommunicado

In one of the big storms on Thursday we lost power and the phone lines. It was only for an hour or so and there was a lot of chainsawing somewhere in the village. We still have lost one of the phone lines which just happens to be the one with everything on it including the Internet. John had a hell of a time with Sky to put out an engineer so we've now reverted to BT, who have GB based call centres, but we are still waiting, but it is the weekend. Thank goodness for the iPhones even though it's hard work using them sometimes! Stitch work is doing well. Ellie has found her routine with us and the other dogs so I have more little bursts of time. I have even managed to also pick up a pencil or brush most days too just for a quick 10 minute play with paper etc. to try and stretch myself a little. Hopefully all will be resumed shortly!

Woo Hoo We Made It!!

Happy New Year!

We puppy sat Remi while Elsa and Mike went to a wedding. Puppy tumbles everywhere.  Hard work but the new year arrived as it should.

No resolutions, they are only made to be broken.  I will be loosing weight though, the wedding is more than enough motivation!  I will also try and be a little more creative in all departments.

My painting has been non existent so a few weeks ago I signed up to a course by Flora Bowley .  I love her use of colour and she uses acrylics which is a medium have not really explored much.

I am trying to slot in the C&G when puppy permits but I am keeping her away from my room at the moment as she is still in super explore mode.  I do try to keep the room tidy and pet proof but it also helps that Ruger, Tully and Oscar are all laid back animals and not too bothered about putting their noses where they shouldn't.  All they usually want is somewhere peaceful to sleep.  My little room has been a haven for them over last month!

There is a lull in activity at the moment, all feeding, watering and exercise has been done so now they sleep!  I hope your New Year is creative, inspiring and productive!

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Merry Christmas

Well you could probably guess that life here has been doggy dominant.  I have sneaked about a total of an hour in my room to have a quick stitch and play on the City & Guilds.  I did manage to knit a pair of bed socks in the evenings though!!

And just to bore the pants off you all, and to remind me that sometimes there is calm in the House household, if very brief, I will leave you with some doggy poses involving sleep.  (If you look carefully you may even see the odd quilt or stitched cushion!)

Thank you for following our blog this past year.  From this family to yours, we wish you a

Merry Christmas and wonderful New Year.

Chaos Reigns Supreme

Finally, after a lot of searching, juggling and decisions we managed to bring home our latest edition to the family.

This is Ellie.

She did do a lot of sleeping most of the way home, which we were grateful for.  Seeing as we were in the car for 4 hours we only had 3 wees and all in the right place.  No other accidents or car sickness.

Mind you, now she is finding her feet, I think the resident stuffed duck population is in for a hard time.

But you know butter wouldn't melt really.

Ruger and Tully are not quite sure what to make of this energetic, squeaky little thing and Oscar is grateful he can jump onto high places.  We can't wait for her to meet Remi who is a lot nearer her size!  Vets and vaccinations tomorrow.

Everything, including Christmas probably, is on hold for a while!

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Sharon B's Studio Journal Class

If you were wondering about Sharon's studio journal class I mentioned a few posts ago, this is where she is now advertising it.

Sharon B's Studio Journal Class


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