New Widget

I expect you'll all have seen the widget for Typepad and Paypal so that we can sell straight from our blogs. So, I started filling it out and then when it was time to upload the image, there's nothing to click on. Has anyone else done this? If you have, please feel free to enlighten me. I did email paypal but they haven't replied. The idea is wonderful.

Hello and new things

I'm very excited to be starting soon an online workshop with Karyn Gartel Just Junque It and have been to town for supplies - it's always like a shot of adrenalin when I buy arty stuff! I had a hard time finding molding paste but I did in the end - so expensive - and it didn't even have to cross the Atlantic as it's made in France!

The centre was mobbed and an absolute madhouse, throngs of people milling about in holiday mood psyching themselves up for Hogmanay!

Feeling a tad heavier?

I will admit to having indulged myself in all the sweetening chocolatey extras that make up Christmas - you know when you say 'well just one more, after all it's Christmas' - does that sound familiar hehe!!!

I even made a new year's resolution and have already put it into practice - but I can't tell you what it is or it won't come true LOL.

'Twas the night before Christmas ...

... and all through the house, not a creature was stirring except for Evie who's so tired she can't even catnap. OK, fridge groaning under the weight of food ready for the oven tomorrow, presents are all wrapped, house cleaned, champagne chilled -- what more can I say except for A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO EVERYONE!!

I've been tagged

Well, that was a nice surprise, thanks to Wendy, so here are 7 things about me and will try to make it interesting LOL.

1. I like dogs but LOVE cats and in my lifetime have had 14 felines and 4 dogs.

2. I have survived 6 life threatening illnesses and if we are like cats, I can only manage another 3 of those!

3. I am happiest when I am doing anything that involves fabric.

4. I have 6 grandchildren.

5. I have always liked old second hand furniture and  was stripping and painting it way back in the 70s.

6. I now prefer instant coffee to percolated or filtered.

7. When I sometimes forget what I wanted in another room, it's amazing that I was once school dux LOL!!

So, now it's my turn to tag someone and I nominate Kari.

Have a nice day!!

Here's the book cover

Wires and great book

I've been having a battle with all the wires under my work table, so I've put sticky labels on all the plugs and transformers and tried to tidy them up a bit. It doesn't look much better but at least now I know what's what.

So onto more pleasant things - I had pre-ordered 'Altered Curiosities' by Jane Ann Wynn and it has arrived. I looked at every single page in one go as it's so wonderful. The techniques are given in a step-by-step manner, and if you like quirky, you'll love this book.

I only have one present to find and I'll have finished my christmas shopping. Decorated the house yesterday and it's feelng more like Christmas - I love the tiny lights and wouldn't mind keeping them there all year!!

Also treated myself to a facial today, only the second time in my life LOL.

What now??

Just when I thought I had everything under control and installed for Vista - my printer won't work. And of course the support works only Mon-Fri..... I can honestly say that for 10 days now the problems have been numerous and I'm feeling worn out.

I was going to start 'arting' again but I need to print out some images - so I'll just have to do something else and be patient (not easy for me)!

Winter has arrived and there's slush out there - but it's more Christmassy so no complaints!

I'm back!!

I have been through a nightmarish few days following the death of my laptop - bought a new one, Windows Vista (OMG did I really need this) - wireless (but it wouldn't connect to the internet) - DD1 has now been elevated to saint status ferrying me back and forth to the PC shop and she spent 4 hours yesterday to no avail, but had a brainwave today and now I have 'wireless'. She just saved me £70 as I had asked for a technician to come to the house to resolve this. Hoorah!!!!! Honestly, I'm very aware of how much time I spend on the internet and not having it these last few days, freed me up to do loads of other pending things. I've been experimenting with bondaweb and paint, crayons, metallics etc. on rough handmade paper.

I did sell something on ebay so maybe I should persevere - but with Christmas very near now I think it'll have to wait till January.

More later ..........

OK now it's the mice!!!

Been plagued with the little rotters who had resisted chocolate digestives in the mouse trap, poison which is supposed to be irresistible, and still the blighters were coming to visit in the night. The last straw was when one jumped out from under a chair when I was hoovering (tiny mouse) - I thought they only tried it on at night??? So called a pest control man who found where they were getting in (holes round pipes in boiler cupboard) who put down 'very strong and irresistible' poison, so all was peaceful once more. UNTIL just an hour ago, a large mouse ran up the hall..... I don't believe it!! So will call him back and he'll use the sticky board which he says is inhumane and hates to have to resort to that -- but do I care, NO.

Just finished a collage

Couldn't sleep last night so got up, needed to do something new and trying to lift myself out of the blues, so started drawing an angel and added thisand that to the sketch. Then today, I painted the angel onto canvas and sewed on wings and buttons and a skipping rope. I've listed her on ebay hoping that someone will fall in love with her little face!!

Pink is my Favourite Crayon

I've been going through some boxes that I haven't opened for some time and found unfinished fabric quiltie things I'd forgotten about. So I worked a bit on this piece and listed it on ebay (if you want a look click on my ebay button bottom left):

Bits and Pieces

I haven't used ebay for almost 2 years and so am giving it a go.  I've listed a couple of art dolls and a couple of fabric assemblages which would make a delightful and original gift (even for yourself LOL). If you want a look just click on the ebay link further down on the left.

Eyes and things

I had an apppointment with an eye specialist today and he put yellow drops in my eyes but he didn't tell me that it had stained!! I went round town before coming home looking like a ghoul - pity Halloween is over as I looked the part LOL.

Here are some more art dolls I made for this weekend's Christmas fair:

It's driving me nuts!

I've been trying to turn little tubes of fabric to use as legs and arms on my art dolls. The first took me 20 minutes (I kid you not), then I tried to buy a 'loop turner' on the web, US sites don't do international! - then I found one on ebay, seller broke her ankle so waited many many days and it arrived yesterday. Now, I thought, here I go full steam ahead - no! managed to do 2 tubes, and the rest just wouldn't turn. This gadget has a hook that you insert up the tube and then close the latch - BUT sometimes the gremlins are at work and the latch stays closed only till half-way down the tube - I've improvised with a bodkin and thread! So did I really need that gadget, hmmmm. I am now on the lookout for something else to use for the arms. Any ideas, anyone?? I have lots of art dolls nearly finished so will post photos soon.

Been busy

I've finished some more wallhangings for the craft fair and have been labelling my stock. I didn't think I'd made so many things until tonight, so feel more at ease now.

I ordered some sari yarn, a wee bit disappointed with the colours, thought they'd be more vibrant but have also tracked down some elsewhere so next time I'll buy from there. But the sari fibres are beautiful like cobwebs and I'm dying to use them. Will be great for silk paper and/or the embellisher.

A couple of new books

I am really excited about these 2 books which came from Amazon yesterday. FREEformations by Jenny Dowde is for knitting and crochet - I can remember years ago admiring those people who could just make things without a pattern, but now I think with this book, I too will be able to do that very thing!! And another advantage here is a list of equivalents between Australia (UK) and USA for knitting needles and crochet hooks and also ditto crochet terms and abbreviations - it's a winner!!

The other book is Bags with paper and stitch by Isobel Hall - she makes incredible bags out of all sorts of paper and paper clay, embellished etc. and you'd swear they were fabric or leather. Directions are given for making loads of different bags.

This sounds like I'm getting paid to critique but I'm just a happy bookworm.

Oh dear, forgot the picture...

Veronica art doll

New Art Doll

Here's a new art doll - Veronica - and although I'm making stock for the craft fair, I've listed this on Etsy to see if she tempts someone, an ideal gift for a birthday or Christmas!!

Kitchen Goddess

I have been sewing and my tidy dining room only lasted one day! The table is piled high again but I can find what I want and anything to stop wasting time hunting for things is fine LOL. Although I start out with the same shape they end up so different and honestly they're definitely taking on a personality (grin). This is the first in a goddess theme, so Kitchen Goddess has made an entrance.

I'm fighting a losing battle with fallen leaves. As soon as I sweep them up and bin them, the garden is covered again, and the gusty wind isn't being very helpful LOL.

Art doll

I've been wanting to use the bisque doll parts I got on ebay and also get the hang of my dremel. I've made an art doll with a brass drawer pull as the body which I drilled (pleased with that!) and attached the arms and legs. So here is Mimsie - and more to follow as I have loads of bisque arms and legs. These doll parts were dug up in Germany where there used to be a doll factory and are in fantastic condition considering they're about 100 years old.

Swap Tags

I've made 10 tags for a swap I'm hosting for Art-e-Zine called My Grandmother's Knickers - vintage underwear is fascinating and I enjoyed making these. When the swaps arrive, I'm going to make them into tag books.   We used luggage tags and I sewed vintage images on and did a bit of beading to titivate them. Be interesting to see what the others have made!

Bothies

Well, although it irks me to admit - me and technology do not go hand in hand! I had to take pictures of my wee bothies twice because I couldn't find the first ones (and they were on the camera all the time, sigh). So here they are: the dark one is actually blue and green tartan.

Just when I'd set it....

... up, my camera was needing charged. So I'll post pics later. I've been making wee tartan mohair houses (sounds hideous but they're really sweet) and have to take them to a shop tomorrow - wish me luck!! They are called 'Wee Bothies' which is a Scots word for cottage.

Did have some luck today though as I sold some of our Arte-ed-Anima calendars to a well known art gallery bookshop - that put a spring in my step LOL.

More wooden things

Here are a couple of wooden hangings to add to my collection for the exhibition. They've been sitting on a ledge for ages but I didn't know if they were finished or not - and yet I felt they lacked something. So today I played around with pearl buttons and silk ribbon and now satisfied with them.

A new doll

I've had a busy week and not had time to post much but wanted to let you see my latest doll - Roxy - her body is made from a painting rag and I rather liked the colours, what do you think? I have another doll almost finished just have to do her arms.

Today I went to Bits and Bobs and it really was my lucky day - I got beautiful pieces of jazzy wool tweed and lots of rubber stamps, and had first pick at bags of remnants just ideal size for making the dolls - great fun!! I always go there with my buggy on wheels (on the bus) because once I came home with very heavy canisters of paint and did my back in for a week!!

Quilt Show

I went to a quilt show with two friends on Friday. I thought I'd just have a look and maybe buy some little thing. Well you know what 'thought' did - bought a feather and thought it'd grow a hen (or something like that)!! I had a BALL - the most beautiful bundles of fat quarters tied up with satin ribbons and all mix and match - I never see fabric like that in the shops - of course it's directed at quilters hah! Lots of elderly ladies who still make boring quilts in boring fabrics and have never moved forward with the times!! OK rant over.

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Today's pages

I am a member of a Colour Play round robin which is taking a tad longer than we'd first imagined (about 9 months to be exact!). And today I finished my spreads - the brief was peeling paper, and shades of red, yellow and ochre. The foil reads 'Mother Goose'.

Collage Calendar

Very exciting news - our arty collage calendar is now ready and is up for sale - just click on the link at the right for more details. I'm sure most of you will have heard of the artists who collaborated in this calendar, we're all very excited!

Little things on card

I've prepared some card to back my little wallhangings with the name of our conglomerate WEE ART THINGS - I think they look much better!

Wee Things

I've finished the first batch of wee hangings for the Arts & Crafts stall next month. The two fabric parts are joined with beading, ribbon hanger, and a variety of hearts and buttons. Here are a few:

Shopping

Well, the weather's turned rather cold all of a sudden and I was looking for my winter coat - and then remembered I'd sent a couple to the charity shop earlier this year. They weren't shabby or out of fashion, but they just wouldn't blooming well wear out and I was tired of them. I found not one but two fab coats - now want it to freeze LOL so as I can wear them.

I've been sewing some little things, and printing some words onto fabric, when they're finished I'll post some pics. I found a heart-shaped punch today, just what I needed because I'd tried to stitch fabric hearts but they're too fiddley and the stitching wasn't neat enough. So I'm going to sew paper hearts on. More later.

Found it!

I've had a piece for quite a while now that I just couldn't decide how to finish. I tried tiny tags hanging off the bottom - no good - ribbon, flowers, metal things - still not right. I was leafing through Beryl Taylor's Mixed Media Explorations and found it! A little stack of painted papers topped by a button, I used pearl buttons - here's Lidia

Today I finished...

... another art doll because I have to send one for a swap and am not sure which to keep. This is Lola:

I've been good

I am feeling very pleased with myself as I have been painting before and after lunch for 4 hours. Had a little cat nap too. And now I'm waiting for paint to dry and looking around for something to do without major disruption. I moved the machines yesterday and set the Bernina up in my studio so I can easily do a little something!! I've caught up with some blog visits and the wine order which came yesterday is all stored away. Out the corner of my eye I see some withered flowers which need cutting but I know that as I can't do half measures, better not go into the garden today LOL.

Changing Direction

I've finished another 4 pieces of wall art and now have to put away the fabric and all the clutter that goes with sewing. I still get tempted to just do a little more and then I'm absorbed again and the paint stays in the tubes hah!!

But a different kind of clutter emerging LOL, I have a deadline six weeks on for handing in my paintings for the Cancer Research UK exhibition and I'm still not sure which ones. I am reworking some and the others have started off from scratch.

Anyway, here are the latest pieces which will be backed with colour washed wood but I thought they'd be easier to scan without the backing:

Using Dyed Cloth

I made this following an article in CPS where you dye muslin with coffee and it's turned out fine. I think the secret was to stitch in a contrasting thread because my first attempt with cream thread was very bland.

Dyeing

I've been dyeing muslin today with coffee and acrylics. It's dripping as I write. I have a love of duck-egg blue and it creeps into whatever I'm making - just can't help it LOL. I saw an article in the latest CPS that I want to try and this is the first stage. I am impatient though, want to do more - oh well - tomorrow!!

I'm off to 'Footering Friday' tomorrow (that's Scottish for messing around) and will take my fridge magnets to finish off, and the dyed muslin. More later.........

Art doll

It seems that I am well and truly in a 'doll phase'!! And after me saying that I hadn't enjoyed making one for a swap (maybe it's because I didn't like the pattern we had to use), I decided to try something else. And OK, after painting and stamping some muslin and titivating her up a bit  - here's AGGIE:

Wall Art and things

I've completed another piece in my 'aged' wall-hangings. My adrenalin is flowing at the moment so have to make use of it! I've listed it on etsy - I've called it MUSE.

I've also been playing around with magnetic plastic and decided to make some fridge magnets. They're not finished yet, will post them later.

Hope you're all having a happy and creative Sunday!!

White-out

I had a look at my paintings to see which ones I'd enter into the exhibition in November. And I have to be honest here, there were a few I just didn't like any more. And if I don't like them, what are the chances of anyone else liking them? So I got the gesso out and painted over the lot and now have blank canvases once again. Feels good!!! I have a notion to collage some lace and bits of silk on, now that's really brave hehe!!

Lottery update etc.

I won!!!!! Only £10 but it's still a win hehe! Well, this morning I got an email from a company who would like to make giclee prints of some of my paintings - have asked for more details, not sure if this is legit.

I've listed a couple more things on etsy - an embellished book cover and BACIONE (a big kiss) wall art:

A couple more

I have a sort of asssembly line going with these wall-art pieces in various stages of completion. Here are two more finished pieces which are on etsy

I had a sort of 'lucky' day today, first was the taxi driver who asked for less than was on the meter??, then a quick visit to my favourite charity shop where I found the most beautiful vintage laces and trimmings which were supposed to be sold by the metre -- well she just gave me a total price which was so cheap, I almost felt guilty!! Sooo, will buy a lottery ticket (or two) for tonight's draw.....

Calendar

An international group of artists got together to create a 2008 calendar which is for sale on Amazon. It is all about altered art, collage, etc. Some of the names you'll probably recognize - Linda Koch, Kathy Wasilewski, Sally Turlington, Susan Tuttle, Lou McCulloch and so on. There's no picture yet on Amazon so I'll show you what's on the cover (by Lynne Porter), and January (on the right) which I did. Hope you'll all be tempted, it really is beautiful!!

Finished Another

Here's another fabric collage just finished - SECRETS - and you can find it on etsy. I changed the size of the images for the last post but it was too big and takes too long so I'll rectify that now.

New Collage

I had a lovely day yesterday with like-minded souls - arting, chatting, eating and a little glass of wine (as you do!!). I was preparing some fabric collages and have just finished the first which is listed on etsy - FRIEND and more to follow very soon.

A bit all over the place

I'm finding it hard to concentrate on one thing in my artistic endeavours since DD3 and family went back to Florence on Sunday. I've dabbled in embellishing, sewing, painting, and tidying up so as I can find my stuff LOL.

I've resorted to asking my neighbour for help with the Dremel - he'll come over later today so I hope that all will be revealed!!

Here's a wooden wallhanging I finished - was thinking I should give it a name, might add one later - the plate at the bottom is brass, have no idea what it was for so have given it another chance LOL.

Rockin' Girl Award

Well, you could have knocked me over with the proverbial feather - Kat has awarded me this banner as a Rockin' Girl Blogger - I'm pleased as Punch. So now it's my turn to choose 5 rockin' bloggers:

Sally

Kari

Gail

Janene

Earthtone Studios

OK Rockin's Girls - over to you!!!