finished

I am sure you are all kinda sick of seeing this piece- well, never fear; it is finished!

I just wanted to show the last bits of hand stitching I did

It now goes off to the States

oh; and to answer your questions, Susanna; the background is an old cotton sheet

that I have cut.....then a sheet of music that I put a bit of gesso over;

actually, too much gesso as you cannot really see the score

I only knew that it had to have a cardinal in it

so looked on the internet for a nice image -

and use that as a guide to free machine stitch the bird

everything else just sort of happens

I don’t really have a plan

yikes, it is almost 3.30pm.......and what have I done today?

paid bills, filled out a form to get extra pages added to my passport

(I know; weird - but have run out of space for stamps -

the passport control people are getting quite annoyed

every time I come back into the country)

things I haven’t done:

arranged my studio.......I have a new big table and wanted to see if I could rearrange

the furniture in here......haven’t done it so am sitting here with stuff and

boxes and storage containers and piles of paper and piles of magazines and

piles of books and piles of cloth all around me

oh, and a bike I brought back from France

in the middle of the room (long story)

I have two more bird commissions, but they don’t have a pressing deadline -

so before that, I would like to do a few Valentine’s like I did last year

and see if I can put them in the café next door again

I also have a huge pile of magazines I have been collecting but never take the time

to look through them - they all look really inspirational

maybe schedule in an afternoon where I just sit and look through things;

without feeling guilty for "not doing anything" (even tho I know it is actually doing something)

hm.......all jumbley, jumbley, jumbley

__a

friday

wow

first off, I would like to thank everyone for such nice comments on my “wishing wednesday” post

I have never done something like that before - so thank you for your messages!

now........I had planned on finishing this today - but somehow got sucked into

internet/bloggyland and........well; didn’t finish

needless to say - I also didn’t start the one I had planned on starting

when I finished this one......if you follow me

we have a printing job to do tomorrow, so maybe in between tasks, I can finish this

hope everyone has a nice weekend -

and again - thank you so much for coming by.......and especially for your nice comments

__a

wishcasting wednesday

um.......ok, I'm a little late with this one, but:

What do I wish to enjoy?

I wish for the energy and gumption to keep creating while constantly looking and learning

I wish for a quieter mind that will allow me to roam freely

I wish for a lessening of the feeling of helplessness and sadness that creeps into my days and nights

and; to appreciate all the amazing people and opportunities I have in my life right now

And you?

click here if you want to add your wishes

new work

I have actually started doing something creative!! woo hoo

I realised I have at least 3 little commissions to work on.........duh, better get going

then I was about to submit my work for a local show when I realised

that I didn’t actually fulfill one of the requirements......oops

but there is another show I want to try to get into - so will set my sights on that one

anyhoo;

here is what I have been working on......

it of course will have more embellishments and stitches....just as soon as I figure out what that will be!

on another note: I was finally able to get some photos off an old camera.......

taken a few years ago - but lovely images! (well, I think so)

so. bear with me - you are going to have to go on another trip with me to the coast

Dungeness and Camper Sands to be exact

a beautiful, lonely, mystical area

Prospect Cottage - Derek Jarman’s house - now a rental property, I think

a beautiful, sparse seaside garden; full of all sorts of stones and bits he found on the beach -

making little sculptures

how beautiful is this?!

below are pictures I took at Camber Sands, which is not too far from Dungeness

thank you for stopping by!

__a

Sancerre/Bourge

after Paris, we went on to stay in a gîte in Sancerre, in the Loire Valley.

Our gîte was better than I imagined it could possibly be!

A wood fire, nice kitchen and big rooms with modern bathrooms

It was really cold, so we had the fire going the entire time. LOVE fires!!

S in front of the massive fireplace and the wood burner

the town, Sancerre, is a charming old town on top of a hill, surrounded by wineries

most of the buildings are this lovely buff colour

as it was right after New Years, not many things were open for the first couple of days

luckily, we brought all sorts of things to eat and drink from the markets in Paris

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my camera to the wine tasting we went to

It was in a beautiful winery where one of the family gave us a private tour

the original cave was just beautiful - full of old oak casks and lovely stone

another day, we went to a local goat farmer to buy some cheese - no camera there either..duh

but the cheese was lovely!!

An old family friend drove up from her place in the south of

France to visit for a few days.

She brought a sparkle to our trip - brought all sorts of goodies to eat,

translated at the winery and cheese farm for us and never stopped talking!!

Kay and mom

We drove off to Bourges one day to see the cathedral; one of the largest in France

it was HUGE - and amazing........such artwork

I went a little crazy with the photos of statues - and they had some good ones!

religious statues just seem to have such a presence

the colours of the stained glass were so vibrant - they had been redone in the 1800s, so most were not original - but even the original ones that were at the very top seemed amazingly bright too

the reds and blues particulary

there were several life-sized (and bigger) statues of important patrons of the time -

kinda spooky to turn a corner and there are a group of people praying!

While in Brouges, we also went to see the house of Jacques Cœur

was a very interesting place

these were on the front of the house and supposedly depict the owner and his wife

there were lots and lots of stone carvings all over the place - check out the monkey below the guy

one of the giant fireplaces were covered in all sorts of monkeys.......what's the deal with that?

I wanted to take a photo of a street sweeper earlier, but was afraid he'd see me and not like it -

but then when I went into the building, I saw a broom, which is what I wanted to show

these brooms are still used today

or maybe a witch had come in to look around the house??

well........guess I cannot procrastinate any longer........

must. start. doing. things.

thanks so much for dropping by and especially for the comments - really makes me smile

and Susanna; yes! the lettuce is mostly beautifully arranged in baskets!

you could spend the whole day just wandering around taking photos of the beautiful displays of produce, etc

__a

new year

hello everyone -

you are probably surprised to actually see that I am here!

I know....it has been such a long time

the holidays were not too bad........very subdued, of course; but not too bad

after Xmas, we brought my mother back with us and went to France

we spent New Years in Paris

mother and my husband, S

yummy seafood! wish we had the self-catering place here

S and mom discussing the finer points of lettuce

looking to Notre Dame from the bridge that links Ile Saint Louis with the rest of the city

I have never been to this part of Paris, but boy do I recommend it!

It is full of darling little shops (altho probably quite spendy)

We found a fantastic Lebanese place for lunch

Originally, we had reservations at another place for New Years Eve, but luckily,

it was changed to a place near our hotel in the South Bank.

I had no idea Paris was such a scary place New Year's Eve!

We kept seeing fences being put up along the Champs Elysees and armed policemen patrolling around

I doubt we would have been able to get any sort of taxi that night to get either to or from the restaurant

the place we ended up having dinner in was a lovely old restaurant - walking distance from our hotel

a set menu that ended up having about 6 or 7 courses! the food was lovely - the atmosphere was lovely

except for the couple sitting behind us; they spent the entire evening taking pictures of each other and then spent the rest of the time on their phones.......they barely said anything to each other, yet seemed in good moods - like this is how they always "spend time together" - seemed a bit sad to me.......they could have been anywhere with anyone;

paying more attention to their phones

anyway; we had a glass of champagne to toast the new year; new beginnings

and then literally waddled home!

very atmospheric shop front - couldn't tell if it was actually ever open

quite annoyed the photo on the bottom is a bit blurry

but anyway; the two trees

the "fluffy" one was a tree covered in some sort of fuzzy stuff, like someone had flocked the tree

we saw them all over the place in all sorts of colours

(even a sad little black one that had been abandoned on the street)

this one was in the window of a very fancy shop and was covered in beautiful bright pink roses

the other tree I liked in contrast with the shabby shutters

it was sitting outside a first floor window above the street on Rue Mouffetard, my favourite area in Paris

after Paris, we took a train down to Sancerre where we had rented a gîte for almost a week.

I will send a few photos of that next time

I am very happy you haven't given up on me and have come back to see what/where I am

I am looking forward to the new year and all the new things I have planned

my biggest hurdle is to actually get moving and start

emptying out my head a bit and letting more creativity in is my first goal.........

or at least beginning to empty and let some calmness and quiet in

hope everyone is doing well and looking forward to 2011!

__a