Aberdovey Oil Painting

In 2009 I started to paint again, I had fun with it, tried some ideas and even though I only produced two paintings which felt finished to me, that's two more than the year before!

Aberdovey

Aberdovey started off on a sunny afternoon, R and I had been joking about our different styles and I challenged him to leave the one hair brush and have a go with my palette knives. I had a go at the same time, became absorbed and this painting emerged. It was inspired by the photographs from our trip to Wales immediately after leaving our full time teaching jobs. We stayed in Tywyn and it was lovely to pootle along the coast where I had lived for four years when I was studying at the University of Wales, Aberystwyth.

That was well over a year ago and I am very ready for living near the sea and painting again, no more move news yet, we are awaiting another survey man who will hopefully be the last!

Moving Day Fail

Today, the 29th January was supposed to be moving day. It was moving day in everyone's mind, that is apart from our buyer's solicitor who threw a spanner in the works late last week, demanding a cream bun.



Ok, we got the cream bun and on Monday went into our solicitor's to sign paperwork and were excited again that, although delayed, we would be moving soon. Then on Tuesday we hear that not only does she want a cream bun, she is also demanding the moon on a stick and a Blue Peter competition badge.

R and I discussed the issues and were agreed, that although not legal experts we were fairly sure that a Blue Peter competition badge was only slightly less impossible to obtain than the moon on a stick within the deadlines for our own purchase. Further conversations with various and numerous experts confirmed our fears and in fact, regardless of time and budget issues both a Blue Peter competition badge and the moon on a stick were logistically impossible and that the demands were "a wee bit silly".

So, here we are having to get letters to confirm the silliness of demanding a Blue Peter competition badge and the moon on a stick, still surrounded by boxes, still not moved and still not sure when (I have banished 'if' because I refuse to believe this will fall through) we will get to move.

Another Beautiful Blog

What Katie Did

I've been following this blog for a while (yes I apologise, another lurker!) but only recently visited the old posts and spent an entire football match reading it! Another "dream blog" and thanks to textile artist Katie Jackson for sharing a little part of her life with us all.

Heart Charm Bracelet

One of a range of jewellery I've made recently featuring some gorgeous hearts. The rest are waiting to be photographed and one of my lights has bust so they might be waiting a bit longer!

Moving House

Our move is still on but it's been delayed. It had all been going so well and we were due to move to our lovely new home in Scotland next Friday but now it looks like it will be another three weeks taking us into mid February. It really is a bit frustrating, for us, our buyer and the couple who are selling to us.

So I have become drawn into trance inducing Cafe World on Facebook, been reading and done a wee bit of teaching but really, I think I'm going to have to unpack the jewellery tool box and crack on with some new ideas. I am determined that I should ignore my new sewing machine until we get settled but I really want to have a go!

As for R, it all got too much and, thanks to ebay, he has a new project to keep him occupied for a few weeks. . .

There he is amidst the boxes starting to dismantle his new old Dawes bike ready for restoration. Oh, it'll be good to get moved, away from cardboard boxes, back to work properly and out on the bikes again!

Beautiful Blogs

Following on from yesterday's post, two more blogs which "enchant, captivate, or sweep with extraordinary beauty":
















Geninne's Art Blog

Cassia

This Blog is a Dream Award

My blog was given this award by 2 Good Claymates. It translates to say "This Blog is a Dream" and is a gift for beautiful and creative blogs: those that "enchant, captivate, or sweep with extraordinary beauty." Thank you very much!

Here are the rules for receiving this award:
- Copy the award and place it in your blog.
- Link the person who nominated you.
- Nominate 10 dream blogs.
- Post links to the 10 blogs you nominate.
- Leave a comment on each of the blogs letting them know you nominated them.

I'm going to split my list of ten blogs which "enchant, captivate, or sweep away with extaordinary beauty" and give you a few at a time, first up:

Ali Bali Jewellery

Ambera Wellmann

Surfacing

Laura Cameron on ArtFire

As some of you know I set two free studios, one for jewellery and one for art work, on ArtFire to see how I got on, after a few months with no sales I had to decide what to do with it and, after much consideration and the prompt of a special offer, I have gone for a verified account and combined my studios.

Click image to see ArtFire Kiosk on Facebook!

I still have a shop on Etsy and have had a few emails requesting prints but nobody has actually bought one. It is a beautiful website in some ways but I have gone for ArtFire as my international site because I have been able to prepay a set amount and that is all the expense out of the way and it is less than what I would end up spending to be visible on Etsy. I am now free to list as much as I want over the year and not have to pay any commission it's all paid for, makes accounts just the small bit simple. There are several rather lovely features including selling directly through Facebook and my blog and the new forums are rather fancy allowing signature links and bringing up very enticing images from the shops of those who have posted in each thread, clever!


With my new combined studio I am still facing the quandary of not having an over all look to the studio as there is a mix of jewellery, photographs and paintings, but I would have this quandary on any site. I've kept them separate on Folksy but thought I'd experiment with the categories on ArtFire to see if I could create a coherent collection. If you get a chance I'd appreciate you having a quick look at my studio and leaving a comment on how you think the current categories work - I'm wondering if they would be better like this:
Bracelets
Earrings
Necklaces
Black and White Photographs
Colour Photographs
TTV
Oil Paintings

I'd appreciate your time and thoughts!

January is the month for fiddling with these things as the real new year starts for us, hopefully, next Friday when we , hopefully, move! Living surrounded by boxes, not able to get in with creating and awaiting news of final dates is getting a little tedious but, again hopefully, this time in two weeks we'll be settling in to our new home in Scotland!

Help Haiti

You can donate through Tearfund or directly to the Disasters Emergency Committee.

A Moveable Feast

Ever since I was given a wee blue exercise book and told to record the books I read way back in primary school I've liked to keep a note of what I've read. This year I thought I'd add a list to my blog after I started to lose track a bit. I remember my A-Level English teacher lamenting over the lack of time to read for pleasure and, having had that moment of realisation a few years ago at about midnight with my head stuck in a pile of marking, I am still very happy with not being a full time teacher anymore!



So over the year I'll be adding to the list which should appear in the sidebar, there might be a review, there might not. Thanks to Nics Knots I discovered Green Metropolis - "where books grow trees", and will try to link each book to a listing there where possible, so, if your fancy is tickled, you can go buy a copy.

First read of 2010 then for me is A Moveable Feast, Ernest Hemmingway's memories of living in Paris as a young, unknown writer in the 1920s. An atmospheric, tender and witty portrayal of Hemmingway when he was young, happy, poor and in love with his wife.

Turquoise

In November I bought some beautiful pieces of stabilized turquoise and above is a piece I made for a friend's Birthday gift in December. Turquoise is such a beautiful stone and this wire wrapped technique shows off the maximum amount of stone.

You can order your own pendant now in my Folksy (£) and Artfire ($) shops!

Happy Wedding Anniversary Mum and Dad!

January so far

So, the first day of the year started in fabulous fashion. Beautiful frosty winter's morning, my parents packed up the motor home and we headed up to the north coast with the dogs. We had such a lovely time, laughing at Mister Softee and the general strangeness of snow on the beach then cuddled up inside for soup and toast. Then the tooth ache began. It's my last wisdom tooth finally coming through and it hurts. I flew back to England on Monday and was able to get an appointment that afternoon, I'm on all sorts of tablets and it still hurts so I'm going back tomorrow.

Felt rubbish that my last few days of holiday spent with my family were mainly me trying to sleep or moaning and my first week back with R has been spent with me mainly trying to sleep and moaning. Apologies to you all!

This year February is going to be the new January I think. All the new year freshness and time to get organised, tidy and plan will have to wait until we get moved and I don't have tooth ache any more! More letters are flying between us and solicitors and so we should be in our new home by the end of the month! There will be pictures, trust me!

Hope you are all enjoying the New Year and that you are coping if you are snowed in, if you are you might want to check out this great list, it won't magic you a few pints of milk in when you really need them but it might ease the boredom of staring at the same walls all day!

New Year's Day 2010

A beautiful frosty morning welcomed us into the New Year and we took a jaunt up to the North Coast in the motorhome. A gorgeous drive until we got to Downhill when visibility dropped due to heavy snow and then, arriving at Benone we could only laugh at Mister Softee parked up on a snowy beach! Brilliant!