Lovely stuff

Just to wish you all a great weekend free from creative frustration - I am going through it myself. I thought I would share this leather tag my little sister made me with a photo of us on the beach looking after a stranded guillemot (We now think) At the time we called it our penguin, but it did not surrvive as we found its body the next day.  This was on one of those wonderful wild north Norfolk beaches where my father would fish from the shore and we would spend days and days on an almost empty beach with sand as far as the eye could see in both directions. I guess I must be about nine or ten. I have put the tag on a page from one of my journals in which I made a collage of some of the scrummy paper I got in a pack from a local store. I may write on it later, but the colours went well with the beach theme - although it was usually pretty nippy on that North Sea coast.

Dull Wednesday

Horrid, dull morning, need all the lights on to see anything, finished yesterday's Sudoku and saw my needle felt sampler in the daylight, just - made it yesterday evening.  A blast of steam will get rid of the needle holes and I may add a few beads - what shall I do with it then? Don't know, is it nice enough for a card?  I need to get some different colour wools. The shop where I got this is in Knebworth, nearly a 40 mile round trip - I haven't found a supplier nearer yet so it may be the internet, but I do like to see my art supplies for real when I buy them the first time. I am meeting friends for lunch which will be good as I am in a trough this morning.   I shall enjoy a 'grumpy old women' lunch. We are hoping the snow doesn't reach us - we are right on the edge of the forecasted area, so I am taking a gamble meeting my friends a few miles away. Hope you're all feeling a bit more positive - Sudoku is my last resort activity - haven't done one for ages, and have done two this week!!

The next generation ...

My new felt ATC card size pieces - (2.5x3.5 inches) based on these little collage which you may remember.

I have got better at making fine lines - I could get obsessive!

I do find the stabbing and sewing a little tension creating so I may need to do some big and bold art next!

Starting again...

I have bought myself a couple of bargain books on needle-felting, just to get me started, and decided I would have ago at some other projects before relaunching onto animals. So here are three ATC sized pieces I made yesterday, sewing the beads on this morning when there was a good light. They were very quick to do and a quick press with the steam iron seemed to help.

There are quick and not very sophisticated, but just what I need, bright and colourful. 

The trouble was I found these cats on flickr, by gifted felt artist Helen Rogers. If you like these, then do browse her flickr site here for more views.

 

Thank you Helen for giving me permission to use your pictures

Saturday

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAVE

...not that I think he is a follower of my blog, but Dave is a friend of 30+ years and of my husband for even longer. He reaches a significant birthday today and so we thought he deserved a bit of effort. MrT compiled a couple of CDs with a selection tracks that were number ones on his birthday from the fifties to present and we managed to find enough photographs of him - some of them very fuzzy, taken over the years to make the CD covers. Dave is a serious collector - books art, music, anything stylish and iconographic so I though I would compile a six decade set of images and make a zig-zag collage.  This took me rather a long time and almost became a chore instead of an act of love. I found  the images on Google, down loaded them and then printed them, cut them out and then assembled the collage. I made card front and back covers and covered them with a psychedelic print I also found on good old Google images. I enjoyed the finishing off process and I am sure he will enjoy the the gift. We won't be seeing him for a while and have no idea what he is doing today, having a big celebration, or keeping his head down, but either way we hope it is a good one.

Click the pic for a close-up view.

How far back do you remember?

Everything in perspective

Image; The Telegraph

I sit at my computer, hot cup of tea, full belly, central heating on, deciding how to cook the chicken this evening, washing machine running, art 'stuff' all around. Cat, fat and sleeping, bird feeders topped  up, TV with cricket from South Africa, a car in the drive, music on the hi fi and yet yesterday morning I was feeling fed-up and discontent. I have read the newspaper, heard the radio and watched the news - the plight of the Haitians is unimaginable, even for those not injured. Get things in perspective Jill I tell myself, none of my family are in peril, those who are frail have family and a health service to care for them, not perfect but more than adequate. Imagine having nothing, each one of those anonymous faces we see on the news has a story to tell of family, love, life and loss. Today at least, I will be thankful for my life and be content.

What's a few cobwebs beetween friends ...

When I posted a before and after of Noddy and Big Ears here I promised I would share a few more shots of my 'top shelf'.  Mr T has always been a collector of old packages and aided by his Mum we have quite a collection plus my china.

Unfortunately the shelf is rather high so I don't get up to dust the top very often!

so if you won't think any worse of me I'll share a few close-ups with cobwebs.

That's corns and constipation taken care of.

Most of these are concerned with cleaning or tea, plus the Oxo tin of course.

Hey, but what is that perched on the Black Magic tin?

It is a set of lino cutting tools - priced 1s. 4d. that is about 6p in today's money. I have just bought a set and had completely forgotten about these - I wonder if they will work.