Overcoming obstacles

    

Again, breaking the 'don't post about your pets' rule.

These photos were taken on our very early  sunday morning walk .  Having acquired two dogs almost by accident, sounds implausible but believe me it can happen, my life has been transformed/ enhanced in ways I could never have imagined.

 That is why they do feature in my posts sometimes because they are integral to my creative life.  Walking them takes me to places at times of day and in weather conditions that I would otherwise not experience and that feeds my soul and restores my spirit thus recharging my creative battery.

Then, of course, there are the challenges they provide. The chewed doodle book! I am using it.

Obstacles

I read a book about blogging. It said, 'don't post pictures of your pets.' Apparently people don't want to hear someone else wittering on about their Frodo,Fido or Fifi. However cute their antics seem to the pet owner, to others it is just yawn, yawn, yawn.
And yet......here he is! Hairy Herbert the younger. Looking like butter wouldn't melt in his mouth. So very deceptive. That mouth holds the machinery of destruction. You may remember the chewed wallet that was the subject of a previous post.




Well, the beast has struck again. This time he ferreted out of my cavernous handbag the newish sketchbook in which I had begun to exercise the discipline of daily doodles. He could have selected my kindle, phone or IPod. I have to be grateful it was my sketchbook but I feel a sense of very personal affront that he chose to eat my doodles.




I won't lie.
I was cross.
The daft thing was he knew he'd been bad before I said a word. All I did have to say was ' did you do this?' and he went belly up, tail wagging like a mad thing.
Now, days later, I only have to show him the remnant and he goes into full on doggy appeasement.




Now this is probably just a random act of doggy vandalism induced by boredom but..... I can't help but see it as a lesson to be learned.
Possibly two lessons.
Number one obviously being keep your valuables out of dog reach.
But the other lesson is, I think, to work with what is.
In a busy life it can seem that events, big and small, conspire to keep you from creative endeavour. It is all too easy to waste precious moments wishing for the perfect stretch of uninterrupted time or to feel the lack of the perfect tools and materials.
My chewed sketchbook is quite a humorous reminder, to me, of this.




So I am going to carry on using this book.
I will let you know how it goes.

No stitch patchwork

In my mind are many plans for Christmassy makes.
Also in mind is the knowledge that for any of these plans to come to fruition I need to knuckle down and get on with making. But, I am on holiday! Yay!
To be precise a two week break from the 'skills that pay the bills'.
A stacation not a vacation.
It is my idea of bliss to be at home with no set agenda, no clock to watch and no early morning commute.
Although, I love early morning starts where I can stay in my jim-jams and 'hit the ground running'. That is to say I can wake up and tackle whatever has been brewing in my sub brain overnight. Occasionally that thought may be to primp and spruce the house, or create order out of all the mounting mail but usually it is to do something creative.



Like a magpie I am attracted to sparkly objects. Over time I have collected a number of these sweet, elderly little vases and one morning this week I woke with the sure and certain knowledge of what I wanted to do with them.
So it was that I found myself in my studio, in my jammys at 6.15 a.m. making these.


T'was a tad chilly! Autumn seems to have arrived in full force.
I had a brief, downhearted moment at the thought of the wintry chill to come then cosied up with thoughts of stew and dumplings....and snuggling under blankets or preferably cosy patchwork quilts. Patchwork.....so colourful.....such a lot of painstaking stitching....and accuracy.....love the look but not the work.....shame...got so many lovely fabrics and scraps and.....I wonder.......
So it went in my brain.
And it led to this.


Fabric scraps glued to canvas.


As yet unfinished. In truth it was a little more time consuming and fiddly than I expected and I am not sure about it. I shall commit it to my sub brain and revisit it later no doubt.
One week down, one to go.
Happy, happy, happy!

Gift voucher

In view of the content of,and lack of response to, the last post this latest missive might seem a little out of whack.
Let's just draw a veil over that.....for now.
Warning! I am about to use the 'C' word!




Christmas!
There ....I have said it.
I am making gift vouchers for Christmas.

I had the inspiration last year, too late in the season to be of use but, a friend's recent request for one for her sister got me thinking again.
Also I have been wanting to experiment with collaging photos and fabric using stitch instead of glue. These two ideas have collided in the first of the 'Quirk Strangeness and Charm' vouchers that I will be making in the run up to you-know-when.





I cut images from magazines and ironed vilene onto the reverse. Then I used zig-zag stitch on the sewing machine to stitch them onto some batik dyed fabric. A bit of washi tape too. Love washi tape. Who doesn't ?
Stitched it all to some felt......why not ...and made an envelope out of magazine pages.
I might need to refine the design but this thing's got legs.

Theft and giveaway.

Summer months are always busy aren't they. Even when the school holidays don't impact on life anymore the usual routines seem to go out of the window in July and August.

For us it began with a very welcome and enjoyable camping and canoeing trip.

 Then a very welcome and hugely enjoyable trip to Oxford to see older son graduate. At 28, a returner to education, he acquitted himself well having made the brave choice to leave employment and rack up debt!! It is frightening to consider the financial shackles the young have from the outset.

These then are some of the reasons that blogging has gone by the wayside.

I have not been idle though. I have been busy making.

Occupying much of the making time are the sardine tins. They are very satisfying but time consuming to produce which is probably why the theft of one from the shop caused me such distress.

'Twas the one below that went A.W.O.L. 

My level of distress was disproportionate it has to be said.
But hey ho........

I am still experimenting with designs. I like the newspaper covering but have decided that an interior like this chicken one should go in a painted tin like the one above and the one below. The little houses with birds look right, to me, as they are.

 The above two have sold. One on Etsy and one from the shop.
I am still considering doing a give away. Mainly, I won't lie, to solicit comments. I get to see how many people look at my posts and what countries they come from but I really would like to know a bit more about my readers.
Firstly I am going to ask for a vote as to what if anything of mine my readers would like to receive.
A house and bird sardine tin similar to the ones above or a cat brooch similar to the one below.

 Just comment tin or brooch.