Look what I put my knitting in!

When we were sorting out my Dads flat , when he had to go into a nursing home. I found this,  I think its some sort of upholstery webbing,  I had no idea what I was going to do with it but though I would try an use it in some way,  rather than throw, yet another thing away.

So I wove a basket.  Something I have never really done before.

It started off square , but ended up round!!!   I may need to look up how to do this properly.  But anyway its quirky........

and I like it.

So I put my knitting in it.

Christmas arrived at Wellydog Gallery

Yesterday I held a christmas card painting workshop.  

8 lovely ladies came and we started by drawing lots of Christmas bits and pieces.  Everyone chose to go the natural look, drawing holly and ivy and lots of berries, teasels and old mans beard, adding a couple of baubles and orange segments along the way.

They then traced off some of the drawings and arranged them in a garland or wreath shape, then the painting began

A couple finished but most will finish them off at home, or in another session. They will then be scanned in to the computer

Text if they want will be added and them I will print sample cards for them to decide if they want any more printing.

It was a lovely atmosphere and we all had fun along the way. I was very pleased as I had 2 new students who seemed to really enjoy coming and have said they will return also some lovely messages when I got home from the students saying they had enjoyed it.

Needless to say I am in a more christmassy mood now 

Happy Christmas x

NO 9,12,15,16,27 and 45 done after a trip to Cornwall

50 THINGS TO DO IN MY 50TH YEAR

1. Have a meal with Steve and all the kids

2. Try and see a whale

3. See the Angel of the north

4. Photograph wild flowers

5. Paint outside ( not the fence)

6. Search for sea glass

7. Find 50 Art Deco buildings and photograph them - started

8. Swim a mile

9. Walk on a beach at sunset in the UK

We walked on Poldu beach just as the sun went down it was absolutely stunning 

10. Sing in public ( not on my own)

11. Make  a sculpture out of found or natural items

12. Pooh sticks

We found this random bridge at Gwithian just up from Godrevy Lighthouse.  I won at pooh sticks.....well eventually!!

13. Walk up to Glastonbury Tor

14. Paddle in a stream

15.  Go on a picnic

Does it get any better in cornwall??

16  Climb something

I know its not climbing in the true sense of the word but for me and my fear of heights,  Cape cornwall was high enough and difficult enough as it was very rocky 

17. Tea and cake with all the family

18.  Spend a day with Gemma           

19.  Spend a day with Heather

20.  Spend a Day with Chris

21.  Walk a dog

22. Find treasure

23. See wonderful stained glass

24. See a David Hockney painting

25.  Visit Scotland

26. Try and see the Northern lights

27. Stargaze

No photos I'm afraid but the stars were amazing at Lizard point. We saw the milky way as well as the usual, Plough  and many more Mr WD pointed out , but I can't remember there names

28. Dance in the tower Ballroom Blackpool

29. Road trip

30. Decorate a special cake

31. Do a mosaic

32. Make 50 origami birds and hang them in trees

33.  Throw a pot

34. Have a girly night

35. Make a flower arrangement

36. Sparkle

37. Have my engagement and eternity rings repaired

38. Decorate the bedroom

39. Make a daisy chain

40. Get a tattoo

41. Have a photo us all.  Not professional

42. Make an album or photo book of the year

43. Do something to raise money for charity

44. Candle lit relaxing  bath

45. Kiss in the rain

Sorry no pictures I was to busy kissing  ( lots of it going on on my holiday to cornwall, much to the dogs disgust!)

46. See a film in the directors lounge

47. Have a butterfly land on my hand

48. Crochet or knit myself a jumper

49. Paint a good picture on an Ipad

50.  Surprise me!!!

27 to go

Challenging few days

Tuesday morning, we woke up to be surrounded by water.  We have been here 7 years and not had even a large puddle.  We have 2 large ponds at the back of the house that usually take any excess water.  So it was a bit of a surprise. By the end of the day it had started to go down, but they were forecasting rain over night, so we sorted a few bits out and lifted the valuable upstairs and unplugged electric items and switched off as much as possible and went to bed hoping the worst was over.

It went down overnight,  so when we got up on Wednesday we were quietly confident, that was it. Off we tootled off to work and didn't really give it another thought.  But came home to quite a shock.

Our road was closed and had to walk through the floods to get home.  The next street along was  a real mess.

When I saw my house I was in a real panic as we had a river running down the side of the house and down the road.  This was our neighbours garage

Remarkably, even though it was up to our  door then it hadn't come into the house.

The water was basically coming from the back as a stream, through our garden,  as the road is on a small slope it ran like a river down the road and luckily drained off enough to keep it from rising,

Unfortunately the drains were getting backlogged  and it started to rise again,  so with all the neighbours we were out with brooms to push it down the road quicker.  A couple of quick minded people, knocked out some of our fencing to stop it building up behind and to get it moving quicker.  Also a few planks of wood were hammered onto the brooms and so larger amounts of water were being moved. Also someone set up a submersible pump to move some water down to the unlocked drains. The fire brigade then started pumping out from the next street on.

 The Council Incident unit  came and assessed our situation, and then the council brought us sand bags and gel bags to block doors in the hope of keeping it all out.

Unfortunately as the van arrived then some people from another road ( who had no water as yet) helped themselves to the bags when no one was looking,  so they then had to go and get some more for us.  People are so impatient,  they were going round and prioritising those at risk first, rather than doing it in order as some people wanted them to do.

The council then took the decision to build a barrier behind our gardens.  With this and the fire brigade, we stopped trying to move the water away from our houses about 8pm last night.   ( the pictures were taken this morning, so the water is much lower than last night)

I am so grateful to all the neighbours,  most of who were not affected and some complete strangers that helped us out.  We had offers from people we haver never met, to store furniture for us or ring later for assistance if things got worse.
The fire brigade and council were great and even though some people felt they weren't kept informed,  I was grateful they just got on and sorted it, rather than chat to everyone .  Luckily by us, no houses were lost,  so that is amazing considering the amount of water that was  coming through at the peak of the rain storm.

I know that unlike some poor people around the country we were incredibly lucky .

New Cards

Funday Sunday

Yesterday we had a Funday Sunday Craft Day at Clevedon Craft Centre.  We had lots of demonstrations and crafts to try.  There was spinning, making brooches, pottery painting,  throwing a pot, plant sale and exchange and at my studio I ran a, have a go at still life drawing.  The other units were open but its hard for the furniture restorer and clock maker to do demonstrations, but they were all in their studios, chatting about their trades.

I was so busy I didn't get to take many pictures but I got few.  I set up 3 still life's and everyone regardless of age could have a go. The middle vase was particularly for the children for the bright colours but it was difficult to see light and dark,  but the children did love colouring it.

What surprised me was how many people came out in appalling weather and did actually have a go. I had one lady who stayed for a good 3 hours just drawing.

 and some of the children,  when I got time, had a go at painting. This young lady was very good

Here are some of the results.  You may wonder what the funny structure was,  It was a test piece my son made years ago, learning how to weld.  Its usually a door stop in our house.

And I also managed to tick off one of my 50 things to do,  when I made a pot with the wonderful Liz, our local potter.

A great day for all and lots of fun!

NO 33

50 THINGS TO DO IN MY 50TH YEAR

1. Have a meal with Steve and all the kids

2. Try and see a whale

3. See the Angel of the north

4. Photograph wild flowers

5. Paint outside ( not the fence)

6. Search for sea glass

7. Find 50 Art Deco buildings and photograph them - started

8. Swim a mile

9. Walk on a beach at sunset in the UK

10. Sing in public ( not on my own)

11. Make  a sculpture out of found or natural items

12. Pooh sticks

13. Walk up to Glastonbury Tor

14. Paddle in a stream

15.  Go on a picnic

16  Climb something

17. Tea and cake with all the family

18.  Spend a day with Gemma           

19.  Spend a day with Heather

20.  Spend a Day with Chris

21.  Walk a dog

22. Find treasure

23. See wonderful stained glass

24. See a David Hockney painting

25.  Visit Scotland

26. Try and see the Northern lights

27. Stargaze

28. Dance in the tower Ballroom Blackpool

29. Road trip

30. Decorate a special cake

31. Do a mosaic

32. Make 50 origami birds and hang them in trees

33.  Throw a pot

34. Have a girly night

35. Make a flower arrangement

36. Sparkle

37. Have my engagement and eternity rings repaired

38. Decorate the bedroom

39. Make a daisy chain

40. Get a tattoo

41. Have a photo us all.  Not professional

42. Make an album or photo book of the year

43. Do something to raise money for charity

44. Candle lit relaxing  bath

45. Kiss in the rain

46. See a film in the directors lounge

47. Have a butterfly land on my hand

48. Crochet or knit myself a jumper

49. Paint a good picture on an Ipad

50.  Surprise me!!!

33 to go

Card frustration!!

I need more cards,  I do have a local printer who does an ok job,  but he is very limited on how he does  the cards. I want a more dynamic look and my images to fill the cards rather than have  a large white border.  So I wanted to look at options for printing them myself.  I know I can go to Moo, or other online printers and also there is an option for other local printer and I wont rule them out at all,  but I would love to be able to print what I want, when I want and how I want....

I spoke to Mr WD about inks and printers and we looked at recommendations and actually decided that as printers go our HP printer probably was ok to at least experiment with and decide on paper and designs.  So I bought some card stock and updated my Photoshop package and so was set to go.


AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH  its not that easy.  I have discovered the biggest problem with HP printers.........Paper feed.  The printer can't cope with 300gm card as it has to turn it around a roller and there is no manual feed option.  I have taken the back off and tried to feed it through but its just not going to happen and if I could get it to work its just not worth sitting there for ages to feed it all through.

Back to the drawing board and decide it its worth investing in a new printer, stick with my current local printer or look for a new print company??

Why is nothing straight forward??

Happy birthday Dad

Tomorrow will be my Dads 88th Birthday.  As some of you know, he has been having  a few health problems and was diagnosed with vascular dementia earlier this year.  Unfortunately had to go into a nursing home.  He is settling a bit better now but his room seem so clinical and has nothing of his in there.  We don't want to upset him by bringing in loads of bits from his flat, that we have had to clear, as he has not been told that the home will be permanent.
So I painted him this picture.  When he was young he worked on the railways for a while,  I am hoping it will bring back happy memories.

Angel

The paint is still wet......

What do you think??

No 31

50 THINGS TO DO IN MY 50TH YEAR

1. Have a meal with Steve and all the kids

2. Try and see a whale

3. See the Angel of the north

4. Photograph wild flowers

5. Paint outside ( not the fence)

6. Search for sea glass

7. Find 50 Art Deco buildings and photograph them - started

8. Swim a mile

9. Walk on a beach at sunset in the UK

10. Sing in public ( not on my own)

11. Make  a sculpture out of found or natural items

12. Pooh sticks

13. Walk up to Glastonbury Tor

14. Paddle in a stream

15.  Go on a picnic

16  Climb something

17. Tea and cake with all the family

18.  Spend a day with Gemma           

19.  Spend a day with Heather

20.  Spend a Day with Chris

21.  Walk a dog

22. Find treasure

23. See wonderful stained glass

24. See a David Hockney painting

25.  Visit Scotland

26. Try and see the Northern lights

27. Stargaze

28. Dance in the tower Ballroom Blackpool

29. Road trip

30. Decorate a special cake

31. Do a mosaic

32. Make 50 origami birds and hang them in trees

33.  Throw a pot

34. Have a girly night

35. Make a flower arrangement

36. Sparkle

37. Have my engagement and eternity rings repaired

38. Decorate the bedroom

39. Make a daisy chain

40. Get a tattoo

41. Have a photo us all.  Not professional

42. Make an album or photo book of the year

43. Do something to raise money for charity

44. Candle lit relaxing  bath

45. Kiss in the rain

46. See a film in the directors lounge

47. Have a butterfly land on my hand

48. Crochet or knit myself a jumper

49. Paint a good picture on an Ipad

50.  Surprise me!!!

34 to go