New Year gift and CG PC's

I just had to show this lovely package that popped through my letter box, on friday, it was a complete surprise from Jo-Anne. I had admired the PC on her blog and had no idea it was winging it's way to me as a New Year gift, together with a gorgeous skein of Australian hand dyed silk and a lovely book mark, thank you Jo.



In the same week I received my January PC from Pippa who is a new member of our Calendar Girls group. It came in this very stylish envelope done in a lovely leather like texture. Both are lovely Pippa, thank you.

Due to pressure of other things I realised I hadn't acknowledged my CG PC's for the past 3 months , so here they are, sorry to be so late , but they were all receieved with delight and made my day.



December was this lovely pretty card from Sandy it's been so cheerful to look at on these horrible grey days we've had lately, thank you Sandy.



November was this amazing 3D painting from Pat, which she very kindly sent with this lovely piece of lace, again a great colourful PC to beat the winter blues, thank you Pat.



And lastly in October I recieved this amazing sculptural PC from Lynda, it's an outsanding 3D piece and I wouldn't even know where to start to create something like it, so it's a constant inspiration on my 'thinking wall', thank you Lynda.

I hope I shall be able to keep up with the CG group a little better this year, otherwise I mught just get drummed out of the gang for poor attendance, and that would be a shame as I've really enjoyed it.

Thanks to all in the group.

Cyber Fyber Exhibition

I've just been trawling the Cyber Fyber Exhibition, hosted by the wonderful Susan Lenz, and here are just a few of the PC's on show, sent in by the bloggers that I know, there is loads more to see so do pop across and have a look at this unique event.


Pippa's PC


Jacqueline's PC


Carol T's PC


Helen"s PC


Debbi's PC


JoAnn


Pat's PC


Chrissy's PC


Françoise


Lynda's


Julie's PC


Doreen's PC

And a great big thank you to all those who commented on my PC.


Mine

PS the exhibition opened yesterday and Susan has posted her article for the local newspaper here, it's well worth a read

It's all in a word

I'm so glad that I picked 'Enjoyment' as my word for this year because already it's changed my attitude. I catch myself thinking what can I find to enjoy in this task, instead of approaching it with dread and irritation.

To give you an example, cooking is not one of my favourite pass times, you've only got to look at this pic to see why.
My poor OH always approaches our kitchen with dread if I cook anything beyond beans on toast, and even then he swears I use every untensil we possess, and maybe some of next door's as well.



However I was cooking my favourite recipe tonight, mushroom and peanut loaf, so instead of getting in a lather about how fiddly it is to cook, I just concentrated on how nice it would be to eat it and the pleasure of cooking a proper meal for the two of us, as my OH had been away for a boy's bonding/photographic w/e. And hey presto!!!! the result was even better than usual.



And yes I did manage to clear the kitchen before I served the meal. I know you'll be wondering :-)



As for the knitting needles on the window ledge more about them later.

And to end a very good day, I packed up my completed module 6 ready to post off for assessment and have nearly finished the final piece for module 5, so long may this 'Enjoyment ' last.

Unfamiliar territory

This is one of the pieces that I needed to finish before the middle of January.
Needless to say it's the 3D module, not a fovorite form of working for me, but it's done now.
I started in the usual way with a brief and decided to work with ancient Norwegian architecture as the modue required that the finished piece must link to some form of architecture.
I found the image of the animals on an ancient Nordic chuch door during my research and thought they would make a good subject. The other restriction was that the container had to include some wadded work.
I got the idea of working the piece in white and then painting it in acrylic from the latest edition of CPS where I found a great article by Jo James and Dylan Curry.
It does require a leap of faith because once you've painted the piece, you then have to cover it in a wash of burnt umber and wipe it off again quickly, very, very, nerve wracking, but I'm quite pleased with the effect it gave.
It's a vey simple box that I'm sure some of you will recognise from Janet Edmonds beginner's guide to Embroidered Boxes.
I'm sorry there's no WIP pics but I had a bit of a trauma with my air brush in the middle of the painting and forgot to record the progress.



This cross signifies a Christian memorial.

A time for evaluation

It's that time of year again when our thoughts turn to how we fared last year and what we might do differently this year.
We went for a lovely walk around a local lake this morning and I took my camera to record a few shots for this post. I had been inspired by the blogs I've visited over Christmas, with lots of enthusiastic ideas for the New Year, but in particular Becky's post made me feel I needed to get my thoughts in order and make a commitment to New Year plans.

I was very surprised when I reviewed my pics to find that they illustrated exactly how I feel at the moment, so I thought I'd show you.



I took this first shot as I thought it was so lovely that even on a very cold day this family had come out to make sand castles with their children and it reminded me how precious my family are to me.



When I saw this pic I just felt sad to see this football, it looked lost and alone and it sort of made me feel that I've felt a bit like that this last year, working in isolation on the C&G, never really knowing if I'm making headway or travelling backwards.



This lone tree reminded me of my ever present need to do something different and stand out from the crowd, which again is an uncomfortable place to be, out of your comfort zone.



And lastly this tangle of trees made me think of the constant scrambled messages I send to myself, while I'm struggling to reach my goal, sometimes hating what I've been instructed to do and doing it with a very bad grace, but then surprising myself when something works, and I would never have thought to go down that route.

Last year when people were mentioning choosing a word to guide them throught the year, I couldn't think of one, but this year my word is 'Enjoyment' as I think it is the key to producing beautifull (saleable) work.

I hope I will have more time to blog this year, as I have missed being part of the community over the past few months, and I do appreciate the help and support of other bloggers which is so generously given.

I wish you all a very happy and productive 2009.

Happy New Year

Happy Christmas

Happy Christmas to everyone in Blogland. I can't believe it's been nearly a month since my last post.
I've been very preoccupied, as you know, with finishing my C&G so don't even have anything creative to show at this time as this last module involved a lot of white on white sampling, which all looks pretty boring at this stage.
I have to finish a couple of final pieces before mid January so I hope there'll be something interesting to post about then.

The Christmas card I've uploaded is one of my OH's and is one of the photos that he took at Donna Nook, Lincolnshire, which is where the Grey Seals have been giving birth from October through November. If you'd like to see more of this shoot you can see them here.

The other piece I wanted to show you was this gorgeous advent calendar that my DD3 made while she was staying with us recently. She wanted to make something different to the usual ones with a slightly retro feel, I think she achieved it admirably.



Have a great Christmas and a happy New Year.

And thanks to everyone who's taken the trouble to come by my blog and leave your lovely comments.