Fitting everything in

You'd think wouldn't you, that when you get past 60 time would sort of melt away and you'd just be able to amble along each day doing whatever you fancied...........no chance!! Life seems to just get busier or I get more side tracked.

Well anyway I've managed to find a few moments to do some blogging, some necessary as part of my Diploma, which has now taken a very interesting turn into 3D land (or should that read lala land) judge for yourself. You never know when you head off into the unknown, whether your bordering on discovery or just 'lost in space'.



Half the reason I'm an absent blogger at the moment is the fact that we spend a lot of time with our newest family member, Connie.



I don't think she was too impressed to be used as a washing line, spoiling her beautiful lines :-)

We were away as usual the w/e before last at Singleton Open air Museum and I took the opportunity to use the camera again. Which I'm happy to say I'm getting used to.

There was a production of 'The Firework maker's daughter' being held in the grounds (unfortunately for us all tickets were sold out), but I took some shots of the wonderful lanterns as consolation.





This one had a 'fish eye' filter put on it in-camera.



These delightful waterlilies were also part of the show and of course had to be manipulated in the camera, just for fun.





I only wish I knew what part this gruesome thing had to play in the production



And these by contrast were lovely in the sunlight



Cyanotype anyone?





And just so I can join in Gina's sketchbook project I had to do a couple of 5 minuters.



There was a repeat on TV last night about the Nation's favourite flower, at the time I couldn't think of one, now I remember, I love it and every year I try to photograph it, and this year I think I got better.



And just to make the w/e perfect, how's this for a view from our secret wild camping lay-by. We had a quieter night than we would have done with our neighbours at home.

I'd just like to say good luck to all those taking part in the FOQ challenge that West Country Buddah set up last year. Hope all goes well for you, and sorry I couldn't take part after all.

Relaxing weekend

After all the excitement of the exhibition, we thought we needed a nice relaxing weekend in our favourite town of Arundel. I think our children think we have shares in the tourist industry there as we spend quite a lot of our free time there.

I've been trying to get to grips my new Nikon D5000 for a while now, so thought I'd use the w/e to take a few shots. I've been using an old 80-200mm lense which is great quality but I can only use it on manual focus, so that's a bit of a challenge.





Someone had a sense of humour



A lovely summer evening



Some in-camera editing



Best foot forward



My ideal place to live, watching the river traffic while you dine



And of course a bit of texture.



And while sitting here I took my best shot of the day



Lastly a bit of the creative stuff...... "the mind rolls in in ever widening circles in order to progress through the jungle of creative paths, in an attempt to find the one that fits us best."


More info here

More fun on the roller coaster

I'm getting ever closer to the finish of Module 1 on my C&G Diploma course, and I do think I've made progress on this last chapter here.

Love it or hate it the above sample is certainly a leap outside the box for me.

Good finish

Thanks so much to all who commented on our exhibition, your enthusiasm and encouragement was much appreciated.

We had a great finish with lots more visitors than we expected and all made good sales.

We're already planning our Christmas one in mid November and are hoping to move into our local town of Farnham, where the museum has a newly erected Garden gallery, fingers crossed for a good visit in a week or two.

Private View

Well here I am all dressed up, well casually, my interpretation of 'arty', (wearing my lovely b/day wrap from my DS, bought back from his holiday in Dubai) for our private View, pics here.

We had a great time and I was delighted to sell a large piece on the night another one today.

Hope tomorrow goes as well.

Alice Holt Artists Summer exhibition

Our little group of artists has expanded this year from 3 to 4. We now have a lovely ceramic and glass artist Claire who does some amazing work and we are very happy to have her with us.

We're exhibiting in a new venue this year, very close to where we live so that will be handy.

As I was in the throws of revamping my web site I decided to open anotherblog so visitors could see some of my work before or after the show.

I know most of you will live too far away, but if anyone is in the area do drop in we'd love to see you.

Still on a French theme

I decided to take a short break to catch up with my everyday blog, as opposed to my C&G blog, which has just taken me an unbelievable 4 hours to update the new chapter. I can only assume that my brain, which has never been the fastest on the block, has now decided to go on OAP mode, hmmmm! (actually no disrespect to other OAP's, I think this is more a me thing.

Anyway as it would take forever to post up even some of the pics from our recent French holiday, so I thought I'd post some of my journal entries. I'm a real newbie when it comes to creative journaling and tend to go for the obvious on most of my pages, so those of you who have wonderful examples, these are more modest offerings.



This was made with the lovely bread wrappers you get for your bagettes, and pics from promotional leaflets.

and here's me working in my portable studio :-)



.........and the result, dadah!



And the wonderful Chambord !



Not forgetting the glorious opportunity I had to sketch there, transporting me into another unseen world.



Oh! and how could I forget the magical, privately owned, slightly distressed Chateau De la Ferte Saint Aubin, where we lived the dream for a day, ahhh! what a life, I knew I was destined for aristocracy !!!!!!!


Sorry about the sideways recipe in the middle if the page here , but it's the back of the previous page's PC and I couldn't think of a more inventive way to show both sides, so had to cut a hole in the page, I told you I was a newbie :-(

And what a wonderful surprise this was, beautiful church wall paintings, so vibrant and skilfully painted. ( I've looked and seen I've mentioned these before, so apologies, here's some more.)



And a little bit of crafting. I got to use my mini sewing machine on holiday and the first thing I made was a quilted bag for my Polaroid Pogo printer that I bought for the holiday, it's a wicked little toy, perfect for journaling on the go.





And a plastic bag holder.



And some glass covers so they don't rattle in the cups, while in transit, my DH has a major aversion to rattles, in common with most men I suspect!



What about this for real luxury sewing, shame the shop was closed.



This pics's especially for my DD2 who loves dressing her youngest DD in traditional smocked dresses, but she'd have to pay a cool 65 euros for this one!



And just to finish off I had to include this pic, how often do you get your DH to sit on a toadstool, although he does make rather an oversised elf :-)