Vaccum packed!

Posted on July 7, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Clothes, Crochet, Laundry, Life, Random, Spring clean, Tidying, vaccum bag, vaccum cleaner2 Comments

I’ve been trying to make space in this jumbled, untidy house. I hope to get some plastering done in a damp corner, but stuff is in the way. I bought vaccum laundry bags ages ago and they got added to the pile, but now? I’ve rediscovered them. I used four yesterday and just got four more. They are ideal for storing bulky bedspreads and jumpers. I have two crocheted square throws that I have had for years, one made by my mother in law and one by me. I’m bothered that clothes moths might get at them so I bagged them up then squirted a bit of fly spray in. Finally I sealed the bag and applied the vaccum cleaner to the valve. The shrinkage is amazing! So satisfying, it still weighs a lot, but it takes up a lot less space!

I don’t know!

Posted on July 6, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Art, authority, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1989, Drawing, expert, Fun, humourous, Painting, Poem, PoetryLeave a comment

On what subject(s) are you an authority?

Jack of all trades,

Master of none.

Expert, I’m not

I learn for fun.

I can paint and draw

But I’m not an old master

I can do some stuff

I like to paint faster

Than most people

But an authority?

If put on the spot

I’d hesitate

To state

All the information

That gives my ego

The biggest inflation!

So I’ll dabble and draw

And keep myself modest

You decide if you saw

A glimpse of the oddest

Authority bore!

Didn’t get my painting in

Posted on July 6, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged abstract portrait, Acrylic on canvas, Art, Disappointed, Fine Art, Portrait, three counties open4 Comments

I just got an email to tell me I didn’t get this in the Three counties open exhibition…. Perhaps I should have gone with a traditional portrait. Oh well, I’m old enough not to be too disappointed. I guess I will try again next year. My work will be on display and up for sale on Acava Spode Open day in a few weeks. I need to check the date. I need to go and sort out my studio and create an exhibition there instead. I’m enjoying painting in a slightly abstracted way, I think it fits in with my style?

Watching Wimbledon

Posted on July 6, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Andy Murray, Game, Stephanos Tsitipas, Summer, Tennis, Tennis ball, tennis racket, Wimbledon2 Comments

Oh the tension! The game is on. I’m watching but not watching. In other words I’ve got the TV on but I’ve got my eyes closed, or I’m looking away. Bitten nails, nervous gulps. It’s only tennis!

Andy Murray is currently on centre court against Stephanos Tsitipas. They are one set all. Murray might get a break point in a minute. He did it! But can he keep it up? He’s old, but mature, but he’s up against an excellent player.

I only tend to watch Wimbledon, and that’s because it’s on free to air TV, I can’t be bothered or afford cable or satellite TV. And then I only watch certain matches. If I start watching and the match goes the wrong way, I will turn the TV over. I don’t want to jinx the play!

This game is probably going to go onto 11pm and then be finished tomorrow, so that’s another hour of knuckle biting!

Leading lines

Posted on July 6, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, Drawing, Hamlet, Hand, leading lines, Prompt, Shakespeare, Sketching, Skull2 Comments

Leading line? Thought of the speech in Hamlet “Alas poor Yorick…” I looked at skull pictures and wrote hand sideways on, palm up to look for a picture to model the hand on… Felt pens as usual…Tuesdays #bandofsketchers prompt.

Rom com?

Posted on July 5, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged boy meets girl, dailyprompt, dailyprompt-1988, Fred and Ginger, Hepburn and Grant, Life, Romance, sleepless in Seattle4 Comments

What’s your definition of romantic?

We’ve been together for decades, so the romance? It’s a bit depleted now. We could have date nights, but we stay in a lot of the time, particularly now the cost of living crisis has got so bad.

Hubby sometimes brings me breakfast in bed. A slice of toast with a dot of butter and a half boiled egg. At least he tries. I sometimes take him a cup of coffee upstairs but I shake to much to carry much.

So what makes me feel romantic? A good, old fashioned romantic comedy. Not anything modern, but something silly like Bringing up baby, with Katherine Hepburn and Cary Grant, or something slightly more modern, like Sleepless in Seattle. Maybe an old Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers musical? Or something like Singing in the rain?

They all appeal to me, a film where you get slightly weepy, watching boy mets girl, hates girl, falls for girl, girl then hates boy, threatens to leave, he rescues her from a storm/ alien attack/ obnoxious family situation….

Basically anything like that, cheerful, kind, obvious, gentle. Romantic…

Cat in a box

Posted on July 5, 2023 Posted in Cat, UncategorizedTagged Black and white cat, Box, Cat, dreamy, Plants, Poem, Poetry, Sleeping, Tuxedo cat, wooden box2 Comments

Curled and fitted,

Sleepy cat in a box.

He finds a place to kip

In the kitchen

Comfy and cradled

Relaxed in a wooden bed

Next to the plants

From my friend

Thriving next to the window.

The cat snores gently

Dreams of racing paws

Across grass and flowers

Flying over the garden.

Happy

White hydrangea

Posted on July 5, 2023 Posted in UncategorizedTagged Colours, flat heads, Gardening, Hydrangea, pale, Pink, Pot, Shady, Sunny, White6 Comments

I said we had got a white hydrangea a few days ago but it’s only just beginning to flower. It’s still in a pot, and looking closely it seems to be a very pale pink.

We had one a couple of years ago with conical instead of flat flower heads. But because it was very shady in the garden it didn’t thrive. That’s why this one is in its pot-so we can move it around… Anyway I think its lovely X.

Forest

Posted on July 5, 2023 Posted in Sketching, UncategorizedTagged #bandofsketchers, Art, Carving, Drawing, Fun, Life, macaque, mother and baby, Sketching, Tree trunk5 Comments

Sundays #bandofsketchers prompt was forest. Catching up with Sundays prompt. We recently visited Trentham Monkey Forest and in the entrance compound there are some sculptures including a mother and baby macaque carved from a tree stump. I’ve done a sketch of it for the prompt.

I painted an elephant portrait.

Posted on July 5, 2023 Posted in Fine Art, UncategorizedTagged Acrylic on canvas, Blurry, Elephant, Etruria Industrial museum, Life, Painting, Papier mache, penkhull mystery plays, Portrait, seven years2 Comments

Seven years ago I had a small exhibition at Etruria Industrial museum. This blurry photo just came up on my Facebook memories.

The blurry image of my painting was taken from a photo of my friend with a white elephant she had made of paper and willow withies. She was sewing a rich red and yellow fringe around it as way of hiding the legs of the person who was to carry it. The back had a hollow ‘houda’ I think its called? Like a basket to sit in. This was so a person could carry the elephant but look like they were riding it. I loved this representation of the elephant and decided to paint this image. My friend had the painting. The elephant? I think it was destroyed in a fire in the shed where it was stored…