Net curtains

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When you live next to a road, without a front garden, you need something to obscure people views of the inside of your home. I mean, if it was a show home it might be different, but I’m messy when it comes to life. I’ve got lots of art materials and canvases so you can imagine.. I have a studio at Spode, but in winter it’s too cold to use.

Anyway I used to have lovely net curtains, with cat patterns on them, but they got clawed by my new cats, so these are stronger, less easy to damage. The cats still climb on the windowledge and look out, half the time they pull the net curtains along with them, so I’m constantly having to straighten them up…. Like a nosy neighbour twitching their curtains!

Raffle prize

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You know the world has gone mad when you offer a single loo roll as a raffle prize! That wasn’t my idea but I went out and got a bottle of hand cleanser to go with it.

My hubby has a cold (not The Virus), but I decided to help set up for the Mystery Plays Barn dance tonight. It’s an annual thing we do to help raise funds for the Mystery day in the  summer. However I’m not going to the actual dance because I don’t want to catch anything else after having the cold myself for the last couple of weeks.

I did go to buy toilet roll later, the local shop was empty of it, so I walked round the corner and guess what? The local convenience store is full of the stuff! What a strange world…..

Painting I did a few years ago.

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I think it says 2005.

There had been a massive Tsunami on Christmas Eve in the Philippines. Our offices decided to do an auction I think for a fundraiser and I offered to do a painting for whoever bid for it.

The winning bid wanted a painting of three dogs. I think they are French bulldogs? They were named after characters from Buffy the vampire slayer, which was a popular TV programme at the time.

It’s funny the little details you remember. But yes, I used to love doing pet portrait. Contact me if you are interested….

Cat in a box

I have a cat that loves boxes. Currently he’s sleeping in two that I’ve put together and put on top of the oven because it’s warm there. He looks so happy and cute. He can’t resist curling up inside.

Can you see he’s smiling? I think that cars eyes show you emotion. As he is happy his eyes are slightly closed. If I slowly close my eyes when I look at him he does the same thing. Staring at cats is not good, they tend to feel it is aggression. But once you know them they don’t mind as much.

Stare at a cat and it will probably walk away, but if you look somewhere else, away from it, then it might even jump up on your lap. That’s why they pay more attention to eople who don’t like them, they are looking away and the cat sees it as non aggressive, passive, behaviour.

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Tree pillar

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Went down the surreal route (root) with this photo a couple of years ago. This tree ‘pillar’ looks like its holding up a green roof.

Getting an image like this is based on placement of the object in the original picture. If you place a strong pattern in one corner, or in the middle, with interesting contrast or colours, you can multiply it and create something etherial. I like to think this could be a home for elves or fairie folk. Mad, but interesting.

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Photo manipulation

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The finger and the nose never touched. This is two photos, joined together, then I’ve drawn over the background and blurred it. I got my hubby to hold his hand out, a bit like in the painting of Adam and God’s hands in the Sistine Chapel, then I got my cat to sniff my hand, but I specifically wanted a male hand, so I’ve cropped the two together. I’ve blurred the background to look like clouds (and hide the messy background). I’m just wondering now if it’s gone a bit ‘ET phone home’?

The pale blue is where I drew a line. I tried to flood fill the background, but it didn’t work well. Anyway it’s almost 3.30am, so enough experimenting. Goodnight all.

Knitted drawing

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I loved this drawing app, but when I changed devices I couldn’t get it to load on my new tablet. It was fascinating to see this texture appear in the drawing. I cannot remember where I got it from, and now I can’t even remember it’s name! Over the years I’ve done lots I’d digital art, some of it is more easy to use than others. I think this was relatively simple.

One of the things about art applications is the amount if memory they take. I’ve found that I cannot run all the apps I want to because I mainly use my devices to create art, and that takes up memory on them. I don’t know if I’m unusual in doing this. I probably need to delete a lot of things, it’s just I’m too attached.

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Writing in the ad breaks

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I want to write tonight but there are a couple of really good films on, so I’m writing during the advertisement breaks. The films are on a channel where the ads get longer and more frequent as the film goes on. It becomes increasingly irritating because just when you get to an interesting bit… It breaks….. Grr.

Actually I’m missing the film now because I’m writing, but that doesn’t matter. I’ve found putting words down in a blog enthralls me. It might not be a great blog, but it helps me sort things out mentally. The cat is sleeping next to me. Twitching as he dreams. It’s nice to just relax….

Westport lake visit

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Late visit to the lake for coffee and oatcakes. Then took half a bag of Swan, duck and goose food for a short stroll round the small lake. We were mobbed by  Canada geese who got a bit aggressive, and one bold Swan who stepped onto the bank in front of me. I threw a handful of food onto the ground and it pecked at it before the other birds got a chance. The pigeons were not as lucky as the food was in large pellets. I tried to break them up a bit but they were to hard to split. I probably should have thrown more in the water but when you are being mobbed it’s hard not to give in and throw it down quickly.

As we walked round the lake I noticed the path was muddy and it looked like it has washed over the pathway at some stage recently. In the field by the children’s playground a large pool of water stood waiting to drain away. Buds were starting to burst on the smaller scrubby trees, bright green against the black and grey twigs. I also spotted something like dandelion (coltsfoot?) yellow ragged flowers, just a cluster of three below a group of trees. Coots and moorhens were also on the lake together with mallard ducks. The sun that had been shining all day had gone behind the clouds and only peeked out as we walked back to the car. Low and bright, dazzling us as we drove away.