Saturday, October 28, 2006

52 Figments - Betsy Beth


Lizbet ...
She brings sunshine to every season but blossoms on long, lazy summer days when her birkenstocks and jewel-painted toes leave a trail of sunbeams wherever she goes.
She lights up rooms like a million twinkling fairylights reflected in champagne bubbles and candle-lit crystal chandeliers.
She is brightly coloured beach huts, Mr Moos icecream, wet pebbles glistening like gemstones on the beach and a lighthouse guiding me home.
She is a knitting goddess playing on swings, walking the long way back and cycling through fields full of sunset and golden sunflowers.
She is cross-legged picnics with good wine, good friends, an endless supply of olives, ducks as office pets and laughter like Rowan Kid Classic.
She is a glittery collage bursting with colour, inspiration, easy beauty, bravery, truth, kind questions, passion and fun.
She is not perfection but she is perfect as she is. She lets me stand in the dark while holding out a hand of stars and moonlight and her hugs are like comfort blankets made of angels wings.
She walks softly and lovingly through my sometimes fragile thoughts: joy-bringing, soul-sharing and the very sweetest of friends.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Update: here's what the lovely Lizbet said about me ... I can't read it without a few tears of joy welling up in my eyes :-)

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Total Neat Freak ;-)

You Are Bert

Extremely serious and a little eccentric, people find you loveable - even if you don't love them!

You are usually feeling: Logical - you rarely let your emotions rule you

You are famous for: Being smart, a total neat freak, and maybe just a little evil

How you life your life: With passion, even if your odd passions (like bottle caps and pigeons) are baffling to others

Monday, August 07, 2006


Hay Rolls

Field and Forest

Big House in the Country

Life Echo 1

Life Echo 2

Saturday, August 05, 2006

Sunshine in a Flower


Evening Sunflower

I took this on the way home from a lovely meal with friends ... they have three sunflowers welcoming you as you walk up the the garden path - I managed to resist photographing them on the way in but couldn't on the way out. It was just getting dark when I took this shot which is why it looks so dramatic I think.

Friday, August 04, 2006

This is what paradise looks like ...


New House, New Carpet

Yay, we moved to our lovely little bungalow a week ago :-D So far it is everything we were desperately hoping for ... peaceful, private, friendly ... our very own slice of the idyllic living ... no chavs (well okay maybe one or two, but not stood shouting abuse at us through the windows), no dog poo, no mean-faced neighbours (we've already met eight of our neighbours, our neighbourhood watch coordintor and the parish councillor!!). Needless to say we are very happy, relaxed and looking forward to many years kicking back in the 'burbs :-D

More soon I promise ... now off to do a supersized upload to Flickr ... how I've missed you sweet Flickr :o)

BTW the floral delight above is the carpet in our living room ... to be changed mighty soon methinks.

Monday, July 24, 2006

Moving Day Approaches


Wendel is Ready to Move


Angelica Hinders the Packing

So we are slowly becoming surrounded by taped up boxes, filled up suitcases and charity sacks full of clothes that should have been discarded prior to our last move! We are moving from a large 3-storey, 3-bedroom house to a 3-bedroom bungalow ... not sure if it will all fit in but we have a garage for any overflow. We get the keys on friday so we're going to kind of camp out with the bare minimum of stuff (i.e. cats, kettle, toaster, guitar, radio and mini-fridge) for a few nights until the full move takes place on tuesday (in a week's time .... aagh!). I am still worried that something will go wrong at the last minute but am trying not to fret too much.

Monday, July 17, 2006

Late Adopter

I have finally got round to becoming addicted to Flickr ... why didn't anyone tell me ;-)

The main reasons I've taken the plunge are:
a) to stop my blog from becoming overloaded with photos
b) to organise my photos/scans of artwork and make them available for me to gaze at/bore other people with when I'm out and about.

My main problem now is that I have ton of images I want to post but have to go through and think of titles and tags for them. The first batch are up now (with some tweaking still left to do) ... mainly photos from our trip yesterday to the Scar House Reservoir in the most gorgeous weather imaginable :o) ... feast your eyes here

Sunday, July 16, 2006

Look to the Skies


Ballooooon

I just about managed to catch the hot air balloon before it hid behind the building. This photo was taken from the nicest (in my humble opinion) bit of the York city walls.

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Sun-bathing Butterfly


Flutterby

I love this one ... it's a red admiral I think ... I managed to get up really close for this shot - poor butterfly was probably left emotionally scarred for life. This is on the York city walls again :-)

Friday, July 14, 2006

A Flower for a Friend


Get Well Flower

This is another photo to cheer up my poorly chum who is pining for her now absent gall bladder (aka Evil Lord GB) ... sausages will soon be yours ;-D

Tuesday, July 11, 2006

A Get Well Soon Frog


Frog Napping

My friend had an operation yesterday and this picture is to make her smile, even if it hurts :-( ... Get well soon!!! Big hugs!!!

Sprinkled Jewel Drops


Leaf Droplets

The weather in York is super-sunny and super-hot ... makes me hanker for the seaside or at least a garden sprinkler ... slowly wilting here ... send icecream ;-)

P.S. Glad to hear my friend is making a good recovery from her recent op ... not back on the wine yet though so that's obviously a bit worrying ;-)

Superhero Drawing


Mine All Mine

This drawing is my own little tribute to my favourite necklace from Superhero Designs which I love ... I'm currently saving up for another one (or maybe this one ... how am I meant to choose?!!!)


Superhero Costume


Wendel Watches

The picture above proves the ~well known phrase~ 'you're never more than a metre from a cat trying to interfere with your artwork'.

If you go down to the woods today ...


Inca Rockery


Something in the Woodshed

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Work in Progress


A happy painting for a friend :o)

I'm doing this painting as part payment for the ipod my friend has gifted me. It's actually more colourful and sunny than this photo suggests and it's only half done but I thought I'd show how it's developing.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Sunday Funday



A few Sundays ago I had an art play date with my lovely friend Liz (who I secretly think of as a 'Lizbet' but I haven't tried that out on her yet) and we took over her living room for an afternoon to make arty type things. It was soooo much fun and Lizbet (I'm sure that will catch on now I've made it public ;-) is now addicted to collage. Hurrah!

I *finally* got round to using a kid's paint set and did a fab bit of geometric painting (i'll post it here soon, promise).

Hopefully we'll be having another Sunday of glue, scissors and paint again soon :o)

Saturday, June 17, 2006

Floor Treasures

I am a beachcombing magpie at heart and that means I notice stuff on the floor that other folk walk right over. Here are a couple of things I've notice at my feet in recent months ...

The Art of Seeing

This was one of a few 'floor treasures' I spotted at the Henshaws Arts & Crafts Centre in Knaresborough (see previous post) which is a very inspiring place to spend an afternoon. The quote is from Jonathan Swift.


Girl in the Grass

That's another one from the Arts & Crafts Centre ... there was a matching one that had 'Boy' carved into it but I didn't photograph it for some reason ... maybe my feminist side subconciously editing my shots ;-)




Faded Princess

Last of the floor stones from the Arts & Crafts Centre.


Floor Locker

I spotted this rusty padlock stuck in the floor of a track through a forest north-east of York ... the name aludes me ... have I mentioned before about how much I love seeing man-made objects in natural settings? ~~~ it's all about the juxtopositions baby :o}

Tuesday, June 13, 2006

The place where hearts grow on trees


Heart tree

This gorgeously delicate tree is in a sensory garden in Knaresborough where there's loads of inspiring stuff crammed into a small place (more photos to follow!).

BTW ... good news doesn't come much better than this ... and just read some of those comments ... the world can seem a comfortingly small place sometimes :-)

Sunday, June 11, 2006

All the pretty houses


Roof with a view

That's the view from the view of the York Minster ... one day I might get round to going on the York Eye (a mini version of the London Eye) so I can do a compare and contrast ... I have a feeling it won't be the same as standing at the top of a cathedral but I'll reserve judgement for the moment.

Saturday, June 10, 2006

Bless Birmingham Conference Centre


Flat wooden trees with cute cat face

I took this somewhat out of focus photo at a conference in Birmingham - I love coming across cool art in weird locations ... next time I'll steady my hand first though ;-) I haven't got round to trying to find out who the artist is so let me know if you have a clue.

Monday, May 22, 2006

Never was a Cadbury Girl


A gift for my favourite Cadburys addict :-)

Jeepers has it really been such an age since I last tiptoed across this blog? Excuses to follow but for now here is a collage thingy I made for a friend with a sweet tooth. The lady is from a 50s prom dress sewing pattern and the dress is made up of Cadbury wrappers ... next time you catch me with a mouthful of choccies I have the perfect excuse - all part of the preparation for my next piece of art ;-)