HOARFROST

So beautiful but so cold I wish the sun had come out to show the beauty of the ice crystals.

Good Bye Ben

Yesterday My elderly parents had to say goodbye to Ben. He was a rescue springer spaniel who arrived with no history. He had only been with them for about 4 years and he had been a difficult dog with lots of issues.

He was scared of lights and noises and and had been known to snap.

But they loved him and yesterday they had to make the hardest decision as he was found to have a massive tumour.

This has come at a time when my father has just been told that the cancer he fought so hard against 8 years ago is back. Add this to my mothers memory problems and we have a lot of emotions .

Good Bye Ben

Lucky Me

Sometimes you just have to stop and remember how lucky you are. I have a wonderful family and I have just become a Grandmother or as I have suggested being called YaYa.

This prompted my wonderful friend Kit to send me a gift of a Dotee. I am going to call her YaYa she will join Her big sister Bella also created by Kit and I will always treasure them . I am so lucky to have Kit as a friend.

Kit lives in Florida which seems a million miles from here . As I am writing this the wind is howling outside and the last of the Autumn leaves are being ripped from the trees ,but we are having unseasonably warm weather.

Yesterday as I walked my Labrador on the banks of the River Severn fisherman were waiting for the incoming tide enjoying the mild weather at other times they would need extreme weather gear. The photos I am posting will show YaYa in original colours and also altered with an APP on my iphone. Which I love experimenting with .

Festive Dotees

Although I have already sent 3 Dotee's to Ireland for Helen's swap I decided to make 2 festive Girls to add to the mix.

VERY STRANGE

As I was preparing the evening meal my 83 year old neighbour rang. Come an have a look he said mysteriously with no hint as to what i was going to see. When I got to the fence he asked me to hold out my hand and he placed into it a very large goose egg.

Nothing strange about that you may think but it was found by his gardener buried in the garden.

At first I was mystified but when I thought about it I guessed it was a fox. I put food out most nights for the fox and when I put out chicken eggs I often find them in the fields.

But a goose egg is something else very large and quite heavy. I appear to be the fountain of all knowledge and I was asked what they should do with it . I knew that the egg may be fertile but needed a mothers care so I suggested it was put back for the fox to feast on later . (Imagine these two funny scenes connected to this )

1- when the egg was found it was nibbled by P--- the lady of the house as she thought it might be china.

2- A basket lined with a towel was prepared to incubate the egg until I suggest (tongue in cheek ) that it may hatch calling her name

FROSTY MORNING PHOTOS

FROSTY MORNING 1

Woke to a very frosty morning and as I wanted to take photos I rushed out without gloves.

Big mistake after about 10 mins I had very little feeling left just managed to snap a few shots.

I missed the best of the mist but the low sun and frost were still there just. I need to get out earlier than 7.30

I have no swaps to do at the moment so I thought I would post pictures of the Dottee Dolls I created for Helens swap on milliande.com .

I made and sent these several weeks ago and I am looking forward to seeing what I get in return.

Well since my last post I have become a Grandmother and it was a very worrying time. My Daughter -in-law had a very bad time and it reminded me how precious life is. I realized that however badly we believe we are treated by the health service in this country we are lucky to have it.

I have also discovered that however undomesticated a man may seem when they have to step up to the mark they do.

I am very proud of my Son who for a week due to an emergency Cesarean has been the main carer (apart from feeding ) of course.

A week on from the birth I had to create 4 journal swap pages in a hurry I have had 6 weeks but as usual left it to the last minute.Also Nina who is hosting that swap on Milliande.com is also hosting a Holiday ornament swap. Based on the size of an ATC.. Now the thing is I do seem to craft better under pressure Nina asked us to produce a minimum of 3 and I did 18 in 1 evening .

Now I can relax for a couple of days before the next swap.

Sometimes I think I take on too much although I also think I work well under pressure.

So when I decided to submit artwork to the friends exhibition at the RWA Bristol why did I leave it until the last week to get it ready.4 items are being submitted 3 of them may get me banned as they are not conventional art pieces but I have made them from items I have collected on the beach when walking Wilson.

I also have work entered into another exhibition 20 miles away 2 pictures and 10 necklaces.

During these times when everyone is strapped for cash I am not hopeful that I will sell anything and with the RWA i have to get them past the selection judges so please watch this space.

How things have changed

Last weekend a spur of the moment decision found us in IKEA with the intention of buying 2 sofas, we only took 15 mins. to choose them and then nearly 2 hours to arrange delivery.There arrival meant we only had 3 days to find a home for our 20year old leather suite which actually was not at all bad. But we had made the mistake of allowing a 40kg black lab to sleep on it and the top coating was rubbed.

We decided to sell on EBAY the listing made and several watchers later it sold for £2.70 which just covered the cost of listing 20 years ago it cost £2500 .

It makes me think how things have changed in size as well as cost. We have now decided to clear out more clutter another listing on EBAY . A JVC video recorder several years old and heavy (did we really carry that around on our holidays ? ) My new tiny mobile now does all that the camera used to do WOW. I dread to think where this de clutter will end I may have to barricade my craft room because i Have more STUFF crammed in there then the rest of the house put together.

On the creating front I have made a few items which I have forgot to photograph but I did remember to snap my lastest 2 pages for the journal swap + some tags I made for NINA the host.

The nights are drawing in so I do not feel so guilty about crafting.

Not so many swaps going on at the moment but I made ATCs on the theme ANCIENT CIVILIZATIONS and a NATURE GODDESS both on milliande.com along with the ongoing monthly journal page swap.

Missing photos

for some unknown reason the pictures did not upload

I am really bad at this blog thing so when I remember it is always a rush. But quite a lot has happened since my last post.

I have made and sent a piece of artwork to Beth Meador who is losing her sight. I tried to add a lot of texture and made butterflies out of acetate to embellish these proved impossible to photograph,

My next door neighbour reached the grand age of 80 she has more energy than me and a really good attitude to life. Of course I made her one of my hanging creations which she loved.

I have attended a polo match which I found good fun and very very fast. And today at the request of my Daughter in law I have made another Hangy for her friend who is getting married also yesterday for the same wedding I cut and embossed 31 acetate butterflies.

JOURNAL PAGES AND BELLA'S WALK ON THE BEACH

I never thought I would be saying this but I have two more journal pages ready for a swap on milliande.com .I have tried the whole journal thing in the past but never kept it up but hey this is my third month.

I think the fact I am given a prompt helps and this month it was A MAN OF TWO MINDS AND

YOURE A QUEEN AND SHOULD BE TREATED AS SUCH . it took a lot of thought but I am quite happy with the results. the last two months I sent without taking a photograph so i just had to hope they would arrive.

Another ongoing swap is to make a spirit doll with natural elements included . I really enjoyed the last swap I created MEME and I was lucky enough to have BELLA sent to me from KIT.

So I thought Bella would enjoy a trip to the beach to look for items and she came up trumps (well almost) I put her down to take a photo and to my amazement she was sat by a crab (dead ) so best not to use but the only one I found. But better than that a piece of seaweed in front of her was a perfect Heart .(this means something ) how strange was that. Anyway I think she enjoyed the trip .

Beth's ATC

The Gift Of Sight

Today I received my ATC from Beth Meador www.myspace.com/blindgirlartist I met this remarkable woman through the online community for women www. milliande.com.

Beth is losing her sight because of Retinitis Pigmentosa and only has 1% of her vision left,and yet she has set herself a challenge.Beth wants to have a piece of her art in every country around the world and in doing so raise awareness of blindness. I for one am in awe of her determination spirit and talent and I will treasure my gift from her for ever.

It made me think again how our sight is so precious and how we need to take care of our eyes.

I am short sighted and need glasses or contacts in to see any distance but I have had friends and family who have lost their sight or have been badly impaired.Several years ago a friend lost her sight in a car accident in her 20s and another friend in her 60s with Macular Degeneration, a close aunt has vision only in one eye and that is impaired with a cataract. Because I have been short sighted since my teens I have always hoped it would not get any worse I hope Beth will not mind if I relate a funny story which happened to me.

Not long after I was married in the 80s we had very thick heavy curtains in our bedroom and one night I woke in the middle of the night looked towards the radio alarm.

Usually if I squinted very hard I could just make out the blurred time ,but there was nothing it was pitch black I stared to rummage on the bedside cabinet desperate to find my glasses and all the time I felt more and more panicky.The glasses were found but made no difference and by now because of all the noise my husband was awake and at this point I let out a scream and shouted at him I'VE GONE BLIND . He is not prone to panic but I was a little surprised that he was laughing and then he turned away and calmly said WE'VE HAD A POWER CUT.

I can still remember how I panicked but I could wait for the lights to come back on. For others including Beth this is not an option and for that reason I will carry out Beth,s wish to raise awareness by showing as many people as I can her art and tell them her story.

Beth used my profile picture on milliande.com for my ATC and she also included details of her condition and pinholes in paper to replicate it.