Paper and a swap and a party

Rebecca is sharing her passion for paper today, and has invited others to play along. I too love paper, and find it very hard to throw away/recycle things such as lovely brown paper packaging, or stamps on exciting foreign post. This book made itself really-I cannot remember what it was the packaging for, but it was perforated and folded in such a way that it said 'I am a book and you cannot deny that'. Only recently has it found a use-it is collecting the stamps from the exciting foreign post! Also the addresses and any other exciting ephemera such as customs labels and airmail stickers.

A few papery/crafty links to see.

Paper Doll Houses on Made by Joel

Paper Spider Webs on A Fanciful Twist

Paper Plant Pot fun on Fra(a)iing

Paper covered pencils on artsyville

Paper bag journal by me!

As well as paper news, I wanted to share Relyn's lovely autumn swap. There is still time to sign up here! (Just)

And last but not least, Vanessa's Halloween party on the 16th October is something to be excited about!

Journal Pages

I am missing painting and drawing, as I have had no time to do these at all recently, what with school and felting! All I have managed to do in my normal journal is to cut and stick pretty pictures, and occasionally add a bit of doodling. We have an overload of Sunday magazines given to us each week by Dee, our corner shop owning neighbour, and I can't bear to recycle them until I have cut out things that catch my eye. The first three pages are results of this. The alphabet is so pretty, the antlers were an accident of cutting out, and inspired the deer-and the letters lent themselves to writing DEER.

Beautiful Coco Chanel-the article was something to do with the war and collaboration but I have no facts and just cut the picture out. I didn't want to read anything bad about her, and think that was why I didn't read it really. If anyone out there has more facts good or bad, please enlighten me.

Fun evening spent tracing faces from magazines. I was going to make some kind of garland, but in the end stapled them in here.

The next three pictures are from a new journal I have started. You know how I love to beach comb, and a lot of my art over the years has been related to this, as well as a lot of the results of it being displayed or kept around the place. I have looked in vain for a good book on beach combing, can't find one, and so thought I would make my own. Not exactly sure how it will go yet, but I would like to collect beach combing experiences of others, so if anyone has anything to tell me, or pictures to share I would be very happy! Thank you to Angela in New Zealand who has kindly let me use her photo of a massive beached tree. (Although it obviously could not be combed-it comes within my own set of criteria-i.e. it was found at a beach!) When I put it in the book I will show you.

I think I will start a separate blog for this book-like the outside of Sarah one.

Photos from the blog-printed and taped in.

Pictures that relate to beaches-a small plastic diver on the packet of my Innocent lunch, and a collection of stones from a magazine.

The first page is a drawing of a small bone.

Squeeze

Found this video just now through stumble upon and wonder if this is how Cassie may end up! She loves to get in things, and she loves to eat-just like this cat. I love its big round face and its determination!

Room

The room of someone who goes to bed too late.

The room of someone who enjoys objects described in the following ways-
shiny
natural
old
weathered
worn
patterned
ancient
The box was a find on Greenwich market today, along with the tiny boxwood round box. The dice came from a 50p bargain tin of dice, the lamp is made with tissue paper from last weekend's craft fair. The jewels on the floor are from my hoard of crystal beads. The vase is a thimble and old metal bead from Deptford market and the plants in the vase and box are scrap book embellishments. The rolls of paper are papyrus from the British Museum. The clock is an old watch. Inside the lamp is a battery run nightlight.

Gif animator

Fenced In

My Dad and brother did a brilliant job putting up our new fence today. They used the tree stump to put a spur onto, as the met post was too stuck in the roots to be removed. Listen to me speak the builder speak-it only takes a little listening.

They were all done in four hours and then the cats had the chance to explore.

If you click and enlarge this photo you can see how cute Cassie looks hanging off the fence as she follows Lily.

Fence building is quite exhasuting you know.

Grey

Grey today. British Museum inset day. Fun!

I love the way this is displayed-it is a hoard of silver which was buried in about 905, and found in 1840-in Cuerdale in Lancashire. The display's haphazard design is perfect for a hoard I think-as it tumbles out of its lead chest onto the ground.

Grey yesterday.

The white stripe across the grey was really long, but you get the idea in this photo.

One of my favourite colours, in lots of its many varieties.

Garden Views

Early this morning this plane and the droplets on the temporarily potted plants caught my eye.

The plants were moved because of clearing the border by the fence, then removing a rose that was rampant and diseased and then removing the ivy. Once the fence had gone, and the ivy was more or less conquered, I had the good(?!) idea of digging out the stump of the tree we had felled months ago. I don't want to use poison, my attempts to drill into it to make holes to rot it were pathetic and I was tired of all the little trees sprouting around the place. So, about two weeks ago I decided to dig it up. I had seen a tree which had been excavated a while ago, and the image of it there, with the roots all exposed, ready to be taken away, was very tantalising. Each night for the last two weeks, plus numbers of hours the last two weekends, have been taken up digging the tree. There are good and bad points to this activity.

Good-exercise, interest-the structure of the roots fascinates me, finding treasure-or not treasure-my finds are varied-a lot of rubble and broken glass, bones, small tiles, bottle segments, a piece of marble, a threepenny bit, a sense of satisfaction as another root is exposed and chopped through. I am also in the garden at sunset every evening which has been lovely.

Bad-it may be exercise, but it is also back breaking kind of work which causes a lot of heavy breathing and grunting type noises-how pleasant! Clay-thick yellow London clay-it is solid at a depth of about two feet-horrible stuff! The top soil was good where I have improved it over the years. Frustration-at just not being quite strong enough to do it all-my brother came up last weekend and I have him to thank for much of the chopping! He has lent me his axe and grinder.

Some of my finds. I have been finding the little mosaic tiles all over the garden for years and collect them in one box. There are three colours. The stone is pleasingly round and red, and the threepenny bit was a good find-better then rubble-or cat poo!

I manfully stuck my (Antony's) axe into the stump last night for a photo, and when I looked at it on the computer, saw the shaft of light hitting it.

I have used a spade, fork, trowel, saw, small japanese saw, secateurs, loppers and two axes in my efforts against the stump. I broke my posh metal trowel last night, so resorted to the £2 plastic one. I have used gloves and goggles as protection-but they just make me hotter!

It is hard to tell how deep the hole is in photos but believe me it is deep! I have never dug a hole before-well little ones for plants-but not one to cause a monster mound of earth that is out there at the moment. My Dad and brother are coming up to do the fence on Saturday so that is the cut off point!

No digging has gone on at night yet-that would just be weird and creepy!

Miniature Worlds

Little felt lady waiting for the lift.

She is off to the market with her big shopping basket on wheels.

She got a bit lost in Bonsai Park.

Yesterday I bought a book called 'The Art of the Miniature', by Jane Freeman.

I just loved all the pictures in it, and thought it was about dolls houses.

It is not dolls houses as such, though obviously linked to that whole obsession. It is more about creating miniature worlds as art. I love so many of the scenes created in the book, by the author and a selection of other artists. Above and below are two of my favourites. Frida Kahlo's room-with exaggeratedly bright colours and so much detail. The one above is an artist's garret created in a clock case. I love the way the clock face becomes a stunning window, and would love to live somewhere with a window like that.

In an aside, I was looking at Ill Seen Ill Said tonight, and there was a link to Greige-where there is a picture of a room with a huge clock face which made me think of this one. Then I went to look at the actual source of the pictures and found the amazing Alex MacArthur Antiques and Interiors for Decadent Living site. So many beautiful things! On there is a little film which I really liked and which appears at the bottom of the post. I love these meandering journeys around the internet!

My other recent miniature enjoyment has come from Slinkachu. He creates little scenes in the city and photographs them close up and from a little distance-which shows the tiny scale. They are fantastic. Linda Sue sent me a link shortly after I bought the book, and this site has lots of photos on.

Colourful Craft Fair

I went to a craft fair with Clare and Cleo today at Sandown Racetrack.

It was full of the most tempting goodies-much of it yarn.

Even if I can't knit I love the colours!

Clare and I loved the sparkliness of this crystal stall.

Bright or Pale? Shadow Shot Sunday

Flashes of bright colour in the classroom after school,

were what made me stop and take pictures.

Collecting pictures for a journal related to beach combing,

was the reason I took the other two pictures.

Some days I like bright things, on others I prefer pale.

For other shadows from around the world, visit Hey Harriet here.