Miscellaneous Things

Miscellaneous thing number one-my friend Kat, of Poetikat's Invisible Keepsakes, has been busy putting together a book of her poetry and she did me the honour of asking me to take photos that she could use for the cover. I was outside in my dressing gown over the holiday-when the sun was out in the morning, taking lots of photos of my birds. The book is called 'Shadowstalking' and the photos needed shadows-hence the dressing gown-I didn't want to miss the sun! Have a look at Kat's blog to see her design and also to read some of her poetry. Watch this space for news of the book!

Number two-more journal pages.

Number three-more Cassie-she adopts so many sweet poses every day.

Number four-lovely bird stamp-one of three on a little parcel from Hong Kong. It was from an ebay seller but the packaging was worthy of Etsy! I have discovered something called Re-ment-little tiny things suitable for dolls houses-my parcel today was tiny sushi. When I finally get around to doing anything to the dolls houses I will show all the tiny goodies I have been collecting.

Pictures I like.

Old postcard-photocopied, tracing paper in two layers. Trying to recreate the Anthropologie paper sculpture I saw on my day out with Kenda.

Harder than it looks!

Patchwork with some of the fabric I bought in Rochester and some I already had. I have moved from tiny to medium, and square to hexagon. I realised last night that I do not know how to make a regular hexagon-you know-angles and so on. I feel I should know this kind of thing so maybe shouldn't admit it. I had a feeling that a compass would help, but couldn't remember where one was. The faithful internet came to my aid. My tip for quick reproduction of your basic paper shape is to do one sheet then copy it (if you have that kind of printer that is) This may be obvious but just in case it is not.

Final miscellaneous thing-if, like me, you have long wondered how to make a hole in a piece of glass then wonder no more. Mary, of Working Projects, has done a video explaining that very thing. Now all I need is a drill!

Finished Dolly Bird and Postcard Frame

She is finished! She is a bright and colourful young bird who likes to sit around in the sunshine with the flowers and other birds. Her wings are a bit like a chicken's, in that she can't really fly very far. Her impractical boots make landing a bit hard too so she prefers life on the ground.

She is a distant relative of the bird faces.

This is my changing frame of display. I have put a doll, angels, cards, ribbons and cards and now postcards in it. I wound the string round and round and then wove the postcards through. it holds them pretty well and is easily changed. These are from Chris Ofili, Henry Moore and Berlin-courtesy of Clare who went there last weekend.

Rochester

I had a trip to Rochester today with my friend Karina. She is as thrilled as me to spend time browsing in junk shops, and, it turned out, art shops and fabric shops too! Rochester is in Kent. It has a cathedral, a castle, a river and some very pretty old buildings, and all within about 25 minutes of home.

Charles Dickens lived at Gad's Hill Place near the town, and lots of local events centre on Dickens. It became Cloisterham in Dickens' novel "The Mystery of Edwin Drood" (his last, and unfinished story) We visited lots of interesting shops. There is a really good art shop, a lovely quilting shop and various antiques and junk shops. I was able to get some old postcards for a painting project I have in mind, some lovely fabric, and some paper sewing patterns for collage. The shop I liked the best was Fieldstaff Antiques. It has beautiful displays and a great array of vintage goodies.

It also has very friendly owners, one of whom-Jane-didn't mind at all that I wanted to take photos-so thanks Jane-your shop is lovely!The shop has three floors-so plenty to explore. Their website will give you a fun sepia tour of the shop.

There were all sorts of tempting things. In the end I chose six delicate little pairs of scissors. You can never have enough scissors. Or that is what I am telling myself.

The sun came out as we were leaving, making this gold and blue swag gleam prettily.

Great Dixter

I took so many photos at Great Dixter today. The garden of the late Christopher Lloyd is just lovely.
Here are some of the pictures-if you would like to see more I have just uploaded all of them onto flickr. It is such a beautiful place with so many lovely combinations of colour and shape, that it is hard to resist just one more picture.

This little brick path is so inviting.

"You can choose any tulips you like for pot work" -Christopher Lloyd

Elegant snakes head fritillaries in the grass. I bought a couple of these, in the hope they may survive. Although they look lovely they have a most unpleasant smell-cat's wee! There were so many robins-and other birds-including house martins.

Some kind of exotic plant still in its winter blanket of straw.

This part of the house is a whole other house, that was taken down and transported by horse and cart from a nearby village. It was then left in the garden for a few years before being reassembled in around 1910. The owner at the time bought it for £75!

The very impressive hall-this is a photo of a postcard as we were not allowed to take photos. When we were in there today it had a more wild and woolly feel due to a huge palm and other large houseplants. There was a sweet picture of two dachshunds posed with a string of sausages. There were chairs and settles embroidered by the Lloyd family-Christopher Lloyd's mother made sure all her children were kept busy with this. I also liked the faint mark in the beam above the fireplace-a circle with a line drawn vertically down through it-to keep witches from coming down your chimney!

New Doll, Old Doll, New Cats, Old Cats, Renewed Flowers

This doll was only vaguely planned, and is coming along in a way that makes me laugh. She has boots which I painted the shade of orange of the legs and beaks of Oyster Catchers . I have not got an exact idea of how I am going to fix her together, but it will involve wire, long needles and buttons. I realised that she is actually a 'dolly-bird', reincarnated from the 1970s in weird form. She now has two faces and is awaiting assembly. More pictures when this has been done.

The tulips suddenly opened today-the third day of pretty good sunshine.

My big bowl of sempervivums which survives from year to year with little interference. The bowl is copper-bought from TK Maxx years ago and with a few holes punched in the bottom has made a good container.

The old doll of the title is Edna, who returned home a couple of weeks ago. I find it weird that my doll has flown all the way to America, had a fun time at a photo shoot, and then flown all the way back to England and eventually made it back here! I feel a bit jealous. Of a doll. Is that normal?

Here is Cassie, posing in an unbelievably cute way. She is on an old bathroom mat that I took off the line today. She loves having it on the floor as part of her own personal gym, which consists of two cat scratching posts, and my computer chair, amongst other things. So I have to leave it there for the minute. I had been using it to soak up the water from my washing machine which is leaking. It is leaking because a hole was made in the rubber seal by my cardigan that got caught in it a couple of weeks ago. It is really annoying. I didn't fully realise the massive importance of the rubber seal to the smooth operation of a washing machine. I do now.

Old Cat, New Cat, Old Cat

Tiger, Cassie, Lily

I did a watercolour of Connie, my beautiful first cat. She was black and had a sweet and gentle personality.

I made an embroidery of Boris, our second cat. She was tortoiseshell, fat, jealous and so funny!

So far I have not done a picture of Tiger and Lily-apart from photos. I had this idea to do a mosaic of their noses-but have yet to take good enough photos of each one. They all have such pretty noses I think!

Shadow Shot Sunday!

I am excited to be joining in with Tracy's shadow shot Sunday again! I have saved, and recent shadows to show. This is yesterday in Ladywell Fields in Lewisham. I am leaning on a bridge over the Ravensbourne river. I just found this map of Lewisham rivers and an interesting discussion on flickr which makes me want to explore further... Then I found this organisation that cleans up waterways-most interesting-and worthwhile. I didn't see a kingfisher but they are there! The water was so clear and looked very tempting for a paddle.

Lantern like fence shadow leading up to the building below. I love this building so it has been very sad to see it fall into disrepair over the years I have lived here.

Isn't that tower great?

This photo is of the house at school. It was the premises manager's house years ago, but has been used as extra storage and work space for a long time now. I love the way the shadow of the tree has a clear, square space to exist.

These photos are from February I think.

Join Tracy at HeyHarriet for more shadows!