Treasury

Thanks so much to Kinga from Amuleta Hu  for including me in her treasury. www.etsy.com/treasury/MjE5OTI3Njl8MjcyMDkxOTE3NQ/only-op-art I love all the wonderful 'op art' designs,especially the black and white combos!

I haven't posted anything for almost 6 months and I feel as though some explanation is due! The truth is I have been working for an organization that works in the field of education. This is an area that is experiencing great difficulties in South Africa at the moment. I am involved in a project called 'Literacy and Numeracy Enrichment' which is self explanatory. I work mainly with Grade 1 learners who come to school without the basic necessary skills such as a knowledge of cutting, shapes, basic numeracy, sounds letters etc.
 The programme has been developed by an Occupational Therapist and so we do a fair amount of work developing gross and fine motor skills, visual perception etc. A lot of things that are taken for granted by parents of children who are brought up in 'priviledged' homes!
I do enjoy the work but it is extremely demanding and I just haven't had time to work on keeping my shop and blog updated. Anything creative has also taken a bit of a backseat and I am only doing what is absolutely necessary in that department. I do still look at other peoples blogs and really do admire the effort they put into them!  I will however try to blog more than once every six months!

Music ribbon bows

 I did some invitations for a music themed wedding a while ago and now I am working on the decorations.The bows are for the end of the pews in the church. All you need is some ribbon (preferably with wire along the edges),thin wire, wire cutters and scissors.

 Most importantly....the instructions....which I found here

Happy Easter!

Homemade hot cross buns to light up a dull and rainy day!

Another Party!

Another party.... this time at home. My son, who is studying to be a chef at Silwood School of Cookery, had to make a 3 course meal for 8 as part of his holiday project. This is the result!

A starter of caramalized onion tartlets (delicious!) with rocket, melon and parma ham salad.

Main course of lamb noisettes, roasted veg and duchess potatoes with mushy pea puree and bordelaise sauce.This isn't the best representation of this course because in all the rush of getting the meal served he forgot to take a picture, so this is a re-creation the next day.

Dessert of poached pears with custard sauce.
We also had homemade bread rolls, cheese straws and spiced almonds.Having only been at chef school for 8 weeks, all in all a pretty good effort!

Party time!

A 50th Birthday and a 21st!
Time for reflection on friends and how fast the time goes by! We met when we moved into our first houses 25 years ago. We discovered that we had both been married on the same day in1984 and bought our first houses in the same road. Our first children, mine a boy hers a girl, were born 4 months apart ....those children are now 21!

This is her daughter's 21st celebration.

The story doesn't end there...... our second children, both boys, were born on the same day!

Cause for celebration I think.

Musical Magic

Invitations for a wedding! With both the bride and groom being involved with music we thought this would be a fitting theme for the wedding!
The cover is made from vintage sheet music, bought at the local Hospice shop, and the inside printed on recycled paper.

After working with the sheet music, I couldn't resist a cutout birdcage (birds being the subject of choice at the moment)!

Peacock feathers

Peacock feathers...surely the most beautiful of them all!

Blue Collage

A blue feather led to a....

blue canary which led to a ....

blue stone.
I came across this quote(not sure by who) while cleaning up my workspace and it really inspired me to do more illustrations, even if they aren't 'the best!'

"Use the talents you posses.

The wood would be silent

If no birds sang there, except

Those that sang the best!"

Cut outs

An idea starting to form.......

Not quite sure where this is going right now...... I just like all the elements... cut outs, text, bird illustrations,maps...

Feathers

I 've been trying to brush up on my drawing skills by drawing or painting something every few days. (it was going to be a drawing a day but on reflection I decided that is going to be impossible to maintain so at the moment I am trying for at least once a week!)
I love birds and feathers because they are so textured and patterned and interesting to draw.

Valentines Day

Happy Valentines Day!

Patchwork birds

Another embroidered, patchwork cushion I am working on. Unfortunately the printed linen patches of fabric I was given are coming to an end so this will be the last cushion cover. I so enjoy making them especially the embroidery.I must admit machine sewing is not really my thing, I much prefer the control of hand sewing!

Spiral Bracelets

I love working with colour and these spiral bracelets are such a fun way to try out different colour combos.

These bracelets are available in my shop.

I bought some strings of semi-precious stones and added them to the beads. In retrospect I think I should have made more spirals on each bracelet, but unfortunately once that memory wire is cut it is cut!

succulent

I can't believe I haven't posted anything for nearly 3 months. I just don't know where the time has gone! I am going with the theory "better late than never" !

A friend gave me some this succulent for Christmas and I love it. I haven't really thought much about succulents before but in our part of the world we have very strict water restrictions so they are perfect.Thinking of no water led me to thinking about deserts which then led me to this Bible verse.....

"The grasslands of the desert overflow, the hills are clothed with gladness" Psalm 65 v12
Low and behold it has rained nearly all day today!