A day in the life of a mum ...

Look at this for an Easter masterpiece!  It's the Easter hat parade tomorrow at school, and the creation of this little beauty provided a much needed respite from an otherwise gloomy day :( 

I've had one of those days when I've been wondering when life as a mother gets more exciting ... a huge pile of washing up, toys everywhere, dinner menus to be worked out, school routines to sort out and supervise, and to top it all I've had to do the data entry for our bookkeeper which is my most BORING job ever.  (But very important I know, and bookkeepers are very nice people, but I don't like it!).   As I plodded up to do the school run I met one of my friends who's had a similarly frustrating day and we both discussed the necessity of a girls' day out.  Maybe we should start an on-line mums support group where we can bemoan our state with each other.  Having said all this,  I love my kids dearly, they are my treasures and I do enjoy being a mum; guess sometimes it feels a bit thankless.  Though I know from the hugs I get I'm loved and appreciated by them.  And just look at that hat ...
:) xxxxxxxxx

Not blogging today ...

Hi there everyone!  I've been away for a few days in Sydney with no internet access hence no posts.  I'm back home and now have a yucky cold and feel like pants so won't be blogging today.  Yeuch.  I'm horrible to know at the moment ... catch you later xxx

I need your advice ...

OK - I've changed the look again of my blog - I just can't leave things alone can I?  My poor old eyes find it too hard to read on white pages on a computer so I've changed the background colour to one I find quite calming.  Allegedly it's ochre, though it looks green to me.   I thought ochre was yellow? Still I like it whatever it's called.  I've also moved the sidebar to the right hand side as it doesn't seem to get in the way as much if you see what I mean - my blog entries are in the start position for reading.  Anyway, that's my logic about it all.  To my lovely readers, could you drop me a line and tell me what you think about the changes?  Is the new colour and layout easier to read?  It seems to be an unwritten law that white background is best, but it hurts my eyes!!!!  Could simply be I'm getting old and it doesn't make a difference to anyone but me, but if you really hate it I'll try another colour - you know me, always changing things!  Just be interesting to know ... :) xxx

Creative Cappuccino

I was looking through my photos the other day and came across this one - I really liked the pattern on the top (sad, I know), but it also reminds me of my recent holiday in NZ when we walked through Auckland each morning to a little cafe we discovered in one of the arcades.  Suppose this entry is also to say I haven't gone away, it's just been a hectic week with one thing or another - car breaking down,  PC with a virus (it's much better now, thank you!) and so on.  Thankfully I have found time to be creative or I would have gone barking mad by now.  The usual; crochet granny squares, sewing and taking some photos with my new and very fabulous camera, but you'll have to wait for that!

Going potty!

Detail

I think I remember telling you that I'd made a couple of pots at a friend's house a couple of weeks ago.  Well, today they came home to my house to live!  I was so excited!  They've been fired in the most amazing glazes and have turned out a treat.  Very organic!  The plant pot was made from slices of a rolled piece of clay, into which I pressed sheoak seeds and other natural items : the slices were then laid against the inside of an existing plant pot and the edges smoothed together to make a pot.  The platter was made again with a piece of rolled clay, which was put on a form and into which I pressed more gumnuts and seeds.  Takes me back to school days when I used to love messing around with clay.  Great fun.

Could not resist taking a shot of the pots together with the sun shining on them

Fly away ...

Well, this post has taken a teeny bit longer than anticipated to get on the screen! I was about to start when my dad skyped me, so we had a good yarn and caught up with news. Very lovely. Didn't really delay the post that much though in that I had intended to do this one yesterday, but got very tired and went to bed early - ahh! Anyway, better late than never.

This is my attempt at painting fabric which will then be used to make bags. I've got one on my mind at the moment, also in my art journal that is going to showcase my travels around the world - I've got badges and patches from when I was a little girl in Devon to some collected more recently on my travels. Today I was even designing the bag I'm going to embellish so tomorrow will entail making up the bag in some calico to see if it's workable. Original creativity at last!

Technical details: I've used my normal acrylic but mixed it with textile medium (Jo Sonja do a good one)and painted onto calico. After letting it dry for 24 hours, the fabric needs to be ironed to set the medium and away you go. I applied the paint with a small foam roller - inspired by my house painting a couple of weeks ago. The white splatter marks were accidental in that they were due to the white acrylic being rather old and stodgy, which didn't allow it to mix properly with the blue, rather the white blobs got squished by the roller and made the amazing, unexpected cloudy effect I was seeking. Don't you just love it when you find something you've forgotten about, at just the right time? The red flight lines are made using some fabric paints I was given by a friend ages ago and I'd not used them before. They come in a tube but are used like a big biro - they're by Hobbytex, I'm not even sure if you can get them anymore, but probably worth Googling! I borrowed my son's sponge stampers to create the plane shapes. Can't wait to see what I go on to create - it's still a surprise to me - I love that about creating, I often don't know what I'll get until I get it! Magic ...

Craft those blues away ...

Not sure what the matter has been for the past few days, maybe it is just the change of seasons, but I've been feeling decidedly ungrounded, wishy-washy, a touch anxious. So, I've been losing myself in my own crafty world as you can see from the photo. All done since my last post, and by no means are all the crocheted squares on show - I'm still working on my creamy bedspread squares, but thought it could get somewhat boring if I show and tell every single one I make :) I'm really pleased with the white and lilac square that is still on the hook in the picture. If it turns out OK I intend to make another afghan with it (and lots more squares obviously). We won't be getting cold in our house this winter I can tell you! Oh and the red square is a swatch for a groovy hooded vest I'm planning on making. Check out my ravelry page and you'll see a link for the pattern in my queue! (You can click on the ravelry button in the sidebar - I'm still feeling extremely clever for making that work, it should wear off soon ...)

Also, I can't help feeling that my 'art' has taken a backseat. But sometimes I think you simply need to work at something with more structure to get you through the unfocussed times, it's still creativity and I find it as therapeutic as coming up with an original piece of art. Suppose I'm learning to listen to what my creative head - or heart - wants to do. I did take out a book on mandalas from the library the other day so I may produce one of them in the next day or so ...

Amazing ....

Yay! I did it!! Look at the bottom of my last post to see what all the excitement is about! (Or just look at the sidebar!) :)

Tea break and a little clue ...

I meant to write this yesterday but I was so tired I forgot! Yesterday I was looking after a friend's little girl and we had a really great day, but I've forgotten how much energy you need with a little one! As all my lot are at school now it was really good fun being able to spend time playing in the park, searching through all the shiny 'treasure' (plastic crystals and beads) at the craft shop, then going home to play with a washing-up bowl full of water, putting plastic toys into it and taking them out again. For hours ... The simple things in life, what a lovely day.

This is one of my favourite mugs - a picture of fancy yarn of course, in my most favourite purple hues, it's a real comfort thing - drinking tea (my favourite!) out of a mug illustrated with fluffy wool. Yum. Also in the picture is part of a mindmap for that new project I mentioned the other day - can you read the writing? It's for a website I'm starting principally for my paintings. It's a medium I love, but I don't do as much painting on a day to day basis as all the other creative stuff I do. So, it's my blog for everyday creativity, including paintings and a website just for my bigger paintiings - I won't need to update the content as regularly and it can take ages for me to finish a painting! It's certainly keeping the creative part of my mind working, it's such fun and another way to express yourself in cyberspace - the site I visit is webs.com and at present I'm just using the basic, free programs and apps until I know what I'm doing!

Talking about new applications, I'm off to try and put a ravelry button on my sidebar. Could be tricky or not - will let you know ...

Today's the day ...

Hurray - I've finally got round to changing my blog look. It's a brilliant day for being creative and original as everyone is out, except for moi, and I've taken advantage of being able to litter the kitchen table with laptop, notebooks, pens, knitting patterns and of course my beloved crochet! I'm going to update my other internet presences such as Ravelry, which is looking very sad with only 2 projects on show; a new blog I've started to motivate me in my granny square challenge and I'm also toying with ideas for a wee website for my paintings. As you can see I've decided to be more generally creative here on my little 'ol blog as it was really veering away from the 'art' and I felt that the 'space' in Lara's Art Space was too stationary, almost like a little enclosed room, and I want to spread out! 'Create for Life' is a much more proactive statement, and I like it because it feels like it's an on-going process. Of course I have also been extremely clever with a double meaning to my Create for Life - that is, create forevermore and create to give your life meaning/purpose/healing. I tell you, my life would be very dull and boring if I didn't make something everyday. I would be a very sad girl indeed ...

No pictures today as my banner is in pride of place at the top of the blog, and I want you to be able to take in it's awesome creative beauty without distractions! Ha! Ha! :) I will be updating my blog with links to other places you can find me if all goes well today. Otherwise it may take a while, but I'll get there. Toodle pip for now!

Slow crochet

It's another crochet show and tell day! At present I'm probably averaging one granny square every other day, which I don't think is bad going as I've had to make allowances for carpel tunnel syndrome. Which is improving by the way - I'm wearing my wrist support when crocheting and when sleeping!

Well, the cream squares are for my bedspread afghan. I thought the granny square challenge would be a wonderful excuse to make some useful things for the house. I'm using the Spotlight Basics 100% wool for this project. The other squares are made from acrylics I have in my stash. The links for the patterns are here for the cluster square I'm using for the afghan (I've made a teeny variation by adding another round of double crochet to the edge) and for the two white squares with various bobble stitches. The link for the flower square is here - it's now one of my favourites, you have to concentrate for the first time, but the result is well worth it and once you've made a few I suppose it becomes second nature.

I'm going to make up the discrepancy between number of squares and days as and when time and my health allows. I am absolutely determined to have 365 squares by the end of the year!