back from the city...

...of norwich! had lots of fun at the clutter city diy market yesterday, but my smile muscles are really worn out...being nice all day to strangers is bloody exhausting ;) but the best bit was finally meeting liv who is absolutely lovely! luckily we were placed right opposite each other and spent lots of time laughing and chatting. thankyou to those who left lovely comments, i really appreciated your support.

another lovely thing happened the other day...some snail mail love from sarah, what a complete treat to have this delightful package delivered to me...the most gorgeous prints ever, i can't wait to frame them...and i'm really excited because it's the official start of my art collection for the farmhouse :) which incidentally has taken a rather exciting upturn: the quotes are all in and although it looks like we'll be broke for the next million years, work starts in the second week of june for around 5 months. i'm sweating slightly because a gable wall has to come down to remove a useless and crumbling chimney stack...apparently the ceilings have to come down too...alarming, yet thrilling at the same time! actually, in all honesty not thrilling at all, just alarming.

feeling...

fairly terrified. tomorrow, clutter city in norwich at the arts centre. me and my stuff. terrifying.

maybe you'd like to come along if you're local. i'll be the one on stand number 4 looking, well, terrified.

i'm done now...

i promise! i will show you no more stuff for clutter city!

i had a bit of a eureka moment today...i've been wracking my brains for some ingenius way of displaying my magnets at clutter city. i remember seeing on heather's blog a photo of her magnets on a metal tray which looked brilliant, but i don't have a beautiful vintage tray to use...but i have got one of those lovely tall galvanised florists buckets. but the magnets need to be displayed all around the bucket and some wouldn't be seen. hmmm...i pondered this for a while, thinking to myself "what i need is a lazy susan" but sadly i do not have one of these. but i do have a microwave turntable! lightbulb moment! it works a treat... so the lovely people of norwich may peruse my magnet flower bucket whilst happily spinning it around with gay abandon! result.

sketch...

a couple of sketches made in my tiny 'studio'. let's just say it's no fun sleeping next to masses of paper/glue/scissors/ stacked up against my bed. hurry up and dry out, leak-soaked floor in workroom.

i've framed a couple of these for clutter city (yikes, it's on saturday!) and they look pretty good if i do say so myself. and i do. say so, that is.

taking over my life...

because of the leak under the floor trauma in my workroom, i'm working in my bedroom while big fans try and try the place out. i'm now in a 2 x 4 foot space by the side of my bed...and that includes all my papers stacked up under the window...never again will i complain about my proper work space! anyway...i'm cracking along with work for clutter city...i was asked by stephanie where i find the time to make stuff. erm...i creep off at any opportunity while the kids are playing/fighting/eating/sleeping. i also do bits and pieces whilst waiting for food to cook, or while the boys watch tv. they're 5 and 2 so frank is at full time school while arthur has perfected the art of amusing himself pretty well. and in answer to your other question, stephanie, in my experience, yes it does get easier when they're a little older, don't worry!

dear

a little canvas for clutter city, called 'dear'. drifting off onto a different subject, i may have mentioned in the past that i'm ridiculously pathetic, i cry daily watching all manner of tv programmes, from 'neighbours' to adverts and theme tunes. well, today i reached a new low...i cried, nay, howled at the end of '60 minute makeover'. for those of you who don't know what that is, a team of 'experts' have 60 minutes to makeover an nominated person's house without their knowledge...at the end there's usually lots of grateful tears and emotion (or i guess they could be tears of horror) but seriously, i was embarrassed for myself.

canvases

this is a post-and-dash...i want to sit in the sun for 10 minutes before the kids come back from swimming...3 new 8x6 inch canvases have been made for clutter city, i'm getting there! from top: 'meaning', 'company' and '18'. phew...i'm off to relax...happy sunday, peeps.

badges galore

having realised with mounting horror that clutter city in norwich is in only two week's time, i thought i'd better get my bum in gear and actually make something to sell...so this afternoon i've been re-scaling some pics of my collages and making them into badges. i thought i'd make 100 of them but they look pathetic. they'd better sell...i got sunburnt for these suckers.