Silver Footprints

Slower than the proverbial...

2012-02-12T06:26:00.000-08:00

...slow boat to China..

My computer died, it just gave up on me and left me bereft and wondering whether it was the the glass of red wine that i tipped over the keyboard or the glass of Baileys that Nicci tipped over it (Nicci's wondering too!!)

Either way it's stopped working and now i have to look for another one, in the meantime i'm using the one in the shop, which is.... oh........so....slow.....like wading through treacle. So, i've not been able to show you the art photographs i've taken or the latest ones of the shop, so bear with me.

However......I am so loving this furniture...

I could find somewhere to put all of this in the house!

(might have to chuck a few things out mind you)

These bits and pieces of furniture are what Gav and i are thinking of collecting and selling at Indigo Moon, we've seen some really nice cupboards recently and there are only two problems! one is finding room in the shop and the other is whether i could bear to part with them!

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Gorgeous new stock...

2012-01-31T04:25:00.000-08:00

We've had in some lovely new door and cupboard knobs/handles at Indigo Moon, it's taken ages to open all the boxes up and check each item for damage, and that everything has been delivered but we've done it. Now all that remains is to find room in the shop!!!

...Easier said than done methinks!

Enjoy:

...and these lovely rustic spice boxes

shelving

We've been a bit busier in the shop today, quite a few people in and all seem to be buying, which is good for January/february. Gav is on the last day of tax returns and should be finished later this afternoon, poor love has been holed up in his little room glued to online tax returns, and up to his eyes in receipts and invoices but, hopefully it should calm down for him after today.

We'll be getting the middle floor corridor cleaned up later now that all the painting has been done, the floorboards need a good clean and the carpet/runner should be arriving this week - i'm so excited. That corridor is a major part of the house and it's always looked like a store room, it's exciting to see it, at last, looking part of a proper cosy home.

I decorated some moleskine notebooks yesterday for my etsy shop and real shop! I didn't have time to put the photos on but i did get one on Flickr... http://www.flickr.com/photos/18810514@N05/6790547697/in/photostream

have a look! I did ten altogether, all with different pictures on them, they also have part of the story on the back. I got them from an old 1940's/50's bedtime annual, the book was of no value in that most of the pages were missing, scribbled on etc, but they look great like this. I'll photo the rest in my next post.

Have a nice Tuesday everyone

I predict a riot...

2012-01-29T13:58:00.000-08:00

A riot of colour...

I've had a brilliant weekend (and even managed to do some more work on my collage painting through the week)

The highlight was seeing the Kaiser Chiefs play in Llandudno on Friday night...they were amazing. We booked into a hotel next door to the venue and as Nicci was looking after the shop for us and gave us strict instructions not to rush back we did a detour on the way home to pick up some Ebay bargains in Stafford and spent the rest of the day in Leek looking around their gorgeous antique shops and having a nice lunch....very relaxing.

odeon antiques

...and the market

ART WORK

Pencilling in the flowers

Painted flowers

close-ups

it's not finished yet, i have a few more layers to do, but have some other works in progress.

...like house painting. This is what the middle floor corridor now looks like, bright white and looking lovely with the faux panelling removed, gav fixed the architraving around the doors and we did the painting between us through the week. The carpet, or narrow runner (it would be a shame to hide these gorgeous wooden floorboards, which are very old) will arrive later this week and we'll try and find time to put up the curtains (Gav's busy doing the tax returns/accounting at the moment so he's flat out).

A glimpse of the bathroom, i painted the "red" bath a lovely "Steel Symphony" grey and the feet silver. The wood panelling is only on half of two walls and matches the bath, the rest is bright white - can't find the curtains i want though.

I also finished my stock of hand made business cards through the week, it's great to get all these things done, customers pick my business cards up all the time in the shop so it's nice to have a huge stock of them ready to put out.

and I recieved this gorgeous piece of artwork from Micki Wilde, in a mail art swap, i love it. Thanks Micki xx

Hope you've all had a good weekend.

Creative fun...

2012-01-24T15:47:00.000-08:00

Here are some of the felt brooches i've been making in my kitchen and at the shop counter during these quiet(ish) times. They're all for sale in the shop and look stunning together.

and...i'm still unpacking art supply boxes that have been sealed up for nigh on three years, it's like christmas. I've found some fab supplies that i'd forgotten i had, like these lovely pastel chalks. I love using these in my paintings, i lay the colours down and brush over with water, the colour is so intense, although you do have to seal with fixative, but it's well worth it and they go a long way, best results are on watercolour paper. I invested in some really good ones and chose the colours carefully (most of the yellow one is over my carpet, which is a no no, as it makes a right mess and is difficult to get out, goes well with the pencil sharpenings though.

...and my bird stamps i bought from Waterstones, in another life.

...my Caran D'ache colouring pencils which i used on all my collages before i packed them up, the colour blending on these are superb.

...Dr Martins concentrated water colours - i got these at "Inkspot" in Cardiff, i have a yellow one somewhere...no doubt it'll turn up in one of the boxes soon.

...Stuart Gill paints, these are wonderful and can be used on fabric too, they can also be heated for different textures. I've used the silver one to paint the legs on my bath (i'll show you soon when it's all done, silver, bright white and steel symphony, it looks great).

...more boxes to unpack soon, can only manage a few at a time.

The new shelving in the shop, i think it looks great with all gav's treasures on them, especially the phones.

view through the shop, it's full to the brim

Just look at this!!!!

2012-01-24T04:05:00.000-08:00

I'm famous

Someone named their cafe after me!

Well...

2012-01-18T04:49:00.000-08:00

...I had so many nice plans for the start of the new year but alas the much needed house renovations are still getting in the way of the nice relaxing things i'd like to do. However, it's not all doom and gloom, the house organisation and decorating is coming along nicely and even though we're exhausted and still in a mess here, at least we can see a light at the end of the tunnel, so to speak.

I did manage to do a tiny bit of artwork over the weekend, experimenting with some of my long lost pastels i found when i emptied all my "packed up boxes of 3 years". It's just a small piece and not finished, but it was nice to have some peace and quiet to do it.

"Outstretched Hand"

Also i managed to download a few more books onto my Kindle, I went in search of some of my favourite classics and managed to get included two favourites "The Scarlet Letter" and "The Mayor of Casterbridge" and many others that i haven't yet read.

I also bought these books by two of my favourite artists:

Misty Mawn

Ruth Rae

I can't wait to get stuck into these, i think i'll keep them for when i get a whole day for just creating and relaxing, but it's probably not going to be much before the Spring time unfortunately...

...anyway we've just completed another room on the middle floor, it used to be my old art room, remember this?

well it now looks like this and is Nicci's new bedroom.

Since taking this photo the corridor has been stripped of panelling, re-plastered and skimmed and is ready for painting and the room next door to this (which will be the guest room) has been started on too.

The biggest job of yesterday was moving a load of shelving into the shop from the middle floor room. We only decided the day before when we knew it needed to be dismantled that it would work in the shop, so Gav cut it into three parts and i nearly killed myself trying to pass these huge lengths of shelving through the window to him down onto the street (at 7.30am), not to mention the car that was in the way, which we very nearly dented in the process!! But thanks to Brian, our very kind neighbour, who was on his way to get the paper, who not only helped gav manouevre them around the car to get them out, but also stayed until 11.00am helping us re-assemble them in the shop, he's very kind and it was much appreciated.

They look brilliant in the shop and i'll try and take some photos later when it's a bit more organised!

so...over the next few weeks I will be painting but it will be walls rather than canvas, it's a nice feeling even if it is hard work. Putting the house in order has been a huge project for us especially as it was straight on from setting up and organising the shop (which is always an on-going project) but we're at the stage now where we can think about the soft furnishings and all the lovely old vintage/antique furniture we've purchased from auctions and put it all into place. It'll beat living in a warehouse any day!

and i've been managing my time contructively whilst in the shop (as promised) it has been quiet (well, i say quiet there are a lot of people coming through the door but not many spending, which is what we expect at this time of year), so i made twenty felt brooches whilst sat at the counter over the last week or so and today i'm doing my business cards, along with a little bit of shop tidying and organising along the way.

Finally It was lovely to have a flying visit from my friend Jo yesterday, she always takes the time to pop in for a chat and a bit of moral support . I couldn't even make her a coffee the kitchen was full of shop stock and the electricians were also in there fixing smoke alarms. But i'm sure she'll forgive me, my aim is to treat her to a nice lunch one day here in my lovely tidy, newly decorated kitchen (when i've done it that is), she's very patient and i'm sure she doesn't mind waiting.

So....on with things again now, have a lovely day everyone!

Creating again.....

2012-01-09T15:02:00.000-08:00

I can't tell you how i feel having a permanent new work room back in my life, it's heavenly and very healing. The only downfall at the moment is that i'm so busy in the shop ordering and checking new stock and house organising and decorating that i haven't had as much time as i'd like to spend in there. However, i did manage a few hours over the weekend and i started a new piece.

I've had a few customers in the shop asking for my "vases of flowers" art, and as i'd sold the previous three i'd done, i thought i'd do some more. This is a quite a large piece and i've only photographed the bottom half of it. I'm really enjoying building up the layers of paint and collage at the moment, i've no idea when it will be finished or what it will eventually look like!

and i have company whilst working. Lizzie sits in the room with me, she loves the windowsil, people watching, every now and then she'll start wagging her tail as someone walks by down on the street. But her favourite thing is bird watching, because we're on the top floor we're almost level with the tops of the houses opposite and she watches the birds flying about, it's quite comical.

I love these papers. On my recent trip to Chester i popped into Hobbycraft for some brushes and decided to give them a try on my collages. I usually get my patterned papers from my stash of wallpaper samples i've collected over the years, but these looked so pretty and they were in a sale!

the much needed paintbrushes and some stamps i found for background decoration (which were also in a sale)

Well it's back to work tomorrow after a very lazy day off today, but i don't mind a bit. I'll lie in until about nine(ish), i can shower, get dressed, have coffee, breakfast and walk the dog before i have to stroll into the shop, which is just through the door from the kitchen. Ahhhh!

Tomorrow (in a quest to do constructive things through the day) i'm making lots of lovely new felt brooches for the shop (ready for Spring) and i have some new business cards to paint.

Have a good week everyone.

In search of calm in 2012

2012-01-05T12:43:00.000-08:00

Welcome to my first blog of 2012

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO YOU

(I know it's a little late, but i've been so busy with house organising)

As you can see i've changed my blog slightly...I wanted something fresh for the coming new year, there will be a picture at the top soon i'm just waiting to scan it!

I'm so excited, one of the major things I did over the Christmas holidays was getting my art studio set up, it's taken me ages and all my energy, but what better way to start the New Year? For the first time in three years i now, once again, have a cosy little art studio/room all to myself, with all my art, art supplies, lap top, books, magazines, kindle, ipod around me, a place where I can shut myself off to the world (when i want to) and get back to creating to my hearts content! Bliss.

The first task was to move this lot to the upstairs new art room, and it was all undertaken after first emptying the art room to be, which was also full to bursting point.

however, I did it as you can see

This is the new art room up on the top floor, it's quite small, but big enough for me

My new, "old" work table.
I found this at an auction a while ago, it's perfect (my other table was much too big for this room.

My darling husband very kindly fixed in some shelves for me
(please note it's dark by this time and i'd shut the curtains. You can just see the montgomery christmas lights twinkling through)

and this was the end result,

it's still a work in progress, but i'm trying to keep it as comfy as possible.

It's so nice to finally get to this stage in my life, I've had some major physical and emotional upheavals over the last three years (nearly all my own choice), including three major house moves, leaving my job, becoming a full time artist and starting my own successful business, and getting married...to name a few ...and finally, the start of 2012 sees things settling down for me (us), not only with moving and working here in beautiful Montgomery, but getting our lovely home organised, decorated and livable. We still have a way to go, but at least we seem to be moving in strides now. Building work has resumed and that's caused some upheaval but it should all be sorted by end of feb.

2011 was a huge learning curve for me and i leave it behind with mixed emotions. The highlight of the year was, of course, getting married. My art was published in Cloth Paper Scissors and i held my first solo art exhibition here in Montgomery, which I approached with huge trepidation and very little confidence but was totally amazed at the response i got. I met loads of interesting people, made new friends, received many requests to set up workshops and got invited to meet and exhibit with other artists at Andrew Logan's Big Buzz Festival in Berriew.  In May we'd accomplished our first year of trading as Indigo Moon and the accounts were good. We approached both the summer and Christmas extremely organised, Indigo Moon was stocked to the hilt, we'd shoe-horned in as much as we could and our customers loved it. Some of the lows were having a disastrous holiday in September with a "Beautiful Wales" cottage we booked, getting our car broken into in Manchester when we went to see "The Wall", our plumber letting us down with the new bathroom he fitted resulting in us having to threaten court action to get it righted and although he did pay up, we had to find someone else to do the work. Gavin lost an uncle to cancer and our friend George (who played with his band at our wedding) was diagnosed with MS. The most annoying was having to deal with (from the most unexpected quarter) the most hateful, vindictive, spiteful, narcississtic, personality disordered person i've ever come across (and as a former medical secretary to a consultant psychiatrist in a psychiatric hospital, i feel qualified to recognise/diagnose it).

So...my plans for the new year are to first and foremost rid myself of all the negative things of last year (which is already done), continue to build on my artistic success and Indigo Moon success. To update both my Etsy shop (it's very pitiful at the moment) with work i've been too busy to photograph and upload and with some new work that i can now start creating . Also i'll be updating my Flickr photos.   I'll be doing some different things with my blog too, i'd like to organise some art swaps or mail art, i'm impressed with Micki Wilde and Mindy Lacefield's swap, but that will take a bit more organising. I'd like to do a few giveaways too and am even thinking of doing some interviews with other artists, but first i need to do develop my blog a bit more.

I've been so inspired by Cathy Cullis and her "one hundred portraits on brown paper" i thought i'd do my own version of "three hundred and sixty five angels", but like Cathy i won't put myself under any pressure to do them quickly, the idea was to do one for every day of 2012, and i will, but i'll do them a my own pace and then put them on Flickr.   I'm also going to do some other features for certain days, but haven't decided exactly what yet - It will give me the incentive to blog regularly.

I'll also, at some point, be making use of the wonderful Giclee printer we have to do some prints of my collage paintings for my etsy shop and Indigo Moon and to look further into printing options for my collage paintings

So...i enter 2012 fighting fit (except for chronic back and shoulder pain from constantly moving heavy furniture around the house) and ready to take on the world.

One of my new year resolutions was to use my quiet/less busy times whilst in the shop constructively by creating things i could sell, so here are a few brooches i made today at the kitchen table (at least i think it's a kitchen table, it has so much stuff on it it's difficult to tell these days!!)

I wish you all a brilliant and very prosperous new year for whatever you decide to do in 2012 ...

"March on. Do not tarry. To go forward is to move toward perfection. March on, and fear not the thorns, or the sharp stones on life's path"

- Gibran, Kahlil

Mentioned in...

2011-12-30T13:40:00.000-08:00

Cloth Paper Scissors

as one of the twenty five finalists for the Artisan 2012 competition

It's only a small piece; as one of the twenty five finalists i was asked by the cps team to send three pieces of work to them and as one of the runners up in the competition this is the piece they chose!

Glad to say that I've since received all three pieces of my work back and this complimentary copy of the January/Febrruary issue arrived today.

I've had an amazing christmas, albeit very quiet, which suited us both as we were so busy before, both in the shop and gadding around the country visiting relatives and friends, it was so lovely to relax, i did nothing for the whole three days.

I'm so excited, i've decided to spend some of my christmas money and have bought a Kindle!!!!

It doesn't actually arrive until the 3rd January, Gav ordered it online, he's really good at finding the best deals and got it for 103.98 including P&P. It holds 3,500 books...wow....

I know i've pledged to read the printed word and that will still happen, as i won't be able to take it in the bath and thats where i read most! he he!

I can get most of the classics free and there are so many i'd like to read and re-read. I've got plans for using my time constructively whilst in the shop and will probably use the kitchen table to do various artworks on, but when i have to be in the shop it'll be nice to have a choice of books on my kindle to occupy me!!!

"A book is the only place in which you can examine a fragile thought without breaking it, or explore an explosive idea without fear it will go off in your face. It is one of the few havens remaining where a woman's mind can get both provocation and privacy".

~Edward P. Morgan

Beautiful Mid Wales, good music, red kites and a grubby pup

2011-12-22T13:17:00.000-08:00

Pretty!

The roof tops and gardens of Montgomery last Friday morning from the Armoury top floor window.

...later, there were little bird footprints on the nearest one

I love this time of year, especially here in Montgomery, it's a special place, with lots going on. The square, or Broad Street, has been bustling today with people who've come here to visit family for or before Christmas, the market at the town hall arrive early on Thursdays and Saturdays selling all their wares and also the fish man and cheese man. You can buy fresh baked bread and get hot coffees at the cafes as well, not to mention the other shops for a fab shopping experience, especially our lovely shop "Indigo Moon"!

We've been so busy leading up to christmas (which is good) with late night shopping until 8pm every Thursday and Nicci's been here helping us for a few weeks before going back home for Christmas...so we've been celebrating Christmas early, lots of nice food, drink and watching lots of films such as Jurassic Park, Life of Brian and Back to the Future 1,2 and 3...to name a few!

Gav and I went down to Swansea last weekend to Micky Jones' first annual jam at "the Club" in Morriston, it was a very late night and i struggled to stay awake, but we had a fab time meeting up with friends and the music was great as usual.

(photos are courtesy of Pete Middleton and Allan Heron)

The journey down there took us over the Brecon Beacons, i'm sorry the photo isn't very good, i took it from the car with the light was fading, you can just about see the beacons covered in snow, they looked spectacular even in fading light, it's one of my favourite places and I love this road in particular, it has a kind of "Lord of the Rings atmosphere"!

...and...the Road back home on Sunday, Red Kites soaring in the skies above us on the road from Ammanford to Llandovery and these photos are taken along the A483 (Gav took these as it was my turn to drive!!!). This is my favourite route into Mid Wales, i love this road up over the mountain from 'Dod to Newtown. It was cold and there was snow still on the ground and hills, but the sun was shining and everything looked so beautiful and fresh.

Our recent auction treasures.

Gav got me this old ledger from Montgomery auction the other week, i love using the pages from these in my collage paintings.

and some other old ephemera we picked up:

This stamp is a penny red and has Queen Victoria on it.

and some old train tickets which are really lovely

More old letters

...and an old Christmas card, which i've just started collecting, they're so beautiful and i have quite a few Birthday cards too

.....and Lizzie....
what can i say?
she found a muddy flower pot in the yard, she was filthy, not to mention my kitchen floor!

How cute is that face?

She's made us all laugh this week, she's been completely hyper since Nicci's been here, Lizzie loves her and goes mad when she's around, and of course Nicci winds her up too. We bought a huge fresh salmon from the supermarket earlier this week and were slicing it up ready to freeze. As Gav was chopping Lizzie was sat at his feet licking the tail of the salmon which was hanging over the end of the counter, after about ten minutes it was too much for her and unbeknown to Gav she grabbed the end of the tail and started pulling it - Nicci and I were laughing at them, Gav thought the fish was moving. It was very funny!

Well Christmas is nearly here, we'll be working until 5pm on Christmas Eve and then it's feet up for three whole days....yaaaaaaaaaay, i can't wait.

"Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful"
~Norman Vincent Peale

2011-12-11T16:39:00.000-08:00

I've been busy ,busy, busy, all weekend.

This is the second floor corridor leading to the new living room (at the end). As you can see it's still a mess with building debris and stored furniture....

...but the new living room is coming along nicely. As you can see it's been newly plastered and the awful reproduction wall panelling removed. we also exposed this gorgeous beam.

It's been painted and is almost ready for the curtains to go up and the furniture to be moved into place, there's another sofa to go along that far wall

and we think the TV will go to the left of the post ,which will be painted a different colour by the way (gold was the previous owners choice).

This is the art deco console table which will have our fab art deco garniture clock on it eventually.

Also, the new wall has been put up in the rooms next door to the living room, which will be Nicci's room and a guest room.

Nicci's been enjoying herself this weekend scouting around the house to see what vintage furniture she can acquire for her new room, she's already persuaded me to part with a beautiful small round table i bought from the auction last week and she has her eye on a pretty mirror that is currently adorning the wall outside the bathroom.

Progress is also being made in turning the current living room into our bedroom. We moved the wardrobes in last week, they look fab with these vintage suitcases on top

It was whilst pottering about the house doing this last week that I was aware of a calm around me, it felt a bit spooky, My life is so busy and full that I (we, Gav and I) have to constantly juggle and skirt around (and worry over) things, but even so I still had this overwhelming sense of calmness and a feeling of being anchored. The effects of this calmness has affected me by my becoming (perhaps) less highly-strung (although there are still moments!) being more thoughtful and being better able to kick back on occasion without guilt or self-consciousness.

I love my life

Happy Birthday to you...

2011-12-07T04:27:00.000-08:00

"...Squashed tomatoes and stew

Bread and butter in the gutter...

happy birthday to you!

(remember when we used to sing that to each other?)

To my amazing sister

Karen

Have a beautiful, special day

Love you loads

xxxxxxx

On your birthday count your candles and count your years, but never forget to count your blessings.

2011-12-03T14:52:00.000-08:00

I just thought i'd show you some of the lovely things we have in stock at Indigo Moon at the moment. Our Christmas trade is getting busier and it's lovely to see so many things going out.

I love these giant pegs to hang things from

and these cute glass baubles

little wooden branches from East of India they make gorgeous hanging decorations

Birdy candle holders

Vintage telephones - i'm still amazed at how many of these sell, Gav can barely keep up with demand

Key hook

gorgeous jewels

vintage ice cream sign (actually, this is in our kitchen now)

Glass baubles

sleepy owls

more glass baubles

Gav and i had a mad dash up to Bridlington on Monday morning for an overnight stay with family. It was so nice to get away from all the work going on at the house. We all went out for a lovely meal on Monday night at a place called Raffles in the old part of Bridlington Town. I never got my bracing walk on the sea front, it was just a tad too bracing!!!!.

Unfortunately, i forgot to take my camera out with me to the meal, but i couldn't resist these photo's on the way back to Montgomery in the car. It was cold and beautiful clear blue sky.

This is the M62 across Sadleworth Moor to Manchester, it's a nice, but busy, drive across the moors which look so barren and desolate, it's always a reflective moment.

Gav and i travelled back and forth this motorway regulalry when we lived in Leeds and were looking for property in Montgomery so i got to know it all pretty well. This is Manchester up ahead but luckily (traffic wise) we skirt around it on the ring road and then it's a fairly easy route into Wales.

I'm still thinking about my new bathroom design, aren't these tiles gorgeous? This is a photo from the Welbeck tile site and i really have a fancy for these in the guest bathroom around the shelf.

Or this design on the wall maybe?

Or this, for fun!

....or... for even more fun, this perhaps!!!

I'm not getting any art work done at the moment because the i don't have a studio to work in with everything going on. I have a small piece in the January/February issue of Cloth Paper Scissors and they're in the process of returning my art work, which is good as i have plans for it!

Progress

2011-11-24T08:33:00.000-08:00

Well, progress indeed....the new flooring is down in the bathroom and it looks amazing, both Gav and I are starting to feel better now, even getting one room "sort of" finished is good. The only down side is that since finishing it we've had to use it as a storing room for furniture and bits and pieces from all the other rooms that we've had to empty for the builder to start work. This is what it will look like when completely finished...

...I wish

I have a thing at the moment for re-purposing wardrobes, old wardrobes. I see them as cupboards for more than just holding clothes....Ha! Narnia sprung to mind then. An old armoire opens up a world of possibilities, they make fabulous storage space in all rooms, which is why when passing a charity shop in Shrewsbury the other day Gav and I lugged home a small art deco gentleman's wardrobe (they're the ones with drawers at the bottom). I haven't posted a photo yet because i'd like to show it to you when it's in situ to get the full effect - but it does look stunning in the bathroom. The drawers at the bottom are wider than the top and it has a faint art deco design across the front with gorgeous bakelite handles on the doors and drawers, i can't wait to fill it with towels and pretty things.

We're looking for a similar thing for our en-suite bathroom, which is slightly more contemporary, I found these images of pretty wardrobes and i have some good ideas.

I love this ladder...

...i found a really nice one in Ludlow a few weeks ago, but Gav thought it was expensive, it was nicer than this one, a lot wider and not actually shelving. I wanted it to hang towels over and i've not seen one like it since, so i may go back and get it, if it's still there!!!

And of course, i'll need this, where else am i going to put my champagne?

We also have this shelf unit in the shop, it's very nice and for sale, but not many people realise this because it's filled with stock, I may just have to steal it for bath stuff!!!

and.....i just love this...

So... we're well on our way to getting rooms sorted. The builder has been here for two days and is doing a great job. I think he finishes the current room the middle of next week, I hope that includes the plastering. Then we can start the painting whilst he's working on the bedrooms. We're still looking for rugs and haven't found anything we like yet, but there's a local auction coming up soon with a nice one on the list.

Gav and I are off to Bridlington/Hull on Monday morning just overnight to see family and swap christmas presents.

We should get there by early afternoon, just in time to have a breezy walk along the sea front and then the whole family is out for a meal in the evening. I can't wait to see everyone.

Lizzie will be holidaying with our friends Cecilia and Peter and two big German Shepherd dogs, Bella and Tyson. I took her to Gooseberry Hall this morning for a practice run and she loved it. Slept for two hours when she got back.

"I would be most content if my child grows up to be the kind of person who thinks decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves.”

- Anna Quindlen (adapted

Rest, Relaxation and Music

2011-11-12T09:32:00.000-08:00

Last night Gavin and I had the opportunity to have a night away and toddled off to the Guildhall in Gloucester to see Steve Hackett in concert. What a performance. Gav has recently finished producing their DVD "Fire and Ice" which was filmed at the Shepherds Bush Empire in London Last year....

"On 30 November 2010 Steve Hackett and band returned to the Shepherds Bush Empire to resounding applause after many stops abroad with the "Around the World in Eighty Trains" tour. While snow fell outside in a London blizzard, within the atmosphere was burning. The band on fine form and hot to trot was joined by special guests Steven Wilson and John Wetton"Fire And Ice captures the whole concert"

We booked into a really nice bed and breakfast not far from the Guildhall and my Beautiful Girl came up to look after Lizzie and open the shop of us this morning (with help from my lovely friend Jenny who braved downpours and flooded lonely dark roads to collect her from the train station at Craven Arms! thank you Jen (and Jess), you're a sweetie).

These photo's of Steve and the band are from the Birkenhead gig last year

It was nice to get away from the mess here, even just for one night. However, there is progress, the builder is due to arrive a week on Monday to do the structural work to the rooms and Gav's started fitting the flooring in the guest bathroom. On Monday we're off to the Halls Auction viewing in Shrewsbury as we're looking for persian rugs for some of the other rooms. We've found this gorgeous runner for the middle floor corridor, we needed it 25 foot long and i love the colours in this one:

The shop is getting busier, i still can't believe the amount of visitors there still are in Montgomery. We have loads of stock and it's disappearing nicely, even the vintage stuff (which is going out at a worrying rate - because it's more difficult to buy in). The phones that Gav's restoring are going out quicker than he can do them, some of the more quirky ones are not lasting more than a day in here - but we're not complaining.

Naughty Lizzie is now a chocolate brown retriever instead of a golden retriever after deciding that the soaked soggy soil in the garden pots looked better all over the yard as opposed to sitting neatly in the pots!!! Not entirely happy from doing all that she decided she'd have fun rolling around in it - needless to say she's been sent to her bed (at least until she dries off anyway), then a bath is in order i think.

We're all off out to the Montgomery Town Hall Quiz Night tonight. We have a team of seven and Nicci and her friend are coming so i sent them off to learn all the kings and queens of England since William the Conqueror!!!!! Anyone would have thought i'd asked them to strip off and run naked around Montgomery singing the Welsh National Anthem!!!!

So i gave them a rhyme to learn, it's six only lines each:

Willie, Willie, Harry, Steve

Harry, Dick, John, Harry three

Edwards one, two, three, Dick two

Henry four, five, six then who?

Edward four five, Dick the Bad

Harry's twain and Ned the lad

Mary, Lizzie, James the Vain

Charlie, Charlie, James again

Will and Mary, Anne o'gloria

four Georges, William and Victoria

Edward seven, George five

Edward George and Liz Alive

Wish us luck!

House woes

2011-11-06T15:03:00.000-08:00

Both Gav and i are so fed up of our home looking like a warehouse and it's hard at the moment not to feel depressed walking around here, dodging piled up boxes of both new and vintage shop stock and furniture in places it shouldn't be!

This is currently our living room (soon to be our bedroom) we have a gorgeous en-suite bathroom behind that far wall, you can see the wardrobes (in pieces) stored here and our bed is in the other corner, in pieces too.

Our bathroom, we removed the hideous carpet, revealing an even more hideous floor, which consisted of some gorgeous oak flooring interspersed with chipboard!!!! Gav's replacing the chipboard here.

The cupboard is from the shop, it'll eventually be going in the bedroom

The middle floor corridor with what will be the living room at the far end!

The soon to be living room at the end of the above corridor, this is the awful wall panelling that we're removing (that's my job this week) to have the wall re sealed and insulated.

...and gav's job replacing some of the floorboards in this room too.

Top floor corridor with dressing table in pieces!

It's enough to drive us mad, but the builder should be here next week to do some work for a week or so and then we can finally start moving this furniture into the rooms and tidying and clearing walkways.

Gav and i have been looking for new rugs and curtains and to cheer myself up i've been looking for inspiration on how to decorate some of the new rooms. These rooms are the "home tour" photos of the fabulous Kelly Rae Roberts. I love the simplicity of these rooms, they radiate calmness and happiness and i'm using her style as a basis for some of the rooms i'm doing up. The bedside cabinet is to die for and i have loads of spare chairs/suitcases/trays here!!! Enjoy

Uuuhhhhhggggghhh!!!

2011-11-03T05:38:00.000-07:00

Had a fab birthday yesterday, but.....

.....I'm never drinking again!!!

I didn't even drink that much, just a bottle of wine at the Checkers

(which i shared with Gav)

....oh.....and a few Lysh G&T's before that

So delicious...but as you can see...not much in a bottle!

Gav cooked a gorgeous meal for us, i had birthday cake and "I love You" candles. Loads of pressies and cards and also....

Gav booked my party for my 50th birthday celebrations next year. So excited, he booked the "Cover Sluts" again for the night and i'm thinking up some good rocking tunes for them to play!

Thanks to all you lovely people who sent happy birthday wishes and extra special love to my lovely hubby, my gorgeous girl and my amazing sisters (Karen and Cathy) and mother (in-law) for spoiling me. Love you all lots.

Now...where did i put those headache tablets?

Beautiful Day

2011-10-30T03:59:00.000-07:00

I really love the Autumn season, it's my favourite time of year, and even though the leaves make a nice mess as they fall, i love crunching through them on walks around beautiful Montgomery.

I thought i'd show you some of my wooden art brooches i've been making over the last six months. I sell these in the shop and am continuously running out, people love them, which is good for me as i love making them. The backgrounds are slightly different on them as they were made at different times with different materials. My favourite ones are the ones with parts of original vintage letters in the backgrounds. Each letter told it's own story and some were so old that deterioration had set in through fading of ink, brittleness of paper etc, this is a good way of preserving them for a while longer. Enjoy.

a day with my beautiful girl

Nicci's been here with us for half term week and we had such a nice few hours out on Monday. Gav wasn't feeling too well and couldn't come with us, so we had some mother/daughter time. She's such a treasure and amazing company, we talk about all sorts of things, not least her love of books and what she plans to do with her life I love listening to all her ideas for her college projects and life and the books she recommends that i read, all that in amongst her telling me how much she's in need of the lastest IPad, but can't afford one!!!!

We decided not to go too far and initially went to the Old Station in Welshpool for coffee and lunch. Then we decided to go to Powis Castle, which is just a few minutes up the road from here. It was so lovely to see her face, i was transported back to when she was a little girl, it's one of her favourite places, she was so excited to go there. We walked around the house and gardens for hours, chatting and taking photos.

These are her photos taken on her Blackberry as, when we got there, i discovered that i'd forgotten to take my camera.

Me walking on in front

My halloween window display....MWAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!

Happy Halloween everyone

All in a days work...

2011-10-19T16:52:00.000-07:00

Making Christmas cards in the shop today.

Started with some small cut pieces of Fabriano cold pressed watercolour paper and sketched in some images.

Then i used my fab Caran D'Ache water soluble crayons and coloured them in...
i wanted nice bright colours

my aquabrush to paint over the crayon

Defining the outlines with black pen

White dots representing snow

Distress Inks to age the image

Then my favourite bit, putting on a bit of bling

and...don't forget to sign
(well they are small pieces of art)

glue onto card, write "Merry Christmas"

Bag them up.....

Voila
....and put out for sale in your shop!

In my last post when i mentioned making hair slides out of the beautiful fabric covered wood shapes of birds and butterflies? Well...here they are!

...and placed on card, with labels for my new shop "Sugar and Spice"...i decided to keep the label simple in the end.

So...that's mainly what i did today, besides serving customers, putting out new stock, and checking everything had prices on them.

2011-10-18T03:46:00.000-07:00

This is what my kitchen table has been full of this week!

Back by popular demand, my lovely wooden button brooches.

I made forty of these in the summer as a bit of an experiment and put them in the shop and they sold like hot cakes and as i've been asked by so many people to make some more, i thought i would. I've had some new buttons in since i made the last lot so there are a few more designs available.

I have some really nice small plastic bags which i thought i'd put them in with an attached label, i think they make nicer gifts when presented in this way. I'm currently designing the label as these will be sold under my "Sugar and Spice" label, which will be one of my etsy shops, but more about that when i get a minute

Aren't these gorgeous?

Delicate slivers of wood cut into shapes and covered with fabric! Each one is different.

These ones are covered in lace fabric

And, of course, just had to get some butterflies....so pretty

...and with christmas coming......some reindeers too, very sparkly...

These are going on hair slides or bobby pins, they're all ready to go, i'm just waiting for Gav to dig out the proper glues for me...have to make sure they stay on, the stuff i used to experiment with didn't work, they just fell off after a while.

In addition to the above, my last batch of buttons contained these pretty little heart shaped ones and they look adorable on these rings. These sell really well in the shop, so i need to get on with my pretty labels today, they'll make nice stocking fillers.

Wednesday night saw me at the Activity Centre here in Montgomery with the "Montgomery Ladies Club" making enamel jewellery. Here's the Kiln with everyone's work ready to fire.

Ruth and Carol creating

These were Carol's creations, she made them into earrings, they're so beautiful

These were my creations, not so patterned and pretty, but deliberately so because i wanted to use them as embellishments on Gavin's birthday card (sorry about the photo)

Talking of which...the man himself!
The candles he's holding were Nicci's cake candles for her 3rd and 4th birthday many years ago (he's 44 actually, but as close as he could get)

Fire Hazzard!!!!!!
Couldn't quite get 44 candles, but i did my best, i think i got about 20 on in the end

...and of course, Lizzie had to join in

Deep breath Gav, and don't forget to make a wish!!

Aren't these amazing? Gav bought them the other day as parts for his phone restoration business - already thinking how fab they'd look in my sculptural assemblage! Wonder if he'd miss a few!

Awww...couldn't resist this.
One of our pretty tables sold last week and i put this one in it's place. It looks lovely with the vintage cake stand and trefoil dish on it. The pattern under the glass is vintage fabric and is admired by everyone.

So....next on my list is preparing for my teaching group session with the Montgomery Ladies Club in November. I've decided to do "Mind Doodling" and have been preparing some finished specimens. We're going to make a gorgeous brooch, a small picture and a book mark, using repetitive patterns.

Well that's it for today, except i received gorgeous mail art this morning from Mindy Lacefield (photos in next post), i'm ecstatic about it, she's been one of my favourite artists for such a long time. I participated in her "Mail Art Monday" scheme and she shows all the art she receives on her blog, have a look and see if you can spot mine (he he, not difficult as there are only two this week). I'll post the new packaged "Sugar and Spice" Items later in the week.

....and to say congratulations and all our best wishes to Diane and Tim (my sisters sister-in-law) who got married a few weeks ago. They look gorgeous and i love that dress.

Happy Birthday

2011-10-13T10:01:00.000-07:00

GAVIN

My Fabulous, Amazing, Gorgeous, and Wonderful Husband

Enjoy your day

Looking forward to wine and canapes at the checkers tonight!!

XXXXXXXX

Gorgeous Girl

2011-10-09T17:19:00.000-07:00

Lovely weekend with my beautiful baby girl (she hates me saying that). Here she is in the shop on Saturday afternoon waiting for me to whisk her off for a coffee! She's not good at having her photo taken so this was a rare treat!

So off we went first to the craft show at the town hall to see Jo and her daughter Maxine and their gorgeous stall full of hand made goodies. Maxine had made some wonderful cushions which i bought to go with my collection. She has a lovely Etsy shop called Tilly Tea Dance, have a look.

When we were done there we went off to Welshpool for our coffee and a wander. Lovely mother/daughter time.

Lillies in my kitchen

I love lillies, they're Nicci's favourite flower too. These ones were all closed up when i bought them but we've had such beautiful sunshine over the weekend they couldn't resist opening. It's our day off again tomorrow and gav and i are off out again to look for more soft furnishings for the house. We're still looking for rugs and curtains and such. I have a day off again on Tuesday to go to Chester with a friend and then i'm back in the shop again on Wednesday as Gav has some film editing he needs to finish by the end of the week. He's just finishing off editing the gig he did in London for Steve Hackett and is trying to get the Micky Jones Tribute gigs done in time for their Christmas concert in Swansea.

and...

Being the fab hubby he is....and birthday boy this week....

He's got us tickets to see the Kaiser Chiefs in January...

......yaaaaayyyy

Here comes the summer!!

2011-10-01T15:09:00.000-07:00

Can you believe this gorgeous sunshine we're having here at the moment?

Such lovely balmy weather.

This is Montgomery Town Hall all decorated out for the Charleston Evening tonight.

Doesn't it look brilliant? Broad Street was buzzing behind me when i took this photo, it was really warm, the Checkers had opened it's doors and people were arriving to dine for the evening and the Castle Kitchen was just starting to serve their evening food and had their tables and chairs out on the pavement, it was so nice.

The Town Hall is such a lovely building and it's nice to see it being used. Gav and i had our wedding reception and evening party here (lovely memories). This is the downstairspart of the building , needs some work, but it's ok. Pippa, Louise et al have done a fabulous job doing it all up for the party.

This is the upstairs, sorry the photo isn't good, but i took it just before the party started and I was in a bit of a rush, but it gives the idea.

INDIGO MOON

More moving around in the shop. We were offered a dresser unit by one of our "new" neighbours a few weeks ago. We thought it would create more space for our Christmas stock so set about shifting things around (hence my chronic bad back at the moment!).

Bare walls at Indigo Moon, awaiting dresser

It;s a great big thing and Gav got a friend to help him to collect it and move it into the shop thankfully. It was huge and has very dark wood and as we don't have time to paint it, i've partly covered the back panels and shelves with some pretty wrapping paper to lighten it up a bit.

...and squeezed some other bits of furniture around it.

Anyway have a look around the re-organised Indigo Moon and see the 'new' cupboard filled up

(Lizzie gets in on everything, she loves the shop)

My kitchen looks like a warehouse at the moment so these pretty flowers are a welcome sight. I got them from Tesco's (Shhhhh...thats a swear word around these parts!!)

I've just got to show you these. It's my vintage apron collection. The fabrics are amazing, some of them are home made and some of them are commercially made, but they're all pretty unique. I'm not sure what i'll do with them yet, I may package them and put them in the shop, but i just love them and are loathe to part with them.

LIZZIE

Poor Lizzie, she's looking a bit sorry for herself in this photo!

She was spayed on Wednesday and also had to have a cyst removed from the top of her head, bless her, when they cut the cyst it was bigger than they thought and she has a load of stitches. Nicci's calling her Frankenstein.

...i love this greeny/bluey colour, i think some of our furniture in the shop should be painted in this. Here are a few gorgeous images i found on the internet (sorry i can't name the sites they're from, but none of them are mine).

OK...i know it's not blue, but i love these.

It's nice also to hear that my dear friend Annie's daughter is on the mend now. They've all been in my thoughts and i'm so glad things are better for them.

"The summer night is like a perfection of thought"

~Wallace Stevens

Rest, Relaxation and Sundays

2011-09-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

I love Sunday nights!

I love closing the shop at 5pm (4pm in the depths of winter), walking the dog, chatting with Gav and then retiring to the living room with nice food. TV, a glass (or two) of wine and looking forward to a fab day off tomorrow.

Despite our holiday being spoilt last week, we did manage to relax for the last few days at home. We didn't open the shop until Saturday and then it was only half a day today before a day off. tomorrow There's something so nice about working for yourself, i never get that "Ugh" feeling about going back to work or what's commonly known as that "Monday morning feeling"! He he!

So... tomorrow we're off up to Denbighshire to look at carpets. We're ready to swap some rooms over and need an "Art Deco" carpet, should be fun finding something suitable, then maybe a nice lunch out and a visit to Hobbycraft for some supplies.

These are some brooches i made last week from felt and fabric and a few watercolours!

Some more colours waiting to be done

I love this card and brooch, i bought them from the Zani Lady's Wearhouse in Ludlow and they're by the fabulous Viv Sliwka of Hens Teeth Art.....have a look at her blog she creates such gorgeous things. This brooch looks gorgeous on my lovely new coat.

I had a "treat" day in Ludlow and got this necklace too, very difficult as there were so many pretty colours to choose from.

All my love to Annie and M, thinking of you

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

- Dr. Seuss

Thoughts for Annie...

2011-09-23T02:00:00.000-07:00

"The power of love to change bodies is legendary, built into folklore, common sense, and everyday experience. Love moves the flesh, it pushes matter around....

Throughout history, "tender loving care" has uniformly been recognized as a valuable element in healing".

- Larry Dossey

My thoughts are with my very dear friend Annie and her family, for her beautiful daughter, who's very poorly at the moment.

To be, or not be on holiday!!!

2011-09-21T14:33:00.000-07:00

Well...we're back from our hols early, can't believe it, we were so looking forward to a nice peaceful relaxing break. We'd worked so hard through the summer with very little time off and very little help, that we were on the point of exhaustion, practically limping to the finishing post, so to speak! As a result all we wanted was some peace and quiet, just walks on the beach, and quiet meals in with nice bottles of wine, the TV and a good book or two.

However, as you can see from the photograph above it was not to be, thanks to the greedy owners who took our money and then arranged to have solar panels fitted three days into our holiday!!! The cottage is actually an upside down design, so the big window you can see on the top floor was the living room and the work was right over our heads. So much for a bit of Rest and Relaxation eh?

This was funny before the hammering and drilling started. This photo's been on my blog before in January when Lizzie was just a puppy. Again the chickens kept her entertained for hours.

They'd come right up to the window and Lizzie wouldn't move or make a sound for ages, she'd just stare at them.

Anyway, enough of that, we're home safe and resting and relaxing here now.

Thought i might show you some of our new purchases for Indigo Moon. We got thes tables in Leominster last week whilst we were there visiting with my lovely in-laws. This table is painted in a gorgous off white and hand decorated with lovely blue flowers.

It's also functional as storage

and this one also painted and a gorgeous piece of fabric placed under the glass, it's really pretty.

this one, a painted and decoupaged vintage (possibly sixties) coffee table

and some pictures of Indigo Moon, we're planning a change around

next week, before the Christmas trade starts

We bought these gorgeous 1920(ish) units for the shop. They came from an old department store in Whitby and this one was delivered last week (the other one arrives next week).

They'll look fab together in the shop and i can't wait for the other one to arrive. We had fun and games when this one was delivered last week, we'd taken all the measurements of the area it was to go in the shop, not thinking to measure the actual doorway into the shop!!!! When it arrived it was out on the street for most of the day whilst Gav had to take it apart and re-assemble it inside. You can probably guess it wasn't easy, things made in the 1920's were built to last, at least he'll be prepared when the next one arrives!

I'd forgotten about this when we arrived back from our "cut short" holiday this morning. The delivery we received just before we went away left all over our kitchen. We were so tired at the time we only had the energy to check it all, but not clear it all away. Masses of boxes everywhere at the moment and a few more deliveries next week too, ready for the Christmas trade.

Gavin, Lizzie and my father-in-law last week enjoying a walk in the evening sunshine

and beautiful Lizzie, she's growing bigger everyday and getting more adorable by the minute. She's established herself well in the family now, everyone loves her, she's an amazing sock thief, they just appear in her bed, i've no idea how and where she finds them.

My gorgeous girl, look at that pose

In the Finals

2011-09-08T09:10:00.000-07:00

Sooooooo excited to be in the finals for the CPS Artisan Search 2012. Thanks to all the team at CPS and congratulations and good luck to all the other finalists.

I packaged up all three pieces of artwork today and sent them off to the CPS Office, i really do hope they arrive in one piece and on time.

Wish me Luck!

Make a Wish and Give it Wings....

2011-09-06T05:50:00.000-07:00

...dream of bright and beautiful things,
dance through all the fun filled hours

and don't forget to smell the flowers,

share some love and birthday cake,

all lifes joys are yours to take

and when the evening comes to view

Thank your lucky stars you're you

Happy 19th Birthday

to my Gorgeous, Special, baby girl
"Nicci"

Have a fabulous wonderful day

Love you loads

X X X X X X X X X X X X

“The old believe everything;

the middle aged suspect everything:

the young know everything.”

Oscar Wilde

2011-09-04T14:50:00.000-07:00

OMG! how scary was that episode of Dr Who last night?

I'm not good with creepy dolls as it is, but when that first one showed itself on the screen i jumped out of my skin! I was eating a piece of chocolate cake and the plate and cake went flying out of my hand all over the sofa. Played on my mind later too when walking down the long dark corridor here....

....Mmmwwwaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!

I've been cleaning all day today whilst Gav did the shop, house all ship shape for our visitors (Gav's parents) tomorrow. We're up and off early to Shrewsbury to do a little shopping before picking them up.

As promised here are some of my photos from last weekend

Jewellery Parade

Sculpture

Trevor

Zandra Rhodes sculpture

Andrew Logan's travelling Sculpture Museum

Scary!!!! and no, it;s not real

Vintage Coach

Vaynor Hall

Andrew Logan

Magical Models

“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities.

Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.”

Gloria Steinem

All work and lots of play!!!!!

2011-08-31T08:45:00.000-07:00

We had an enormous amount of fun on Sunday night at Andrew Logan's Jewellery Parade in Berriew. We weren't quite sure what to expect but it turned out to be quite special. It promised lots of fun and surprises and we weren't disappointed. Celebrations started off at his Sculpture Museum in Berriew with the "Anniversary Parade" which was a show of his fabulous jewellery by his "magical models". I have some amazing photos, but unfortunately i'm having trouble uploading them at the moment, i'll post again when i've worked out what the problem is. Here's a photo (not mine) of his Cosmic Egg which is the first sculpture that greets you as you come through the door of the museum, it's massive and breathtakingly beautiful.

Andrew Logan

Then we all went off to "Vaynor Hall" in a vintage coach for cocktails, no less

(how the other half live eh?) ha! ha!

This Country Home is beautiful and the views are stunning.

We had cocktails on the archery lawn...

- very posh -

...and we strolled arm in arm up and down it looking at the beautiful scenery and garden.

(Again, I have lovely photos but will have to post them when i sort out the uploading problem).

After Vaynor Hall and cocktails it was back to the museum for food, which was superb, and a party. Definitely put my name down for next year's event, although, a few of our friends, who were "Magical Models" are doing their best to persuade us to dress up and model next year, mind you it did look like amazing fun, and i'm up for a laugh!

Another fun event coming up is the Charleston Night here at the Town Hall, i've already been roped in to going to the charleston dance classes by Shaz and Tiggy (hmmm!....no getting out of it as they're gonna call for me !!!!!)

Shop News

Indigo Moon has been incredibly busy these Summer Months, whilst i'm not complaining, I'll tell you Gav and I are completely exhausted. Our stock diminished rapidly a week at a time and we were constantly needing to place orders with suppliers and take deliveries (our kitchen still looks like a store room!), we desperately needed some help, someone to run the shop for us whilst we got on with the other stuff would have been good, but it was nigh on impossible and we just had to get on with things.

Anyway...all that aside I wanted to show you photos of some new Vintage Style jewellery we have in the shop, it's stunningly beautiful, thank you so much to lovely Julie of "Emily Loves Vintage"...this is just a few samples, there are loads more in the shop.

I was thinking yesterday whilst serving customers about the many different things they buy from us. Gav and I have a really good system, which happened quite by accident, in that he mostly (in fact always) buys in all the vintage goods for the shop, he works amazingly hard at finding all the gorgeous things and not only enjoys it, but seems to have a natural eye for what people want. This weekend we sold a pair of Vintage Scales and four old vintage phones as well as numerous pieces of Art Deco pottery. I tend to deal with the newer items, i get to peruse websites and catalogues selling the most gorgeous scarves, handbags, purses and jewellery, and then other sites looking at living accessories for bathrooms, living rooms, kitchens etc, sometimes Gav helps with that but the jewellery and scarves he's happy to leave me with. Here are some scarves and jewellery i've recently been looking at, so much eye candy...i love my job, we're a great team and it's like Christmas when it all arrives.

I wouldn't go back to being a Medical Secretary for anything!

So...as we approach September we know things will get quieter for a month and then hopefully, pick up again for the Christmas period, so we've decided to close for a week in the middle of September and have a break. We're off up to Barmouth again hopefully, we really would like to try somewhere different but to be honest we're so exhausted that we don't have the energy to think about it too much, so we'll go back to the lovely cottage we've stayed in before, which we know will suit our needs. Beautiful views out to sea with gorgeous sunsets, lovely walks on the beach with Lizzie and time together to just gather our thoughts, rest our minds and recharge our batteries...can't wait.

"Sometimes it's important to work for that pot of gold, but other times it's essential to take time off and make sure the most important decision of the day is simply choosing which colour you'll slide down the rainbow on".

~ Douglas Pagels

Oh Lizzie, Lizzie....naughty Lizzie

2011-08-16T14:19:00.000-07:00

Cute????.......

or very naughty?

Yesterday was our day off from the shop, we've been so busy lately, not just with the shop but with decorating the kitchen and doing the exhibition, that we decided to have an early finish (i.e. 6pm) after some more reorganisation in our store room. We'd had a nice lunch at the Ivy House and finished at 6pm to take Lizzie for her walk. The plan was to get back home, have a few snacks for tea (as lunch at the Ivy House had been substantial) and then relax in front of the TV and gather our thoughts. However, Lizzie decided otherwise and when out walking she rolled about in fox poo (could have been badgers poo, not sure!!!), she looked and smelled dreadful and there was no way we wanted her back in the house like that, but as it was too cool to hose her down in the yard, i had no choice but to shower her.

Now, i'm not sure if anyone has ever tried to get a large dog in the shower but my incentive for getting her in there was a handful of peanuts which i threw into the shower cubicle for her to follow, but she was very sneaky and made sure she kept her back legs out of the shower whilst she stretched over to eat the ones i'd thrown in!!! So....here i am holding up her back legs, like a flipping wheelbarrow and trying to push her into the cubicle and her so very determined not to go and Gavin laughing at us - i'm sure any sane person would have just given up and hosed her down in the yard, cool or not and serve her right! Anyway, after some force, by now this means me in the shower cubicle, dragging her in by her poo soaked collar we got there and i managed to switch the shower on and get her clean.

Here are some photo's...but...don't feel sorry for her...the little madam got her own back by absolutely refusing whilst in the shower (even when i'd switched the water off) to shake and instead did it when she stepped out into the bathroom (my nice clean bathroom that i'd cleaned in the morning)....so now, instead of having to clean just the shower cubicle again, i have a whole bathroom to do....so much for a relaxing evening!!!

Champagne Time...

2011-08-11T15:43:00.000-07:00

SOLD

Enjoying a gorgeous bottle of champagne, celebrating after a massively successful exhibition, which finished today! One week and five hundred pounds worth of sales!! I'm so proud.

Above are some of the art pieces sold.

Just want to say thank you to everyone who gave their support. My lovely family: Eileen and Neville, Cathy, Garth et al, Karen, David et al and Nicole. Jenny and Jess for their company, lovely Jo for her offer of helping out, all the wonderful visitors (from all over the world) and those nearby for their lovely comments and purchases, the amazing people of Montgomery for their support and help, to all my lovely blogging friends for their support , all my friends who couldn't make the exhibition but sent their good wishes via phone calls and emails, for the cards and flowers, but most of all to Gavin, my amazing husband who always believes in me. I've had an amazing, head spinning week. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

There is only one success -

to be able to spend your life in your own way.

~Christopher Morley

Exhibition Day 4

2011-08-08T15:04:00.000-07:00

I'm really enjoying the exhibition, i've met so many interesting people these last few days. Today was fairly quiet, but Mondays usually are in Montgomery, our shop is closed and some of the other businesses too. There are lots of visitors/tourists here at the moment from all over.

Here are more images of some of the small assemblages on show.

SOLD

A photographer from a local newspaper came to take some photos today, not sure if he'd heard about the exhibition or whether he was just in Montgomery anyway, but hopefully it'll make the paper this week, he took loads of photos, but will probably only use one, if any. I'll let you know!

Gav and i are multi-tasking this week, running the shop, the exhibition and decorating the house, or trying to. We started reorganising the kitchen this week and moved one of the victorian housekeeper cabinets from the shop in (which was what we bought it for). We've also brought in our fifties cabinet from the shop now, which looks great. We got paint from Bunners this morning and started on the cupboards, it was so funny, we wanted the paint the same colour as one of our neighbours front door, so we got a colour card from Bunners and when the neighbours went to work, we compared the colour on the card. The kitchen's a terrible mess at the moment, as we have the plumber here again sorting out some things, but we're getting there slowly, it's like one of those sliding puzzles moving everything around. Not good for my poorly back either.

Next on the agenda is for us to decide where we want to go on holiday in September sometime. We have visitors in the next few weeks and again at the beginning of September, after that we're having a proper (albeit delayed) honeymoon.

Exhibition Day 2

2011-08-06T15:59:00.000-07:00

Another enjoyable exhibition day today, i've met so many interesting people. It was lovely to see so many friends who came to give their support and those who couldn't make it in person are with me in spirit! Thank you all.

...and i sold a few more items too.

Here are a few of my collages which are in the exhibition.

and to relax after a long day for both of us (Gav was very busy in the shop on his own today) another nice walk around Montgomery with Lizzie in the evening sunshine.

St Nicholas on the Left....

and this gorgeous view of the Shropshire Hills on the Right!!!

Claudia's Gnomes

and back up the hill, home.

Exhibition

2011-08-06T00:55:00.000-07:00

Well, this is it, the day arrived, and what a fab day, loads of visitors and all seemed to like what they saw. I've had an invite to exhibit in another show at Berriew at the end of August. I thoroughly enjoyed myself, who knows what today will bring - oh! and i sold a few items too!!!!

Enjoy the photos

Gorgeous Flowers from my lovely, wonderful mother (in law) and Sister (in law) wishing me luck

First page of comments book...

And at the end of a lovely day, Gav and I had a nice walk with our gorgeous Lizzie, isn't she beautiful? such a poser, she loves having her photo taken!!! Afterwards we went for a meal and a bottle of wine at the Castle Kitchen to celebrate. Such a nice day.

Condolences to our lovely friends Janis and John, who had to have their beautiful Labrador "Tia" put to sleep yesterday. Such a beautiful dog and my heart goes out to you both.

R.I.P. Tia

Lovely goodies

2011-08-03T15:21:00.000-07:00

Have a look around Indigo Moon, we've got some lovely new goodies

Bargain Corner

Vases and Jugs

Telephones

Gorgeous Boxes

Birdy T-Lights

Window display

Bird House

Pretty Necklaces and Bracelets

EXHIBITION UPDATE

I got the keys to the gallery yesterday and can set up my exhibition tomorrow afternoon ready for opening on Friday morning, i am so excited, i can't believe this is finally happening. This is the inside of the gallery, (empty obviously). The room has beautiful old oak flooring.

I finished my Moleskine Art Journals ready for the exhibition and wrapped them in cellophane for protection

I'll post some more photos tomorrow of the gallery set up for the exhibition.

2011-07-25T13:42:00.000-07:00

The poster for my exhibition on the shop door

I just need to print some more off now to advertise around the town and maybe some other areas.

Saturday Night in Lincoln

Tony and Monica's garden party with Edgar Broughton,

the most relaxing and special evening i've had for a long time with lovely special people, both Gav and I enjoyed it. Tony and Monica are amazingly lovely and hospitable people, beautiful food, friends and lots of comfort.

Edgar Broughton (or Rob as people know him) provided us with wonderful entertainment, very different from the last time i saw him at Leamington Spa with his band, and whilst i must admit i preferred this performance without his band, i would definitely still go and see him with his band. He's a lovely, interesting man.

Rob does this thing called "Fair days pay for a fair days work" This is what he says:

"You can book me for your private event any where in the world. You get me, my acoustic guitar and a solo performance of my songs.. What does it cost? One day of your pay, what ever that is, plus Travel costs, accommodation and my supper" - Brilliant eh?

Enjoy the photo's

I'm on the last leg of preparing art work for the exhibition. I've got nearly everything done now, these are a few of the small, what i call "affordable art" pieces (about 4" x 4") assemblage.

How gorgeous is this little baby, Tony and Monica's grandson, with their son, three generations of Smiths! Ha!

Poor doggies locked in the house whilst the performance was going on, it was the food they missed though!

I've had a lovely day today, i've been over to Annie's with Jo and met up with the fabulous Sue, for Funday Monday, not much crafting going on today though, we were all feeling a little tired, but we had Jo's lovely home made cakes and a lovely chat, putting the world to rights, as you do. Thank you both for inviting me, it was just what i needed.

My latest conversation with Nicci (about 5 minutes ago)

Nicci: "I'm really jealous of you"

Me: "Oh! why?"

Nicci: "Cos i'll never have a kid as awesome as yours!!!!"

Gotta laugh

Harrogate, Llangollen and Lincoln

2011-07-21T05:16:00.000-07:00

All in one week!!!

Last night Gav and I went to the Llangollen Fringe Festival (or part of it) to see the.......Da da....

...Legendary English punk band...

... here... at the Pavillion in Llangollen

Of course, this is what they look like now. The festival organisers managed to botch up the sound and i think even the band got a bit annoyed with them, but eventually they managed to get it right so it was a reasonable gig!!!

Harrogate

Sunday and Monday this week was spent at the Harrogate Home and Gift Show. What made it much nicer this year was that we stayed with our lovely friends, Jas and Helen in Leeds on the Sunday evening, they took us out for a fab Italian Meal. It's only about twenty minutes then into Harrogate from where they live, so it was much more relaxing for us. We managed to find loads of new suppliers, which was great because we have lots of money to spend! He! he! Well.....what would you do faced with all this eye candy?

The displays of some the companies were ideas in themselves, i loved all the cabinets and ideas for displaying their goods, came home with my head humming and a need to get started on some change in the shop.

Hmmm.....which gorgeous scarfs to choose? !!

And....tomorrow...we're off on our travels again to Lincoln to Tony and Monica's Garden Party where Edgar Broughton is playing in his garden!!! We'll meet up with a few of our friends from the wedding, we can't wait, we're hoping we might have a bit of time to visit the cathedral and have some lunch in the old part of town.

Nicci's here helping for the summer, she looked after the shop and Lizzie whilst we went to Harrogate and she's here again this weekend whilst we're off to Lincoln, so she's having a day off today - which is just as well because she was late in last night having been out with friends - and we're off to Bishop's Castle this afternoon for a nice walk around a visit to the book shopand some special mother/daughter time.....bliss!!!

A daughter is the happy memories of the past, the joyful moments of the present,

and the hope and promise of the future.

~Author Unknown

23 days and lots of lovely Butterflies

2011-07-13T14:40:00.000-07:00

Well it's twenty three days to go to my exhibition and i was thinking that i'd better get a move on and actually get some pieces finished, i've lost count of how many i've done now, but it's a few! I started work late yesterday (my day off from the shop) to have coffee with lovely Jo, who, when i got there had a gorgeous array of her lovely work to show (as well as some of her daughters work) thanks Jo.

Here are some details of two new assemblages i've done and some collages. I sold a few more of my smaller pieces of art in the shop yesterday and my stock is diminishing rapidly, but i'm reluctant to put out any of my new work until after the exhibition.

My Nicci's now safely back from the Sonisphere festival, so i feel better, she laughs that i worry so much. I loved going to festivals myself when i was her age, so it's not as if i can say anything. I remember i went to every Donnington Rock festival in the 80's and great fun it was too, i saw some fantastic bands there and elsewhere over the years. Mind you not as many as Gav's seen over his years, he framed some of his tickets here's one of them. Nicci and her friends love this.

Look, my lovely husband bought me a present earlier this week....this cassette tape player.
I love listening to story tapes whilst i'm creating and cassette tapes are widely available at charity shops at little expense, so this was a good buy.

.....and i've got this lot of new tapes bought at Ironbridge last week!

Lizzie is so funny at the moment, she's a nightmare to take out on the lead, she's very strong and has no idea of how to walk "nicely" on a lead, she pulls like mad. We've taken her down to the fields a few times this week for a good run, she goes mad, the grass is really long and full of butterflies and she spends the time constantly running around trying to catch them, she never does and it's hilarious. I'll take the camera tomorrow.

Sorry this photo should be at the top with he other one!

Sold

2011-07-09T08:25:00.000-07:00

It's such a lovely day today after all the rain we had yesterday, I think a walk to the castle would be nice later.

Some really good news for me is that i've sold two of my larger, more expensive, paintings today (yaaaaaaay), i've sold a lot of smaller ones recently so this is a nice surprise. Also, and this is the best news, i've been talking this morning to a guy who has his own gallery and has asked if i'm interested in doing an exhibition there!! Obviously i have my own exhibition here in montgomery at the beginning of August so he's coming back to see my new work then and has left an application pack if i want to go ahead with it. I won't say anymore yet except that it's in a big city and will be quite good for me.

Gorgeous Colour

2011-07-04T05:26:00.000-07:00

Here are some more details of assemblage pieces i've done. I love the background on this one, it's a piece of kitchen towel i used to clean my brushes with whilst working! Once it dried out it became unusable as the dried acrylic paint soaked into it and stopped any further absorption, so i was using it to rest a piece of the assemblage on and when i saw it as a background i decided to use it.

This is another piece i've been working on over the weekend, with about four weeks to go and counting before the exhinition, i'm working overtime to put finishing touches to everything i've created so far.

I wish could show the whole pieces on here, they're all over my work room at the moment and look fab. Also, i've been creating some mixed media collages for the exhibition too, i've got about ten on the go so far, they look so colourful, i'll photograph some details of them in a day or two.

Saturday was the Montgomery Street Fair and as they close the road off at the end of Kerry Street, Gav and I had to come up with some ideas to get people into the shop! The traffic was diverted around the back of the Town Hall so we thought we'd get noticed a bit more if we put some stuff outside, it worked we had a very busy day.

Dancing in the street

My new window boxes

I thought i'd better change the dead pansies following a few disconcerting and disapproving looks from Bob the Farmer!!! Last year he threatened to wee on them if i didn't water them more often!!!!!

I've also done some hanging baskets too, they look really nice for someone who's rubbish at gardening, i wish i wasn't, i love flowers in baskets and window boxes and they make the whole place feel brighter, but i have no ideas as to what should go where and no-one to help me either. Now I mustn't forget to feed and water them.

Last night was lovely, we went to our neighbours (Cyndy and Phil) supper party. They were celebrating 25 years of living there. We had such a nice time, loads of lovely people, a fantastic party atmosphere and lots of good food and drink. Tables were set up in their garden and lights and candles were lit as the sun faded it was such a special evening with special people.

I can't believe we're in July already, Gav and I have quite a busy month ahead of us, a trade show at Harrogate, a BBQ at Ruth's, a trip over to Lincoln to meet up with loads of fabulous friends and watch Edgar Broughton at Tony's garden party, which we're so looking forward to! and Shakespeare's Twelfth Night at Montgomery castle. We're planning a quieter August, Nicci will be up with us next week for the rest of the Summer which will be a big help.

Poor old Lizzie's feeling a little sorry for herself at the moment, she's in season and has had some nasty encounters with some pretty vicious male dogs recently, so we're not walking her far, bless her, she's so full of energy and misses her run around the fields, but has had to make do with the garden for a while. We've made an appointment to get her spayed in about four weeks time.

Day Off

2011-06-27T13:55:00.000-07:00

I've had such a lovely day off today, Gav and i went across to the Ironbridge Gorge, i'm amazed at how near it is to us, it's barely an hour away and we had a lovely walk in gorgeous sunshine and lunch at the Tea Emporium. We'd gone there to collect some vintage sweet scales that Gav bought on Ebay for our lovely retro kitchen and had to pick them up from the Jackfield Tile Museum (photos below).

I've done two more assemblage pieces for my upcoming exhibition, the preparation is going really well so far.

Ironbridge

and the scales