Warning - Photo Overload!

I feel a need to apologise for the number of photos I'm going to bombard you with this week :-) Hope you have time to stick with me....
Firstly.....on Monday I decided to take Roben-Marie's journal workshop and so have spent a happy few days doing my favourite thing - splattering ink and stuff around (good job you can't see the carpet in my studio :-/  )
Here are the covers.....today I'm cutting up paper to stitch inside; I'm hoping to sell these in the coming weeks. (my daughter is about to start up a beauty salon with a friend so I might have an outlet for some of my work there).

 Yay..... one without green-overload!!!

Last week Maggi and I took the train to Birmingham to see the lace exhibition at The Museum and Art Gallery.  It also gave me (yet another) chance to see my favourite Pre-Raphaelites :-)

 'Proserpine' by Dante Gabriel Rossetti 

First we visited the real lace exhibition where we saw some truly amazing examples........ (and couldn't stop gasping at the fine detail in some of these)

 ....top left is a pillow from the exhibition....the blue ones are mine. Yes, I briefly dabbled with lace-making about 25 years ago......haven't a clue how to do it now though. Do you know anyone who wants to buy hundreds of beautiful beaded lace bobbins?

The focus of our trip...'Lost in Lace' was a truly amazing exhibition.

"Featuring large-scale, theatrical and visually spectacular work, this exhibition challenges perceptions of what lace can be..... see how the patterns, materials and cultural traditions of lace are represented through radical new approaches by 20 leadingUK and international artists."

Enormous 'lace' panels to walk through....

 clever interpretations.....

 weird ideas (this billowed slowly in different sequences - quite spooky!)....

 different materials and ways of seeing things......

.... this gorgeous black hanging looked like lace but was made of a material that I've forgotten the name of....Maggi, can you remember?

 A crystal 'chandelier' made from half a ton of Swaroski crystals!!!

 And finally, my favourite room......five dresses which seem to be floating in the midst of a network of fine black threads. Its mind-boggling to think how this was done.....

Well that's all folks.
Apart from a Peachy update.
Like him, I am also becoming an expert mouse catcher ....he has brought four live ones home this week :-( ....  and I have had to devise a method of rescue. Plastic box on top...slide card underneath....take to the wood at the bottom of our cul-de-sac.
Must remember to take a photo of the next one....... :-)

Who....me??????

Happy Valentines Day

Sending love to all my blogging friends.

We found this leaf on a beach in Skiathos last year.

This is the bush it came from.....

....does anyone know what its called? I've looked on Google, but can't find one similar.

Made a card for DH (need to use some of my ever-growing collection of background papers ;-)

And another mixed-media collage to add to the collection.....

Now I'm off to make a heart-shaped cake!
Whatever you do today, make it special for you.
As Whitney said.......

Learning to love yourself..... is the greatest love of all

So sad that she didn't seem to achieve that herself......

A Roman Holiday........

My husband and I had a big surprise on Christmas Day when our son gave us an extra present of a trip to Rome at the end of January. We've never been before so it was very exciting to do the research and decide on all the places we wanted to see. As DH is a huge fan of the film 'Gladiator', we decided to book a guided tour of the Colisseum and Roman Forum......it was amazing.

It still boggles my mind to think that something like that could have been built almost 2,000 years ago. We were given a lot of fascinating information from our guide...some it was very gory!

My favourite place was the Pantheon; I loved sitting in the Piazza drinking coffee (and Prosecco :-) whilst admiring the view. The back is very different from the front....and there's a hole in the roof (plus a drain in the floor below for when it rains). Apparently its magical in there when it snows!

We visited the Trevi Fountain at night, marvelled at the ancient ruins around every corner, admired the fountains and thousands of statues.....

 ......and couldn't help noticing how birds like to stand on the statues heads!! (maybe for the view?)
We didn't manage to go inside the Vatican or Sistine Chapel so may have to plan another visit sometime in the future...... :-)

As for doing anything creative..... I've been trying to make some postcard-sized mixed-media pieces to sell.

 I've just managed the one!!!

But I will persevere and make at least a dozen by the end of the month.......... ;-)
(The background paper is Beryl Taylor's 'fabric paper technique' from her book Mixed-Media Explorations)

Whilst I'm here I just want to wave 'Hi' to Mixed Media Julie who came and spent the day with Maggi and I last week. We had a lovely time visiting The Beetroot Tree Gallery, Peartree Yard Craft Warehouse and my favourite coffee shop/delicatessen in Breaston for lunch. Julie bought a selection of her beautiful art to show us and I gave her a tour of my chaotic art room! Hope we get to meet up again very soon....



Peachy says 'Hi' - he's been having fun in the snow this week.......maybe I should make him some boots ;-)