Friday 4pm

We’re here in Stockholm, for a friend’s birthday party.

Creative flow

Sometimes the creative juices flow easily, at other times, it’s less easy to get started.  For the past week or more, I’ve been mulling over this years Christmas cards and working on the germ of an idea but not quite getting it going.  I’d sat down at my desk on several occasions and decided that the day’s project would be to make the cards…and yet I got nowhere.

Within half an hour yesterday morning, I had the (totally different) prototype finished and had printed off the component parts.  From now, it will be a mere assembly process, which will hopefully leave us plenty of time to write our greetings.

Yes, the subway art has proved to hit the spot in this household, the more so since it references our public transport heritage so well.  It was only after publishing my last blog that I recalled moving into the house on Fairway Road South, on the day before Christmas Eve, 1981.  It had snowed heavily and to protect our brand new carpets from the feet of the removal men we used old bus destination blinds!  Ah, those were the pre-digital days.

Imagine our conversation when we see these things for sale!

Anyway, back to the creative flow!  I had cut a box of numbers for my December Daily journal with my CraftRobo the previous afternoon and it was still sitting there beside me on my desk.  Browsing through my favourite blogs, I came across this one

Of course, I had to make one  three!  Craft Robo was worth its weight in gold.  Can you imagine the “joy” of cutting all those precise shapes?

The end result was satisfying to make and the pattern worked very well indeed.

Simple but effective, no?  So generous to share this great idea and the template too!  I was very grateful I didn’t have to work that out for myself, I can tell you!

I wasn’t the only one making things yesterday – there was plenty of construction going on upstairs too, in the room which will become our walk in closet.  In the photograph you can see the old flat roof of our garden room and the frame from the old lantern window which has now been extended into a pitched one with the Velux window.  The walk in closet is much bigger than we’d anticipated and we are very pleased so far.

But oh my goodness, look what has become of Mark’s wardrobe.

Subway Art

This is a new one to me.  When I opened the email from the new Mouse Paper Scissors class yesterday and saw that the project was to create Subway Art, I hadn’t really got much idea of the kind of thing in mind.  But as the day progressed, as I worked through the project, I began to see where this was going and, I must say, to rather like the concept.

The prompt was about gathering all the old addresses from our past and between us, we managed to remember them accurately – even though some of those places were very short-term!  But there was a small seed of doubt over one or two of them – did we really live at number 276 or was it 25-something or other?  And that “plot number” – didn’t we get a proper address before we moved on?  What number did that become?  So that sent us to Google Maps and then, of course, we had to take a look at streetview!

and there it is…house number 2 of our four “married” homes.  Hard to imagine that we lived there at all, so short was our stay.

As the day progressed, it was quite fun to fiddle about with the text, to fill in the gaps with other bits and pieces and to create something rather effective from not-very-much-at-all. 

Not only that, but I discovered a whole new raft of ideas by following a pinterest link.  I think I might just have found something worth developing further.

and then

my friend Mary must have read my last blog post almost immediately, because she not only came up with the excellent suggestion that I settle down with a good book  but even suggested the title.

Now, I respect Mary’s advice so went straight to my Kindle, downloaded the book and got right into it.  Good choice!

The other “cure” was a great evening at WI with a lovely performance of Dylan Thomas’ writings, accompanied by piano music.  Though it would have been great to have sat in a comfy chair with a glass of something in hand, on this occasion the village hall had to do!  The warmth of the voice, the soothing music and the magic of that atmospheric writing worked wonders – we lingered longer than usual over our coffee and long after the chairs had been put back, the hall locked and everything secured, we stood in the exceptionally mild evening air chatting, not really wanting to break the spell.

Get a flavour of the evening here.  We might not have had the joy of hearing Richard Burton speak, but you know, the effect was just the same.

One of “those” posts

Generally speaking I’m a little ray of sunshine. 

Yes, really!

I think it’s fair to claim  my status as an optimist and I try hard to follow the little voice in my head (I think it’s my Mum) who says “Do it gracefully or don’t bother”.  As a result, I tend not to dwell on the negative, I try not to be critical and if something’s not quite right, I work on the principle that it surely wasn’t meant to be like that.

Or?

Yes, it’s hard to admire the basket, isn’t it?

Perhaps it’s because the builders have been drilling all morning?  Maybe the dreary weather has something to do with it?  Possibly the fact that I don’t seem to have had a moment to breathe since last Saturday has influenced my mood, but for sure, I’m ready for a little brightness and more than a little fun fun fun.