During my day at Art in Action I spent some time wondering whether or not to buy a print from the illustrator, Paul Kidby. ( I also looked longingly at Jackie Morris's prints but I've contented myself with ordering a calendar)  In the end, despite daughter's encouragement, I came away without on the basis that they were quite large and I felt I needed to ask H his opinion- after all he'd have to live with it too and it would be too large to hang in my study or to ignore if hung somewhere prominent in the house.   With everything else going on, I didn't actually forget but I didn't get round to it - daughter did not forget and went into secret consultation with H, so that on Friday I thrilled to be presented with this lovely griffin 'Nemesis'

Mine has gone for framing so I've borrowed this from Paul Kidby's online site.  Click to see some of the beautiful detail - it's wonderful.   The body of the print is 55x45 cm - about 22 inches by 18 and the mount adds about 4 inches all round, so it's quite impressive.   H likes it as much as I do, which is nice, so we're looking forward to hanging it on our nice pale blue wall in the hall.   There are several others in the series - the dragon and the winged lion are especially nice, and they all come as greetings' cards too.

As always, there was some wonderful work on show and being created at Art in Action.  We especially liked the textile work of Soon Yul Kang (above) - such wonderful tranquil tapestries, and Graham Muir's breathtaking wave form glass (photos are from artist's websites, as I forgot my camera).

Despite the rain, I had a peaceful, relaxing birthday with lots of good things to eat  - very satisfactory.  M is buying me some sewing things I've been fancying - when I get round to finding them on the net and ordering them.   Australian Brother-in-law sent great flowers  - he's so good at remembering.

Weather Warning

Tomorrow is my birthday - one more year to go until I would have got my pension if they hadn't changed the rules.   I'm issuing the usual warning - it always rains on my birthday.  This as been a family joke for as long as I can remember - especially as my mother's birthday was also in July and it was usually hot and sunny.   Apparently, I was born during a spectacular thunderstorm after several days of brilliant hot weather.

I got a letter asking me to go for breast screening - on my birthday, I ask you, so I altered it and went yesterday instead, but I still have to go with daughter for her hospital appointment so we've decided my birthday will not officially start until lunchtime!

Back by popular request.....

Well, not exactly, but thank you to those lovely people who emailed to ask if I was OK.    I have been having blogger/computer problems, but the biggest reasons for my absence have been the decorators, and family visitors.

We've lived here for about two and a half years now, and for that time the ground floor rooms and the hall stairs and landing have looke like this:

Wall-to-wall off-white and a fetching 1980's border inherited from the last owners.   Following on from the success of the red study, we really felt it was time to brighten ourselves up - life here can be tedious enough without off-white walls (especially grubby off-white walls).   So having already got the house in a complete muddle thanks to the water leak, we got the decorators in - lovely Adrian and Sharon whom I'd be glad to recommend to anyone locally - and armed with the Little Green Paint chart we did this:

Changed the whole of the centre of the house to a lovely summer sky blue, (Gentle Sky)

Went bravely sugar almond pink in the kitchen, (Secret Shell)

and yellow/cream (Stargazer) in the sittingroom - where the light doesn't give a good photograph, unfortunately. (All the colours are brighter than the camera shows).  Apart from the fact that I now, desparately, need to do the main bedroom, the house feels transformed.    Into the middle of this came H's nephew, his wife and new baby (well 4 months,s o new enough).  It was great to see them - they are only in England briefly once a year at the moment -and the baby, a boy, was a joy, but it was a bit hectic to say the least.   Just to add to the chaos, we also had a wasps' nest up under the roof above the front door so had to get 'a man' out to deal with it.

My latest card for Postman's Knock was a bit done by the skin of my teeth as Daughter and I were going to Art in Action for the day, and I forgot to photograph it (or take the camera to Art in Action).  You can see it (Coast /Seaside theme), and the one on Water which I received from Chrissie, over on the Postman's Knock site with all the others.  We had a great day out but I've spent the weekend putting the house back together and catching up on washing, cleaning etc, so it already seems a long time ago!   

I haven't time to catch you up with everything that's gone on over the last fortnight or so, so you'll have to wait in anticipation to hear about the Little Cotton Rabbit that  I was able to purchase from Julie at this site - I've wanted one since I first found her blog!,

Postman's knocking again...

The card I had to make this time was for Jo on the theme of 'Yee ha!  Ride 'em Cowboy'.   I know several people have found this a difficult theme - though you wouldn't think so from the resulting cards,  but as well as the Britain's farm animals and horses I have, which I recently blogged about for the Collections theme, I also had some lovely little swoppit cowboys (so called because their bodies came apart and you could swap heads, legs , bodies and accessories to make different combination - though they're a bit ancient for such games now!).  After a bit of fiddling around with photo backgrounds and various ideas, I came up with this:

The caption reads:   The gang were amazed when Billy the Kid showed up - they were expecting someone taller'.   It seemed to fit the bill, especially as I was able to turn their heads around to look at the newcomer with something like astonishment!

On my theme of Water, I received a really lovely hand drawn and coloured card from Jo 

I just love the little pairs of of feet peeking out of the water.  Thanks, Jo, I love it.

I have been berated (humourously) by one of my bloggy friends for saying I would show photos of the redecorated rooms  at least a week ago and not doing it!  I have mitigating circumstances, the computer isn't talking to the camera for some reason - I think the lead has a loose connection, so I have to get a card for the camera whilst I sort it out. Meanwhile, I have a few pictures taken whilst the book reshelving and instrument returning was in progress.   The colour is actually much redder than it appears on screen and I must admit it improves the room, which is long and narrow and rather dark.  Now it looks quite cosy .

We've kept the music room white as most colours fight with the brick walls.  It's nice to have it fresh and clean again, but the CDs are still taking up room in the utility room where my sewing machine usually lives and the music hasn't flown home yet either...

It's been a busy week, finding, trying and eventually buying a car seemed to take ages - I had to see what would take the wheelchair and which M could get in and out of.  I was quite happy with our existing car, but as it was higher than average off the ground, M has made more and more of a fuss about getting in to it, so sadly, it had to go.  It coincided with daughter and partner needing a new car so it made sense to sell them ours.   The new one seems quite satisfactory - full of buttons and features and with petrol saving systems, so hopefully it will suit Madam too.  It's quite a nice shade of dark red  - I always set out thinking I'd like a blue one but as I won't buy a brand new one I never get much choice.  H refuses to deal with car purchase at all! 

Postman's Knock is upon us again on Friday, then we're in to more decorators, hospital appts etc.  Fortunately, I've got Art in Action and a birthday to look forward to later in the month.