9 months!

I have been keeping my planner up-to-date for a whole 9 months!  And taking part in One Little Word.  I'm really pleased with  myself.  Of course, stickers are really useful when you sit down to catch up and find you can't remember what you did 2 weeks ago!

My last update was here!

Week 35

Week 36

Week 37
The real story: One Little Word entry for September

Week 38

And it's amazing how the colourful stickers make it look as though I have a colourful life!

Don't forget to have a look at Pause, Ponder & Prepare.  Not long to go now!

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Make It Personal 5

I've just spent two days at The Bramble Patch again at the Make It Personal workshop with Hilary Beattie.

This was the 5th of 6 sessions this year but actually my last one as I will be in Florida when the next one happens.

I've written about these sessions in January, March and March again, May and July.

This session was about using the fabrics and papers we had made during the other sessions as a starting point for inspiration and designs.   The fountain in the photo above has been the inspiration all year but I have really struggled with it as I didn't have any definite images I could use as focal points in any designs I came up with.    I wrote about this problem here.

However I decided on the first day to just tear up papers and fabrics and stick them down on a large piece of Pelmet Vilene (Pellon Peltex) and see what came to me.   I should have taken photos of the process but didn't.   On Friday once the piece was dry I started looking at what I could do with this background and Hilary suggested cutting up slivers of one of my gelli print deli papers. I put Heat'n Bond on it first and then cut it up and ironed it on.

This is it with all the raw edges.

  And here it is in closeup.

I worked on 3 design pieces over the two days working on one or other as I waited for things to dry.  I worked on this 12 inch square canvas.

This is a rectangular canvas that has some stamped seedhead images  using one of Hilary's stamps.

All of the pieces need more stitching and marks made on them.  Whether that happens is another matter!

The course is being run again through 2015 so you could sign up.

Thanks for stopping by.
Bernice

Fun and Frolics

Last Friday I was asked whether it was really wise of me to have invited a couple who I had never met into my home to stay for 3 nights.  I didn't think it was a problem - I had spoken to Valerie on Skype and she does amazing art - so what could go wrong?

Well

Nothing!  It may have been the best decision I have made in a long time.  We picked Valerie and Keith up from Birmingham Airport on Friday evening and we hardly stopped having fun and laughing until they caught the train to London this morning.

On Saturday we went to the Black Country Museum so they could see some of the industrial history of the Midlands.  We went on the boat trip into the Limestone Caverns and Keith 'legged' the boat for a while.

We watched the chainmaker's demonstration.

We accosted a total stranger to ask her to take our photo.

We drove into Birmingham and took Keith and Valerie to Gas Street Basin and Brindley Place.

We walked through Victoria Square where Keith was offered a free taste of blackcurrant flavoured lager.  Actually we were all offered it.  The rest of us refused!

We went to the Hippodrome Theatre and had dinner and then saw the musical Cats.  (I borrowed this picture off the Cats website.)

We got home and talked and laughed for another couple of hours so we didn't get to bed until well after midnight.

After a slow start on Sunday morning we went to Stratford upon Avon and managed to take a photo of Shakespeare's birthplace with no one in front of it.  Mind you we did have to wait for a man who had been having his photo taken to finish texting someone.

We walked along the river and visited the Parish Church.  We drove past Anne Hathaway's cottage ( the real Anne Hathaway not the film star) and onto Wilmecote where we had lunch and then drove past Mary Arden's house. (Shakespeare's mother's family home!)

Roger decided we should go to Kingswood Junction in Lapworth on our way to Baddesley Clinton.  As far as I am aware there are only two moated Manor Houses in England and this is one of them.  Keith would have liked to spend 2 hours there and we had 15 minutes.  We walked quickly round the house!

Even so, we were 10 minutes late for church.  Oops!  The day finished with coffee and cake with friends before driving to the Diwan for a Balti.

We were all up early this morning so that Keith and Valerie could catch the 9.24 to Marylebone for 48 hours in London.   Fortunately we will see them for about an hour on Wednesday when we pick them up from the station and then take them to the airport for them to start there very long journey home.

I hope we are able to get together again very soon.  It was SUCH FUN!