“The reason birds can fly and we can't
is simply that they have perfect faith,
for to have faith is to have wings”
J.M.Barrie
Photo: Ludovic Compton's 'Archangel Michael' sculpture on the Newby Hall sculpture trail - taken on 21.06.09.
Monday, 5 April 2010
Thursday, 1 April 2010
Overheard: Not like a sink.
This is a snippet I overheard in a lecture theatre in the Animation/Games Department [06.11.08].
Male student 1: Well, it’s not like a sink is it? .... It’s like ... a holy thing.
Image: Fineliner and ProMarkers.
Male student 1:
No one washes their hands in a font.Male student 2: Ha! No.Male student 1: Well, it’s not like a sink is it? .... It’s like ... a holy thing.
Image: Fineliner and ProMarkers.
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
My month in numbers: March
March. By far the busiest month of 2010 so far for me and here's a number of reasons why ...
250 = the number of miles we travelled - by car, train, black cab and on foot - to see David Sedaris live at the Leicester Square Theatre in London.
If you're saying "Who's David Sedaris?" then you've obviously not spent enough time in my company! If you had I'd have either thrust one of his books under your nose before now or at least sent you a link to one of the many videos of him on YouTube.
However I do get this chance to tell you that he has a new series on Radio 4 starting this Friday!!! I'm giving you this link to it as my part of the bargain - your part of the bargain is to do your best to listen to it on Friday or 'Listen Again' via the Radio 4 iPlayer or the website etc! If you don't, I may have to reconsider our relationship ....
However I do get this chance to tell you that he has a new series on Radio 4 starting this Friday!!! I'm giving you this link to it as my part of the bargain - your part of the bargain is to do your best to listen to it on Friday or 'Listen Again' via the Radio 4 iPlayer or the website etc! If you don't, I may have to reconsider our relationship ....
He's possibly my favourite living writer and humorist and thus he was on the list of people I would [literally] go the extra mile to see if they ever toured in the UK. Which he did. So the effort had to be made.
His show consisted of him reading from his upcoming book, from his previous essays and from his personal diaries. I could seriously sit here and try to recount the whole eveing for you but let's just say it was funny.
250 miles worth of funny in fact.
250 miles worth of funny in fact.
Oh and as if March 13 2010 wasn't already on track for the award for 'best day ever', he did a book signing after the show and we got to meet him. We got to meet him!
I keep telling myself that one day soon it'll sink in and I'll realise that I met David Sedaris ...
I keep telling myself that one day soon it'll sink in and I'll realise that I met David Sedaris ...
... and he signed my book ... and also doodled an "Abraham Lincoln trapped in a turtle's body' on it ... and he asked what our hotel was like ... and talked to James about carpets ... and he guessed from our accents that we were "from the far North" ... and he gave me some hair conditioner ...
125ml = the amount of Bliss Lemon + Sage conditioning rinse, taken from a New York hotel, that world renowned humorist David Sedaris handed me at the book signing:
He had a Tesco bag beneath the table from which he produced toiletries and complimentary items purloined from the world's hotels and gave them to his readers / appreciators / struck-dumb fan-girls [that was me]. It was great fun watching everyone's face as they walked away with a signed book and soem face wash!
When I get around to it, I'll make sure to let you know what washing your hair in a gift from your hero feels like. And I will use it ... because I'm worth it.
When I get around to it, I'll make sure to let you know what washing your hair in a gift from your hero feels like. And I will use it ... because I'm worth it.
5.5 = the number of hours spent in the Victoria + Albert Museum on the same day we saw David Sedaris.
Even having spent that amount of time there we still didn't get to see everything. The place is a warren of amazingness and both its scale and its content is was somewhat overwhelming and caused us to take any opportunity to rest:
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5 = the number ofcrafting friends I stayed with in a North Yorkshire cottage for a weekend full of crafts and laughs. [I know there's only 5 of us here but I haven't got a photo of all 6 of us ... give me a break, I'm doing my best.]
294 = was actually the number of days we ate Christmas lunch early!
44 = the number of haunting-yet-sweet little faces staring out at me from a shelf on the Art From The Heart stand at the Harrogate Papercrafts Extravaganza:
OK then, one last one ...
17 = the number of months I've been a part of the very special Gauche Alchemy design team ... and I've now made the decision to move on. I'm still going to be a part of the GA family only in the role of an errant child who's forging her own path and dropping in on the folks every once in a while.
As I hope this page proves .... I might have taken the girl out of Gauche, but there's no taking the gauche out of the girl! [If you get a chance - drop in on the GA blog this week - where there's all manner of festivities planned to welcome in the new DT].
That's it then. Enough with the numbers.
Cheerio March. I'm heading into the new month fortified by:
- a new sense of creative direction;
- the knowledge that I have fabulous friends who'll go to extreme festive lengths to have a great weekend away; and also
- the delightful thought that I have someone who'll travel the length of the country just so I get to see another man who makes me laugh.
But, perhaps most importantly, I'll be heading into April with silky soft, manageable, hair!
How about you?
Jx
Tuesday, 30 March 2010
Blog hop: Heat-embossed flower card
Hello you!
If you've dropped by from Debbie's blog as part of the the first Banana Frog blog hop then greetings to you, pause here a while why don't you? Rest those legs.
If you're here by fluke, serendipity, downright nosiness or the wonders of Mr.Google then 'hola' to you too. Everyone's welcome.
And if you dropped by on the off chance that today would be the day that I'd be sharing a project based on something I found inside a pair of men's trousers ... then wow, is today your day or what?!!!
If you're faint of heart, fret not, it's all quite above board because:
[a] they're lovely brand-spanking-new trousers;
[b] they're from Desigual - an amazingly creative brand and;
[c] they belong to my partner of 18 years.
See, nothing untoward going on here, it was all in your head! Now we've got that cleared up, feast your eyes on these delights:
Fabulous or what?
From the outside they're a fairly conservative pair of neutral summery trousers, while on the inside there hides the treasures [to a crafty pattern obsessed girl] of a flowery waistband lining and contrasting pockets!
Add in a yummy twill ribbon, a tiny amount of lilac-grey trimming and the brand slogan of '[Desigual]Is Not the Same' embroidered on the pocket ....
.... and my goodness!!! ... Has a man's trousers ever given a girl such pleasure? [Be careful how you answer that!]
My Mr. bought them while we were in one of London's Desigual stores recently. Have you ever been to one of their shops? It's one of the few places on earth where he's failed to find me in a crowd while I've been wearing my yellow coat!
The place is a living kaleidoscope. It's awesome. In every sense of the word.
Needless to say, it was me who'd spotted them and thrust them at him for his perusal. He's colour-blind and I alway feel a responsibility to draw his attention to any anomalies he won't have noticed, so I pointed out that the flowers were actually orange, lime green and purple. My thoughts were that while he may accept their floweriness, the colours may be a bridge too far.
To my surprise he willingly tried them on and bought them despite also being made aware that the turn-ups were lined in the very same fabric. It's enough to make a crafty-girl proud!
OK then, now I've shared the trousers with those of you interested in trousers, I'll move onto the reason the rest of you are here .... the Banana Frog stamped project. This month's theme was 'Flowers':
No prizes for guessing where I got the idea for a loud summery daisy-print design from!
I decorated some textured white card and a chipboard flower using Crafty Notions spray inks; two of the flower stamps from the new 'Super Dreamy' set [you can get 15% off Super Dreamy and Build a Daisy this week using the code M30NEWS at the checkout!]:
... and a lot of embossing powder. A lot!
I used a combination of stamping on the bare chipboard in ink; stamping then embossing; and simply pressing a VersaMark pad onto areas of the chipboard and dousing it in embossing powder:
I love how it turned out and all I can say is that if you're a piece of die-cut chipboard within my reach the next time I get crafty .... you're going to find yourself wearing a heavy-duty embossing powder coat my friend! Beware!
If you like the idea of taking inspiration for a craft project from something else entirely [like a pair of trousers!] then you'll like my other blog The Copy + Paste Project. There Kirsty Neale and I share lots of things from outside papercrafting which inspires our artistic work.
Right then, I'll let you go now to the next stop on the hop, which is to see Anthea's blog here :
If you've dropped by from Debbie's blog as part of the the first Banana Frog blog hop then greetings to you, pause here a while why don't you? Rest those legs.
If you're here by fluke, serendipity, downright nosiness or the wonders of Mr.Google then 'hola' to you too. Everyone's welcome.
And if you dropped by on the off chance that today would be the day that I'd be sharing a project based on something I found inside a pair of men's trousers ... then wow, is today your day or what?!!!
If you're faint of heart, fret not, it's all quite above board because:
[a] they're lovely brand-spanking-new trousers;
[b] they're from Desigual - an amazingly creative brand and;
[c] they belong to my partner of 18 years.
See, nothing untoward going on here, it was all in your head! Now we've got that cleared up, feast your eyes on these delights:
Fabulous or what? From the outside they're a fairly conservative pair of neutral summery trousers, while on the inside there hides the treasures [to a crafty pattern obsessed girl] of a flowery waistband lining and contrasting pockets!
Add in a yummy twill ribbon, a tiny amount of lilac-grey trimming and the brand slogan of '[Desigual]Is Not the Same' embroidered on the pocket ....
.... and my goodness!!! ... Has a man's trousers ever given a girl such pleasure? [Be careful how you answer that!]My Mr. bought them while we were in one of London's Desigual stores recently. Have you ever been to one of their shops? It's one of the few places on earth where he's failed to find me in a crowd while I've been wearing my yellow coat!
The place is a living kaleidoscope. It's awesome. In every sense of the word.
Needless to say, it was me who'd spotted them and thrust them at him for his perusal. He's colour-blind and I alway feel a responsibility to draw his attention to any anomalies he won't have noticed, so I pointed out that the flowers were actually orange, lime green and purple. My thoughts were that while he may accept their floweriness, the colours may be a bridge too far.
To my surprise he willingly tried them on and bought them despite also being made aware that the turn-ups were lined in the very same fabric. It's enough to make a crafty-girl proud!
OK then, now I've shared the trousers with those of you interested in trousers, I'll move onto the reason the rest of you are here .... the Banana Frog stamped project. This month's theme was 'Flowers':
No prizes for guessing where I got the idea for a loud summery daisy-print design from! I decorated some textured white card and a chipboard flower using Crafty Notions spray inks; two of the flower stamps from the new 'Super Dreamy' set [you can get 15% off Super Dreamy and Build a Daisy this week using the code M30NEWS at the checkout!]:
... and a lot of embossing powder. A lot! I used a combination of stamping on the bare chipboard in ink; stamping then embossing; and simply pressing a VersaMark pad onto areas of the chipboard and dousing it in embossing powder:
I love how it turned out and all I can say is that if you're a piece of die-cut chipboard within my reach the next time I get crafty .... you're going to find yourself wearing a heavy-duty embossing powder coat my friend! Beware! If you like the idea of taking inspiration for a craft project from something else entirely [like a pair of trousers!] then you'll like my other blog The Copy + Paste Project. There Kirsty Neale and I share lots of things from outside papercrafting which inspires our artistic work.
Right then, I'll let you go now to the next stop on the hop, which is to see Anthea's blog here :
- If you want to share any of your Banana Frog work then don't forget that there's a Banana Frog Flickr group set up especially for that.
- There's also and a Copy+ Paste one too, into which you can drop your photos of projects inspired by any of our posts.
- Failing that - Tweet me, leave me a comment or send out a carrier pigeon.
Go forth and be inspired crafty types.
But, please, if you're going to go looking inside a man's trousers for inspiration ... be careful won't you? !!
Jx
Monday, 29 March 2010
Quote: A green bough
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