busy busy

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can't believe it's been a whole week since i've been here....work has cranked up a notch and things have been a bit hectic to say the least. Anyway, here's a few cyanatypes (have i spelt that right? I dunno) and now I'm off to check up on what I've missed over at your place.
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me and surfaces should not be allowed to reside in the same place

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I'm not trying to frighten you or anything but Lynne did ask t

o see it in it's full glory! I'm in the process of moving house at the moment and negotiations are currently in progress as to just how much of my mega art mountain gets the boot (this is just a fraction of the full horror).

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messy collage - the whole thing

At jean's request, here is the full collage with part of the sofa to try and give you an idea of scale.

messy collage

these are close ups of parts of a giant messy collage made with found papers (enlarged x a million on a photocopier) and ink.

yellow

generosity

i was very giddy yesterday because the kind and generous Lynne Hoppe sent me treasure - i was so giddy that when i left the house after the parcel opening frenzy i thought i saw a man eating the pavement in our street - turned out my head was so full of treasure he was a workman down a whole in the ground and as his head went up and down with his digging he looked like he was having a concrete lunch.

anyway, i'm not a big reader, i wish i was, but i'm not. i've got lots of books - most of them books you look at rather than read cover to cover. i have read some books but i never have time and when i try and read novels i drift off into my own world - my eyes follow the words line by line for ages but i'm not paying any attention to what they mean and i have to back track so many times and force myself to concentrate- so i just don't do it [often]. its why i don't think of myself as a wordy person and i am surprised when people say something i've written on my blog has made them laugh or i have a 'way' of telling a story, because i just blurt out rubbish most of the time. i would like to get good at telling stories though like the awesome frida -now that woman nows how to write.

anyway [again] the treasure that Lynne sent was a carefully wrapped pebble and a gorgeous book which is easy for someone like me to read - i've read it cover to cover and I'm proud as punch. But better than that, the illustrations are to dye for. this is the book it reminds me of sarah fanelli who is a fabby illustrator and i've been collecting her books for a few years now. well, when i checked out the author and illustrator Maira Kalman i was amazed by her work and now I'm dangerously close to collecting her books too (it's a good job i am not rich).

Thank you Lynne - you are a kind soul and i feel very greedy for grabbing this before anyone else had a chance.

mass production of not massproduced items

I'm gearing up for the [optimistically speaking] seasonal rush of customers at my craft stalls and my work room [i'm talking like the whole house isn't just one work room] is brimming with handmade cards, paper decorations, new canvases, jewellery etc etc. for some reason these funny little pillow brooches are first out of the factory. i have no idea if there is a big market for cushions as accessories or if there is one single person on the planet with an outfit that just begs for an extra bit of padding to finish it off but i suppose i'm about to find out.

unspectacular quirks

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look at me with my pristine white table and flowers in a vase - well when the rozzers are due to visit to ask you about your car theft you don't want to risk getting arrested for crimes against tidyness so you stress out about it for two days and then rush round the house in a tidying and cleaning (well sort of cleaning) frenzy so that there's a vague chance they might consider you normal.

As a reward for having a completely clear, table and sofas (oh yeh) you treat yourself to a new notebook - just like the other 14,000 notebooks you have only this time your going to write in it for longer than just the day you bought it, you are not going to write just one 'to do' list in it and then abandon it on THE PILE in fact you're not going to buy another notebook until this one has at least 75% of its pages used. I think I can safely say this is one of my quirks which brings me to the next part of this post 6

The lovely Lynne Hoppe has taken time out from her magical forest walks and painting gorgeous vibrant paintings to tell us about 6 of her unspectacular quirks and has tagged me to do the same so here they are 6

4the notebook thing - as mentioned above

4the flower thing - buying nice flowers and taking them home and leaving them in a jug in the kitchen with the cellophane and price tag still on - (so you can't actually see the nice flowers)

4the list thing - there is order in the disorder and there's a lot of lists, there are even lists about lists.

4the piles of dust thing - sweeping up (occasionally) and leaving a pile of dust in the middle of the room - a similar pile (this time of soil) was recently spotted on the paved area of my garden

4the plastic bag thing - on the handles of doors with things in or as rubbish bags - it drives some people nuts

4the light pull thing - i think i could quite possibly be the only person on the planet with a bathroom style, dangly light switch in the middle of their living room (it's a long story)

right who's next? of course - who else?

grrl+dog

clutter

considerate thieving

yesterday i had my car broken into, the thieves had somehow managed to wind one of the windows down without damaging it, open the doors and take the radio. They left the Dolly PArton tape on the dashboard and left all my posessions (junk that i am going to take to a car boot sale to get rid of!). It's a bit weird to kind of feel grateful to someone who's done this for not causing you loads of hassle by smashing the window etc but strangely I do. I'm surprised they didn't leave some kind of customer comments card and if they had I would have written "A very professional job, causing minimum disruption. Next time would you kindly wind the window back up so that my car seats don't get soaked." If you are going to get your car robbed I highly recommend these thieves.

Anyway, it didn't stop our trip out in the miserable pouring rain. We went to a rather deserted [georgian i think] old house which is open to the public and i took these photos of the loos. They are a bit blurred because i seem to specialise in out of focus photography, i have a pants camera, and i was rushing because i was getting funny looks hanging round in the loos taking pics.

Hearting blogs

As if the delicious Thai meal that I've just devoured wasn't enough to make my day special, the lovely Jean at Art It (check out her gorgeous paintings) has kindly presented me with this award. As we say in Yorkshire, I'm well chuffed. So now it's my turn to pass this on......to another seven blogs I love.....well there's lots out there and you know who you are....i visit you everyday :o) - so i thought i'd pass this on to someone new Mary Taitt. Mary has more bloggs than I thought was possible and I love her drawing. Check her out.

new book

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sorry for blogging [or not blogging] in a disorderly fashion over the last few days. I've been engrossed in making another altered book, sketchbook type of thingy. I have absolutely adored making this and have deliberated for longer than usual as to whether to keep it to add more artwork to or put it on the shelves in my etsy shop. imagine if etsy was a shop in real life where you could go and browse all the goodies in person. How big would it be and how long would it take to look round? I don't think I'd ever get out.

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