Once upon a time...

Christmas Card

Christmas Card
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you all, thank you for your support and all those kind and encouraging comments you have made this year. "blog sharing" has made a big difference to so many of us, giving an insight into our different lives and the art we do, allowing us to access skills and techniques and do a little "showing off" on our own behalf.
Have a peaceful and productive 2011 and I look forward to visiting you all online if not in the flesh!

about time I caught up

It's been a while since I got around to blogging, it's amazing sometimes how little time remains at the end of each day.

Ididn't go to Holland this year for Sintaklaas, but I hear that he arrived safely despite the frost and snow. Izzie seems to have thoroughly enjoyed the experience again, it's amazing that she is now four and awaiting the arrival of a sister early next year. Nicholas and Florine's baby Jake arrived eight weeks early and thanks to the splendid care he is receiving in hospital is making great strides towards going home. I know this is an old picture of Sintaklaas but it's the only one I have!

We are in the grip of a really cold spell, the snow has mostly gone locally but you can see from the picture that the frost still has us in it's grip.

other side of the rainbow

other side of the rainbow
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

latest in the series. Will hopefully get back to blogging more regularly soon. At the moment 'Life' keeps needing a bit of attention too!

front cover

front cover
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

The front cover will need to be varnished or preserved in some other way to protect it from all the handling it will hopefully be getting in America!

back cover

back cover
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

last pages

last pages
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

Last double page for project, the last pagewill be information etc., I have yet to decidewhat exactly 'sheila' is going to say to signoff, but that will be added in marker

dragons family tree

dragons family tree
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

I'm on the last 4/5 page spreads for mysketchbook and felt a little historical detailmight be appropriate...

Art Trader magazine article

www.arttradermag.com

Last month Andrea Melione ( aka Eraser Queen ) http://www.eraserqueenstudios.blogspot.com/ lead graphic designer for the free digital Art Trader Magazine asked me to send some pictures of my work and take part in an interview for the October issue of the magazine and today I saw the result. I have to say, she did a great job, even I wanted to see the next bit!!!! Tell me what you think.

fishy page

fishy page
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

doodle

doodle
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

getting towards the end of the project, probably got enough to fill the last few pages, just need to mix it up a little

blue one

blue one
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

fiery 1

fiery 1
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

Getting there... I have only a few more pages to fill. These are both drawn on the same background (a piece of hand paintedcotton originally) which has had the colourchanged in Photoshop

fish

Fish, my piece to add tothe Felt United 2010 exhibition, I will probably send both this and the embroidered piece I did earlier, submissions start this weekend

serpents and weirdos

serpents and weirdos
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

even the other side of MY rainbow has them. Latest for the
sketchbook project

A bit more done

The sketchbook project is being a little more complicated than I had hoped! The paper in the book is pretty awful to work on especially if one wants to use paint or paste so I have started to use cartridge paper as background, either plain or using CGI of fabric paintings or previous doodles to glue over the flimsy scrapbook pages and then glueing doodles on to the them. Fiddly but worth the effort in the long run.The first page has a cut out so that part of page 3 is visible.

Paige's new image!

Grandaughter Paige started Uni this week and also joined the 'Specials'! she is getting sworn in next Tuesday and is here in her garden giving us a preview of the reasonably long arm of the law!

two pages

two page spread
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

This will be folded so that the 5 is on the right and the page is turned to see the doodle. I have decided to take the sketchbook to pieces and make new pages (and not so many!) I have also decided to only post the odd picture now and then and possibly when it's finished and ready to post off to America, to do a montage of favourites.

nice surprise

Have a look at Eden's blog, Draw, Doodle and Decorate. It's always an entertaining read with lots of interesting distractions and by-ways, but this time I am one of those distractions. Eden has put my Rainbow 4 pic in as part of her Zendoodles. Have a cuppa and enjoy the trip!
at http://geeden.blogspot.com

Christine Coleman

Castle Vale Library Reading Group had the pleasure of welcoming local author, Christine Coleman to their September meeting today and it really was a pleasure! We had been reading her novel "The Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society" and were keen to hear her talk about how she came to write a book whose heroine is seventy five years old when she is so obviously much, much, younger than that, five years after the book was published!

We heard about her realisation when she was approaching fifty, that it was time to take risks
and discover what she was capable of.

The story is about Agnes, recently widowed, who is dumped in an old people's home by her son
Jack, who has split up with his wife and has a new and demanding partner etc., etc., This means

that Agnes no longer sees her grandchildren (who live with their mother Lucy who also has a troubled relationship) so Agnes decides to escape from the home (by climbing out of the window) and setting off to find her grandchildren. This leads to an hilarious and at the same time moving adventure, during which she invents the Dangerous Sports Euthanasia Society! It would be a shame to spoil the story by saying more. We unanimously enjoyed it.

We then had the pleasure (we seem to have had a lot of pleasure today) to hear Chistine read
passages from and tell us about her new book Paper Lanterns, partly inspired by a cache of love

letters written in China in the 1920's by two separate women to the same man. I can't wait to
start reading it this evening. In the meantime if your appetite is whetted you can find out more

on Christine's website http://www.christinecoleman.net/ So far I have only briefly scanned the site but look forward to returning to follow the items that have intrigued me on that first visit

rainbow series 4

rainbow series 4
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

Latest in the alternative side of the rainbow series

animal,vegetable or mineral?

animal,vegetable or mineral?
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

This is my lavender contribution for the Creative Colour Challenge. http://www.louisegale.blogspot.com/ It includes 'change' (for Cathy Nichol's September challenge) www.cathynichols.blogspot.com as I am not at all sure whether it is animal vegetable or mineral, it changes each time I look at it

The Creative Colour Challenge

As I said below, I have only recently found this challenge on www.louisegale.blogspot.com
and it has led me to some amazing blogs and so many different interpretations on a theme. Of course, being me I didn't find it until it was nearly finished but the fact remains that it's been a real pleasure to find all those new links and see their work.

colour challenge 1

colour challenge 1
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

colour challenge 1
My contribution to the Creative Colour Challenge...just discovered this group which contains
some amazing stuff . This fish is drawn with black marker and coloured pencil on a background
printedfrom some of my hand painted fabric whichseemed appropriate for the sea colours week

Quiltroutes

Just had a really enjoyable visit to Deborah O'Hare's blog www.quiltroutes.blogspot.com
a mutual friend gave me the link and she (Deborah) does some amazing fabric printing and what's more gives really clear instructions too!

rainbow series 3

rainbow series 3
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

one way of keeping my hands occupied whilst 'nursing' my foot

one foot over the rainbow

I spent last weekend with my foot elevated after finally getting it Xrayed at hospital. I injured it in Majorca four weeks ago and in my usual obstinate way refused to get it checked out. Of course when I did it was to learn that I had broken a metetarsal (at least it sounds sporty!) A further visit to the trauma clinic yesterday basically just told me "it will get better in a week or two" so that's my visit to the NEC and the Festival of Quilts knocked on the head. I am fed up about that as apart from the amazing work on display I just love the shopping! so many traders with stuff I covet! Oh well, it's back to t'internet..... I filled in that foot up time with another doodle.

panorama3

panorama3
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

Broadening my horizons

Trip to Blackpool

Day out in Blackpool with the over fifties! Ann and I packed our umbrellas and boarded the coach to Blackpool at 9 am yesterday. As you can see from the pic the weather was grey and wet and Blackpool was looking very apologetic! However, we had the obligatory fish and chips and a pot of tea freshly cooked for us and delicious too. Walking down Bond Street we saw this "all you can eat" Asian restaurant and collapsed laughing at it's name ! Also in Bond Street we found Johnson's Needlework shop, which made our whole trip worthwhile. The shop is a crafter's paradise... the premises were once a bank and it a warren of rooms and passageways, each one filled to capacity with stuff we hadn't seen for years as well as the latest must haves. We spoke to Susanna whose father owns the shop and is running it for him while he is ill and she is anxious to set up a blog or some means of internet selling and is willing to respond to emails if anyone can't get to the shop but would like to know what's on offer. If you are in Blackpool it's wise to give yourself lots of time to browse (we had to return to the coach too soon) The shop is at 29 Bond St, South Shore, Blackpool and the email address is www.johnsonsneedlework@yahoo.co.uk

Have a look at this

I had a comment today from Angela who, with her daughter have been keen to try out doodling. Visit her blog to see the early results, prepare to be amazed.
http://www.angelabarrow.co.uk/Blog/

And if anyone is able to add bunting to Angela's collection for said daughters birthday in October I know it will be gratefully accepted!

How I do my 'doodles'

In response to many requests (well three anyway) I have done this brief description of how Ido my doodles as you can see, it's the kind of thing we used to do at school, taken to another level.

branching out

Spreading my wings a little, and then inverting the result in Photoshop.

Holiday pics

I am trying to do a dozen things at once and making a mess of most of them. However, I have assembled a montage of holiday snaps and here they are. We had a great time and except for one cloudy morning, it was non-stop sunshine all the way.

fish-and-fowl

fish-and-fowl
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

need to change the format!

menagerie5

menagerie5
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

I have spent the morning doing all sorts of tedious and mundane jobs which really needed doing, so.. while I am enjoying a cup of coffee and making sure my halo isn't too tight..I'm posting my latest doodle which I finished last night

what I am working on

apart from a bit of doodling I am working on a couple of pieces of needlefelting, the flower has yet to be finally needled but I want to add a beaded centre before giving it a 'proper' shape. It's my first big flower and has taken me far longer than I thought.

The autumn coloured book cover is a piece I started some time ago and have now decided it's time to embellish and bead it instead of just filing it away as a WIP

atc

atc
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

waiting in for the plumber! doodling ATCs

From the beginning

This was the original piece of painted cotton which I did some years ago, but it lends itself to 'adjustment' well. These were all done at the time and I still find the original a source of inspiration when it comes to playtime.

break in the clouds

It's been raining non-stop this afternoon! This is a piece of handpainted cloth which I have been playing with in Photoshop and it suddenly looked much more cheerful than the sky outside my window!

Izzie in Disneyland

All 10 seconds of Izzie doing her stuff!!! They are all back home in Zandvoort after a couple of months touring in USA, there have been some lovely pics on facebook which has meant we have shared the trip as it happened.

Princess Izzie

yellow to blue

I've finished embellishing this piece and look forward to making something else in this colour range for the felt united exhibition later this year

fig tree

Having just got back from a holiday with Pam and Joe in NI I have been amazed by the way the garden has sprouted in six days, particularly the weeds! However, the weather has been lovely the last couple of days so the weeding has been done and it's been great just enjoying the sun.

Alfie

New arrival! Alfie, the Westie has taken up residence with Gary, Donna, Paige and Lily! Lily will be eight in October and was looking forward to a puppy on that day. However, Alfie was ready NOW so he made it clear that he was just what they were looking for and so here he is making his first visit to Grandma and behaving himself very well.

practice makes.......

I recently joined the group http://www.feltunited.com/ and was totally amazed by the variety of stuff that was in their 2009 exhibition, the shapes and sizes, simplicity and complexity .. and the set colour scheme added to the drama! This year the colours are from yellow through to blue and as a preliminary I have made a small piece of needle felting which I am about to embellish to death (as is my wont)

This will not be the final one as I have not yet made up my mind on size or shape etc., but I would recommend a cup of coffee, or whatever else you fancy and a visit to the website to see the 2009 collection. It may take some time, if like me you get tempted to visit all the links to the contributors sites.There is also a link on my blog to http://www.elisvermeulen.wordpress.com/

which is where I started my journey.

neither fish nor fowl

neither fish nor fowl
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

So we finally have a new Prime Minister! When I drew this yesterday the politicians were still trying to 'do a deal' it remains to be seen whether they are fish or fowl or a smelly mixture of both! I wish them all well, there are tough times ahead for us all

spirals,

spirals,
Originally uploaded by bostinstuff

Not a very good photo, it looks better 'in the flesh,' Using some spirals of discarded needle felt to make this wallhanging. approx 12x16 ins