Oh how glad I am to have a new little place to get all those little irritations, observations and mind wobbles off my chest! Not felt like writing anything for a few months, as I've been trying to get my head and life straight after losing my dad back in February. Whether I have acheived that is probably questionable, but I am finding that as I get older, the less sense life seems to make anyway, so in the end, what does it matter?
Tuesday 19th August
Today is my 13th wedding anniversary. Thirteen years ago the sky was blue, temperature in the 80's, and I was a blushing bride. Today I am standing in a back alley in the rain ineffectually sawing at a piano. Says all you need to know about marriage really...
Sunday 17th August
The strangest thing happened today - well OK, this kind of thing might happen to you all the time for all I know - but I have found what appears to be a medieval silver penny inside the piano. Said piano has been deemed surplus to requirements and is currently being dismantled before a trip to the tip, sorry, recycling centre. Inside have been found 2 x 1 pence pieces, one old half penny, two hairgrips, a tiddlywink, a hundred years of dust and dead spiders and the coin just mentioned. Research would indicate it' might be from the time of Henry the Third (1216 - 1272), but it's deffo one of the henrys. Is it real? How did it get there? I swear I am not making this up. How wierd!
Saturday 16th August
I think summer's on it's way out - there's a feeling in the air so much more autumnal now, and blackberries and rosehips are starting to appear. It seems to have been an all too brief span of summer this year, and I can tell we are heading once more for a period of transition and changes. Perhaps the post holiday blues are clouding my vision at the moment. Or maybe not.
Do you like this picture - a curvy Maiden! I get a bit fed up of skinny dolls - this shape doll would be so much nicer, not to mention realistic - but as the world seems hung up on false and unnaturally contrived bodyshapes, I think it's unlikely to happen.
Tuesday August 12th
Been having trouble sourcing the My Scene dolls I use of late - there's not been any new ones in the shops for ages. Apparently Mattel, their maker, is involved in a giant legal tussle with the makers of Bratz dolls over who has copied who - hope this doesn't mean the end of the doe eyed beauties! Don't fancy using ordinary Barbies - spent so long looking at My Scene dolls now that other dolls look abnormally pinheaded and out of proportion.
Monday August 11th
I will never ever ever go shopping at Netto ever again. If there is a hell on earth, then that is it. Why is all the stuff just hurled onto shelves in no order, and why does half of it look like it's already fallen from a great height? Why does the fresh produce look like it was found at the bottom of your fridge? Why would I need to buy a bench grinder and portable hoist at the same time I get my groceries? That would be some bizarre impulse buy ;-) It raises just too many questions, the answer to which is "because it's a rubbish shop" I need a lie down now. Or why not have a look at this gorgeous collection of lampwork beads and be very very jealous...
Sunday August 10th St Philomena's Day
Just finished listing my very first doll on Etsy.com! Don't think it's showing up just yet, and I hope I've done everything right. I'll put a link to it just as soon as I can. Meanwhile here is the Goddess Prayer Maiden's pic - nice isn't she!
Wednesday 7th August
Damn Damn and Soddit! I just can't do anything right today as far as dolls are concerned - and I seem to have wasted all day acheiving absolutely nothing and putting myself in a frazzle. I have opened a shop on Etsy.com (don't bother looking, there is nothing in it yet), and I am trying to make a really special doll for my first effort. The fees are much lower than Ebay, and the items stay on view for much much longer - so I am hoping for some success. But either the planets are in an unlucky alignment or I am just having a hamfisted day of it. I need a drink.
On the plus side I have acquired some gorgeous lampwork beads...
Thursday 31st July
It's so hot! But humid and energy-sapping with it, so not conducive to any kind of activity apart from tapping listlessly on a keyboard like this. I've been dabbling a lot on the Ancestry website of late trying to grab little snapshots of my forebears lives (and lacing them with a good dose of fantasy and imagination to flesh out the bare documented bones - anathema to real genealogists, but I just can't stop myself) My favourite character by far is my great-great grandma (maternal side), a rosy-cheeked victorian village girl with the endearing name of Fanny - she could have been a bootfaced milkcurdler for all I know - but I prefer the cider with rosie version. You'll just have to allow me my flights of fantasy ;-)
Above - Bill Brookman's Fairy Band, seen at the Farmer's Market in Newcastle before the holidays. I wish you could hear them, they are entrancing! I am so going to make a doll of them - not only do the fairies produce lovely music, they can juggle, do twirling and walk on stilts! I am so jealous! Check out the website www.billbrookman.co.uk
Wednesday 30th July
Yesterday saw the funeral of my mother in law, who has died aged 87 after a long battle with Alzheimer's and extreme frailty. It was a sad occasion but tempered at least for us by a sense of release from the unhappy times endured by her for some years. The world she was born into has long gone, along with her six brothers and sisters, and I know it is a well worn cliche, but I do sincerely hope she has found peace in a better place. Mothers in law may have been given an undeserved fearsome persona, but mine never treated me with anything other than kindness, generosity and warmth. She also said I was nicer than my husband's first wife, for which I am eternally grateful ;-) Sweet Dreams, Elsie xxx
Tuesday 29th July
Filey Clifftop
Sunset over Scarborough
Sunday 28th July
Back from my holidays - had a lovely week in beautiful North Yorkshire enjoying the sea, the sand, the countryside and the history and shaking off a few of the cares and woes that have bedevilled 2008. Got lots of lovely pics, which I will post one or two of on here in the next day or two. I will need to get my brain into doll creating mode pdq if we are to eat between now and September - perhaps when I have demolished the mountains of dirty washing etc etc - got lots of inspiration from the wonderful landscapes and seascapes!
Also saw the amazing spectacle of a red-coloured moon apparently rising out of the sea one night - it was magical - the colour changing from coppery red to honey gold as it rose larger in the sky. Sadly the pics we took convey nothing of the actual happening, so you'll just have to take my word for it.
Wednesday July 16th
A slightly nerve wracking day yesterday - I got to meet my stepdaughter for the first time! and for the first time ever we had a get together of mine and his and our combined progeny! It feels really odd to finally become a stepmother - though not of the evil variety I hope - Jess seems quite a quiet personality, and there were moments where I felt we were all just so loud and noisy she might have found it abit offputting - but it was just enthusiasm combined with a slight sprinkling of nerves! Anyway, it all seemed to go quite well, so I hope we can all get together again in the near future!
Friday July 11th
Here is a pic of the fairy I made last week. I do like this fantasy film stuff very much indeed!
Monday 7th July
Finally varnished my painting today - found that cheap craft acrylic varnish is much better and effective than the more expensive artists' variety. Will sort a frame out eventually. I don't claim to be any great artist or even a passable one, but every so often a picture pops up that needs to be put down .
it's me surrounded by the vanishing landscape of the Potteries - very literal - but it sums up perfectly how I feel at the moment seeing the way familiar things fall apart and disintegrate. No amateur psychology please.
PS A Word of Warning - Never let your husband trim your hair.
I did and this is what I look like now - !!!!!!!
Sunday July 6th
One of the upsides of miserable rainy days is that enforced captivity often forces you to stay in and try something new - I made a fairy this afternoon! She's a lot freer in the costume/glitter departments, which made her fun to do. Can't see me doing these kind of dolls for sale - seems to take a lot longer than a Maiden - but I am quite pleased with her. I'll post a picture soon.
Saturday July 5th
Been out this afternoon to look at some of the ravaged areas of Hanley which have fallen foul of the grim reaper aka "regeneration", currently the buzzword making thousands of people's lives in Stoke on Trent unbearable - streets and streets of empty terraced houses, which have been fully modernised not so long ago, now compulsorily purchased (at an average of £35,000 below market value) so that the area can be redeveloped with new private housing - unaffordable to the majority of the displaced former residents - in the hope of attracting new and more affluent communities.
Does that sound fair to you? I wonder where the people summarily dismissed from their homes are supposed to live? They won't be buying "luxury waterside developments" or the like......where do they go? where is the "affordable housing" the government is always banging on about? It is all so unfair and unthought-through, I can't decide whether it makes me more angry or sad to see communities ripped apart - and in today's circumstances where mortgages (if available) are unaffordable (especially in an area like here where pay is low anyway), where on earth is the sense in destroying housing that could be brought up to date at a very moderate cost to provide desperately needed accommodation? The death more or less of the pottery and mining industries round here has already destroyed many people's livelihoods, with obvious negative repercussions on their quality of life, but now it would seem that the council is doing it's best to reinforce and accelerate the disintegration of such close knit terraced communities that remain........and for what? Market forces, globalisation and greed have already strangled Stoke on Trent, and the current social engineering attempts will not improve the situation one iota for the average person. What's going on?
