Merry Christmas

dingly danglies

 We have a crappily underwhelming candle holder hanging over our table which was screaming out for something über-natty, instead of the usual every year treatment. i.e. hanging greenery from it, wrap round tinsel, job done. Of course since last year I have now gone through the secret portal that was on floor 7½, or through the back of my wadrobe or wherever it was, and ended up in Blogland, where everybody else has way cooler homes than me and are extremely diy/handicraft minded. So in order to get myself into line with the rest of you, I googled 'easy hanging decorations tutorial' and found myself eventually a nice little dingly-dangly on Design*Sponge (I am, it seems, the only person who hasn't discovered D*S so far)
So I Suzified and Christmasfied their decorations, and came up with this. *Pwnd*. and I reckon from start to finish it took me no more than an hour. HANDY HINT. One of the best things I ever bought this year was a guillotine (for paper, not heads, hawhaw) it made this job so easy. Put one on your chrissie pressie list if you don't own one.
Firstly I found the text I wanted, and to keep it christmassy I chose The Nutcracker, typed up random relevant words and printed them onto cardstock. Of course I really would have liked to make this red, black and white but the dark red was the nearest thing I had and as it was 6pm on a saturday evening it was just going to have to do. Cutting the strips was really easy with the guillotine, even with a glass of wine within easy reach.
So far I've made 7; as a side note I have a real thing for odd numbers, and primes are even better. I really hate even numbers and symmetry, is that normal? I reckon I shall probably end up covering the house with them till it looks like some demented festive cave full of weird stalactites. Or is that stalagmites?

I ♥ stripes

As you will see from the first picture, we now have a tree, I'm in!

And the good news is I seem to be having a last minute flurry of activity in my Dawanda shop, it seems the French and Germans are great believers in leaving things til the last minute. Hourra! Hurra! But all this heightens my ongoing irritation with etsy, which is brewing up nicely and no doubt will soon be a long, wingeing blog post mes amis.

on thin ice

First off, I apologise for my lack of posts lately, but I guess we are all in the same festive boat right now, so I will not bother with the usual excuses. To call a spade a spade, I need help. Here's the problem:
The Mr is known for not being terribly good at present buying. In the years BOED (Before Old Enough Daughters) I often received things such as chopping boards, toolkits....get the picture. In his defence he has sometimes pulled it out of the hat and got me a beautiful ring or....well there must have been others, I just can't remember them right now. Of course these days my girls head him in the right direction usually. He's no internet shopper so it can be a bit tricksy, but between us we usually orchestrate something. For instance, days before my birthday this year and on holiday, us females went into a Scandinavian boutique in Biarritz while the blokes looked at alcohol, probably. I fell in love with the Flensted mobiles hanging from the ceiling. So the girls took charge and I ended up with this beauty on the day. Ta-da!

Happy me, happy Mr. Now to my problem. Truth be told, I'm not much better. If I buy art, I usually like it more than him. I can't buy him clothes, he's too fussy.I can't buy tools, he's a builder for chrissakes! So I usually end up buying CDs, and how boring is that? But this christmas I had a trick up my sleeve and was sorted present-wise. We had tickets to go and see the marvellous Emily Loizeau this Friday, and these were our present to each other. But quelle horreur, last week I got a text from the venue saying the concert was cancelled. No reschedule, no reason, and they had credited our bank accout. No, no, no! This can't be! I'm so upset about the concert and upset as we now have Present Dilemma rearing up yet again.

So anyhoo, the girls have now told me they are shocked, proud and amazed as he has bought me a gorgeous present, with no help from them, AND they reckon I'm going to love it. The question is, what do I get him? What do you buy for the significant other, bearing in mind internet shopping is now a non option? I have to think fast, please, please help, leave me some ideas in the comments.

Can you fix it for me, Jim? (that's for all you over 35 years old, British telly viewers)

I'm a bit slow vis-à-vis christmas this year. It seems wherever I go in cyberspace, the world and his wife already have their trees up, and of course they are beautifully and tastefully decorated with vintage and cute twiddly, sparkly things; they've organised their christmas cards; done their pressie shopping; I wouldn't be suprised if the more organised ones have prepped their christmas day veggies by now. I continually disgust Romy with my complete lack of organisational skills and healthy, nay wanton, disregard for matching cutlery and crockery, and this matter always comes to a pustulant head at this time of year. Yesterday she was so irritated by all of this, compounded by my complete oversight to get them advent calendars. Even though she's old enough to know better, she particularly likes ones with Dora the Explorer or Spongebob Squarepants, and was horrified that the supermarket had sold out of all advent calendars, even the tasteful (?) and pricey ones. So rather huffily we bought some chocs instead and when we got home she set about making this. All her own idea and work and looks so much better than Dora stuck up on the wall.
So ta-da!! We finally have our first christmas decoration, albeit 2 weeks after everyone else.

And a quick blast on my own trumpet, I've just had my 'Alice' series of illustrations published in REAL magazine. Ok, ok, so if you turn the pages too quickly you will miss me, but still. Toot toot!

these foolish things

I've got lots to talk about today! I'm going to get it all out in one lump as I am a bit busy for the next week with a Christmas Fair, and may on may not get much blog time,  hmm...we'll see.
Firstly let me show you these. It's another one of my long stories so I'll be brief, but I have had for many, many years an Olympus OM10, which served me pretty well. A few years ago the shutter started to get really sticky so I stopped using it. Last month I dug it out and the Mr said he reckoned he could fix the problem. Well he did, but by now the lens was a bit crappy. 'Ok', says the Mr,' get on ebay and buy a new lens for it'. Oh ho ho, my friend, I didn't need telling twice and I did much better than that! For am mere 7.50 Pounds of the Queen's realm I won a new identical Olympus in mint condish! When it came it was already loaded with film so I couldn't resist taking Milla and the dog to our local lake. You know, don't you? The one that is great for swimming in during the summer, the live music evenings etc......*goes off dreaming about the summer*....

Well, in winter it's completely different. It is a man made lake, they had cut down a woodland to make it and in autumn when the lake gets drained the old tree trunks become exposed. Where the mud around the roots has been washed away these old stumps are an absolute joy to my sculptor's eyes. Yes, indeed they are yet another idea on my cranial back burner. *strokes beard*
So when I had shot the film and took it out it was a Lloyds Pharmacy film (any Brits know anything about it?) and woefully expired. But I quite like the very blue and grainy texture of these pics. And at least I know the camera works just fine and dandy. As a P.S. it was very amusing to see the pics that were already on the camera: tyre marks in the grass and a good old english car boot sale!

 

Also I have been tagged by the lovely Lisa over at Pennycones
I have to list 10 Things About Me, so here goes;

I'm going to make this list quite honest, with a few light bits thrown in.

I rarely cry, mist over a fair bit but not real tears. But I cried about 9 times during the course of this summer. Big gushing sobs.

I used to have a phobia about snakes until I moved to France, now I quite like them. I hate bats now.

I've moved around alot and have learnt to not get too attached to people, as a result I don't have masses of friends, lots of aquaintances. The few I have are much adored.

I loathe facepalm/twatter/etc and utterly refuse to participate in social networking. Apart from flickr. And blogging.

My youngest daughter Milla was born at home in my bedroom after a 20 minute labour.

I suffer from depression. I am happy to say I have been free from taking medication for 10 years, since I started studying for my art degree, art (amongst other things) continues to help me manage the condition.

I have 4 siblings, the Mr has 6. We've got 22 nieces and nephews between us.

I fancy very tall, very skinny, dark haired men with glasses. However, when the gay bomb goes off I want to be standing between PJ Harvey and Audrey Tautou.

I have a plastic Buzz Lightyear in my car which I've had since 4 cars ago. My current car is a Citroën, it has a broken ignition and has to be started with a rigged-up lightswitch.

Romy just read this list and said I sound like an emo. Sorry about that, I am actually a very cheery person, a bit like Thom Yorke.  Here's an emoticon to prove it☺

So basically, I'm going to tag anyone who wants to take part, I'm interested in everyones lists and don't want to limit it!

And the last thing is to just a put a link to Made4Aid,  a project dedicated to raising money for relief work in the refugee camps in Darfur, through the buying and selling of crafts.
Phew, that's me done!

Mr Perfect

This gorgeous man has just had his 11th birthday. He has more energy than any other dog I've ever known, even now, if I went for a 10km bike ride he would keep up all the way. He's always been the same, when we lived by the North Sea we used to say he could swim to Norway. He never snaps or growls, not even when the 3 babies were growing up and pulling him about. He always has a smile on his chops. He's terrified of the cat, the vet, the guinea pigs, the vaccuum cleaner and next door's chihuahua. He loves cuddles, sticks and toast (which I suspect are obligatory dog likes, part of the DNA). And to top it all, he's learnt to bark fluently in French.
This was him at 3 months old, just after we got him from a rescue centre with our old Lola.

But I do need to change the comment about him looking like Dennis Waterman. He definitely looks more like Chris Martin. Oh well, no one's perfect, poor sod. Now if I could just teach him to play the piano.......

Moi Je Joue

It's official. I am now head over heels in love with Sofia Coppola. It all started a while back when my bestist friend Melanie gave me a right bollocking because I hadn't seen Lost In Translation, so I thought I'd better get on with it. And it was every bit as good as she said it was. The thing I loved about it most of all was the stunning cinematography; it was as if every frame could be frozen and make a beautiful still image. However, a certain 'person I know' (if your reading this, shame on you!) thinks it's like watching paint dry. One man's meat is another man's poison. But look at this picture. See what I mean?

So finally, a bit later than everyone else, I have got round to watching Marie Antoinette. Hells bells, eye candy overload!  And actually, I quite warmed to dear MA by the end of the film.......besides she only went of the rails because she couldn't get her husband to roger her.
And so, dear reader, because I care, I have watched the film again just for you while taking screen captures, and have put together a montage of some of the best images for your delight. Hurrah!

Notice on the 9th picture a pair of Converse lurking in the background. That Sofe is a bit of a joker isn't she?

And to round off, here's some random Sofia facts.
Sofia is en couple with Thomas Mars from french band Phoenix. They're quite good.
They has also have a daughter called Romy (mine's older, she must have copied ME).
Sofia directed that beautiful ad for Miss Dior, you know, the one with BB singing. So lovely it makes me wish I lived in France. Oh yeah, lucky old me, I do!
Vive La France!

whiskey and a gun

Sometimes I feel a bit like Jeremy Kwee from Kumquat (Have you never seen Jazz Club on the Fast Show? You poor darling, go watch it here) Lots of ideas all lumped together in a huge cooking pot which is my brain.
I always have and always will have a thing for black, white and red. And circuses. And Jack and Meg. Imagine for a moment how much I love this Annie Liebowitz photograph. Then double it.

So some of this has come together in my cooking pot, along with the brilliant Tom Waits song 'Circus' and a great book we have called La Melodie des Tuyaux.

I'm not entirely sure what I'm going to do with it yet, but I have some very exciting news to tell you, which accounts for my recent flurry of arty activity and all-round enthusiasm. I have been selected to take part in a big Art Festival on in this region next May, called Artistes à Suivre. The funny thing is, I applied last year and was turned down by the jury. I had submitted mostly sculpture, which is my schtick, it's what I studied and gained my degree in. This year I only submitted my illustrations, drawings, paintings and books et voilà! So there you go. Gawd blimey etc.

(nice) dream

Now this is odd. One morning last week I woke up, vividly remembering a dream. I had dreamt about making this artwork.

Immediately I had to sprint, well lumber really, out of bed and grab my sketchbook and a cuppa and draw it out before I forgot.

Everything was there, I had seen it so vividly: the hare woman(I knew she was called Violaine), the bird, the composition, the space, even the text.

Where it came from I've no idea. Maybe I had seen something similar on the interweb recently.

I hope to God not, tho', I'll be gutted if it wasn't a visionary, mystical experience!

The only thing that's different to how it was in my dream is the dress. I dreamt it was collaged from a spriggy blue and pink wallpaper, and so I had to try to recreate that the best I could.

I don't think that has ever happened to me before. I've had ideas germinate while I sleep, but never a full blown finished work.

Does this qualify as a superhuman power? Hand of God? Or a sign of an over active mind resulting from drinking too much red wine before going to bed?

And on another note, I'm not really known for having my photo taken, not exactly brimming with confidence and not very photogenic either. My web presence is generally in the guise of a pair of red and white striped legs.
But I decided that I really ought to have a reasonably recent picture of me on my website, as the one on there is a few years old now.

After enlisting Romy's help we set about trying to get a picture, but I ended up having a nervous breakdown. Finally we did it.
So which one shall I go for? The serious one, or the kooky one?