Hallow’een

Over on something completely different the theme is Hallow’een. I set my self a challenge, could I carve a pumpkin from a pumpkin and take a print from it? Bearing in mind they are still on inchies (1 inch squares); this was the result.

All Shapes and Sizes – Skinny – Illustration Friday

The topic for Illustration Friday this week is skinny and has the rider “never trust a skinny chef”. I’ve never claimed I can draw so all I can do is put down the image in my head. The skinny chef, probably starting out  at the local chef course; just like when children have their first school uniform fitted. To all my food blogging friends, I think we know the little chef will grow into the hat if he loves food as much as we do. Created using brushes and powerpoint.

To Wit, To Woo, Owl Power & Faces

The topic for this week’s something completely different was inchies (ie one inch squares) with the theme faces. I’ve been away so my found object this week was the Sunday magazine and I decided to continue with the bird idea from the previous two weeks. Again, I have produced a one inch mini collage, this time of an owlet. Look closely though; all of the elements are made up from faces in the magazine. The wings are ears, the face and body are the shine on a face and the feet are Barry Gibbs’ teeth. In the end the whole thing spooked me slightly, but as we are getting near to Halloween I guess that is to be expected.

On the theme of Owls we have just installed an Owl to monitor our electricity usage – scary. To be honest the oven was on when this photo was taken but the heated towel rails are now only to be used during limited time periods!

Fast – Illustration Friday

The topic for Illustration Friday was ‘fast’. I’ve been away and so I am cheating, using wordle and playing with words to illustrate the fact that fast has so many meanings and synonyms, is this just a product of our ever accelerating lives I wonder? The speed with which we progress through life, telling ourselves we must tarry not, use less haste and more speed, whilst hastily flying around trying to complete nineteen tasks to the dozen. We gabble our words and gobble our food trying to fit one more act into time that goes by in a flash. If we are not quick we miss out on opportunities; but moving swiftly on, I feel my pulse becoming more rapid as tachycardia takes effect. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog and I try to express the hurried, spur-of-the-moment action required to rush to the rescue. As we thrash like speeding bullets, turbo torpedoes, down the motorway or information super highway, we expect everything to rocket along even dating is expected to be carried out at speed; a clear run, supersonic, rapido. Continuing to gallop along at such a pace may make us fast, but also furious.

Of course if we slow things down, it is possible to remember that fast also means the complete opposite. A dye which is fast does not run. Something which is fast can be stuck, held firmly like a limpet, never a speedy creature at the best of times. ‘To fast’ can also be the opposite of gobbling our food, resisting food altogether; strange thing the English language.

So the illustration at the top is all the fast words and the second one is what happens when you focus on the slow words. Which do you prefer?

Black and White

The theme for this week’s something completely different is black and white. People were kind enough to comment positively on the mini collage last week so I have created another this weekend. The ‘found objects’ for this inchie [one inch square] were a bit trickier as we have been on the move. Therefore; backing is security envelope, giving the chicken wire effect in the bottom corner. The ice floe is from an honesty pod also known as silver shillings. The penguin is from a picture of mud flats cut up from a copy of the weekend’s East Anglian Daily times and the snowflakes are daisy petals. The sky is part of a feather collected in Gloucestershire.

Frozen – Illustration Friday

I’ve been on the move most of the weekend so I have to admit this week’s Illustration Friday was created whilst driving. It wasn’t me doing the driving you understand but I was busy with brushes on the iphone whilst in transit. I also wanted to play with the layers in brushes so this is a four layered piece of the poor little snow man in the distance whilst some of the snowflakes have a bokeh like effect.

Badingham Fireworks – My annual therapy

Badingham Community Council Fireworks 2009 – Saturday 31st October

Massive display of fireworks


Bonfire lit at 6.30 pm with fireworks at 7.15 pm

Pay on the gate Adults £3 Children £1

Free sparklers for children 
Bring a guy for the bonfire 1st, 2nd & 3rd prizes

Beer, wine, teas, bbq Lite ropes and grand draw Signposted from the A1120

Squeezing hips for a place on the fourth plinth

I have received an award; specifically a Kreativ blogger award. It comes with some ‘rules’ and I will attempt to follow them.

1. Thank the person who gave the award to you – Thank you to….@easternsparkle aka Random Ramblings. I am faltered, sorry make that flattered
2. Copy the logo and post it on your blog. Done, above, quite a pretty little thing; though I’m not sure about the spelling.
3. Link the person who nominated you – see 1 above.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that no one would really know
   1. I like squeezing hips. Not ball and socket femur joints, but rosehips once they have reached a perfect point of ripeness. If you are lucky a rich fruity paste emerges like squeezing toothpaste from a tube. The trick is to stop before any of the itching hairs or seeds come out; it is a luscious little hedgeside treat.
   2. I have far too many Spike Milligan books and a head full of his rhymes.
   3. I love bonfires but am no good at all with fireworks.
   4. I can say Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch
   5. I have a fascination with and would love to visit, Japan.
   6. I taught myself the Greek alphabet and it is no help to me apart from in pub quizzes.
   7. I had only heard of blog awards, blog candy and such like in the last few days. I normally refuse to take part in pyramids, chains and other such activities but flattery can get you everywhere as they say. I will have to trust my instinct in passing the award on, that those I pass it to will either wish to participate or will decline gracefully or come up with another crafty plan. See below.

5. Nominate 7 bloggers for the award, post links to their blogs and leave a comment to tell them they have been nominated. I am assuming you cannot nominate someone who has already received one but from there on in I have a problem. Most of the blogs I follow are the ‘what I grow, gather, cook, paint, cycle, write’ type of blogs and not the ‘This is me, telling you about me’ type of blogs. So I have decided that from here the Kreativ Blog will be represented by a fourth plinth. There are 7 places available, if you would like to put yourself forward please submit a comment and I will put you forward to the Plinth committee.

Wordle – words as art

Very grateful to @Easternsparkle for finding another way to distract me. I have decided I love word clouds so here is what follows as a cloud.

Birds, not custard but something completely different

Each year I send people their Christmas cards back. Basically I cut bits out of the one they sent me the previous year, remount it and send back part of the card they sent me. Some friends are becoming canny and trying to fox me. I am always up for new crafting challenges. One of the Blogs I follow is jaydubblah and through her I have discovered Something Completely Different . Now I am new to this so may not fully understand the rules so I hope no one will take offence at my take on the challenge. Described as an ‘inchie’ and using the theme birds. I have spent most of this weekend hacking back the hedge to our garden and so I have created a mini collage from things found in the garden. The frame is ivy leaf, the sky is pigeon feather, the tree line is cherry leaf and the ploughed fields are ginko leaf. The sun is a gall from the back of an oak leaf the telegraph posts are fennel stems and the birds are individual blackberry pips. If you get your recorder out the notes should play ‘Cuckoo, Cuckoo’ from The Cuckoo Madrigal from my mother’s ‘The New National Song Book’.