Outing to Plymouth Barbican

Yesterday after a friend suggested she take Mum off our hands so we could have a nice day out together, my hubby and I went to Plymouth for a lovely outing to the Barbican, the oldest part of the city, down by the sea. It is a place full of atmosphere, with cobbled streets and tiny narrow winding alleyways, and a rich maritime history. Along the main streets there are plenty of gift shops and art galleries and eating places. There is a small covered arcade of shops called “The House that Jack Built” and it was in here that I discovered a shop entirely devoted to buttons! Here is a decorative tile set into the floor which took my fancy.

Buttons, buttons, buttons!

and more buttons!

We found a shop that specialised in chocolate sculptures and exotic cakes, and I couldn’t resist this glorious wedding cake with a sea theme.

Here’s one of the chocolate sculptures.

It was a bit difficult to photograph things in this shop window because of the reflections.

Here is a view of the main shopping street.

Some art glass in one of the galleries. The artist is called Richard Glass, appropriately.

This is New Street, which has to be one of the oldest streets in Plymouth – not easy to get a good photo, and apologies for the wheelie bins!!

This is the site of the old Fish Market, which now houses shops and restaurants. I remember coming down here many years ago, very early in the morning, and witnessing the fishing boats coming in, and managing to get some scraps for the cats! I also picked up a scallop shell which had been thrown aside, and which I still have.

The Dolphin Hotel, with its well-known facade.

Another street view, overlooking the harbour.

This has to be one of the oldest buildings in the city. I love the stone work, and the filled-in arches which show how the building has been changed in the past. The roof is obviously more modern, but the chimneys are old, and boast quite a lot of plant life growing out of them!

One of several snickets, known as “opes” with a view of an old warehouse in the distance. You can make out the crane with the pulley, which was used to lift things in and out through the large doors at the top.

Another ope with the Custom House in the distance.

Interesting street sign.

More art glass.

Our afternoon culminated in a tour of the Plymouth gin factory.

This has a very long and distinguished history dating back to the 1400s. It is a small concern but is still producing Plymouth gin in its distinctive bottles, in both “normal” and the stronger “navy” strength. We saw the single still that produces the gin, and in the tasting room, examined all the “botanicals” which go into the gin to give it its unique flavour – not just juniper berries, but lemon and orange peel, cardamom, angelica and other spices! We had a taste, and were then treated to a gin and tonic before we left via the shop, where I bought a bottle of their gorgeous sloe gin – quite the best commercially produced I’ve ever tasted. A lot of people make their own around here from the sloes which grow abundantly on Dartmoor (which the Plymouth Gin factory also uses) and this always tastes a lot nicer than the normal commercial stuff. It was a very interesting tour.

Years ago we had a French lady staying with us, who went on a tour of the factory, and on her return, when we asked how she’d enjoyed it, she replied, “It was bizarre…” and described how she couldn’t understand what was going on at all, with the large copper vessels and pipes and so on – she’d understood she was going on a tour of the Plymouth Jeans Factory and was mystified by the complete absence of even a shred of denim!

The weather was horrible yesterday and it poured with rain on the way over and on the way back, but we managed to escape getting wet, and were able to sit on a bench overlooking the harbour with all the boats, to eat our sandwiches. You can see from the photos how overcast it was, but we didn’t let the weather spoil our enjoyment. We used to live in Plymouth and have always loved the Barbican, and it was fun to return and be tourists for a day!

WOYWW 273

For details of how to join in the world’s most famous nosey fest, please click on the WOYWW logo in my sidebar, which will take you to our hostess Julia’s site, where all will be revealed.

Are you ready for this?

My poor ARTHaven… I can’t actually get near enough the actual “desk” (main work area) because most of my office stuff has been dumped in my ARTHaven! Yesterday Andy and Paul (the builders who worked on our new house last year) came to finish off a few jobs that required attention, such as fixing my bath properly, to stop it moving. It is a free-standing one and came with no instructions for fitting, and I soon discovered that it wasn’t stable, so I haven’t really been able to use it, but have had to use the shower all the time. They also mended my ARTHaven sink tap which was broken, and put some silicone caulk around the sink, and around my bathroom counter, as there had been some settling over the months and the grout had cracked away. They also replaced the electric shower with a mixer tap shower in my hubby’s bathroom and fitted a grab rail for him (the poor chap is feeling his age since his retirement lol!). Finally, they added some more shelf supports for the long shelves in my office (small section off my main ARTHaven) as they were proving not man enough for all the stuff I need to store on them. Because of this, I had to move everything through into my ARTHaven, hence the chaos you see above!

We are going out all day today so I won’t be able to start visiting desks until later, or tomorrow. I cannot sort my ARTHaven till all that is over, and I’ve recovered after the day out, and also there is a spare rug in the loft which my hubby is going to measure, and if it’s suitable, I shall empty the bookcases in my office so that I can move them and get it laid down – might as well do this when half the stuff is out anyway! It will also give me the opportunity to clean the room, which is very dusty. Autumn cleaning? Why not!

You might just be able to glimpse over the chaos onto my desk, and see the bereavement card – I have made good progress on it and it is more or less complete now. I’ve finished the two-layered front section and have been working on the inside. The blog post about it shouldn’t be too long coming now!

Finally today, I’m taking a leaf out of Bridget’s book and posting a couple of foody photos – last night I made a rhubarb lasagne. Here it is ready for the oven:

and just out of the oven, being served:

The colour in the second photo isn’t that good because it’s in artificial light and even with some manipulation I can’t get it right! Anyway, you can see the layers in the lasagne in the dish. If you think fruit lasagne is weird, I can assure you it’s quite delicious! The middle layer consists of cream cheese and some cheddar, with egg and sugar. The other layers are the rhubarb, spiced with ginger, and on top is a sort of crumble, and I have added some flaked almonds. I have the equivalent recipe for apple lasagne, and that one is spiced with cinnamon. They are both absolutely delicious puddings and I served last night’s rhubarb one with Greek yoghurt. Yum yum.

Happy WOYWW everybody.

Our New House–Final Jobs

After the builders left last year, there were a few problems that developed in the ensuing months, and yesterday Andy phoned to say that at last they had a day between jobs, when they could come and tie up these odds and ends. He and Paul arrived early this morning, and it was quite like old times having them around again!

The main job that needed attention was my bath in the en-suite bathroom. This free-standing bath came with no fitting instructions, and Paul did his best at the time, but I found that the bath was moving if I leant on one side, and then a few months ago I was showing some people around the new house and one of them sat on the end of the bath and it all started to tip up! As a result of this I was very loath to use it in case the movement had caused any breach in the waste, which would cause a flood. Paul did come back and try another tactic to fix it but it didn’t work, and today he finally fixed it for good, by attaching two L-brackets to the side of the bath and onto the floor – very difficult to get at behind the bath! Unless you look behind the bath, you really can’t see them, and it now feels rock solid. Very pleasing! I did warn Paul not to drill right through the second skin of the bath and make a hole right through, because I didn’t fancy pretending to be a little Dutch boy every time I had a bath, plugging the hole with my finger!!

The grab rails in my bathroom that came from Amazon look brilliant, but the design was awful – they were a real pain to fit, and the covers kept popping off. Paul did glue most of them down but he said that a couple of them seemed to be OK so he didn’t bother. In the meantime they have both popped off, so he has now glued them like the others, so they won’t shift.

Finally in the en-suite bathroom, the counter Paul had built for me had settled very slightly, pulling the grout away, so he has now gone right around with silicone caulking and it all looks very neat. It won’t be fully cured till tomorrow morning so meantime a lot of my bathroom stuff is back in the bedroom!

My hubby has been complaining recently about the electric shower in his bathroom being far too weedy to be any good. It is obviously pretty old, and rather than trying to repair it, he decided he’d like a mixer shower tap fitted to the bath, so Andy turned up today with a second-hand one from his store, for which he charged us a very reasonable sum. It looks great on the bath! The hose from the electric shower is visible on this photo, but my hubby has since unscrewed and removed it. We are leaving the actual shower in place, because to remove it would involve making a mess of the wall. They also fitted the poor old chap a grab rail – he’s feeling his age since his retirement!!

In my ARTHaven, the grout had also cracked away around the sink, so that is now beautifully finished with silicone caulking. Also, a few months ago, the head of the tap fell off! It is an extending tap with a hose, and I was able to manage jut using the hose, but Paul has now re-attached the tap with his special super glue. I had pointed out to him a little lug on the underside which fits into a corresponding groove in the main body of the tap, but he forgot about it, and glued the tap on so that if you engaged the lug in the groove, the tap was pointing at the ceiling! He said that as soon as he’d done it, he remembered, but by then it was to late, as the glue had set. While I did agree that an indoor fountain may be attractive, it wasn’t really what was required! In the end Paul cut the lug off altogether, and the result is better than before – the tap can now be located in any position without the inner pipe showing, and it’s now working absolutely fine again.

In the office section, the two long shelves they had fitted were certainly showing their inability to cope with the heavy loads I imposed on them, so they are now strengthened with a wooden batten, and additional supports have been fitted.

In order for this work to be done, I obviously had to take everything off the shelves, and clear space for them to work. All this stuff was dumped in my ARTHaven:

Lovely mess, isn’t it. I am not intending to put it back until my hubby has had a chance to measure a rug we’ve got in the loft. If it is suitable, I shall move the bookcases in the office so that I can lay it down, and it seems sensible to do all this while a lot of the stuff is out of the office anyway. The reason I want a rug is that the laminate floor is rather slippery and offers no resistance to the castors on my office chair, which tends to scoot around all over the place when I want it to remain stationary! This has also proved to be a major problem in the ARTHaven proper, so I am unable to use my lovely comfy revolving chair, which is now just taking up space. Instead, I am using my old wheelchair (with the foot rest removed) – I can lock the wheels and it stays put. It is also very comfortable!

Moving everything out of my office has made me realise how dusty everything was, so I’m also taking advantage of this situation in order to clean up a bit in there. We are out tomorrow so I won’t be able even to think about it till Thursday and probably not then, because I will probably be too tired after our outing.

The final job was to fix Mum’s new door. They had fitted this when they replaced the window with a smaller one, so that she would have independent access into her little patio and wouldn’t have to come through our part of the house to get out. The trouble is, she simply can’t get to grips with anything mechanical, and these modern doors are more complicated to work than old-fashioned ones – she found lifting the handle in order to lock it quite incomprehensible, and somehow kept managing to lock the door when it was open, so that the lock projected and prevented the door from closing at all. She then kept banging the door incessantly, trying to make it close, and making the whole house shake in consequence, and the result was that the door wouldn’t close at all without an effort – she had obviously forced something and it was out of alignment. Paul whipped the hinge covers off and adjusted the hinges, and it now works like a dream! The trouble was, Mum then said she’d be able to lock it again herself, and I had a terrible time persuading her NOT to do this, but to continue to rely on my hubby and me to do it for her each evening. We don’t want a recurrence of the problem!

So all in all, a good day, with lots achieved. All those little niggles are now sorted!

Creative Blog Hop

I have been invited to take part in the Creative Bloggers’ hop by my friend Lucy. We first met online, through the Thyme Machines forum we are both on, for our Cougar cutting machines, and soon discovered we lived fairly near each other, and then my hubby and I moved, and now live just up the road from her! We both suffer from M.E. and this restricts our activities quite a lot, so we don’t get together as often as we might, living so close.

Hop over to her blog:

http://loopylass2010.blogspot.co.uk/2014/08/creative-blog-hop.html

to see what she gets up to. She is very skilful indeed in her use of markers to colour digi-stamps, and is a master at shading. Have a look, also at the work of her chosen nominees.

This is a continuous blog hop that will be every Monday, with lots of amazing and talented crafters and artists. Everyone who takes part answers four questions about their creativity. Here are my answers to these questions.

1. What am I working on?

Several things, as usual! (I am either a highly creative person or completely undisciplined…) The main project at the moment is a small album made entirely from recycled materials, and I have now got to the stage where I am decorating the pages with mixed media. I am also doing miniature Zentangle drawings on the marks left by drying teabags on watercolour paper, and am currently making a bereavement card which is a fairly complex project (no blog post yet, but watch this space!). I am busy saving and drying teabags ready for when I’ve got time to begin teabag art in earnest. I also have a major knitting project on the go. There are always videos of my work waiting to be edited, and I consider this part of the creative process, too.

2. How does my work differ from others in my genre?

Impossible to answer that literally, because I don’t have any particular genre! This means that whatever genre I choose to specify as my own, I am different from others in that genre because I have many other genres as well. I have been told that I have a lot of patience, and attention to detail, and I’m a bit of a perfectionist. I also like to think outside the box and mix my disciplines, and use materials from other genres, and from outside the art world altogether – I get great satisfaction from getting equally good results from products from the building trade, for example, which are a lot cheaper, or free if you know the right people! I enjoy the challenge of recycling and upcycling and using materials that don’t cost anything, and which might otherwise be thrown away.

3. Why do I write/create what I do?

Simple answer: I can’t help myself. I have a hunger to be creative, and more ideas than I will ever have time to bring to fruition, even if I lived to be 300! Some projects have to be made out of necessity – I am not a card maker by choice, but have to make them when the need arises. I get the greatest enjoyment from simply playing – trying different techniques and materials, and asking, “What if…?”

4. How does my writing/creative process work?

I often get ideas out of the blue, or when I am feeding my Pinterest addiction, and from other sources online. When we go out and I get the opportunity to visit studios or galleries, I come back bursting with inspiration. I have even had ideas for projects, or solutions to problems, in dreams! Most ideas go on the back burner because I am determined to finish a few projects before embarking on new ones. That being said, I am the worst hoarder of UFOs (Un-Finished Objects). When I start a project I often spend time mulling it over, and I don’t rush, so that ideas and plans have a chance to mature, and after sleeping on it, I am often more certain how I am going to achieve the desired result. I tend to make rather ambitious projects that take a long time to complete. As for my actual work, I am rather an untidy worker because I find that tidying up interrupts the creative flow. Because of this I waste time looking for things that have got lost under heaps of other things. I am not always able to think far enough ahead to avoid making mistakes, but as they say, “In mixed media art, there are no mistakes – just more layers!”

 

Here are the three wonderful bloggers whom I have chosen to take part next week, and who have graciously agreed to participate. Each one has inspired me in one way or another, and I am grateful for that, and also for their friendship and encouragement. My hope is that this blog hop will expose their blogs to a new audience, who can be as inspired as I am! I have deliberately chosen people outside the card-making and papercrafting genre which my limited explorations into this blog hop so far, have revealed are the dominant themes – after all, the blog hop is a “Creative Blog Hop” and this could include all forms of creativity, maybe even extending to gardening, cooking, music, dance and the dramatic arts! Who know where this could take us?

1. Diana

Diana is a professionally trained mixed media and textile artist and photographer, living and working here in the UK. She normally works with very subtle colour blends, often in unusual combinations, and her work has a delicacy that is quite entrancing. She loves moths and butterflies and has an extensive vintage collection, which she incorporates into her work. Lately, she has been working on the “Index Card a Day” (ICAD) challenge, creating miniature works of art on index cards, and she has chosen to explore the theme of “decay and repair” which coincides nicely with her love of moths; she has used pieces of damaged antique lace, embroidery etc. She has a unique style which she has made her own. Whatever she does, I always find Diana’s work totally inspiring, and it touches me at an emotional level beyond words. She is a faithful follower of my blog, and has proved to be a lovely, supportive friend, and has frequently encouraged my own faltering approaches to mixed media art!

My other two nominees are from Australia.

2. Judy

Judy is a highly prolific textile artist delighting in the use of rich, bright colours and the variety of objects she creates – dolls, puppets, stuffies, flowers, mobiles, masks, bags, banners, you name it… I am bowled over by the level of her productivity – she must have tons of energy! She creates pieces for sale in her local museum shop, and has a couple of elderly relatives living in residential care for whom she makes beautiful things to brighten their rooms. Some time ago she and I did a flower swap; I made a collection of paper flowers for her, and in return she sent me a marvellous wallet full of glorious fabric flowers with dangly beads and sparkles – for some time I did not know how to use them to their best advantage, and then decided to incorporate them into a mixed media project I was working on – decorated spoke guards for my wheelchair! These provoke comment wherever I go, and I always point out the wonderful flowers made for me by a friend in Australia! (Have art, will travel lol!) Once I have completed my current major project I am intending to get my new sewing machine going, and I have to say that Judy is a major inspiration for the plans that I am mulling over for the future. Poor Judy has been experiencing awful problems with her blog recently and lost a whole lot of followers, so I am sure she would appreciate some new ones!

3. Vonny

Vonny is a self-taught watercolour, oil and acrylic painter who is inspired and influenced by the sea life where she lives in Brisbane. Like Judy, she delights in bright colours, and wants her paintings to make people happy – they certainly have this effect on me! She also paints the most amazing birds – parrots and other exotic species, which are so lifelike I am surprised they stay on the canvas. She is often amusingly self-deprecating about her work, but the results are always stunning. I always appreciate the fact that she gives us the whole process of a piece, including the bits that don’t work so well – this is a great encouragement, and shows the creative process at work, and how one can remedy even the worst disasters! Like my other two nominees, she is a prolific worker and leaves me in the shade! Vonny also works in polymer clay, creating unique jewellery pieces, often in the form of sea life.

 

My blogging and creative life has been enriched by these three highly talented ladies, and I feel privileged to have met them online and been able to see their work at close quarters. I could have chosen any number of nominees who have influenced and encouraged me – there are so many! I hope my choice will inspire others to explore their own creativity, and maybe to start thinking outside the box.

I am blessed with a beautiful ARTHaven studio, fitted out to my own specifications, with a continuous, curving work surface around three of its walls. When I designed it, with different work zones for different disciplines (paper art, mixed media, textiles, etc.) I had no idea that the fluid layout would be so condusive to the blending of all disciplines. I would encourage everyone, even if they are not as fortunate as I am in their creative spaces, to push the boundaries of their creativity and spread their wings. I hope my choice of nominees for this blog hop will help them to do just that. Please sign up to follow their blogs and leave some comments to encourage them!

Thank you, Lucy, for inviting me on this exciting blog hop.

Picnic at Babbacome Bay

After all that life has thrown at us lately, my hubby, bless him, suggested going out today, so I made a nice picnic and we took ourselves off to Babbacombe Bay, not too far from home. The road down to the seaside is pretty alarming as it is very narrow and twisty, and probably the steepest hill I’ve ever been down!

The weather was dry and mostly sunny, but there was a cool breeze so it certainly wasn’t tropical… Very pleasant, in fact!

As usual on our outings, I took lots of photos. Here is a solitary gull on a rock.

An added bonus today was a visit by the Red Arrows. Here is a circular trail.

Multi-coloured trails.

The beach with the village beyond. We had our picnic on a seat at this spot.

Beautiful clouds.

More gulls on the rocks.

This is the cliff that collapsed during the severe winter storms. There was a house on the edge of the cliff which collapsed into the sea. And we think we’ve got problems…

The path down to the sea.

Beautiful pink rocks.

A pink streak in the cliffs.

Smooth eroded rocks.

Crystalline inclusions in the rocks.

More crystalline inclusions.

Towering cliffs.

Fishing.

The Cary Arms pub from below.

Finally, a series of pictures of the beautiful texture created by the transparent sea over the pebbles underneath. I love the sheen of the surface and the blending of the colours.

I love our outings to the beautiful coastline in our part of the world. We are so blessed to have all this on our doorstep! It was lovely seeing all the holiday-makers enjoying a Saturday at the seaside, and hearing the children’s happy voices. A lovely, relaxed outing!

WOYWW 272

For info on how to join in the world’s most famous (notorious?) nosey fest where we bare all where our creative desks are concerned, click on the WOYWW logo in my sidebar, and this will take you to our hostess Julia’s blog, and she will explain everything. Health Warning: it is highly addictive!!

As for my desk this week, I am in the middle of a rather special card project – a bereavement card. These are always rather difficult to do, as we all know, and this one is for the family of a friend of mine who died on Sunday after a long battle with cancer. I am in the middle of composing a blog post about the making of the card so I won’t go into a lot of detail here, but if you are interested, watch this space, and I’ll be uploading it in a day or two. It is a Christian card and I want to reflect the two aspects of any Christian death – the natural bereavement and loss, and the certain knowledge that the deceased person has gone to be with the Lord Jesus in glory.

Taking a leaf out of Helen Allen’s book and doing something “bejewelled” – I recently rose to her challenge to follow her example and make my own version of her “Bejewelled Card” – I with this current card, have again stepped somewhat out of my comfort zone and have gone all blingy again, and enjoyed selecting lots of different Stickles! The bottom half of the card looks very dark on the photo, but it’s actually gold mirror card.

I’m afraid the rest of my desk is pretty much as it was last week, even down to the same dirty paint water! (I wonder how many weeks I can leave that there before I’m no longer nice to be near…)

To the right of the bereavement card is the teabag stain/Zentangle thank you card which I made last week.

My hubby took Mum to the surgery again today, and the warfarin hasn’t made any difference to her blood so they have had to increase the dose. They also re-dressed the wound on her arm where Phoebe scratched her two weeks ago, and although it isn’t infected (the course of antibiotics she was on has obviously done the trick), it hasn’t healed at all… Her skin is very poor at aged 93. She is having the dressing changed regularly so they will keep a good eye on it. My poor hubby spends his entire time since his retirement ferrying one or other of us to the hospital or surgery, and picking up prescriptions – he is also having to take himself off to the dentist tomorrow to have a collapsed tooth extracted – as it’s at the back and not visible, we decided this was a better option than having to fork out goodness knows how much for a crown!! (He has a crown in my opinion anyway because he’s so wonderful!!) And now Beatrice is off her food again and losing weight… He will have to take her back to the vet. She may have another urinary tract infection. All this never seems to ease up, and I really want him to have a bit of a break so he can enjoy his retirement!!!

Have a great week, everyone, full of inspiration and creativity. Happy WOYWW!

WOYWW 271

For details of WOYWW and how to join in the most fun nosey fest online, please click the WOYWW logo in my sidebar.

Not a great deal going on on my desk this week, but you can see the third of the recent cards I’ve been making, embellishing teabag stains with Zentangle drawing. To the left of the card, in the centre of the desk, you can see some of my Zentangle ATC-sized cards with patterns, which normally live in my large Zentangle album. Just above this is my Stamping Up set of sentiment stamps – I have used the “Thank You” one on the card. My usual collection of acrylic paints and gel mediums and gesso at the back of the desk, and on the left, my Inktense pencils and in the red box, my pastel pencils. On top of this is a software CD ready to install on my computer. At the back you can also see a little pile of distress inks and my usual dirty water pot, in front of which is my red Stanley knife – I can’t get on with normal craft/exacto knives and find this is much the best knife! On top of the gesso is some stazon ink and a home-made bubble wrap stamp. I think that about covers it!

I am now feeling a lot better after my recent heart attack, and yesterday I went back to the hospital for my annual gastro-enterology check, and the consultant is pleased with how I am getting on, with my ulcerative colitis responding well to the medication. He wants me to have another colonoscopy in February to check on how things are, and also to screen for bowel cancer as I am more at risk of getting this with the inflamed bowel. Mum’s heart scan results came back yesterday and she’s got atrial fibrillation which is not good news for the potential for causing strokes, so she’s now on warfarin. Last weekend Phoebe, one of our cats, scratched her arm and it was pouring blood everywhere, so off my hubby went with her to A&E again, and it’s now all bound up and needing dressing every couple of days (just like when she bashed her legs) and she’s on antibiotics. Never rains but it pours, eh.

Anyway, things are looking up – I had a perm today so I’ve got nice curls again, and having one’s hair done always gives one a lift!

Have a great week, everyone.