Passport Photos- I've Realised I'm Old!

What is it about passport photos; the stark lighting, the serious expression? Whatever it is, mine makes me look as old as my mother. Having taken the photo and viewed the result, I rushed to the mirror to assure myself that I didn't really look that bad. The trouble is, I do! When did that happen? When did I start to look middle-aged and why didn't someone tell me? The thing is, I'm one of those people who rarely looks in the mirror. I have long straight hair that I wash, comb straight and leave to dry which it does in an hour and remains as straight as "pump water" until I've slept on it. No blowdrying, no primping, no having to check it in the mirror. I also rarely wear makeup so again no need for a mirror. I guess that expains why I'm so shocked at my unvarnished appearence. Apart from aches and pains, I don't feel as old as I am- I mean feelings about things, sense of humour etc. My 15 year old called me immature the other day and sometimes that's how I feel. So the question is should I start exercising my face to chase my emerging jowls away, should I wear makeup and cut my hair short or should I just accept the fact that I've become the person my mother was when I was a teenager?
I'm not going to show you the offending photo, that's between me and the passport dept. However, I take some comfort from the fact that my youngest's photo makes her look dreadful too:

Incidentally, I heard on the radio yesterday that if you DO look like your passport photo, then you're too ill to travel. I'm going for a lie down......

Cup Cake Heaven

Little pixie face and I had the house to ourselves yesterday. Eldest was at a karate competion getting thrashed :(  son was at a rugby game scoring his first try :) so cake-making was the order of the day. A big batch of orange cup cakes were made ( they don't last long in our house), then carefully iced:

Then came the difficult decision of which to eat first

Thea declared it the best day ever.

One Month Since Last Post

And time marches on! I know exactly where it's gone- nursing children with flu interpersed with having it myself. From two days before Christmas I was imprisoned in my house, surrounded by germs. I felt like daubing blood-coloured paint on my lintels and shouting out 'Unclean!' every time someone knocked at the door. Poor little pixie face was so poorly she couldn't open her presents on Christmas Day. The other two had already had the bug and had been coughing for weeks, but still came down with it again. It seems so much worse being ill at Christmas- the only upside was being able to avoid some family commitments. Anyway, I find the longer I'm away from blogging, the less I feel like starting it up again. I feel like I should have something awesome to say after a month's silence, but sorry to disappoint- I haven't. I'm feeling a bit better this week and I'm back into creating after weeks of lying around watching TV. Sadly I didn't get any Christmassy pics to show you wich is a shame 'cause this year's cake and wreath (joint effort between pixie face and me) were lovely.
At least I managed to complete all my artwork and jewellery that had been commissioned for Christmas, I only have a picture of a portrait I'd been asked to do:

I don't know if the recipient was pleased with it, but the sender was.

A couple of new items going into my Folksy shop:

I'm really into the combination of silver and copper at the moment.

Mothers and Daughters

I caught my eldest daughter (15 yrs) typing away frantically at the computer the other night. When I asked what she was doing, "Nothing!" she sang. I've now found out that she was setting up her own Folksy account called MyMumMakesSilverThings. When I asked her why she'd done that, she said in the hope that someone might come across her account and be redirected to my shop. In her bio, this is what she has written:
"I'm no good at making things, or being creative in any artistic way, but just in case someone comes across this profile in some unknown way, I just want to say that my mother goes by the username 'TheSilverMoon' and she makes some really gorgeous silver jewellery. She also has a website: Tammy Kingdon Fine Arts - Google it. She really is amazing, but she's too modest to advertise how good she is, so I thought I'd help her out without her knowing. She really is an incredible artist, and just if you visited her website or looked at some of the jewellery she makes, we'd both appreciate it massively. Thankyou"

I found this out because she sent me a message via Folksy:


I Just Wanted To Email You Regarding How Beautiful Your Jewellery Is...


Hello, I was just searching Folksy and couldn't help but notice some of your jewellery. It is amazing how you make it, and I'm very proud of you. The time that you put into all of this really pays off. Well Done :)

I wanted to post about this because it's so unusual for her to be demonstrative in any way and I had a really warm feeling inside when I realised what she'd done. Don't get me wrong, the next day we still argued about whose job it was to clean out the rabbits and walk the dogs- she hasn't suddenly morphed into a Stepford daughter, but it made me realise that certainly as our children get older and we have less cuddles, pictures and love notes from them, we must take any positive we can and treasure it, embrace it and squeeze the living daylights out of it, if only to remind ourselves how much we love them despite (and sometimes because of) their teenage behaviour.

(Only Just) In Time For The Snow

I've been busy making myself a new coat for the winter. It was supposed to have been made about 3 years ago, but I kept putting it off, sure I'd make a mess of it. Well, at the end of last winter I donated my old coat to a worthy cause which kind of forced my hand to produce something. I wanted a cross between a great coat ( think male outerware in Tess of the D'Urbervilles and Wuthering Heights) and a woman's 1940s style coat, but couldn't find a suitable pattern so had to adapt what I had and make bits up. Here she is:

Complete with paisley lining

and handmade ceramic buttons from dotterypottery on Folksy. They were a bit lighter in colour than they looked on the website, but they look just fab and look at how they arrived complete with a little thankyou card:

I love buying handmade!

I had to finish it for today as it was my Grandmother's funeral and I didn't want to go wearing my camping coat. Nanny always wore high heels and a hat whenever she went out, so I couldn't turn up to see her off in any shabby old thing. I think she'd have been pleased.

When Even a Cup of Tea Won't Do

We've been struck down with a cold virus ( of course to the men in the family it's the 'flu). Luckily I've a cupboard full of homemade remedies which are easing us through our illness. I've discovered a fantastic liquid remedy quite by accident. On Saturday I had a stall at a new arts and craft fair which was to be quite a big deal and of course I was developing the lurgy and felt dreadful- even a good strong cup of tea held no appeal! So I filled my flask with boiling water, half a lemon sliced and a few cm of ginger root also sliced. Topped off with a generous slug of rosehip syrup, it infused throughout the setting up and initial flurry of excitement. Just before the doors opened, I poured myself a cup of the infusion to mask the menthol eucalyptus smell from my throat sweets and it was so soothing- the sweetest tasting medicine ever. Well, I've been adicted ever since- it got me through that day and all my jobs in the following days.
The fair was a reasonable success, this beauty sold before I had chance to list it on Folksy:

It was made by pouring molten silver into water. I absolutely loved it and didn't expect it to sell ( yes I was hoping to keep it for myself). But someone I know bought it, so at least I get to visit it occasionally.
 The artwork I'd finished didn't sell, but I wasn't surprised, this was in Hinckley after all- not exactly known for its appreciation of fine art. The linocut reduction worked well:

And the plain linocut looks good too. I can't decide which I prefer;

For now, I'm continuing to list stuff on Folksy and am toying with the idea of adding prints to my Folksy range. So many ideas, so little time (and energy; cough, cough)

These now available here

More Remedies to Store Away

This is my first attempt at Rosehip syrup; just look at all that beautiful bounty from Mother Nature

I plan to use it as cough/cold medicine. Personally, I've never found cough medicines to be effective unless it's the drowsy variety which simply send me to sleep so I don't notice the fact that I'm coughing. Incidentally, in a very poorly moment, I once had a dose of said cough stuff just before having to collect the kiddies from school with disastrous results (stumbling along, forgot I'd taken the dog with me and left him tied up outside the library- only noticing he was missing at tea time when he wasn't scrounging for food!) Anyway, Rosehips are filled to bursting with vitamin C so I figure the syrup will make excellent medicine.

On the creative front, these beauties are winging their way to their new owner after being in my shop for less than a week- time to buy in fresh supplies, I think

I've decided to think positive and make as much as I want to sell, although actually it's usually when I've been thinking pessimistically that I then seem to sell stuff - perhaps I have quite a delay between my thoughts and their fulfilment?

As I have a stall next weekend, I thought I'd better replenish some of my fine art stock and I've been really missing doing some printing. When I was in college a few years ago, I made this ceramic fish plaque to go on the wall outside (it's still not there yet):

Before I'd glazed it, my then glass tutor told me I could use unglazed ceramic pieces as a mould. I decided to use lots of pieces of glass with blue frit ( tiny pieces of glass). But when it came out of the kiln, the pieces hadn't fused together. So I placed all the pieces onto a plain piece of glass with deliberate spaces in between the pieces, and this is how it looks:

I'm going to have a go at setting it into a piece of wood with a night light behind it (put it on the list). Anyway, this is my inspiration for a lino cut. I've reused the lino from a reduction linocut that I did last year

It might look quite pretty printed from this side.

Before cutting my design into it, I've printed the fish shape in blocks which I will then print the carved one over:

The design will be a celtic pattern that I thought up whilst sitting on the sides of the roller disco last Saturday- forced to rest after a particularly nasty fall and injury- waiting for it to heal before I carve this design into the lino:

I know, I should know better at my age