Monday 22 August 2011

New wall art.. and a week away

I just HAVE to show you this..
My son is 14 and about to start his GCSE subjects in September, one of the subjects he is dropping is art (OMG school with no art class would of been sheer purgatory for me!) as such he brought home a folder with all of the work he has done over the last 3 years.  When we were going through it my heart almost leapt out of my chest when I saw this.. I LOVE it!  It is now mounted and framed and hanging in pride of place in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs :)


'The Blue Ladies'
sorry about the glare across the glass.. really should of brought non-reflective

A3 size, worked in oil pastels.
I love this so much
I cant believe that his art teacher actually marked him down on this piece because he strayed from the red,orange, yellow tones.. isnt art about doing what feels right?  He is getting lots of positive comments from our friends and family who have seen, and I'm hoping this will boost his self confidence (which has been ground out in art class!) and inspire him to keep drawing & painting.

We have just spent a wonderful week camping and ocean kayaking in Cornwall :)  The weather was a bit dodgy, but my goodness did we have some fun!

Gary & Rachael on Daymer Bay
We camped right on the cliff overlooking Polzeath beach (a lovely place to camp).  Polzeath is a great surf beach! The first half of the week, while the weather was not so good, the waves were pretty big on Polzeath - too much for us with the kayak,  so we stayed on Daymer Bay just inside the Camel Estuary.. the water was calmer here.  When the weather changed for the better the sea calmed right down - the surfers were seriously unimpressed - and we could get out there!  So lovely kayaking up close to the sea birds bobbing around & diving, or nesting on the cliffs - they took no notice whatsoever.. if only I had a waterproof camera!  Here are a couple more pics anyway..
 
Polzeath looking out to Pentire Headland

Daymer Bay.. so peaceful
I had an awful head cold for the first few days (I'd had it a week before we went too).  It really fuzzed my poor brain up for a few days!  I did quite a few daft things - most noticable of which was my mishap with hair removal cream..  Night before we went I did my legs (as you do)   and didnt realise I had hair removal cream on the back of my hand when I put my hair up..  I didnt notice until I put my hair up the next day..  luckily its just a short chunk and not a bald patch that I'm left with - and I'm due a hair cut anyway. 

I also managed to fall in a humungous rock pool!  (Blame it on the head cold) Sods law it was on a cold day and we were on a nice long walk so I was all layered up; trousers, t-shirt, fleece, coat, scarf, backback..  I went in upto my armpits and soaked the lot - I've never been so unintentionally wet in all my life.  Amber was swimming across it at the time - she though I had come to join her lol.  It was funny though I must admit.  And it proved the water repellant qualities of felt too!  I had my phone and camera in my felt backpack - both were perfectly dry.

The kids just have 2 weeks of their summer holiday left now - where has the time gone?  Its flown by!

Hope you are all having a good summer too
xx

Thursday 11 August 2011

Not many words today.. just a picture to share :)    My first wallhanging with a little freemotion embroidery on..  Its a reasonable sized wallhanging 22" x 24"  Inspired by photos taken on many wonderful walks along the North Cornwall coastline between Daymer Bay & Polzeath.

Hung from a nice bit of Dorset driftwood.. collected this piece in Feb 2010, it was just perfect for this hanging.

Just a little stitchery in the sea.. to define the horizon and some swirls in the sea. I needlefelted the sailing boat. Did think of hanging a couple of Cornish seashells from the end of the driftwood.. may still add them.
Freemotion grasses

And a freemotion seagull flying high
 My next wallhanging has a LOT more stitching on it :)

Have a good week folks - hope you are enjoying the summer xx