Where's Wally?

As it is already turning autumnal I have dragged out the wool and needle felting tools. I have been reading a book about polar bears and came across some photos of walrus. They are just soooo cute and I decided I wanted on for myself. As the bath isn't big enough to accommodate one I thought the next best thing would be a handmade one. Smaller and the smell less. So Wally is the end result. I think he looks a little sad so I may have to make him a friend and then I can have my very own walrus colony.

Photo enlargement problem solved

I finally sorted the problem with my photos not enlarging. Apparently when dragging photos within posts that one is writing the link can be broken. This means that when someone clicks on the link it doesn't enlarge the photo. The cure? I had to link my photos to my Picasa Web album. Blogger seems to supply a Picasa Web album, where blog post photos are stored, so that was pretty simple. I just had to upload my photos to my blog post and publish, then go to Picasa Web and open the appropriate image. By using the 'Link' button on the 'Edit Post' screen I cut and pasted the link to the Picasa Web image and re-published. A bit of extra bother but it would seem to work. I can't claim to have figured it out myself though - the Tips for Bloggers blog told me what to do. I just thought I would pass on the info in case anyone else has the same problems in future.

I'm back!

It's been a busy few weeks. I had a week away -not to some hot country with golden beaches, but to my sister's place to dog sit while she went to the hot country with golden beaches. It was great fun for me though. The dogs were brilliant and very good so we all had a nice time. Well, at least I think the dogs had a good time - at least they didn't complain to me.

So after the calm came the storm. I had alot of things to catch up on and have spent the last week and a half sorting everything out. Some of the things at the top of my 'to do' list were some swaps and cards so the following are the photos so far.

This fan is for a swap with one of my ATC groups. We were supplied with a template and instructions and had to produce one fan to send to a partner. This was my attempt - inspired by Leonardo Da Vinci.

Halloween approacheth! Lots of Halloween images and papers have been floating around but inchies and ATCs are the easiest of substrates to cover. I hope the pictures will enlarge for you to read the humorous comments on the inchies.

This is my most recent page for the tip in collaboration. The farm and cat are hand drawn and the theme is related to 'Harvest'.

I have also started my new Open University course - Neighbourhood Nature. I had thought that it would take a more scientific viewpoint on nature watching but it is quite simple so far (and I have got to chapter 12 of a 13 chapter coursebook in five days). There are some experiments and observations that I have to make once the web site comes online (I just couldn't wait to get started with the course which doesn't officially start until the 1st September) so I will look forward to that in the hope that it will stretch my little grey cells a bit more. I can't help but feel that the Open University is dropping it's standards in order to get more people to take courses. As I said to a friend recently, 'They are meant to be teaching university level courses, not kindergarten courses.' But that's the cynic in me.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

DiSco again

OK, third time lucky. I have re-shot the photos of my DiSco goodies and hopefully they will enlarge when clicked. Here goes nothing:

Update (again): Obviously the photos still won't enlarge so I cropped them all so at least you will be able to see a little more of the detail on the blog page.

DiSco reveal

Way back in February I began a collaborative project with Seth from The Altered Page and over a hundred other artists. You can read about the earlier exploits here and here . The climax of this is to be a display of projects created from the disintegrated papers. After the big reveal of grunged up papers in May I actually left mine out in the elements as they hadn't disintegrated very much. Hardly at all - except for the puppy teeth marks from my sister's dog who felt it needed some extra help. Look what happened during the last three months.



Out of three rolls of paper I got a page and a half that was usable. One roll was filled with creatures that had made it their home so I left it in situ - insects need a place to call home too. Another had a small snail living up the inside but I gently removed it and found it a new home in the undergrowth. The rest had disintegrated through the action of insects, birds and possibly rodents chewing it for bedding. I am amazed that so much 'damage' was done in three months of summer when little effect was seen after three months of rain, hail, sleet, snow and sun between February and May.

So, now for my pictures. I made a few items that I felt fitted the DiSco theme - an ATC (even the paperclips and strings were out in the elements with the paper rolls), a couple of inchies, two beads and a 3x1 inch Memory Frame filled with collaged papers.

Update: It seems the picture of my DiSco goodies won't enlarge. I can't figure out why so I will try to photograph them again and re-post a picture later. Apologies for the inconvenience and thanks to everyone for commenting.

What's new, pussy cat?

This is my latest attempt at pencil work. My neighbour's cat dutifully posed for me, really getting into the act my stretching, sleeping, looking in every direction and generally being a fabulous model. Although I would love to say it was done from life, it was actually from a photo. Hope that butterfly is safe from tiny teeth.

Treasure - AGAIN!

I have been adding a few more hand made beads to my Etsy store again today with still more to come over the next few days. (You can have as sneak preview of the new ones below.) But no sooner had I added some of my recycled map beads than someone added them to their treasury. EvaMarie made a list revolving around travel so I was lucky enough to get my beads included. Very cool.

Socks are not safe!

Look at this angelic face. Butter wouldn't melt. Perhaps even a spot of melancholy?

Now look at this one:

I think he ate the butter along with the sock. For some obscure reason dogs in my family unit like to chew socks. Sam did the same thing as a pup though thankfully that trait died out with his chasing cars and eating gladiolas as he got older. I thought this photo was priceless. Sorry about the picture quality - the glory of mobile phones hasn't developed to include good quality phone pictures.

More treasure!

A bevy of beautiful Greek inspired items await at Etsy today. HighHeelsBoutique has added my Greek Polymer Stamps to her Greek Summer Vacation treasury list. I am so honoured as all of the items are yummy in the extreme.

Buried Treasure

Seth at the Altered Page is running a new project called Buried Treasure. All we have to do is re-publish a post that we might consider treasure. So I have chosen my post on my Nature Journal.

As I can no longer cut and paste the text into Blogger you can visit the above link to read what I have to say on the subject.