haunted houses and pro printers

Have you read this book?  If not, you certainly should.  I couldn't resist buying a copy for myself when I was Christmas shopping in the children's book department.  The illustrations are amazing and the characters and story are adorable.  Who knew you could find so many uses for pesky household ghosts?  Perfect for this time of make do and mend!  

I'm loving lino/block/whatever printing a lot at the moment.  Tonight I'm sporting two very painful fingers from my own attempt - my first attempt in a very long time - but I'm still itching to try again.  What's a little blood loss between friends?  Such is the price of art!

Talking of printing, I think I mentioned Willie Rodger briefly before but I wanted to share an image since I'm on an accidental block printing roll here(!) and the colours of this one are a bit like Kazuno Kohara's illustrations.

(Willie Rodger linocut.  Image from the lovely I like)

I first saw this print on the walls of Stirling University when I was (briefly) studying there.  I seem to remember (or did I imagine it?) that, as well as this print, there was a print of people in a gallery looking at this print.  I would love to have them hanging in my house.  Sigh...

If I'm prepared to sacrifice a few more finger tips, maybe I could create something nearly as wonderful myself.  Hee!  Tonight I'm wearing a badge that says, "I make cool stuff."  I'm wearing it partly for braggart reasons and partly to boost my ego.  It's such a fun badge.  I received it along with a decoration in the cake and pie handmade decoration swap and it was made by Bridget Benton.  If you ever happen to read this, Bridget, thank you for the badge and for the decoration - I love them both!

Wow.  This was all set to be my shortest post ever at two sentences.  Maybe this blogging business is starting to come more naturally to me.

and another thing

That last post sounded a bit negative (it wasn't meant to be) so I thought I'd return and share a few little things that I've been meaning to post about for a while.  These foxy hairclips were bought on a Southside charity shopping day out just before Christmas.  Oh, I love them!  They must originally have had diamond eyes but now only one of the four remains.  I had thought about getting a few diamantes and fixing them up but I think I prefer them the way they are.

These little things appeared in my advent calendar.  This sounds like a lie but I had really been wanting a miniature sewing machine, honest guv'nor!  I love the colours of this one.  Tres seventies!  I included my scabby looking finger for scale.

I got this little object inside a Kinder egg years ago.  Sit it one way and it looks like a dog, sit it another way and it looks like a Russian grandfather.  I'm quite a fan of those two-way pictures, the ones that have two different faces drawn in one, and I think this tickles my fancy for the same reasons.

Check out my A-Team knitting patterns!  Purchased for 10p the same day I got the foxes.  The patterns go all the way up to adult sizes (if only there was a bit more time before Graham's birthday...) but I think I'll start with a small size for a little someone special, maybe for Christmas next year.  I think I'm going to make the blue B.A. Baracus one although the plain A Team one is pretty classy too.  Talking of knitting, I'll be getting a new niece or nephew in about three months.  Yippee!  I know exactly what I want to make (but I won't share it yet incase my sister ever finds this blog) but had better make a start on it soon - it won't be much of a surprise for the baby if it's not finished before I'm using a zimmer, man!  (Yes, that was a clue for those who have knitting know how.)  I am not a fast knitter.

Daytime telly

Lola has become a bit of a telly addict.  Her favourite show is Animal Park with Ben Fogle and Kate Humble (that's what she's watching here) but she also enjoys horse racing and snooker.  She spent nearly a whole afternoon like this last weekend.  

It's been a tough week at work for me and I am brain and body tired.  In my first ever P.E. lesson, I accidentally worked my class so hard that one of them ended up vomiting on the gym hall floor.  And that was probably the high point of my week!  I'm so glad it's the weekend and I'm planning to take a leaf out of Lola's book for at least part of the day... but maybe not with Animal Park.

Necropolis

This weekend's outing attempt was an out and out disaster so... just as well I hadn't posted any pictures from last week's outing!  Graham and I went to the necroplis.  We went there just after we met but hadn't been since so it was nice to go back.  Everything looks so dramatic and I'm sure there are many more strange and wonderful things left to discover on the gravestones and their inscriptions.

Being so high up, you can't help but notice that you are right in the heart of the city but it feels like you're somewhere else altogether at the same time.  I liked the way the chimney in the distance started to look like one of the gravestones. 

These worn faces had names above them but I forget what they were.  I thought the man's hat was quite dapper and unusual.

These animal heads were round the doorway of what looked like a strange little house but I guess must have been a very grand family tomb.

I thought it was so nice and yet so sad and not nice at all that someone in the service of the Euing family was buried alongside Mr Euing and his... mother (I think) in such a grand setting.   I wonder what else there is to know about this family.  I'm sure there's a story there somewhere!

This plain headstone seemed so dignified and straight to the point.

In contrast to the simple headstones, this gravestone for a 19th century actor called John Henry Alexander  is suitably dramatic.  The inscription reads:

Fallen is the curtain - the last scene is o'er:

The favourite actor treads life's stage no more.

Oft lavish plaudits from the crowd he drew,

And laughing eyes confess'd his humour true.

Here fond affection rears this sculptured stone

For virtues, not enacted, but his own - 

A constancy unshaken unto death,

A truth unswerving and a christian's faith.

Who knew him best have cause to mourn him most,

Oh weep the man more than the actor lost.

Unnumber'd parts he play'd yet to the end,

His best were those of Husband, Father, Friend.

Kitty goodness by Penguin and Fish

Have you seen these fantastic stuffed kitties from Penguin and Fish?  I love them!  Their faces are so adorable and I love the way she makes their legs - it makes them look 2D and 3D all at the same time.

I fist noticed Penguin and Fish when I saw these clay kitties on her flickr and they reminded me so much of Poppy and Lola and the way they act when we first get out of bed in the morning, all sleepy stretchy and waiting for their breakfast.  When I read her description of the photo, it turned out she was planning to make them the same colours as Poppy and Lola too (spooky!) so I made her a contact immediately as she was obviously a lady of impeccable taste...!

Here are some more of her kitties standing all in a row, looking a bit like they're doing the Monkees walk :)

Penguin and Fish has a great treasure trove of a blog where she posts (SO frequently) about artists who are inspiring her.   

Brrr!

On Boxing Day, Graham and I went to Burghead with my friend, Julia (who wouldn't thank me for posting this photo of her but hopefully she will never find out - hee!) to see the annual icy cold madness.

Every Boxing Day for the last 23 years, people (this year well over 100 people) have jumped off one side of the pier into the icy cold water and swum across to the other side before climbing out to make the long walk back to the harbour master's office, all in the name of charity.

No such thing as tin foil blankets (or even fluffy towels) await these hardened north east types! Some people dived, some bombed, some flailed and one bellyflopped rather painfully. Most people just wore shorts and t-shirts but some people like these morris dancers...

... wore fancier outfits and danced off the edge of the pier. 

Graham and I decided to consider considering doing the jump in 2010 for the 25th anniversary but on new year's day we walked across a bridge over the River Kelvin and looked at the water.  Graham said, "Think how cold we feel.  Now think of how cold that water is.  Now think of jumping into the sea in Burghead on Boxing Day."  So I don't think we're considering it anymore.

breaking blogger's block

I think the whole new year thing is the cause of my recent blogger's block.  I haven't made any new year's resolutions (I mentioned before that I'm no good at making decisive lists) but I do have a few things in mind that I want to achieve this year.  One of them is to keep on bloggin' (not truckin') so I'm recycling some old photos, and focussing on two good things that happened today, in order to beat the 2009 barrier.

I made this little octopus last Easter while on holiday in Islay.  My niece was fascinated by it and loved it and its two octo-friends.  She kept carrying them around and putting them on the windowsill so they could see the sea.  She was still talking about them quite recently (which is a long time to remember something when you're only three years old!) so I decided to make her her very own octopus for Christmas.  In the rush for international postal deadlines, I didn't manage to take any photos of it but Kim's octopus is much like this one: it has a purple body and legs but has turquoise suckers and eyes instead of orange.  I spoke to my niece on the phone on Christmas day and she told me I had made her an octopus and that she had called it Kim.  I took the fact that she named it after herself as proof that she had appreciated her gift but today I spoke to my sister and she told me about this little conversation:

Kerry:  What was your favourite Christmas present?

Kim:  My octopus.

Kerry: And what was your favourite part of Christmas day?

Kim:  Opening my octopus.

Aaw!  Well, hearing about that little snippet made my day today!  Sometimes making handmade gifts can be so frustrating - they take so much time and then you do start to wonder if it was really worth it or if the recipient was just being polite...  Well, this time it was worth it!  I should mention (again!) that the original pattern for the octopus is by Futuregirl and is now FREE so there are no excuses for anyone not to be making these.  I can assure you they make the perfect handmade gift for three year olds!  Yay!

The other good thing that happened today was that I made another Pat embroidery (again, this picture is of the last one I made and not the one I made today at all but they are very similar) and I seem to be getting slightly faster at my stitching.  Slightly.  Slowly.  But.  Surely.  The lovely Claire from Miso Funky has said she is keen to restock the items she has been selling for me in her fab shop.  I'm really pleased about this.  Claire was my best friend's penpal when I was at school and I wrote to her once or twice.  This year I commented on one of her flickr photos and then realised who she was and got in touch properly.  My friend's teenage penpal has turned out to be such a fortuitous contact and she has very generously helped me to achieve my goal of selling some of the things I've made.  

When I think about it, 2008 was a great year of progress towards the creative lifestyle: I started this blog and (with the help of Claire) sold my first handmade goods.  I feel like things will progress even more in 2009 now that I've made a start.  I made a joint semi-resolution with a friend to have a craft market stall this summer and even the distant thought of that makes me very excited.  Now, if only I could summon up this sort of enthusiasm for my day job...

I did it - I wrote the new year post!  And I'm only cringing a bit...

(p.s. this new year's post on bugs and fishes made me feel very excited about the year ahead, especially when I looked at her older posts and saw how rapidly and wonderfully her handmade items had evolved.  Exciting!  I do wonder what I'll be doing by the end of 2009...  I think I have the new year thing well and truly out of my system now, thank goodness.)