My Blog List

Thursday 15 January 2015

KEEPING BUSY and FIGHTING OFF THE LURGY

Hello All and Happy New Year!
We have had a great time this season and eaten and drunk and visited our fill. It has become cold and the ground was white for the first time the night before last but it has all gone now.
The quieter times of the New Year have seen some projects started and others finished.

My sister gave me a pack of wallpaper samples in my xmas pressie and I've spent many happy hours enhancing and embellishing them and cutting them into useful cards and bookmarks. In fact she will receive some for her birthday in a couple of weeks. I made her a set of cardlets and kept some for myself'
I was so pleased with them that I sent off for more free wallpaper samples from some of the suppliers and now eagerly await the post.
I also finished knitting the log cabin blanket and it is now being mattress-stitched together. I knit a few blankets so this one will be a gift for my brother. His birthday is in March and it will be handy in his new campervan.
Amongst lots of other lovely items, I received these letters from my SIL and have gessoed and lightly sanded them ready for painting and decorating. I'm waiting for a good idea to happen because I don't really want them to look like I got them at Next. Something wow but easy.
Painting classes started again yesterday and I came home with this one.

It's supposed to resemble The Wain Stones looking towards Cold Moor. I'm enjoying using the acrylics now and the painting knife more than a brush. I feel less precious about painting over stuff and starting again. I have started to use new colours and metallics.
I did this recently too.
It started off as a bit of Tees river bank but ended up as a bit of Oz, so I popped some cockatoos up in the branches and made it into a billabong.
This is Hedgerow with Berries and it catches my eye every time I see it. I'm not sure if it's finished. Will more paint improve it or wreck it?

Still doing the 5:2 diet most of the time. I don't lose much weight. I have a sweet tooth. DJ is doing better and is pleased. 
It has made us more aware of wht we eat and how much. Even when dJ was ill with the lurgy he was still happy to eat all I gave him. Now we are both better we want to stay that way.
This turned up on facebook recently and I decided to make a batch....
...of these ingredients into...
In two weeks time I can extract the juice and use it to dose myself against all ills.
This link will tell  you more...http://mountainroseblog.com/fire-cider/

Cheers Gillian