Happy New Year

Happy New Year Blogging buddies! May you have love in your hearts, peace in your soul and whisky in your glass. Cheers!

Christmas Secrets

Secret Sunday on The Altered Page

Thou Art Thy Mother's Glass......

Thou art thy mother's glass and she, in thee, calls back the lovely April of her prime.

I finally managed to finish my mum's christmas present in time. Just!  It didn't turn out quite as I wanted it too, because I hadn't left myself enough time. That's something I'll remember in future. However, mum loved it; it made her cry. Mission accomplished!


Hope you all had a lovely day yesterday.

Love and Peace

Only two days to go; I have just finished baking the mince-pies, the holly and ivy are draped over the mantle and I'm on my second glass of sherry!

To all my blogging friends, thank you for your kind words and support over the last few months.

Whatever you celebrate this yuletide holiday, may it be a happy and peaceful one. Love to all, Jo x

Ancestors 2

Continuing down the family tree, this photo shows my Great-grandmother, Leah Weavell and my grandmother, Dora.

I can't see any resemblance to me yet!

Ancestors

Just discovered this beautiful photograph of my great-great-grandmother. I'm hoping to do create a fabric collage for my mother for Christmas using this. Apparently she was a lovely, gentle woman, but unfortunately, I can't remember her name! So I'm on a mission to find out more about her.

Thanks to my cousin, Jill, I now have a name for my lovely ancestor. She was Mary Anne Jennings.

Grrrrr!

Is anyone else having a problem with Blogger at the moment? For the last week, I have received no email notifications when someone posts a comment on my blog. So, please forgive me, dear and faithful friends if I haven't responded. If anyone can help, I would be eternally grateful! In the meantime, beware and.........

Sunday Morning

Ok folks it's........

so......

Then head over to Seth's, Altered Page

Groovy Baby! Yeah! 2

Remember in a previous post I showed the tiles I had made with retro images from 70's teen annuals. I also mentioned the the way the artists portrayed teenage girls in some of the stories. I can only assume they were living out their fantasies on paper! Here's why.........

Revised Christmas List!

My hypocrisy knows no bounds; for those of you who saw the original, previous post, you may have noticed that more things are creeping daily on to my list!

I have now added something from the holy trinity of DeMeng, Wilkenfeld, and Mika. Not a cat in hell's chance, but a girl can dream!

Falling In Love Again.....

No, it's not what you think. I am having a big love affair with all things Nordic and Scandinavian. Like most people, I love the shabby chic look for interiors, but recently I have come across lots of blogs from Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands. The beautiful, clean, simplicity of their decor, combined with rustic touches got me quite excited, I can tell you!

I had always been interested in the Gustavian look, but now it's become a passion. Not sure how we'll cope with white walls; the light is very different in England, and I have a very messy family. But I shall persevere!

Favourite places at the moment are:

Jeanne d' Arc Living

Stipje

Jouluntaikaa

Tine's Kreative Hjorne

Madame Petite

Country by Mail

Images from Jeanne d'Arc Living magazine

Knicker Problem Solved!

Feeling funky days!

by Joan McGowan-Michael

Feeling sexy days!

Ummm....Feeling fat and chilly days!

The Retro Knitting Co.

...and we don't want the man in my life to feel left out!

Dottie Angel Challenge!

If you haven't discovered dottie angel yet, then you are in for a treat. It's a blog full of warmth and humour, arts, crafts and lots of homemade. recycled loveliness!

Having been raised by a mother who made everything (we even had knitted vests!), I've always got enormous pleasure and satisfaction from creating something from nothing, or making a piece of junk look beautiful. Sooo....
I have decided to take the plunge and join Tif and the others in this challenge, starting 1st. January 2010. Check out her blog for full details.

Oh and any advice on how to overcome the knicker problem would be much appreciated!

Secret Sunday on The Altered Page.

Wow, that week rolled by too quickly! My blog posts are repeated as I haven't had time to do my own. Seth Apter has hi-jacked my blog! Hope you're listening Mister!

Sorry I haven't posted for a while, but I've been so busy doing Christmas stalls and making these little felt hearts. They've been selling really well, so every night I'm having to make another batch!

Secret Sunday

Don't forget to head over to Seth Apter's blog, The Altered Page tomorrow, to find out more about your arty comrades, as part of the ongoing Pulse project.

Blog Sharing!

Thought it might be nice to share a few of the blogs that I enjoy following and hopefully introduce you to something new.

Today it's a lovely arts and crafts blog called Fleur de Boheme, written by Kirsten from Denmark. She is also having a blog give away at the moment, so you could have a chance to win this lovely brooch.

Groovy Baby! Yeah!

There were certain girls magazines that my mother would not let me read when I was an impressionable pre-pubescent. I had outgrown "Twinkle" and Nurse Nancy; "Mates" was too racy, with it's photo stories of teenage girls wearing badly applied eyeliner and mooning after spotty youths.

Jackie was almost acceptable, but I was finally allowed "Mandy" and "Bunty". In it were wholesome girls who loved nothing better than to care for their pets, bake biscuits and play hockey. If they did go out it was to a "discotheque" with the boy-next-door.

Or so my mother thought....... In reality, the artists depicted young women who either looked very plain (see above), or wanton sex kittens with pouting lips and thrusting breasts a la Brigitte Bardot! There was no question which one I wanted to grow up to look like!

So this is a little retro homage to those glorious 70's artists.

If Only!

Just a quick note to everyone who has commented on my new banner; I wish that I had painted it myself, but it is a public domain image from....... (you're gonna be surprised!)...... the one and only...

MR. VINCENT VAN GOGH!

It's called "Skull With Burning Cigarette".

Good to know the old masters still have a few tricks up their sleeve.

Bare your Arty Soul To Dr. Seth!

Seth Apter is conducting a huge project to find out what makes us tick. Head over to The Altered Page for more details. If anyone has his finger on the pulse, he does!

Tarot Deck- The Hermit

This is my contribution to another collaboration I'm doing with Alicia and the gang over at Altered Bits. I still have to do Justice and The Chariot. Oh and Christmas! Still have to fit that in somewhere! : )

....and thanks to Lumilyon's post, I can do this with it! I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon, but for now, it's great fun.

Treasure From Overseas!

I have been taking part in an Altered Assemblage round robin for the last few months and my original piece finally winged it's way home across the Atlantic. It arrived beautifully changed by the people who worked on it, Alicia, Kerin and Rachel. I'm so thrilled and will always treasure it.

Finished Altered Assemblage

the beautiful inside..

Alicia added the Charlottes to represent the four women who took part in the challenge.

However....... not only did Alicia post back my piece, but inside the box, it looked like this!

Treasure!

Beautiful ATC's by Alicia

The legendary Altoid Tin (always wanted one of these) and gorgeously wrapped chocolate.

Very cool lab stuff.

Oooooh.... what's in this lovely box?

Tiny treasure!

Simon got quite excited about this; apparently he used to use these as Flash Gordon's rocket when he was a child!

See!

Gorgeous wrappings that can all be used again!

I even loved the newspaper wrapping. It's great to see the different sort of food that's sold in other countries.

So there you have it; my box full of treasure, from Alicia, who's kindness and thoughtfulness is overwhelming.

Thank you x