Monday, July 18, 2011

Give Aways

I have never done this before, so this is a first. There are a lot of people who visit my blog from my website who don't leave comments but I am so pleased that you do drop by. I would like to encourage anyone who doesn't have a blog to give it a try, it really is fun and there are some beautiful, caring and talented people out there in the big wide world.
What I am going to do for this first time give away just to see what people really enjoy in my own work is to offer a few give aways just to see the reaction. The one that recieves the most comments will be the one that is given away. You need to say which one you would like to receive if you are the lucky one.
I will be sending two faces. One will be on fabric and one will be on paper. Do with them what you will.
These six little love birds can be used for many different things. Use them in journals, prayer flags, key rings, mobiles what ever.
I will send you an item of pewter for you to use where ever you would like. In other words, you send me the dimensions and I will make something suitable.

We have only got a short while so hurry to leave a comment that is all you have to do :o)

Featured Blog Carolyn Saxby

CAROLYN SAXBY
As promised I am going to feature every week some of my favourite blogs. Oh wow how inspiring Carolyn Saxby is with her beautiful work. I have been admiring her for a very long time. Somewhere on my blog I posted one of her hearts about a year or two ago.
What I love about her is not only her magnificent sense of colour, but the sensitive way she communicates through her work. I am not going to say too much about her, I want you to pay her a visit and leave her lots of messages. She has been sick recently with flu and I am sure she could do with some cheering up.

Carolyn has two blogs and a flickr account, take the time to go and see all her work, she really is amazing.
Love Stitching Red. Follow her links to the sketchbook projects 2011, beautiful work, but a very sad story for inspiration.
Flickr account.

If you don't waste most of your day browsing through all her work then I will be very surprised. No matter what medium you work with you will be inspired by her breath taking work.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Prayer Flags

I have a friend her name is Lunette. I found this blog about prayer flags and really wanted to make some for her. She is being treated for cancer and we are all trusting that she will be healed. Please if you are reading this... just say a little prayer for her I know she would appreciate it.
Jane is a multi talented artist and you can see some of her prayer flags which is where I got the idea.
Jane made this one. Please go and visit her blog... trust me you will really be inspired.

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Laughing with angels

When I have sad days, there is nothing I enjoy more than searching for blogs that lift my spirit and leave me feeling there is so much to be thankful for, this is one of them. Laughing with angels

Monday, July 4, 2011

Please don't ignore them.



Amazing Artist. Teresa Posyniak

I have not been blogging for a while now, too busy dealing with some demons of my own that rear their heads every now and again. Most of the people who visit this blog come via my website, www.abuseisnoexcuse.co.za, but I also have a lot of very talented artist friends around the world who occassionally pop in to leave a comment. Where ever you come from, please I need your help. Will you show your support and stand up agains DOMESTIC VIOLENCE against women and children by following this blog and leaving a comment. http://abuseisnoexcuse.blogspot.com/

For most of you, I hope this is not an experience you are familiar with, but if one looks at the statistics there is bound to be someone close to you who is in this situation and we have to continue to speak out against all forms of abuse.

Monday, June 20, 2011

Prayer Flags

Jane is an incredible artist multi talented and you have to go and see some of her work. I did a course with her last year which was fantastic and changed my style of journalling completely. I have always kept art journals, but Jane had such a simple and quick way of capturing memoies in art. She has been making prayer flags for a while which I think is an awesome idea. JaneVille. I have lots to pray about so I am going to start this one today.

Comfort dolls and Prayer flags

I haven't been blogging for while I have been far too busy settling in back home in Johannesburg and trying to find work. I was really doing so well in Cape Town and since I have been back I have to start making contacts from scratch. Cape Town is truly the art capital of South Africa, thousands of artists live there involved in every single art imaginable. People are drawn to Cape Town for the arts so when some people said I might struggle with competition they were wrong, there is enough for everyone.
Johannesburg is quite different. I think the wealthy are quite happy to buy prints to hang on their walls, they are not crazy about markets, I think they would rather buy their jams and jewels from huge shopping centers and they consider most artists to be weird!
I have been teaching pewter classes at a particular venue but I am also teaching in peoples homes as long as there are a group of ladies who can get together for the class. It is going okay but I still have lots of work to do.
 There are two things I want to start this week which I think are absolutely brilliant ideas... love them love them. I want to start my own prayer flags and I also want to start a comfort doll collecting for PAINE - Please ABUSE IS NO EXCUSE www.abuseisnoexcuse.co.za  If you are interesting in sending me a comfort doll I really would appreciate it you can contact me via my email address for a physical address.


If you would like to read up more about prayer flags and follow some of the links please drop by for a visit to PRAYER FLAGS.

Thanks for popping by have a beautiful day.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Phillipa Devilliers

I have been away for a while don't really want to go into why, but today I was listening to an interview on the radio and a listener called in and read a poem on air... his name was Matthew and I am doing everything I can to find him so that I can share the poem here on my blog. I was so moved by both of them I wanted to post some links and introduce Phillipa and later I will introduce Matthew.
Phillipa is a young South African poet with an incredible life story and her poetry reflects her history. She has written more than one book but this one in particular was being discussed today. THE EVERYDAY WIFE.

Matthew's poem SHE has been moved to the ABUSE IS NO EXCUSE blog

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Sharon

Please drop by my friends blog and say hello. She doesn't really like to put herself out there and promote her self or her beautiful art work so I decided to add her blog as a featured artist this week.
My dearest friend, and soul sister.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Passionate people.

Another beautiful blog. I love the fashions and beautiful flowers, have a look... beautiful.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Tribute to Janice Lowry




Curious to see how other people journal I found this incredible artist. Follow the links and enjoy her journey. Janice Lowry Have a look at her video

http://youtu.be/AcuIjM6He0k

There is something so wonderful about journalling. I often wish that one of my parents had kept a journal or two. I would like to know what they were thinking and feeling about their day to day life. Someone asked me once if I tell the truth in my journal and I replied... absolutely what would be the point otherwise !

Danny Gregory

I had to share this with you. If you like me, cannot go anywhere without a sketch book / Journal then you will love this mans work. I bought a book of his years ago and it really changed the style in which I used to journal.
I have been away for a while and will take some photo's tomorrow of some of the art work that I have been doing and share it with you. I literally cannot go anywhere with out my journals, water colours, pens and pencils, I just love it... writing and journaling is my meditation.

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

My new art gallery


Please come past the new art gallery I would love to see you there.

Friday, April 29, 2011

Belated Invitation


I was so annoyed, when I received my invitation today ! I would have run out naked with only my shoes, but I am sure I would have been stopped at the airport!

Philip Treacy Hats and Shoes

Not a hat worn at the wedding today but I loved the huge rose.
No No No what were you thinking!
So pretty.
I am not sure about all these hats, but I would go with the pretty shoes.

The pain will ease in time.

What happens when it doesn't seem as though that is true? Last night I was awake doing art until 2.45am. I was enjoying what I was doing and I was watching several TV programs in the background, but for some reason I was anxious and I wasn't getting tired. My thoughts switched from the TV to the art work I was doing and interrupted often with thoughts of the Royal Wedding. I wondered if Kate would be asleep, or would she be tossing and turning and wake up exhausted, but then I thought maybe she would take some sort of herbal sleeping pill to guarantee at least a few hours of sleep? For the past 5 years sleep has not come easily to me and I have fallen into a pattern of staying up late trying to exhaust myself so that my sleep would be short, but deep. It doesn't work and I often toss and turn so much that I am awake again in the early hours of the morning and then can't go back to sleep.

This morning I wanted to go and spend some time with friends to watch the Royal Wedding, but I knew that it would be an emotional day for me.... weddings always are. I love them, but they always make me cry. Perhaps I still hold that fantasy that marriages are all supposed to have happy endings, or could it be that I am convinced they will be long, painful, hard and might even end in divorce... I don't know, but one thing I do know, is that I always pray sincerely for the couple to be happy. I have a peace that William and Kate will be happy and they will make their marriage work. After analysing their writing, William might not be that easy to live with, not because he isn't a wonderful, kind and sensitive man, but because the pain of the past is still very real to him.

A comment was made this morning on CNN, while the wedding was in progress, that William had made the right choice in Kate. Her parents are still married and she seems to have had a normal happy childhood. Well that is reassuring for William, but Kate cannot say the same. She will now marry into a family that most of the Royal family have been divorced and the children have all been through very similar circumstances to Princess Diana, which has left William more so than Harry, cautious and distrusting of people in general outside of his immediate family. He now possibly has some of the insecurities his mother had. Kate's writing is a lot more confident, out going, relationship orientated, which will be good for him and I think she will be fiercely protective of him, but I think she might struggle with communication with him during stressful times, because she talks emotions and he is not comfortable with that at all. I know what you are thinking... a lot of men aren't! But at the end of the day, I do think they will work things out and will be together forever. So if everyone likes a fairy tale this could be the one.

I started by saying the pain will ease in time... what happens when it doesn't. When ever I listen to a couple saying their marriage vows, I wonder what all the men are thinking when it comes to the part, honour and obey, faithful, sharing in all that they have in the future, in sickness and health, rich or poor, until DEATH? I am not a cynical person or at least I try my hardest not to be, but in my personal experience and the experience of so many of my friends, those vows apply to women and not men.

What happens when TRUST has been shattered, promises broken and one is left feeling that your life has no value to the person you fell in love with and trusted with the most valuable thing you have, your heart... how does one get over that?

My friends said:

Time heals a broken heart.
The best way to get over someone, is to get under someone else !!!
You need to get out there and meet new people.
It won't be long and he will be nothing more than a distant memory.

They lied ! Five years later, yes of course I have good days, sometimes good weeks, but so far never a good month.

Attending a wedding is a reminder of all the pain, the sadness of a marriage that failed. Invitations to dinner parties isn't fun being single and driving yourself home late at night. Sleeping alone, night after night is lonely, constant nightmares is exhausting. The stabbing pain in your heart when you least expect it, is relentless. NO the pain does not ease with time.  The only thing that one can do to make life bearable is to keep as busy as possible with things to enjoy, which is why I blog, paint, spend time with family and one or two friends. I enjoy Bella who is a constant source of love and affection and she really makes me laugh. I read a lot and I am sorry to say, but I don't get enough exercise. I do believe that it is easier when you are younger. So if you are young and reading this, there is a lot more hope for you :o) I hope and pray that one day I will wake up and before I realise it... the pain will be gone. I long for that day.

In the meantime, I will continue to share all the wonderful things I am grateful for in the process of healing.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

The Royal Wedding of Kate and William

With all the excitement of the Royal wedding tomorrow I cannot help but think of Princess Diana. I wonder if she would have been happy with her son's choice of wife? Would they spend hours in the kitchen making chocolate cake and talking about marriage? Would she have given him a pep talk about how to conduct himself as a husband I wonder. Well we of course will never know, but I am quite sure she would be extremely proud of her son.
I for one will be thinking about Diana tomorrow and thinking of what she would have worn to the wedding... I wonder?
As I professional handwriting analyst I was fascinated to see a sample of their writing and will have a good look at it in the next day or two and give my opinion.
Kate has really beautiful hands and as much as I love the ring and sentiment behind it, but I personally don't think this is her style. Perhaps she will lock it away and wear something else... I wonder?


My day will be spent wrapped up warmly in front of the TV to watch the whole proceedings, all rather exciting and I do wish them all the very best for their future together.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

My favourite blog this month.

It has been getting colder and colder lately and this blog has been one of my favourites for a long time, but when I saw this photo I had to share it. Oh wow could I be there right now.
I just love this photo too, always a sucker for pretty frills and lace.

Yummie Easter Treats

Who wants to come over and make some? The recipe for these cute yummie little marshmellows can be found here, along with lots more yummie recipes.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Truly South African 'Shweshwe'



Shweshwe is the fabric not the dress. I have given you the link to read up about the history of Shweshwe and I have added this information for my blogger friends who are fabric artists and there are a few. In the early 70's when I was somewhat of a hippy child, Shweshwe was very popular amongst the hippy crowd. Bare in mind that it was during the apartheid era and white and black people just didn't mix, well most didn't, so wearing african clothes was not the norm. I was living in Lesotho at the time with my then husband who was a musician and I discovered this material while we were there. The material is very stiff with starch when you buy it, but after a couple of washes it becomes really soft and because it is pure cotton it is extremely comfortable to wear. My wardrobe consisted of denim, muslin, cheese cloth, white cotton and Shweshwe.
I used to make a lot of my own clothes in those days so I made skirts, pants, and blouses from Shweshwe. The material comes in lots of different colours now but in those days it was only in blue and brown and of course indigo blue is one of my very favourite colours so everything I had was in the blue.