The Beauty I Chose ♥

I seem to have abandoned this old blog of mine. I really would like to be here more often, so hello again!!

A long, long time ago (August!) I won a most beautiful giveaway - lucky, lucky me!!
Hosted by the wonderful Lisa on her beautiful blog Pennycones.




Lisa's fantastic giveaway was a print of choice by her lovely, amazingly talented friend Kayleigh Radcliffe.

Here is the beauty I chose ♥




Oh, isn't it so beautiful!!

I was so thrilled & excited to win & receive a piece of Kayleigh's work, and have given it pride of place in my home.
I look at, and love it, more & more every day :)

So a great BIG thank you to Kayleigh & Lisa, for being so generous XXX
And a HUGE apology to them both for being SO late in blogging about my special win - I really do love it so much XXX

Please pop over to visit them if you don't know them already, you'll be very happy you did :)))

Chaos/Alive

I'm still alive!

There I am in my grubby mirror.

It's been a bit chaotic around here; I was disorganised before having children, so now I find myself with three (how did that happen?!!) the household is quite often in anarchy.

I loved a bit of anarchy in my younger, carefree days - however when you're the one having to tidy up the carnage, it's not quite the same.

I've still been reading & loving all the beautiful blogs, but find myself recently, more & more, wondering how you all do it?!

So in the interests of balance, here is my chaos.

It's the piles of 'stuff' that gets me!

Well, you didn't think I was going to show you the really grubby stuff, did you?

Maybe when I know you a little better :)

Oh, by the way, something wonderful happened to me in Blogland during the Summer - I won my first very special Giveaway! It's *beautiful* and I shall tell all in my next post.....

From Garden To Plate

Et voila!!

How Does Your Garden Grow.....

Life has been too busy to blog recently. Starting to reap what we sowed though, yum!

The courgette has kind of taken over our tiny veg patch, good thing we love them.

Wish We Were There

A few months ago, by the sea.

Wish we were there now - it's been rain, rain, rain!

Many thanks to Nath at the lovely Le Petit Oiseau for showing me the way to show my photo's larger - finally!!

Goodbye Louise

It seemed she would go on forever - she left today aged 98.

I'd find it hard to fully express what her work meant to me - but as a woman trying to make art, her inspiration is immeasurable.

"She smashed a taboo," said Christopher Knight, The Times' art critic. "Bourgeois was the first Modern artist to expose the emotional depth and power of domestic subject matter. Before her, male artists had only nibbled around the edges, and women just weren't allowed."

R.I.P Louise Bourgeois 1911-2010 X

Elephants & Cow Parsley

Quick - head over to Flora's wonderful blog - she is having a most fantastic giveaway!!

So many beautiful pieces to choose from - I fell in love with him!

Also thanks to Flora I have found yet another way to spend far to much time glued to the laptop - Picnik!!

Sunday Song

This is straight from my childhood - my sisters & I grew up listening to these songs.

Then, as often happens, years go by, things get lost along the way. & Only years later, I came across the LP and as soon as that scratchy sublime sound flooded out of my record player I was straight back there, in my childhood home singing along with my sisters.

Now these songs are part of the landscape of my children's childhood, and that gives me a warm, if not somehow melancholy feeling.

I like this line of continuity, linking my parents, myself & my own children - I wonder if it will carry through the next generation?

(*Please click through to YouTube - the one I selected was Some Velvet Morning - you could choose any they are so beautiful, but the video for this is just amazing X*)

Orange love

I wish it were mine *sigh*

East London Graffiti

Lovely day back in London, visiting two friend's fantastic shows.

Karin's at 10 Gales Gallery in Bethnal Green, and Andy's at Unit 2 Gallery at my old university.