Finished!

This is the first painting for the Back Lane exhibition - the writing around the edge says - " Life is not about getting what you want, its about wanting what you've got..." A sound sentiment if you ask me!


I'll be putting prints of this for sale on my etsy shop over the weekend - there is a link straight to it on the main page of http://www.scrapzville.com/

Her she is complete with frame, I tried every single colour as a background, but black wins every time!

Tomorrow i'm working but then I have five whole days off - yeah!!!!

I hope you all have a lovely Easter and make the most of the weather (though I did see on Facebook that some poor souls are STILL snowcovered!)

lotsa love,

F xxxxx

work in progress.....

This is a new Polly - still not finished but getting there!
Hopefully it'll be finished in time for the exhibition at the Back Lane Gallery, i'm not sure when i'm supposed to have them in by!
This is a 8x10 mixed media on wood - bigger then usual, I love the way her clothes have turned out.

Its half term holidays here, so Zac is supposed to be clearing out his room so that it can be redecorated this week - what he's actually doing is drawing pictures and re reading all the stories he has found! So, i'm off to Homebase to get paint and a blind and new flooring..... it looks like any painting done today will be on walls rather than art!

Some more of France!

This is the abbey in Lagrasse - its just one of the many amazing buildings that we visited. Tim is a history fan and was spoilt for choice of places to visit. Actually, they were all really interesting, and there were alot of vineyards to visit too!

This house is why I want to live in France! there was a patisserie next door, which made it just about perfect!!

and this is a close up of my birthday present, do you want to know why its so special? well, i'm going to tell you anyway!

When my babies were small they always called their beds their nests - they would snuggle up and be cosy in there. Anyone who knows me knows that I LOVE being at home, I mean, love it! even if there is laundry and chaos to sort its the best place to be! and finally, the nest at the bottom has 3 eggs in, one for each of my children.

I wonder if Gwynnie knew that when she made it?

Happy birthday to me!!!!!!

Hello, there are a million things going on in our home at the moment, mostly good, some that we will wait and see what happens. But one thing that happened this week was it was my birthday on Sunday...... (This could be a long post, best go and get some coffee, tea, water, wine? and get comfy!) So, because my fella (that is an official alternative title to "partner", hes not my husband, he says he is too old to be "boy" friend, and he also says "partner" makes him feel like a cowboy!) is completely AMAZING he took me to Carcassone in France for 3 nights! The castle is huge - huge enough to form the outer walls of the old city, people actually still live inside the walls - can you imagine that? they have to be really good drivers to get up and down the streets that were made for knights on horses! There are so many stories and so many photos to show, i'm not sure where to start or finish! we started our journey by driving to Dublin, we had dinner at The Porthouse which is a Tapas bar (thanks Cathy for introducing me to it!) but something strange happened there - I had never tasted calamary or the particular wine we had, I didn't like either and only had a bare taste but I woke up in the middle of the night in a panic. I was convinced that I couldnt' go to France for the silliest reasons, I am claustrophobic and thought that I would suffocate on the plane, also that my children couldnt be on their own while I was gone ( the eldest is 20!) In general it was a total panic that I can only put down to the food........... a horrible feeling, poor Tim, I woke him up at 4am to say he would have to go alone!!!! Still in the morning, all was calm again and off we went. I didn't suffocate - I have alot of visualisation techniques for plane travel, its not the flying it sharing that space with so many others! Also, this is sooooooo stupid - I got a copy of Cloth, paper, scissors in Dublin. I've never found it at home, I was so excited and decided to not even open the cover untill I was on the plane. On the plane I opened my bag to find.... that i'd left it in the hotel!!! but the trip was far too good for that to matter... Anyway, we spent 3 days travelling from Chateaux to castles to Abbeys, taking hundreds of photos and eating delicious food. The whole thing was fabulous!!!!!! But there is more!......... Look at this!!! no not the Gorge or the mountains or the sunshine..... look what is around my neck! Once, ages ago I mentioned to Tim that Gwynnie B had this necklace that I was going to treat myself to..... guess what he had for me on my birthday????! I know, reading this you may be thinking I am thoroughly spoilt, I think I am too! but I honestly totally appreciate everything that I have, I am one very happy 42 year old!!!! xxxxx

Charity Cocktails!

The "Open Coffee Killarney" meetings are run by (the very cool and groovy!) Maria Stack as an informal business networking group. Last night Maria had arranged a fund raiser for a very good local cause the South West Counselling Service. This service is badly needed and could really do with extra funding to help more people. I donated a framed print, which was one of many spot prizes ( I didn't hear who got it yet, I hope they like it!) and since it was "Cocktails for Charity" it seemed rude not to have one! This week has been very busy and so I am loving being at home and pottering around today. I had to go to the DIY shop to get some hooks to finish a craft project, I found them amongst about a thousand other hooks, queued up, paid and then drove away without them!!!!!!! Duh!!!! Still, its no big deal, I dont' need them just yet. What else? my friends Nicole and Timi are putting together an online magazine, "Crafting Ireland" i'm going to enter something into their first challenge, its ages since I did any crafting! Thats all my news today, there is more news to follow when I get some decent pictures........ Have a lovely weekend x x x