Painting....

This month I did an online art course. This is the fourth one I have done, the second one I have finished!

I like them because by the magic of internet, the world becomes a very small place. It means I can be part of courses that are being held in America or Tazmania or anywhere else you care to think of.

 The two online courses that I signed up for and never finished were ones that you could do any time. You download everything in one go and work away with no contact from the artist.

This one was slightly different in that it was a day to day class for four weeks. Monday to Friday each week there were new posts. They arrived to me at 1 pm each day and I couldn't wait to open them!!

Jenni Horne has been one of my favourite artists for years. I love her blog, she is very open and happy to tell her story. She paints very sweet, whimsical paintings that just make me happy to look at. So, when she announced (finally, I've been hoping for ages that she would do this) that she was ready to do an online course I was probably her first recruit!!

And now i'm totally addicted!! Jenni is very generous with her information and technique - in the beginning I was worried that I would only paint rip-offs of her art, everything I did looked like hers (not as good obviously!) but she encourages you to keep going and find your own thread and eventually I did!

Here are two little birds, I also have paintings of flowers (that don't really look like flowers) bikes, armchairs, cars and houses..... I'm like, "what else can I paint a picture of??"

Now, the next thing I need is a framing course!

Holidays.

When we went to France last month we went down to a little town called Ax-la-Therme.

It is very quaint, lots of narrow streets with these lovely tall, thin houses with shutters.

There was very little English spoken there so we had to practise our best French - I must say all the restaurant staff were very patient!

Ax-la-Therme

 has a natural hot spring and there is a stone built pool in the town centre. Each evening you see people sitting with their feet in it, the water is quite hot 

 and seems to be a very social thing to do!

Then we headed back to Carcassone...... I love this place, I have been twice before but this time my Mum and Zac flew in to join us. It was my Mum's birthday, here she is making the most of the retail therapy! (Apparently I only have one leg?!)

 It was 34 degrees while we were there...... seriously hot, but lovely dry heat, not a bit humid so I loved it.

So that was France - nice weather, nice food, nice wine, lovely company!!

F x

1st August - the start of Autumn.

Well, it was the 1st August when I started this post but now it is 12.30 am so its the 2nd but nevermind.

Ok, if you look back at this blog you will see that every summer things go quiet. The sun comes out and I go outside and nothing much gets created to blog about.

 This year has been mostly the same, except we have been working  away slowly on Mums house (when I say "slowly" it means there is no such thing as a small job and everything is taking ages to complete.)

We also changed our internet provider which proved nothing like as easy as promised........ but I think its sorted now and we have something slightly faster than dial - up! It used to be that we had internet yesterday but not today, maybe it'll be back tomorrow?

Since today is officially the start of Autumn I thought it was time to get back to it, so, here is a quick list of what this summer has included....

1. Celebrating Molly's 20th birthday.

2. We went to France and had weather that ranged from snow to 34 degrees!

3. Had lots of classes around the country, which aren't work at all, they are just like big gatherings of women I like spending time with!

  Bunmahon - Altered configuration boxes.

 Castlebar - Polly Dolly bunting.

 Killarney - ATC tag books.

 4. I did an online art class with one of my favourite artists..... still learning to paint with my left hand!

                           5. Read loads of books, one made my 'worst books i've ever read' list but now I'm reading Silk worm by Robert Galbraith ( who we all know isn't Robert Galbraith at all!) it is not for the weak stomached, but is un-put-downable!!

 We have had a lovely summer and since Zac isn't going back to school at the end of August it feels like we have loads of time left (even if it is Autumn now).

I also made my Halloween and Christmas projects..... I know right?, super organized! Here is a snippet of Halloween......

So, thats it - Summer of 2014 in a nutshell!

The weather is much cooler today, so maybe it is Autumn after all....

Bye xx