MEN AT THE WINDOW

For the past week (although it seems like a year) we have had men about the house (mostly outside) painting windows, doors, railings and walls.  Wherever you are or whatever you are doing (!) a man can appear at a window or door at any time.  It is totally discombobulating.

I managed to make some art by hiding upstairs and had lots of exercise running up and down the stairs to fetch bits of art equipment and cups of coffee.

Alison at "Art Journal Journey" is asking us to make art on the theme "Recycle and Collage".  

I've got a large box of painted papers some going back twenty years so that's the recycling.

If I hadn't been discombobulated I would have shown these papers before I cut them, but here is some indication of the bits

and the picture before I sewed the fabric to its "vase".

Here it is framed.

It's going to a group exhibition in May.   We each made a picture on the theme "Flower" using identical white frames.

Douglas likes it.  So that's alright.

THREE EXPERIMENTS

Hello again!

Regular visitors might remember I put up a couple of posts where the pens chose the colours for an artwork.

I took out four this time, but they chose four dark ones and I had to add another one - the light green on the right. 

My friend J. makes the most exquisite and also useful sketchbooks and I've now got quite a stash, so I broke open a new one and used a little thumbnail sketch from one of my Thumbnails Sketchbooks
.

HOME IS A VASE

"Home is a vase" ???

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Alison is hosting "Art Journal Journey" this month with the theme "Recycle and Collage".  

STORM AT SEA

I drew the sky and sea, and the rest is drawn and cut out. 

Some of the cut-out was left unglued to give a 3D effect.

Finally - and this will come under "Recycle", I had a few scraps left over from a textile piece and re-arranged they looked like this.  The only change/addition I made was to give the two walkers an eye each.

I'm not sure this is going anywhere but I found it amusing.

I'm linking it to "Try it on Tuesday" where the challenge is to "Recycle Something".

VISITORS AND OTHER THINGS

Hello everyone.

I've missed you all while I've been out of Blogland.

First of all precious visitors, Lavinia and Ethel arrived.  The teddy in the middle is a welcoming resident.

They always bring my sister with them.
When my sister arrives we hit the ground running and don't stop.

Why let a little snowstorm get in the way of a walk over the hill?  We were well wrapped up and had our snow poles and yaktrak ice grippers on our shoes.
I'm the one on the left.

We've been decorating and are on our third room.  Eagle eyes will see that Douglas is helping from the top of the ladder.
This room was the study/computer room.  It was quite a cosy room.  It's going to be light and bright.

And just to make sure we were kept busy, we've been doing a massive decluttering - books, fabrics, yarns, clothes and anything that looked at me in a funny way (teddies excepted).

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At "Art Journal Journey"  Alison has chosen the super theme "Recycle and Collage".  

I got out my bowl of home-made prompts

and these three came out.

I made a gentle little collage.

Seriously, I think it's rather sweet.

I can see a range of collage cards coming on.

I gave it a little twirl just for fun.

It looks quite Japanese, don't you think?

If you've visited, please do leave a comment, it means a lot to me.

A POST FROM THE FROZEN NORTH

We've had some snow in Scotland.

It kept coming and was 7 inches deep at our front door.
I know that's not much compared with other people but we played at being snowed in.

Part of the garden

Mr. Esmeralda built a garden chair from scrap wood.

I cleared out and tidied the stuff in the attic and did some knitting, helped by Mabel.

We played a game called "Caper" where you steal jewels with the help of miniature metal ladders, screwdrivers, wirecutters, knives and pipewrenches and try to get them back to your hide-out.

The words on the cards are in English and French so when you have a "Roll Again" card you can say "I'm playing a "Rejetez les dés" card which is fun, of course.  I am easily amused.

We fed the birds (constantly) and in addition to the regulars we saw more unusual visitors - one brambling, one blackcap, a flock of redwings and some fieldfares.

The artistic fox wandered by.

The blue butterfly transfer on the window is an attempt to stop the birds flying straight into it.

After a few days we got cabin fever and put on our Yaktrax Shoe Ice Grips to walk round the hill which took a lot longer than it usually does.

Mr. E. climbing the hill

In the front garden a heather was flowering through the snow

so I made a joyful little flower for "Spring", the theme at "Art Journal Journey" chosen by Rosie. 

All the pieces were painted first then digitally put together.

If you are snowed in I hope you are having as much fun as we are.

THE FRIENDLY CAT

Rike at "Art Journal Journey" is asking us to make art on the theme "Animals from A to Z" and so here is 

"C" IS FOR CAT

THE GHOST'S CAT

Hello everyone.
I've been a little absent from Blogland (again) as I've been celebrating with a four-day birthday.  
Being one year older is always a cause for celebration at Orange Esmeralda's house.

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I made a painting for Rike's challenge theme - 

"Animals from A to Z" at "Art Journal Journey".

It's "G" for the Ghost's Cat.

I see there is a little orange stoat there too, so it's also "S for Stoat".

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I'm still playing with prompts and the next piece is for the Instagram challenge where the prompt is "Unfold".

"In Spring the leaves will soon unfold from the trees of Winter".

Have a happy rest of February!