lightcatchers | The Contented Crafter

Doesn’t time go past fast when you are having fun, or prevaricating – er, sorry – incubating new directions in your art work………

The large work in progress on the easel remains just that, a large work in progress on the easel. I shall probably finish it just because I am tired of skirting round the thing as I try to get at other supplies. If you are new here, (and there have been so many new follows since my last post, and I am inordinately grateful to have you here, thanks for coming by and please do feel free to jump into the general chat, we love that!) here’s a link to where we were at two months ago and where we’re pretty much still at as far as this particular piece goes……..

Now to catch us all up. It, the painting, got neglected due to the fact that other tasks called me. I’d call them commissions, except no money changed hands other than between me and my art and craft supplier 🙂 I am repaid in love and in a hundred other practical ways including the majority of the photos in this post, so lets just call it Creating Happiness and Fun Everywhere or CHaFE, which is somewhat of an unfortunate acronym ( I wish I could input a belly laugh emoji here)

First there was a living room do-over. From this:

Before 1

To this:

Inky Wall 4

YD did the couch covering job while I was involved as colour and pattern consultant, chief cushion maker and this arty creation

Inky Wall 2

A wall of Inkies doodled and undoodled, framed and artfully hung to make a colourful backdrop of YD’s favourite colours over her newly covered cream couch.

Inky Wall 3 Isn’t it lovely! I think even if you don’t like pink particularly (Marlene I’m looking at you) you’d have to admit it is a lovely transformation, yes?

Picking up on the colours used in the wall art, I also made a sooper-dooper large lighcatcher to fill the room with sparkles and rainbows

Danella 1

Danella 2

While I was at it I made four more catchers, including a very special one for YD’s friends who lost their little dog in a road accident and who just a bit later farewelled their beloved, aged cat. So, for Karen and Craig, a commemorative lightcatcher for Ruby and Bear which will twinkle and glimmer whenever the sun shines and remind them of happier days with their four-footed friends

Ruby and Bear

The other three are to go into my shop which is having a bit of a do-up itself and I’ll show you them in the next post.

I also am involved in making lots of cards as I work my way through my huge back-stash of crafting goodies. I received a lovely birthday gift from my friend Alys, a stamping platform, and now can use my stamps with impunity. Here’s a small sprinkling of what I’m creating – a bit faded I’m sorry. The sun disappeared and gave me a thunderstorm just as I got them ready for their close-up …….

hdr

Of course life contains many more interactions and activities than is revealed here. Siddy and I continue to walk every day – not one day missed this year – and I continue to enjoy my moments of quiet contemplation interspersed with a chat to a favourite tree or a person we meet along the way. This walk very often serves as my daily meditation and I have added in a really gentle yoga programme, to accompany my friend Robin over at Breezes at Dawn on her 40 day programme. We are over half way through and I have the feeling I’ll just keep doing these gentle bends and sways and holds. #FeelingGood

We need to feel good these days don’t we – as the world bends and sways under the weight of lunacy and egos and ignorance. The only valid way to respond is with more peace, more calm, more thoughtfulness and more compassion. Starting with ourselves and moving out through our circles of loved ones, colleagues, neighbours, out further to those who suffer, those who are lost and eventually to those who incite hatred out of their own need to raise themselves out of their own personal hell.

Create beauty, spread it about and smile at a stranger.

Thanks for coming by today, I love that you did!

Well, I’ve managed to let another twenty odd days slip by without a post. So much for good intentions!

We’ve said ‘Farewell’ to YD’s beloved Stanley

No longer the beautiful chap pictured above just 18 months ago, time had taken it’s toll quickly as it does with our pets. In such a short time Stan became aged and worn out and emaciated – it was time to let him go. It was a hard decision for YD to make and I am so proud of her that she was able to hold him and tend him in his final moments.

Two days later I celebrated my birthday with a five day pyjama party with my daughters. We don’t often get to spend time altogether, just us and this five day hiatus seems to have become an annual event. I love it!

Every winter I go through the same old routine of wishing for something I don’t have. It’s all got to do with independence and stability and even while I know what causes it, it is difficult and challenging to endure the dissatisfaction that rises up with the results of the choices I have made in my life. While in the throes of these unresolved emotions from the past I forget that I am taken care of and have a perfectly habitable home to live in and that I am loved and cared for far more than I have any right to expect.

Then September arrives and the fog lifts as mysteriously as it arrives. When I was young I used to struggle with depression over this time, now I just get somewhat vaguely dissatisfied with what is. It dissipates really quickly. My birthday marks the return of contentment and I can settle into another nine months of perfect happiness. Isn’t life strange!

Any how, once we get to September the urge to nest where I am becomes strong again and I usually have a big move around and clean up and refocus.

Yes, that is the rear end of Siddy lying in his new favourite position where he can keep an eye on the street and growl softly at all passers by. Orlando’s cushion is unoccupied as he is currently sitting in the tiny courtyard garden getting some vitamin D.

As part of my resurrection this year I made the double wall art you see here

I painted the edges of some old unsuccessful canvases, pasted a panel of wallpaper down the centre of them and collaged cut out parts of the wallpaper to one side. The other side is taped with some fancy tape and stippled randomly with a leaf template and some matching paint. It’s quite effective and hides to a great degree the tired interior of this rented flat.

Orlando, who thought the canvas was a splendid new seat, has left his mark permanently beneath one hanging……. After this photo was taken the cat was evicted and another thick coat of white paint was applied and left to dry ……………

I returned some time later to find this

………….. footprints marked his progress over the canvas and the kitchen counter tops and the cooker top and the window sill …………….

So as you can see I have not been entirely idle – it does want to be Spring after all, even though old Father Winter keeps doubling back for a last roar. I’ve started planting my flower garden at the front door.

For those of you who know us well, you know we live in a tiny house with an even tinier out-door space. Last year the tiny courtyard garden had all the press – the even tinier front door garden has never existed before and this is the start of it

As you can see there is not a drop of soil to be seen so everything will be growing in tubs, planters and pots. Most of what is laid out here ready for planting comes from the local garden centre including the planted up and ‘trellised’ jasmine. I love jasmine – I think you can never have enough of the beautifully scented stuff. I am proud to say the ‘trellis’ is entirely the result of my ingenuity fiddling about with a $10 assortment of plasticised tomato stakes. Hopefully it will stay stable as the Jasmine winds her way up it!

Yesterday the temperature was 21 C we went for our morning walk and Siddy checked out the daffodils that now cover the bank between the park and the petanque club.