32 on sunday....

but no time to think about it as the craft fair is on saturday, world cup that night then people coming around for a bbq on sunday...the best way to be.

squirrel nutkin

i'm still really enjoying where we live, walthamstow village is so peaceful but you can always find a handful of people outside our local 'the nags head' quietly sipping their belgian fruit beers and stroking the landlords cat (who loves to sit on the tables). as we are so close to epping forest we see so much wildlife and at least once a week see a squirrel and unfortunately have to listen to foxes mating (the worst sound i have ever heard in my life). only 2 days to the craft fair at vestry house and i am getting nervous, i hope a lot of people turn up and people like my stall.

when kath came to stay

kath came to stay this weekend and it was so great to see her. we ate and drank and went to portabello market and shopped and generally just had a relaxing weekend. i met kath in melbourne last year through iron chief and we became friends through our mutual likeness for stripey tops, good food and complaining. who knows we may all end up back in melbourne at the same time next year for 'iron chief 3'.
here's to a cheesy grin!

clocks

i have been working on some clock face designs in the past couple of weeks. as everyone that has seen my clock has seemed to like it i thought i would develop the idea more and look into buying clocks in bulk to decorate.
here are the 3 sketches i came up with:

happy 30th birthday drue

it is my brothers 30th on saturday, unfortunately i will be on the other side of the world. i had thought about extending my overdraft and surprising him for the weekend but then i came back down to earth and realised that wouldn't be a good financial move.
happy birthday drue.
i hope you have a great day.
claire
xxx

enjoying the english weather

the city and art of prague

we spent most of our time walking around in the 30 degrees heat jumping from one shadded side of the street to the other to avoid the sun eventhough we were prepared with hats, sunglasses and sunscreen.
the city looks more attractive from the view from the castle; looking down on the orange coloured roofs, very similar to paris from montmarte.

we visited the house of the black madonna (famous cubist building) and went inside to see the very small cubism gallery and eat in the cubism cafe. to my disapointment the food wasn't in the cubist form.
i didn't realise that 'mucha' (art nouveau artist) was a czech artist, i thought he was french but after discovering that he had spent much of his professional life in france it is easy to see why paris has such a love for his work, we went to the mucha gallery which i can't believe was only founded in 2000. his work is truly beautiful.
so our 3 day holiday was fun, hot, interesting, hot, educational and hot and a great trip away from london. i just feel sorry for the locals who seem to be bombarded with england fans watching the world cup ..... and it is being held in germany??!!!! go figure?

the food of prague

the food wasn't that bad in prague! although we did only have one traditional czech meal; i had a thick pancake with sliced, cooked apples underneath and on top a caramelised, spicy apple sauce, it was nice but i could only eat half, ed had some meat dumplings.....this was all washed down with some 'grog'; a hot spicy punch.
a common sight on the streets of prague are stalls selling over cooked sausages and other 'meat' not really to my fancy either but the england football fans loved them.

other food we ate was at an icelandic restaurant called 'reykjavik' and an asian fusion restaurant. for a landlocked country we certainly ate a lot of fish.

Off to Prague

this week we are off to prague so no posts this week.
i have got my copy of 'metamorphosis' by kafka to get me in the mood for the city and preparing my tummy for the food.
see you all next week.

my first!

i forgot to post on my blog that i have sold my first 'rainbow bruce'! annette who found my blog through drue's saw my little toys and wanted to purchase one for a little girl called daisy. he has arrived safe and sound and will hopefully enjoy his new home.

and maybe make a badge or two

with the scraps of my toys i made a badge/brooch the other week. i think it looks kinda cool and i have had some favourable comments. what do you think? should i make some more for the craft fair?
tonight is our first book club meeting, 'orlando' by virginia woolf was our book of choice and i must say i didn't enjoy reading it in the slightest. i have never taken to virginia woolf and this is the first of her books i have been bothered to finish (by force). i felt no sympathy or relation to the main character, the sentences were distorted and had no lyrical flow eventhough this supposed love letter to virgina woolf's female lover was supposed to be a thing of beauty and prose i was left feeling let down by such a great premise; a persons journey through 300 years as both a man and female. i am glad it is not just me that found this book hard work, fernanda actually skipped pages to get to the end. lets hope the next book is more enjoyable.

clock-tastic

i got the idea of painting a clock from another blog (have forgotten the source) so went to homebase the other weekend in search of a nice one; this is enamel and looks a lot like 1950's bakelite. in my eagerness i painted this image, it is ok but not fantastic so i'm going to buy a few more and plan the images before i dive in. i think it turned out ok.

busy weekend

this weekend was another busy one and the weather was wonderful.

saturday we lazed in our garden and sipped cider and ate strawberries. In the evening we went to rob's birthday dinner at gallipoli which was great as we hadn't seen the globe trotter for ages.
sunday we went to fe and simon's for a bbq to see their new flat in Highbury...lots of fish on the barbie and plenty of pimms and lemonade.

last night i went to the nottinghill arts club with peter. every month they have a night of crafts where they have a few bands play and a theme: last night was fimo (remember that coloured playdoh that you bake in the oven and it goes hard-lots of middle aged women in the 80's loved it to make big earings) the bands were ok but the fimo was fun! everyone swapped colours and chatted about what they were going to make. peter made some brilliant creatures including this lochness monster and i made a little girls head! not very thrilling but after a glass of wine I'm not too inspirational.

all toyed out and talking to myself

yeah yeah here are some more toys i've made (have made another two since this photo was taken)...this is getting to be a compulsion and not something creative. i have to get more toys made by the 1st of july craft fair so i've ended up turning our living room into a little assembly line. i need a break from making them so i think i'll have to start drawing again to obtain my aim of having another little exhibition by the end of the year.

now ed stole my post about having conversations in your head with strangers and friends....late one night a couple of days ago i was feeling a little more paranoid than usual and asked ed if he had conversations/arguments with people in his head as i do all the time and i was beginning to feel like maybe i was going insane. and to my surprise he did as well. now in london if you want to say to someone:

'don't push'
'oowwww you stepped on my foot'
'you smell please don't sit next to me'
or
'you annoying man, don't sit with your legs wide open, your arms on both arm rests and pick your ears with your glasses and clip your fingernails in public; you are gross, disgusting and a sociopath!'

if you did any of this you may be stabbed or shot and that is the truth as london and england is becoming a very scary place. anyway this thing about having conversations/arguments with people in your head is apparently a normal thing and i guess it sorts out your head and emotions out for you and releases those pent up frustrations you would otherwise become a homicidal maniac and sponatiously combust...SPLAT!

so tired

this loooong weekend was exhausting. it was a bank holiday anyway dispite having a further 2 days off this week; we had shaun's many birthday celebration gatherings to attend as well as my friend from brissy jane staying with us for a little while. this visit turned into a shopping bonanza interdispursed with high tea at 'liberty' on the first day and 'paul' on the second aaagggghhhh the scones and the jam and the hot chocolate mmmmm thinking about them now makes my mouth water but at the time i felt ill with over consumption.

last night we also saw 'cocoelectric' anne's band play at the islington acadamy. they were supporting a band who i won't name as i thought they were one of the worst bands i have seen in a long time (anything with a wind instument as it's focal point is murder to my ears as far as i'm concerned...if anyone has seen 'ghostworld' just like 'blues-hammer' with saxaphone eeekkk!)

however.... 'cocoelectric' were great, much improved from the days when it was just anne and a friend who sat behind a laptop making bleeping sounds, now 'cocoelectric' is made up of a full band who are completely capable and give anne all the confidence she needs to pull off a good performance. the crowd was appreciative and the band sound great..yay for anne!