Baby Its cold outside

back to winter again- and the frosty weather has inspired the following sketches and textile samples.  Jackie

Distressed!

I've been messing about distressing materials - and no that doesn't mean shouting at them until they weep! although that might be good for the Turner Prize....  My inspiration was an old shipwrecked boat; I'd taken a few photos previously while in Blakeney  (which are posted on Decembers blog), and played about with a few materials that melt quite easily and came up with this interpretation inspired by one of the flaky panels..

And above is the  original sketch
I'm planning on making this into a bigger piece.
Jackie

Most fun with me clothes on (oo-er misses)

Went out for a quick 3 miler and it was so much fun sliding in the mud and dodging the branches just like being a kid again. The slight mist added to the atmosphere and also the loss of vision of where I was heading/ sliding. Not bad to say I wasn't looking forward to going out as I thought it would turn to rain.
Bath time now to get my mud pack off. ( I just know the complexion of my legs will be so much better)
Ding Dong
Colin

you spin me right round (like a record baby, right round, right round)

After Col's posting about vinyl yesterday, we talked about some of our friend's kids, and how they are bewildered by the concept of records, one conversation went like this:
Kid "What's that?"
Dad "It's a single"
Kid  "A single what?

We both  love the sound of vinyl, and think it's much warmer than digitally corrupted music, and had a good night listening to our old music from childhood..
On playing David Bowie's "1984"  it got me thinking that many of the major dates that seemed so long in the future, when I was a child, have now come and gone, and also that I have no idea how to pronounce this year  - is it twenty eleven?, or two thousand and eleven?,  and what is this decade called ? - Is this the decade of the teenies?  (I hope not!)

This morning I've been trying to create some delicate structures inspired by the ice and the winter berries  - Hopefully you can just see the sparkle in it as the light catches it, this is only a starting point, but I think its got potential to be developed further
Jackie

Kick start my heart?

Well to be honest it's the song that's now going around in my head, because I have been trying to get our scanner to work. It's always made bizarre noises ever since I bought it years ago of e-bay. I had just been saying it's performed well since we bought it, but after digging it out, it decided to jump and elongate Jac's mug shot, which I was trying to scan.The reason this song came into my head ,was instead of my heart I booted the thing and it managed to copy the document. I was talking to my Dad at the time on the phone who kept telling me a bit of WD40 would help? Maybe not. 

By the way "kick start my heart" by Motley Crue was the first song I bopped away to thrashing my head like a loony and playing my air guitar at Rock City in Notts; A great venue which I seemed to spend a lot of time in at my weekends all those years ago.

Hmmm reminiscing - now where's my vinyl?
Colin

We didn't start the fire

Over the last few days I've spent quite a few hours stuck in trees.....I've been lopping the hawthorne trees that form the boundary to our allotment.  I did this last year but completely forgot that I really should be wearing big thick gloves for this job as my hands now look like Freddie Kruggars.  While I was stuck up the tree I've had some interesting conversations with passers by about the 2.5% VAT increase, living for today (the woman was telling me about her husband's stroke), the trials and tribulations of being a long distance lorry driver (Jac's dream occupation), squatting (its good to be a squatter) and loads of lovely comments about how hard we've worked to convert our overgrown piece of land into something that resembles an allotment.
Despite the sore hands, the tree lopping was quite rewarding, however my big problem now is that I need to burn all of the debris - and neither me nor Jac can light fires  - last year it took us about a month of trying; we used paper, tonnes of lighter fuel, blew on it, swore at it, pleaded with it ... but nothing,  In the end I had to get my dad to give me a hand  - it took him all of 10 minutes to get it going!  It seems that everyone we've told about our fire starting inadequacies finds it highly amusing especially my sister who thinks that our insistence on living in the dark ages should equip us nicely for lighting fires.
Having decided I wouldnt be able to light a fire without my dad to supervise, I decided to plant the first lot of onions, garlic and broadbeans  - and managed to find an egg buried just under the surface of the soil - it was fully intact and sounded runny when I shook it  - like Jac posted the other day; Easter is on its way!

Colin

My Life is flashing before me - and its all orange

Well its only the 1st January, and I've already received countless holiday cottage brochures suggesting I should think about the summer holidays, and then when I popped in the newsagents this morning after my muddy run, I was confronted by rows and rows of Easter eggs and Valentine chocolates  - It sent me in to a mini panic thinking that I should put the brussels on so that they're ready for next Christmas.
As if its not bad enough that my life is flashing before me, I think its all orange  - Yesterday I caught Colin putting orange juice on his cereal instead of soya milk (sadly he's as much a skinflint as me, that when he realised his mistake, he ate his orangey crunchy nut conflakes, rather than pour them away and start again) - uuugh- Later that night I had to try not to stare when I saw a friend of a friend eating an unpeeled satsuma as though it were an apple - My friends think I'm eccentric for eating peppers this way, but I'm sure I couldn't do it with an orange.  Then to cap it all off I've just poured orange juice into my earl grey....
Can life get any more orange?
Happy New Year
Jackie