Parcel of Goodies In The Post

Isn't it dreadful that there has been yet another earthquake causing loss of life? Apparently it was 500 times greater than the Haitian one but far less devastating due to being deeper in the earth and the Chilean buildings are much sturdier than the Haitian ones. We who live in quake free zones can have no idea how frightening it must be to feel the earth moving beneath your feet.

The weather conditions have been bizzare this winter too. Very severe rains in Madeira and it seems we have caught the tail end of it this afternoon in southern England, but trivial compared to what the Madeirans have suffered. Nature is an all powerful force.


Nestling

I gave the rapidographs a dusting off and produced this over the weekend. Next time I will do a full sized rook rather than just the head.

These fascinating etchings are by UK artist Tim Slatter. Tim has work in collections all over the world including 16 in the Houses of Parliament permanent collection. That must be something of a record. He originates from Yorkshire and I recognise quite a few of the places he has etched from my own travels up there. There are lots more like these on his website here.

The Restaurant At The End Of The Universe

Autumn Arngill

I love these bright contemporary paintings by artist Irina Alexandrova.

Palace

Summer In A Summer Residence

I was surprised and delighted the other week to be told that I had won the "pass the book" giveaway on Carolyn's blog Love Stitching Red. The book has been beautifully covered and annotated inside by Emma of Silverpebble blog and is just waiting for me to start reading. I knew that there were little gifts from Carolyn included in the parcel because she had mentioned them but I was amazed by just how big the parcel was and how many beautiful things she tucked away inside. Everything either heart or red/pink themed. I have listed my loot below. Carolyn, for those who don't follow her blog, is a very talented craftswoman and reading her blog is a delightful experience. She produces stunning textile work and I am very partial to her photo mosaics. Pop over there and see what I mean.

This is the book.

You will probably need to enlarge this photo but this is the inside of the book where each recipient records their name and blog and the date they read the book. Hopefully when it is passed on, there will also be some lovely items to go with it to its new temporary home. I am not sure what mine will be but I definitely won't be able to compete with Carolyn's wonderful array. I will have a giveaway when it comes time to pass it on though.

The contents of the package were extracted slowly and oohed and ahhhd over. Here is a package of vintage style festive 3D decorations, some little printed motifs with love on them, Carolyn's superb handmade and decorated collage tags and my favourite piece, a wonderful velvet and fabric hanging heart with lovely stitched motifs. So much effort and thought went into the giveaway that I am truly astonished. What a very generous lady.

Here is a beautiful length of lace, and another of check fabric, a lovely Gisela Graham beaded heart decoration, a tiny cross stitch heart and two lovely vintage pictures. A long length of pretty red heart lights emerged and I know exactly where I will be putting those. Also received, but not photographed, were two little bags of pretty red beads and another of pink and reddish sequins. Oh, not forgetting those delicious choco and toffee hearts...yum.

Here is a lovely little stash of beautiful red and pinky threads, yarns and ribbons, all sitting in my little ali baba basket. Sorry the photo isn't too great but Blogger doesn't like reds for some reason.
My favourite is the red and green entwined sparkly ribbon.


Thank you so much for all this bloggy loveliness Carolyn. I feel like it has been Christmas all over again.

This is the Sunshine Blog Award which I received from the lovely Lesley of sea blue sky abstracts blog. Thanks very much Lesley. I have previously put awards on my sidebar but Blogger is refusing to put them on there at the moment so here it is.

This is awarded to bloggers whose positivity and creativity inspire others in the blog world. The rules are to put the logo on your blog or post and pass the award to twelve bloggers linking to the nominees in your post. Let the nominees know they have won this award by commenting on their blog. Link to the person from whom you received this award.

Stephanie of Primitive Folk Art

Caroline of Caroline's Studio
Kat of Poetikat's Invisible Keepsakes
Sandy of SandyMastroni

Dolores of True Blue Canadian

Trudy of Crows In The Attic Primitives

Shirley of BeadBag

Melissa of Art In The Wind

Joy of Jamjar

Some pigeons and sheep which caught the attention of my camera lens

From time to time I find a real gem of a book in a charity shop and this book is one of those gems. Although I have no connection with jewellery making or enamelling I am always fascinated by different areas of craftwork. This is a gorgeous book with lots of lovely photos displaying enamelled artworks. It is written by Linda Darty who is a professor of metals at an American university. She teaches and practices the art of enamelling and has some wonderful work on her website here.

Enamelling Book by Linda Darty

Linda Darty - Garden Brooches

Part of a page from Linda Darty's book on enamelling

The Virgin And The Unicorn-William Harper

I first came across Evelyn Williams art when I bought her book "Works And Words" many years ago. The picture below is on the cover of that book. I was very drawn to her portraits particularly, although she paints all sorts of other subject matter. A good proportion of her artwork seems to be the relationship between people and communication without words. I find her work quite dreamlike, haunting, and at times, difficult to understand, but very beautiful. Evelyn is now 80 and has won many accolades for both her paintings and her sculptures. You can find examples of her work all over the Internet by just typing her name into a search engine but a good cross section of her work can be found here at artwales.com and on her own website here.

Meeting No: 1

All The Days Of My Life No 2

Promises

Ritual

Mother And Baby No: 3