Saturday 17 July 2010

It's been a long time, but I'm back!

I had a fabulous time away with the family; it seemed longer than it was, time to laze around & catch up on reading, swim, sunbathe, eat lots, chat with our friends, look at the sights & just be.

No pressures really, sure we had to be careful in 35 degree heat for half the time & breezy
sunny weather for the other half  but only one day of pouring rain - my sandles streched they were so wet but that was the day we were looking round the Chateau Villandry inside & the beautiful gardens looked fine in the rain anyway. Sure there was the clearing up after 3 delicious meals a day, a bit of laundry & watching the boys help to rip up the attic floor & chuck it out the window 3 floors up hoping they wouldn't put their foot thru to the ceiling below. Fair enough in return for our keep! (the 'DIL' & I were invited to add to the mural on the wall by the pool, that was our contribution!)

Getting 10 stitches in my calf from walking past a naughtily protruding bit of glass in the recycling bit of the house was a little bit of a trial, but I learnt lots of new bits of French that I didn't ever think I'd need, & our friends now know that the old people's home has a very helpful doctor who gave us directions in excellent broken French (hardly anybody spoke English as it's so rural) to casualty in the town 15 kms away. The boys were well impressed with the wound my 'DIL' less so, my D being quite pale & they all guessed I'd have about 16 stitches so it must have looked bad!

Our friend was brilliant at all the explanations needed along the way & driving me to l'hopital, but first we had to remove the rubbish & recycling bags from the back of the car so that my D could stop rolling around in back distracting me from keeping my leg in the elevated position & the floor from being covered in blood. So, no more swimming. The irony of our holiday, for the very first time, being spent right next to a swimming pool, was not lost on me. But I didn't need to worry - it could have been my D, who'd have been more than a shade of pale, one of the kids which doesn't bear thinking about or the head of the little dog who walks at a perfect calf hight.....  Dammit, I should have taken a picture before they stitched it up!

I'll sort some pics of the holiday but this really says it all.


My boys; youngest, middlest & eldest over our friend.
This is NOT photoshopped!

Back to real life & November weather in July, that's normal here! Lots of post,  emails & phone messages to go thru & of course washing & shopping. But in the pile were 3 more cards, woohoo!

They were from Trudi at Quilting Prolifically from Lincoln, UK. This is amazing, all that wonderfully quilted delicately colored fabric, stitched flowers & that cutaway to juicy lime green, I love it! I have no idea how she made the circles with grids of thread!


I feel like Im up in the clouds, thanks so much.

& from Pat at Lost & Found, Ohio, USA, in an interestingly addressed envelope with a note & I even like the protective cardboard!





 This card is gorgeous, a mixture of paper, hand painted paper & fabric all stitched down beautifully.




But I've got another card on the other side! Absolutely lovely. I'll have to work out a way of 'hanging' these cards so they're interchangeable.....



I feel alternately warmed & cooled, lovely. Thank you so much.

Then I opened Marie's cards, she sent me two! Marie hasn't blogged for a long time & I really hope she'll get back into it one day & we can all visit & see her work when she invites us thru a comment.They came in these wonderfully stamped envelopes - I want to carve my own house stamp now!




 Her cards are fantastic & I got two as she couldn't decide which one to send. I love them both! They are papers, I think, beautifully hand painted - the middle bits are either textured paper or embossed - then there are lots of layers of varnish making a really solid & shiny piece. I love both of them, couldn't possibly decide - I'm so glad I don't have to send one back!




Looking into the depth of these pieces makes me feel totally secure.  Thank you.

I'll try & get some holiday snaps up in the next few days. Even tho I'm well practiced at this loading of images after nearly 50 days of doing it it still takes ages to load 8 pics. I could make the file really small but isn't it great to be able to look right into a piece of work? I love it, so it's worth waiting for. I definitely feel all these cards deserve it.

14 comments:

mano said...

wonderful cards!!

Heloise said...

So sorry to hear about what must have been a horrid accident. Sounds like you had a great time, for the rest of the time. Villandry is magical.

Julie said...

Ouch! What an awful injury! Glad you're ok though. When I was 19 I came down with glandular fever while on a course in France and ended up in the student hospital. It certainly makes you use your French!

Trudi is a friend of mine and her work is beautiful isn't it? Your cards are wonderful, so much talent, and it is good to be able to see all the detail.

Look after that leg wound.

Anonymous said...

I can't believe you gashed your leg, but you seem in incredibly good spirits about it all. Glad you had such a fun time in France, despite the
accident. And to come home to gifts!!!! Marvelous. xox Corrine

Jan said...

Those postcards are fabulous! I especially love the last two, I'll be curious to know how she made them. Very sorry to hear of your injury and glad you were able to get patched up relatively quickly. That sure cut into your fun, pardon the pun. I love that photo of the 3 guys jumping into the pool! That is hard to get a photo like that with a digital camera! Glad you had a good trip, welcome home.

Jan said...

I had to go back and double click on all your photos. Those are really some nice postcards, I was trying to figure out how she made those last ones. So much texture!

Linda Vincent said...

Welcome back Emma! And what a holiday.....one you'll never forget I'm sure :-)
The photo of your boys is brill....and the latest postcards are beautiful.
I owe you an email; I'll be in touch this week.
Hugs
Linda x

Laura said...

Sorry to read about your gash Emma, ouch indeed! But happy that you and your family enjoyed yourselves. Your boys are quite handsome!

Uta said...

I'm so sorry to hear about your injury but excited and waiting with bated breath to see your holiday snaps.

Uta said...

oops that should read baited breath hehehe

Aileen Clarke Crafts said...

Fantastic photo of the pool. Great shot! How awful to get such an injury. Hope it heals up quickly : )
More beautiful cards too! Must be great inspiration to try new techniques.
Off to Ireland ourselves soon. Hope some more summer weather is in store for us all.
love Aileen xx

Lorraine said...

great photograph

Unknown said...

It looks like you had a wonderful time on your trip.. What a bummer about your cut.. I hope it heals OK... I just loved all your pictures..
Thanks for sharing them with us!

Crissi Harvey said...

ouch poor you sounds like you had a great time and still getting beautiful cards