Sunday 26 June 2011

A lovely birthday week

All I've got to say is 51 is not as exciting as 50! But, I like my own year for new year resolutions & I'm determined to make this year as wonderful as the last one ;)

I picked myself a bunch of flowers from the garden & no I wasn't drunk!


Lovely cards from my DH



my middlest, cheeky so & so & he got my age wrong!






Phone call from the eldest & the youngest is treking in deepest Mongolia as we speak but wished me happy birthday before he went.

A beautiful card from Linda , it's lovely, thank you! Look at that beautifully stitched tree in the middle & those scrumpcious colors!


An arty friend came over for coffee & cake & it was a sunny breezy day, wonderful. Cards across the mantlepiece & the middlest pointed out I should visit facebook; not been for weeks! where I found 15 more lovely wishes!



Managed lunch out in the garden sitting at the back of the house looking along a path to the right of which is this uncultivated border with all these lovely colors jostling together. At the weeping pear at the back there is the start of the dug over bit. I'll get to it one day! On the left is the fruit with a few herbacious.



Need to cover these soon. No plums for me this year ;( I don't think I'm alone in having no flowers in the spring. I can't think of a better birthday present than to be able to sit in my garden soaking up all that sunshine & color, such balm for the soul.

I've been struggling with my work this week, I'm always trying to decide whether what I want to do has 'meaning' or not - have I said ths before? whether it has value. I consider myself someone who works intuitively (I just love that word!) but only once I get going! I learnt from making the series of pennants - I got to 8 - that if you make a sketch, or a 'map' as Cas Holmes & Melenie Testa call it, you make life easier by telling yourself in which direction to go next, instead of struggling & wallowing around in a big black angst filled hole. Easy, get your stuff out, seperate out the pieces you're drawn to & lay them out as per your recent sketches. You can loosely follow a theme, just enjoy yourself& hopefully the meaning will come! I must come back & read this next time it gets dark out there ;)



                                     Samples, or maybe small parts of something (there's intuitive!)



Another sample, horizontal too, strange for me! Tried to print on organza, the bottom smudgy daisy on the brown paper. Didn't really work, any tips? ;)



A part of a collage or a hanging, perhaps, if I keep going, intuitively, that is. I used the Julia Capara/Cas Holmes method of very thin white glue (the link to JC is to D4Daisy & then follow the link to an interview for Workshop on the Web - interesting & some fabulous pieces of work even if you don't read it all, such a shame she died too early) - no wallpaper paste in the house, well, no wall paper at all! then stamped & stitched. It does feel quite intuitive but I need to be thinking about line shape form & balance etc don't I? ( I've only got so much space in my brain!) I'll keep trying & enjoying while I am.









20 comments:

Su said...

Glad you had a nice birthday. I'm not very good at forward thinking with my work, but I'm sure it would be more effective if I learnt to plan! Your samples are lovely.

Julie said...

Sounds like you had a lovely birthday Emma. I like your new(?) header and the samples are beautiful, especially the final piece. I think the horizontal is a natural progression from your previous work, all your daily collages lined up in blocks each month. I'm all for intuitive myself too. I'm definitely of the 'work it out as you go along' school but I do admit that it can make life easier if you start with a plan.

Anonymous said...

Happy Belated. Can't believe I missed it after the flurry of activity of last year's 50th. Love the new header and your continued quest for exploration, splendid. Garden looks gorgeous even if everything isn't exactly as planned. It was 50F here and raining cats and dogs yesterday and maybe even fish too! xox Corrine

Maggi said...

Good to hear that you enjoyed your birthday. The card from Linda is gorgeous, as always.

Suztats said...

Happy Birthday Wishes, Emma. Sorry if they're a bit late, but it sounds as though you had a nice day of it.
I like the horizontal bit, and I love your work 'plan' for direction. I like making things that have purpose, but I always think the value is in the doing, the act of creating.
Hugs, and Many Happy Returns of the Day!!!

WandarArt.Stitch said...

Thanks for the nice words you wish you the same day in your life happy occasion of your birthday, I salute !!!

ju-north said...

Belated birthday wishes! Lovely work as always. We enjoyed a week at Inverkirkaig with all the spectacular scenery - wish we were still there!

Heloise said...

Happy Birthday. Sounds like a perfect way to spend the day. The garden photographs are lovely. The card from Linda is beautiful and the colours blend well with your garden and 2nd sample.

artymess said...

happy Birthday Emma .....lovely collages .......xx

Linda’s Textiles said...

Happy birthday Emma! Fabulous pieces of work & garden. I think its best to work on something - not necessarily planned but hopefully will spark off a progression of work in time. I tend to work this way too.

Jill said...

Can't believe it's a year since the postcard project for your 'special' birthday, many happy returns for this one. As always your work is an inspiration and you make me 'itch to stitch'.

Ro Bruhn said...

Hope you had a Happy Birthday Emma, I really enjoyed your last one. I love all of your photos, so much variety.

jan said...

Belated birthday wishes, love your garden photo's and collages. Hope you had a great day!

Anonymous said...

Happy bleated birthday - it sounds like a wonderful day. The little intuitive fragments are lovely. I really believe that the process, the learning, is more important than the outcome.

Anonymous said...

Or even belated birthday - note to self, check posts back before you press 'Post Comment' !!!

Jan said...

Happy Birthday! I guess this means I have known you for about a year and that is a good thing. Love the card that Linda made for you, and your others too. Your garden looks lovely as do your samples/art work. Hope you are enjoying your summer.

Jan said...

Is that a new header? I love it!

Anonymous said...

A belated Happy Birthday, to you. May your wishes come true.

Linda Vincent said...

Hope you had a great birthday Emma! Sorry I'm late but we've just got back from Skiathos.
XXX
PS The colours on my card are very different on my PC screen for some reason :-/

jackie said...

That year certainly went quickly, for me at least. Best wishes. I have been busy. No that isn't me,she was 'in charge' at the Preview.I will put some more pictures of the rusted work on the blog when it comes back from the exhibition.