Farewell 8 Nov 2012 9:41 AM (12 years ago)

New blog here

Thank you to all my lovely friends for following my blog here

time to try new things

off to pastures new

xxxxx

A feast of colour for you this week:

Some new work (unfinished)

(detail)

I love this picture, it's very whimsical and reminds me of my gorgeous girl

The above paintings were done on canvas, which, for me, is not as easy to work with as wood substrate. I find canvas too pliable for my collaging, it moves when i'm working on itand feels sort of unsafe. I do like the finished work but will stick to wood in future.

Whimsical Owl, on wood:

Gorgeous "sweetheart" roses from Gav

These were a thank you from gav for a lovely birthday, which was last Saturday. We closed up early and dashed down to The Guildhall in Gloucester to see "Wilko Johnson", supported by "Virgil and the Accelerators" (whom gav's just filmed). Wilko was amazing, i saw him recently at Llangollen Town Hall but I was in so much pain with my poorly back i had to sit at the back through most of the performance, so this time i dosed myself up with painkillers and stood right at the front for the whole performance.....brilliant. We stayed in a 14th Century Inn in the town for the night, which was supposed to be haunted but i didn't see anything worse than a spider!!

Best buys this week, or year actually, was this amazing new cupboard we bought for our kitchen last Monday, it looks fab

(or at least it will do when my kitchen is eventually cleared of shop stock!)

...and.... OMG i love this..

my new amazing Carlos Santana tour bag

...and last but not least is all the arrangements for my birthday party!
The invitations have nearly all gone out, you're all welcome, would love to see you.

We haveThe Fabulous Cover Sluts providing the musical entertainment for the evening:

Hope you all have a fab weekend

xxx

The Beatles, The Stones, The Who, The Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Stranglers, The Manics, Super Furries etc etc etc 12 Oct 2012 12:40 AM (12 years ago)

This Eddie Izzard Englebert Humperdinck Sketch is funniest thing ever.

I was putting a song list together last night for my party - one song from the charts every November from 1962 to 2012 (it was pretty dismal from 1986 onwards i must say) but Englebert was in the charts in November 1962 and i was reminded of this: i watched it five times last night:

ENJOY

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

A few weeks ago i did a workshop with Viv Sliwka of Hensteeth Art ,

Viv is an amazing person and her work is so beautiful. It was a day spent relaxing and enjoying time with lovely creative people.

My needlecase

Everyone elses needlecases

My day off today has mostly been spent reorganising the kitchen, the shop and my art studio, it's like one of those sliding puzzles; we bought a lovely cupboard for the kitchen from the auction,

which meant putting the old one back in the shop, but not before we had to move something else from the shop!! It was carefully organised so that we didn't end up tripping over things, but got there in the end. I now have another work table in my studio, which is always useful

This is the table opposite, which is my sewing table and (soon to be) jewelry making table

my felting table

and this wine box shelving in the cornerfor holding all my supplies, books/magazines

(sorry for the awful photo)

This was my kitchen table this morning, full of gorgeous new things for the shop

...like these gorgeous silk scarves

and these lovely soaps from a company called "Black Rabbit", hand made in Montgomeryshire

There's loads more stuff and when i get a minute i'll do an "Indigo Moon" walkaround and show you!

xxxx

Rest, Relaxation and a four thousand plus year old tree 21 Sep 2012 7:53 AM (12 years ago)

Just back from my hols, proving that you don't have to go too far to simply breathe, relax and enjoy life. I had everything i needed, most importantly the love of my life, then a nice little self catering cottage in a pretty village with a very old traditional foody pub right opposite our front door! Mix in some quiet romantic evenings with nice food, nice wines and morning and afternoon walks along rivers and ancient churches and trips out to the coast - equals the perfect holiday.

Harlequin Cottage, Llangernyw

St Digians Church, Llangernyw

The oldest tree

I love this, a BT red phone box spotted in amongst the rambling farm buildings from the church, they do get everywhere! This one's pretty neglected but i'd seen another one ealier in the day in someone's front garden being used as a log store! very innovative.

Cosy pub, "The Old Stag", Llangernyw

Before i went away i purchased this gorgeous victorian quilt from Ebay, it was very cheap but wasn't in fantastic condition, having a huge hole in the middle. However, i had an idea to make some vintage hearts with it to sell in the shop!

I made these in the cottage one rainy late afternoon and once i was over the initial fright of cutting up this gorgeous quilt, it was great fun. I'm no stitcher, but these just need some stuffing, a bit of final stitching and some surface embellishments and i'm sure they'll pass for a bargain in my lovely shop.

The smaller ones are £3.75 each and the slightly larger ones are £4.25 each - they're backed with a gorgeous vintage cream woollen blanket that Gav rescued from a local cafe owner (he actually brought it home for the dog!!) and then i had to rescue it from him.

(Large)

(Small)

I can't wait to finish them off with little hangers and messages. Watch this space.

Finally, here are some photos of a project i've been working on - Altered Books, or perhaps this is more of a hand made book (3"x3"). It's not finished yet, i've used hand made paper and glued and machine stitched in ephemera elements. I'd like to add some colour with some painting but haven't decided what will work as yet.

Tomorrow i'm off to Weston Park in Shropshire to attend a "hand stitched needlecase workshop" with

Viv Sliwka at Hensteeth,

i can't wait, i've packed my camera!

Nicci 5 Sep 2012 11:41 PM (12 years ago)

Happy 20th Bithday to my Gorgeous Girl

Have a fabulous day

Love you loads

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

No more heros anymore... 19 Aug 2012 12:24 AM (12 years ago)

above: "the abiding home"

Sunday Morning,I love Sunday mornings, I don't open the shop until twelve, so it's a short day. I managed to spend Friday in my art room this week finishing off some small pieces of art (ones i'd started about four months ago). I've sold most of what i had in the shop over the last few months with only six pieces left and I desperately needed to stock up.

Here are a few photos, sorry about the quality of some of them, i've accidently pressed a button on my camera that makes it do something i don't want it to do and i've no idea how to make it right......yet.

"yet so still"

"and the sun just now emerged from the hill"

"only in time"

"a fragment out of the old time"

"you are like such things"

"beautiful awareness"

"when for a second there is no movement"

"peaceful"

"timeless beauty"

"wider than the silence"

I'm really pleased with them and sold two in the shop yesterday...yaaay

Ongoing house renovations.....

...horrible kitchen sink removed, and base units cut back

(because new sink is bigger than the old one!)

New sink fitted (minus taps at present)

It's all been fitted in properly since i took these photos, all the doors have been removed from the awful ikea base units ready to fit a curtain around - just can't seem to find the right fabric at the moment though!!!

I went to the Quilt Festival at Birmingham NEC on Thursday. It was very busy, and the quilt exhibition was amazing. Here are a few of my favourites, i'm sorry that i don't have the artists names but there were far too many to note down, it would have taken me all day - apologies to all the artists.
(this was the main winner - it's a huge piece and completely hand stitched)

HERO to ZERO
I was so inspired by everything i saw, i'm hopeless at sewing and could really appreciate all the work that goes into quilt making. There were some amazing artists there using paper and stitch, i discovered the work of Stephanie Redfern and was delighted to find Janet Bolton on her stall - I've seen her work in so many books and magazines and saw an exhibition of her work in Salts Mill, Bradford a few years ago. There was another artist there who had been a huge favourite of mine for years. This person (who's name i'm not going to mention here) is an international artist of great renown, i've seen her work in many magazines and she has a huge internet presence and following. I was so excited to find her there as a guest artist, she had quite a large covered area containing her work and i was in my element walking around, especially as she was there working too. I had my camera ready and would have loved a photo for my blog, and looked around for the inevitable "no photography" signs, of which there weren't any, but i still asked, very politely,if i could take a photo - and without even a smile and without looking at me she simply said i was welcome to "buy" a postcard of her work which was as good as a photograph! (hello!!!!). She then went on about how much it cost her to be there (which i did doubt as she was advertised as a "guest artist"). I was slightly taken aback at her incredible lack of people skill, and replied that i already had images of her work from magazines so didn't need a postcard (which were quite expensive anyway), and feeling disinclined to look further i left her to it!

I do understand about copyright and have the greatest respect for all that people do to protect it, but If i was going to copy (which I wasn't by the way) i'd need only to put her name into google for any amount of images i wanted. She's an international, published artist for goodness sake with a huge internet presence. How do people become so precious about what they do and who they are? All i could think was (and this is a bit of a rant) that if being a renowned international artist places your head so far up your backside, then i'd rather do/be something else! So there :p

Anyway... here's what i started creating after being so inspired by Stephanie Redfern's gorgeous work.

I started with a piece of muslin which i gesso'd and then used acrylic paint to stamp on designs with wooden fabric stencils, i then added some random pieces of Liberty lawn fabric pieces i purchased at the show.

Then some more painting with acrylics

This is another design, same process

I have a lot more to add to these before they're finished, but i had fun playing about with them, and can't wait to run them through my little sewing machine to see what more i can achieve, they'll look lovely framed.

Now...this has been exciting over the past few weeks! Gav and i have been looking for another property for shop use and have looked at a few in surrounding areas. Commercial properties are very cheap at the moment especially with the demise of the high street, but that doesn't put us off. Here's one we looked at last Monday, it's an old victorian theatre with stage and balconys still in tact and has it's own clock tower! It needs a lot of work, but it's an amazing place.

This is the outside

Lovely big window, this floor would make a fab apartment

The theatre stage from the top balcony

in front of the stage (four huge windows and all stained glass)

Victorian stairs

I could do so much with this building, shop, huge art studio, storage space, living space, and gav could have his own filming studio inviting bands to play to be filmed, we could provide accommodation to keep costs down, i could run workshops.........dreaming......

ah well.....forever onward and upward

"Whatever happened to Leon Trotsky?
He got an ice pick that made his ears burn Whatever happened to dear old Lenin?
The great Elmyra, and Sancho Panza?
Whatever happened to the heroes?
Whatever happened to the heroes?
Whatever happened to all the heroes?
All the Shakespearoes?
They watched their Rome burn
Whatever happened to the heroes?
Whatever happened to the heroes?

No more heroes any more
No more heroes any more
- The Stranglers

Blimey, where does time go?

When Gav and i decided to give up our respective jobs and move here to Montgomery and set up our own businesses, i really thought it would be more relaxing, that our lives would move at a slower pace, much slower. Was i just naive in thinking that? Because i've never worked so hard in all my life as i do here! Granted i'm my own boss and no doubt that has it's advantages, but i think it also makes for harder, more intense work because it's for yourself rather than someone else.

It's not a whinge about my lifestyle at all, just an observation and despite all the hard work involved i much prefer it.

Lots of things going on here at both the Armoury and Indigo Moon, our feet don't seem to touch the ground. Except for about an hour after the shop closes and we sit in the garden with a glass of chilled wine!

Firstly, this is a piece i've been working on recently, it seems to be taking ages, it's no where near finished and it's all i've done recently too, the shop and the house are taking up all my time at the moment.

I'm almost ashamed to show you this! My art room/studio (or as my daughter calls it "that magical room of wonders" - usually when she wants something art related)

It's a complete mess at the moment, so bad in fact that i can hardly get in it. Nicci has stolen my olde worlde table and i've got an ikea one (which i have to admit is a little more useful).

This is what it will look like one day!

I found these photos on Pinterest (although i'm sure even this art studio doesn't look like this all the time!)

perfect storage, i think i'll look out for one of these

A lovely surprise in the post last week (or possibly the week before) from my mother (in-law) - a thank you for a lovely week they had with us and for looking after them. I've never had flowers in a card before, they were beautiful.

They also did the window boxes outside for us whilst they were here, which i'm very grateful for.

Saturday afternoon saw us heading across to Bracebridge Heath in Lincoln to Tony's annual garden party

Lincoln Cathedral in the distance

Malcolm Morley playing

What a fantastic evening, Tony and Monica are perfect hosts and it's such a pleasure to spend time with them and other friends. We managed to meet up with Jas and Helen whom we haven't seen since the wedding, so it was really nice for us.

We got back late on Sunday, having already planned to open the shop at 1.30pm (instead of 12) and had put a note on the door. Unfortunately, we were later than expected and didn't get back till 2.30pm to find people waiting at the door wanting to buy some things they'd seen the day before. As we were rushing out of the car to open up for them we discovered we were locked out! Nicci had lost her own key for the front door and slid the bolt across and then used the shop key to go out of the shop door to work, thus leaving us completely locked out with customers waiting to get in the shop. However they very kindly and patiently waited whilst gav found his way around the back to retrieve the ladders to climb in through the bathroom window. Turned out to be the best sale of the day!

Monday we decided to take a trip over to Ironbridge and then later on to ikea (just to get me some small tables for my art room). Ironbridge was lovely as usual, Nicci came with us, we had a lovely lunch and a walk around in glorious sunshine.

My gorgeous girl

camera shy

Now this i'm really excited about!

We're doing some more work on the kitchen and this is part of some very old shelving we found in a junk shop in Oswestry a few weeks ago. We thought it would look amazing in our kitchen, and it does! We removed the horrible ikea wall cabinets and replaced them with this!

This is what it looked like painted

I love these little "shelf sitters" (don't say it too quickly), i found them in a charity shop in Newtown, they look so serious!

This is the dresser we brought in from the shop to make room for something else, it looks great filled with the T G Green stuff.

This is my next project to paint

And gav's next project is to fit the new sink we bought from ikea (like the one in this photo below). We didn't intend too get a sink, but when we saw this one it was perfect. We need new worktops but it's such a time consuming job. Unfortunately the kitchen was a disaster when we moved in, the sink is far too low down and wasn't fitted at an angle so the water could drain out. Also there was no draining area and water soon rotted the top of the wood away behind the tap (due to a leaky tap), it was a mess, and this is a good way to deal with the problem with the least amount of work.

When that's done i'm going to remove all the doors off the horrible ikea base units and fit skirts (or curtains) like below. I've seen some gorgeous fabric and i have a lot of vintage pieces in my art room so am toying with the ide of making up my own from scraps - but that's just an idea at the moment.

I love this one

I have tons of photos of Indigo Moon, it's changed a lot, but i'll have to do it in another post - maybe tomorrow. Bye for now.

"For disappearing acts, it's hard to beat what happens to the eight hours supposedly left after eight of sleep and eight of work". Doug Larson

We've had such a nice relaxing few weeks here, despite the initial endless rain and the usual manic house organisation we put ourselves through before we get visitors, however, we reached a calmness that surprised even me and Gav!

We made a decision to halt any further work in the shop as it's now taking up a lot of our time and concentrate on finishing the house. Anyway, i digress, Gav's parents arrived last Monday and we threw ourselves into looking after and entertaining them for the week. Nicci got called into work every day so it entailed some jigging about of the schedule, but we managed to get out a few times. Gav took them off to Ellesmere on the Tuesday where they walked around the mere and had a nice lunch, Wednesday we managed to get to Shrewsbury and looked around the old part of town, including some beautiful stained glass windows in the church. Gav also had an hour in the antiques centre and me and his mum took ourselves off to Waterstones......aaahhh bliss!!! On Friday we went to:

Mid Wales Arts Centre

Outside in the garden

Dad enjoying playing with the dog

See the bee?

In the "very informal" cafe!

Lovely food freshly prepared and Chocolate and Beetroot Cake!!!!

Mum and Dad enjoying the sunshine

A peacock hen with her chicks

The Male

hiding her chicks

Lizzie, sat at the kitchen table enjoying some attention!

Walks along the canal at Berriew

Flowers in the guest room

The Arts Centre

This is where we saw Stefan Knapp's (1921-1996) beautifully vibrant enamel murals.
Set up in April 2011, in what would have been her late husbands 90th year it was the ambition of his wife Cathy Knapp - whom i met at a book signing evening in Bishops Castle a few weeks ago and where she suggested we take a look - I hadn't managed to get there before now and as we had visitors we thought it was a good time to go.

"Stefan Knapp was born in South East Poland in 1921 and was arrested in 1939 and sent to a labour camp in Siberia. He was released in 1942 as a result of the Churchill-Stalin agreement and made his way to England where he trained as a Spitfire Pilot and did reconnaisance work until 1945. He suffered terrible nightmares as a result of his experiences and used painting as a way to exorcise his mind..."

If you're in the area pop in and see the exhibition it's really worth it

Finally, I just wanted to mention this. I get lovely comments all day long about the shop from our customers, they come from all over the world (i know it's not specifically to come to Indigo Moon, but if they're in the area they find their way here), this week we have our stock making it's way to Australia, Germany, France, Africa, Ireland, California, New York and all sorts of other lovely places as well as lots of places around Britain.

So it was extra special to find this blog that mentioned us, i remember the lady telephoning us to ask us to put a sold sign on the cupboard and keeping it for a few weeks, they paid us immediately over the phone, but what they didn't know was that another lady had been in that very morning and was returning with her husband the next day!! She was very disappointed to find it sold, but without a deposit there was nothing i could have done. I'm pleased for the people who bought it, it is nice when something you buy fits so perfectly into the home! Thank you Kat and Rich.

"Painting is silent poetry"

~Plutarch, Moralia: How to Study Poetry

"She does it right" 14 Jul 2012 4:09 AM (12 years ago)

Yesterday, after a long busy day in the shop and cleaning the house Gav and I set off, around 5.30pm in the middle of a monsoon, for Llangollen, to the Fringe Festival to see Wilko Johnson at the Town Hall. We did it right! By the time we'd got past Welshpool the sky was brighter, the rain had stopped and we looked forward to a nice evening meal and a drink before going on to see the band.

We both love Llangollen, it has some happy memories for us and was one of the first places we looked to set up our business. We got as far as managing to put in an offer on a great property there, but our own sale in Leeds fell through at the same time and by the time we were in a position to look again the sellers had changed their mind. We did look at other properties but they weren't as nice. Anyway Montgomery isn't far away (about 40 mins in the car) so we go there quite often for a night out.

Our first stop was the Cornmill (right alongside the river) for food:

View of the Corn Mill from the bridge in Llangollen

This is where we sat, lovely bright big room, with gorgeous views

LlangollenTown Hall, where we saw the band

The band were amazing, although my poorly back reared its evil head from standing too long (and i had to keep going off to find somewhere to sit every now and then).

Wilko Johnson on Jools Holland

So...it's been a busy busy week, last weekend we had stalls at the Montgomery Street Fair, lots going on, many many thanks to our friends who came along and helped, couldn't have managed without you. And just as we're recovering from that we have a trip to Harrogate on Sunday for the Gift Show on Monday. My gorgeous girl is coming with us to help us buy, but only on the condition we take her to Betty's!:

I have to be honest, i do like going here myself, it's a treat, but expensive - like a scene from Poirot!

Before Betty's though it'll be a few hours around the gift show, our main buying spree will be for cards and a few bits of jewellery - that's about all we can manage to look around at the moment, we're exhausted. We'll be able to get there early as we're all staying overnight on the Sunday.

The highlight will be collecting my lovely mother and father (in-law) on Monday who are meeting us at Harrogate to come back to Montgomery for a weeks visit. So looking forward to spending time with lovely family, got lots planned (weather permitted).

No art work today as I'm in the middle of creating some pieces for another exhibition in Oswestry so will post when finished

Well thats it for now, back to working, cleaning, shopping, dog walking, cooking etc etc etc

Rain Rain Go Away.... 2 Jul 2012 6:20 AM (12 years ago)

So fed up of all this rain.....

To take my mind of it today i did some prints of my work on our fab Giclee printer just to see what they looked like and i'm really pleased with them.

My plan now is to do some pieces for limited edition prints

Virgil, Gabriel and Jack 1 Jul 2012 12:45 AM (12 years ago)

Virgil and the Accelerators

“sublime guitar riffs and perfect fretmanship mastery”

from Virgil, his 18 year old brother Gabriel (drums) and bassist Jack Timmis.

It's 7.30am Sunday morning and after a hectic weekend i'm just managing to rest quietly for a few hours before opening the shop, precious time.

Friday afternoon saw us (Effigy Music) dashing up to...

... "The Flowerpot"

in Derby so gav could recce the band "Virgil and the Accelerators" whom he's filming at their gig in the Marshall Amp factory in Milton Keynes at the end of August.

My gorgeous girl helped with the shop on Friday so we could skive off early. We'd booked into the Jury's hotel for the night (which was conveniently opposite the flowerpot) but had been warned to be there before 6.00pm as the Olympic Torch was going through the centre and the roads were closing. So.....we left at 3pm and thanks to the Sat Nav lady, or maybe it was me programming in "avoid toll roads" that we missed the M6 Toll and found ourselves meandering up through Uttoxeter at 6pm. However, luck seemed to be on our side and just as we thought we were going to have to walk about a mile to the hotel we just managed to whizz down a road that was on the verge of being closed off, spotting the flowerpot and thus the hotel...phew!!!

After an hours rest and some food we sauntered across to the flowerpot, met up with friends and watched these amazingly 'very young' and extremely talented musicians.

It was nice not to have a late drive home afterwards especially as the recce also involves a chat with the band manager and the band members at the end of the night.

Saturday morning was gloomy and threatened rain and we set off early from Derby to Birmingham (on the M6 Toll this time - to which i owe many thanks to James for finding the postcode on his phone for me- to call in at IKEA - i don't know what it is about these stores...they give me the creeps with their flat packed UFO's and their "outer space" store maps...

see any similarities?

It's probably because i'm of the X Files" generation (thats "files", not "factor") and

"Trust No One",

"Believe Nothing"

"Question Everything"

is my motto...

But I survived it, with no help from the vile coffee they served in the cafe!!!

Anyway, onto recent art projects:

These are some smaller paintings i've been working on

3"x3" squares (well mostly) i sell in the shop, i only have a few left

...and a remake of an old one, i'm working on

and this is my art desk as of this morning.... messy

I've also got some new assemblage pieces i'm working on too, but will photograph those when finished.

The shop has been fairly steady so far this summer, not as busy as last year but we're enjoying having to be innovative getting people in. We have some really nice inexpensive jewellery in and have decided to display them properly in glass jewellery cabinets (hence the IKEA trip). We've had two really big deliveries during the week and the Armoury is brimming with stock everywhere at the moment!!!!!

Okay....time for coffee and toast, enjoy your Sunday everyone.

"Whatever happened to playing a hunch, Scully? The element of surprise, random acts of unpredictability? If we fail to anticipate the unforeseen or expect the unexpected in a universe of infinite possibilities, we may find ourselves at the mercy of anyone or anything that cannot be programmed, categorized or easily referenced".

- X-Files

SOLD

The Andrew Logan "On Your Marks" exhibition closed today and...

... i sold a painting....yaaaay.....so excited.

We've spent the last few weeks being busy getting the house sorted ready for our summer visitors, Cathy, Garth and family arrived last Friday night for a flying visit, a stop over before a wedding in Chester, it was lovely to see them all. We had a mad dash to get the guest bedroom finished....remember this?

and this?

Well this is now.

The wardrobe, as you know we found at the auction last week was the finishing touch for this room, it looks amazing.

I painted two old battered chairs in yellow "1829" paint to use as bedside tables and the hearts/flowers/birds hanging above the bed was a collection of bits and bobs we picked up on our holiday in Northumberland a few years ago.

The patchwork bedcover is a modern one from Cavania and is doubled over here, we also have a blue and pink one! The blanket folded over the end of the bed is a gorgeous vintage cover that i picked up from a boot sale a few years ago. The gorgeous button cushions are from Jo's daughter Max of Tilly Tea Dance and are available at Indigo Moon and her etsy shop.

The middle floor corridor

nearly finished, we found two gorgeous limited edition prints of Hares from the art gallery at Bishops Castle by Eileen Turner

and two old printer trays which will eventually go on the wall as "Cabinets of Curiosities", collecting things at the moment.

I love these chairs, when we bought them we weren't entirely sure where they would go but they're perfect here.

Gorgeous hand made vase from the gallery here in Montgomery, the handle is coated in gorgeous green glass from recycled bottles, but, i can't remember the name of the artist, sorry.

The Bathroom

Best to ignore the red curtains here - i'm still trying to find what will work. I love this bathroom, it's mostly Nicci's at the moment (she shares it with visitors) the roll top bath is lovely painted in this symphony grey with silver feet.

...and this gorgeous jar with soap and bath bombs in is Nicci's touch

So thats the house so far, all the mess has moved to the top floor for the time being but that's off bounds to everyone except me and Gav so it works out ok. We're just doing a few alterations in the kitchen and then we'll make a start on the top floor.

THese made me laugh. When nicci moved here a few weeks ago she brought a load of old photos from the attic...i love this one i took of her, she was about nine or ten years old and was dressed up as victorian child ready for a school trip to St Fagans...so cute.

and this...OMG me with my junior school class!!!! i'm front row second from the left...Ha! Probably the same age as Nicci in the photo above! Scary!!

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing".George Bernard Shaw

Olympic Art

These areThree pieces of my art ready for the

"On Your Marks"

Exhibition at the Andrew Logan, Museum of Sculpture Festival

this Saturday

Can't wait to see my lovely sister this weekend,the whole family are travelling down for a family wedding in Chester and are staying overnight on Friday so we've been getting our guest room ready and picked up a gorgeous wardrobe at the Harry Ray Auction which was just the right size and only £50

It was hells own job getting it from the town hall and up the stairs, but worth it. It has a kind of Art Nouveau look to it, i love these little carvings of ships on each side

Also we bought a huge cupboard for the kitchen, it needs painting but will be great as a Pantry,

I love all that cupboard space, we can get rid of some of the horrid IKEA cabinets now!!

"Be like a duck. Calm on the surface, but always paddling like the dickens underneath"
Michael Caine

Didn't realise i hadn't blogged for a few weeks, where does all the time go? The weather has been glorious over the last few weeks and we've had some lovely long evening walks with Lizzie.

I've still got a chronic poorly back and had to stop and rest against gates on the way round

We love this walk around the Lymore Estate,

this is the beginning of the walk and the views over the Shropshire Hills in the distance are gorgeous

Goats!

makes a change from sheep i guess!

Lymore Lake

Lizzie's favourite watering hole

Walking back home

My gorgeous Lizzie cooling off in the stream at White Gate

I bought these chairs at an auction about eighteen months ago, (they're IKEA) and painted them with "1829" chalky paint and put them outside the shop for sale.

...and this is an Art Deco hall stand we bought last year - painted Persian Blue

I've really enjoyed painting furniture this week, they were all pieces we had stored in our stock room and it's nice to get them in the shop at last and make a bit of room.

Gorgeous flowers today from friends

I put them in my new shop window display, which was all vintage stock this time.

My gorgeous baby girl has finally moved here permanently with us this week after finishing her college course and is now a qualified make up artist, with ambitions to get into film. She's got herself a job as well as a place on the committee helping with the Berriew summer festival, i love her being here with us and i'm so proud of her.

"Being a force of good in the world and honouring my core values is about saying yes to my heart and saying yes to the hearts of those who pass through my life. It's about standing as close to the flame of truth as possible and meeting each day with as much integrity and honesty as i can muster"

- Liz Kalloch (adapted)

A change is as good as a rest... 20 May 2012 1:33 AM (12 years ago)

...So the saying goes.

Life seems like one constant change at the moment, especially at Indigo Moon. Just as we organise one thing and seem happy with it, something else gets us thinking and changing, i suppose it's our creative nature and our strong desire to continue successfully.

Firstly though, i wanted to show you these little collaged brooches i've been making. Back by popular demand! I've had so many requests to make more of these and spent all last week finishing them off although i did run out of pins for the last twenty or so.

Here's the process as requested:

Small wooden discs (brooch size), any shape

Old ephemera, i like the old natural writing. These are a batch of letters from a daughter to her parents whilst at boarding school and through early marriage dating from the 1940's

Cut into circles

pasted on the wooden discs

painted

more painting

...i'm sure you get the idea...

and Voila!

narrative pasted on and i also add a bit of gold here and there, once pins are on the back they're good to go.

We're quite excited about the few changes we made in the shop this last week. It was done very quickly once we'd made up our minds:

Greetings cards:

we already do a range of nice greeting cards, but we thought we'd expand the range to cater for a few more people, we sell a lot of what we did have, but we also had a few people saying that we didn't quite have what they wanted.

We spent most of the week calling around various card suppliers getting stock, i won't go into too much detail but they're a funny bunch. Here we are in a recession, a double dip recession at that, all sorts of financial doom and gloom across the media and they need board meetings before they'll decide whether they'll take your money or not - it's really bizarre. However we did manage to get the few companies we liked on board...and are still waiting for a few others.

We had planned to build some racks out of wooden shelving, but then we decided to get acrylic shelving instead and we're glad we did as it's much nicer.

...and now for the really exciting stuff:

SWEETS!!!!!

We bought some traditional sweets and some glass jars to put them in, Gav built these shelves and i lined them with a 1890's french newspaper. We still have a bit more work to do on this, but it looks good to start with. We made our own labels for the jars

...bought some pretty pink and white sweety bags...

.... and printed off some labels to hang on the bag, they looked great in the shop at one pound for a hundred gram bag of sweets of your choice. We didn't put them out until about 2pm yesterday and had sold seven bags when we closed the shop

...not bad for our first few hours.

Naughty puppy....

needless to say when i was making up the bags of sweets a few fell to the floor (i'll have to get the hang of it) and this little snaffle hound was there waiting, ready to pounce - she'd just nabbed four fizzy cola bottles here and i had to prise her jaws apart to get them off her - this was me telling her off, her ears go right back when i do that and she always looks to the side as if to say "Who, me...i wouldn;t dare"

so darn cute!!!!

and last but not least, to finish off a nice day...

...we went to see Jack Dee at Theatr Hafren in Newtown last night, hilariously funny, especially his bit about "teenagers" !!!!!

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“What I want is what I've got, and what I need is all around me.”
Dave Matthews Band - adapted

Grab a coffee and have a walk around Indigo Moon with me 5 May 2012 1:36 PM (12 years ago)

This is our new till we picked up yesterday, isn't it amazing?

We drove over to Worcester to pick it up and thought we might have lunch out but, unfortunately, we weren't enamoured with Worcester and drove on to Tenbury Wells which we were even more unenamoured with so went to Hereford instead!

Anyway this is a National Cash Register and it's about 100 years old and looks fab in the shop, loads of lovely comments about it today.

Indigo Moon...wander around with me...

it's bursting at the seams with gorgeous goodies

Hope you enjoyed the tour, come and have a look if you're in the area.

I bought these wooden discs on our trip to Hereford and soon they'll be gorgeous painted brooches

“Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping.”
Bo Derek

Work in Progress... 2 May 2012 1:43 PM (12 years ago)

Inspired by Cathy Cullis

I've had such a lovely day today, a mixture of sorting through boxes in the house (from when we moved here nearly three years ago), reorganising my new huge bedroom, creating in my artroom and an hour or so catching up with other peoples blogs! Today i browsed Cathy Cullis' blog, i adore her work and she totally inspired me today to create some of my own pieces.

Paper, fabric, stitching and paint

We've got a day off tomorrow, the street fair comes to Montgomery so there'll be no parking for visitors and very little business for us as well as lots of noise, so we're off to Shrewsbury for a few hours retail therapy and lunch.

Have a Happy Thursday everyone

What a mad week it's been! After our relaxing holiday it was all systems go, getting straight back into work with yet more organising in the shop, a trip to South Wales to pick up my gorgeous girl and then some more organising in the house!!!

I did manage to get some creating done and made some cards whilst i was in the shop last week, in and around the stock taking and reorganising that is and, as requested, by customers, here's the process again!

Fabriano watercolour paper cut to size (2" x 3" approx)

Sketched images onto card

Coloured with Caran D'Ache soluble wax crayons

and brushed over with aqua brush

Outlined with Faber Castell pens

Aged with Ranger Distress Inks and signed

gold inks added

Glued onto card blanks

information hand written onto the back of the cards and messages written on front

Bagged, and now for sale at Indigo Moon!

I made seventy cards over four days, each one unique

I really enjoy making these cards, i've done a few batches now, they look so nice when finished and bundled altogether, so many different colours. I have them strewn out over the counter working on them when we have quiet times and people come into the shop intrigued by what i'm doing, I usually end up explaining the process and doing a demonstration of sorts and getting a few sales!

I also did these larger whimsical paintings for cards recently, here are three and i have another seven that i'm working on. These are ready to scan and print onto cards. I have this huge Giclee printer that i haven't had much use out of yet and the plan is to print my own cards from my art work along with some limited edition prints of my collage paintings

.....the recent reorganisation at Indigo Moon
...we took the top off the huge drab brown dresser we had at the back of the shop (so i could get my art on the walls) and we painted the bottom half pink, it looks gorgeous, lots of nice comments from customers all week.

My art

"Great people talk about ideas; ordinary people talk about things; small-minded people talk about other people".

-- unknown

Happy First Anniversay to my wonderful hubby for last April 16th

and thanks to all our our family and friends for the special cards and messages you all sent, you're all very special

Special anniversary wishes too (for last April 17th) to my lovely sister, Cathy and Garth and to Annie and David on their 30th year,

love to you all.

Gav and i had an amazing weeks holiday to celebrate (as you know we couldn't go far because of the shop) but my gorgeous girl did a grand job here of holding the fort for us and we managed a week of complete relaxation in luxurious accommodation, with long walks and nice meals, it was just what we needed.

This was our hotel in Portmierion Village (The Portmeirion Hotel), we had two nights here and the weather was beautiful. There's something really nice about being able to explore the village in the evening once all the visitors had left for the day. We managed to get one of the lookout points to ourselves one evening and took wine, glasses and cheese and crackers to watch the sun set - very romantic!!!

Views from our hotel room window

Part of the lobby

another part of the lobby

Gav in "the Prisoner" chair in the reception area

One of our lovely long walks around the park

Hide and Seek

Boo, "bet you didn't know i was here!"

me being brave, there was quite a drop behind me

Self Portraits

Tarzan? ...........possibly?

After Portmeirion we went to Aberdovey overnight, had more long walks along the beach, visited a lovely gallery and looked forward to our evening meal. Didn't manage to take any photographs of Aberdovey as the batteries ran out on my camera.

Then we went over to Aberaeron for a few days. I love all the houses here, they're all different colours ranging from Strawberry, raspberry, mint, pale blue, dark blue, orange, red and peach.....no plain whites or even a brick in sight, very colourful. Not much to do at Aberaeron though so we had a day trip out to Cardigan and found a lovely gallery, where i bought a handbag (I know, another one, but Gav offered to buy it and I couldn't refuse......could i?......)

This shop at Aberaeron made us laugh when we arrived, I guess thats inflation for you.

In the meantime, Blogger has changed it's look and i've found it the most frustrating thing ever. I'm all for change if it's for progress but come on, saving what i'm writing after every three words is a bit much, it freezes the screen whilst it does this so i spend a lot of time waiting - i'd rather just save it at the end in one go. The new way of doing things is not user friendly i don't know whats going on wit them. Posting on my blog used to be relatively quick, easy and enjoyable and even relaxing (as it should be), i now have to prepare myself for the frustration blogger causes with it's constant, ridiculous and unwelcome changes.

Sending all my love and thoughts to my dearest and bestest friend Ange.

Helen was a much loved sister and i hope you all find the strength and comfort you need from her precious children and family and friends to help you through this difficult time. xxx

As she danced in the light with joy,
her love lifted you. As she brushed against
this world so gently, she lifted us.
T.C. Ring (adapted from the Butterfly)

"I am not a number..." 11 Apr 2012 3:34 AM (13 years ago)

We're really enjoying the sunshine here in Mid Wales at the moment, even though it's still a little chilly, however, we've got to the stage whereby if we don't have a break we'll have a breakdown!!!! It's that serious. So, after a quick discussion and much searching on the world wide web, we're heading off for a few days for a much needed re-charging of batteries.

I'm so looking forward to it. Today we're travelling up to Portmeirion and having a few days in the Portmeirion Hotel, nice coffees and walks around the village and through the park. It's very near Criccieth Castle so perhaps a visit there too. I'm just about old enough to remember "the prisoner" of 1960's fame, filmed there.

Then...we're back on Friday night as Nicci has an interview on Saturday Morning and we're off again in the afternoon to Aberaeron for a few days as it's our wedding anniversary! Can't believe it's been a year since that lovely day.

Aberaeron

Nicci's having the shop for us and looking after Lizzie, she's such a darling, and so used to it now, so hopefully we can relax properly.

I've not had much time to do any creating recently as we've done loads more work on the house. We started on the top floor these last few weeks, there are still a lot of unpacked boxes from when we moved here two and a half years ago so we're busy doing that and getting rid of stuff. The Armoury is looking so much better these days it's been nice to walking around and not tripping over boxes or to have to manouevre your way around dressers and wardrobes in places they have no business being!!!!

Hopefully when we get back we'll have the energy to push ourselves to finish it all ready for all our lovely visitors through the summer, the first of which is Gav's Brother and family in June!

Indigo Moon has been really busy over Easter, a lot of people are still finding us for the first time, we're having to be very innovative getting people off the square and round the corner to us, but it seems to be working. Gav has some more new shelving almost ready to go up in the shop so i'll do lots of photos when i get back.

In the meantime i'm going to enjoy and make the most of my precious few days away with my lovely husband.

xxoxx

Assemblage Jewellery 2 Apr 2012 10:06 AM (13 years ago)

I bought these gorgeous Stampington magazines last week following my jewellery making "inkling", they're almost like books (hence the price - £14 each) but they're well worth it. I've been having a go at making some "assemblage" jewellery, in the style of Nina Bagley and Deryn Mentock, it's not been as easy as i thought it might be, working with wire is not what i'm used to, but at least i'm finding my own style and having fun practicing the techniques.

i decided on a design and put together these supplies from my stash of treasures: the dyed and stamped muslin (and satin ribbon) i made last week, a piece of pretty victorian lace ...

some stunning glass beads in lovely greens and blues

a tiny tin that holds pen nibs

and this is what i made

It's not finished yet, but i'm quite pleased with how it's turning out

I made the fabric part from circles of different fabrics the centre one being a watercoloured piece of muslin and hand stamped. Then i dug out my little sewing machine (which i haven't used for ages) and stitched the circles together...

i made the wrapped wire nest using Deryn Mentocks tutorial I bought on Etsy for £5, it takes a bit of practice and i haven't got it entirely right, but i'm working on it. I'm hoping i can get it finished completely over the next week or so, along with some others i've started working on.

It's been a busy few days here at The Armoury, Gav and i went down to Swansea on Friday night to George's 30th Birthday party, it was nice to meet up with everyone and was very relaxing until we noticed the flat tyre on the car and had to get the RAC out (not having much luck carwise lately, the exhaust fell off last week!) and when i twisted my ankle and done my back in again!

More tidying and work going on...this is what the corridor looked like this morning, a complete mess...

but, thankfully, was all orderly again by the afternoon

nearly all the middle floor is done now, we have a few bits and pieces to finish off but nothing urgent.

new mirror...

and...the guest bedroom last Monday....

the Guest bedroom this Monday

All in all it's been a productive few days and we're always pleased when 'home' things get done. After the hard work clearing the corridor today we thought we deserved a treat and popped over the Ivy House cafe for coffee and cake.

"Give your stress wings and let it fly away"

~Terri Guillemets

New Brooches 25 Mar 2012 3:59 PM (13 years ago)

Quick Tutorial

I started with some wooden heart shapes and my stash of gorgeous papers

Pick out some interesting papers and draw around the heart and cut out

then cut out a contrasting colour of paper for the bottom half of the heart (or the top if you prefer)

add a flower cut from one of the papers

along with a word or words cut from old books then coat with gel medium to protect papers

paint the back of the brooches

use inks to distress the edges of the brooches

and they're now ready for the pins to be glued on and for sale at Indigo Moon

....Another room almost finished at the Armoury, we now have a proper living room, just a few bits to tidy up which we'll get on with tomorrow (in between a picnic up at the Castle!!)

Bright days, busy days and relaxing day out days... 15 Mar 2012 4:33 AM (13 years ago)

I have a new computer...yaaaaaay, it arrived yesterday and it's soooooooo fast!

Nina Bagley jewellery - stunning

I have a very strong inkling to make jewellery, assemblage (art to wear) jewellery, i'm probably driving my husband mad buying and trying out new supplies. So far i've had packages arrive containing pliers of all sizes and sorts along with gorgeous glass beads of all kinds....and then last night found me scouring Etsy for gorgeous pieces of fabric to incorporate into some new pieces i have in mind.

(Homestead Treasures on Etsy)

Anyway...as is always...custom charges put me off ordering in from abroad, so i decided to make some of my own using a method described by Ruth Rae in her book "Layered Tattered and Stiched"...and this was the result:

hand stamped muslin

I think these will look really good with different stamps and some gold and coloured machine stitching.

Deryn Mentock Jewellery

I am inspired by the lovely Nina Bagley (and Deryn Mentock, check out her blog "Something Sublime") it's amazing and now that i have supplies available i'm going to see what i can come up with in my own style.....so watch this space.

I have a Dr's appointment today, it's taken me almost two weeks to make it, my back pain is getting worse and i've rested really well, but, unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be getting any better and after a final warning from Gav today saying make an appointment or i will for you, i did. I called the surgery at 8.30am this morning and have an appointment at 4.30pm this afternoon - how's that for amazing service?

The thing is with working in the shop, i get a lot of well meaning people in here who are very sympathetic and offer all sorts of advice, which can sometimes be quite frightening, most seem to have known someone with similar symptoms and have no qualms in telling me it didn't end well!! The most bizarre was a lady who recently asked me all my symptoms and then quite worriedly told me to get to my GP as her sisters husband had that and it turned out to be "testicular cancer"..........!!!! Hmmmm!!! don't think there's much chance of that actually!!!

Anyway, onto brighter things.......

This was what the centre of our shop looked like last week

and this week........first it looked like this, with all the centre table and shelves moved out.

...to make room for new shelving, made from old 1960's wooden fruit crates, painted and waxed

Now, it looks like this...

Stunningly gorgeous

We do have a lot more to do on the shelving side of things (but Gav's having a break bless him, he worked so hard putting them together and painting and waxing them all up).

We had such a nice relaxing day off this week...
...we drove over to Builth Wells (to pick up some old churns) and across to Leominster where we had lunch and a leisurely wander around the vintage, antique and gallery shops there. Then we went on to Ludlow and took the scenic route home through Ashton on Clun to Bishops castle and then home to Montgomery. Definitely in need of more of these relaxing days.

Leominster

This made me laugh....i photographed it outside a pub in Leominster! Especially for my gorgeous girl, it's her kind of philosophy...Ha!

Talking of my gorgeous girl...she'll be here again this weekend, still earning her money for the "Download" festival. But it's mothers day on Sunday, so i'll whisk the two of us out for a nice lunch somewhere, perfect mother/daughter time, ahhhhhhh.

....and finally...this was my shopping from the market today - hardly ever have a need to do supermarkets these days....we're getting so healthy....he he!! Off to make soup now.

"The best and most efficient pharmacy is within your own system"

– Robert C. Peale

"The Porcelain Doll" and other gorgeous things... 2 Mar 2012 6:06 AM (13 years ago)

I just have to show you this beautiful jewellery made by my very gorgeous and talented niece, Angharad Selway. Her business name is The Porcelain Doll and she makes these pieces out of beads, fabric, jewellery findings and all sorts of other lovely things. She sent me a box full to put in the shop, i love the handmade hand stamped labels she did for them.

So...here they are all displayed at Indigo Moon, they look delicious don't you think?

I've been feeling a tad sorry for myself these last few weeks, i've had chronic back ache which doesn't seem to be getting better, not helped by moving furniture around again, but needs must. This is our new middle floor hallway, finally tidy and free from junk, all around is beginning to feel like a home now. The end room you can see at the bottom of the corridor steps down into what will eventually be our living room and although it's all painted it's still full of junk at the moment. The next door is Nicci's room and the nearest one is the guest bedroom (also full of junk and unpainted). The floor boards here could do with a good polish, they're very old, it's on our "to-do" list.

I love these chairs, Gav bought them from an auction last year they have all sorts of scary carved faces over them, very tribal.

Gav was out all day yesterday at an auction in Shrewsbury. Whilst we were sorting out some of the rooms we found boxes and boxes of china tea sets under beds and in cupboards - things we bought to sell in the shop before we opened - we'd forgotten how much we had, so we decided to get rid of most of it and took two, full to the brim, car loads of stuff over to Halls on Monday for the sale yesterday. It all went for a good price, some of it more than we paid for it two years ago, so we were really pleased.

Whilst Gav was out i re-did my window display for Mothers Day. It's a lways a little difficult as the inside of the shop is below street level and because the window is really tall, i don't get to use the whole space, anyway this is it and i've had lots of nice comments on it!

The vase will have some flowers in it, but because i don't want to use real ones i'm going to make some out of paper...when i get a minute.

Now, this is a huge ambitious project in itself. Gav is assembling this shelving in our kitchen at the moment in parts. He bought some old wooden, rustic fruit boxes and had an idea to make new shelving for the shop out of them. We've never been entirely happy with the centre of the shop, but were a bit stumped for ideas as we didn't want to move towards the more commercialised shop fittings and lose the unique "aladdiny cavey" (i know thats not a word, but you know what i mean) feel/look to the shop.

As you can see, he's assembled them and used some "1839" chalk paint in various colours to randomly paint/wash over it. He wasn't entirely happy at first but it grew on him. Since taking this photo he's brushed them with an antique brushing wax and you would not believe the difference in the look and colour. The plan is to assemble them over the next 2/3 weeks and fit them on a Monday when we're closed, i think they'll look great.

In the meantime, enjoy some images of the shop as it was yesterday....(er i moved things around a bit after this photo).

Dotty pegs i've been painting over the last week or so whilst my art room was seconded out to Nicci to finish projects for college - apparently i have everything she needs in there!!!!! How convenient! She went to London on Tuesday with college, she was so excited bless her. I had two calls whilst she was there, one to ask me to pay £20 into her account and another to tell me she'd bought my Mothers Day present.....Hmmmm!!! methinks i've been had there!!! Ha!!

This was nother project in the week...painting this horrible brown dresser at the front of the shop (and the one next to it), i painted a little yellow on the back to give it an "identity" - it does look nice. I started it at 5pm when we closed the shop and as it could be re-coated in six hours, i was back in at 11.30pm doing the second coat - worth it though, it makes the shop look brighter.

Gorgeous soap, lots to choose from

Bath Bombs to die for... Nicci put some new ones out last weekend, they smell delicious

"Hey baby i'm, the telephone man..."

Lots of phones, all restored and in working order by my very own "telephone man"

These get a lot of attention, our customers love them, we sell absolutely loads of them and have a house full of them too.

Vintage Pottery

View to the back of the shop from the door

So that's what i've been up to the last few weeks. We've had lots of artisans calling in to the shop to ask me to sell their wares, i wish i could take it all, but i don't have enough space, it's something Gav and i are thinking about a lot, we'd like to extend the shop but it may mean us having to live elsewhere - we'll put it on our five, maybe ten year plan!!

“Virtue and Happiness are Mother and Daughter”

- Benjamin Franklin

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