Words and Pictures

You know that thing they say about buses? You wait there for ages and then three come at once. Well. That's my life.

Not necessarily in a bussy way you understand.  Let me explain...

As mentioned in the last post, I have taken the plunge and gone back to college full time for this year. I've sent the D'Oub babies to be brought up by other people and now spend most of my day drawing and painting.

Art on book pages...nearly counts as writing?

I never realised quite how busy I'd be. Isn't Art meant to be relaxing, gentle, easy? But I have found myself hectic and under pressure practically from day one back in college. Don't misunderstand me,  I've been delighted. My brain has been jump-started Frankenstein's monster style by all the deadlines and challenges. But goodness, it's time consuming.

A drawing I did based on a line from a book. Does this nearly count as writing?

So what happened to my writing? Well. I've kept at it. But at a slower pace.  I've only sent out three pieces of work in the last six months.

A poem. 

A short story.

A novel.

Russian dolls of writing.

But, as luck* would have it all three of them have done well for me.

(Warning! Shameless boasting approaching!)

My story, 'Salt', was a runner up last autumn in the RTE Guide/ Penguin Ireland Short Story Competition. To be chosen in the top ten out of over a 1000 stories was a real confidence booster. (Maybe I can write after all??)

In October my poem 'Storm' (aka 'Us') was shortlisted for the Jonathan Swift Poetry Competition.

And about three weeks ago I got a phone call which I still can't quite believe - my novel has been picked for this years Irish Writers Centre Novel Fair!

I must go pinch myself again.

The big day is in about ten days. On Saturday 21st.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Novel Fair, it's sorta like literary speed dating. 12 unpublished novels are picked and the authors are locked in a room (well, not actually locked) with a ton of agents and publishers. It's been running for four years and each year has seen a number of the lucky finalist end up with an actual, published, proper book on their hands.

That's the dream, isn't it!

My husband if he has to hear one more thing about my book!

I am excited and terrified in equal measure and hopefully on the 21st I'll do my novel justice.

I'll keep you posted. But right now, I better go do more prep for the day.

I think college will be getting stick figures for the foreseeable future :)

*that old chestnut perhaps? - "The harder I work, the luckier I get.-Samuel Goldwyn"

So, what you been up to since I last saw you...

2015!

Hell yeah!

Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough 2015!


This used to be a bit of a life/writing blog. I used to really love it. Then the demon baby D'Oub came along and there was no time. None. Demon baby D'oub is now 4. She's still a tough nut. But less time consuming.

Time to blog again?


Well.

I filled that demon void by going back to college.

I am a proud owner of a full time student card.

I am doing an art portfolio preparation course. Have literally no idea what I'm going to do once this course is done. Well, maybe some writing? Yes. And then more art study? Perhaps.

So, in the meantime, what say this becomes a life/writing blog again, with a dash off added art?

Let's give it a whirl!!

So, here are my life - i.e. my babies.

(Note how happy baby/toddler D'Oub looks - that's cause she knows she rules the roost. All roosts.)

And here is some of the art work I've been doing since September.

My little darling sleeps. And for a brief few minutes we are not all her servants.

Balls!

I know people don't like feet. Sorry about that.

So, hey, maybe there will be a next time! Maybe this blog is back. Just maybe...

Poetry Divas Do Lenny!

We were lucky Divas to be invited to read at the Leonard Cohen Festival held in Dublin this month :)

 

We all debuted special Lenny poems - all written for the occasion. See below for mine :) 

Mum and Lenny

Growing up my mother so loved Leonard Cohen.

I was sure that she must know him,

that he was some lost love of hers.

Or maybe an old college friend,

Who’d kept in touch all these years

Godfather perhaps to one of my brothers

And mum the same for either his son or his daughter

his face would feature in family photos

pictures of us all together

Lazy barbeques in the south of France.

Leonard in swimming trunks

My mother still young enough for a bikini

I called him Uncle Lenny and sat upon his knee

Though his craggy face made me shy.

Dad would get his fiddle out,

Leonard would sing. My mother dance.

A candid photo caught her staring, adoring

My father, bowing away for all he was worth,

In the middle, unaware or ignoring

(The (sexual) undercurrent.)

Days out at the park, picnics with the two families

Soggy egg sandwiches and tepid tea

Sheltering under large a Horse Chestnut tree as

It rained during the soft Irish summer

And Lenny would have had a haiku in a moment

Surprising us with 17 syllables of beauty, transforming

Damp disappointment into magic.

Once as a teenager on an unexpected half day

arriving home from school laden with books,

I found my mother and Uncle Lenny sitting on the sofa

mug of tea and digestives, in the middle of the day

Watching Murder She Wrote.

I stomped up to my room, but occasionally, called down, unexpectedly.

He came in the evening too, for boozy dinners

Beef wellington, prawns in Marie Rose sauce

And Dad laughed at his clever jokes

But his eyes never crinkled

Mum held back, tried not to touch Leonards hand across the

Rosewood table, ‘you’re so clever’, she’d say.

‘Oh, and ‘you too hon,’ to my Dad, patting his knee

Though not really looking at him.

Lenny’d leave at 1 in the morning, too much wine

On board and Dad would mutter ‘hallelujah’ as he

Shut the door.          

There was that funny time, when she embraced Buddhism, Meditation,

Emailed Leonard daily to share her enlightenment

Dad called the parish priest,

Together they scratched their chins

Been suspicious of this mumbo jumbo from the east

Ticked off a myriad of suspected sins

When I left for college, Uncle Lenny didn’t call around quite so much

The boozy dinners had dwindled

The holidays stopped

Old age swindling them of their youthful vim

But when I mention him to her now

The light hasn’t dimmed.

 She hums So Long Marianne

With a half-smile on her face

And tells me about the text from him last week.

And how he sends her

the odd naughty selfie on Snapchat

He is still ever the hep cat,

And she will never say the words,

But I know she loves him now

As much as she ever did.

Scrap Around The World (again)

It is the challenges that bring me back to my blog. I wish I had time to post here all the time. To tell you hilarious stories of my riotous family. All the weird and wonderful things I get up to. (Or rather our mundane humdrum life?)

But sadly, no. Not time for fun like that.

That said, I gave myself a few hours off tonight and decided to participate in this months Scrap Around the World challenge.

I normally HATE yellow, but as fate would have it my daughter has just gotten the present of a black and yellow dress and had her photo taken on Saturday in front of a black and yellow garden at this years Bloom in the Phoenix Park. I felt the scrappyverse was trying to tell me something.

So, here we are - the mood board - 

 

And my take on it - 

I hope you like it :)

See you next month I imagine!

In The Mood (Board)

This is my first post of 2014. 

The 8th of April. Hard to believe. 

But I haven't been crafting. Not that I didn't want to, but I've been writing a book. It's a bucket list sorta thing. Maybe this book will bring me fame and riches, or maybe it'll sit in a drawer gathering dust forever more, I don't know. But I'm glad I'm doing it. The only downside is not having as much time for my other interests. 

I made a decision this week to step back a little from character formations and plot arcs and just do a bit of scrapping. I've been following the Scrap Around The World blog on Facebook and each month I've wanted to take part in their challenge. This month, I decide to just do it.

 

Here is the mood board they created this month from which we challengers are to draw inspiration. And as the blog isn't a specifically colour challenge blog, you can take your inspiration from any part of the board. As it turned out though, the colours happen to be complete faves of mine, so my layout ended up taking that as its inspiration.

I was in a mixed media mood when I sat down to put the layout together. I used to worry about what would happen if the scrapbooking industry declined to such an extent that we couldn't get our lovely patterned papers anymore (I know, over-dramatic much?!?) But for the last 12 months or so, at least half my layouts - like this one - are patterned paper free. I just messed about with my paints and pastes and inks.

So, here it is in all its glory :)

There you go. I am very happy with my page and I'm looking forward to next months mood board... or you know, I may even do another from this month's.

See you next time :)

Gelli Prints and DecoArt Fun :)

The universe has been listening. It heard that my gelliplate has become most most favouritest thing in the whole world.

In fairness it would  have been quite hard for the Universe to have missed this fact. In fact, I suspect the Universe has been banging on it's ceiling with a brush handle, yelling at me to keep it down.

But, holding no grudges, she - the Universe is a woman, right? - sent me a wonderful surprise a month or so ago.

I got an email from the lovely people at DecoArt paints, asking me to do a little design team work for them with their fab acrylic paints and my beloved Gelli plate. I.Was. Delighted. Delighted :)

But I got a little bit of performance anxiety. I didn't want to disappoint. Such lovely, lovely paints and now (after a trip to the Hobbycraft fair in Birmingham) also a new GIANT Gelliplate. It was nearly overwhelming.

But, telling myself to cop on, I eventually dived in...

Here are the current results. I hope you like them :)

I grabbed a few fallen leaves from the Acer tree in the back garden and this is what I got :)

My Dad saw keyholes and I saw trees. I think he's right though.

Broke out a few of my old favourite hand-cut stencils for this one. Loving the pink palette.

The first of two Poppies studies. Love poppies. And the colour teal. This print has it all!

Those poppies again. But more multicolored. I love colour. Loads of it. I guess I'm just  not a subtle person :)

So, there you go. I'm hoping to try producing some videos of my process soon. I tried before but my camera kept falling over. Any and all tips on making videos very happily received!

See you next time :)

Gelli Madness

So I just dropped off the face of the earth, didn't I?

My cyber disappearance coincided with a trip my husband took to Texas.

There had been a travel freeze in his company for three years, so he'd been going nowhere. But, back in June, that all changed. And off he went to Austin, Texas. And he didn't just bring a change of clothes with him. He brought a crafty shopping list as long as your arm with him!

Oh the things I ordered.

From Jo-Ann's!

From Michaels!

From Hobby Lobby!

The haul!

It was glorious! Only next to actually being able to go there myself and browse the shelves myself, it was the best crafty thing to ever happen to me :)

Well, that is until he came home. And one of the things I had him buy me, well, it's changed my crafting world!

That's a pretty big statement, isn't it?

But it's true.

So, what was this thing he bought me?

A Gelli plate.

Maybe that doesn't sound like much - what's so great about a synthetic gelatin monoprinting plate I hear you cry! Well, maybe you just got to try it to understand...

Here's a link to the official Gelli Arts website -

http://www.gelliarts.com/

Watch a few videos. You'll be hook on the idea in no time :)

So, basically, that's all I've been doing for the last six months. I'm not actually kidding. My scrapbooking has fallen very far behind :( I still love it so very much, but the whole gelli printing has kinda got out of hand! Y'see, I made so many prints I decided recently to open my very own Etsy Shop. (RublilyArt) And boy, that takes time. And I've been doing a few craft fairs too. Busy, busy busy! But I'll be back to my scrapping soon :)

Anyway, here are a few of my prints! This is what the fuss is all about :)

Some of them I painted on top of an initial gelli print, some I used my own hand-drawn and cut stencils.  And some had brushwork, stencils and then stamping! And some were just layer after layer of the prints themselves. The possibilities are endless :)



I will be posting more scrapping layouts soon. But there's going to be a lot of Gelliprinting too! Brace yourselves!