WALL-TO-WALL SUNSHINE

Hi everyone

Yes, the nights may be chilly, the mornings frosty, but the sunny days are sooo good, aren't they?  Apparently it is going to be like this for a few more days - then back to chilly, grey days?  I hope not.

I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day and received lots of flowers, chocs, cards and even more chocs - and cupcakes too.  Talking of cupcakes, don't forget to check out my Friday blog of last week to see if you were awarded the Super Sweet Blogging Award.  It's a bit of fun, but I am sure you agree it is always lovely to be recognised by other bloggers and nice to be able to pass on the award too.

The last week has disappeared and I don't really have a lot to show for it.  Where does the time go?  I plan, I plot, I organise, I get set up, I make, but don't appear to achieve all that I had hoped for.  Perhaps it is because not everything I do can be seen?  I have been busy working on advertising and promoting my workshops, so I haven't been completely idle.  I have added the workshops to the UK Handmade website, and What's on in Surrey, tweeted them every day and placed posters around the Christmas Pie area.  I shall spend time this coming week adding the details to more websites.

The one thing I have to show this week is my pottery plaque.  Not complete, but very different from the last photograph I posted:

If you look back at the previous pic of this, you will see a lot has changed.  The blue glass beads have been added to the 'boulders' on the left hand side, the trees have changed as have the hills in the middle.  I reduced the amount of sky by appx 1.5" as I thought it was too much to fill.  By the end of last Thursday's session I had 'painted' everything.  However, as the colours will change once the plaque has been biscuit-fired I didn't really want to add a photograph at this stage, as some of the colours don't look great.  The blue glass beads (smashed to allow them to be 'sprinkled' down the hillside) will melt into pools and blobs, the ones with yellow in will apparently lose their colour and become clear. I added some more boulders to hold in the glass as I don't want to to leak into the sky.  No pottery this week as it is half-term; this will give the clay time to dry out ready for biscuit firing.  Once that has been carried out, I will paint the plaque in a clear glaze.  I also made a triangle-shaped porcelain pendant this week.  I folded up the sides and added crushed glass beads to the centre.  That will also be ready for biscuit-firing after half-term and then glazing.

I always miss pottery when it is half-term week, but I don't think I will ever forget how much I loved half-term when I was teaching.  The peace and quiet in college was wonderful - I know the students loved the break, but boy oh boy, so did we!

While on the crafting topics, don't forget to visit this week's Handmade Monday blog posts.  Wendy's weekly linky parties are a great way to catch up with fellow crafters, keep up-to-date on what is happening in the craft world and also read some great blog posts.

We went to see Les Miserables on Friday.  Amazing!  I know everyone who has seen it says it is fantastic, and it really is. Richard wasn't overly keen on going, but really enjoyed it.  Two rather unusual things happened in the cinema: nobody coughed during the film and the audience clapped at the end of it!  If you haven't seen it yet, I do recommend it.

I am off to enjoy the last of today's sunshine - everything in the garden is beginning to burst into bud and it's a good time now to prune things that need a tidy up.  I hope you all have a good week.  Milly will be here on Wednesday with her mid-week post.  I have some card orders for the unusual (which seems to be usual for me really) and will post pics of them next week.,

Jill