Hello From St Audries Bay

We are having a great time at St audries .The weather is beautiful and it looks like staying that way!
I have had to buy a new laptop since we arrived as I had a problem with the old one, I have yet to work out how to load the pictures on here, so you will have to wait and see the results of the classes.
Many thanks to Darren the computer wizz who has set up my lap top so far-he is a gem!

New Classes

I have been inundated with requests for new classes. I cant fit in any more classes this year so I promise I will get some dates sorted out while I am on the painting holiday at St Audries Bay .
I will ring all of you that have enquired about particular classes and let you know when they will be held, before I advertise the classes on my websites.

Commission Finished

I have had such an interesting time painting the glass porthole windows---they have been a fascinating subject and I was really pleased with the result.

They are so vibrant with the light shining through them.

Its always a nail biting time waiting for the commissioners to come and view the piece--thankfully it was recieved well and I was informed that the glass portholes are in fact going to live in Mallorca, Spain.

They are going to email me some pics of them in situ in the doors, and I must say I cant wait.

I have been unable to get decent pics of them so hope they have more luck with the camera!

This Weekend's Food And Drink Festival

This weekend see's one of Ludlow highlights--The annual food and drink festival take a look at http://www.foodfestival.co.uk/ Ludlow will be heaving with people from all over the country and the world.

There are beer trails and sausage trails amoung other exciting things going on in the town.

The Streets Alive will be in town with the stilt dancers,music and loads of things going on in the town square.

We will be in the college Saturday and Sunday doing the craft fair which raises money for the Air Ambulance.

I will have room to put lots of paintings on show and as usual I will be demonstrating both the encaustic and oil painting techniques.

Several people that we met at Onslow Park steam rally will be coming to the craft fair to pick up their encaustic sets, that I had sold out of!!

I have stocked up with plenty of supplies of encaustic stuff so hopefully I wont run out of stock this weekend!

Grouting!!!!!!!

Just to prove that I have done some of the work!!!

I spent most of yesterday grouting the tiles in the kitchen-we had the morning at the boot sale at Leominster, but got stuck in as soon as we got home. Sat down at 9pm last night, totaly knacked!!

It has been a long job, but so worth it. The kitchen is really looking good now--just couldnt resist calling at Morrisons and picking up a new chrome bread bin and some new trivets to match!

Who Wanted Mosaic Tiles!!

I didnt realise when I chose the tiles for the kitchen walls, just how much work was involved in grouting them! 2 days Ive been at it, but what a difference its made, the whole lot looks much lighter than before, I will take some more pics tomorrow so you can see the difference.

I decided to tile behind the dishwasher and the cooker, or rather I wanted Bill to tile behind the dishwasher and cooker, so this has made more work for him-hes very patient with me bless him!

Getting On!!

As you can see-the tiles are taking shape very quickly-Bill satrted them at 11am and has finished that wall already-there have been a few swear words uttered here and there, and he says he will be seeing squares in his sleep-but I just love it.

I will have the job of grouting them tomorrow I expect-there will propley be a few more choice words then!!!

Lucky Toads

These are my 2 lucky toads-they are very special 3 legged toads that are supposed to bring money luck! They sit on a pile of money and hold a lucky chinese coin in their mouth.

You keep them by your front door and give them a rub when you pass them by!

I keep my lottery tickets underneath them and so far it seems to be working a treat!

When you have some money luck you have to thank them--I bought one for my mum when we went on holiday last year and she laughed when I told her they were for-within a few days she had a big win at bingo! My sister in law also had a lottery win shortly after recieving one as a gift from me!

Stripping

I spent most of yesterday stripping----grime off the top of the kitchen cuboards and off the wall tiles ready for retiling.

Sugar soap is the most amazing stuff ever invented-just one wipe with the sponge soaked in the soloution and the results were amazing!!!

Bill was very impresses with the results.!

He has finished putting up the tiles in the extra bits that I wanted them-after taking down the old cooker hood I decided that I wanted a bigger area tiling than was done before.Bill has decided to tile over exising tiles rather than remove them and risk having to replaster the walls- so today is the big day when the new tiles are going to start going up over the top .

We decided last night that we would like a new double glazed window in the kitchen to replace the secondry glazed one, of course that means that we might as well replace the bathroom window while we are at it , so we have the man coming round at 6pm to measure up!

To think that all this started cos I went to focus to get some odourless thinners!!!

If we hadnt had some luck on the lottery's we wouldnt be able to do it, but the way Im spending it I will need another win tonight! Im off to rub my lucky 3 legged toad!