art

After studying the Hertfordshire's Open Studios brochure a couple of friends and I decided to have a trip out to see the studios of Adele Pearce (Village Arts) and Hazel Godfrey (Willow). A few factors came into play on this decision, firstly I like mosaic and willow, secondly never visited Kings Walden before, but the real lure was a studio in the garden of a pub, bonus!

We have been perusing this years Herts Open Studios brochure, deciding which artists we would like to see. There is certainly a lot of diverse creativity on offer during this annual three week showcase. I find it interesting talking to the artists about their work, If you haven't tried it give ago.

It's over a week since we were down on the south coast, celebrating Alice's degree in Brighton. After the degree ceremony, two hours of continual clapping was just a tad too long!

Last weekend we had a girls weekend in Newcastle a bit of shopping, good food, a sprinkling of culture and lots of chatting and laughter. My friend Susie owns a flat in West Jesmond and kindly invited Daryl, Amanda and I to stay. The good food started as soon as we got off the train, a very tasty tapas in a Spanish restaurant. The next day we went to the coast, Tynemouth, and had classic fish and chips. Before our lunch we had browsed around the flea market, held on the Victorian station platform at Tynemouth.

Just want to flag up that it's Herts Open Studios 2010, it starts tomorrow Saturday 11 September and runs until Sunday 3 October. This is a wonderful opportunity to visit local artists, often in their own studios, to meet and chat with them. Browse around and talk about their work and maybe even buy some original artwork. To find out more about the artists taking part and the times they will be open take a look at the website Herts Open Studios 2010

I love old knitting patterns, for many reasons, comedy value being just one. This pattern for helmet (silly me I thought it was a balaclava!) and caps caught my eye, mainly because all the hats sport a lovely pom pom on top, I'm a sucker for a pom pom. The helmet is my particularly favourite, very attractive. 10p well spent? I think so. In the same shop I bought a water colour painting of shells, for 50p, I think it's quite well executed, just needs a frame.

As a family it's rare for any of us to read a novel (maybe Alice). Nearly all our books are on art, photography, crafts, cooking (cook books without photographs what is that about?), manuals and maps. For a book to make it onto our book shelves it usually has to contain either illustrations, photographs or diagrams. I find It's the same with blogs if they are too wordy with no photographs they don't hold my attention. Over the Christmas break Alice had to write a dissertation for Uni. She had a book list so she looked on Amazon to buy some that were relevant to her chosen subject, Mods.