...All legs no Teeth...

Yesterday turned out to be a bit of a strange day with nothing going to plan! I suffer badly with tooth abscesses and have had 2 in 4 weeks!! not nice - so i was going to the dentist to have the ofending tooth removed. I then planned to work at home for the rest of the day. Well i'd been in pain the day before and the dentist took one look and wouldn't pull it. Apparently the tooth next door is now massively infected as well. So back on 4th set of antibiotics and both of the little blighters are going to wave bye bye on Monday.

Ooer - I've got a busy week next week so hope i'm not too incapacitated. So after getting home relatively early i shot through all the work i had prepared. Tom had gone out (He was 24 years old this week - when did my gorgeous chubby baby turn into this gorgeous hunk of a man!?) so i was left to my own devices. I decided to do something for me and started in my journal but then the creative urges took over and before i knew it i had paints and canvas all over the living room floor.

Claudine Hellmuths new studio line of paints are absolutely fabby. The vibrancy and blendability of the colours are ace. They are more expensive then some because they are artist quality and boy can you tell. I have always loved my Jo Sonjas and Adirondack dabbers but these are going to be one of my firm favourites. With a totally different semi gloss finish they are incredibly pigmented and so a little goes a long way. You can use them straight from the jar or dilute them with water for water colour washes. They also mix beautifully with her multi mediums for stunning glazes. I used a combination of all 3 on my canvas. It dries to a gorgeous finish that i had absolutely no problem writing on and oil pastels blended in easily. Only problem so far is there are 15 colours and you really, really will want them all. The main ones on the canvas are painterly pink, modern red, dash of red and dab of yellow.

The transparencies in top left were transferred using her multi medium and for those of you who have always struggled with transfers this is the product for you - they were the easiest transfers i have ever done. Claudine has always been on of my favourite artists and its great to see that she finally has her own line. For full details of paints see here. Canvas Measures 24"by 24".

I promised you photos of the samples from my ex right hand women Nickie and here they are.

Nickies husband, Will, came to England to work and so she moved here as well with her 4 children. They started at my childrens art classes and we soon all became good friends. She started helping me out and soon became invaluable to me. Sadly they moved back to NZ 2 years ago and i miss her dreadfully. She was one of those peopls who always 'got exactly what i wanted her to do' and is extremly talented. She is flying the flag for Blonde Moments over there and sends me fabby samples. Love the stitching on the Spring Fling layout. That layout is so Autumnly it just makes me want to get out and play again. ( I seem to have been swimming in pink lately)

The jar was a Fathers day gift and a really cool idea for recycling. Anyonw know what we could use as a substitute?

Thanks Nickie

And finally shoe watch...

Imagine my surprise when i found out my blog is read by some of our troops in Iraq - Yes Iraq!! (They've obviously got nothing better to do!! lol) Whatever we all feel about the conflict going on out there, we need to give them our support and pray that they come home safe soon. So todays shoe is dedicated to them (especially James - Luv ya and keep safexx)