Dame Shirley Bassey

I was going to post about my visit to Chester Cathedral tonight, but instead I have been watching the Bill on TV, followed by the wonderful Shirley Bassey. She was one of the stars one evening at Bryn Terfel's annual concerts at Y Faenol and there is a recording of it played tonight. Wonderful. The audience were captivated by her as they sat covered in their bin bags in the rain. The atmosphere at these concerts is fantastic whatever the weather and of course once the concert started, no umbrellas allowed up! Hence the bin bags.

Have a look at this Peggy's Shirley Bassey Blog to see photos of the star at the concert. Peggy mentions the 5 star Quay Hotel, Deganwy where Shirley stayed.


This is the hotel that has stolen a small part of my view. An important part that I loved so much. I could see the sun setting over the sea before they built it.

Orange flowers

 
(I'm sorry blogger doesn't like this one for some reason, so I will put it in later!)
These are in tubs outside our flats, so some more orange for my camera. as you can see I had to use Picasa for this image.
Perhaps this website will interest some of you.Colors and Moods
Now I have had time to look at my images from yesterday, I seem to have gone for oranges and reds. Paige has remarked more than once that I like these colours. If you like beautiful words and images visit her Paradise Valley... 

My orangey-red day

Please click on these for a larger image, they look much better.


Here is a continuation of yesterday's boats. They were crossing each other's bows and how I wished I was nearer, as I think this could have been a very good photo.


The Circus is in town! Well Betws y Coed is not a town it's a village really, but you have never seen such a busy little village. It has always drawn so many visitors. Among them Toni of Astitchdesign from Australia and Dorothy of Pandorasbox from Hertfordshire. Both have wonderful memories of the village.


Do you think I may have been influenced by the circus tent when I played with this simple design in PSP9?




All these seem to be a little early this year.




These tiny orangey-red leaves caught my eye in this tree in the church grounds. They were beautiful. Then I noticed a few of them under the tree. I took them home with me intending to press them, but by this morning most of them have dried and a bit brown.

(I'm sorry blogger doesn't like this one for some reason, so I will put it in later!)
These are in tubs outside our flats, so some more orange for my camera.

An orange day

Today has been an orangey sort of day, that started with these two fascinating boats racing in the estuary. I followed them with my camera through the closed window because it was very windy.
I checked this site that I had in a colour folder-Color Wheel Pro: Color Meaning and then I had a look at this one COLORSTROLOGY
I hope you find them interesting.


My day ended with this Digital Art I created. Tomorrow I will post the photos I took in between these two images.

Bank Holiday Monday

It's a holiday here today, so naturally the weather reflects this. It is so cold. All the people walking their dogs along the beach are well wrapped, with their collars pulled up. One was even wearing gloves. Our new cycle/footpath is proving to be so popular with everyone.
I was just having a skim through my fiends blogs and Jenny of Jennys Days had this blog that I had not come across before and I have put it in my favourites. BBC - Radio Two - Chris Evans It's a very interesting read.

Flowers

Here are some photos I took in my friend Joan's garden last month.


and here is the little lady who helps to look after the garden.
I hope you enjoy the rest of the garden. I'm not very good at knowing flower names. So to be on the safe side I will not name them or comment.

Vibrant digital art(short lesson)

I have been wondering how to answer Jacki, Toni and others who have asked about my images. I will start with my colours. As I have mentioned to some of you, when I create my images on the laptop, the colours look far more subtle than they do on the new PC in my loft(workroom) and I wonder sometimes what on earth some of you see when you look at my images!


However, I usually start off with a gradient in one of my programs, but not always. I must admit here to having a preference for PSP9 at the moment. This can change at any time depending on the one I happen to be using frequently at certain times. This method works for most programs if they can use Displacement maps.


Here I have used a little pattern created in the Effects/Reflection/Patterns in PSP9.


It will turn out similar to this, but usually has transparent parts showing. If you Merge the image in the Layers Menu. You will get white Patches. If you are not happy with these you can use the Colour Replacer Tool to change the white. I usually choose one of the darkest colours in the image and if I'm not happy, then I have another go.
All you need to do this is plenty of patience. It takes time to get to know a program and the only way to do it is to play and try different things.
I'm sure most of you have as much patience as I have, but maybe you use yours to stitch rather than waste time as I do. I just have fun. So have fun if you are going to try this.

Fabric Postcard swap

This is the lovely postcard I received this morning from Sue Bleiweiss of
Threads. This is a Cut Out Postcard Swap, that five members of the Surface Design Group are taking part in. Sue's card is layered organza, fused and marked with a soldering iron and she has been exploring this method using Margaret Beale's book Fusing Fabric, which you can buy from Margaret herself by e-mailing her at this address burning.issues@margaretbeal.co.uk

My textile group

Here is a taster of what you will find on the SerenTex blog this week. I went to the meeting this afternoon and we had a wonderful show and tell, I hate to tell you this, but I had nothing to show this time. I did carry my camera though and the basket containing the tea and coffee as I happen to be the tea lady for the group for a while.
I took some materials, transfer paints and my iron with me and the only thing I did was colour a piece of organza in a bluey green for Joan's new doll.

The Atomium

I have just been reading a blog about The Atomium in Brussels. It reminded me of our last holiday together as a family. Our sons were 15 and 16 years old and I think they then took holiday work and were unable to take a holiday with us after that.

Something very strange happened at the very top of the Atomium. It happened to be a very quiet day there and we thought we were the only ones walking at the top, when suddenly we came face to face with another Welsh family who had just taken a de-tour to take in the Atomium. Their son sat next to our son at the local school! Surely this was a chance in a million?

If you are interested take a look at this website Welcome to the Atomium website They have just renovated the Atomium.

Digital art

I have just realized that I haven't posted any digital art recently, so here are some that I'm quite pleased with. I hope you enjoy them too. I have a feeling some of these are about to become fiber art samples soon.




Both these are based on doodles from my sketchbook.


This one started life as a decoration on a church door that I took a photo of in NYC 2 years ago.


I can see this as a 3D piece one day. I haven't decided what it will be yet.

The black swan

We have a black swan that lives quite happily with all the other white swans and even seems to be the leader. We had quite a high tide this week and I was able to take this photo from our window. It's not very good, but enough for you to see it.

Reunion

Today I had what could be called a perfect day, even though there was a very bad thunderstorm this afternoon.
During the last few weeks my friend Enid from Angelsey has been arranging a reunion of a few old school friends, no mean feat trying to get us all together in the same place, on the same day. Five of us were able to make it today to Rhos on Sea. Enid picked two of us up in her car, myself and Megan. We live quite near each other in Deganwy and the other two Louie and Nan came to meet us from Liverpool.
The last time we all met was at the school's Centenary celebration in 1998.


Here we are at Nino's in Rhos where we talked solidly for an hour and a half. I had taken two old Autograph books with me. They had all written in them except Nan. I don't know how this happened, but there were dozens of other names in them, which set us off remembering old friends. We had such fun chatting about the old times. I also had a newspaper cutting of a teacher's reunion from 1988.
We then moved on for lunch at the Rhos Fynach Restaurant where we just carried on talking, going down memory lane. We stayed there until about 4.30(I didn't look at my watch)

Rhos Fynach has a very interesting history. Read this writing that is on the wall in the garden.




Click to see a larger image as usual.

We then went back to Nino's where we all had a cup of tea and cakes and yes, you've guessed it, we carried on talking until around 6 o'clock. While we were talking a thunderstorm raged outside. We then went back to our cars, promising to meet again before long. What a wonderful day!

White Hands

I have just been reading some of my favourite blogs and JAFABRIT'S ART blog had a very interesting posting on it this evening. She was 'moved' to paint a white hand after the Madrid bombings when the Spanish people painted their hands white in protest marches. There is also a group on Flikr that have posted photos of white hands in protest against Terrorism. So I thought I would also do my bit.

I took the photo above when I was on holiday in Sydney in the year 2000. I have been meaning to ask some of my Australian friends if they know anything about this work of art.
Please can one of my friends in the area tell me if they do know anything about it?

My new blog

I have taken a very big step by starting a completely Welsh blog. It's called Cymraes Greadigol, translated-A Creative Welsh Woman. I have been wanting to do this for a while, but I have Googled more than once and can't find a similar blog in Welsh, so I doubt if there will be any readers, but I will do it to satisfy my own guilt for not having a blog in my mother tongue.
I wonder if anyone out there can help me? I would like to have my profile in Welsh on this new blog, but unfortunately it comes up exactly the same on my 3 blogs. I would also like a separate profile for Teretex too while I'm at it.

My husband has just taken my old overlocker to the local Council Scrap Yard. It collapsed and nothing can be done for it unfortunately. It was a very difficult machine to thread, but it has been so useful over the last 20 or more years.

Now, I have a difficult decision to make. When my husband said I could buy a new one, I replied that I would rather have an Embellisher instead. Do many of you have embellishers and would buy one in my place?

Chester Zoo part 2

We had fun taking this photo as there was a lot of ducking and diving under the table so that I couldn't take their photo.


Huw didn't know that I was taking this one, otherwise he would have made himself look sad. Ifan went through this stage last year, but now he seems to love having his photo taken.


They were both very keen to see the Rhinos and Ifan wanted to have his photo taken with them.


Here is a photo of me with my two lovely grandsons who were so very well behaved while they were with us.

Zoo part 1

Ifan, Huw and 'Taid' had a wonderful time at the Zoo.


Large crowds surrounded this unique two-headed giant tortoise at Chester Zoo on Sunday.


Another animal that drew the crowds was this baby elephant straight from the shower. In minutes after this photo was taken he was throwing dirt all over himself.


This Red Panda was my favourite.

I took 243 photos with Ifan's help. He wanted a photo of everything that moved, front, side and back view.

Three Dimensional Embroidery

Maybe I should be living in the City of Chester? I went there again today, but I did not take my camera. Instead I had a browse in some bookshops and I looked at art, computer, photography and textile books. I almost bought one or two design books, but left them in the shop to buy another day perhaps. By now I'm sure you will realize how much I love books.
I bought a book by Janet Edmonds called Three Dimensional Embroidery and I think it is the most inspirational book I have bought recently. I will read it and then put it away and try to create something using some of the ideas in the book.

There is a wonderful description and details about the book here on Dale's website The Thread studio

I also bought five skeins of DMC variegated threads and a pot of Xpandaprint in white. I bought a black one on my last visit.

Grandsons drawings

These are my two grandsons, Ifan and Huw and they are staying with us for a few days.
They wanted me to put their drawings on my blog.


Here is Huw with his drawing.


This is Ifan with his drawing.

The National Eisteddfod of Wales

I would not be a very patriotic Welshwoman if I did not mention on my blog the fact that this is a very important week in Wales, in fact the most important week in the calendar. It is the week of our National Eisteddfod. It is held at this time every year and is held in a different locality every year, but it must be held in the South of Wales one year and in the North the following. It is invited to an area and this means that the people of that area work very hard for a few years at various things to make enough money to afford a successful festival.

It is attended by thousands of people every day, come rain or sunshine. People stay in caravan camps on the Eisteddfod field and the Eisteddfod itself is held in a very large marquee owned by the eisteddfod. This is a huge marquee and this year it is a bright pink colour, very unusual. It is always important to take Wellington boots with you as it often rains, but this even adds to the fun.

There are all sorts of competitions held, singing, choral and individual and recitation both choral and individual. But there are also brass bands, dancing, art and craft. There are also competitons in composing music, drama, prose and poetry. I am sure I have left out many things, but I'm sure you get the idea.

A bard is crowned and there is a chair for the winning prose. There is a very important ceremony on television at the moment the chairing of the bard. The subject of the competition this year being 'Waves' because the Eisteddfod is being held in Swansea which has ties with the sea. The ceremony is very colourful and exciting.
I am just watching the bard who has won being taken to his chair, dressed in purple robes. He has just been named as Gwynfor ab Ifor.



I could carry on a long time describing all this but I'm certain you have been bored already. These images are from the BBC website. I will try to add more to them when Blogger feels more obliging.

Bodelwyddan Castle

I made many new friends on the course at Bodelwyddan Castle over the weekend. This is Edith with Miriam the tutor. This was not taken during the course, but when we met again at The Tudor Tailor lecture yesterday. Edith sat next to me on the course and she was such good company. Next to her was Jan shown here with Rosemary at the lecture.


After seeing these photos I'm sure you can understand how we all became good friends in such a short time. We are all hoping that there will be many more courses with Miriam at the castle which means we will all be meeting often.
We had a great chat with our coffee, with scones, jam and cream and a yummy coffee cake! I also met Dianne who accompanied Edith and Jan at the lecture. She used to be a costume maker and designer at Mold Theatre and I have always thought I could have enjoyed a career like that. Dianne said it had been very interesting work.


Rosemary was obviously very interested in these embroidered cuffs. She does some very special detailed work herself.