Hello…I’ve missed you all :)

Isn’t it funny how life just takes off and you feel you don’t have a minute? I have wanted…needed…to post for weeks but found myself chasing my tail (I did tell you I had a tail, right?) it’s so easy to forget about it till I’m contented and happy…and then I feel it wagging! Anyway I managed to get some painting done (no I’m not an artist, not that kind of painting…house painting…walls, doors, floors…obviously the floors were a mistake but I quite like the white spotty look on the laminates – its different!) I also have a cat with a rather cute black gloss streak down his white and ginger coat – he looks more like a badger now. So the decorating should have taken a few days…four at most, but it went on and on and on. I finally finished last night…well I suppose finished is the wrong word…I finally gave up and phoned a painter friend to help out. I regretted it soon after when I showed him into the room where I’d attempted to ragroll the walls, and he screamed…yes screamed with laughter. He asked if I’d used the cat to do it! Charlie Boy had obviously rubbed himself up against the wall (probably trying to remove the black gloss) and was now a lovely shade of powder blue. When I set out to do these things I have good intentions and am sure it’s going to be amazing, but people don’t seem to appreciate my creative skills. I remember a few years ago I told my brother I would cut his hair. Half way through I got incredibly bored and realised it wasn’t as easy as I’d first thought, So I put a hat on him to cover the bald patches and took him to the barber’s. The barber took one look at him and asked if I’d cut his hair with a knife and fork! Some people just don’t appreciate creativity. As my old mate Elbert Hubbard used to say ‘There is no failure except in no longer trying.’ Anyone looking for a hairdresser or painter? 🙂

Inspired by the Neighbours – Blogging 101

Well today we were to comment on and link to a blog we connected to yesterday. That was difficult – having to choose only one which inspired me, but the one I finally decided on was this one:

http://annettebennett.com/

Annette inspired me with her use of watercolours and the lovely animals she’s drawn. They seem to come alive on the page with a wise, thoughtful expression or as she calls it the Art-itude she gives them. It’s a lovely site and the paintings are beautiful. I’m aiming to be a regular visitor there, and a lot of the others I’ve found, which I’ve been inspired by too, but I’m sure you’ll love Annette’s. Her website page says: ‘Farm Animals with A Watercolour Art-itude’, and they certainly do have that. I thinks it’s a really original idea – to paint farmyard animals in stunning watercolours.

I wanted to paint so I took the subject at school. I knew I wasn’t any good when the teacher studied a painting I’d done, then took me to the side and asked, “Why are you here? Why did you choose Art?” I tell you I was crushed. Wasn’t it plainly obvious why I had chosen Art? Because I LURVED ❤ ❤ him with all of my 15 year old heart and hormones.To think that he didn’t realise how big a crush I had on him, was disappointing. So all those little smirks he gave me weren’t because he secretly liked me too, they were because he thought my drawings were funny; smirk-worthy funny! I happened to like all the matchstick men, women and dogs I drew. They had a certain, well, simplicity to them. He didn’t believe me when I said probably some of the best painters started off drawing matchstick men. He said, “Yeah, maybe when they were 4 or 5 but you’re nearly 16,” Okay, so I was a late developer. I think matchstick figures have a certain elegance to them…a simplicity (just like me?) Let me know what (or who) inspired you, and why 🙂