Felicia the Artist

Hello!!! remember me??
this morning i sat down to look at the blogs I follow and found literally dozens, I was delighted, I love reading all these posts.
BUT, every time I tried to leave a comment blogger wouldn’t let me! “choose a profile! so I did, and then it says, ” choose a profile” its the same profile i’ve been using since I started my blog!

So I would just like to say this, to Jane, Kay, Jenni, Christa, Ebony, Dharma, Ruth, Louise, Katherine, Amelie and all you other lovely ladies, I’m not ignoring you, I wanted to leave comments, it just won’t let me…… so the next thing is…. does anyone know how to fix this???? is it just me?????

The Polly in the picture is still not finished, but she is getting there – she might have stood a better chance if I hadn’t given in to the patchwork quilt!
I have never started quilting because firstly you need space (of which I have none left!) and secondly I knew it would become an obsession! so far, the quilt i’m making is REALLY simple, just squares, but really pretty ones. I will take some photos today when i’m working on it.

The other thing that is taking up all my spare time is running. I started running last March to take part in the Easter 5 mile fun run, and some how got ropped into a 15 mile run that takes place on 16th July!
I’m following a training plan but I find that if I run 6 miles for the first time I think its a fluke, so i have to do it again to prove i can do it. I’m up to 8 miles comfortably but yesterday when I attempted 10 my knee suddenly stopped bending and I had to hobble back to the car.

This is not good!! i’ll go to the physio on Monday to see what can be done.

So, thats all my news,
If you can’t leave comments for me here then maybe Facebook?

Have a lov-er-ly day! x

While the cat is away…. the mouse will craft!!

Tim has gone on one of his mountaineering expeditions that do not resemble a holiday in any shape or form! He is on the Isle of Skye in Scotland sleeping out on mountains in a bivvy bag having carried every drop of food and water , ropes and climbing gear for miles and miles……

He and 7 of our friends think that is fun, what can I say??

Sooooo…… while he went off to do that, I got to go to the craft fair in town. It wasn;t overly busy but I knew alot of the other people and so we had a lovely day in the sunshine, listening to live music and visiting in each others stalls (which were actually wooden sheds and very cosy!)

The Polly cushions are growing in number, but other then that I didn’t take any photos…. what was I thinking?!

This is my desk this morning, the weather looks a little dull, so i’m painting and drinking coffee in my p.j’s and thinking I might get dressed soon and walk the dog. A perfect start to the day!!

A Polly in progress! I’m not sure what she will look like in the end…. but since tomorrow is a bank holiday I have lots of time to think about it.

Well, this is new – kinda!
Tim found this in one of his many storage places, a never used telephone from some time last century…. I have no Idea when it was made but I LOVE IT!!!!!
He has always found my taste a little strange but now there is no doubting it, this ancient dial phone has replaced the hand held one in our bedroom. It takes forever to dial a number and if you make a mistake your doomed, when it rings it would wake the dead, but I love the roundiness of it and the sound of the dial.

Guess what else?? well, this morning I thought, “I didn’t get a bill from Etsy at the end of May” and then I realised it was because I hadn’t added anything for a whole month…. so i thought it obviously isn’t for everyone and i’ll just let it go. Then this evening I got home to find that I had made my first ever Etsy sale!!!!!!!!

Hooray!!!!!

A women in England (thank you Ruth!) found my shop amongst thousands of others and parted with her hard earned cash for some of my art……. I am pretty amazed and thrilled!

I know this blog has been neglected of late, life just gets like that doesn’t it? I will try and find time to post more often, and maybe even post a craft project (!) Blogger seems to have stopped letting people comment, I dont’ know why but just so you know, I check in every day and read all of your blog updates that appear on the dashboard.

So, thats it for today, there is a craft fair in Killarney this weekend, if you’re around come and say hello!

So, last night was the opening…. and I have to say a HUGE thank you to Deborah O’Keefe who runs the gallery, she puts in so much work to keep it going so that people like me can feel like they are getting somewhere with their art dreams.
There was a great turn out, lovely music and lots of new people to meet.

Here are my family, including my Dad who was sporting his new baldy look (thats chemo for you!) I didn’t think he would be able to come but here he is with my Mum, Tim, Ebony, Zac and Molly. He is a great artist and was inspired by the show to take out his paints again….. it just proves that ART HEALS!!!!!

This is Tim contemplating if we will ever find one piece of art that we both like!

Last Sunday I went to Limerick to see the Etsy Ireland Pop-up shop. It had been opened for Saturday and Sunday and Ruth
had sent an email to the Etsy Irealand team asking them to send their work to her and she would display it……….. can you imagine how much work that was?? she is like Superwoman!!

So, off I went on Sunday with some prints and magnets to display, while I was waiting for it to open I met Rebecca who makes fab cards- this is her adding her artistic touch to the outside of the shop!

Now, as the sign says its “open this weekend only” but – great news! the owner of the bar (Bourkes Bar in Catherine street) where the shop has “popped up” has very kindly extended it to a month!!!! that means that every Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday for the next month people will be able to buy a huge variety of handmade items.

You all know how much I love polka dots – especially white spots on red background…… look how Ruth decorated the space!!!

This weekend has been wet and windy.. perfect for getting jobs done around the house. First thing on Saturday was to put down a new floor in Zacs room –

with Tobys help of course!

and then we put all his furniture back and he has been watching dvd’s in there since! the walls are a blue/grey colour that doesnt’ show up well in these pictures.

Today I was left at home for the whole afternoon by myself. I took out my sewing machine to make a bag but it didn’t turn out quite as I’d hoped (that might be because I decided not to use the pattern…..) so I made a cushion instead.

Printable canvas is great! I’ll have to search for a bag pattern, I think i’d like a “Polly Bag” for the summer!

Hope you weren’t blown away this weekend,

love F x

We have been crazily busy in our house recently – here is a bit of whats going on……
Today we are booking Mollys’ ticket to Nairobi, she is going to do a month of volunteer work in a school and orphanage in Kenya. It is a huge adventure for her, she doesn’t know anyone else going and has never been far away from home before…….. I am both scared and excited for her, I really hope she enjoys it and learns from the experience.
She will be 17 on 19th July and flies out on the 24th, so now a long series of vaccinations and visas and travel arrangements must start.
I think she should start her own blog to keep everyone at home up to date!

Tim and I have been away in Galway this weekend climbing. sixteen brave souls set out to climb 7 of the “Twelve Bens” the weather was gorgeous, we had great fun, we covered 13km & 1535 metres of climbing on Saturday and then found a little pub in Cliffden to enjoy a well earned drink!
On Sunday we pulled on the harnesses and ropes and climbed Carrot Ridge – that was an experience…… I would have taken photos but I was busy holding onto the rock face!!

The Back Lane Gallery exhibition is having its opening night on May 21st ( just in case anyone wants to come along…..!) and here is the second Polly. There is some beautiful work there, lots of local artists, so it’ll be a great event.

What else? well, the Easter holidays are officially over tomorrow ( today is the May bank holiday) and everyone is back to school and work. At the minute everyone is a bit glum about it, but tomorrow it’ll be good to be back into a routine.
Thats all for now I think, hope you all had a good weekend,

Love, Felicia xxxx

This is the first painting for the Back Lane exhibition – the writing around the edge says – ” Life is not about getting what you want, its about wanting what you’ve got…” A sound sentiment if you ask me!

I’ll be putting prints of this for sale on my etsy shop over the weekend – there is a link straight to it on the main page of http://www.scrapzville.com/

Her she is complete with frame, I tried every single colour as a background, but black wins every time!

This is a new Polly – still not finished but getting there!
Hopefully it’ll be finished in time for the exhibition at the Back Lane Gallery, i’m not sure when i’m supposed to have them in by!
This is a 8×10 mixed media on wood – bigger then usual, I love the way her clothes have turned out.

Its half term holidays here, so Zac is supposed to be clearing out his room so that it can be redecorated this week – what he’s actually doing is drawing pictures and re reading all the stories he has found! So, i’m off to Homebase to get paint and a blind and new flooring….. it looks like any painting done today will be on walls rather than art!