Happiness, garage space and frost and ice !

When l was on the train the other day, l was in a bad mood. These two ladies got on and my mood instantly changed. Beautiful eyes and so much colour ... who could help but smile.

As many of you know we are down scaling the "stuff" in our flat. Hard emotionally but has to be done. 

A trip to the local tip!

And look .... the Christmas Fairy came and organised our garage for us!! :) Bliss!

The last few days we have had loads of fog and mist and tons of frost. Lots of photograph opportunities. Trying to catch the sparkle and also add images for my " Circles" project. So while l was waiting for my bus .... l took these images.

Ice forming on a car windscreen.

A blue plastic bag pulled on to a post.

Ice on the back window of a car .... so many lines l could"t work out what had made them. Interesting !

I can see loads of art projects forming from these images. :)

Christmas Day ... Ho Ho Ho !

Tony and l are Surrogate Grandparents to two gorgeous little boys and we spent Christmas Day with them. Here comes Father Christmas Howells ... Ho Ho Ho!

This is their other Granny dressed as Santa's little helper ... she is amazing and great fun.

Then the "real" Father Christmas turned up to deliver more presents to the lucky boys. :)

At the family lunch we all had hats to wear ... here is mine. Very stylish don't you think? :)

Then it was time to watch the Queen's Speech.

Hope you all had a Happy Christmas and are now looking forward to celebrating New Year's Eve !

:)

december 23rd and some of my Art.

The 23rd of December was our 44th Wedding Ann and we celebrated it in central London. Firstly we spend some time in Borough Market, which was decorated beautifully and oh ... the cheese, fish and veg stalls and the mulled wine ( gorgeous smell!) !!!!sigh! :)

Then we walked to Ziggy"s on the Thames Embankment!

We met up with a friend of the family, Ollie ....we had a lovely lunch, good wine and lots of laughter and some great chats.

Then Tony and l went to see the new buildings at The Tate Modern Gallery. Wow has it changed, it is amazing. This is a coloured perplex model of all the changes. Very unusual way to saw a new structure. :)

This is the "new" outside of the Tate Modern.

The Turbine Hall had a video Show going on ... looked fun ... but didn't have time to see it then.

Then to cap it all off, the Artist's Room featured Louise Bourgeois this month ... amazing!

 Here are some of the work on show. Enjoy !

I last saw the large version of this Spider, a few years ago in the Turbine Hall. This small version is gorgeous and great to be able to walk around and underneath it.

Great fun especially for the children.

I also thought the shadows the spider caused, were great fun and actually very artistic.

It wasn't till l was leaving, l noticed this tiny spider, up on the wall... :) Creepy!

Then you go from the main room to a side room, which shows "rough or smaller versions" of bigger pieces. Really interesting pieces.

Then it was time to go home. Then we stepped outside and Wow ... saw the Shard was pumping out streaming light and "sparking" lights show. It was just amazing. Didn't get a good picture or video because of too much street lighting, shame but l do have memories of it.

Look what we saw opposite our bus stop ... isn't it beautiful ? :)

It was a beautiful day.

On a separate note. I couldn't help but draw this jumper to your attention ... l did't know if to laugh or cry.  Why would you pay £29.99 for a holey jumper, when you could go and get a jumper like this at Oxfam for around £5? What has the world come too? :)

Now down to the Art l have been creating over Christmas. I have been practicing my drawing in a concertina book ... great fun. l will colour them in eventually, l will use pencils, watercolours and inks.

Over the last few years l have been creating paintings and sketches around the topic of "Circles" Saw this yesterday and loved the marks which had been created in the frost, covered grass.

And on that note .... hopefully see you again soon.  :)