January Blues

Bless me followers, it has been 6 weeks since my last blog post. But you see there was this whole Christmas thing going on that makes people rush around like fools. At the peak of that busyness I typed MADNESS into my laptop when prompted for my password! A sign of what was to come....actually, all that came was a sack full of horrid cold germs on Christmas morning :-( Me and the kids had bad colds, hubby had flu...of course.
But now it is a fresh shiny New Year. I tend to hibernate in January and February. It help me get through this these cold grey months without being completely miserable and horrid to live with. But this year is different. I eased back into to work slowly with a spot of self indulgent painting. Very therapeutic creative play.

I have already had two birthday parties in the studio (one was my daughters). How can you have the January blues when surrounded by a group of giggling girls all excited about using a singer sewing machine. It is the gateway drug into a lifelong addiction to sewing.....;-)

The lovely dolls they made.  (zombie style for some reason)

Her is my baby showing them how it's done.

I made some heart bunting....just because.

Every Thursday I get to work with some wonderful kids on my Art Residency. There enthusiasm is infectious. Here are the quilt blocks they have been working on.

This is how it started way back in September with year 1 and 2.

A term later and Year 6 are adding their layer.

I will take some more photos this week and write a more detailed post on  the process. It is almost ready to put together and hang.

Next week I start a 6 week course with a few students as part of the schools Children's University. We are making work inspired by the Austrian artist, ecologist, architect and visionary Hundertwasser.

I think it is fair to say that I am more excited about this than the kids at the moment!!!!! 

With so many fabulous creative things to do, the January Blues have been kicked out the window and my rose tinted specs put back on. My sunny disposition has returned much earlier than usual.

Get creative people and beat those blues over the head with a big fat paint brush or point them in the eye with a pointy knitting needle. Surround yourself with positive people....kids are good for that... preferably not your own ;-) Stop thinking and start doing.........with no game plan or envisaged end result. Just enjoy the process. It might just help a little.

Happy New Year lovely people.

xxxxxxx

Nativity Printable

Okay, here we go. I have been trying to figure out how to add a free printable to the blog....some people make this interweb look so easy! After much googling and some failed attempts I am trying this way.

Below may be a link to my Free Printable colour and cut out Nativity scene or it may be a whole load of indecipherable HTML gobbledygook. I will take some photos of said Nativity when I can get organised enough to have the camera in the right place.

Nativity Cut out scene

Happy Christmas crafting folks. 

More festive fun from Fat Hen And Flo

Special edition festive Stan

Make your own Gnometastic bunting

I don't get it

I am not one for watching numbers. I don't feverishly watch my Facebook page likes (although I did notice today that it is a nice round number - you can win your very own Stan if you comment here). I don't like all those 'Hike Your Likes' type pages. I want people to find  my page and genuinely want to see me in their newsfeed. Most hated comment.....'new like from blah blah, return the like'.....errr NO!!! I won't 'like' a page unless I actually want to see more from that page. I will take the time to visit your page, leave comments and interact with you. If I like your page it means I actually do...well okay there are a couple of exceptions where I ;

A: feel obliged to like you for some reason

B: need to for 'networking' purposes...boring but necessary

C: need to keep tabs on people...... 

Don't act so surprised, everyone has a fb 'friend' that fits in to these boxes. 

Anyway, I've gone off on a tangent. Numbers is where I was. Occasionally I have a look to see how many people read my blog posts. What is more popular? What do you guys want to read about? For example, more of you wanted to read about Vintage Books than Meet Betty.

That's good, I can work with that. BUT when it comes to good ol' Facebook...well......what can I say....

An average post reaches maybe a third, sometimes more, of my fans/likes. A post like this for example-

or even this - two thirds saw this.

 But nearly FOUR times as many people viewed this!!! That's way more than my total fans/likes!!

CAT FOOD

REALLY? Is this what you guys want to see?

Might need to rethink my creative business.

Good night folks

*all my hard work and they love adult chunks in jelly*

So what do you do all day in the studio?

Some people might wonder what us creative folk get up to in our studios every day. Other creative folk wonder if everyone else is more being organised/productive/successful than they are. I thought I'd share with you the beginning of a typical day.

So what does Susan do in the studio?

First the kettle goes on to make that very important cup of tea.

I then fling open the window and put some music on.

If I have the laptop with me I switch it on to quickly say Hi to the world. A picture would be nice, I think to myself, of this beautiful sunny morning. People like pictures. So I find my camera and take a picture, or 3 or 4, of the sun pouring into the studio.

I then notice the sun catching all the lovely colours of my crayons and remembering a conversation yesterday with the lovely Caro from Predominantly Print I decide to take a close up for her.

Whilst taking that picture I notice a name on the crayon that I've not noticed before!! Macaroni and cheese!! How cool - although my macaroni and cheese doesn't look that colour!

It looks like this.

Anyway, I start to wonder what other interesting names the crayola crayons have that I haven't noticed. Best have a quick look through all 72 of them. The folks out there in the virtual world might be interested in this too, I'd better take a picture of my favourite ones. I can then blog about it because that'll be fascinating.......

....here they are, my favourite names.

What are your favourite crayon names?

And suddenly it's 10 o'clock..... I then have a very slight panic remembering my loooong to do list. Best put the kettle on before I tackle that. 

Welcome to the world of the easily distracted.

This social media/networking/marketing malarky is an essential and tedious part of the business.

.....and I haven't even checked emails yet!

I hope you enjoyed this little insight.

Susan

x

Art residency, skipping and the joy of school stationery.

What a beautiful day it was today! The kids returned to school, the sun was shining and the windows were flung wide open at the studio. It was back to work and full steam ahead!!!
Next week I start my year as Artist in Residence at a local primary school. I'm super excited about working with the children - they are little sponges just waiting to take everything in. I popped in today for my induction and had a peek in the room I'll be using. I've got two walls to fill with whatever I want as well as an area in reception. Well I practically skipped to the studio once I was finished.......  so full of ideas in need of writing down!!

This what I was doing in my head. Thankfully I kept it there!

So this is how I spent my day. 

Messy table but GOOD messy.

Start of a sign. I love playing with maps and old annuals.

 Canvases a bit later in the day.

And then I got to look through a catalogue and order my supplies....... I was restrained (I have most of what I need from trawling skips, bootfairs and my recycling bin over the summer). But I know that some of you will appreciate the simple joy of a catalogue like this, I tried not to dribble on the pages as it has to be returned to the school.....don't want them thinking I'm weird or anything!!!! There is something seriously stroke-able about a new big class box of pencils........ go on, roll your fingers along the top and hear that sound...... 

............it's not weird!! I love school stationery. I must confess that I pick up all the yellow and black Steadtler HB pencils that kids drop on their way to school or in the playground. How can you not??!! My name is Susan and I am a pencil hoarder. Just need to get one of those school wind up pencil sharpeners.....oohhhh. Still not weird!! 

That's all for now folks, Ben & Jerry are calling and I'm starting to ramble.

Be back soon.

x