“Home”

Its been a hugely busy week here – running DS to football and rugby four times a week, supper out, shopping, coffee, the usual housework and washing…

…supervising some serious garden clearing; an old hedge has been ripped out, the fence removed, the old caravan has gone (Ian proposed to me in that caravan so it was rather emotional!), the old privy has also gone (thank goodness!), the gravel has been spread out evenly….. lots of wood burning….and planning new fences and planting.

I’ve been driving Daisy all week (trips to Alnwick, Wooler and Berwick twice each around 120 miles total) and tonight, as we set off to Wooler my darling son said;

"I think you've got the hang of driving this now Mum"

Indeed I have, and there are just three rules to remember when Driving Miss Daisy;

1. Only go into second gear when you start off – go around corners in third.

2. If you “lose” the gear, don’t panic - hit the clutch and head for third. Regardless of which gear you have lost (usually fifth) because by the time you’ve found third you lost the advantage of any “speed” anyway.

3. Line the wheels up straight if you want to get the reverse gear to engage and try three times to hit said reverse gear…. you will always get it sorted on the fourth attempt.  Do not panic (again).

You see life in the countryside at a different pace at 45mph (50mph max downhill with the wind at your back), I like it.  I have honed my technique to get in and out without dislocating my back or rupturing my hernia.

And it would seem, I have the seal of approval from the young master for his taxi.

 

In the studio I’m busy on a dress for F&E and this evening I completed Lesson 2 of the Digital Art Course.  Only 6 lessons behind!

The theme this time was “Home” and I’ve learnt to use brushes, alter their orientation, create and clip masks, make a patterned background, erase parts with brushes, make journaling tags, create inked borders, use my handwriting as a font….  I’m loving it all.

So here is this weeks effort – not totally happy with it artistically, but I’m more interested in learning the techniques at the moment and there’s only SO much time I can spend on each lesson!