Sketchbooks and more from France

Two things tonight – firstly have you seen the SketchBook Project?  I’ve joined as have several of my internet friends and almost 3500 people around the world. 

I quote;

“Thousands of sketchbooks will be exhibited at galleries and museums as they make their way on tour across the country.

After the tour, all sketchbooks will enter into the permanent collection of The Brooklyn Art Library, where they will be barcoded and available for the public to view.

Anyone - from anywhere in the world - can be a part of the project. To participate and have us send you a sketchbook that will go on tour, start by choosing a theme to the right.

All books will be included in an exhibition that tours the following cities: Brooklyn, NY Austin, TX San Francisco, CA Portland, ME Atlanta, GA Chicago, IL”

 

Now back to France and a small, but perfectly formed chateau, D’Azay-le-Rideau in the Loire.

Chateau Chenonceau

You can see the web site here.  We saw it in the pouring rain and mist.  Still very beautiful.

Very “Rapunzel”

I could imagine dancing in this long gallery which stretches above the river.

Oh the colours!!!  I want it!

  

Chateau du Clos Luce

Leonardo’s last house – lots of reconstructions of his inventions but what I liked most were the outside hangings and posters.  Web site here.  Next time I have an Open Studio I’d like to do something like this.

  

Photos from France - Part One

Not much happening here only MDF priming which is deadly boring…..

So instead some holiday pictures from France.  The first stage was the Somme Valley and a visit to the Great War Museum in Peronne and Thiepval Monument via a cemetery on the side of the road (of which there were many).  Very little of the landscape seems to have changed here, very flat with pockets of woodland and the occasional hill.  Very emotional and sad.

    

 

NE71 Summary

Time for the Photo-a Day summary from NE71 2010 Blog that you can follow here.  I’ve redone the background.  Go take a look, I really do like Blogger. 

Was it really only May that we voted?  And did the shed really go up that fast?  I never started to use those threads…. but the beetroot was wonderful.

 

Back home

Here is the reason its been quiet around here….

Two weeks holiday in France with a motor home.  France was fabulous, I fell in love with it.  The motor home was not fabulous.  If you live around here and want to know where NOT to hire from email me and I’ll tell you.

The weather went from this…..

.

To this……….

   

And back to this…………

But still warmer than Northumberland!

More photos later when I get chance to sort them out.  Meanwhile the first of 6 loads of washing is on, the boxes are almost empty….. you know how it is.

A new project

Thanks to my friend Denise at Primrose Patch I decided to return to some traditional stitching and make three banners for the new studio.  She reminded me how it can be fun to stitch these small letters (well I say small the D is 6 inches high).

The three banners will read;

Dream

Imagine

Live

Outside is finished

Just the flower bed to put in, the path to relay and the lawn to redo!

Inside needs some more work.
Today went to Kelso and came back with a tin of Amethyst Showers number 1. 
A deep purple.  I feel better already!

 

Colour

We are still waiting on the final few boards for the outside of the studio but here it is in Shaker Blue.

I always wanted to have a house in the Hamptons, or at least in New England. 
Now I have my little Shaker Blue Studio.

But I am worried about the internal colour scheme.

As you know my kitchen is very neutral in greys and grey-green with lots of cream woodwork, the sitting room and office are very deep red and Indian inspired.  The hall and stairs are dark Victorian green with cream painted wooden floors.  The bathroom is deep, deep blue/purple.  The main bedroom is the exception with white walls.  Note the dark colours and rich colours….

I think I may have been on a different planet (always) when I chose colours for the inside of the studio.  You see I was thinking of the pretty studios that I see on American blogs – the ones where every piece of fabric is perfectly placed.  You know the ones I mean.  Yes, like this one. 

I’ve chosen a duck-eggy blue for the three walls with windows, white back wall and ceiling and today I went and got the paint for the shelving – Amethyst Showers number 4, a soft purple.  But now I am wondering if I should have gone for Farrow and Ball in Mouse’s back or something similarly sophisticated.

The studio is so utterly girlie and different from the house.  I recently purchased some Cath Kidston paisley cushions for the sofa in the studio.  In paisley blue and pink.  Pink!  Me!  Oh dear.

I think I need to go and lie down on my dark chocolate leather sofa in my dark red room……

Bluebells

Wordsworth may have written about Daffodils, but if I were a poet I would write about my Bluebells.
They are looking particularly gorgeous this year.

At this time of year I wish I was back walking at Mirehouse in the Lake District, photos from May last year.

Let there be light!

Yes the lights are all in!  The central spotlights and a track along the back wall where the art will be hung.  I’d really like to keep ALL clutter off that back wall – just the sofa and cabinet.  Not sure I can manage it but I’m going to try now I’ve got those track lights.

Some of the cabinets arrived today too, the Lakeland boxes fit perfectly.  Almost everything was crated or boxed up after the “disaster” so it made sense to leave them like that and build the shelves around them.  This is my plan to keep that back wall clear.  The cabinet with just one shelf will become a cupboard.  That's where I can hide the hoover and the other clutter. 

Yes, I know, it will be a miracle if I can do it.