'Lichen' by Elizabeth O'Connor

Through the wonders of Twitter I am the proud owner of this beautiful painting by Elizabeth O'Connor of Gallery6.  Elizabeth likes my key beads and I like her paintings.  Apryl suggested that we do a trade (Apryl loves her crafty trades and I can't blame her; I would love it if Tesco accepted beads as a form of payment) and so we did.

Elizabeth (she's probably frowning at me now for calling her that so from now on I will refer to her as 'Liz') creates expressive, abstract paintings using mixed media.  Some of her canvasses remind me of nebulae and interplanetary mists and others are like moody colour storms and crashing waves of paint.  Lovely stuff.

Liz asked me what colours I'd like the painting to be and I asked for fern and olive greens and shades of grey.  I had already picked out the perfect spot in the living room for the painting and those colours match our lounge. (Are you surprised?  Were you imagining a sea of red and white polka dots?  No, that's the kitchen.)

A few days later the postman delivered the canvas and I fell in love with it as soon as I unwrapped it.  The colours are perfect and the painting has all these wonderful little details.  I just sit and look at it sometimes; I get properly lost in all the swirls and silvery touches.  It's just beautiful.

I think I will commission Liz to do another painting when we eventually get round to decorating our bedroom.  If you'd like to pretty up your house with an Elizabeth O'Connor original too her website can be found here.  Make sure you have a look at the Gallery section - the 'Acid Pop' painting is particularly pretty.

A huge 'thank you' to Liz for my gorgeous piece of art and also to Apryl for suggesting the trade.

Meridian Ariel

Have I told you how much I love Twitter?  Have I?

Oh right.  I have.

But I really really like it and the people who are part of it.  One of those people is Apryl Lowe who is also known as Meridian Ariel.  Apryl makes all sorts of groovy things including these marvellous pin badges :

They're made with images from the pages of an old Star Wars annual so how could I resist them?  I thought I was going to love the Lando one best but no, the winner is the Luke and Threepio one that's at the top of this post.

Apryl sent me a sweet little Jayne-from-Firefly-inspired 'Cunning Hat' badge too.  Shiny.

But Apryl does way more than badges. She also makes the sweetest 'Little Monster' dolls like this one :

Photograph by Merdidan Ariel

His name is Merle The Ghost Boy and, like all of Apryl's dolls, he comes with his own little story.  Merle is a typography nut and he can't stand Papyrus and Comic Sans.  That makes him brilliant in my book.  Merle is currently looking for a home, bless him.  And his buttony eyes. 

All of Apryl's dolls, badges, drawings, jewellery and other assorted goodies come packaged in the most wonderful way accompanied by sweet typewritten notes.  You can click here to visit the Meridian Ariel Etsy shop to see more of Apryl's work and she also blogs here.

I'm off to the shed now.  I've got glass to melt and beads to make.

Happy Saturday!

Twitter switched the sunshine back on

Last night and this morning I was in a bad mood.  It was like someone had switched off the sunshine and sent dark storm clouds and some persistent drizzle to come and hang around above my head.  I've had a naggingly dull headache for a few days now and that's annoying but there are other things that were contributing to my general mardiness.

One of the main factors is March, or as I like to call it, 'The Month Of Mummiversaries'.  As I told you a few weeks back, my Mum died five years ago this month. March was also her birthday month.  It normally also contains Mothering Sunday, although that's in April this year.  Now, I don't turn the calendar over on the first day of March and say, "Right, that's it!  Time for moping and misery!" but there is something about it that gets me down.  I guess I subconsciously associate the time of year - the weather, the flowers, the general Marchness of March - with not-so-nice things.  I wish I didn't feel this way and I try to be jolly but that kind of makes it worse because deep down I know there is a reason why I'm overcompensating with the jolly and I always end up upset.

Like this morning.

I was really snappy with Chris last night.  And the television.  And the internet.  I ended up stomping off to bed in a strop.  (Poor Chris - If I were him I wouldn't put up with me!) I woke up this morning and was still in a huge grump and because of this Chris went off to work in a grump too. This made me feel bad and I cried.  I cried big massive bawling sobs and I must have sounded like a wounded animal.  It was an  Oscar-worthy display of emotion, even if I do say so myself.

I made a cup of tea and fetched my laptop and I told Twitter I was upset and I received a flood of wonderful soothing tweets.  The Twitterfolk made me smile, laugh and a couple gave me the kick up the backside that I needed.  They really cheered me up and it was like all the storm clouds dissolved and Twitter had switched the sunshine back on.

My iPhone bing-binged and I had a lovely text from Chris's Mum.  She reads my tweets, you see, and she'd seen that I was having a crazy moment and she told me to call her.  I did and we had a lovely long chat which made me feel even brighter.  (I'm really pleased that Chris's Mum is so fab and that she isn't one of those terrible mother-in-law types.)

I then texted Chris and apologised for my ratty behaviour.

As I wandered down to the shed I saw that my first crocuses had appeared.  Also, the sun was shining so I grabbed my camera and took the photograph that's up at the top of this post.  The first snowdrop is still going and he looks even prettier than he did last week :

Chris arrived home at lunchtime and brought with him cappuccinos, almond croissants, a bunch of roses and a big cuddle. I know.  How wonderful is he?!

So my day started out badly today but it has got better and better.  Thank you, kind people - both the real ones and the ones who live in my computer * - for making me smile today.  You're all ace.

* I have stolen this phrase from the lovely Apryl at Meridian Ariel.