This little light of mine

I love watching fireworks; the bit where they cascade into colour in the night sky! They light up the darkness, each demonstrating their unique splendour spread abroad for all to see; anyone who would look up and take notice.

If a firework, fails to light or fizzles out before it has time to shoot skywards or perhaps goes off course, we are disappointed and a low murmur is heard throughout the crowd of spectators. However the opposite is true when colour and light and energy and life explodes in front of us; we stand amazed, some of us exclaim, others stand in silent wonder. for just a few seconds we are captivated.

Light overcoming Darkness

A spark becomes a trajectory which leads to a crescendo of colour: its full potential is realised.

Can we cheer that for each other?

And when the darkness is overcome with many colours and shapes and sounds and cascades of light all adding their vibrance and voice....

Can we look to the Light and see a smile?

Chim Chim Cher-ee

This week I met a Flue Enemist.

An enemist ....da da der rada, an enemist da -da-da dar....tempting to hum along with the Muppets in my head....However there was  something I discovered, something that, to put it dramatically could have made us all really ill or worse....

An Enemist, is a Chimney Sweep and I haven't had my chimney swept since one of my boys was about 4 and was asked by the Sweep to go int the garden and shout when he saw the brush appearing out of the Chimney. I hadn't had it swept because I had a gas fire fitted  soon after that date and I didn't think you needed to get it swept unless you had a real fire.....

Fast forward to recent events. Last year we had intermittant problems with the ignition on the gas fire, some times it would light easily, other times it took some persuading. A few weeks back, we tried to light the fire on one particularly cold evening and it just wouldn't light. Ignition defunct. Time for  someone to check it out and replace offending button.

Along came Gas engineer, yep ignition not responding, out comes gas fire, dead bird at base of chimney behind fire; plus loads of soot, mortar..... Hmm. Advised to get chimney swept first " fire probably done you a favour by not working".

This week we had the chimney swept. Apparently cobwebs can build a thick barrier within chimneys and prevent airflow, this combined with the fact that we don't have a cowl on the chimney (hence bird) twigs and nests can also be a problem. Large industrial  vacumn cleaner sucked upwards in my chimney... The next day we no longer had condensation on our french windows, the next day our room stopped smelling damp....

Today the gas engineer (with whom I am now on first name terms)  cleaned and replaced the fire in its original position. The ignition worked perfectly again and smoke was seen curling up from our chimney when he did the smoke test.

We have been advised to get a carbonmonoxide monitor which can sit on a shelf , plus of course sort the chimney out, which was in the plan anyway.

Hope this helps anyone else who, like me, would not have considered an Enemist......

da-da-da-der!

Magnetic Attraction!

Take one fading picture, plus the glass out of its frame...

Separate the back from the front and prepare to change the  frame colour.

Find some matt black paint from the garage (hiding behind some paint pots). Cover the back of the frame with two coats of the paint.

Put to use the REALLY dark purple paint from the "bedroom  wall disaster colour" episode a few years back....

Get the husband to cut the magnetic grid sheet (from B&Q, we took a fridge magnet to test it!) with jewellery pliers to exact size of back of board.

Assemble all pieces and mount on the wall, with assorted magnets!

Pink magnet is a felt, flattened chocolate button shaped  item left over from another craft. I glued a spare magnet on the back.   The black flattened plastic magnet was a pack of 6 from Smiths, but as I had some tiny pink stickers left over from scrapbooking I used these to pretty them up a bit!  The peg I took off the fridge and gave it a new home!

A few more girly touches at each corner!

I know I could have bought a cheaper magnetic board from somewhere else, but this was much more fun and expressed a process of planning and pondering resulting in a pinboard uniquely designed by me learning to play and not stress over perfection!

"Creativity is contagious, pass it on! " Albert Einstein

"Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up." Pablo Picasso

This week I silenced the inner voices that told me I wasn't creative enough to come up with a design idea and follow it through to completion.  I pushed aside the "I can't write, draw or arrange ideas on paper" whinings in my head...

I determined to have a go.  

If truth be told, I had recently discovered that I was a closet perfectionist when it came to design. It shook me up. I was appalled at myself. It stopped me enjoying the process of play and discovery.  In fact, it paralysed me. It made me stressed and I don't do stress,  I reckon I'm pretty easy going really;  hence the "Wake up call"!

I had seen a phrase written on a block mount in a shop. I loved it! I examined it. Memories of a recent holiday came into sharp focus. I nearly bought it, but then I stopped. It looked a little rough around the ages. Could I make something similer, which spoke more of my experience? I photographed it......and I went home, pondering.

The answer for me, lay in taking my idea a step at a time and allowing the next thought to come along.  

So I began  with a blank canvas, literally.

I knew I wanted the background to look like sand; we just happened to have a yellow unopened tester pot which had been in a cupboard for umpteen years (which I almost cleared out with my last decluttering episode...) Sorted. 

The shells had been collected on that recent holiday during a beachcombing afternoon. The starfish purchased at  a shop on the beach, originally intended for a shelf in our sea themed downstairs loo!

The writing was the scary bit. Lightly drawn in pencil with style ideas taken from the phrase block in the shop....and lots of rubbing out followed!

Then, about as terrifying (okay, slightly exaggerated) the attempt to write over the top of the pencil with a pen, so scared I may jog the writing, muck it all up at this stage etc etc, all the negatives from all directions....

Then the glue, ignoring the" but what ifs" playing a pessimistic tune in my head! Stay steady, take it slow....but not too slow, the glue was hardening before my eyes....

Result!

Such a  brilliant feeling of accomplishment and discovery!  New ideas being explored as the days progressed and a design taking shape over time, 

A process which needs repeating until I silence those voices for good!

Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink!

How I long for one of these!

My water's been turned off and I forgot to fill the kettle! Can't face making coffee with milk, so I will hang on and be patient whilst S, who is redesigning the bathroom, demolishes the contents with gusto, banging and hammering and force feeding the skip with the contents of  his handiwork! I am longing  to peep in the room, which is directly above where I am sitting....but instead I will try and think caffeine-free thoughts and plan a little mind diversion. This is no easy task when the ceiling sounds as if it will come down around my ears!  

Even my chickens have water.....(sound like the prodigal son and the pigs....) 

Thoughts lead to gratitude, what is an hour or so? It is so easy to take water for granted isn't it?  I sit here thinking of all the jobs I could do whilst the water is off, but look at the list that came into my mind:

Washing up....
Handwash some tops...
Clean a camping table which has been in our garage for about 15 years and needs to find a new home.
Go to the loo!
Make some more gooseberry jam, nope needs water at the start....

No brainers....

So instead I practise thankfulness and enjoy watching the thrush, from my armchair, eating the amelanchier berries.  The strains of Radio 2 filter down the stairs whilst S whistles and sings along to the songs. 

I smile to myself, the coffee can wait.