If I could have been my own Fairy Godmother, I think the gift that I would have bestowed upon me would have been a talent for drawing.

It is coming forward again – that frustrated urge. I feel yet one more post of the “I am going to knuckle down to Betty Edwards”/”I resolve to draw daily” coming on.

I know that I give up too easily. It’s difficult – I need to see progress that says to me that yes, one day, I’ll be content with the marks that I make. Progress is too slow.. I want to be good *now* and when my hand fails to mark what I see – I just go away dejected and try  to find a different talent. Jill of all trades, mistress of none.

I do so want to be good at something creative! I don’t want to be rubbish, or even so-so. I need to be brilliant

Inspired by the 29 Gifts challenge (http://www.29gifts.org/) Chrysti is generously having 29 Days of Giveaways for you! « Art By Chrysti

It’s always better to give than to receive, but the odd little thing coming your own way is always nice to have too. Why not pop over and have a read and leave your own comment?

Woke this morning to find my voice absent. Viruses normally run their course in five days – this is day four and I am still going downhill. Bum.

I have been playing with Twitter. You can follow me there as fairhand once I have something to say. I can see that it will be useful way of reporting incoming mailart etc and maybe quick reports from the studio, if I ever get in there. I’ll add tweets somewhere on this site shortly.

Speaking of studios, I had planned to be at an Open Studio event here on the island today. Alas, I feel it would be very impolite to drag my germs along and share them about. I’ll make an appointment to visit some time in the future.

The artist doesn’t seem to have her own website but some of her works can be seen on the web at the Turnstone Gallery (more here)

Where else in the world would somebody market a whole programme, with expensive kit of pen and paper and seminars and website…. to teach people to doodle?

Zentangle Home Page

Snake oil!

I have reached the conclusion that my wee workroom is accommodating paper crafts stuff, spinning stuff, knitting stuff, photographic stuff, felting stuff, writing stuff, and associated other stuffs… and it isn’t doing it very well. Too much stuffs!

This is how the table is situated now. It looks cramped but it is actually quite a workable layout and I feel comfortable there. I really do appreciate the better light and have already started work on the Project Spectrum ATCs.

I took photos all around the room and they can be seen in the gallery here, here, here, and here. Looking at them, I realise just how much more tidying up needs to be done but, believe me, this is a huge improvement!

I feel ready and raring to go.

Reorganisation is well under way and I am beginning to feel more cheerful about my space. It’s far from perfect but any improvements would require funds that I do not have, so I must make do and be creative about it.

A while back, Mr L bought me a daylight lamp/magnifier. It’s gorgeous and useful but very unwieldy and heavy. It actually resulted in putting me off sitting down and working as I felt very cramped with it placed where it was. Today I asked for help to move it (yes, it is that heavy) behind my little table. Well, that didn’t work. Nor did clamping it on to my storage, or my table. So now I have it clamped to my table, but have turned my table 90 degrees around. It no longer sits facing the window and under my storage unit, but is tucked sideways underneath it. The benefits[1] are that I have better light, being lit by natural light from the left and over the table by the daylight lamp, and also that I now have use of the window sill as a repository for junk *ahem*, tools, that I can actually reach without straining. It has necessitated a reorganisation of my shelves in order to place everything that I need frequently into easy reach. In short, I have been busy.

I am now progressing through my shelving and sorted piles, to bring more order and to take away a quantity of dust.

All I want to do now is to sit down and make use of my new space.

Perhaps one of my first projects will be to decorate and personalise some of the cardboard boxes that are being used for this “creative” organisation that I have to do in lieu of purchasing new shelves and drawers. That might help to get rid of some of my ephemera stash, actually. I could decoupage some sturdy boxes and varnish them – they might last longer that way.

[1] dis-benefits include the less than optimal use of space in the entire room and the fact that I will now have to leave my seat and walk around the table end to reach some of my stash. On balance, the better light far outweighs this minor inconvenience. Another plus is that I can now reach to mop the sill when the westerly storms blow water through the window frames.

I went to Kirkwall today. While I was there, I called into the craft shop and had a lovely chat with the proprietor. I asked her if she might be able to come to the island to run some courses, and she said yes. I shall be phoning her soon – as I am the Development Trust’s new Courses Coordinator

While I was in the shop I managed to score two enormous shadow block background stamps, wood mounted, at £1.99 each. What a snip!

Tomorrow I need to write a piece for the local community newsletter to ask for input on what kinds of courses we might want to be running in the near future. I’m hoping at least several will be arty crafty.