Catching up!

Where to start? It has been literally months since my last post!!! I have had such a busy year, and so many troubles with computers and ---- well no excuses - just time to get back on!

Well I managed to participate in my first Art Trail in the town I live in - The Westcliff Art Trail! This was a great experience, put together by some very hard working people and I am grateful for being accepted and also grateful for all their hard work!

I displayed at a small cafe in town run by a lovely lady and although I did not sell anything, I had some great exposure and thank Lesley frome Chili Peppers for her hospitality!

The other big thing for me this past summer was joining and setting up my shopfront on Not On The High Street! This has been exciting and the site itself is full of beautiful things sourced or handmade by many talented people! I feel humbled to be a part of the group!

I am so happy to be part of it, but have found myself so busy these past months, I have not been able to make the best use of the site up to now. With Christmas looming I am in full swing now making Christmas signs, block sitter signs and ornaments and I will be listing some of these within the week!

If you fancy a peek at what I have up now, here is a link! http://www.notonthehighstreet.com/nosyrosiedesigns

Click to view all products to see what is there! Check back soon to see what I have to offer for the Christmas Holiday period!

At the moment, all my items are garden inspired paintings in the style of a vintage sign with distressed paint effects. I love flowers - so I guess that is what I am gonna paint! Well in the summer anyhow!

The hydrangeas painting above is entitled Amelia's Hortensia's, inspired by my mother and her parents and their lakeside home. I spent many happy holidays there and feel such a wave of nostalgia just thinking about their log cabin style home built on the lakefront of Adams Lake in the beautiful Okanogan/Shuswap Valley of British Columbia, Canada. My collection of twenty paintings were all part of a group of happy memories from that time.

All for now as it is late (story of my life - I seem to get a second wind after 10 pm! ) but I will post more soon! I will add a few more pics of my paintings over time!

Night night!

xx

Let Them Eat Cake - It's Summer!

I love to paint cakes! Cakes are so pretty and painting them does not add inches to the waistline!

These paintings all feature cakes and most were painted for the Westcliff Art Trail I exhibited in during May.

The two large signs painted on cupboard doors feature cakes, teacups,lilacs, and roses as well as words - all of these elements are inspiring to me not only for their visual impact but also because of the memories and meanings they evoke to me personally.

Teacups - well - Connie Parkinson is truly the Queen of Roses and Teacups and I can't help but swoon every time I look at her beautiful paintings! I have a growing collection of teacups of my own - several which belonged to my Mother and her Mother, and a few years ago, I made an altered book titled Granny's Teacups. This book was very personal to me, at the time my Mother was very poorly in Canada and I had not long returned from spending time with her there. As she was unable to return home after that, I brought back her small collection of treasured teacups and these inspired me to make my book about both my mother and my grandmother and the impact they had on me and what is important to me.

Granny's Teacups made me think and reminisce about happy times spent at my Grandparent's Lakeside Home at Adams Lake in British Columbia, Canada, and these memories were the inspiration behind the entire collection of cakes and flower inspired paintings that I painted for the Art Trail.

One memory still vivid in my mind after at least 37 years is an afternoon I spent with my Grandparent's lovely next door neighbour Ina.

Ina was kind and glamorous and very friendly and one day she was decorating cupcakes for the Summer Fair Cake Competition. I was mesmerised with watching her make the most exquisite flowers, bows, loops, and trellis designs on these tiny little cakes in pleated paper wrappers.

I can still picture them to this day and thus my love of them and their pretty forms, and so this is why I love to paint them - that and the fact that I am not, or never will be a Domestic Goddess able to make them myself!

I will leave that to my friend Donna - she makes the most gorgeous cupcakes and is in high demand - thus she has started her own business entitled Let Them Eat Cake!

Summer!

Summer is here and with it are the roses in bloom, warm weather and sunshine and light! I love this time of year and especially when we have warm days and sunshine (but not too hot - like the garden flowers I tend to wilt if it is too hot!)

I have been so busy lately that I haven't posted in ages and I cannot believe how much time has passed since my last post.

I managed to get twenty paintings of flowers and cakes done for the Westcliff Art Trail, in May! I exhibited in a lovely little cafe called Chilli Peppers. Leslie and her staff are friendly and very helpful, and I am very grateful they allowed me to exhibit in their space especially as Leslie was getting married the following weekend! Thank you to all the staff at Chilli Peppers.

The art trail itself was a great experience and although I did not sell any work, it was an honour to be a part of it, and definitely something I would love to participate in again.

In June, the Leigh Art Trial ran for a week. This annual event, which is in it's 13th year, is very well attended, and Southend Adult Community College, where I teach Interior Design and Decorative Painting was one of the sponsers. They held their own exhibition of students work from all the arts and crafts courses run at the college and this was a fabulous showing of very talented student work.

Crows 'n Roses Spring Swap

I belong to an eBay goup of fabulous creative women,a nd every season we swap with each other!

This spring I received the most beautiful basket of fabric roses complete with a fabric postcard sent to my by the lovely Charlotte! Charlotte is a very talented lady who makes beautifully stitched fabric items! Not only that but Charlotte has her own website - The Homespun Loft - where she sells what se makes alongside primitive giftware and the most beautiful homespun fabrics!

These roses are so beautiful and they also smell like real roses and I am so pleased to have such a lovely gift! Imagine how thrilling it was to open the box and find these roses inside. Charlotte knows how much I love roses and this is a very thoughtful and heartfelt gift!

Thank you so much Charlotte!

Tea Room sign

I have been working on signs lately for an exhibition in May and this is another one for it painted on a shutter type door. I wanted to get in all the things I love to paint - teacups, cakes, chocolates, roses and distressed finishes.

I plan on doing another shutter as maybe a bakery shop with more cakes and such and maybe with lilacs hanging over the same sort of twig frame. I haven't fully decided but I wanted to keep them related somehow. Tomorrow I will work on a series of 6 smaller signs on wood with distressed finishes - all again with a garden theme and next week I want to work on cakes.

This is the plan anyhow - the reality is yet to come and that will determine how much I actually get done. I haven't much time now but I will do what I can in the time I have.

It has been a beautiful and sunny day today - I love the fact that Spring is here and Summer is on the way!

Just For You Designs by Lisa

Here is another wonderful blog from the very talented Lisa, who lives in Wales and designs and makes a beautiful range of lovelies which she sells through various shops in England and Wales. Lisa is also the brainstorm behind Crows 'n Roses, an ebay sellers groups full of lovely ladies - all who craft, and all who have become good friends together!

Have a look at her blog and see what I mean! Lisa works full time, and has a family and home to run and she still manages to make so many beautiful items! Her latest treasures are gorgeous chickadees!! I know you will love her special designs!

The Junk Art Queen Extraordinaire

I have just added a link to the blog of Susan Wymola for you to have a look at! Susan is a decorative painter who specialises in transforming trash to treasure in the most innovative and inspiring ways!

Susan loves to paint roosters, chickens and flowers and calls herself Suzie Cackleblossums! She has also formed a Yahoo group called Chic Chicks which is a fun and friendly group. Susan is now teaching on-line and she designs painting patterns available through her Etsy shop!

Not only talented, Susan is also friendly and sharing and a great gal too! I am lucky enough to have swapped with her in a Chic Chicks gift exchange event and now have several of her pieces of art in my own home! Have a peek at the photos! The Rosy Bugs plaque is made from an old cd, and Suzie has used buttons beads and hearts to make a Rosy Bug plaque complete with roses! Rosybugs is my Etsy Seller name and this is a unique and very special gift! Thank you Suzie!

The chickie is adorable and has slogans which can be changed to represent my moods! Other gifts included native Texan bluebonnets painted on broken tile, a jam jar painted with adorable cherries filled with sweets and another CD painted with Suzies lovely roses! She also sent me some of her fabulous painting patterns which are full of pictures and demos and are well written and easy to follow.

Have a peek through Suzies blog and her links and I guarantee you will have a fun time!