Sunshine and happy Claude

Its been a funny week.  What with the flooding, Claude and more rain. This morning the sun has been shining.  I have walked the dogs down to the river and even though the fields have enormous great puddles in them, which Defi is sure are his private baths, we had a lovely walk and actually met other dog walkers braving the mud, but enjoying walking in the sun.  There was still a brisk breeze, which is slightly on the winter side of breezes, but...the sun is shining!!  I came home and cleaned out the chooks as they have had it worse I think, being outdoors whatever the weather, even if they have spent their days under the hedges and have put wellies on their Christmas lists, whilst eyeing up the ducks in an envious manner as they have webbed toes and the chooks don't, and still the sun shines.  It really lifts the spirits.  Talking of uplifting, I have good news on the Claude.  He is back to his normal old self, sleeping in totally daft places, this week he is choosing to snooze between the tumble dryer (which is on a side) and the oil fired heating unit, he is toastie!  We changed the litter in the tray, which seems to have made a difference to both the old cats and thankfully with Claude moving his sleeping quarters from the litter tray to inbetween the boiler and the tumble dryer, Megan is no longer trying to wee around his slumbering self, which is another blessing as we thought that he was sleeping in his own ..umm..waste?...at least we now know it was Megan, our elder cat (approx 21 -ish).  So with the litter change and food change, Claude is back to his normal old self, mugging me for breakfast and meowing for food whenever he sees a person, as obviously we are only here to serve, and now we know that he no longer chooses to eat food in gravy and has a preference to food in jelly, all is well in Claude's World!

I have been experimenting again.  I do enjoy a good experiment.  I have been flattening bottles, painting on them or decorating them with decals, which are then re-fired to fuse them into the glass.  These make fabulous gift ideas, great serving trays for cheese and nibbles or a wooden spoon rest whilst cooking, I even have them on the kitchen window sill with hand cream and soap on them.

Flattened bottle

These are available in my Etsy shop or you can contact me direct here if you don't use Etsy.  Fab gifts for Christmas and all recycled glass.

Another experiment was the rose buds above.  I used frit in multi colours and a base of creamy yellowy orange, I rather like them, they jazz up a dull day!

Hope the sun stays out for a bit, I am off torching!

Laney x