Friday 27 June 2014

When life throws a curve ball.

available on eBay.com
 
Summer has been with us for the last few weeks,
glorious sunshine and almost cloudless skies.
I don't have Sunflowers this year
except in glass but I do have
some gorgeous Poppies that have burst open.
 Its been a funny few months.  So much has stayed the same but so much has changed.  I am still creating my beads although the genre I create in has changed to flowers, the glass animals seem to have left me for the moment.  I am not worried about my animal muse leaving me altogether as it is still there just in a different art form.



Sunflowers and Sweetpeas


available on eBay
 I have been following my writing muse this year and attending a workshop in Brecon every Tuesday evening.  Its been brilliant.  The drive from Hereford to Brecon is about an hour but its a lovely drive through leafy country roads. 
 
I promised myself this year I would write again.  I have written on and off throughout all my life, long winded journal entries, sad and lonely effigies that have been my therapy when life isn't quite going as planned.  This year I made a quiet promise to myself to try and be more upbeat with my words, thinking the blog was the way to go, I put in more effort and started to enjoy detailing some of my more memorable sagas, like the trip to the supermarket and bra shopping with my daughter.  The workshop was a surprise.  Someone I have met through a craft fair at the Community Farm Open day who is a published writer and on FB put up a notice that she was running this workshop through Take pArt Community Arts Workshop in Brecon.  I at first said it was too far for me but Adele convinced me that it wasn't and so I went.  Anyone that can pronounce the name of the Industrial Estate its on is a better woman than I!  Ffrwdgrech Industrial Estate for any that wish to try!
 
Its a small group but we are doing great things, not least finding out about Maen Llia (pronounced Mine Clear or thereabouts).  In a small twist of fate I have managed to land myself the very important position of writing a monthly column for a magazine.  When the first one is published I will let you know.
 

Tiger Lily flowers.  SOLD.
 
As well as writing and getting out in the sunshine I have been volunteering at the Community Farm at Warham which is just across the farm yard from me.  Once a week I go and get involved with craft themes, beads and jewellery and at the moment big papier mache pig and chicken which are works in progress and they will be for Hereford in Bloom next month.
 
So life threw a curve ball.  Whereas this time last year I was here, alone with an elderly cat, Claude and two mad Golden's Iz and Defi just making beads quietly in my shed, now I am writing, looking after my sweet Gordy and mopping up dribble, charging down to the river with Iz and Defi in the sunshine, being over at the farm and looking forward to creating a fabulous column in the magazine where my animal muse is featuring heavily and creating beautiful gardens in glass.
 
How happy can one girl get?
 
Laney x