Postie paranoia & brown paper

The Postie (is that how it's spelt?!) delivered me some exciting packages I ordered from (American) Etsy sellers today, but not before gauping at my feet for what seemed to be inappropriately long time! I'm already rather conscious of my feet and so this has just stoked the foot fire - much like walking on hot coals!! The strange thing is I was just wearing what I consider to be rather non-descript tai chi shoes - tell me, do my feet look weird in them...?!? I got them from a great shop in Norwich called Feet on the Ground! Maybe he's into tai chi and was wondering if I did too. Whichever, he was intrigued enough to take a second glance before he left! Funny long haired fellow...he's got me thinking about taking up tai chi again actually - i do miss it!


Anyway, I'd love to show you the exciting things that were delivered to me but they're for birthday presents and so I don't want to blow the surprises! At least there are some rather nice stamps for you to see - mmm stamps - maybe it's time I reignited that geeky philatelic thing I used to be so into. Heady days!!


It was my best bud's mum's birthday the other day and found out that's she's turned 70 (I was shocked - she really doesn't look it!!) ... so inspired as I was to by the exotic brown paper envelopes from USA (so different from dull Jiffy ones!!!) I made her this card today ... I love gypsy caravan art and so I thought I would try and sneak a bit of that in to a typographic number!

Summer break

Dress down for the allotment? Oh no!
My sister shows how to pull off allotment chic ...
pre-orangen-saft henna!

Decided to take a bit of a recess for summer on the old blogging. We so rarely have a reasonable run of good weather in Blighty that I've been trying to make the most of it down at the allotment and getting out and about on my trusty 'cheval de fer' (Rupert). I thought August 1st was as good a time as ever to get back on the blogging bandwagon!

As it's been a while I'd better just give you a quick roundup of what's been happening in Gardnerville of late, in no particular order ...

***NEWS IN BRIEF!***
⇒ Spent a week in Nantes (France)
⇒ Stayed in Sam & Mark's flash new Cambridge pad
⇒ Had my littlest Sister to stay*
⇒ Sold handmade goodies at 'Clutter City'
⇒ Got a new job as an Arts Technician
⇒ Worked for 'Kidzone' as a face painter
⇒ Acquired a bike trailer + baby bongos!
⇒ Ukulele practice significantly up!

Also nearly worked as a steward at Latitude but was in France when training was on - *boohoo*! But France was actually better than ever this time round ...here's some pics from Manu's mum's retirement celebrations ....


We were lucky enough to be in France for the Bastille Day celebrations. We were completely blown away by some great live music and fireworks, not to mention delicious crepes and cidre brut!

My sister Libby and I had a really fun week and this pic shows her admiring the new (perfectly working + completely wondrous!) typewriter she picked up from the car boot sale we went to mid-week. We talked about sharing it and so I'll get to use u it whenever I go home ....

At last Saturday's Clutter City (at Norwich Arts Centre) craft fair there was talk abound about Fine City Friends starting a house band!! I'm dead excited - suggested a bit of a skiffle affair as not many of us play 'poper' instruments. It was a scorching day so the turnout wasn't too great early on but picked up later on after lunch. There's lots more pictures of all the fun stuff on show at the Fine City Friends blog . I've got plenty of stuff which is wating to be uploaded to etsy and dawanda - best be getting onto it, I suppose!

*Made her turn orange - her hair that is ... she's now a carrot top like me and proud! We almost look like sisters!!

Last night I went to an Independence Day Party and a dressed up as a Native American


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Also forgot to mention that we set up another blog last week... http://finecitygardening.blogspot.com/
When I say 'we' I mean: Manu and I, (Oxford Comma - love that song!!) and I'm hoping that Monsieur Frenchy will get stuck in as I will struggle with keeping three blogs going I think!
Go on Manu - don't be shy!!

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Carnival & Music Festival Fun!

Had such a top weekend that I feel rather elated today! I've been working as a Steward at the Music Festival in Norwich's Chapelfield Gardens as part of the Lord Mayor Celebrations. The weekend long event went without a hitch or a punch up(!) and even though it rained a lot on the Sunday, everyone was completely determined to enjoy themselves - Dunkirk spirit lives on! Not that much determination was needed really - the music line up was so impressive that you couldn't fail
to have fun!

Here's a picture of the procession - the carnival festivities were in full swing by the time the headliner - incredible Rio (flown in from Brazil especially!) band Monobloco were joined by the samba group - the rammed stage was throbbing and we were completely entranced! The audience were enjoying it so much that buzz was electric! One of the best music experiences I've ever had and to think I'd been working as part of it - feel so privileged! ^^ I met so many lovely people (*gush!*) over the weekend and I'm now really looking forward to being a Face Painter at the up and coming KidZone events!

Wish I could do this right now...!

I discovered this great site the other day and got rather excited about designing an altogether different kind of bird - a nani! Anyone fancy joining me in making a geometric birdie too? It's got to be worth a go! Better than playing rubik's cube (darn that alluringly colourful yet infuriating cube of frustration!!!)

Here's where you can have more fun playing with paper an scissors instead: http://www.nanibird.com/

This extra lovely one is called Mamy and is designed by Natascha S Rosenberg

I'll stick all the pics of the end results on here so just give me a shout if you're game!

I really have too much to do this week, so I'll have to wait till next till I get going on this
*big sigh* :-(

King Fisher crazy

Ok, so I may have gone a little King Fisher crazy of late but I put it down to mild desperation - it's been ages since I've seen one and I'm
getting withdrawals!

To remedy my predicament I made another plush bird brooch - of the king of bird's himself!
Guess he'll have to compensate for seeing the real thing for now. I look almost trance like in this picture (I wasn't actually meant to be in it!)- I think it's all the happiness of literally making a new friend ^^ Embarrassing as this picture is (zero make up, freckles and all) I like the way it captures my little elfin ear and contrasting honk - the latter being so big it didn't even fit in frame!!

This is the colour illustration for the card I think I mentioned in a previous post...

Bird zine has taken wing!

Finally got my batch of Zazar Zine's printed, folded, packaged and up on Etsy! Now alll my bird doodles that may never've seen the light of day have a fun outlet! Having said this the cover illustration is poised to become a full colour greetings card. So he'll be more than just the electric blue of the card cover!

We've got an allotment!!

Woopy dodah! Finally collected the key for our allotment on Friday and with a mixture of excitement and trepidation, Manu and I surveyed what will soon become our home from home (especially when we get a proper shed!) Our excitement was almost uncontainable when we thought we'd found our plot - with veg patches already planted. We knew it was too good to be true when we spotted some very contented looking chickens at the far end. No, ours was predictably wilder than wild with nettles towering above me and rampant to the point of covering most of the plot. This minor (hah!) blight aside we did discover some globe artichokes like thistles - some of them had already gone to seed, but we did cut a few heads off and will have try them for lunch today.

Yesterday, our first proper day on the allotment, we got a bit giddy at the fun of it all! First we got to meet our neighbours (two very lovely couples called Chris and Lou + Ellen and Nathan) and then we later made a very fortuitous discovery - a tayberry bush!!! Goes without saying that we had a good old munch to make sure they were in fact tayberries - cross between a raspberry and a blackberry! Never expected to be eating fruits from the allotment this early on - definitely given us a taste for it!

I'm now trying to persuade Manu to start a blog otherwise I fear I will have to change the name of this blog the the Gardener of Gardnerville! (And yes, that is me running through the wilds!)