Full Moon Madness

There’s madness in the air – must be the full moon, or maybe it’s something in the water down here in our Devon household.  It’s been a heck of a few days!

For those of you not in the know, I had a little brush with the out of hours doctor and emergency services over the weekend (am much better now).  They say nurses make the worst patients and I suspect this is true, as I spent most of the time pathetically saying, ‘isn’t this something my GP could deal with?’  hoping to be given a few meds and sent home.  I really wanted one of my nursy mates to take my blood, as they are actually really good at it, whereas the person who was attempting to get the samples wasn’t!  anyhoo – we survived.

T had one of those days on Monday where events piled up, so that she spent 12 hours at work, but the real fun began last night:

Picture the scene:

Terri took the chicken from the oven and set it aside to rest.  The delcious aroma filled the kitchen as she split an avocado and popped out the stone with a knife.  Sam wandered in, all angles as teenage boys are,

‘Is Mum home then?’

‘No, why?’ Said Terri, a puzzled frown crossing her forehead as she sliced the fruit and added it to the salad.

‘I heard a ‘plink’ noise and someone’s running the shower in your room’

Terri put the salad ingredients on the counter and walked to the bottom of the stairs, head cocked to one side, listening.

‘you’re right, there is water running.’  Terri bounded upstairs three at a time, with Sam in hot pursuit.  They both stood open mouthed as water gushed from a large crack in the lavatory cistern in the top-most bathroom. 

There is a well-known law that says  if a cistern is going to spontaneously crack wide open it must be the one at the very top of the house, so as to spread water as generously as possible.

‘Find some towels.’  Terri yelled at Sam.  ‘I’ll find the stop-cock.’  Sam sprinted away, returning seconds later with a small burgundy hand-towel with which to stem the (by now) torrent.  Terri stared at the tiny fluffy square with disbelief.  ‘More towels, Sam, all of the towels you can find.’

‘Dunno where they are,’

‘In the linen cupboard.’

‘Where’s that?.’

‘The one in the spare bedroom.’ 

‘Uh?’

‘The cupboard in the spare room next to the shower that you use every morning.’  Terri’s voice was beginning to sound a little brusque as she scrabbled in the tight space behind the lav.

‘I dunno, do I’  Sam clumped away on a quest for terry cloth.

There is a second unwritten law that in an emergency you will not know how to switch off the stop cock – Larry The Handyman to the rescue!

I arrived home from work to find the place awash with water and sodden  household linen.  There was the pleasant tinkling of sparkling streams as they made their way from light fittings into buckets and mattresses.

Still, it had been a really muggy day, so we all enjoyed the paddle and I expect a bit of DIY cistern replacement will be just what we need on our holiday to stop us being bored.  I always find home plumbing such a relaxing pastime, don’t you?  If that’s not stimulating enough, there are a couple of ceilings that could do with a paint. 

The third unwritten law is that the worst affected ceiling will always be the one that you have most recently decorated.

I thought I might have a day off from writing my two novels today.  I expect I’ll wash a few towels and wait for the moon to wane.

How to Draw Pop Art

Pop art began in Britain in the mid 1950s, and spread to the USA later that decade.  It took its themes from popular culture, such as comic books and advertising,  and mass production, using mundane objects. 

Probably the most famous pop artist is Andy Warhol, with his iconic pieces depicting Campbel’s soup and Marilyn Monroe.

The style which set out  to parody the banal and kitsch within popular culture is often typified by bright colours and bold designs.

When beginning a piece of pop art, it’s important to use an easily identifiable theme, so for this piece I chose the pentangle, or pentagram, which is easily recognisable and is often identified as a Pagan symbol.

As I wanted the colours to be bold and fairly smooth, without obvious brushstrokes, I chose to work in artists acrylic paints.  These provide strong pigments, similar to oil paints, but they are water soluble and have a quick drying time, like water colours, so you don’t have to wait days for successive coats of paint to dry.

However, as I wanted to scan the finished piece into the computer so that I could upload it on to Zazzle.com (click here to view more of my art) I chose to work with paper suitable for acrylic paint, rather than canvas; using a  medium weight Daler Rowney Acrylic Paper. 

I set out to use a repeating Pentagram design, but wanted some variation, so used four different sizes of Pentagram in a random pattern.

I’m sure I could have designed this and done it all on the computer, but call me perverse, I actually get pleasure out of drawing things by hand, and spending two weeks completing the finished piece.

The background needed to be as bright as possible, so I chose a fluorescent red acrylic paint (Daler Rowney 544).  Daler Rowney has a really good range of fluorescent colours – there’s a fluorescent green I’m itching to use somewhere!

However, when I repeat the design (see later), I will use a standard bright red, as my scanner just couldn’t cope with the fluorescence, which came out off-white!

The background took several layers of paint, before I was satisfied that the intensity of colour was just right.

I then painted random Pentagrams jet black, and the remaining ones violet.  The black required only one coat of paint, but the violet required two in order to obtain the intense colour.

Moretonhampstead Snow

At last, the snow is abating and schools are open again.  After a week of staying at home and sledging, Devon County Council is finally running school transport again.  The snow is melting, but we now have fog – just for a change.

Check out lots of snowy pictures by clicking here.

How to Publish Your Book

Everyone has a book in them, or so the saying goes.  I have always been interested in writing, and around ten years ago even took a course in creative writing, but then did nothing with it.  A few years ago, I realised that the only way to become a writer, was to actually get on and WRITE SOMETHING!  I know that sounds daft, but until then I’d somehow magically thought that writing would come to me – it didn’t, so I knuckled down and took a look at my strengths and interests.

As I work part-time as a gardener, the subject was an obvious choice, and the first article I wrote was about onions.  I mean, who can’t grow onions, they’re so simple.  This article has gone on to be one of my best sellers, with feedback and comments a-plenty.  Since then, I’ve written on all sorts of subjects which interest me, not just gardening.  Some of these articles have done well, and some have yet to flourish, but just because they havn’t really taken off yet doesn’t mean they won’t do so.  A little tweak here and there, with a bit of rewriting and the article has a different slant and is off to another publisher.

I suppose what I’m trying to say is NEVER GIVE UP, there is a book inside everyone, or a magazine article, or a blog, but, you have to have a thickish skin.  Don’t be downhearted when your creative masterpiece is rejected, just think about how you can recreate the article and send it off on another journey.  In the few years that I’ve been sending my stuff out to publishers, I’ve had two children’s books published, several short magazine pieces and tons of online articles.  I’ve also added copywriting to my skills, and I actually tell people that I’m a writer now, whereas before I was too embarrassed to do so.  Since I’ve ‘come out’ so to speak, as a writer, it’s amazing how many people I meet say ‘Oh, I wish I could do that’ – guess what, they could, all they have to do is write!

New Site

I finally did it.  Organized myself and built a website!  Possibly the week before my holiday was not a good time to do this, especially with copywriting work building up, but nothing ventured, nothing gained!