Great Give-away!

this is a great give-away I've found here in blogland! For any of you that arent already familiar with Marie Segals lovely claywork, pop over and take a peep at her blog at Art from my heart the more comments she gets the more draws there will be for the giveaway! The draw started on my birthday so I'm hoping that will earn me some extra luck from the angels she's giving out on her birthday !!! LOL

out of the loop

just a quickie to let you know I'm still about, and attempting to keep up to date reading all the blogs, even if I dont comment on them, as I still cant sit for long and so am trying to cram in as much as possible in my windows of opportunity! I was making some progress with my back problem and then I took the dog for a stroll at the weekend and got yanked sideways putting me flat on my back again!!! :o( this setback is gonna take me months to rebuild my ripped muscles..... Im doing things properly, heat and ice and have an excercise plan from my phsyio-terrorist oh and the other important ingredient... drugs!!! :o) ....as a friend said to me the other day 'better living through chemistry' ! hopefully if I do as Im told I shall be mobile again by the new year... I wonder if hubbs realises I havent done ANY xmas shopping yet?... LOL its gonna be interesting!!!! I just really hope I can find a way to do some crafting or I may go insane with boredom!!!!

Carnivaaaaaal :o)

Every year my hometown has the most amazing illuminated carnival, said to be the largest in the world! so I thought some of you out there in blogosphere might be interested to see a few pics of the Bridgwater carnival that went on a few days ago. This event attracts visitors to our town from all over the world. I realised this year that I take this amazing spectacle quite for granted as I dont even go to watch it some years! There are lots of different categories that the floats are judged in, some floats are called Tableaux and the people on them remain absolutely still throughout the procession,
like these ones

while others have carts with moving parts that go in all directions with dancers on that continue for the 2 hrs plus that it takes to go through the streets!



Gremlins CC 'Runaway Train'
Gremlins usually win the show and did so again for the 7th time in a row as overall champions! but when we got a first glimpse of this one coming we all knew it was special, and it went on to win the top prize in the open feature cart section.

Masqueraders CC



and this one came 2nd
This was the last 'cart' and was totally my favourite
Harlequins CC



Despite the weather usually being wet and cold it doesnt put anyone off this wonderful free event. There are collectors that walk alongside the procession and collect donations which usually raises between £20-30,000 which is distributed to various charities. The sad thing is that this works out at just 50p-£1 per person watching, which is quite disappointing as the people in the clubs involved give their time and skills for free and build these wonderful entries from scratch each year !!
It is most amusing walking around our town at times, seeing some of the fantastic costumes that will be appearing on the carts that year. I'm glad I went to watch it :o)

more info about this great event can be found on this website
www.bridgwatercarnival.org.uk

Halloween & a slightly bigger than usual PlumpKin!

I've seen some wonderful Halloween blog posts this year :o) this probly isnt one of them tho!!! but I wanted to take part in Kat the Hats Halloween Blog Party so here's my post, last minute me strikes again LOL!
I had a feeling my back wasnt going to let me have much fun this week and I wasnt far wrong, BUT.... the main reason I've not posted for a while is that I now have a new computer :o)!!! YAY :o) I was limited in trying to communicate for a while with just facebook via my mobile phone so am overjoyed to 'normal' again so quickly. What did we do before all this technology me wonders!!! anyways, I had no idea that retreiving and reloading all the files and programs to my new shiny majickal box would be so mentally taxing!!! let alone learning the differences between my old operating system and Vista! So I may have missed out on most of the Halloween fun but can assure you I have spent my fair share of time in 'Hell' LOL

I did however spend a few minutes a few times each day attempting to make myself a paper-mache pumpkin house, but didnt quite get to the finish line in time for the big day! jeez get out the violins!!! haha
this is the story so far.... this started when I saw a Pumpkin by Stolloween on facebook where it showed the internal makings of a mache pumpkin. It was 'just' strips of card attached to a floorplate with strips of card or newspaper weaved between to make a base for the mache to be added, the first pic is not mine as I forgot to take a pic of how I started mine D'oh! so I hope he doesnt mind me using it. but you get the idea? I only wanted a half pumpkin so made a few adjustments.
Then began the layering up.... I had to make a few cuts in the top to give it a bit more shape, the central tube was just to support the shape while it dried.


until it got soggy.... and had to be replaced by something a bit sturdier when I added the 'stalk'!

lots and LOTS of coats of paint later!... so far its had 2 coats of white and & 7.... yes, 7 coats of orange, I reckon it probly needs another few to be totally orange. NOTE: I learnt that using a good coat of ordinary household white emulsion was much more effective at covering newspaper mache than white poster paint or acrylic! and when you've already got backache those few minutes saved mean a lot!!!
I still need to paint the inside a pale pumkinny colour and then add a floor and some shelving into the natural curved alcoves and .... you know how it goes, IF I'm lucky I may have it finished before NEXT Halloween!