Toffee takes a trip

I am a slightly disgruntled bear. You see, I was supposed to be taken on adventures last week and photographed in situ. I had high hopes of trips to the movies, rides on slides in the park, picnics in the woods with other bears and opportunities for making mischief.

Instead, what do I get. I'll tell you what. I get to watch typing. Yeah, that was real fun I can tell you. It was time for some stern words...

At last it looked like we were going somewhere. I sat in the front seat of the car (with my seatbelt on naturally!) and we travelled for miles to a place called 'work'. I took a careful peek out of the dark bag in which I had been shoved. It looked a fascinating place with multi-coloured flags flying from the ceiling and friendly folk looking very busy.

I sat on the desk and watched ... (you guessed it - more typing!), then we went out somewhere far more interesting. The friendly folk at 'work' were also helping out some nice old ladies and gentlemen in a local care home. They had volunteered to tidy their garden, paint the fences and plant some bulbs. I met these nice old dears called Betty and Maureen.

Things were looking up, but then what? ... I'll tell you what.... Two days sitting in a dark handbag!

And to think that this was supposed to be a task from The Happy Book. Yes, HAPPY! Humph... short-changed I was! I'm off to see what the other participants got up to this week - bet it was more fun than sitting in a bag.

The excuse I got was that "it was such a hectic couple of weeks at work; I didn't have time to play with bears and take photographs... I didn't even get a chance to start the second happy book assignment. I'll be playing catch up for weeks"...

Well, what do you say readers? Shall I accept this excuse and give her a cuddle so she feels better?

With a cherry on top

It's Friday. It has been a grand week. I've been working, painting and my kitchen ceiling has finally been repaired! Not only that but I finally managed to choose which colour to paint the walls. It was a tough call between Willow Tree (which is actually blue, rather than the green you expect it to be) and Melon Sorbet. The fruity concoction won, the decorator will be here on Wednesday.

All this talk of melons leads me nicely onto my next subject - fruit! (I should have been a tv or radio presenter with link lines like that, don't you think?).

I'm hosting the Inspiration Avenue fruit challenge this week and as I wish to be the hostess with the mostest I hurried down to the greengrocers to stock up on fruity delights. As I flitted between the bananas and pineapples my mind was a blur and my mouth a salivation. What treats would my guests most desire? Sweet cherries or plump grapes? A moist mango, a palatable pear, or the nectar of an orange. I couldn't decide so I bought the lot.

Now, this greengrocer takes his reputation most seriously and being 'green' does not provide his customers with plastic carrier bags. Being a forgetful soul, I had omitted to bring anything with which to carry home my purchases so....

I put them on my head!

The spirit of this post is one of great joy and frivolity and, being a Friday and all, it fits rather snugly into Jamie Ridler's Happy Friday group too. Why not pop along there and share what made you happy this week. Well, I think you may have guessed that for me the 'cherry on top' was definitely getting fruity with my painting!

Hippy Happy Hoppy

My boyfriend calls me a hippy and I'm drawing a few. I'm feeling rather happy. I've been doing a lot of hopping.

Well, that's my week, how was yours?

I'm rather tired and should go to bed, but I wanted to write a post ready for Jamie Ridler's happy sharing group tomorrow where we spread jolly happenings thicker than the sweetest marmalade. I thought I may as well use it as an excuse to ramble anyway!

Happy

Firstly, I would like to turn to my stomach. It is very happy with me this week. You see I rediscovered a particularly tasty delicacy that it hasn't had chance to digest for possibly around 30 years or more. Said treat is, by its very nature, hideously bad for you, but I figure that eating organic seeded crackers (dry) for lunch has more than made up for this little transgression and counts as being part of a 'balanced' diet.

By now, the more observant among you will have noticed the large slab of Battenburg cake floating on the page and guessed the reason for my acute salivation. You may also be thinking it's not terribly sophisticated or even tasty. There you would be wrong. Washed down with a nice cup of tea in a china cup, its delightful sweetness and rich marzipan is just what a girl needs on for a drear January. My son chose it while we were shopping in Tesco - no doubt attracted by the resemblance to ice cream. Poor lad only had one slice before Mummy hid it away. Just think of it as trendy 1970s retro chic and enjoy...

Hippy Happy

Well the icing on the cake for me this week could have been a spending spree in my wardrobe's hippy spiritual home - Monsoon - but I drew hippy instead. I've been devouring my Suzi Blu course and will be posting some Goddess portraits shortly. I need to be a very good student becase... I HAVE A PAINTING COMMISSION! Yes, someone has actually asked me to paint a gift for their hippy friend. Well, I'm thrilled. AND she bought, not one but TWO paintings from me! Thanks Tina!!

Hoppy

I've hopped about more than the Easter Bunny and Skippy the Bush Kangaroo put together this week. You see, I hurt my left foot but was determined to carry on with my exercise regime so did it all on one leg... Err, and also I've been doing a spot of blog hopping bouncing my way around the, at last count, 783 entries to the One World One Heart challenge. Well, not actually all 783... but quite a few.

Have you visited? How do you browse? Are you an orderly person, working their way through chronologically? Or, like me are you a bit more random - diving into those with the most intriguing names or keeping an eye out for old friends? I'm drawn too, like a magpie, by promises of bright sparkling things. It has been such inspirational fun - so many wonderful blogs to run around. Hello new friends! Glad you came back for another read. Hope you stay!

So, between that and Suzi Blu I've been keeping my evenings busy.

Daylight hours have been for working! Yes, another week of paid work and more next week!

PS: Don't you just love the way the sun is glinting off the sugary marzipan on that cake?

Happy talking

"You gotta have a dream; if you don't have a dream; how you gonna have a dream come true?"

Well, this evening I am planning on writing a happy post for I have many reasons to be cheerful. I also have many excuses for using words like joy and delight.

The first being that Ange has given me a Happy 101 award which is jolly nice of her. As usual these awards require some form of acceptance speech and seeing as I missed out on a Golden Globe (again) this year I just happen to have one I prepared earlier - but more on that later as I am still rather busy explaining to you why I am writing Happy posts.

Another gleeful reason is that I am once again joining Jamie Blogger and her merry band of Ridlers (or have I got that confused somewhere along the line?) in a blogtastic book club. Jamie is rather skillful at choosing books with little in the way of reading required (see numerous Wreck this Journal posts back in the Summer of '09); which at first glance may seem a little odd for a book group, but bear with us, for The Happy Book requires the readers to do the writing. As a reaction to these credit-crunching times she also hit upon the marvellous idea of sharing the book so we're passing it among us and don't even have to buy a copy. What a jolly wheeze! As I'm near the bottom of the list it could be some time before said book arrives on my doorstep - the question is - will the dog ears have to be quarantined? Of course, being in a book group where you only see said book maybe six months or so into the project could be dull. Worry not dear readers, for clever Jamie is running a blog where we can all meet up every Friday and share what makes us happy which I think is a lovely idea. You may have gathered by now that this is therefore my first post on said subject. Hello Happy bloggers!

But now, my audience awaits and I must struggle up the stairs in an evening gown that was never designed with movement in mind and gracefully accept my Happy 101 award.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I've read so many posts recently about bloggers' words of the year - a great way to focus thought and direction. I thought first what my word for 2009 retrospectively should be. Stronger. I was stronger last year, not all of the time but I felt that word propping me up throughout the last 12 months. This year I feel the Universe tugging me in a 'Happy' direction so who am I to argue?

What makes me Happy? In no particular order... (am I supposed to do 101?)

1. A small boy age 5 (nearly 6)
2. A big boy age 44 (nearly 45)
3. Cuddles
4. Making art and... making Art of the Week on Mixed Media Monday! I was so excited I emailed most of my address book
5. Singing and dancing (not necessarily at the same time). Regrettably this does not necessarily put a smile on the faces of those around me and would give Simon Cowell good reason to shudder, but I like it!
6. Writing. I bet you never would have guessed it...
7. Being my own boss (this probably warrants a whole post in itself so I'll save it for another day)
8. Girlie days or nights
9. Strangers walking up to me in the street and gifting me several hundred thousand pounds (no strings attached). This hasn't actually happened yet, but we live in hope
10. Friends, Romans, Countrymen
11. Being silly
12. And finally, for this post anyway, I just laughed my socks off when a neighbour's cat poked it's head and left paw through our cat flap intent on stealing some my moggies' food. I often catch him in the act and tonight we had a 'battle of the stares'. He backed down first and reversed back out still hungry. That's 15:0 to me I think!
    

I've enjoyed compiling this list, in face I might go so far as to say it made me very happy! I'm looking forward to sharing some more next week. I think we all need a bit of happy sharing every now and again.

Speaking of which... one of my favourite comedy sketches of all time which never fails to provoke some loud chuckles...

Getting into the spirit

I once started a book group. It was at work. I made some posters, sent out emails and got a fair few people signed up. I can't remember who chose the first book, but I suspect it was probably me - His Dark Materials by Philip Pulman. It was a cracking read. I arranged the first meeting and the grand total of one person, other than myself turned up, and she hadn't even read the book yet. That was the end of that book group.

Efforts since then have been considerably more successful. Last year saw my gleeful and enthusiastic participation in the Wreck this Journal Group run by Jamie Ridler. What incredible fun that was and who knew that it would be the start of such a wonderful creative journey and the introduction to some lovely new friends?

The Joy Diet followed, but like most diets, I fell of the wagon near the end. It was fun while it lasted though and in particular I just loved reading what everyone else felt and then jumping up and down with glee when they felt the same as me (in other words, I was pleased I wasn't alone in my strange attitudes!).

New Year means new books and, even better, new groups. I have to admit though that I have a whole cupboard full of books I haven't read yet. It's not that I don't read, in fact I've usually got several on the go at once, it's more that I just can't resist... Yesterday for instance I was walking past a charity shop and saw a sign in the window - ALL BOOKS 50P - well, how could I say no? It would have been rude and uncharitable not to (picked up a Barbara Erskine, Valerio Massimo Manfredi and a touring guide to Britain full of lovely maps which I suspect will be finding their way into my artwork sometime soon).

So, back to the Groups. I am now reading The Art Spirit by Robert Henri and hope to have submitted my application in time for another Jamie Ridler extravaganza - The Happy Book. The latter is a mailaround project with each participant having the book for just one week before passing it onto the next.

The Art Spirit is a bit like having a bona fide famous painter giving you lessons in the privacy of your own home. There's no pictures, no colour guides or step by step painting building. It is simply written advice and shared wisdom. Interestingly, there aren't any chapters or any form of index - it just sort of rambles and is really a collection of letters, essays and articles written by the great man. I find this slightly odd, but by the same token it does mean that this is a book that you can just dip in and out of at your leisure. I've only read the first few pages so no proper post on my thoughts or progress yet but watch this space...

I'll leave you with a quote from the book to have a ponder over.

"For an artist to be interesting to us, he must have been interesting to himself. He must have been capable of intense feeling, cand capable of profound contemplation.... Nature reveals to him, and , seeing and feeling intensely, he paints, and whether he wills it or not, each brush stroke is an exact record of such as he was at the exact moment the stroke was made."

Robert Henri