A meeting of minds

I went to a meeting today, in fact I went to several. This is a welcome novelty for the new self-employed me. After all, I don't have any team meetings unless I decide to talk to myself in the mirror, so spending time discussing exciting internal communicationey things with real people was actually rather fun. I spent the day at a client site where they fed me pancakes. Life is good.

I also got to spend some time today on the nation's biggest car park. Yup, the M25 did not disappoint readers. I guess all the commuters heard that I would around today and decided to join the queue to see me. What it is to be famous eh?

Speaking of which... I just watched the BRIT awards on TV. I feel I missed my calling... I should have been a pop star. Imagine getting paid for raiding the dressing up box and prancing around on stage. Ahh. It's a hard life for us mere mortals, having to wear 'normal' clothing and being frowned upon for singing in the workplace.

No doubt you are bemused by choice of illustration this evening. No, it's not an Enya album cover... It is in fact a little entry for the Three Muses nature challenge. I just didn't feel like writing about the natural world this evening...

A coloured pencil sketch mixed with some of my photographs of warmer days...

Angel faces

Well here's a date for everyone's diary - especially for those magpies among you who are attracted by pretty things. The ladies of Inspiration Avenue (and that includes yours truly) are holding a charity auction from March 7th-14th.

Naturally in this day and age no one expects you to travel to a draughty hall and sit on your hands for fear of bidding £100,000 accidentally. No, it's all virtual these days darlings and as long as your zero key on your keyboard doesn't stick you should be OK (not that we'll be turning down bids with lots of zeros naturally!).

All donations from winning bids will go to an incredibly worthwhile charity - Angel Faces that supports burn victims. For more information on how to participate, pop along to the Inspiration Avenue blog, then be sure to pay us a visit on from March 7th-14th to take part.

OWOH Giveaway

What wonderful fun it was participating in this blog party - I've zoomed around the world several times and taken tea and cakes with the most delightful bloggers and marvelled in all that wonderful talent and generosity out there. We're quite a tribe aren't we, and it's great to be a part, a tiny cog in the blogging wheel.

Many thanks to Lisa Swifka for being such a wonderful Queen of the party. How she coped with us all cramming into her house I'll never know. Mind you, seeing as I got there via her computer and a spell and a wish from the fairy Godmother, maybe she employed a little magic too?

Well, without further ado, I will let you into the result of my prize draw. The winner is...

DRUM ROLLLLLLLLLLL...

Sandra from Thistle Cove Farm

Congratulations!

It's Mardi Gras - let's party...

Pack away your winter clothes and blues and come with me to New Orleans - I've ordered us the house special at Pat O'Brien's in the French Quarter and we've a spot by the window reserved to view the parades.

Yes, it's Mardis Gras here and we banish the cold with a warm and spicy celebration of music, food and culture. A heady cocktail of vision, finery and a thumping creole beat will knock the winter socks off you here readers. Let your hair down, pull on some feathers and enjoy...

You know what, I think I should start making some serious plans to visit some of the gastronomic places of my dreams... Maybe it's because I'm cooking in between typing, but I can't stop thinking about creole spices, jambalaya and gumbo...

Perhaps I should dance in my feathers to take my mind off it...

My entry to Mixed Media Monday - Mardi Gras.

Acrylics, coloured pencils, fibres, sparkly stick-ons and a dash of wild creole imagination.

And we will all the pleasures prove

A HeART or two for Valentine's... Cards for my two best boys (one of them is my son!).

Juicy fruit

I find blog-hopping can be such a rich source of inspiration and general warm snuggly feeling. The last year has seen my artistic endeavours bear some really colourful and juicy fruit and it is thanks in part to the treasure trove of artists, writers and generally lovely people I have found on my travels.

I also love reading the profiles - the words 'self-taught' being particularly reassuring for one dipping a toe into the ocean of creativity. Fortunately for us creatives, our calling is indeed one that can be self-taught and even attributed to other 'beings' - my Muse after all regularly joins me on these pages and few bat an eyelid. A Muse to the artist, is after all the equivalent of the spanner to the mechanic

However, imagine viewing this blog* and seeing such a description alongside this blogger's profession - self taught ER physician who relies on his Muse for inspirational diagnoses. Hmm... I think not. And would you step on on a 747 built by a self-taught aeronautic engineer?

Yes, I think us creatives are rather lucky actually. We can get away with all sorts of eccentricity and, in fact, it rather becomes us. We also can get away with being not terribly good at our art - beauty is after all in the eye of the beholder, and I wouldn't imagine that applying a brushstroke too many is likely to cause much damage to body or mechanical parts.

Of course there's nothing to stop you being a mechanic, physician or engineer and also creative; why, you can even have a Muse - or even two - if you want to. I guess we'd just rather you left them at home during the 'day job'.

Regulars will know I've been toying with the idea of writing a book (for the past 30 years or so...). I even got so far as writing a few chapters of several...mostly involving elves and magical landscapes or modern chicks seeking romance; but... well... you know... I guess that maybe blogging satisfies my need to see my written word out there in the stratosphere. Or maybe, my direction should shift to non-fiction? I've been toying with a few ideas...

Now, I'm a great believer in serendipiddy (I have even invented a new spelling in its honour). So, there I was browsing the inspirational Shona Cole's Artful Life blog and reading about her new book ('The artistic Mother: a practical guide for fitting creativity into your life' and definitely on my Amazon wish list**). She tells how it came about. Hard work. Well, that's fine, I can handle that. Getting known. In Shona's case, her artwork published in Stampington magazines, where an editor 'spotted' her and the rest is history.

A-ha, a eureka moment! If there are any editors out there (fiction or non-fiction, I'm not fussed) who would like to discuss a few book proposals, please note that I am in the market for just such a discussion. Just leave a comment below and I'll be in touch! Many thanks :) I shall also be submitting to Stampington Magazines on a regular basis... cause if you don't try...

And maybe, I could try writing to a few myself... now how's that for a novelty?

* If you're quick, you can vote for the good doctor in the best blogging doctor awards (or something like that!). He's very good, properly qualified (as far as I know!) whilst also being creative, AND, it's OK - you can read his writing... he types it. Closing date for voting this Sunday.

** If you're quick (but you don't need to be as quick as the quick above), you can win a copy of her book by visiting Shona's blog and writing about her book on your own.

The simple things

I'm sitting in a green haze. Yup, my kitchen has been decorated (by Gary from Nuneaton) and the wintry light filtering in through the windows seems to be giving it a slightly illuminous quality - one which I'm not quite sure I intended.

I would love to sit and blog all day today, but I have work to do so must leave you to find your reading matter elsewhere (but do come back soon!).

My breakfast blog run this morning though did take me to Theme Thursday where they ask for 'flowers'. How we in the Northern hemisphere long for Spring. There's an icing sugar dusting of snow outside which is scaring off all the bulbs - hardly a shoot shows through so far. The birds have stopped singing in disgust, in fact I saw a queue of them outside the travel agent this morning clutching African safari brochures.

As my yearnings turn to spring, I could have posted a picture of a tulip (my favourite flower and easy to spell) but was drawn instead by the rich hues of this chrysanthamum, a digital manipulation of a photograph I took last Autumn.

And while we're on the subject of flowers, it being Valentine's Day and that this weekend... Tulips... my favourite... I'm also quite fond of daffs... (He checks this blog often readers....)