Cobwebs and empty nests

I don't know what bit me, but whatever it was, it gave me blog amnesia and I forgot about this place. Some thorough housework is required to get this in working order again. I also need to drum up some new ideas because my Brood are old enough to be embarrassed by their mother's talk of them and my jewellery making is burning away at the back like a merry thing. I will be back. With luck!

The last of summer?

Summer is over and last night saw me shed a tear as I cleaned two pairs of school shoes rather than three for Tom is at college now and no longer under the school uniform cosh. The last time I cleaned just two pairs was before Lula started school and suddenly the tears welled. And so time moves on and childrens' cherubic, kissable limbs lengthen into teenage sinewy elegance.

The guilty parent!

The school summer holidays roll on & tumbleweed blows around my blog. I've been doing that 'being busy but seemingly achieving nothing' thang that parents know oh so well.

Ellie has begun to ask me for memories of the Brood as babies & toddlers, but I haven't yet dared to confess that so much time passed in a blur of nappies, feeds, washing machine loads, post-natal depression and then full blown bipolar, that my recollections are faulty & a little blurred around the edges. This feels me with guilt - it's as though the absence of memory represents a form of neglect! After all, wasn't it my intention to be a fabulous parent and to bring something fresh & vibrant to this child-rearing lark? I was going to do things differently - why I even had delusions of perfection! Well ha ha, the joke's on me - the grind got to me and I am instead a faulty, guilt-ridden parent. But they're loved, adored & cherished and I feel ever so certain that they know this even in their bones.

Of course the idea of being a perfect parent is a mirage - the only thing you can realistically hope for is to be, what John Cleese & Robin Skynner described in their excellent book, 'Families and How to Survive Them' 'a good enough parent'. So as this imperfect parent didn't manage to keep her baby books & photo albums in pristine, lucid order, the wannabe good-enough parent is going to trawl through her diaries, journals and notebooks in order to find the notes & scribbles she dashed off about her Brood.


A six month old Tom in diapers & dungarees - scribbles dashed off in between his cries and mine!

I thank Lord Dodo of Dodo Towers for his gift to the busy family of the splendid five column Dodo diary - without the help he's given us during these past years I wouldn't be able to rummage through old diaries and find the landmark dates that Ellie wants me to remember. Ah yes, Ellie's first steps. Wow, I actually remember that day!

The older you get, the more fabulous you can become!

I ♥ the Advanced Style blog which features, amongst others, the fabulous designer & artist Debra Rapoport. As a die-hard fan of hats and wannabe adherent of the rule that 'more is not enough', her lavish sense of style fills me with rapture. Watch out Brood because the older I get, the more exotic plummage I intend to adopt. As the ladies & gentlemen featured in Advanced Style prove, the older you get, the more fabulous you can become. Beauty is most definitely not the preserve of the young!

I was feeling glum, raddled & gloomy until I watched Debra's videos on YouTube. Allow me to share a few of my favourites with you...

Juicy fodder for nourishing your creative juices!

Thank to Ricë Freeman-Zachery's podcasts, I'm learning more about Carla Sonheim whom I mentioned in an earlier blog post. I love hearing about people's experience of the ongoing process of learning to draw, especially when I discover that it's not something they've been practising since birth! For someone like me who became infected with a love of drawing in her middle years, Carla's ability to polish up your confidence is empowering so I beg you to listen to Ricë's interview with Carla.

Whilst you're there, check out the other fascinating podcasts available at 'Notes from the Voodoo Lounge'! Artists from a variety of disciplines such as Roz Stendahl, Wendy Hale Davis, Michael DeMeng, Melanie Testa, Diana Trout, Bernie Berlin, Pamela McCarville, Richard Salley & Ricë herself talk about their artistic careers & challenges, all the time offering us nuggets of inspiration to contemplate.

Now, have you bought Carla's book yet? I also have two more books for you to check out when you're next visiting your chosen book store? Ricë's books are the perfect fodder to nourish your creative juices with - go & squeeze them out!

Happy 1st Birthday Gussie!

Gussie (on the right) has gone from this...

to this...

to this!

Happy First Birthday Gussie!

Shedding tears

For the first time today, I used Google Earth to access some of the masterpieces housed in the Prado in Madrid. Looking at the 'Descent from the Cross' by Rogier van der Weyden in such close and staggering detail moved me beyond words. The stricken face of the swooning Madonna is a harrowing portrait of maternal grief. She's on my computer screen in miraculous close-up - I can see how van der Weyden painted the tears with shadows & highlights, yet on the other hand I can't. My brain simply won't accept that something this raw is artifice. Oh, the extraordinary power of art!

If you would like to venture into the Prado for yourself, this link will show you the way.