And That's a Wrap {updated with announcement}

Hello Friends!

Well, ICAD is over for another year and these are the final cards that round it all up once more.

Editing to say that apparently the tangle in the centre of this doodle is totally original and I may have created a new Tangle!!! I now have to look into this and possibly get it authenticated and registered as such.  How exciting is this?!

Heartfelt thanks to all of you for your kind support, comments and encouragement.

Until next time

Stay well stay safe

Debbie 

Dodged A Bullet

 Hello Friends

Well it looks like I dodged a bullet.  There was a family gathering for my Godmother/cousin whose 90th birthday was earlier in the month.  Family came from far and wide, including America and Taiwan, for the celebrations.  I am not at my best these days and do not feel up to socialising, especially evening parties, so I gave my apologies and ducked out.  Am I glad I did?!  Two of the party brought more than birthday wishes and presents with them and now most of those present have gone down with Covid.  I know it's here to stay but with my health as it is, it is the last thing I want to have to deal with.  

My hwyl, as we call it in Wales {mojo or energy} is non existent.  Consequently, my arty stuff is bordering on non existent as I am uninspired by the provided prompts and lacking in imagination to come up with anything myself.  However I did manage the following.

This first one was playing with a new tin of Faber Castell Graphite pencils.  They are a joy to use.

Now the random ones that just happened

These bring me up to 49 out of 61 {so I am about a week behind as I should be up to 56 out of 61 or thereabouts}  I will do my best to finish but will not lose any sleep if I don't.

I think I can now claim official Nerd status, and add another notch to the Belt of Eccentricity.  I could not sleep and ended up on YouTube watching videos of how to sharpen pencils.  These are not my pencils but photos I snagged of what can be achieved.

Now these are what I call points!!!

I can only aspire to such sharp pointedness!

In the meantime, there are the Olympic Games from Paris to entertain and amaze. 

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well

Debbie

Running Out of Steam . . .

Hello Friends!

I am running out of steam on the Index Card A Day but am pushing through.   I have decided that rather than aim for the 61 cards, this year I'm just going to use up the pack which means, as I already took a few cards out for a different purpose, I will have somewhere in the region of 80 small pieces of art.

Here's what I did this week.  Only one is on prompt, that is the seashell.

The following are all variations on a theme using a different medium for each card

Inktense

Graphitint paint

Neocolour II

Polychromos

Watercolour pencil

Graphite

Until next time

Stay safe, stay well

Debbie x

Do You Spuddle?

Hello Friends

Do you Spuddle?  I recently came across this 17th century verb which amused me.  In a nutshell, it means to work feebly or ineffectively.  It can also be used to describe someone who is extremely busy but achieves nothing, or someone who is distracted or not fully awake.  This sounds familiar. I am most definitely a spuddler.

At the time of writing, it is approaching mid-July and I have had to put the heating on.  I snuggle under a quilt of an evening and have even contemplated a hot water bottle.  I am not alone in this as the declarations of dealing with the unseasonably chilly weather pop up all over my social media feeds.

We have a new Labour government and a new Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer.  All I can say is he and his new cabinet have hit the ground running.  I did not envy him his first few days in office as following on from six weeks of hard campaigning and a sleepless night as the Election results were declared, the following morning he had an audience with King Charles to become the 58th Prime Minister, followed by a whirlwind tour of the four home nations, appointed his new Cabinet and held the first of many cabinet meetings before being whisked off to Washington D.C. to the NATO Summit.  He returns to the UK only to sprint off to Germany to see the historic UEFA European Cup final between England and Spain on Sunday evening.  How much sleep is he getting?!

We also have a new Member of Parliament for this constituency.  One of many newly elected MP's, he looks very young and I wish him well in the hopes he serves this constituency to the best of his ability. It is one of the newly formed, re-boundaried constituencies.  

Of course, one wonders what Larry makes of all the comings and goings at Number 10.

The Summer of Sport continues.  I've lost track of it all.  Various tennis tournaments including Roland Garros, Bournemouth, and Wimbledon; the UEFA  {mens} Cup; UEFA {womens} Cup Qualifiers; Royal Ascot; the Tour de France; cricket,; rugby and more in the run up to the Paris Olympics in a couple of weeks. Phew! I'm exhausted just thinking about it all.

Good Luck England!

For those of you who follow India Rose Crawford and Frog, there is a new video coming out.  Here is the trailer Frog.  I hope the link works, and all I can say is we need more like Frog in our world today.  You can follow the adventures of this wee, gentle creature on Instagram and Facebook.  Well worth it!

These days, I am overwhelmed with lethargy and apathy.  I have only done two index cards now in just over a week.  

and as I uploaded those, so I discover Google has made changes to Blogger again.  Sigh.

by the way, the butterfly birthday card was very well liked by the recipient.

Until next time
Stay safe, stay well

Debbie

A Big Birthday

Hello Friends!

What do you get for a relative who is celebrating a BIG birthday and who has everything?  I have puzzled for weeks and then I finally settled on sponsoring a donkey for her at the Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth, Devon.  So, FELICITY has been adopted.  The paperwork arrived earlier than anticipated and has been very gratefully received and declared a thoughtful and original gift.  My relative is happy, I am happy, and the Donkey Sanctuary is happy.

I always make a handmade greeting card but wanted to make something really special for this year so this is what I created using various butterfly dies cut in many different types of paper and card.  I took a photo mount frame and covered the aperture with a pretty butterfly print vellum before covering with the butterflies.  It is an A4 and I've crafted the back so that it can be framed if she wishes to do so once her birthday cards are taken down.

Last time I finished with this WiP index card

which went on to become this one

Sepia

Parfait

off prompt

Pixel

Random bonus card

Castel watercolour pencils

The Summer of Sport continues to delight and here in the UK we step into a Brave New World with a new government which has come into power after fourteen long years of Tory discontent.  Time will tell if we are in a safe pair of hands or not.

I have been otherwise occupied this week so am a wee bit behind with ICAD.

Until next time

Stay safe and stay well

Debbie 

This and That.

Hello Friends!

I'm trying to do what I can in Bloggland, but unfortunately some of you have got those irritating and  highly frustrating images as security {you know the ones where you must pick all the squares with cars/bikes/steps or whatever in them} and with Parkinson's it's virtually impossible to pass the test.  So, I'm reading but cannot comment.  It is a never ending journey of discovery with Parkinson's, finding out things so many of us take for granted then one day, little by little, we are no longer able to do them. Typing is a nightmare as keys often get pressed two or three times.  The dictaphone is not perfect, it has a mind of its own, but between the two I am adapting and managing at the moment.

In a short while, I shall be off to the post box on the corner with my Postal Ballot.  A week from today we will know who our Prime Minister and government will be for the next few years.  We have a new boundary for our constituency this time.   There are eight candidates, some of them look as if they are just out of kindergarten, while others look as if they are after something to occupy them in their retirement!

With Wimbledon beginning on Monday, there is something to look forward to for a fortnight.  I do hope Andy Murray will make an appearance in the Men's Singles draw, and/or with his brother Jamie in the Men's Doubles.

I look forward to the Paris Olympic Games too, and after this morning's announcement that Fred Sirieix is joining the BBC commentating team, my interest to view is even greater.  I am not sure why they feel he is qualified to commentate on sports, but he will be eye candy and a delight to listen to!  His daughter is apparently a diver on Team GB.  I do enjoy the opening ceremonies of Olympic Games, I wonder what delights Paris will bring forth?

I have recently been indulging in The Traitors US. If you like that sort of thing. It is utterly compelling viewing. It's worth it just to see the outfits that he host Alan Cumming wears, although I must admit I do rather like the outfits, Claudia Winkleman wears when she presents the British version. I'm not altogether sure though why our former speaker of the House of Commons John Bercow was on there? However, I did think he was rather good and got voted out rather undeservedly.

Meanwhile, ICAD continues.  Again, in no particular order

off prompt, waterproof pencils and ink

Off Prompt ink and Chromaflow 

"Fold"  ink and Chromaflow

"Steampunk" ink and Chromaflow

Steampunk bonus card  Ink and Graphite

Finally, this is still a work in progress. I'm trying out a new technique based on subtractive drawing. I scribbled graphite pencil all over the card Then I smudged it using a paper stump or tortillon. Using a circular stencil, I created the pattern by erasing the graphite using a fine pointed eraser. We shall see what happens to it next time. If my most recent selection of cards is anything to go by, it will undoubtedly have a steampunk bent to it.

Until next time.

Stay safe stay well.

Debbie.

First It Was The Post Office . . .

Hello friends!

It's not strictly true to say first it was the Post Office. In the interests of accuracy, first, it was actually HSBC Bank. What am I talking about? Rural closures. They seem to be the scourge of the 21st century.

I will never forget the day HSBC closed it's doors.  The small city where I live has a population that varies between 1500 and 1800 people. in recent years, mainly due to the deluge of second home ownership and holiday homes we have been nearer the 1500.  However, in the Silly Season {tourism} our population swells to well up in the thousands daily.   

Growing up, there was always a full complement of services. Several small independent grocery shops. A Post Office. Two bakeries.  A butcher. A chemist. Two newsagents. Three banks. A doctor. A dentist. Two junior schools. A Grammar school. So on, and so forth you get the gist. The day HSBC closed its doors heralded the beginning of the end.

One Christmas Eve, I was coming home along the bottom of the Cross Square and outside HSBC was a trailer full of the office furniture and final bits and bobs being removed upon the closure of the bank. I think the saddest thing of all was that sitting on top of everything was the Christmas tree replete with lights and decorations. It seemed a foreboding symbol of what was to come.  

A few years earlier due to a fire burning down one of the buildings, the two junior schools had amalgamated. But no one saw that as foreboding to the diminishing services in the community. that was to come.  It was something that happened and common sense seemed to say that the two schools would be better merged into one.

Time passed. Shopping habits seem to change as supermarkets established themselves. slowly the daily shop was replaced by the weekly shop, and one by one as the owners of the independent grocery shops retired so their shop doors closed for the very last time. Then one day it was announced that Barclays Bank was closing and overnight, we had gone from three banks to one bank. Not very long after that, our Post Office closed. We now have a part time counter that isn't even owned by the post office. It is owned by a local chain of shops where money comes before customer service. Then towards the end of last year, our last remaining bank closed in the village.  Our nearest banks and post office are now a 17 mile drive away, Or approximately one hour in each direction by bus.  For good measure, the bus services have been cut as well. So you can no longer catch a bus in, nip round and do your shopping quickly and get the next bus back. Now you have to stay in town for at least an hour, sometimes longer.  A trip to the bank can take half a day.  And only then if your bank still has a branch in Haverfordwest, which most don't so the nearest is some 55 miles away in Carmarthen.  So, a full day out!

Just as we start to wonder how on Earth we're going to cope comes the sledgehammer news that our local GP practise is closing at the end of October this year. There have been protests aplenty. There have been meetings of the community. There has been a protest march. And all of these events have been attended by hundreds of people. The GP practise doesn't only serve the village, it serves much of the peninsula, several thousand patients.  One of two things will happen.  Either the Health Board will step in and take it over, or we will all be dispersed to neighbouring practices up to 20 miles away.  

To visit my new GP, I could be faced with a 3/4 mile walk to the bus stop, up to an hour-long bus ride, another walk on arrival, and up to four hours to wait for a return bus home.  Alternatively, I could pay out around £150 for a taxi.  It does not bear thinking about.

So, moving swiftly on . . . let's pick up on my ICAD art again.

Off Prompt Gel Pens

Ranunculas Mixed Media

Alternating.  Gel Pen

A

Beach {off prompt} Ink

Gold Mixed Media

Crystal Metalic Paint

Tulips  mixed  media

Hummingbird  Gansai Tambi metallic paint

I have never seen a hummingbird, much less draw one, so found online some royalty free images to create a best guess composite.

Until next time

Stay safe stay well

Debbie xx