A big hole and saving water

As some of you will know, Mr W is very much into household projects. If he's not setting up a camera or an alarm system, it'll be something for the garden.

Actually, the other week I went into the porch and this woman started shouting, "Intruder detected! Householder has been notified!" or something like that! I got the shock of my life. And she didn't stop either. It went on and on. A quick e-mail to Mr W and he said to press the button on my new keyring (that I hadn't even known I had). Eventually, the woman stopped shouting.

Anyway, back to the garden... With the current hosepipe ban and having a lot of plants to water, Mr W decided to invest in a huge container to save the rain water, so we could still use the hose. He's been digging the hole for a few weeks. Not continuously of course, just when he gets a spare couple of hours.

You can't really tell how deep the hole is, but it's nearly 6 foot.

And here's the container in place. We had oh so much fun putting this in and pulling it out again when it got wedged halfway and more dirt had to be dug out.

Anyway, it's filling up nicely with all the rain we're having again. We just need to concrete over the top to extend the step from the side alleyway and fit in some sort of pump.

I have to say, although I sometimes raise my eyes at Mr W's little projects, they always do have a use! I like this one simply as we're saving so much water and that can only be a good thing.

Folksy ATC Swap

Dottery Pottery over at fabulous handmade site Folksy, organised an ATC swap recently. ATC stands for Artist Trading Cards. These are the same as ACEOs but you swap rather than sell them.

My swap partner was Janice from Wellydog Gallery, which I was delighted about. Her paintings are just beautiful. Here's the ATC Janice painted for me:



This is exactly the sort of scene I would choose if someone asked me what I would like them to paint. There's something about trees and water that I just love. In fact, many of my photos are of trees and water! This is a gorgeous miniature work of art. I particularly love the sand; I'm not sure why exactly!

ATCs and ACEOs can me made in any medium and I've made a few ACEOs now in polymer clay, as was this ATC too.

Apart from knowing what to make it out of, I really wasn't sure what to do at first, but I had a read of Janice's blog and discovered that she mentioned two things I could work on - Eau de Nile - a lovely green/turquoise colour and Art Deco. So I started making an abstract Art Deco design using the green/turquoise as a background.

However, when it was nearly finished, I turned it upside-down and thought it looked quite like an ice-cream... and it turns out this is something Janice enjoys making! So, there we have it - an 'Eau de Nile Art Deco Ice-Cream' ATC!




I'm not sure if there's going to be a gallery of all the swaps. If there is, I'll come back and post the link.

Fun swap, thanks Janice and thanks Dottery Pottery for organising it.

Time Flies

I am trying to work out how it's been nearly 2 months since my last post. I was going to apologise for not posting anything for a month, then I discover it's actually been two... How time goes this quickly I have no idea! Anyway, a few pics of what I've been up to then...

This is Little W on the pier at Southend. Obviously fascinated by the cracks and the water beneath!







For those not familiar with British seaside places, Southend has the longest pleasure pier in the world. The original pier I think was built in about 1830. It now goes out for nearly a mile and a half. Thankfully, there's a train to take you to the end or back again if you don't think you can make it!

Other happenings:

• I'm expecting baby number two! It's due in April, on my parents' wedding anniversary, which is lovely, although the chances of baby arriving on time are probably fairly slim.


• The porch and front garden are pretty much finished, at last.
  
• I've been making some progress on my crafty bits. I've nearly finished making a Christmas house out of polymer clay. You know the sort, they sell them in gift catalogues and look very festive and traditional, but are a little on the expensive side. So I thought I'd have a go at making one myself.
  
• The Fimo fairies and elves are coming along. They just need heads at the moment. I'm planning to use them to make an enchanted wood scene which I can photograph. We'll see how it turns out. It's a bit of an experiment, but something I've wanted to do for about 15 years!
  
• Other clay stuff I'm making are magnets. I'm using the millefiori canes I've already made and I want to make some Christmas ones too.


• Then there's the Folksy Christmas ornament swap I need to get thinking about (organised by Lisa of NoodleBubble), plus sending in some bits for the UK Handmade sample box.

Phew! That's enough for me to be getting on with I think! I'm off to read everybody's posts now. It's been far too long.