For over a year I have been occupied with a business venture which has failed to fly. The time has come to make decisions, extremely painful decisions.I am having to put it to sleep. The knock on effect  has resulted in huge personal upheavals in my family's lives.At least three of us will be moving.. Paul and I are downsizing in a big way ( that sounds like an oxymoron). But we have plans to shed much of what we own and fill our five bedroomed home with, to move into a 12' by 37' static caravan

This is no easy task especially as I own an extraordinary amount of art and craft equipment/materials. But having been through the initial deeply upsetting time of coming to terms with what must be done for our survival we are now looking forward to coming out the other side. Living in the caravan will go a long way to our long held desire to live a simpler more sustainable lifestyle. Lower fuel consumption generally will be assisted by our fitting a small wood burning stove to make the most of beach combing and skip diving. We will live no further from the coast than before: within five minutes we can be walking in the dunes looking across to Liverpool t othe right and Wales to the left..

We have been given the chance to start again, to radically change our lives in a way we may never have done without the shove that life has given us.. Due to personalities, dynamics and other factors it is my life that will change the most-for the better I hasten to add. I look forward to being settled in, no longer burdened by the responsibilities of a large property, but free physically and emotionally to be more creative and in tune with myself.

Being Positive

I am a great believer in positive thinking, but last year tried my 'positivity' to it's limits. I have become the embryo of a grumpy old woman and I don't like it one bit.

I'm all for a bit of a wallow in self pity now and then , a good old moan, or a fit of bad tempered rage against 'whatever'. These can serve to set yourself up back to positive thinking if short lived and exhaust any extremes of emotions you may have. The danger is when any one of these continues unchallenged or one follows the other in succession, your mindset changing from temporary negativity to a more permanent state.

So, I am making a public declaration of a war on negative attitudes and thoughts and a determined effort to resume a generally optimistic outlook.

First Migraine of the Year

I woke this morning with a migraine, but this was hardly surprising as I had been woken after four hours sleep to pick up my daughter from work (no transport). But in fact my migraines have been a bit better of late with an improvement from the 1 in 2 days usual count. I am going to keep a tally again to see this new pattern as they appear to be episodic rather than random or just a response to known triggers.

I'm wondering if my discovering a sensitivity to gluten and consequent avoidance has led also to the improvement in the number and severity of my attacks? Time will tell.

Wallasey in the snow before Christmas

Not a Very Bloggy Year

Like so many other good intentions this blog fell at the wayside. uncared for and abandoned to it's fate in some small dark corner labeled 'things to do'.

On the positive side I;

• Got my website up and running including a 'shop' and it even had a revamp
• http://www.brendasharp.co.uk/
• Redecorated the front room and was installed into my new 'studio'.
• Chose, had printed, then mounted/framed a selection of prints to sell.
• Made a collection of handmade books including a limited edition mini version of 'Jim's Yard'.
• Exhibited at the Williamson's Spring Open.
• Was part of the collective that exhibited and sold through our very own contribution to The Liverpool Independents Biennial - The Six Rooms Gallery.
• Put a selection of my work in the art and craft shop at Carr Farm.
• Sold both prints and books at Art in the Park, LOACA's Contemporary Craft Fairs, St Georges Hall Winter Crafts Fair and at other venues.
• Enjoyed the fruits of Paul and my labour from the allotment

On the far less positive side I;

• Have never had an enquiry or sale via the web site.
• Abandoned decorating the hall, stairs and landing halfway through and it has remained that way for over six months.
• Had great deal of outlay we could scarcely afford (financially, emotionally, and in time) for little or no return for most ventures.
• Have a great deal of work to do on the allotment to keep the site secretary off our backs (cultivating and mending sheds).

So assuming I put it all down to experience and choose to believe all those who got me through the year by believing in me and my work what do I do in 2011?

In the Garden

How fantastic it has been to be able to work outside in the garden. I have taken advantage of the glorious sunshine to sit out and work on my books; mundane folding and stitching requiring little equipment and enabling me to drift off into reverie. Within a few feet amid a tangle of rambling rose is a Blackbird's nest and as I am invisible to the pair of them I have been entertained by their song. Fortunately most of my neighbours must have broken arms as for once there isn't anyone in the middle of a mammoth DIY project. Bloke next door retired early and is ALWAYS doing something, but he was working around the front of the house at something quiet for once.

I love my little garden but so wish it had the sun till it set. As it is the last rays hit the back corner at 6pm. But now we have the allotment there is the option of going there for the last of the sun. We were there the other night watering, digging and planting till the plot was in shadow and it was near sunset.

How Long?

How can it possibly be so long since I posted? I probably shouldn't have started two blogs. I thought at the time I would keep one more 'professional' and let it be a showcase for my work and the other a platform for whim and fancy to dictate what I wrote. Looks like I made a mistake.

I have been working towards building up a good selection of framed prints, mounted prints and other bits and bobs to (hopefully) sell Friday 14th May between 6pm and 9pm at Liverpool's Bluecoat Arts Centre.There will be many stalls selling lots of lovely contemporary art and craft in the courtyard, part of Light Night in Liverpool when many galleries and other venues will be open till late evening. I will be there again 29th May for LOACA ART'S regular monthly Contemporary Craft and Art Fair.

It has taken longer than expected to get enough stock together as I recently took up a space at a new art and craft outlet in old farm cottages, part of Carr Farm Garden Centre, Meols CH47 9RE.



All the framed prints I had went there and I have been very busy preparing more items to have there for sale as well as the Bluecoat. To compliment the prints I am making books with my images on the covers, and some very cute hessian block canvasses with my Maguerites on them (only 10cm x10cm). The dratted printer has been testing my patience to the max. It's preferred modus operandi is to accessorise any print with jazzy yellow lines all over it. It takes great cunning and stealth to outwit it and get decent prints for my book covers.

Am also waiting on tenterhooks for several parcels, one of which has been a no show and the other a re-order from a second company when the first let me down. It is getting awfully close to the wire I just wish I had everything finished and ready to go.

6mm Jam Tarts

I spent a good few hours last week making a Christening cake for a great nephew on my husband's side, Jayden Liam. It was a work of love and I thoroughly enjoyed almost all of it(there always has to be a small drama doesn't there?). I actually baked the cake at the home of J a good friend of mine . My poor old cooker is going a bit senile and sometimes doesn't remember what is expected of it when we turn the knob to gas mark 5, 6 or whatever. Mealtimes have to be unhurried if you want things to be cooked through to the centre or browned on top. J has a spiffy double oven aga type affair and a dedicated cake room! So instead of suffering the indignities of being squashed into my sad old cooker the cakes were each given their own dedicated space and were cooked to perfection .



J also lent me a good deal of her equipment to make my life a lot easier. I do have some cake decorating bits and bobs but nothing like this cornucopia of kit. Having a set of miniature circle cutters to use was a huge step up from searching the house for just the right diameter toothpaste lid/pen cap to cut out 'jam tarts' for the teddy bear's picnic I was creating.




These miniature items of food were the most fun to make, tiny 'honey' sandwiches, jam tarts and an iced Victoria sandwich cake. So very cute! I was also pleased with the small glasses of cola, although another time I would tint the glass green/black rather than blue/black.




I had been taking inspiration for the bears from a cake decorating book. But no matter how many times I tried they never looked quite like the one in the book. I still have no idea which proportions I was not getting right. In the end I abandoned the book and went my own way and was happy with the end result of my hybrid bear. The bears had been another source of head scratching. After a long time of experimenting I was still far away from mixing a lovely honey colour sugar paste for the bears. I pushed on and finally got close, or as close as I was going to and started to model the first bear. The next day I nipped out to buy a couple of further supplies and there staring me in the face was a pack of ready mixed fondant in 'Teddy Bear Brown'!!!!!!

The cake was very well received and despite my intolerance to citrus I had to taste a slice as the (inner) cake it's self got rave reviews (thanks J for the recipe-a delicate lemon sponge with one fill lemon butter cream and the second raspberry jam, with a lemon syrup brushed over the outer surfaced, scrummy-yummy ). The migraine was worth it.

Getting Going

Well I'm not sure what's done it, but I seem to be coming out of my torpor. I might have put it down to S.A.D. and the fact that the days are lengthening. But that wouldn't account for the fact that I was practically dormant in August last year. Who knows if my attempts at self hypnosis did work, or my sporadic intake of multivits and B complex have kicked in (not forgetting the special Menopause mix!), don't care, just glad I am actually getting stuff done.

After being accepted to sell at LOACA ART, Craft and Art Fairs at the Bluecoat I have been working on making books. Although I will be selling my photography I am allowed to sell my handmade books if they have one of my images on them or in them. LOACA also arrange fairs at other venues and there is a chance I may be able to sell at Leaf Tea Room in the near future. If this was the case it would be the books, so I am making a stockpile just in case. Anyway I intend to try and sell on Etsy or Folksy( I just love the many fabulous things on Etsy) . I joined Etsy many moons ago and never got round to selling - surprise, surprise.

I have even got off my posterior and started taking a salsa class.Two classes so far. with the undivided attention of Gillian the teacher as no one else has turned up for this new class. A bargain at only £3.50 a time. In the past I have always gone to either adult tap or some other dance class and I have missed it, although not as much a my belly has!

Tomorrow I will photograph the fruits of my labours and put them up on my other blog and who knows maybe up on Etsy too.

Niche Market

You know how it is, you are a bit bored and sitting next to a computer and one thing leads to another. Well Paul and I were just musing and Googling and we found a niche market just waiting to be exploited. There seems to be a huge hole in the birthday experiences market, You can go up in a helicopter, drive a Ferrari, have a pole dancing lesson. There are pampering days and whale watching in Cornwall. But no one is providing a Lesbian Birthday Experience. Odd really.

Networking

It was with some trepidation I made my first foray into the bowels of Home cafe in Oxton Village to attend a networking 'coffee morning'. I had realised that my almost complete creative isolation was far from ideal. With uni far behind me I no longer got to see the work of others being created or had the chance to chat informally about my own work. I even missed the critique sessions I had so dreaded when I had to do them. I had signed up for several art news letters online and plenty of opportunities for meeting other like minded folk were out there, but so many of them seemed intimidating. I wasn't overjoyed at the thought of walking in alone to some of the rather 'nice' venues in Liverpool city centre, unsure of what exactly happened at a networking event and loathing having to make small talk for no other reason than making small talk. I couldn't tell you what made me decide to brave the unknown and make my way one morning to a meeting of With These Hands, described as: networking events for Wirral visual creatives. Maybe it was the fact it was a cafe I at least knew from the exterior and that it was for coffee in the basement rather than the event I saw advertised that met in a smart bar starting with a cocktail. I usually drink water, how cool would I have looked whilst all around me held colourful concoctions (alcoholic or not) whilst networking their bottoms off?

At that first meeting I was given a warm welcome and immediately discovered interesting snippets of useful information and began to get to know my fellow networkees. It obviously wasn't the ordeal I dreaded as I have since attended another 'coffee morning' and tonight met up with an ever changing group of creatives in a pub and had a bite to eat after Alison Bailey Smith, who organises the group, recited Address to a Haggis in honour of it being Burns night.

So what am I saying? In the first instance, just going along to an event for 'creatives' helps me with my identity as artist rather than unemployed or housewife. Secondly networking does work, I have met interesting people who give me an insight into a diverse number of disciplines and how that pans out in real life, some still struggling like me to make any money or get recognition, others making a living , whilst still more somewhere in between. I also have heard of opportunities that would have passed me by had I not been in attendance - having a photograph in the Editions Christmas Exhibition for one. If like me you are wary of going along to a networking event, just do it. Take along some cards to give out and have somewhere to put all the cards you will get in return and good luck!