Art Deco in Miami Beach

Richard and I enjoyed our week in Florida. Before visiting Orlando we spent a couple of days in Miami, where he had business. I was really impressed by it, and loved Miami Beach. The Art Deco district has 800 buildings in Art Deco style. Built in the 1930s and 40s ,they were originally plain white, however in the 1980s, designer Leonard Horowitz created the "Deco dazzle" by painting them in a rainbow of bright colours.

City and Guilds Certificate

I am pleased to report that I have passed my City and Guilds Certificate in Embroidery and Stitched Textiles, Level 3! I also received the certificate in the post. Now I have a piece of paper to show for all the hard work of the past two years.
I am going to put away all my C & G work, and I hope I can organise it, so I can find things when I need them. However the arrival of two knitting machines plus all their accompanying paraphenalia has filled up the room, so makes it more difficult to navigate and also to find things! The knitting machines were a gift from a neighbour, who is moving to a smaller house and knows I like textiles. I have never used one before, so look forward to playing with them. Watch this space for news .
Relieved and pleased to have finished the Certificate, I have signed up for Shelagh Folgate's on-line course , called THE SMASHEES. Shelagh is a C&G tutor, and the course is going to be fun projects using the techniques studied in C &G, and I am looking forward to it.
I am continuing with my art classes at the local adult education centre, one class in painting and drawing, the other in art journaling and mixed media.


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Autumn at Harcourt Arboretum

In search of some Autumn colour, I dragged Richard and Guy off to Harcourt Arboretum. I needed to gather some leaves for this week's art class and wanted to take some photos. A few days earlier I had been bemoaning a distinct lack of colour, but we got it just right. The colours were amazing. The acers, as always stole the show, their vibrancy is unbelievable, but the other trees set them off beautifully. Most of the photos I took were of the acers and the Arboretum has a great variety on its Acer Walk. The day was dark and dismal, and extremely wet, not helped by the clocks going back and being conscious that darkness would fall earlier, but when we arrived the rain stopped and we enjoyed a bright spell.








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