do something unusual weekly to fuel my creativity

Its time to start on the Christmas cards…..., glitter and glue under my nails, gold pen smudged in to the kitchen table, little stands of cut off card all over the floor….it’s great!!!

Visited Dublinia (not great) and climbed to the top of St Michael’s tower which is part of the building….Stunning views from the four windows on top, and a completely different perspective of Dublin. I could see curves in the roads, elegant redbrick buildings, chimneys and sloping roofs, spires and gables. The Pidgeonhouse chimnies winking out on the bay and the Wellington monument miles away in the park. Best of all I could see something that is not visiable usually in the city….the Dublin mountains circuling us to the west, at the time I was there the sun was just starting to go down behind them, all wintery yellow, silver and grey. Beautiful.

Visited the Knitting and Sewing show….wasn’t in great form yesterdya, and I certainly didn’t have any money to spare so nearly didn’t go. But this event is always inspirational. From the beautiful antique bobbins of the Guild of Lace Makers, to the demonstrater turning a piece of card into a miniture work of art with a stamp, a scissors and a couple of twists of his hand, there was so much to see and get ideas from. I took two leaflets only, learning from previous years where I came home with a small forests worth of paper and promptly lost them all in the house clutter. Feltmaking, and weaving, spinning and dyeing are the two I hope to try in the new year. And at the show itself, there is always something particular that catches my attention. This year it was card making, so did invest some cash in a collection of really lovely stamps and markers. If I make all my own cards this year, sure I’ll be saving money :-)

Barrow Valley Art Group exhibition. Always worth the drive to Carlow!

Visited St. Patrick’s Cathedral in Dublin. Strange place really, so full of history with St. Patrick’s well in the park, and Jonathan Swift’s grave, the ‘change your arm’ door and monuments to all the great and good of the city over the years. And yet it doesn’t sit in my affections the way Christchurch does. It was a sunny autumn day when I visited, and the light through the stained glass windows was beautiful, some of them have trees behind so the rippling effect was like being underwater and the shadows kept changing over the mouldering colours and banners, marble and stone memorials. So much to see, all the patterns in the floor tiles, ornate metalwork on the ancient radiators and the kneelers, all different and picked out in crossstitch, depicting everything from Boy Scouts to Co. Kerry, Christian quotes to pictures of squirels. Most striking were the efigies on the large tombs, rows of life-sized kneeling women with floor-length rippling hair, hands joined in prayer. Most of them missing their nose, for some reason.