And in the Meantime...

The highlight of our week last week was obviously Jacob's graduation but meanwhile life seems to hurtle by at quite a pace and I seem to lurch from one thing to another without actually finishing anything very much and barely having time to catch my breath.

• I finally summoned the courage to cut into the wool for my coat. It had to be done, after all a length of wool fabric wasn't going to be much use to me. I've even sewn most of it together and have really only got finishing details to do when I find a spare half hour. It fits but I'm a little concerned it looks more like a dressing gown than a coat but perhaps I should reserve judgement until I've actually finished it.

•  I've had another day out painting with my Mum at a class at Art Van Go with Heather Miller. It was a lovely day and Heather was a patient and encouraging teacher. We all started with the same source photo of trees but everyone managed to produce something different. I quite liked mine but Mum painted over hers.
• When I came back I resolved to paint some more at home instead of only ever doing it in classes. I got all the paints out and did actually finish off another painting. But the paints and brushes are still all set out at the end of the kitchen table where they have been all week.... untouched!

• I then had another day out working in sketchbooks in collage with Cambridge based artist Karen Stamper, whose work I really love. The idea was to encourage me to work more into sketchbooks. I finished the page above and cut out some magazine pages... they are all still piled up on my desk waiting for me to find time to sort them out and use them.

• I'm almost at the end of term for my machine embroidery classes. We've covered a variety of projects since September including making lampshades. Mostly I don't use the samples I make for class and they end up cluttering my studio but this time I made a matching pair of lampshades and they are now taking pride of place in the bedroom. It's good to know I finish some things!

• I actually finished a cushion too... a rag rug cushion! I taught a day of rag rug making on Saturday where we made wreaths for Christmas but I thought it would be good to make some samples of other things too. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with this except keep it out of the way of the dog. He's rather partial to ragged bits of fabric!
• I've had an evening out celebrating a friend's birthday at a pottery glazing party. I've made a platter for Christmas but won't get to see the finished result until next week. It was surprisingly good fun.
• I've had three birthday cakes to make this week, two of them still to finish tomorrow but these will be the last cakes I make to order... more about that in another post.

• I've had a lovely long chat to son no. 3 Joe who has been away travelling for nearly three months now. It was great to speak to him and hear all about some of the wonderful places he has been already. And despite travelling alone he's already made new friends.

He's been to Cuba, Mexico, Belize and Guatamala. He's climbed a volcano and camped overnight near the crater.

He has swum in beautiful lakes

and attended Spanish school in Guatamala whilst staying with a local family. Of course he has done so much more too.

I could quite fancy escaping from everything going on here and spending an evening or two by that lake but then I really wouldn't finish anything.