One Day

I read the book last year and absolutely loved it.

It is funny, sensitive, clever and well written.

Last night we went to see the film and I was very disappointed.

It made the story seem trite and sentimental...

and Anne Gathaway's wandering Yorkshire accent was very distracting.

Usually I'm pretty open minded when I go and see a film. I realise that it is a totally different form of media than a novel and as such it works on different levels. I don't automatically assume a film won't be as good as a book and in fact I usually enjoy a good film as much as any book. But this got me thinking about other films I've seen that just didn't match up to the expectations I'd had after reading the novel.

Captain Corelli's Mandolin.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book all the way through yet the film just didn't capture it for me... even with the rather gorgeous Nicholas Cage!

The Time Traveller's Wife.

Again really enjoyed the book and found it utterly believable.

But the film didn't manage to make me suspend my disbelief and as such it just seemed silly.

But other films of novels work so well.

Girl With a Pearl Earring.

I loved the film and the book. As always a book gives more depth but the film was visually beautiful.

The English Patient

I really struggled with the book. It took me forever to read and I found the prose difficult yet I adored the film on every level - the story was captivating, it was visually stunning, the music beautiful - in fact I think it is one of my favourite films ever.

What film/novel combinations do you like/dislike?

Pink Friday

Yesterday I received this letter from Breast Cancer Care about their fundraising campaign

Pink Fridays.

In the past I have been involved in various fundraising activities for this cause and long time readers of my blog may remember this party three years ago. Do click on the link... it's worth it for the laugh.

It got me thinking (dangerous, I know!) I know several people affected by this and other forms of cancer. Two close friends have had breast cancer and survived past the five year mark which is obviously fabulous news for them. Another friend was diagnosed last year and has had an arduous year of treatment which has just finished. She now has to work on getting strong again. Yet another friend in the village has recently had surgery for the return of lung cancer (despite never having smoked) and just yesterday, the day the letter arrived, I learned of two more friends who have now have to do battle with this dreadful disease. I'm certain all of you reading will know at least one person or be personally affected by cancer.

It makes me feel angry that in this day and age we still don't seem able to prevent, diagnose or treat this dreadful disease more efficiently.  I wanted to do something... but my diary is so full for October holding a real Pink Friday event is really out of the question and I'm not sure when I could fit it in ... but then I thought I could hold a virtual Pink Friday and you could join in.

I suppose I should come clean and admit to some selfish motivation here too. You may remember my Marie Antoinette bodice. The plan was always going to be to use knitted cakes as part of the decoration but it just didn't work or look right. So plan B is to construct a huge regency style wig... made entirely from knitted cakes. But unfortunately my knitted cake production is not quite so prolific as my real cake production, so this is where you can help. If you can knit me a cake in any shade/tone of pink... any sort of cake, decorated in any way you like and send it to me by Friday 28th October, I will promise to make a donation to both Breast Cancer Care and Cancer Research UK for every single cake received.

On Friday 28th October I will have a Pink Friday Party here on my blog featuring all the cakes I receive. I will have some sort of giveaway for everyone who has taken part... party bags if you like! There will be balloons and real cake too! If you would like to join in please let me know and I can give you my address. If you need a pattern for a cupcake please email me and I can send you one. Please join in... you'll be helping me out and we'll be doing our own small bit to help fight this dreadful disease. Thank you!

www.breastcancercare.org.uk/pinkfridays

Colour Sketchbook :: 7

I took my sketchbook away on holiday.

Up until now we've been working on stencilling, printing etc using images taken from close to home but working in our chosen colour - in my case, red, ignoring the local colour. By local colour, I mean the colour that we actually see e.g. sky is blue, grass is green etc.

So on holiday I took a different approach and I concentrated on the local colour and drew what I could see that was actually red.

I had a fairly limited range of materials - some drawing pencils, some watercolour pencil crayons and a paintbrush, yet I managed to capture some of the different reds ranging from scarlet to pink to magenta that could be seen in the beautiful gardens around our hotel.

These are not particularly skilled drawings but the point is to capture the shapes and the colours as best as possible to allow for further exploration on returning home.

So if you are still working along, take time this week to look around and see what you can actually find around the garden or the house in your chosen colour. And if you really can't see anything, compose a still life to draw. Try a collection of objects such as buttons, fruit, cups... anything you like.

Remermber, don't get bogged down with producing an accurate masterpiece - just think about the colour and the shapes... and fill up the page, go over the edges, have fun!

Back Home

We've been to Italy

We've eaten pizza on beautiful terraces

overlooking little piazzas

We stayed on the shores of Lake Garda

(not in the building above!)

where we swam in the warm lake every day.

We visited Verona,

that fair city where two star-cross'd lovers took their life.

and spent the evening at the most amazing Roman amphitheatre

where we saw an outdoor performance of Verdi's Nabucco.

I've never been to the opera before - it was an amazing spectacle.

But mostly we lazed around on the lakeside reading and relaxing.

I think I may have also eaten my body weight in ice cream over the week...

Although some people managed to drink their body weight in beer...

I was impressed because I couldn't even lift the glass!

It has been a wonderful relaxing holiday.

The boys looked after everything while we were away and the house was clean and tidy.

Jacob and his girlfriend even baked us a cake for our return.

Despite the laundry mountain, the autumnal weather and the rather desperate need to diet

it is good to be home!

Taking Flight

When I had to create a postcard for Lesley in our postcard swap I referred back to my summer sketchbook from last year and knew that this butterfly image would be the perfect starting point for Lesley's theme of Taking Flight

I played with several ideas but in the end I opted for a free machined version of the butterfly drawing stitched onto a paper background.

But given both mine and Lesley's love of hand made books I didn't stop there. As I was still in the middle of potato printing for this year's sketchbook I set about printing some suitable book pages.

Which were then given an all over wash of green ink to make the concertina pages of a book containing a butterly taking flight.

A postcard book...

That managed to contain my love of printing, paper cuts, books and embroidery!

This weekend sees the final round of postcard swaps. As I'm not around at the weekend, I have already received my card from Cathy and have posted about it here, and you can see all the other cards sent and receieved by checking the Postman's Knock blog over the weekend. I really has been brilliant fun so thank you Cathy and Lesley for organising it.

As for me,  I'm taking flight for a week too and we're off to sunnier climes. The freezer is fit to bursting with pizza and oven chips, the cupboards full of tins of spaghetti hoops and baked beans so I don't think the boys will starve while I'm gone.

See you when I get back!

Colour Sketchbook :: 6

Another technique when monoprinting is to use resists. These can be anything such as torn strips of paper, cut paper shapes or one of my favourites - plant material or leaves. Ink up the plate as shown in the previous tutorial and lay your chosen resist on the surface. The red colour of these leaves led to me chosing them.

Lay a sheet of thin paper on the surface, covering the inked plate and your resist. With a clean roller, press hard all over the surface but without disturbing or moving the resist.

Carefully lift off the paper and you should have a dramatic silhouette print.

The next stage can only really be done successfullywith plant material/leaves with a distinct texture and markings - lift off the resist, re-ink the plate and lay down the resist again but this time inky side up.

Repeat the process with a sheet of paper and a clean roller and this time you should get a wonderful detailed print.

Of course by now you will have a stack of prints, some more successful than others and are probably wondering what to do with them, so I thought I would show you how some of mine have ended up in my sketchbook which I hope will give you some ideas.

This smudgy looking print from last time actually looks a lot better in the photograph (which I quite like) than in reality, where it is very indistict. Even with the addition of colour it is very murky... the photo was taken with it held up to a window and the light brightens it. On the page it looked dead and the colours didn't show at all.

So I added more colour, which made it darker still, added some bleach (there is a tutorial for this in last year's sketchbook posts) to lighten parts and finally some black pen to emphasise other areas.

The resulting image was cut and torn out and stuck in my sketchbook.

The ghost print from last time also didn't excite me very much... again it looks better in the photo than reality.

 So the addition of some colour emphasised the shapes

The print below was another where the actual print disappeared into the background making it look indistinct.

So this one was simply cut out and stuck down onto the white page which is a big improvement.

The print below is one of my favourites and has been simply enhanced with the addition of some carefully placed colour.

And this last one has been a combination of a couple of prints, both given a simple colour wash, cut out and overlaid and stuck down.

I think the point is to keep playing. Even if you don't like an image, add colour - I have used inks, water colour paints and water soluble pencils, add bleach, tear them up, cut them out, combine two or more images and stick them down... the ideas are only limited by your imagination and there is no right or wrong way of doing any of these things. Don't be afraid of making a mess or "spoiling" your work.

Ingredients for a Barbecue

1. Chilled Rum Punch made to a secret recipe

2. A selection of tasty salads...

Vietnamese rice noodle salad

A chilli coleslaw and beetroot and orange salad

3. A couple of summery desserts to finish the meal

Slut red raspberries in chardonnay jelly... these would be made for their name alone whether they tasted divine or not (but they do!) and a stawberry pavlova.

4. And a man to grill some some sausages and kebabs...

... and take all the credit!