Do something that scares you every day......tick

Well, I'm certainly adhering to that sentiment recently. I've made a video!!!!!!
Or to be precise, 8 videos. Annoying I can't tell you what it's about, I'm sworn to secrecy, but all will be unveiled on 20th October. It's all very exciting!
However, I now know how to video, but that wasn't the most difficult bit. I realised that I had to be in the video. Most of it is of my hands manipulating clay into the secret project, but I had to do an introduction, facing the camera. What a performance: I dyed my hair (my roots were about 6"), had my eyebrows dyed (the woman who did it said it knocked 10 years off me - was that meant to make me feel good? Just how old did she think I looked before?????), and put some lipstick on, which for me is very rare, saved for when I have meetings with scary people. Then poor Iain (long-suffering husband) had the unenviable job of taking the video. I did it in one take, knowing that it would only be worse if I had to re-take it, and it's actually passable. 

So, enough of this primping and preening. My daughter Emma asked me last week "do you think about clay all the time?" The answer is probably yes. She said that she could tell because I had a certain look on my face, a thinking look, and yes, she was right, I had seen something, a shape, a colour, that could be interesting in clay. It's wonderful having an interest that is so, well, interesting! We were in Edinburgh at the National Portrait gallery, and in the gift shop was a case of some kind, I just loved the colours, so Emma did the sneaky photography so I could have a record of the colours without having to buy something I had absolutely no need for. 

I would love to show you the stripey thing, but somehow I need to learn more about how to blog, as the picture has gone up to the top - TWICE!!!!! So, to see my inspiration from Edinburgh, look at the top of the blog - there will be two random pictures. Good job I bought a 'blogging made simple' book from Amazon yesterday, should arrive tomorrow, so hang in there, the technology will not beat me!

So, what are the things that inspire me? I have a lovely boss at work, and she has a diary cover which just begged to be photographed. I made a pendant similar to the diary cover, let's see if I can manage to add some pictures.

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I don't like to be smug...……………...……
But I've sorted it :)  Although it would be better a little higher, beggers can't be choosers.
This is the day after I posted this blog, and the book about blogging was absolutely no use at all, unless of course I want to become a multi millionaire from my blog, so I googled it - I now have the stripy picture removed from the blog header photo, and back where it belongs.

​Bring it on, I'm a techie!!!!!!!!!!

Now, back to my boss's diary cover...…...……
I did say that I was a beginner at this blogging didn't I?

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​Well, that worked! The picture below was the view from a toilet in Tuscany, Italy. Of course I had my camera with me, doesn't everyone!

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The four squares on the right were inspired by the wonderful pottery in San Giminiano, the olive and lemon trees, and of course the toilet tiles.

People who know me, know that my animals are probably the most important thing to me, after family - and I'm sure the family feel that they are second in my affections! I had someone come and clay with me for a while, and she actually got very grumpy because George kept walking across the table - George is my half Siamese ginger cat, and no table is banned to him. My nephew Jack was far more tollerant, as you can see. He was making his A level course work, and was ably helped by George.
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Finally, I'll leave you with last night's inspiration. I had a few animal bodies (not something many people admit it I'm sure) on the coffee table. They were experiments of some clay animals I'm working on. My mother thought they were coasters as they were flat, and I thought 'Mmmm, fun coaster'. So, my next project will be to make some fun coasters of flat animals. I spend a few minutes making a snowman one, just to see if it would work, and it could do. Lovely, something to think about and plan on my drive to work tomorrow.
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I'm off to Ireland this weekend, spending time with the Irish polymer clay guild, who have been so supportive to me, and who are just the best people to spend time with claying. Although how much claying we'll get done is debatable, as there's a lot of chat and laughter as well. I'm teaching my patchwork bunny and chicken, and will post pictures of the weekend in my next blog. Listen to me, next blog!! I'll have the book by then, so lets hope I can learn how to remove the stripy pictures from the heading!