Art, Frustration & Apple Tarts

The way it is with me is this: I don’t post for a few days, which then lengthens into a week; then over a week, and unless I forcibly make myself write, I keep putting it on “the long finger”…

Not that I don’t have plenty to post here, and take many photos a day… it’s like a chronic laziness. Or perhaps I will pull out my trump card here and say 1) exhaustion (only nine weeks to go until baby makes an appearance!!) and 2) The return of my pregnancy sickness, which has been truly, a miserable turn this late in the pregnancy. I’ve been pretty queasy the whole way through; but on the upside, it’s not every night, only every other night (I’m, bizarrely, sick from about 8pm until 5am. Just to keep me on my toes) So I will stick to my great excuses and continue on in this post to far more lovelier things such as…

Apple tarts! (or apple pies as some people *mistakenly* call them, cough cough Maud)

(The marble rolling pin was a present from my wonderful husband, who, incidentally, loves apple tarts)

It was forecast to be a pretty miserable weekend, weather wise, so Butterfly Buns (in homage to my sister who is Butterfly Bun Queen) and apple tart and custard were the order of the day…

James and I painted on Saturday for a while: I’ve been fiddling around with arty ideas, but just nothing was working. I felt like I simply didn’t have a clue what I was doing. So I painted randomly; I’ll probably use these, chopped up, for something else (my sister has set up a Design Challenge Blog here for all sorts of craft goodness. The first challenge was something with “heart” in it. My heart attempts have been disastrous so far) Hugely frustrating. James, as soon as my back was turned, would do a sneaky paint job on my page, which didn’t help either… Scut!!

I’ve been also dementing myself with Art Doll ideas… I know what I want to do, but just getting there is proving a challenge. A while ago, I made these forms, and on Sunday I tried to bring them further, but it just wasn’t working (I think I need to stick with cloth dolls for the moment, I’m finding papier mache too slow) So I gave them to Grace to decorate. She did one on Sunday and one on Monday: I was blown away with her ingenuity and creativity- nothing holding her back. It was really a lesson in free expression for me. She just adored doing these, and spent hours (literal hours) glueing and sticking (all the while with her tongue sticking out the side of her mouth… just like her mother 🙂 )

Also, on Sunday, we went for a walk in Woodville Gardens near Loughrea, Co. Galway… but I’ll hold out and post that in a separate post or this one will never end…!

• Art Dolls,
• custard,
• Design Challenge blog,
• mixed media painting,
• Papier mache,
• Pregnancy,
• Pregnancy sickness,
• Woodville Gardens