'Endangered Species'

So it has been forever since I last managed to post! Crafting has taken a bit of a back seat to the inevitable xmas preparation, although some long term projects are finally reaching completion as xmas gifts! I will post a run down of these after the big day to avoid spoiling the surprise!

In the meantime, today I accidentally found myself at a new exhibition...........

I had a work meeting at Yorkshire Sculpture Park and on my way out decided to check out the new exhibition by Donna Wilson which is currently inhabiting the upstairs space of the main building. The work Endangered Species consists of a collection of knitted animals, trees, clouds and foliage creating a completely fabric world. Alongside this there are paintings, ceramic plates, screen prints and knitted direction signs. The knitted trees and clouds are amazing when put together to make a 'forest' and the creatures within are in turns cute and creepy. All of the work in the show is for sale and I had to force myself out of the shop before I succumbed to some of the gorgeous blankets (if someone would like to lend me £50 I wont say no!)

A few photos of the main exhibition (apologies for the crappy phone camera)

I was also drawn into the frankly awesome YSP shop, where I could quite happily fill my house with arty tat! I found an amazing cassette tape rubber stamp which had to come home with me. I have a minor rubber stamp obsession, and this is my favourite so far! Just a shame I've already wrapped my xmas presents as it would make great labels!

Odds and Sods

After a mega busy couple of weeks, I'm finally back to craft central!

As is tradition, all of my best laid plans have gone terribly wrong and I have managed to run out of time for Halloween crafting! Halloween is my absolute favourite celebration (my boss described me as a recreational pagan!) and I always go massively overboard on my halloween crafting, decoration, costume, food, the lot! I had meant to make a load of halloween things but have simply not had the time to do it. I have been up to lots of interesting arty/crafty things over the last few weeks though:

1. My momma came to visit for the weekend, and we went to the Yorkshire Sculpture Park to see the Jaume Plensa exhibition AGAIN! I have been to see this at least 4 times now, and I still enjoy it. The massive metal sculptures made up of different lettering are amazing. There were a few new sculpture that I hadn't seen before, and a new exhibition of drawings and animations by Rachel Goodyear that I liked a lot.

2. I did manage to do some Halloween crafting and have made a bunch of felt 'day of the dead' sugar skulls. They will be attached to ribbon for hanging when I manage to grab a moment!

3. The Halloween decorations went up! I tried to keep the madness to one corner of the room, but it has gradually spread out over the whole downstairs of the house. Most of the decorations are from various pound shops (and the now defunct hyper extra value in Newport) . The bat lights are from the current Sainsbury's range for a fiver!