When art and food blur

Painted using acrylic and mint sauce

I have known the artist Clemens Steigleder now for 5 years, and I just want the rest of the world to have a sneaky peek of his work. I just love it. I love watching his brain tick, the way he uses any materials he can get his hands on, I love most his vision and his innovative thinking.
Every inch of his soul is dripping in creativity.
He is a health and safety nightmare so that makes two of us. We have concoctions in our cupboard that are in line with George and his marvellous medicine by Roald Dahl. He paints using food a lot. You can be forgiven for thinking that you have entered a kitchen cupboard full of mustard, tomato sauce, whitebait, pigs trotters, favourite of the moment seems to be mint sauce. I think he has no sense of smell, because there have been times where the wiff could kill you especially when he was growing garlic in the cd player and when some of the whitebait fell down the back of the racking for a few weeks.
We once went to Hungerford to meet a group of artists on the way we passed the market Clem spied some pigs ears that were being sold on the pet stall. He bought them shoved them in his bag and we went on our merry way. We went to the artist's house to meet up with the others and out of nowhere this dog came bounding from nowhere and wouldn't leave us alone. He was practically sitting on Clem's lap and then started to wrestle with his bag. It was only then that we remembered the pig's ears. The dog had one the other is now safely fastened on a painting.
Clem is an amazing human being with an interesting and quirky take on the world, one foot firmly on the ground the other floating up to the heavens. Is that possible?
He is a true artist in every sense of the word he lives, sleeps and breathes it.
Clem's weaknesses he can kill a laptop dead in 30 seconds.

http://www.csteigleder.blogspot.com/

Best

patcworkbutterfly vintage tableware

I learnt a very valuable lesson very early on in my life. It was all about best things. As a child probably about 7 or 8 I was given this beautiful pink skirt it had two rows of cotton lace and I loved it so. I would have worn it every day if I could and chanced my arm and put it on most days. The reply would come from mum "save it for best take it off and put something else on." Well the sad end to my tale of woe is that I probably wore the skirt FOR BEST about 3 times. I went to put it on at the end of the summer, and I had out grown it. I made up my mind there and then that I would never have any such thing as best in my world. And I haven't.
My Nang ( grandma) has her best china which stays in the cupboard dust catching apart from it's twice yearly outing, she has her best clothes and best jewellery. I do admire this way of thinking because there is always the joy of using , wearing or pinning your lovely best brooch on your jacket. My Nang's generation was all about best even the words used to describe things, There was your Sunday best for church, the best living room that was only used at Christmas and high days and holidays. Those poor Aspidistra stuck in the corner of best rooms never to be seen.
So I save nothing for best. The cat eats off a 100 year old plate, we use vintage china to eat from everyday, if there is champagne in the house drink it for breakfast. I bought a loving friend this week as a thankyou the beautiful 013 Christian Dior lipstick, she was thrilled and said she would use it sparingly, I said no use it every day lavishly. What is there to save it for? Every day should be an occassion. But is it me who is wrong because there are problems created by not having best like this week coming. What to wear to ladies day? I have beautiful vintage hats, bags, and clothes all of them with splatters of paint or a little torn and ragged round the edges as they have been worn to do a bit of gardening quickly before you go out, or you have gone into the studio to check on a painting and swept past leaving a new pattern on a vintage chanel velvet wrap that you treasured. All of these war wounds come at a price because you never look your best.
http://www.patchworkbutterfly.co.uk

strange going's on at the bottom of the garden........

There are always strange things happening in our garden. Yesterday morning I went past our old kettle filled with campunala only to find a Friesian cow had popped into the garden and then you go a bit further round the corner and there is a donkey standing in the spring onions. These animals pop up in the most unusual places, last week it was a zebra in the Verbena. Also there I was the other day looking into the pond dreamily wondering if goldfish really do have 3 second memories, when beyond the fish came a vision a traffic jam. A traffic jam which included about 25 cars on the bottom of the pond. These are matchbox cars god knows how long they have been in there. I did wonder where they all were as the toy box was looking a little empty of treasured cars. It's strange these happenings because we don't have children, but we do have a myriad of nephews and nieces who often pop around and it's always after they have been about that the strange happenings happen. A friends very lovely Christian Dior sunglasses have gone missing last seen in the vicinity of the pond, going to have to dredge up the traffic jam and see if the fish are enjoying their designer glasses.

roses

I love gardens that ramble we have so many self sown plants that grow where the wind carries them. My garden is a continual source of inspiration, whether it's the clash of colour that break all the rules the scent of the honeysuckle on a balmy evening or just a beautiful daisy growing in the lawn. Flowers are nature's courtesans. They seduce elevate the mood and perfume the air. Our house is crammed full of flowers, I love them in old milk bottles, vintage china or just simply a pansies in a jam jar. This week I used flowers from our garden to make flower arrangements for "The old bag's tea party in old vintage handbags.
I would love to share with you another side of my world which is patchworkbutterfly vintage table ware. To find out more look on http://patchworkbutterfly.co.uk
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Patchworkbutterfly vintage tableware is lovingly run by me and my sister who have everlasting memories of perfect tea parties when we were small. Like the magpies we both are over the years we have collected beautiful china and our collection has grown. We would love for you to have perfect everlasting memories like ... us and so we would like to share our passion for beautiful china with you. Patchwork Butterfly Vintage, hope to add a scrumptious decadence to your occasion.

round and round the garden

Come journey a little further around my garden today. I love the sculpture I bought from an amazing ceramicist Sue Mundy. You can find more of her work at www.suemundy.com. Her work is just beautiful and so lovingly made. I love having a bit of the indoors outdoors so I have hung chandeliers all around the garden and they give off a wonderful light as dusk sets in or the word I really love when the light becomes dimpsy.
We have now over 30 Oriental poppies out from the pink of Mrs Perry to this brilliant red, so fragile with their inky middles, great to paint with and glorious to watch as they dance in the breeze.

come on a journey with me this week .....

Last weekend was nearly the busiest in my recent history. We opened our garden to raise money for the amazing and wonderful children of Cambodia. It was a wonderful day full of people we love, enjoying the garden eating cakes and most important drinking lots of wine and gossiping.
Everyday the garden changes, I love looking out to see what has happened over night. We work in it, we eat and laze about in it, although there hasn't been much of that lately.
Every day this week I promise to take you on a journey around my garden. Come take my hand and off we venture.