sleep little one

This one of my favourite images captured whilst in Cambodia in the market a child sleeps in a hammock whilst surrounded by the snake catch of the day.
Children are up against it in Cambodia with poor medical health care, although that has changed dramatically in the last 6 years since I have been travelling there. Schools are slowly popping up in even the poorest and remote villages and there is never much money around with the average wage being around 2$ but in the villages it is far less than that. But for all of that children have the most important thing their freedom and Independence from their most earliest age, which has been lost over here in the UK and makes me sad!!!!

offerings

One of the most beautiful things across Cambodia Laos and Thailand are the wonderfulSpirit houses where offerings are left, in the form of food, incense, water, lotus flowers or garlands of heady jasmine sold by the wonderful flower sellers.. Each one is unique to each place from the and ostentatious spirit houses of the large hotels to the very humble spirit houses found in or outside a shack held together with string. The purpose of the Spirit House is to provide an appealing shelter for the spirits, or celestial beings, who would otherwise reside in the heavens.
I used to love getting up early and watching the daily ritual of offerings to the Spirit house , it seemed to bring a sense of calm in a somewhat crazy world.
I now have many drawings and photos that I am working from to make a series of paintings based around the idea of offerings.

A strange encounter at Wat Xieng Thong

Friday 4th March hot hot hot..............
Lhuang Prabang Laos
Got on my push bike this morning and headed of to explore a beautiful place. The first thing I notice if the hundreds of butterfly's the ones you seen in dreams and books, that you never think real but they are here. I had long wanted to visit Wat Xieng Thong it really was like walking into paradise, a pristine yet crumbling temple of clover pink, turquoise, white and as always saffron orange. The temple is home to around 40 monks who can be seen all around getting on with their days. I do love that there was a washing line in the middle of their sacred place where all their saffron robes were catching the very small breeze. We had a strange encounter with a very talkative monk shading underneath a bougainvillea tree he was there practising his English so we sat for a good while talking about Buddhism, Laos, and then world language Wayne Rooney and how Liverpool had got on. It was monk Pau's very guilty pleasure. He is not permitted to play or watch it. So he lives out his games through the people from all over the world who visit the temple. The faded temple with it's sun drenched colours only add to its infinite beauty, the room with a 1000 Buddhas, the smell of incense who's smoke plums above the temple and the heady intoxicating smell of the frangipani flowers makes for a giddy environment of sensations. There was hardly anyone there and it felt that the temple was all ours. As we left the temple when we thought we couldn't be anymore inspired, the mighty Mekong river stood before us, and we were quiet with it's beauty.

Stitch miles

As I sat on the plane chasing the night, sewing at 30,000 ft I tried not to think of the thirteen hours ahead of me. For the last two hours I have been travelling over snow capped mountains and following never ending rivers like great serpents devouring the land beneath. It always makes me wonder who is down there? What are they doing and what are they thinking? I prefer journeys across land as you always get that sense of arriving in another land. Where as on a plane you land, and your first impression is of an airport which could be anywhere in the world. I was listening to all the conversations around me one was all about air miles. I don't even know how you would get air miles. I then thought to myself that I had paid for my plane journey solely by stitch miles. I then started to wonder how many stitches I had sewn in the last year to take me on my 6000 miles to Laos and Cambodia. It must be zillions! I was going to blog whilst I was on my journey but instead decided I was going to write a proper diary in pen on paper with drawings so I did. So for the next few blogs I will tell you some tales of a precious journey to the other side of the world.

My window on the world

This week I installed my window on the world. I was lucky enough to have been invited by The Open for Art empty shop campaign. I had one of the loveliest windows in Reading a beautiful shop which is a listed building with the most lovely old fashioned window, which is just perfect. I trawled through Reading carrying a very old bench which I removed from my garden with regular stops and a quick sit down here and there. We narrowly missed being squashed by a bus not the easiest of things to manoeuvre quickly when you are stuck in the middle of the road. Anyway , so here is my window on the world. Enjoy!

bathing in creativity

image from http://www.nathalie-lete.com/index.php
I love the days where you are busy doing nothing kidding yourself that it's everything, days where you wander and bathe in others creativity. Well today I came a cross a treasure Nathalie Lete She lives and works in Paris. She works in many ways, mixing different techniques and mediums, illustration, ceramics, textile and painting… Her work is beautiful dazzling with colour and poetic in nature. Her website is full to bursting with her creativity which seems to creep into every area of her life.
It makes me ask the question where does creativity start and end? I often ponder on that thought, as my creativity is so intrinsically part of every minute of my life and I can' imagine it any other way. Anyway enough thinking, go and be inspired by her work, life and creativity it's infectious http://www.nathalie-lete.com/index.php

spring/summer

Vogue spring /summer catwalk report

To my greatest horror while perusing Vogue's spring/summer prediction it seems that we will be donning our gym knickers superman styley as outer wear. We will be wearing pants on pants.
If I was a beautiful skinny beanpole I may just get out my knitting needles and cook some up, but as I am far from that, and my bum will definatley look big in those. I will pass.
I love the fun of fashion it's just as it should be.