A few weekends ago, we were lucky to provide a pit stop for Donna and her man as they did that thing that living abroad requires from them. Visit and spend time with every living relative and friend in 72 hours flat, and do a couple of things that are the reason you had to come back in the first place. Thats an exaggeration of course, but sums up the visit. So here’s a brief sketch of a story…..Donna and I were part of Morti’s hen party some 12 years ago (?, I can’t keep track of the length of my own marriage, so have to rely on Morti if this is wrong), and Donna was a bit handy with her camera. I remember that quite clearly. Race forward about ten years and Donna asks if she can use a photo of me to paint my portrait. well, of course I said yes….because vanity and interest, right?
Here is the photo…a wistful and frankly much younger looking me. I can’t remember what my focus was, or why my makeup was smudged…..
Loving the 90s eyebrows!!. Anyway, Donna set to work and sent me a rapid succession of update pictures. I know she is an abstract artist and I knew that I should not be unsurprised at each turn, but I was. Good lord, it really is something to see your own fizzog as a subject and being enlivened by someone who knows what to do with some acrylic paint. 
I couldn’t see what else there was to do at this point! Donna said she would walk past it for a couple of days and see what happened….and it involved green! Well colour me surprised, and not a little nervous! It was a question of hold on tight, follow her brush! Look at those lips though…talk about highlight!
So at this stage, I place my face in Donna’s hands entirely….not that I’ve had any input - on the grounds of ignorance and art fear. My most heartfelt and helpful comments have been ‘oh, she looks like Miss Dunnit’ and how fab it’s becoming and how attached to her I’m becoming. I can’t honestly say that I think of her as me. Here is the finished piece
We love it. Interestingly, neither Miss Dunnit nor I feel that she’s particularly either of us, more perhaps, a third person…and that makes it very alright to own a portrait of oneself. Which is great, because I do…and she’s hung in full view of every visitor that will ever use our dining room. It’s a process I recommend, entirely painless and very interesting with a real, big and lovely result. Donna takes commissions and offers some ridiculous guarantees. I would really like to have one of Mr Dunnit too…we are after all, a pair! He’s not keen, but as all it takes is a photograph, he need not know. I just have to find a good ‘full frontal’ of the man. Cough.
Find Donna on Instagram - donnalouisegarner or at her website, donnagarnerart.com. At any point, start a convo with this fascinating woman, you can enquire, ask, shoot the breeze, just don’t expect to be be obliged. She doesn’t do that.
Well, it all looks a bit bland with bad lighting and dark windows, but I can assure you that it felt a lot cosier and even…a bit productive! I’ve got a few new Christmas stamps, some from last year, and I’m trying to use them, even in smallish numbers, I feel they deserve to at least be inked before being stashed and stored! I’m making a selection of styles and sizes, primarily because I committed to making up a few packs of cards to sell in an online craft shop for BANA members. (BANA is the charity that supports people with Acoustic Neuroma - the type of brain tumour that I had removed SIX years ago.) so I’m not quite in a panic but don’t really know about numbers, so am going to offer a pack of five assorted. So there’s more:
I used up the spare images that were on my desk last week, and that got me in the mood. The bubble Christmas trees were more of a slow therapy, I was sensible and bought a die that cuts multiple bubbles at once, but not all sizes. So there’s a lot of glitter glue bubbles drying there! I’ll do close ups before I pack them up to send. If anyone actually buys them! I’ve been sensible and done the insides as I went along…otherwise they end up being a great big chore for me. Strange innit, the parts of making that you like and don’t like. Anyway, that’s me today, please show and tell, your desks are getting more and more interesting as we rush towards December!
I’ve been poorly for the last couple of weeks, I’ve had some surgery and really surprised myself by not bouncing back and getting on with stuff. Having said that, not one person alluded to the fact that a couple of spoons full of painkiller and a few good sleeps would do the trick, I just assumed. We’re always 18 in our heads, huh. Anyway, I’ve turned the corner, Mr Dunnit is happy to go back to work without starting hours late and coming home hours early, so I’ve headed into the workroom. Todays session will finish yesterday’s…some multiple gernomies were stamped and embossed in a very sparkly gold, then I spent a happy half hour painting them with a radiant pearls. Now they all need to be cut out before I decide where exactly I’m going with them! There’s a small pile of teal stamped greetings, originally part of a design for the card marathon. They are Hero Arts solid stamps. The pile is my cast offs, not perfect stamping….but I decided I’d use them somehow, so that’s another few cards to think on. So, I feel as if I’ve gone and got it underway, join me do in the slightly smug tone as you show and tell of your week. OK, thanks.
The door fitting has finished…foam and adjustments to the oak beam and stuff, some plasterboard down the sides. Then the edge of the worktop had to be trimmed to actually let me get the desk pushed up against the door. Hence the saw. Once I’ve pushed the drawer unit back fully under the desk, I wonder if he’ll remember where it is. Call this day one…..! 
This bunch of tools herald the installation of a couple more sockets which will prevent the annoying, untidy and frustrating trailing of cables over worktops. Always planned, and am happy to have them. So at some point today, there will be cleaning. Inevitably, there’s a lot of dust and just walking across the floor yesterday made my teeth itch a bit. Not as much as they do when I consider how many cards and things I suddenly want to make and send by the end of this month. I can’t explain how the feeling creeps up on me, but it’s arrived and rather inevitably, being a one job at a time gal, I want to get them underway with some urgency, the days are slipping away aren’t they! 
I offer you late afternoon yesterday, lights on, colour a bit weird! Actually on my not too untidy desk are the baskets that contain the stamps inks and blahdy-blah for each of the six cards that were my share of the day long card marathon. It’s actually over, took place on Monday! a so Delighted that it was well received and Shopkeeper Gal is responding to demand by offering a Saturday version (limited numbers and lateral flow tests) and we’re also kitting each card for people to buy individually as a response to demand. Amazing, huh. So….the baskets need refreshing and the kits need making up. There’s evidence of my inability to sit near a pen and paper without doodling when I’m on the phone. And evidence at left of not knowing what I’m doing. I coloured a bunch of those figures in rather randomly because I thought I’d just run through my scraps and match them up, but I actually need to select the scraps first, the colours I’ve used are just too random; they look ridiculous close up. So to sum all that up…I’m waiting for the strength to throw those away! Now I’m not sure if I’ve talked about that drawer unit before. It came from RUBox company’s website. On castors, it rolls under my desk with room to spare and houses all my clear stamps,(3 drawers) all my made-and-waiting-to-be-used cards (1 drawer) and drawers to spare! Lordy. That’s a nice brag isn’t it. To make you feel better, I am NOT going to show you the stamps in situ. It works for me but will cause a collective shriek, I fear!
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