Last week I returned to my timeshare in Royal Deeside for my annual winter break.
It has been our family’s second home for 30 years. Despite the horrendous weather conditions elsewhere in the UK, and internationally, we had dry, bright weather for most of the week. That allowed me to drive safely along miles of single-track road to revisit Loch Muick, by the mountains and glens, with herds of stags grazing by the pine trees.
It was especially poignant, as last year when the family visited the same spot, we scattered my husband’s ashes. It will always have a very special place in my heart. It was to be a relaxing week after the busy time in the Far East, so some spa treatments, a good book and some jigsaws.
Imagine my surprise when the jigsaw I bought turned out to be a quirky one where the picture on the box didn’t match the picture on the jigsaw!
I usually like to use my interest in detail to spot the location of each jigsaw piece in the image on the box ... not so with this one. What a nightmare!!! Not so relaxing!
Fortunately, I also took my sketch pad and pens, to work on more potential designs for the ceramic candle jars, for my collaboration with Caroline from Simply Scottish candles. She texted me some new fragrance ideas and I tried to design images to depict the different scents.
Hopefully we can progress towards sample development in the near future. Creating images composed of thousands of individual dots has really been a great way to express myself, using a different medium from my usual watercolour.
It is probably no surprise that I enjoy this, as I am known for enjoying producing detailed paintings. I could hardly find anything more detailed ... just lots of tiny dots. It is exciting to keep exploring new artistic avenues whilst consolidating previous ideas.
This week I need to frame and deliver my felt sheep pictures and make some more, so that is quite a difference from last week’s fun.
I have decided to enlist for another year of BNI (business network international) as it has really helped me to grow my referral network and my business. I would recommend it.
This week I have a meeting with a colleague to discuss exploring Etsy as another forum to sell goods on. Watch this space....