One busy week does not a business make!!!

Petrol - Tina Francis - 2013

I am off to Edinburgh for the Fringe Festival and along the way I will be taking the advice of Craft Scotland and visiting some of the great exhibitions and Craft shows that will be taking place during August. I am really looking forward to the short break and just being able to look rather than do, I need a break and this is why.......

The week starting Monday 15th July was one of the busiest of my life!!  It began with a meeting at Craft Central with Dr Rachel Smart who after listening to what I had been doing, what I wanted to do, how many projects I had on the go and how many hours sleep I was getting gave me some fabulous advice on how to step out of this whirlwind and get myself in order!!! Now I love a list and I am pretty pedantic about ticking things off so Rachels advice on making targetted lists was joy to my ears - list making with permission! It has really helped me to look at my practice and question my choices, I'm not stopping on the ideas front just writing them down and investigating them rather than tangenting off into the merry world of research and then having to stay awake half the night catching up on making!  Thanks Rachel!

Next a second trip to London to drop off a small piece of work for Zeitgeist Summer Open.  Zeitgeist Arts Project is run by Rosalind Davis and Annabel Tilley and this exhibition was a chance for all ZAP members to show a small piece of their work and meet each other alongside collectors.  It was a fantastic show and I met some great people and even sold my piece Petrol (above image) which was a total bonus. Meeting other artists and listening to what they are doing really does give you a bit of confidence to carry on with it all, thanks ZAP gang!

During the whole of the week I was stitching like mad because I am going to be on TV as part of a makeover show in the Autumn. So on the Friday of my whirlwind week I was being filmed on the sunny terrace outside my beach hut studio, it mad me laugh quite a bit (inside of course - had to be sensible on film!!) because I had never had to stitch on camera before, it was one of the hottest days of the year and I was stitching with warm wool! As they say in the trade it was a wrap and so once I know when the show will be on TV I'll post it on here, probably be just a shot of me trying to thread a needle under time pressure in the blazing heat but hey any publicity is good publicity - apparently!

So there we go, the reason why I need to take a little break from myself and look and talk and listen to the makers of Scotland and then come back happy and ready to yet again get on with it!

Enjoy the sunshine and happy stitching!