Painting PS2

Here's Dan painting the project space for the Lost & Found show, and we managed to get it done in one go. Go us!

 And I have a new rug. As the dude says, it really ties the room together.

Lost & Found - the exhibition!

There's some very exciting news here at Lost & Found. I'm having an exhibition next week! It all happened very quickly. A few months back a man called Peter who runs the fantastic PS2 project space on Donegall Street in Belfast emailed me after coming across this very blog. He asked if I'd like to have a lost and found exhibition all about collecting, recycling and how we all have different ideas about the beauty and value of the objects we have around us.

Skip forward to last week when I was told that there was a spot open for my show in April - two weeks later! Luckily I work at the University so I have two weeks holidays for Easter. Isn't life wonderful. So it's all go and very busy and exciting but I wouldn't have it any other way. The next few days will be spent packing up most of the contents of my home to bring down to the space, then I'll spend a few days putting the collections all together.

I'd love people to add items to the project (you can have them back afterwards) - they might be old photographs you find in a second-hand book, a shopping list found on the street or your favourite vintage find or beach combing treasure.

There really is treasure everywhere!

There will be an opening night on Thursday 5th April which coincides with the fabulous late Night Art when all the galleries in Belfast open late and there's free wine to be had! It's always a good night, so please call by if you're free. The exhibition will be there until the 28th april. 

Click here for more information on the PS2 website.

Beach weather

Who would credit it? I'm on my lunch break from work at Jordanstown University and here I am sitting on the beach sunbathing on the 26th March!

I even went for a paddle! On the 26th March! In Ireland! It was freezing, but still.

Hope you are all enjoying some sunshine, wherever you are.

Chez moi

Inspired by my earlier room envy post, I tidied up this corner of our living/dining room. It's not quite as elegant but I like things to be homey. I'd completely forgotten I had this amazing and really long zebra painted hanging that I bought in Zambia a few years ago. So it is now the one and only 'curtain' I have in the house. Shameful. 

The beautiful silver bonbon tray was recently passed to me after my great aunt died, and the poster is a copy of the old British Railways poster for my hometown.

Our makeshift bookcase which consists of the base of an old dressing table and the wooden pigeonhole unit, both of which we pulled out of skips. They've been awaiting a revamp for a while, but until I find a bookcase, there they stay.

And I got this toy tiger today in a charity shop because I keep seeing spray-painted toy animals on the blogosphere and I want to get in on that action!

Room Envy

I don't think I'll ever be restrained enough to have a room quite as elegant as this one. But everything is precious about it, I'm especially coveting that painting and the blue velvet studded doors!

I came across this picture on the lovely website littlegreennotebook Have a gander!

small adventures

This is the harbour in Portstewart (where I'm from) taken on Saturday when Danny and I drove round the Antrim coastline a bit. It was pretty stormy to begin with but ended up quite charming. It wasn't however quite as rainbow-coloured as the above photo may suggest. (I've got some new photo toys and apps that I'm obsessively playing with these days.)

And this AMAZING house is called Bendhu and is on the road down to Ballintoy harbour. It was built by a Cornish man called Newton Penprase and he worked on it for 40 years, starting in 1936.

It's a private house still and has duly been added onto my already long list of dream houses.

The Harbour at Ballintoy is pretty dramatic too. It reminds me of the seascape in the last scene of 'The Goonies' where one-eyed Willy's ship sails out.

Origami class at the Crescent.

Last weekend I led an origami workshop at the Crescent Arts Centre with eleven lovely ladies. I learnt a couple of new designs - a little fox that's simple enough to do with kids and a butterfly, and I was invited to do an origami class in a school in a couple of weeks, which  is nice!

There's a paper party decoration class on next month too if you may fancy learning how to make decorations for a party or wedding. Click here to book a spot through the Crescent Arts Centre. The class costs £16 and is on Sunday 1st April.

Selling our wares at St.George's market

For the last couple of months I've been working with a charity called the NOW project who work with adults with learning difficulties, helping them get into employment. We've been doing weekly craft workshops and today we had a go at selling the fruits of our labour at the Friday variety market.

Joanne and trainees Marie and Jacqueline behind our stall.

We made a reasonable profit for the charity and had a great time meeting some of the other traders at St.George's, a covered market which has been trading since 1896. The only thing I didn't enjoy was the 6 O'Clock start.

We're selling button hearts, jewellery, vinage teacup plants and cake stands. If you happen to be in Belfast we'll be there for the next couple of Fridays.

And I'll leave you with a picture of this amazing old lady I spotted at the market. Everything was pink even down to her scarf, earrings, ring and lipstick. Class.

Today's find

More religious paraphernalia to clutter up my home! But this one is unusual for being ceramic rather than plaster like most of the ones you find in Irish homes. It looks like it has a bit of age to it too. I couldn't resist.

You can just make out 'St. Joseph' written around the bottom of the statue but he's a bit of a mystery because Joseph is normally portrayed as a fairly benign father figure with a beard and brown robe while his guy is fresh-faced and carries a sword. Perhaps it's a whole other St.Joseph. Feel free to enlighten me in the comments.

As a side note, if you happen to be selling your house, and if you happen to believe in this sort of thing, a statue of St. Joseph is meant to help it sell quickly!