Last Glimpses of Venice

Some more bite-sized images of Venice, for those of you not yet fed up with my protracted account of our holiday there. It is so good to have these happy days to look back on, during the relentlessly grey and miserable weather and misery of post-flu malaise I'm currently experiencing. The Christmas cards never got written and I feel so fed up about that, because I love receiving news from my friends and family. I will just have to catch up gradually, as and when I can manage it.

The pictures above were taken along the Rio San Trovaso and on the Fondamente delle Zattere, between our palazzo appartment and a pizza restaurant near the docks (because pizza is one of those things you've got to eat in Italy, unless you have a wheat and gluten intolerance, of course).....

These photos were taken during our trip to Murano and Burano. The colourful houses are a feature of Burano and supposedly this tradition grew up so that the fishermen would be able to spot their homes easily while out on the lagoon, at work. They are certainly very picturesque.

Fed up and Fluey

Christmas is coming so of course I've got a bug: it seems to happen every year. I'm so fed up with having my energy for preparations syphoned off by illness. There's so much to do but all I'm fit for is my bed. And Blogger won't let me upload pictures today, so I'm bloggered, too. Not fair!

A creative interlude

I spent a very happy day away at Rainbow Silks on Saturday, playing at a workshop with Susie Jefferson called The Intaglio Effect. This involved playing with embossing inks and powders, rubber stamps, heat guns, various "found" objects and a little use of a heat pot and teflon-coated baking sheets. We had great fun altering bottle caps, bits of wooden and card jig-saw puzzles, game pieces and mica tiles, and the pictures above show the results of my labours. I was very interested in learning how to use this technique for making embellishments to include in my stitched textiles, although there are so many potential uses for these items. Great fun, and something a bit different for me.
I will have a great deal of fun playing some more at home!