Collection crash...

Oh dear I only managed 14 days of my blog a collection a day for the month of February. I had the delightful company of my beautiful grandson Cole on Sunday and we had an amazing creative and playful time that I completely forgot to post a collection. It was not until the next day I realised and the challenge was now broken. Normally I would get all upset and beat myself up over failing to complete a task but this time I thought, ok I didn't manage to post a collection every day for the month of February but it was fun for the two weeks that I did so its not a complete failure.  

So gone are the collection posts, its time to move on. I was stuck in a very bad creative block place with my last uni module but after spending a great creative day with Cole just doing things we love I have a completely new direction. I am rather excited as it is everything I love. Craft, soft toys, journaling, fabric, mixed media, play, play, play. So today I thought I'd share what Cole and I made on Sunday. Cole picked all the fabric, which we then cut into pieces and then he sat at the sewing machine and slowly with my guidance he sewed them all together. We then added the head pieces of fabric and cut out a wiggle shape. I did her face. Cole picked her button eyes and helped sew them on buy pulling the needle through and finally it was his idea to put a ribbon in he ear. He has named her Lucy. I think she is delightful and very special. I have to say, I was quite intrigued as to why he had decided to make a girl creature?  He told me he just wanted a girlie friend, Not a girl friend that's totally different :)! After we made Lucy it was back to the serious task of play with his wrestling figures and watching wrestling matches on the Ipad.

"LUCY"

Cat family.

Today's collection is my three ceramic cats they sit on the kitchen windowsill.  I am not a big ornament person but I love my little cat family. They where a Christmas gift from a friend many years ago. I adore them but when I took there photo I realised I have never given them names, which is unusual as I often name inanimate things.

Beach Combing.

Today's collection is my beautiful beach finds.  These are things I have found on Crosby beach and Freshfield beach. However, three of the finds are precious gifts. The white whelk shell was given to me by my lovely friend Gill as was the spider crab. These two little gifts started me on my own beach combing journey. It was seeing Gills own displays of her forage collections, which I am in total awe of because they are amazing, inspired me to have a go at displaying my own finds.  The third gift is the big pinky stone above the spider crab, this was a gift from my adorable Grandson Cole.  Who picked it up from a pebble beach in Wales whilst on holiday in the summer with his other Nan and brought it home for me. He actually brought me three back the other two are displayed on the windowsill in my sewing room. 

Can't find a pen, will a pencil do?

Today's collection is my pencil collection. I have a 100+.  I am not 100% sure but I think this collection began when we went on our very first holiday abroad in 2001 to Spain. Whilst there we visited PortAventura (Universal Studios) and I bought a pencil with their mascot, the famous Woody Wood Pecker.  Back home I decided not to use said pencil and placed it in a jar, it became a keepsake and every time I looked at it I was reminded of our fantasic holiday.  This became my thing, to buy a pencil every time I visited somewhere. It enables me to have a little record of the place Iv'e visited and best of all it doesn't cost much. All the pencils are from places I have physically been to and bought on the spot. You would not believe how disapointed I am when I visit a place and the do not have a pencil with there brand or name on it.  In the early days, of this collection, Michaela went to Jamaica and brought me a pencil back with a little raster mans head on it. She was confused when I put it in the jar of pencils I use everyday, until I explained I didn't collect pencils for pencils sake, I collected them as a keepsake of places I've been.  However, it was lovely that she really thought of me when she was buying it. 

I would also like to share one more thing to today its not a collection but it is pencil related and it is one of my most treasured possession. 

It is my Flash pencil top, he is so cool, he swings around the pencil. I have had him a long, long time.  One day my dad just randomly said, "I've got something for you" and put it in my hand. It was in a plastic wrapper but I could see it was a little kids toy of some kind but I didn't know what it was until I took it out the wrapper.  He told me he got it in a his box of cereal, it brought back memorys from my childhood when it was a regular thing to get little gifts and toys in cereals. I can remember a few squables over these as we where not allowed to open the packet and rumage for the gift, sometimes it would not be on the top and we would have to wait a couple of days for said item to fall out. I thought he was giving it to me for one of the children but he said no it was for me. It was such a random thing and he never said why it was specifically for me. Flash has lived ontop of a pencil in the jar of pencils I have on my desk which I use everyday.  I can't help but twirl him if I use the pencil he is on and watch Flash fly round and round.  I will never tire of him, even my grandson Cole takes him out of the jar, spins him before he draws a picture. He always puts him back and has never asked if he can take him home I think he knows he belongs here with me for the moment. 

Bingo!

Todays's collection is my bag of bingo pens and dabbers. I know how sad am I to have that many but in fairness I share the bag with my sister. The white dabber with the blue lid, on the top of the pile was a Wills and Kate freebie when they got married. I also have to say that we havn't been the bingo for months. We use to go on cheap nights or when we recieved vouchers in the post but sometimes life just gets to busy. I love going the bingo with my sister and occasionaly my daughter joins us which is a lovely bonus. Unfortunately we don't win very often but we always enjoy ourselves and thats what its all about.

Parentage:

Today's collection is three treasured photographs and I apologise in advance because it is tinged with a little sadness, as all of these special people have passed away. However, they left me with very happy memmories of the time we shared whilst they where here on earth.

1. Lillian Mulcahy (nee Gilbert): This is my nanna, my dads, mother. I don't know how old she is in the photograph, maybe late teens or very early twenties. There is an inscription in the right hand corner in her handwriting which reads "To Will love Lil" It is obviously a photograph she gave to my grandfather. I wonder if this was during there courtship? 
2. William Mulcahy: This is my grandad, my dads, father. Again I don't know how old he is. I think he was in the Royal Army Veterinary Corps as I have tried to zoom in on his cap badge but I am not 100% sure. I have another photo of him mounted on a horse however they are not just photographs they are postcard, sadly without any writing on them. I remember him telling me something about looking after horses and being able to braid their manes and tails but I was only a little girl. Sadly he passed away when I was 8 years old. It was the first time my heart was broken he adored me and I adored him.
3. Denis Mulcahy and Margaret Mulcahy (nee Johns): This is my mum and dad on a night out in the early sixties probably taken in the Wookey Hollow pub in Liverpool, apparently it was one of their favourite places when they where courting. 

I love these photographs I don't have many from the past. Sadly I don't have any photographs of my mums, mother and father but I know someone who might be able to help me complete my maternal photograph tree.

S is for........

SUSAN. I was thinking what collection could I post today? Then I noticed I am surrounded by ephemera with my name on it. I have to admit I have a bit of a strange thing about my name, a kind of love, hate relationship.  I even have it tattoed on the bottom of my back.  Anyway, back to todays collection.

1. Sewing Susan: Original vintage sewing needle pack that I purchased from eBay a few years ago.
2. Initial Keyring: I think this was a gift but I can't for the life of me think who when where or why! Oops
3. Quilters Guild Area Rep Badge: Kept as a memento from the three years I was area rep with my dear friend Janet.
4. Area Day name badge: I accidentally came home with this badge from one of our Crosby area days and never gave it back. Oops! naughty, aren't I!
5. Heart Badge: I had one exactly like this which I bought on a trip to Blackpool with my family to see the illuminations when I was 10 years old. A few years ago I was in Blackpool with my good friend Ray. We entered a souvenir shop and on a cork board where all the little name badges I related my memory to Ray and bless him he bought me. It is a treasured possession.
6. Shoe cup cake money box. My gorgeous husband bought me this when we where holidaying in Wales several years ago. One because of my love of shoes, two I make cup cakes and three is had my name on.
7. Green Costa. A gift from my lovely daughter Michaela.
8. Pink Costa. A gift from my fab friend Janet.
9. Postcard: From my lovely niece Paige.
10. Dinosaur: This is the tag of another little money box a gift from my amazing sister, Natalie.
11. Registration plate. I bought this on my first holiday abroad in 2000

I think its official I definitely have a thing for things with my name on. :P

Found Objects.

Today's collection are all the first objects I have found when out walking this week.

1. Sunday: Plastic frog. 
2. Monday: Lip balm with Disney's Cinderella on it. 
3. Wednesday: Little Minion paint brush
4. Thursday: Child's plastic fork.
5. Friday: Christmas pom pom, bauble earring.
6. Saturday: Plastic crotchet hook.

You will see Tuesday is missing the reason being is I did not go for a walk on that day.

I also want to share a fellow Bowerbird collection of found treasure. My lecturer Phoebe has a celebrations tub in her office where she keeps things she has found. On Thursday she allowed me to empty her treasure box and take a photo. It was so interesting looking at the things Phoebe has found. Here is her collection.

 

 I promised I would have a give away at the end of this week and seeing as only two people left me a comment I am going to send both Lin and Joan a little something each in the post. Thank you both for taking part, your little gifts will be on there way to you this week.

This bit of my post is especially for my friend Lin. This is the photo I took of one of the Anthony Gormely bronze statues on Crosby beach. It is for my friend Libby who's project is all about rust and decay.

Fancy a cuppa?

Firstly let me apologise for the poor quality of the photograph. Today's collection is my cup and saucers.  I have two early memory's of tea cups and saucers.  The first is my Grandma (my mums mother) is letting my baby sister drink tea from her saucer.  She use to pour the tea from her cup to the saucer and Natalie would sip it. My Grandma said the tea cooled down quicker  on the saucer  and she did this for all of us when we were little. My second memory is my Grandad (my dads father) he would save pennies all week in a little cup for me. I can still see the cup in my minds eye it was a little cottage. I never drank from it because it had been broken at some point and was glued together but I adored it.  Maybe this is where my love of tea cups began. The little blue cup was a gift from DH on a trip to Port Sun Light it is dinky and so cute. The one next to it was my little car bootie find and cost 30p it is hand painted. The pink spotty one is the most recent from Home Bargain just couldn't resist so pretty.  The other three are charity finds and again did not cost much. I do not use the little blue one or the car bootie because it has a hair line crack in it but all the others come out when I do the occasional afternoon tea party.

Sea Shells

Today I decided to take a trip to Crosby beach. I have not been beach combing for quite some time and whilst the weather was bracing it was fine and dry. I adore the peace and tranquilty I get from  walking along the beach. Today's collection are the beautiful shells I found on the beach this morning. My favourite one is the big broken one that looks like a snails house shell. (top right hand corner) Its beauty is in the fact that it is not perfect, it is very sculptured and so interesting. Unfortunately I didn't have time to draw my collection today as I was busy drawing the entire contents of what was in my hand bag for my uni project. However, I am really looking forward to doing an observational drawing of my broken shell in the future. Sadly I might have to revert to just putting images of collections with the occasional drawing, if I am to achieve my goal of posting a collection a day for the month of February. 

Warning! contains scenes of nudity.

Today's collection link is characters.

1. Minion: I found this little guy yesterday, just outside the block of flats. I just had to pick him up and take him home. When I picked him up I discovered he was a little paint brush, which made him even more of a treasured find.
2. Clown: I have had this little clown for about twelve years. I did not find him my daughter Michaela did when she was in school. |She brought him home and gave him to me and I have treasured him ever since.
3. Colin: This little nudist I found in a shop in Spain. I definitely had to buy him because his soul mate had been waiting for him back home for a long time.
4. Susan: Again I did not personally find this sexy lady somebody else did, whilst working on a building site and gave it to me. (hmmm I can't imagine why???)  She was on her own for many many years and never in her wildest dreams did she expect to have a mate. Colin and Susan have been together now for eleven years and stand side by side on a shelf in my sewing room.

When I put the photo of the actual collection with my naive drawing of today's collection I noticed I have unconsciously slimmed down Colin and Susan. What can I say I have the power of artistic licence. hehehe :)

Tag, your it!

Today's collection is labels or tags. I am very drawn to, what I term fancy tags & labels, on clothes or gifts. I have tendency to keep them and use them in my ATC's. A few days ago DH treated himself to a new outfit for his birthday and I just couldn't bring myself to throw the labels in the bin. I did however added two tags I already had on my desk that were waiting to be used in my next batch of ATC's to make up today's collection.

1. Vintage floral tag. This was attached to a set of mini floral suit cases I received as a Christmas gift from my brother and his partner.
2. Falmer Heritage: This was attached to his jacket.
3. Easy: This was attached to his shirt.
4. Large: This was also attached to his shirt together with the previous tag I loved the start black against the white together with the bar code. 
5. Arizona Straight: Attached to his jeans.
6. Slim Fit: Also attached to his jeans. I know get him SLIM FIT (he's lost weight I'm jealous :)
7. Lee Cooper: This is an old tag that was attached to a hoodie Colin bought ages ago. 

Day two and I'm feeling blue!

Yesterday I walked to my local shopping centre and decided to see how many things I could find that where blue for todays collection. Considering its only a 10 minute walk there and back I managed to find five objects that where blue.  So today's collection is the blue collection.

1. Lighter: Found in Marsh Lane park .
2. Scrunchy: Found on Marsh Lane. Possible belonging to a little girl who attends St James School which is just off March Lane. It is blue gingham and matches their summer dresses.
3. Plastic Fork. Again found on March Lane it was just sticking in a little grass embankment a bit like a mini shovel.
4. Inhaler: Found on Stanley Road. This is just the plastic outer casing of an inhaler and I think it is the most unusual find of things that are blue.
5. TSB WFI Long on card: I picked this up in the TSB branch in Bootle New Strand I was attracted to the simplicity of the graphic design on the card.  

The Yellow Collection.

Yellow Collection

My illustrations of the yellow collection

1.  Leaf: I found this leaf on st James Drive on my way to the Asda. It was a vibrant gold yellow and I was instinctively drawn to pick it up.  This was yesterday and sadly it is already loosing its colour. It is now a motley yellowish beige.
2. Plastic Frog: Found on Peter MahonWay on my way to the Asda it made me smile, immediately stirring up memory's of Christmas. Its like one of the ones you get out of a cracker. He to just had to come home with me.
3. Quilting Pins: Found on the floor in my sewing room. I rarely use these pins so I can't say how long they have been on the floor for.
4. Camper Van: Found in our Natalie's house (probably belongs to one of the boys but I fell in love with is and took it home). It sits on the shelf in my sewing room.
5. Truck: Found on Crosby beach. I was with Cole and Michaela when I found this little truck I offered it to Cole who turned his nose up at it but I just had to keep it. It sits next to the camper van on said shelf.
6. Stamp: This came off an envelope that contained a Christmas card sent to me from America. I just loved the butterfly so I cut it off and kept it.

This is a project I am working on for uni but it is inspired by my love of finding little treasures that I have to take home and keep. As well as being inspired by the artist, Lisa Congdon's, a collection a day 365 days blog (2010).  I am hoping to post a collection everyday for the whole month of February, I will tell you about something about each of the objects in the collections and the common link to the collecion.  For a chance to win a little prize, please feel free to leave me a comment letting me know what you have found that you just had to pick up to take home and keep. I will pick the winner at the end of the month.