HUH??

What's happened to Alexander MacKenzie Bear's blog???  It's disappeared off my reading list!!

More art journal pics.....

 ....added in some Bellagio tissue paper from my Las Vegas trip in 2007!!

 And then some Klimt-ish gilt work for the Royal Academy ticket pages....

And some gold paper from Meert pattiserie in Lille, France!

Random garden photos!!

 The downstairs neighbours have done some serious weeding recently - and the two fuschia bushes have flowers on them for the first time since I've lived here!!!  (that's 12 years!!)

AND we've got foxgloves!!

My sketchbook art journal so far...

 this is one of a series of books I've made with Khadi paper pulp as the sheets.  (the others are on my etsy shop).  This is what I've done so far....

 that little piece of plastic that the pen is sitting on ...... soap wrapper from a mini soap at the Lille hotel I stayed in last March, bound into the book!!!

 You can sew fabric into pulp paper as well, holds up really well.

I got a present!!

 Andrea got me a present out of one of those vending machines in the supermarket!!  It's a ball with Mickey on it!!!

 When we opened it up, there was loads of presents inside!!!

I got some wax crayons, a pencil, an eraser, a pencil sharpener and some pictures to colour in!!  How fun is that?!!!

Movie review - "The Count of Monte Cristo"

Movie review number13

PLOT

This movie stars Richard Chamberlain in the title role, and also Donald Pleasance, Louis Jordan and Tony Curtis.  It starts with Richard Chamberlain returning to Marseilles from a successful  shipping trip - one of those old sail cloth boats!!  Unfortunately, it seems the captain died on board and was buried at sea..... it later transpires that the Captain ordered a stop at Elba, and went to the island on his own..... where Napoleon has been detained!!!  OH!!
While Richard Chamberlain is planning his wedding to his sweetheart, Donald Pleasance (baddie banker) and Tony Curtis (baddie Army man) and another lowly miscreant from the ship (baddie thief) write a letter to Louis Jourdan (baddie lawyer) saying that Richard Chamberlain has been conniving with Napoleon to help his escape from Elba!!!
Louis Jourdan, the baddie lawyer, discovers a letter on Richard Chamberlain, from Napoleon to be delivered to Louis Jourdan's father with details of the escape plan.... and subsequently Richard Chamberlain is taken to Chateau d'If, a prison castle built on a rock with no means of escape!!  OH NO!
Several years later, Richard Chamberlain meets an Abbott, also imprisonned at the Chateau and they form an escape plan..... whilst digging the escape tunnel, the Abbott tells Richard C about a mystery stash of treasure on the island of Monte Cristo and that when Richard escapes, he must find it and spend in In Good Ways.  The Abbott later dies before the tunnel is finishes..... and when he's wrapped up in a tarpaulin for "disposal" at sea, Richard Chamberlain works out that he can change places with the Abbott and escape.... so he does!  When he's thrown into the sea, he cuts himself out of the tarpaulin and swims away from the Chateau d'If.....and is rescued days later by a small pirateering boat!!  They use the map to find the treasure on Monte Cristo and Richard Chamberlain has enough money to transform himself into The Count Of Monte Cristo!!!!!
Now, this is where the excitement begins!  The Count moves to Paris and introduces himself into High Society.  He opens a bank account with Donald Pleasance, The Evil Banker, who introduces him to Louis Jourdan, the Evil Lawyer!  Louis' daughter walks in on the meeting and takes him to meet Grandfather, who originally was to receive the letter from Napoleon!!!  Then, the daughter gets her boyfriend to introduce him to The Count, and the boyfriend turns out to be the son of Tony Curtis, the Evil Army man who ended up marrying The Count's childhood sweetheart..... who is the only person to recognise The Count for who he is!!!
The Count then goes about exacting his revenge on the Baddies...... in a rather exciting fashion! ...... but I won't spoil the story for you by telling you if he succeeds or not!!!  There's also a mad race against time at the end to see if he can win back his childhood sweetheart.

RECOMMENDED
Absolutely!  This is a fabulous story of love, revenge, escape, more revenge, swashbuckling, and a rather bittersweet ending.... story originally written by Alexander Dumas, famous Klingon.

SCORE

Beanie gives this 9.5 squeaks out of 10!!

RECOMMENDED SCOOBY SNACKS
Classic popcorn (sweet or salt) and Ice Cream to follow.

Making things......

 We made a book out of corrugated cardboard covered in onion paper on the outside...

 ...using bakers twine and the coptic binding method....

..... and brown wrapping paper on the inside covers....

..... and more brown paper from inside an Amazon box for the pages....

That's the back cover...

We went to the Movies.....

 Ages and ages ago, before we went to London, Andrea took me for a walk!!  We lost some tags on the way, while we were at it!

 That one we stuck on a bus timetable!!

 I love losing art for people!  It's great fun!

 Another bus timetable to stick a tag in!

 Eventually we ended up at the Odeon Cinema!!  We haven't been here before!  Well, Andrea has but that was before she met me.  We left this tag in the toilets!!

 We went to see "Behind the Candelabra" about Liberace, a famous Piano Player in Las Vegas!!  Michael Douglas was in it, and so was Matt Damon!  It was really good!  I want to get this on DVDVDVD now!

 On the way home, we lost two more of my tags, tied them on railings.

That was great fun you know.  If you see "Behind the Candelabra" advertised on telly, or in the movies or on DVD, get it and watch it!!  It's fab!

We Won at Wimbledon!!!

 Last weekend, we were watching Wimbledon on telly..... AND WE WON!!!  YAAAYY!!!

Andy Murray won the finals!!!!!  Mind you, he looks a bit stunned in that picture...!

African fabric duvet cover

This is my favourite single size duvet cover made out of a single piece of African fabric - which I bought from a fabulous shop in Brixton a few years ago!  I got a 6 metre length of that fabric for £5 in the January sales and it was the right width and more than long enough to make the duvet cover - just fold in half, sew down the long sides and a bit of the short side at the bottom, and bingo!!  Done!

Grafitti in Brighton.

 These are grafitti and stencils found around Brighton and Hove in the last few weeks.

 These next four (starting with the above) are the same image that I couldn't quite fit into one shot.  

Guess the word!!!

The above is a pub sign - not exactly grafitti but sort of!

ANOTHER day in London?!!!

 On Wednesday 3rd July, Andrea got me out of bed really early.  I wasn't happy because we were supposed to be on vacation this week and that means sleeping in late!!

 We got the bus into town and then we walked down here.  This isn't the way to the train station....!

 This is the Coach Station!!!

 We're going to London again?!!  Oh how fun...!!

 This coach was very full up with people so we didn't get a window seat.  That didn't matter though - I got to have a snooze in Andrea's pocket!!!  

 And here we are at Victoria Coach Station in London!!  We even got in 10 minutes early!!

 Then we crossed the road to get a C10 bus.

 We tied a tag to the seat in front.  I like doing that!

 Here we are going through Pimlico....

and we saw a funny Steampunk statue!

 and another statue of Millais, the artist!

 We're at the Tate Britain gallery!!  How exciting!  Another Art Expedition!!!

 We're going to see the Lowry expedition.  He did a lot of industrial paintings of the Midlands (around Manchester and Salford) of all the mills.  We used our Art Fund card and instead of paying the normal £16.50 entry ticket, we only paid £7.50!!!  That's brilliant!!

 We had time to take a pee first and I tied a CD to the door handle!!

 Then we went upstairs to see the expedition.  It was very busy, but not SO busy that we couldn't see the pictures for people in the way.  They were very interesting in an almost Impressionist way, but also very depressing.

We did some shopping in the gift shop afterwards too...

 And we got the expedition book.  I think it'll be a good read actually.....

 Then, on the way to the bus stop, we tied a tag to the railing.

 Not long for the next bus then...!

 Here we go - tied another tag to the seat in front!

And we're off...!

 We got off back at the Coach station but it wasn't time to go home yet.

 So we had a look round....

 and then went for lunch!!  Although it was very overcast today and not quite raining, it was very hot and muggy and Andrea was getting a headache.  We had a drink and the headache went away.

 And then we had a Minute Steak and Fries and that was FABULICIOUS!

 Then we decided to take a walk down here....

 To a little garden.

 With an amazing statue in it!!!

 Of a Lion and Gazelle playing a game of "You're It"!!!

 Coo!!  I love this statue!

Even the back paw is brilliant!!

 That's about who made the statue.

 RAAAAHHHRRRR!!!!!

 I love that!

 A row of arches....

 And then almost time to go home, so back to the coach station.

 We even had time to do a bit of life drawing!!!

 This time, we got a window seat on the coach!!!  Yup, tied on another weathergram!

 We're off over the Thames!  looks quite dramatic with the grey clouds....

That's Battersea Power Station, with the four chimneys!!

 Then Andrea got out the Jaffa Cakes!!!  We always have these when we get the Coach!!

 Num num num....!

 We saw lots of stuff out of the window!!  That used to be called Sharmans.

 More grey clouds...

 Oh!!!  George and Dilly's Martial arts centre!!!

 There's the South Downs!!  I love seeing those hills!!

 And we're back in Brighton!!!  With the sea breeze smacking you straight in the face!!!  We both started breathing in really deeply after a day in London with all the car fumes!!

 On the way to the bus stop, we spotted this grafitti!!  We hadn't seen this before!

Then down here to get home!!!  More deep breathing with the sea air!!!

 We got some more postcards to send people too.

And we also got some spiffy coffee (we had some Thursday morning, it's yummy!) and some chocolate and a pretty badge (button).  What a fun day out...!