Walter Sickert....stirred something in me

On my birthday last week Matt and I took a trip to Oxford. We went to visit the Ashmolean museum for the second time. It's been a couple of years since we last went and quite a lot has moved/changed.

The last time I went I didn't have the time or the head space to really enjoy the paintings and the tapestries and the India dept. as I would have liked so this time since it was just Matt and I, we strolled around looking at the items, which stirred something inside us both.

Matt of course was checking out all the pottery (he's a slipware potter if you didn't know) and I fell in love with the Indian God sculptures and the Linens, the Egyptian Gold and the areas dedicated to all the great painters.

Walter Sickert though was the one who's paintings made me stop dead in my tracks. Not because I have anything in common with the paintings, but because they are so thought provoking and rather ahead of their time.

This one above just blew me away. I stood in front of it for quite a while before Matt found me.

I took this close up pic along with the storyboard for you all to see.

I love the expressions and the bottle on the mantlepiece and how everything in the home is as it should be...apart from the occupants.

Saddening. I almost want to jump in the pic and say "You go one way...You go the other"!

But at the same time I can see why they stay as they are.

Thoughts?

7 Sins...

Stylin': Deep, dark chocolate cake with fondant icing fingers and cinnamon quills with thick dollops of whipped cream, dusted with mixed spice.

Scentin': 7 sins...of naughtiness. Banana cake infused with Ginger, topped with Vanilla Frosting and drizzled with melted Dark Chocolate. Toasted Madagascan Vanilla bean with a dribble of Honey and finished with a scattering of Hot Buttered Popcorn.

Butterin': Un-refined, dark, organic Cocoa Butter from Kenya.

A bit more....I decided to have a pop at creating a cake inspired soap after watching Kia from Beacon Creations do her thang on YouTube. She has such a flair for creating the ultimate in textured tops and for creating a want for her products inside me so deep that I want to buy her soaps all the time just lately. (i just placed an order...shhh!).

She makes all kinds of different soaps and I love how she talks you through what she's been doing. Her video's also chill me out so much so that I watch them before slumber.

Anyways, this soap is a one off from me. I rarely use 100% fragrance oils in my soaps so this is like somebody else made it. I walk into the curing room and sniff it not really registering that I made it!

I was so happy with the results though, really. Thanks Kia!

At this time of the year my thoughts turn to pastels, to finely iced cakes and to flowers and leaves...and my birthday is just around the corner so I am starting to feel very spring-like and inspired by what's happening around me in the outside world so much that my soap ideas are now flowing for summer soaps.

I have a few from the original line up to make once my Patchouli oil turns up (how I got so low I don't know), then I'll be cracking on with some newbies again.

Hope you like this one.

x