#projectcoaltit

According to the power of google, the collective noun for tits is 'A Banditry of Tits'. The birds fledged from their 'nest' yesterday and the banditry flew, by power of Royal Mail, to various destinations. As usual I managed to leave my printing until closer to the final posting date as is totally necessary, and with the end of term being so unsurprisingly busy, you would think I would start earlier..... but no. I did actually start the print block a good while ago, and it didn't take too long to carve as it wasn't a very big print block, but actually printing it was left until a little later!

I am currently suffering from a horrible cold, which includes really poorly ears - they are hurting more as I stare down at the computer, so you may well be blessed with a very short blog! 

Dave (the suffering husband) also took some photos of me printing which are in the first slideshow, they are really good and hopefully show a different persepctive of the printing process. This is the first time I have printed in the back room - I usually use the kitchen - but as he was cooking and I *really* needed to get the printing done, it had to be used. What came in Very Handy was the advent calendar bag string on the wall, which meant I could peg up my cards to dry. It almost felt like a 'real' studio. I was also given an early Christmas present (the husband claims it was from the dogs!) of a paper cutter. This made my job much easier. I did a very limited run of eight Coal Tits printed onto white paper and then mounted on gold and green, and having the paper cutter made this a much quicker process (after handcutting all of the mounts last year for #projectrobin with scissors!) Thank you dogs :-) Thank you Dave for the photos and for lending the dogs some early Christmas money! I took a few photos as I went along too which I have also added below in the second slide show.

I chose a Coal Tit as I wanted another 'winter' bird that could be seen around the gardens and hedgerows at this time of year. We currently don't get Coal Tits in our garden, but we have noticed Blue Tits and Great Tits lately which have been a very welcome addition to the pigeon, Dunnock and Robins.

OK, time to add some pictures. Wishing everyone a very happy Christmas, whatever you are doing, and a healthy and peaceful New Year.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read my blogs over the year (there must be someone who reads them, surely!) and for all of the kind comments I have received via facebook, twitter and instagram too. It is really appreciated, and encourages me to keep going! I have a couple of other ideas coming soon for the New Year. Here's to a creative 2017!

alix xx

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