it's all about love today

Her Heart ~ Jo Bradford

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♥♥♥

How do I love thee?

Let me count the ways.

I love thee to the depth and breadth and height

My soul can reach, when feeling out of sight

For the ends of Being and ideal Grace.

~Elizabeth Barrett Browning~

♥♥♥

It's our 10th wedding anniversary this week. I can't believe it was a decade ago that we said our vows in front of friends and family in beautiful Tuscany. Time flies when you're having fun! {sigh} xoxo

Beholden To Nature Feature

Big thanks goes out to Kenna Foster, artist and Beholden To Nature Blogger, who wrote some very kind things about me on her blog today..... click here to read her super generous review of some of her favourite artists from all over the globe..... Thanks Kenna, you rock! xoxo

cheery colours

It's such a grey and rainy day today I needed a bit of sunny cheer....

☼ I took this last weekend on the bank holiday ☼

{photos by me.... Jo Bradford}

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Is there a more cheerful colour than yellow?

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I have finished beautifying my Dawanda shop with new listings and a new store banner.... I would love to hear what you think....

Green Island Art Dawanda Shop: http://en.dawanda.com/shop/GreenIslandArt

Dew Drop Diamonds

Dew Drop Diamonds by Jo Bradford

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Over hill, over dale,

Thorough bush, thorough brier,

Over park, over pale,

Thorough flood, thorough fire!

I do wander everywhere,

Swifter than the moon's sphere;

And I serve the Fairy Queen,

To dew her orbs upon the green;

The cowslips tall her pensioners be;

In their gold coats spots you see;

Those be rubies, fairy favours;

In those freckles live their savours;

I must go seek some dewdrops here,

And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.

*

~ A Fairy Song by William Shakespeare ~
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This item is for sale in the Green Island Studios Shop on Etsy, click here to visit my shop

Trunkt popular portfolios listing

Thanks Kate .... for pointing me to the Trunkt blog, where she spotted GreenIslandArt in a snapshot of some popular portfolios on the blog post about online wholesale directories.... sweet!!

My twitter portfolio is here.... www.trunkt.org/GreenIslandArt

Blue Sky Day

Yeay! It's a lovely blue sky for the start of the bank holiday weekend!

My Trunkt Portfolio

I have a Trunkt portfolio which I have neglected to mention here before... so to remedy this, here is a snapshot of my portfolio over on Trunkt.

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And here is a link to my trunkt portfolio : www.trunkt.org/GreenIslandArt

There are so many talented artists and designers over on Trunkt, I highly recommend that you head over there for a look, but be warned, you may be lost it there for some time. So set yourself up first with a nice cupcake and make a pot of tea to wash it down... and then delve into that cabinet of infinte curiosities that the Trunkt folk describe as their collection of exceptional artisans. Enjoy xoxo

Poppytalking

I thought these poppies looked like they were chatting to each other, the way their heads bobbed and nodded in the breeze. I went back to the house to grab a camera and capture the scene. So have you visited my gallery on Poppytalk yet? Come over and have a look around!

My poppytalk gallery: http://www.poppytalkhandmade.com/gallery71

monkey business

I hope you will enjoy this lighthearted poem from one of the Bradford household's favourite contemporary British poets, Simon Armitage.

☼☼☼☼

The sun comes like a head

through last night's turtleneck.

☼

A pigeon in the yard turns tail

and offers me a card. Any card.

☼

From pillar to post, a pantomime

of damp, forgotten washing

on the washing line.

☼

So, in the breeze:

the olé of a crimson towel.

☼

the cancan of a ra ra skirt,

the monkey business of a shirt

pegged only by its sleeve, the cheerio

of a handkerchief.

☼

I drop the blind

but not before a company

of half a dozen hens

struts through the gate,

looks round the courtyard

for a contact lens.

☼☼☼

~Simon Armitage~

(wo)mans best friend

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***

My family are all dog lovers and we are blessed with many beautiful and amazing dogs between us. Our pampered pooches rule our lives, in fact, as I type this I have Charlie, my full grown german pointer, is snuggled up on my lap snoring!!

My beautiful dog Charlie is in the top photo.... he's the solid brown pointer third left, first left is his black and white spotted sister, Missy, his brown and white spotty Mom, Lolly, and on the far right is his solid black sister Uno. The first photo is of my Mums new puppy Darwin, ain't he cute!!

songs of love and despair

{aire by jo bradford}

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Having recently introduced a friend to the joys of Il Postino last month, I have been re-reading Pablo Neruda's 20 LOVE SONGS AND A SONG OF DISPAIR recently, and it was very much on my mind during my recent trip to Spain. I have seen an edition of 20 Love Songs... that is illustrated by Pablo Picasso, I would really like to own one of those copies.... it's on my birthday wish list ;)

Neruda wisely said that "Poetry is like bread. It should be shared by all, by scholars and peasants, by all our vast, incredible, extraordinary family of humanity."

Here is my own personal repsonse to Neruda, visual poetry if you will. Just listed in my Green Island Studios Shop today. Click here to drop by.

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{amapola by jo bradford}

Plum Perfect

{plum perfect by jo bradford}

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♥♥♥

Happy Sunday!!

Whatever it is you are doing today...

I hope it's full of l♥ve, family and fun

xoxo

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This picture is todays brand new listing in the Green Island Studios Etsy shop.

Click here to visit my shop

♥♥♥

Etsy Front Page!!

Etsy Front Page 5/15/09 joelinha, originally uploaded by Etsy Front Pagers.

Thanks to my friend across the ether, Karen Faulkner, who let me know that one of my new pictures made the front page of etsy yesterday. Thanks too, to Joelinha, an etsy seller from Switzerland, who made the Front Page worthy treasury of her handpicked faves from around the wonderful world of etsy. (Click here to see Joelhinas shop)

Poppytalk Handmade blog mention

Earlier today as I was mooching around on the Poppytalk Blogspot, I was very happy to discover two of my pictures are featured alongside work from the fabulous Marys Granddaughter and BellaBlu Designs (such illustrious company!) in Jan's feature about The Handmade Artist.

Want to pop over to my Poppytalk Gallery to see what all the fuss is about, just click here....

Springtime Special Offer

{After The Rain by Jo Bradford}

♥♥♥

☼ SPRINGTIME SPECIAL OFFER FROM GREEN ISLAND STUDIOS ☼

I am offering free postage on all paper prints in my Dawanda Shop for the Spring months. Just write free p&p in the customer comments box when you proceed to checkout to qualify for this offer.

Click here to be transported to The Green Island Art Dawanda shop

♥♥♥

Thanks to the lovely folk at the Objects of Affection blog who featured my work on their Wednesday Wishlist feature yesterday. Cheers Lani!, you have a lovely blog!

☼

© All content all rights reserved

Daydream Believer

Daydream Believer by Jo Bradford

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I just listed these two new pictures in my Etsy shop, Green Island Studios today. I have been making lots of serene and calming pictures this past week, I guess it is in response to the hectic daily madness that is Chez Bradford these days, I need a little soothing of my frazzled soul.....

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Daydream Keeper by Jo Bradford

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p.s. These are more pictures from those I took on my recent holiday in Andalucia.

My Poppytalk Gallery

Well the latest Affordable Art Fair launched today at Vancouver based Poppytalk Handmade. I am proud to have 8 brand spanking new pictures to list in my Green Island Studios Poppytalk Gallery this time around... click HERE to come and have a look see!

Happy Mothers Day!!

It's Mothers Day in many parts of the world today..... “A mother is the truest friend we have, when trials heavy and sudden, fall upon us; when adversity takes the place of prosperity; when friends who rejoice with us in our sunshine desert us; when trouble thickens around us, still will she cling to us, and endeavor by her kind precepts and counsels to dissipate the clouds of darkness, and cause peace to return to our hearts.”

~Washington Irving~

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Make it mothers day every day ... mums and kids everywhere should go here and do something good....

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I miss my own Mum very much, and wish we lived nearer each other..... thinking of you Mum!!

Flight Path

Flight Path by Jo Bradford

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“When once you have tasted flight

you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward,

for there you have been,

and there you will always long to return.

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~ Leonardo da Vinci ~Italian engineer, painter, & sculptor (1452 - 1519)

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This picture is one of my newest listings in the Green Island Studios Print Shop

Surfer culture

Afternoon Social by Jo Bradford

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"I think surfers are truly advanced people.

That on any planet like ours,

when you get a culture that gets into surfing ...

it's a sign of maturity on the part of that species."

~

Excerpt taken from Interview: Dr. Timothy Leary The Evolutionary Surfer By Steve Pezman.

Article Originally Published in SURFER, January 1978

Crepuscular Rays

Spotlight by Jo Bradford

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It is interesting that the Ancient Greeks believed that sunbeams drew water into the sky (an early description of evaporation) and so they called this phenomena sun drawing water. Looking at this picture I took recently, you can see why they might have thought that!

These sunbeams are technically called Crepuscular rays. Rays of sunlight that appear to radiate from a single point in the sky. These rays stream through gaps in clouds the columns of sunlit air are separated by darker cloud-shadowed regions. The name comes from their frequent occurrences during crepuscular hours (those around dawn and dusk), when the contrasts between light and dark are the most obvious.

Paradise In A Dream

...Sometimes members of the public at large commit random acts of kindness that really make this artists day... for example, these lines were some of the snippets of classic poetry that were left under some of my art in my Dawanda Gallery today, by a lady called Gerdi, who is a crafter, art buyer and poetry lover from Münich, Germany. I thought I would pass it on.......

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"If a man could pass through Paradise in a dream,

and have a flower presented to him

as a pledge that his soul had really been there,

and if he found that flower in his hand when he awake -

Aye, what then?"

*

~Samuel Taylor Coleridge~

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p.s. Gerdi has a Dawanda shop called HoneyfromThe Hive where she sells lovely little lavender posie pockets and handmade bags.

The Evening Beam that Smiles the Clouds Away

Evening Beam by Jo Bradford

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“Be thou the rainbow in the storms of life.

The evening beam that smiles the clouds away,

and tints tomorrow with prophetic ray.”

~ Lord Byron ~

...

I guess that you may be starting to know me well enough by now, that you will know that I am an incurable romantic and arduous fan of Byrons words.

And the winner is.........

Build Me Up Buttercup by Jo Bradford

....

All the names went into my wide brimmed sun hat yesterday, and a name was duly drawn. Congratulations go out to LittleLovelies, the lucky winner of my April Pay-It-Forward Free Art Giveaway.

Nadine of LittleLovelies chose "Build Me Up Buttercup" as her favourite picture in my Etsy shop and so I am glad to make her wish come true. She can now look forward to receiving her artwork, usually priced $30 in my online shop, hand printed by me at Green Island Studios on beautiful fine art watercolour paper.

I look forward to hearing how Nadine plans to continue to pay-it-forward herself. And as I have enjoyed being part of this pay-it-forward thing so much, I think I will do another one soon. It seems like a good idea to just start generating pay-it-forwards for the pure pleasure of it, sending them out round the planet bringing happiness and good cheer, and more importantly, to encourage others to get involved in paying good fortune forward wherever they can.

Contented Me Feature

Thanks to the Chicago based interior design and fashion inspiration blog, Contented Me for featuring my Spring Greens picture today.

Contented Me is packed full of wonderful inspirations from interior designer Kristin.

I wholeheartedly recommend you stop by and look at all the lovely things she has found and shared, I am definitely inspired!!