A party within a party....

Pointy Portrait - Pen and Ink, Stippled

The birthday girl

Apologies for the weird angles of the picture but I stupidly forgot to scan it before getting it framed so had to try and photograph it in the frame whilst trying to get as little flash reflection as possible!

The Invite and my source of gift inspiration!

Well, once again it's Friday and I find myself at the end of another week not having produced any wonderfully witty blog posts (not sure I ever do, mind you!) and not having produced any new art work either. I have come prepared with a reason/excuse however...last Saturday I flew over to St.Albans in England for the summer glamour party of the year! (And I've sort of been taking the rest of the week to recover - I'm so not a party animal any more!)

It was Farley (a nickname from school which has stuck even into middle-age!), my friend's, 40th birthday and she threw an amazing bash to celebrate. This was the same friend that I decided to do a portrait of, as a gift, as I simply didn't know what I could buy her that she wouldn't already have.

Anyway, it was a brilliant weekend that saw me in a dress and high heels (an extremely rare occurrence) and afforded me the opportunity to spend some time with my oldest friends from school who I don't get to see as often as I would like these days, what with us being scattered all over Northern Ireland and England.

We drank Pimms, sparkling wine and spiced rum at the private function room in a lovely restaurant which although a good size was only just big enough to hold the large number of folk who turned up and later a few die-hard folk (strangely that included me!) went to the VIP suite of a nightclub in a big old country estate and celebrated that last of our gang reaching that milestone birthday with more champagne and a few vodka cranberries!

I had hoped to post a few photos of the night on here but unfortunately I left my camera sitting on our kitchen table (I've a head and so has a pin, as my mother would say!) and I haven't managed to get any copies from the other party-goers yet.

That was the Saturday night and Farley's actual birthday was on the Sunday so a select few of us went for lunch and loaded up on carbs to soak up the alcohol of the night before at a very lovely Italian restaurant in town.  

Farley opened a few of her many, many presents before we left which included my portrait of her.  She seemed really surprised and pleased I had done something so personal for her (at least that's what I'm taking from her expression when she saw it and the hug she gave me afterwards!)

In the frame

Now, I really need to get cracking on stocking my stall for the Style fair - August won't be long in coming round!

If you fancy seeing a load of brilliant artwork from the corners of the globe then head on over to Paint Party Friday although I warn you - it's getting so big it's taking me all week to get round all the other blogs!