I'm doing a happy dance

We went shopping on Saturday for my birthday prezzy (yes, I know it's early but it was a holiday weekend so we thought we would take advantage of it).

I have recently discovered Vietnamese Lacquer paintings and I have to say that they are absolutely beautiful (I like the work of Dinh Quan which is pictured here - fab aren't they!!)..... so when Chris asked me what I wanted for my birthday I said that I quite fancied a painting. The first gallery we went into had one that was incredible but it was also bloody huge and bloody expensive so we headed to another Gallery that my friend had told me about. They didn't have any but the woman who owned the place told me I was better buying one in Vietnam because they are a hell of a lot cheaper there - She also said that some Vietnamese artists are known for painting the same thing again and again then selling them as original pieces so there are god knows how many 'originals' of each painting!! (I'm sure that not all Vietnamese artists do this)......so that was that idea out the window!!

Then I remembered that there was an amazing cheese board made from bamboo that I had seen. It had a hole at the side for your wine bottle and then a flat section for cheese and biscuits and it turned - very unusual and I completely loved it!! We went to the shop....it seems that everyone had loved it.....they had sold out and the woman in the store didn't think they would get any more!! (Now I was getting a bit depressed not to mention running out of ideas!!).

We then had a wee walk through Paragon Passage which has a vast array of unusual Thai arts and crafts but I just wasn't seeing anything that jumped out at me and I didn't want to get something for the sake of it so I told Chris that we should just call it quits. He decided to have a quick nosy round the CD's so I went down to the art department and that is when I saw it!!! It's beautiful isn't it......has a built in lightbox and everything!!! I went from feeling slightly depressed to absolutely over the moon (that is over THE moon not over Moon the person!!) It arrived on Sunday so we went out and bought a chair and a little elephant table to go with it - this is the view I now have when I am drawing!!

(Not only that but Chris also bought me a huge cutting mat, another cutter with blades (for my wall decals), some fine tip pens, a couple of pencils and a carry case to put my prints - I am very spoiled and am doing a happy dance!!)