hello and welcome...

Hello and welcome to my blog, where I love to share a little of my life with you...I am so lucky to be a textile artist and maker...inspired by the beautiful countryside around me and by all sorts of things in my life....if you fancy a creative WORKSHOP take a look here or taking a peep at what's in my ETSY shop click here...thank you for paying me a visit today!



Tuesday 31 May 2011

rest-oration....

how beautiful it is to do nothing...and then rest afterwards....


after a somewhat challenging fortnight... time for a leetle sofa therapy.... if a)I can find it under the teetering piles and b)get there before daughter esconces herself....and catch up with a week's viewing of the delights and floriferaliness of the Chelsea Flower Show - must put going there on my Wishful Thinkingness List (along with Slevedge Fair)...so inspiring and beautiful...fell in love with 'A Postcard from Wales' by Kati Crome and Maggi Hughes...it is a considerable relief to see that 'wild' gardening continues to be popular, as I look around our garden...which thrives on me doing nothing to it... with plants sorting themselves out and growing where they please and always room to squeeeeze just one more in....I like to think that our garden echoes the principles of William Robinson (see the RBC 'New Wild Garden by Nigel Dunnett) ...showing an 'ecological awareness with an artistic use of materials..... and a theme of sustainability'...so maybe not weeding or worrying is the way forward.... along with not hoovering in the house??

so here's a wee garden update... bit of a blue theme...till the pinks take over


the gorgeous blue of geraniums


the delicious creamy white lacy blossom of guelder rose


blueberries in waiting...


fabulous blue cornflowers


green and hairy poppy buds


tiny white flowered geranium, seeding itself everywhere


chives, grown for their flowers


 
fabulous alliums


spring brings aquilegias, as regular as clockwork


royal blues of more aquilegias...or Granny's bonnets
  


a group of elegant allium globes, rather tall... 


and....strange flower here...ok so the orchard gate isn't hen proof...

Tuesday 24 May 2011

craftyness, busyness and happenings.....


where to start with the last week or so...crafty beginnings as a craft fair loomed on the horizon....getting closer and closer so it was off down to the studio at every spare moment...as the dust bunnies grew into monsters and the piles of clean washing massed encroachingly on every available chair...(at least it was clean....)



and then there's the news about Sally the goose.... turns out she's Brian the gander!! ...this may explain 'her' predilection for hissing and menacing your ankles.... ( well how would you like to be called a soppy old girls name like Sally when you're a red blooded male?? - Brian) 


had to take Bethany cat t'vets with a wounded horridness on her bottom ...probably a cat bite.... kept her in the kitchen for a week for lots of tender loving care and cuddles –  she got used to having the run of the house and lying in state on all the sofas while she got better.....and was restored to her full cattyfluffyness, bless her...

the next casualty was Emily hen, victim of 'Sally' ....who attacked her badly around her head and she was battered and couldn’t see, poor thing....so she was kept in the kitchen in the big box we keep for duck/hen/goose transportering.... and slowly she has recovered.....she is now outside in the wee hen run and all the other hens are out and about...and there is now a big new sheep wire fence down between geese and hens in the orchard ....like a sort of Berlin wall, minus the searchlights and guards.....we thought about sending Brian to a new home ... but this is where he lives now, we couldn’t bear to send him who knows where...so he’s our goose come what may...tho' maybe the solution is to teach him to read.....



then there was the night of the big storm...the sky loomed darker and darker and the rain came and forked and sheet lightening.... we watched from an upstairs window as the drama unfolded and the thunder rolled round the hills and the storm came closer...all very exiting...



things in the studio getting a leetle tense by now as craftyness enters a phase of frenzyness of cutting, sewing, finishing 8 things at once, labelling (first design then print your labels the night before and then ask husband at breakfast on the day of the show to cut 'em up... which he heroically did) as everything piles up everywhere and there definitely isn't anything for tea...wishing you had another week, collecting up paraphenalia galore and throwing it into the back and front and side and boot of the car and screeching off at high speed...


then the pleasure of arranging everything on a table in a local village hall...the craft fair is a lovely homely affair with some delightful arts and crafts, friendly makers and wonderful stalwart ladies of the WI making tea and cakes, not a whole lot of customers but made some splendid new maker friends....sharing ideas and swopping ‘how to makes’with kindred spirits is priceless...there are some talented people out there.....


the end result, love it! well worth the effort....must go for a lie down now...



and then there's the gorgeousness of other makers' work...it is the highest of compliments to say I wish I'd done that.....beautiful handmade books presented in deliciously crafted bags....loveliness and practicality in delightful colours...who could ask for more? Talented Mrs Hill.... and connect with printmaker and bookbinder Ian Hill in his delightful musings at Printedland 


and then a different feel again from the beautifully made embroidered rich silk handbags and hand knitted delightfully twirly and lacy scarves in jewel colours, together with jewellery all patiently created by the talented Jackie Farnworth....



it is so wonderful to see handmade and making is alive and vibrant, creativity is so many things, art, craft, printing, carving, painting, jewllery making, knitting, sewing....so many talents one small village hall....the pleasure in the making is even more so when someone else likes what you make.... 

...and finally, BIG studio news - after much debate and wheeling and dealing we are putting in underfloor heating and a heat pump so it will be so cosy and ever so very ‘green’ next winter!!! and I won’t need the gloves and woolly hat....just the small effort of clearing out my life’s work and all my fabric stash(!) and an odd collection of furniture and more....so we now can’t move up at the house.....and my nice clean white studio is full of black dust and the smell of plaster.... but it will so be worth it! Daughter has been 'out-messed' as there is nowhere to sit in the lounge and there are teetering piles of delicious fabriccy necessities and pretty items and what nots I can't possibly do without....




and the last word today is from Basil who simply wonders what all the fuss is about........biggest decision is whether to stay in in hope of more cuddles and a third breakfast, or to head for the big outdoors....



Tuesday 17 May 2011

Mollie Makes ....

it better! Having had a whirly wild week or two, of which, more anon, it is soooo exiting and lovely to open a mysterious package brought to our postbox at the backdoor by our trusty postman .....and to find inside....the very FIRST issue of the delicious BRAND NEW Mollie Makes!! Huzzah for its twirly girly craftyness and light, bright and cheering colours and enticing pics and Makes and Makers and their scrumptious habitats and general gorgeousness! Am still lying down to recover from the sheer loveliness of the free gift and the feel of the paper and the smell of its newness and all the arty crafty yummyness.....

Tuesday 10 May 2011

homemade....

for the Royal Wedding Tea...Ok not at Buckingham Palace but A Royal Wedding celebration tea at a friend's house.... with Royal Pink Blancmange and all the trimmings and lots of playing in the garden whilst Mothers of Offspring watched it all again....the marvels of digital recording .... we had a lovely day of Royal Weddingness.... PJ's on the sofa and full colour televisual watching and radio 4 listening around the house.... just waiting to see Her Royal Kateness and THAT DRESS (tho' husband resolutely went out to do important and essential things outdoors having no truck with such Royal flummery) with early afternoon teapartying in a Village Affair....it's like buses, you don't have a Royal Wedding Teaparty for years then three come along at once....


....home made by daughter with right Royal Icingness and handmade Rosy Decorationing...


aren't they gorgeous...almost too pretty to eat...


I was brought up on homemade everything....shopbought cakes were a luxury (and a treat!).... my Mum knitted and sewed for 4 children and helped my father run a business or two...  I don't know how she did it all....and my Granny sewed and made and baked ...so it is always a pleasure to make and bake myself (using Grannys' old scales and cake tins) and even better when daughter does it too....she has "cooked" since she sat in a high chair with a bowl of flour and a spoon at the end of the table where I made bread or cakes or prepared tea...when she was really small she sat in her little baby chair ON the table... it's a bit different now she is 13 and taller than me and much better and more imaginative at the cooking lark...somehow making food everyday (takes the edge of imaginitve cooking...especially when one would rather be sewing...or gardening ... or lying down ....or anything but making tea....please will someone tell me what IS for tea??...








buns...or do I mean 'cupcakes' awaiting the full on icing and decorating treatment then ...some eating....and then there is the case of the amazing strawbwerry pavlova in all it's mouthwatering meringue magnificence, recently witnessed at the homecoming of the 'birdwatching race' team (daughter plus 2 friends) who spotted a magnificent 45 birds within a 1 mile radius of home and spent all day from 5.30 am tracking down the various feathered species whilst travelling 12 miles on foot and by velocipede and raising a good sum for RSPB...very deserving of such delicacies....we will return to you 'hills of the north'.... 





ooh we do like friends and eating and sharing...


must just mention the joys of new red shoes for the spring - make me feel like skipping around...



....maybe I'll get to wear'em with the dress...yes, I win the bet cos I wore it! Not quite as Gokked but still brave!

Got to go now...time to make tea....

Saturday 7 May 2011

crochet fever...

it started with an innocent visit to the library where waiting for me was a brand NEW utterly gorgeous and simply edible book! Emma Lamb and her gorgeous crochet 'ladies' was sooo inspiring and here, synchonicity again, was THE BEST BOOK EVER, by textile guru and purveyor of all textile gorgeousness Nicki Trench to get me going..... I have toyed with a leetle crochet in the past but .... this was irresistable! So as we set off to drive all the way to London I sat with a ball of wool and a crochet hook and started... (luckily husband is quite good at driving as I am rubbish at driving whilst crocheting despite being a Woman of Amazing Multi-tasking Ability)

several hours later at Grandma's house I emerge from my coma, the proud possessor of a long practice piece of double crochet 'fabric' made from some luscious Debbie Bliss wool...I have to say that speediness of crocheting is not my style but the sheer meditative bliss of crochet and the deliciousness of the outcome is utterly captivating and highly addictive..be warned! Just another stitch, just another row, just another colour....temptation!!!


On showing THE BOOK to my amazing Swiss Sis-In Law, whoosh, she was off, champion crocheter, hook and yarn twirling at speed until.... she had produced a cascade of dinky colourful flowers ...


and two pink and lovely roses(one pink and cream concoction by moi)

 


.....and umpteen fab stripey juggling balls for my husband to juggle whilst up a ladder...(he claimed it was to amuse the children)... I had to go and have a lie down to recover....and the children just fell over with all the exitement...





Reluctantly after a fun-and-easter-chocolate-filled week, we returned from the heat of the Deep South to the wet, cool, lamb-run hills of Cumbria, it has been like a time warp - we had visited summer and returned home to spring, as though we had been given spring again, like a gift, to savour....




mustn't forget the donkeys (Gwendoline on the left, and Neddy) who sadly don't travel so well tho' they do have their own passports and are threatening to come on our next visit to small cousins in Switzerland...and who are heart glad to be out in the sun again eating good spring grass ...tho' not too much...or laminitittititis may rear its ugly head once more (no joke - Ned)

  
... these many long years I have yearned to be able to crochet real Granny squares and here, wearing the new 'pinny of inspiration' is crochet square makery in action.... just another 340 squares to go and the blanket will be finished...


and what about going round and round to make a fabbydoo cushion, ok it's a tad small right now, but given encouragement I feel sure it will soon be a grown up cushion cover in its own right... or maybe it could be a coaster or just a lovely decoration....love mixing the colours...may need a trip to the local shoppes to restock.... 


looking round our homely home it appears that crochet has a role to play in soft and comforting throws and rugs, happy thrift shop purchases or friend-made....




and of course there's always someone who wants to share in the comfort factor....





only the best for the local bird population...


and even the chickens get in on the interior design act....




On the subject of hens, we have here Henny Penny's memorial, painted on the chicken shed - she had a short life with us but a happy one and is buried in the corner of the orchard,(ahh)... resting but not forgotten...


...by her friends Emily and Victoria


so what will happen next in this every day tale of country folk?....will crochet fever carry us to crocheted heaven..... or is it time for more prosaic matters of planting and sowing not sewing, time to consult the book of moon knowledge and see what kind of a planting day it is today.... 



...then to head out into the sun armed with seed packets and enthusiasm....it is a joyful time of year, as the days lengthen  and open out into summertime...