Poppycock & Other Creative Nonsense

Bob's been to Scarborough again!

2012-01-28T20:53:00.000Z

It's been quite a busy end to my week. Thursday and Friday saw me delivering and then collecting a selection of my textile artwork for assessment in order to be re-admitted as a full member of East Riding Artists. The work is assessed by people such as museum curators, college lecturers and then we get to know in about a week if we are successful. I have submitted myself as a textile artist this time rather than a digital artist so we'll see what happens!
It's a weird selection process because you don't necessarily get in if your work is good, some excellent artists have been turned down. Maybe it comes down to personal taste of the assessors.

I was up early today as I had to take my car to Scarborough for it's MOT and service, this is always a bit of a pain as the MOT falls in the middle of winter and I usually find myself traipsing around in the cold for half a day whilst it's done. I was lucky this year as the sun was shining in Scarborough, chilly though.

I took Bob the Bunny and the night before we had searched Trip Advisor to see if there was a nice cafe we could kill a bit of time in. I found 2 which sounded good and not your usual seaside greasy spoon. The one I went for as I came to it first was Eat Me cafe, near the Stephen Joseph Theatre.

It was quite nice inside, calming shades of grey, interesting artwork and a friendly atmosphere.

It's gets better, when the tea came just look at the lovely tea cosies, Bob was impressed with the knitting!

I'd read they do a good mushrooms on toast and as there wasn't much time for breakfast this morning, mushrooms was my food of choice.

Wow this was such a substantial plate full and it was devine, I felt like I'd gone to mushroom heaven, the creamed sauce was delicious, the bread was just lovely. My dining partner had the veggie breakfast which was equally good.
Eat Me cafe was a little gem of a place, highly recommended and I will look forward to going again.

Other lovely things I found in Scarborough were fabric.... but not to buy this time! Quite expensive interior fabric which I snapped through the shop windows.

I bought some wool in a really good craft shop I hadn't been in before, despite the lady saying she'd been there for 9 years! These 2 balls of patterned wool were cheaper than I saw in a shop in York last week.

I also bought a really small crochet hook as I'm having a go at the wrist warmers in the current Mollie Makes, I've made a start when I got back this afternoon, wonder how long these will take or if I'll stick it out..... watch this space for progress!

Not a bad morning, car done by lunch time & scraped through the MOT so it'll keep me a going a bit longer.
Time to relax now with the coffee machine and a Creme Egg!

Angel rabbit finished

2012-01-24T14:55:00.000Z

The strange little white rabbit I have been working on has now turned into an angel rabbit. Possibly a guardian angel rabbit.
With my new found knitting skills I have knitted wings out of some sparkly pink wool, it was quite horrible to knit with as there were many strands & I kept sticking my needles through. I persevered and this was the best I could hope for.

As you can see I didn't stop there, I made her a little pinny too!

That may be be it for strange rabbits for the time being!

I ordered some circular needles on Sunday and they have just arrived so I can't wait to try them out. After much searching the internet for KnitPro ones, I found the cheapest starter set in acrylics to be through Forest Fibres on Amazon and the free express postage is very impressive.

Knitting in York & lovely haberdashery

2012-01-21T18:00:00.000Z

I'm pleased to say that the knitting course in York went ahead this morning with 5 of us attending.
The courses are held inside Me & Mrs Fisher cafe which I hadn't been to before but the building is a recogniseable sight in York as it is inside the 'Bile Beans' building.

On my walk there I saw this unusual curved building which I haven't particularly noticed before on Monkgate Bar.

Also saw these nice flowery pots in a shop nearby, I think it was Avoca pottery.

Back to the course. It's up above the cafe with a view across to the walls and the Minster which would be lovely on a fine day but it was a bit bleak and blustery.

Jo was our knitting teacher and this is the sort of thing she does, isn't this Fairisle hat beautiful. She also had some fab socks on she'd knitted.

The course was great, we all seemed at the same level and wanted to know the basics of increasing and decreasing and for me this was a major progression and achievement from my 'square knitting'.

This is the start of my increasing. I hadn't used circular needles before, I thought they were only for socks but clearly not and they were great to use, I want some.

Here's my first square, increased and decreased to create a diagonal pattern where the increase is on the end of each row. I also saw how to increase in the middle of a pattern.

I then tried 2 colours and was quite happy perfecting the increase and decrease until I felt happy I'd remembered it.

I completed this square and then amazing how time flies when you're having fun, 3 hrs had passed and that was our time up. Really enjoyed it and I'm looking forward to trying my new skills out on something simple.
Jo reckons we could tackle a simple sock pattern next so that might be a course she does in the future.

I had chance for a quick look in the little haberdashery shop they also run above the cafe and it had some gorgeous things. They sell bits of vintage fabric of which I got the piece below, Liberty fabric & ribbons, Clothkits stuff, and other beautiful trimmings both new and vintage.

Didn't get chance to sample the cafe although I noticed the cakes looked delicious but I'd had a really good morning.

It got better when I got home, a new delivery of coffee beans had arrived and more fabric and trimmings, the giveaway I won from Becky's blog so thanks Becky they are lovely.

Crochet cherries & another strange knitted rabbit!

2012-01-19T21:22:00.000Z

The internet is working, ... slow, but working, so I'll do a quick post.
I'm going to reveal another one of my strange knitted rabbits because it made me laugh when I started stitching it together!

It looks a bit like a snow-rabbit, I think the arms are too long but then of course there's no pattern to it, it's just rectangles stitched together. I fancy stitching some wings and turning her into an angel-rabbit, I think that might be fun.

Fingers crossed it looks like the knitting course is still going to run on Saturday so I'm really looking forward to it and hopefully I might have some new knitting skills by this time next week.

Slightly more successful is this little crochet cherry brooch. I can't remember if I have posted it before as I made it some months ago but I am just about to stitch a pin on and make a brooch for my sister.
It really is quite small as you can see from the 10p on the 2nd picture, I crocheted it with some thick embroidery silks. Probably won't do any more this size as it's really too fiddly and uses a 1.5 hook.

Frustration - Folksy & the internet

2012-01-17T12:53:00.000Z

Trying to use the internet has been like pulling teeth here for the last few days and there's no sign of any let up yet.

Our service provider is Virgin Media and we suffer with very slow download speeds at the best of times, usually lucky if it's 1.3Mb/s. It's got worse since new year, I'm about 2 miles outside Driffield and BT are currently installing the high speed fibres into Driffield, this seems to be affecting our line because the last few evenings it drops off at about 9.30pm and doesn't appear whilst next morning. This is very frustrating for me as I'm a late night worker and surfer. It is doubly frustrating because when the high speed Broadband goes into Driffield, I won't benefit, only the people in the town will.

Last night I was at a ladies networking event and the speaker did a talk on social media, mainly about Google+, we all rushed off home to investigate it and guess what, the internet had gone again when I got back! Grrr!
Of course that then leads to waiting ages on the phone to try and talk to BT and then Virgin about the issues and getting no sense out of either.

Equally frustrating, yesterday I tried to list a couple of new items in my Folksy shop and the description panel kept telling me there was an invalid character but it didn't highlight what it was. I couldn't even see any odd characters like ampersands or such and I kept reloading text and pictures but with no joy. I gave up. If only the new Folksy website told you what you were doing wrong!
This morning through trial and error and no logic I have finally listed 2 new items. Tea and cupcake brooch and some knitted butterfly wrist warmers.

I feel like I've lost the will to live now as it's a constant battle at the moment to go online.
Hence I may go a bit quiet.

Scarborough, fabric & vintage cards

2012-01-14T20:00:00.000Z

Very cold here today but it was a lovely sunny morning so got wrapped up and went for the first seaside stroll in Scarborough since Christmas.
Lots of surfers riding the waves today.

I popped into the Sewing Centre as they were having a sale and I haven't been in for months, however I couldn't particularly see any fabric in the sale and it looked to be just 10% off some haberdashery stuff.
I bought this fabric, I loved the vintage looking rose design and I thought the 2 Oriental looking designs would make nice Japanese pincushions.

I went to a place I've never been to before and that was the Scarborough Market Vaults, it's underneath the indoor market and it's an eclectic mix of quirky stalls and shops, lots of vintage and antique stuff.

You can maybe see a palm readers shop on the above pic and there was a proper record shop, below.

I found a really interesting shop with a lovely lady who makes textile and bead jewellery, felted bags, scarves and all sorts of other stuff. She is in the process of expanding the shop and will start to sell other vintage items from her stash.

I initially went in her shop as I spotted a rack of vintage greeting cards which I thought looked pretty convincing if they were reproductions but it turns out they were the genuine article. These are original 1930's cards which she came across when an equally old shop was closing down and the cards were in excellent condition in their original packaging.
This was such an exciting find for me as I'm really into my greeting cards for both pleasure and inspiration in my own designs.

Look how lovely they are inside.

In the coming months she also has a collection of rescued Edwardian photos from a gallery, some old postcards, & some fabric, all sounds very interesting so I'm pleased I discovered the vaults today.

Finally, quite a pretty bowl I spotted on an antique stall, I liked it because I have some 1970's fabric like this!

Knitting next week hopefully!

2012-01-13T14:22:00.000Z

I planned to go on a beginners knitting course tomorrow but when I looked at the description of the beginners and then the improvers class the week after, I started to question which would suit me best. I talked to the lady at the cafe and she thought I'd be best on the improvers class as I can at least knit & pearl.

So hopefully I will be able to get my first look at Me & Mrs Fisher cafe in York on 21st although I've been told there's only me on the course so far and it may not run if they don't get a few more bookings. Maybe some of the beginners doing tomorrows class will enjoy it so much that they jump onto improvers the next week!

Until then I'll just keep plugging away at inventing knitted things!

Not getting much crafty stuff done at the moment as quite a few design jobs have come in along with art needed for East Riding Artists. First off is a piece of artwork which follows on from the Art in the Garden visits we did last year. I'm doing a piece of digital art and I need to get it finished more or less in the next few days.

Then I have to get a selection of new work together to reapply as a full member of ERA. It is 3 years since I was accepted and every 3 you have to send fresh work for assessment and reselection. I'm changing from being a digital artist to a textile artist for this submission so it's a big unknown as to whether I will be selected. All will be revealed at the end of Jan.

A Red Bag from the Green Rabbit!

2012-01-10T14:08:00.000Z

Lucky me, look what the postman brought this morning, a parcel to open, doesn't it look nice.

Wowee, it's a beautiful hand knitted Nordic bag by the talented Green Rabbit designer Vivienne.

Vivienne is currently having a winter sale in her Etsy shop and I decided to snap up this lovely festive looking bag so that I can enjoy using it next winter (lets get this winter out of the way first)!
The bag is lined with a lovely tartan fabric and even has a couple of gadget pockets inside, it is just a lovely, beautifully made item and I think Bob the Bunny will enjoy riding inside it from time to time!
He's already taken a liking to it!

The bag complements a selection of other festive gifts I got with a red Nordic feel as you can see here, clockwise from bag, knitted cushion cover, Christmas jumper and M&S chocs.

You will find other lovely things knitted & crocheted by Vivienne via the link below. and the sale is on until end of Jan.
Thanks V x

http://www.etsy.com/shop/GreenRabbitDesigns

How to make your own Bob the Bunny!

2012-01-07T20:27:00.000Z

As I may have mentioned before I am rubbish at knitting, I can do knit and pearl (or is it purl) and I make squares or rectangles. This may be about to change, she said hopefully, as I have made enquiries about going on a beginners knitting course at Me & Mrs Fisher cafe in York next Saturday.... fingers crossed!

With my limited knitting skills it gets a bit boring doing scarves or squares for blankets, so with that in mind I thought about sculpting or shaping a square into something and the result was the birth of Bob the Bunny.

So here in all it's glory is a little tutorial to make your very own bunny like Bob.

You need a small quantity of wool, appropriate size needles, stuffing, black embroidery thread, felt.

1. Have fun choosing some pretty wool and then knit a simple square or rectangle, mine was a rectangle & measured approx. 9cm high x 11cm wide.

When you've cast off leave a longish tail for stitching up later. Decide which is the front and with some embroidery thread or black wool stitch his eyes and a cross for his mouth at about a third of the way down from top.

That is the main body done.

2. Now for his ears, knit 2 more smaller rectangles, mine were approx. 3.5cm high x 3cm wide. Again cast off and leave a tail on each to stitch up.

3. Now we stitch up Bob's body. We start at the top, if you've got a tail of thread at the top great (if not thread up some of the wool) and with a darning needle do a running stitch along the top edge. When you get to the end pull to draw it up as you can see in the photo, make sure it's drawn up fairly tight so that there's no hole for the stuffing to escape.

Next stitch the 2 sides together down the back of Bob and finish by stitching in your thread or if you have a loose tail push it into the body.

4. Now do similar with the 2 ear pieces. Do a running stitch along the top edge and draw up to form a slightly pointed ear shape and stitch the sides of the ear leaving the bottoms open.

We are ready to start stuffing!

5. First push a bit of stuffing into each ear to give them a bit of strength.

Stitch the ears onto the top of Bob's head.

6. Now stuff Bob's body, hiding any loose tails of wool if you hid them inside earlier.

7. Nearly done, cut a small circle of felt at whatever width the base is and stitch that in place to keep the stuffing inside.

Voila! Bob is done.

Up to you if you want to add a little bunny tail or perhaps dress your bunny up like the cuties below.

Have fun and if you get cracking now you can make a whole family of these for Easter Bunnies!

Coordinating vintage fabric designs

2012-01-03T15:52:00.000Z

I start my blogging year with a new fabric design to enter into this weeks Spoonflower contest.
The criteria was to produce a yard of fabric with 4 coordinating fat quarters, any subject matter you like but one section had to be stripes and one spots.

I decided to go with one of my existing vintage fabric designs which you may recognise from older posts, it's the one in the top left which is a collage I did with old greeting cards and postcards.
The 3 other quadrants are new. We have another collage in the bottom right which I've done using my stamp collection, some postcards and old book covers. The spots fabric has a scan in each spot of an embroidered piece of vintage linen and the stripey fabric is simply a seaside stripe picking out colours from the collages.

New Years Eve

2011-12-31T21:26:00.000Z

Finally closing the doors on a year which I think had more troughs than peaks so I look forward to next year.
Here is one final offering for my blog, an interesting quote I thought: -

An optimist stays up until midnight to see the new year in. A pessimist stays up to make sure the old year leaves. ~ Bill Vaughan.

I think I'm sat somewhere between both thought paths tonight, It doesn't help when I feel like I may be getting another sore throat so I might crack into this, my miniature bottle of quite expensive Welsh whisky which I had been saving for a rainy day!

Happy New Year everyone, hope you all have a happy, healthy and hugely creative new year! x

A giveaway over at YellowButtercup

2011-12-30T22:50:00.001Z

If like me you are feeling a bit post-Christmas blues and you want cheering up with the prospect of winning a blog giveaway, pop over to Becky's blog at The YellowButtercup and see her lovely fabric and lace up for grabs.

You'll also see some lovely ideas for things to make and great recipes.

http://www.theyellowbuttercup.blogspot.com/2011/12/giveaway.html

One last Christmas thing - Groovy card

2011-12-28T10:24:00.000Z

I had to share this with you.
I like Christmas cards,.... making, giving and receiving. Every now and again I come across one which really makes me smile and this year I received this exquisite offering.

I particularly like the Victorian illustrative style of the 'santa' elves, I like the fact it almost has sinister overtones as we are looking at a toadstool rather than a mushroom, but all that is counteracted by the sugary pink colours and the glitter.
A real feast for the eyes & one to keep and frame up for next year I think.

Is it all over yet?!!!

2011-12-26T16:55:00.000Z

Christmas boredom has set in and we haven't even had the TV on, anyway I'm back at my desk processing some xmas photos.

I don't really get excited about Christmas anymore, that in part is due to my life being at a transition stage where I want to move on to a different part of the country and start a new lifestyle. As some will know, I live in a rented cottage & a lot of my stuff is still in boxes so as I can't get all my trimmings out, it never really feels festive here. This is the second year I haven't made the effort to locate my tree and so my alternative christmas tree this year has been an Ikea metal stand with a few of my favourite decorations which friends have given me over the years.

Christmas day itself was nice and quiet and went to plan with a brisk morning walk around Scarborough, I took Bob the Bunny because he hadn't been before.

We started at the south cliff end, coming down the cliffs towards the beach and past the beach huts.

Bob had a look through the glass into the Spa. It was all very nice and quiet and quite unusual not to see all the glowing lights of the amusements, must be the one day of the year when it all grinds to a halt.

We walked back to the car a similar route but de-toured through the Italian Gardens so that Bob could see if there were any fish in the ponds.

Time to go home now and prepare a festive lunch!

I took an alternative, stress free option for Christmas lunch, every year I seem to spend hours in the kitchen preparing but this year I decided would be different. No cooking as such and all the vegetables would be eaten raw apart from the new potatoes. Have you guessed what I prepared, .... I did a cheese fondue! I have to say it was really enjoyable and despite the thought of cheese being a bit unhealthy, it felt quite good dipping in raw mushrooms, cauliflower, carrots, celery, parsnips, and then a few new potatoes!
For once I wasn't over stuffed with food and managed a bit of pudding.

I realised I hadn't opened the presents and there were some lovely things, some people had taken on board how cold it is in this house so I got some lovely thick socks, fluffy slipper boots, scarves. Chocolate vampires and other tasty treats.

An interesting selection of fat quarters.

This Mrs Beetons cook book which has been revised and brought up to date by a guy who I was at school with which is why I think my mum got me it. It's a nice book but being a vegetarian half of the book will be redundant as there are pages & pages of meat, fish and poultry. That said, I've found some nice pudding, bread and jam recipes which I'll be able to try.

Thankfully it has been mild.

Happy Christmas everyone!

2011-12-24T14:57:00.000Z

I want to wish all my bloggy friends old and new a Very Happy Christmas and an exciting and creative 2012! x

Christmas Eve coffee & tea

2011-12-24T14:47:00.000Z

Had a lovely morning in York, no stress, no crowds, no shopping.
Arrived early to get parked and I was strolling alongside the river by 8.30, it was a wee bit chilly, I took Bob the Bunny and he wore his new red winter scarf.
Here he is just going by Cliffords Tower into town.

Not long before we reached the warm welcoming door to Spring Espresso on Fossgate.

Steve had just opened up and I started with a delicious flat white.

Enjoyed some sticky toffee cake, eaten too quick for a photo!

An espresso followed by a piccolo and then Bob tucked into a juicy cinnamon bagel!

The purpose of the trip was also to buy a Piaoi tea pot which is a fantastic device from China to make the perfect cuppa. I went mad and bought the tea pot with a special cup and some interesting loose tea, Vietnamese Puerh, Pouchong and Dragon Well. And, just incase I run out of coffee beans over Christmas I bought a bag of Melpomene Espresso blend.

So I think that's me about done now and here's one final photo of some odd decorations I saw in a shop on Fossgate, not sure if I like them or not.

Last few handmade gifts

2011-12-23T21:01:00.000Z

I think I'm finally on top of making things for Christmas and so my target in the next 24 hours is to try and clear my crafty stuff from the dining table which is where I do most of it.

I made food gifts for friends yesterday which included:

Spicy roast nuts.

Savoury oat biscuits for cheese.

White chocolate Irish cream truffles, too much of a faff so only did 7 and ate 1!

Florentines, my particular favourite.

A few of the citrus rinds were about done so I dipped them in G & B's white chocolate. (all the nibbles are for my friend who only eats white choc).

Here they are all wrapped and tagged ready to make up a little hamper.

Finally I also finished a few last minute recycled paper Yule garlands.

That's me nearly done, I can't be bothered to do much cleaning as I feel I'm just setting myself one task after another and the to do list is endless if I think about it. Besides which there will probably be no visitors as I like a quiet Christmas.

I am looking forward to a nice potter around York tomorrow morning as a form of relaxation, no shops or shopping just a trip to one of my favourite coffee shops and I might buy a special teapot there.

Today has a yellow theme

2011-12-22T11:22:00.000Z

I had one of those moments in a charity shop yesterday where something was sitting on a shelf just waiting for me to buy it.
How about this super groovy vintage coffee set.

I love the colours and the simple, floral graphic design. The pots are Seltmann Weiden porcelain from Germany and that's about as much as I know, not sure of the era despite the fact they look 70's.

Continuing the yellow theme. I have set aside today for baking as I'm preparing foodie gifts for some friends pressies.
I started blanching some citrus rinds yesterday ready to turn them into crystalised rinds dipped in chocolate.

It smelt like marmalade which I hate.
The rinds have now gone through the syrup stage and are spread out to air dry. Only one problem, I don't think there's anywhere warm enough in this house to get them all dried and crystalised and chocolate dipped for tomorrow when I deliver my gifts.

I tried to speed it up by putting it in the plate warming oven of the aga but that only seems to melt the syrup and make them sticky again! Oh well, they look pretty, I'll just have to keep my fingers crossed. If they are not ready I'll keep them and jar them for cake making.
Off to roast spicy nuts now and make white chocolate truffles.

Solstice Greetings

2011-12-21T16:39:00.000Z

So here we are again on the shortest day of the year and at the start of the new solar year. The Norse people celebrate Yule at this point in the year and look forward to the rebirth of the sun. I am also looking forward to those lengthening days again and that bit extra light and warmth to help me through the winter.

The painting is a watercolour I did quite a few years ago as a festive card illustration.

Christmas jam done

2011-12-20T11:41:00.000Z

Last week I read about microwave jam making on Lavender Attic's blog and I was quite intrigued as it sounded foolproof. Having only made jam once before, this summer, I thought it was worth a go and would make some nice festive pressies if it worked.

Here it is halfway through the microwaving and beginning to look and smell like jam!

All done and looking good so in the jars and fingers crossed it sets!

Ta dah! it set beautifully. I want to thank Sally at Lavender Attic for introducing me to this fantastic, simple way to successfully make jam. I'm converted! Here is the link to Sally's post with the recipe and details

http://lavenderattic.blogspot.com/2011/07/jamtastic-2.html

I used a mixed pack of frozen fruit from the supermarket containing raspberries, blackberries, redcurrants & blackcurrants and I took inspiration from a more recent post of Sally's to add Port to make it festive. It has an intense colour and delicious flavour.

New beakers and a gift

2011-12-18T21:33:00.000Z

I have a couple of new drinking vessels. First off we have a retro melamine beaker from Paperchase with some very groovy graphics on it.

Here's the other side of the beaker and a cute Hello Kitty mug which was a real bargain at 99p from Home Bargains.

I received a festive gift in the post from a dear friend and she manages to find the most unusual gifts and wraps them so beautifully. I never want to spoil them by opening all the lovely ribbon and tissue but on the other hand it is such a joy. One pressie was intended for opening pre-Christmas as it contains something I may want to use.

Can you see what it is..... It is a Nutcracker cupcake decorating kit, wow the packaging looks like one of those mini theatres, it is so exquisite that I hope my buns will be worthy of using the figurines!

Spoonflower fabric used for candle lantern covers

2011-12-14T22:08:00.000Z

This particular piece of Spoonflower fabric has arrived in time for me to make a few festive lantern gifts.

I used some of my artwork to make fabric lantern covers in a very simple way.

I made a rough paper template which would wrap around a standard drinks tumbler, a bit like those sleeves you get around coffee mugs. I then transferred that shape onto the computer & rejigged a selection of some of my festive designs into the template and managed to fit 7 of these shapes on a fat quarter.

Just a case of cutting them out and doing a small hem around the edges. Then as you'll see below I have attached a loop and button to the sides for keeping them attached around the glass.

Not sure if you can see on the photos but I stitched on a few small sparkly, glass beads into the sky area of the designs to see if the candle light will twinkle through.

All that remains is to pop a tea light candle into the glass and voila! you have an unusual festive fabric candle lantern. Being in a tall sided glass means they are good in a draught and quite safe too.

Hornsea Pottery card & stamped festive cards

2011-12-13T14:20:00.000Z

Just starting to get back on track following a bad cold and it's time to think about Christmas cards.

Firstly: A couple of months ago I was asked to design the Christmas card for the Hornsea Pottery Collectors' & Research Society which I did using a cat cruet as the main feature. Here is the result, all printed now and sent to members with the Christmas newsletter.

I then started to make myself a few cards.
Something fun and quick. I'm a big fan of recycling newsprint so I dug out some festive rubber stamps, stained some newspapers with tea and a hint of green paint and set about stamping.

Next time to make a design, I've cut some simple tree and star shapes and stitched them onto cards.

The one below is simply a folded 3D tree I wanted to try, however not practical for posting.

Finally with the left over stamped bits of newsprint I made some tags to use up my scraps.

And the winners are.....

2011-12-11T19:38:00.000Z

It's been a cold and miserable day so this afternoon I put all the names on bits of paper ready to be pulled from a garlic bag later.

I had one final entry late afternoon which made it in the bag with the others.

And then it was time for the draw, just after 7pm. It was quite exciting!

Are you sitting down?!!!!

First out was ...

Well done Anne.

And second out was.....

Well done Green Rabbit.

I'll be in touch ladies to sort out your prizes.

Thanks to all who have entered and taken time to visit me and leave comments it's great to have found some new blogging buddies in the process.

Festive Blog Giveaway Time!

2011-12-07T21:24:00.000Z

At last I hear you cry, Santa has been and deposited his sack of goodies for my Festive Blog Giveaway.

This is a first for me so the festive season seemed a great time for me to sprinkle my own bit of seasonal stardust out there in Blogland. It marks a bit of a landmark too as I'm approaching the 3rd year end of sticking with a blog.

Anyway onto the gifts and if you've read my previous posts you'll know that I can only do the giveaway amongst my UK readers, unfortunately due to high postal costs I have not been able to offer the giveaway to any overseas readers on this occasion.

I have a dozen gifts for you to choose from and I will randomly pick 2 people to win. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post before Sunday 11th, 7pm in order to take part. If you can't think of a comment how about just telling me what arty or crafty things you'd like to find in your Christmas stocking.

Have a look at the gifts below, you'll see a number on each picture, if you can give me a first and second choice number, that way if I get 2 winners with the same number I can go to a second choice option.

Good luck folks!

Here are the gifts:

1. Here's one of my fabric heart brooches.

2. My Nutcracker Man cut and sew kit

3. I made this wallet as a test piece, the inside fabric sections are all vintage fabric

4. This is a selection of my own art cards, mostly Christmas ones

5. Here are 2 of my mini journals and appropriately a pencil brooch with real pencils!

6. A recycled fabric corsage brooch

7. This is a pack of fabric scraps, about half of them are vintage fabrics, I may pop a couple of samples of my own design fabric in too, plus you get the little embroidered tray cover at the front of the photo.

8. Bean There - Vegetarian Cookbook. My friends used to own Bean There the veggie cafe in Bridlington and they produced this book with some of their most popular dishes. The book is brand new, they gave me a couple because the stitching down the spine is not brilliant and they are prone to pages loosening. It has some fab recipes.

9. This is one of my mini cupcake creations, it is a ring pincushion and allows both hands to be free when sewing.

10. A handmade pouch purse in natural cotton with a cat embellished on front and back.

11. I can't really knit but I make these little rabbits from squares so here is a little lady rabbit with a cute dress and hair slide, plus I've chucked in one of my fabric coasters.

12. Finally, you get 3 things here, a Fabric Mountain pincushion, a lavender heart and a page marker for bookmarking your craft books!

Feel free to tell any of your friends who might like to join in the giveaway to make it a bit more competitive.

FESTIVE GIVEAWAY - announcing later today

2011-12-07T08:25:00.000Z

What better way to embrace the festive season than in the spirit of giving. I don't know about you but part of the joy is wrapping things up, I just love to get the paper, string, cellotape and tissue out!

As this is my first blog Giveaway and as the festive season is upon us I wanted to make it a bit special and offer a variety of gifts to choose from. I have been looking through my stock of handmade items and supplies and later today I will be photographing a selection of goodies. I'm going to give away 2 gifts so you will be able to state your first and second choice item, I will do a reminder of that later.

Also, as I have mentioned before, I am only able to do the Giveaway with my UK bloggers due to postal costs overseas.

More later!

Nutcracker men in new colours

2011-12-05T22:30:00.000Z

I took delivery of some more Nutcracker fabric this morning, hot off the press and with some new colours for the kits.
Just need to cut them up and find time to list some on Folksy, along with some surplus stock from the craft fair.

The new colours are coffee and marshmallow pink.

Lime and tangerine, plus a new purple (just visible below).

And finally a camp sugary pink and turquoise.

Liebster blog award

2011-12-04T19:37:00.000Z

This is new to me, the Liebster Blog Award, but I have an idea what it is now that Sally from the lovely Lavender Attic blog has presented me with it, so thank you very much Sally.
http://lavenderattic.blogspot.com/

It is kind of a hug and lots of encouragement from other bloggers for bloggers with less than 200 followers, interesting eh!

The Rules

Show your thanks to the blogger who gave you the award by linking back to them.
Reveal your top 5 blogs and let them know by leaving a comment at their blog.
Post the Award on your blog (proudly! yay!)

Hopefully the 5 blogs you nominate will continue to spread the blog love.

It's difficult to just mention 5 blogs but here we go with my 5 blogs that deserve the Liebster Blog Award:

No.1
http://greenrabbitdesigns.wordpress.com/

Vivienne is a lovely lady, a blogger with whom I share a few similarities so I love to read what she is up to. I can't knit like Vivienne but we share a love of cats, vegetarianism, crochet, fabric and gardening (although I currently don't have much I can call a garden)!

Viviennes blog takes you through the seasons of the year with plants, crafts, food and cats!

No.2

http://www.foodforfriendsyeah.co.uk/

Matt is editor of the food for friends blog. It's a brilliant recipe resource. You can source recipes A - Z style and submit your own favourites. It's like exchanging recipes with good friends. They also do restaurant, book & product reviews and show you things you might like for your kitchen wish list and they have the odd competition thrown in for good measure.

No. 3

http://larabrehm.blogspot.com/

Lara is a German illustrator and graphic artist. Her blog is in English so well worth a look. She does lots of wonderful surface pattern designs, I love her illustration style and use of colour. Her designs are used on stationery, textiles etc.

No. 4

http://poppytalk.blogspot.com/

Poppytalk is a Canadian based blog run by a husband and wife team who use the blog to promote emerging design talent. You'll find great photos, some inspirational tutorials, projects and recipes.

No. 5

http://tugbakop.blogspot.com/

Tugbakop is an artist who combines an illustrative style using textiles. I find the work on this blog most inspiring and only wish I had found it as a reference point when doing my textile course a couple of years ago. Have a look at the amazing stitched portraits.

What a great invention blogging is, thanks to all my readers and thanks to all those whose blogs I get pleasure from reading.

Recovering from Craft Fair!

2011-12-03T21:50:00.000Z

Yesterday I felt like I was coming down with a cold (still not sure, sneezing a bit tonight) but I fought it off as best I could as I was really looking forward to the craft fair today.

I was there in good time this morning but because I maybe only do 1 or 2 craft fairs a year, I'm not as slick setting up as the others. I also ran out of time yesterday with preparations so nothing had been priced up, I took lots of labels and tags and was trying to do it all as I set up.
Consequently it was a bit of a mess, stuff everywhere and never enough room on your table. I had also taken work to do, about 11 brooches to finish stitching!

Anyway, I finally had the stall set up, half an hour after it started but no problem as they weren't exactly queueing to get in!

It was a bit of a slow start but I'd covered my stall cost by lunch time and then there was quite a flurry over lunch and into the afternoon so I actually did better than expected.
It's interesting what I sold, or didn't sell. None of my specifically festive things sold, I'd done christmas fabric favour cones, fabric sweetie bags with a choc coin in (bargain at 80p), christmas cards, the nutcracker kits, and the felt ice skate decorations, these just didn't seem to attract people. Also unsuccessful were all those mini handmade journals I knocked up.
I did sell lots of pincushions, some lavender bags and brooches, plus a couple of knitted rabbits, packs of recycled labels and then odds and sods, most interesting.

All was quiet again by 4.30 but it was a lovely afternoon and I knew most of the other artists and makers so nice to catch up with folk.
I also managed a few purchases myself so it's all been worthwhile.

Above is a brooch I bought from Selina.

Next we have some lovely new card designs by Peter Schoeonecker. Peter is a great artist and illustrator and does fab cards and lino prints.

http://www.schoenecker.co.uk/

Finally, I bought a cat mosaic kit for an xmas pressie. Sally who owns the Wolds Village has started doing mosaics and was selling her kits. The pieces she had done using black grout (above) looked great.

An early night to recover I think!
Details of my festive giveaway coming next week.

Me & my fabric featured on Mollie Makes

2011-12-02T19:35:00.000Z

One final word about today and how crazy it has been. I sent some details to the fabulous Mollie Makes magazine a couple of weeks ago about my Nutcracker man kit, I thought I was probably too late for any interest this Christmas.
However, they contacted me at lunchtime today and asked to feature my work in their Fabric Friday on their blog. This was so exciting and not the usual thing to happen to me so despite being knee deep in fabric, paper and other stuff I quickly answered some questions about what inspires me.

If you fancy a look here is the link

http://molliemakes.themakingspot.com/blog/fabric-friday-qa-with-fabric-mountain

New heart brooches & last nights auction

2011-12-02T19:27:00.000Z

The East Riding Artists social was a lovely evening and a wonderful selection of creative donations were offered at the auction. Some people had been very generous with their time and gifts, I felt my recycled festive decorations were a wee bit meagre compared to some. Buy anyway it's the thought that counts and my offerings did sell for good prices.

Here are some of the gifts, paintings, ceramics, sugar craft, papier mache, textiles, decorated biscuits, glasswork.

Today has been a little frantic, I am still making things which are half started and really I should be labeling and pricing this evening before tomorrows craft fair. A late night I think!
These heart brooches are nearly done, I will probably be stitching the pins on the back when I have set my stall up tomorrow.

Best result in Spoonflower fabric of the week contest

2011-12-02T08:13:00.000Z

Just before I went out last night the results came in for Spoonflower fabric of the week and I was over joyed to have my best result yet.
I came 4th in the kite contest with 394 votes so thank you to anyone who voted for me, I was just 56 votes away from the winning entry.

Spoonflower have printed the fabric and uploaded some pictures which I have below. The great news is, overnight a couple of people in the US have already bought some from the marketplace and I've just ordered a fat quarter as today is the last day to order 2 fat quarters for the price of one.

http://blog.spoonflower.com/2011/11/2-for-1-fat-quarter-sale-coming-november-28-december-2nd.html

First Christmas 'do'

2011-12-01T15:11:00.000Z

It's December already and I'm being plunged into feeling festive as it is the East Riding Artists Christmas social tonight. I could really do with the evening for more crafting but the ERA do is usually good and a great excuse to catch up with friends I haven't seen for a while.

We are asked to donate hand made items for the auction which is to put money back into ERA. The criteria for items is usually a hand made Christmas decoration or any other thing for that matter! This year they asked for a hand made decoration in the style of one of your favourite artists so you can maybe guess what mine is from the photo below.

Its great seeing what other people have come up with and the auction is always good fun. I am also submitting some recycled paper traditional festive decorations in the form of a Yule garland and a folded fan garland.

In a similar vein I have made a felt Yule garland for the craft fair.

I hope the postman delivers some Spoonflower fabric tomorrow as I wanted to use what I've ordered to make some festive fabric lanterns for the craft fair. I think it's a long shot so will try not to think about it as there are so many other things and brooches to finish off.

Handmade journals for craft fair

2011-11-30T23:00:00.000Z

Very difficult knowing what might sell at a craft fair, each one I've done has been different or surprised me. I am trying a few different items for the forthcoming fair. I'm actually getting a few ideas out of my head which have been bubbling away for a while, I'm using the craft fair as an excuse to experiment with them. I feel like I'm racing against the clock to get as many things done as possible.
I am also making the most of this being the mildest November because once this house becomes really cold then most of my crafting will come to a stop for a few months. It gets so cold here that my hands and feet are always too cold to work and the only thing I seem to manage at that stage is a bit of crochet whilst wrapped up in layers of thermals!

So, something I haven't done before is handmade mini journals. Way back when I was at printing college in Leeds I did a segment on book binding and really enjoyed it. I have made these mini journals with recycled papers, vintage wallpaper, maps, doillies, and anything else which was kicking about. I have done some stitching and embellishing on the covers and a bit of rubber stamping.

Thought they might be useful as my bargain items at the craft fair for stocking fillers.

Affordable Art at Gallery 49, Bridlington

2011-11-30T10:07:00.000Z

I think the poster pretty much says it all. ERA's latest affordable art exhibition has just launched at G49

I submitted my 2 textile robin pictures which I created for last years Christmas cards, along with a few brooches.

A few robin cards are available in the gallery and in my Folksy shop.

http://www.folksy.com/items/2556529-Pack-of-2-Festive-Robin-Christmas-Cards

There were some lovely jewellery items in Gallery 49 and you might just see on this picture some little ceramic bird brooches by the wonderful Claire West. I love Claires colourful paintings, she has some in the gallery. Claire is also sharing the forthcoming craft fair weekend with me at Wolds Village in Bainton. I am having the stall on Saturday and Claire will be having the stall on Sunday, not sure if she is just selling paintings and prints, or whether some of these ceramics will appear.

Black Garlic - Day 40, experiment 2

2011-11-28T14:09:00.000Z

40 days seem to have gone fast. Yes today is Black Garlic Day and I have just been down to the oven with my fingers crossed.

Here it is, about to be removed from oven.

Looks promising, I can see blackness through the papery skin.

Look at the colour difference after it's cooked.

Do you want the good news or the bad news?
As I eagerly tore into the bulbs they were certainly black and not the pale gooey stuff I had the first time I did this when the oven wasn't hot enough.

But oh dear....

They've now gone the other way, completely solid like garlic charcoal and absolutely useless and over cooked. I just checked the oven temperature and it is still about 140 as should be.

This isn't an easy experiment to try out and who knows whether the so called fresh organic garlic I used was fresh enough, or is my oven thermometer a bit out and maybe a tad too hot on this occasion. Who knows, one things for sure, I'm not trying it again!

Hull Vintage fair yesterday

2011-11-27T20:26:00.000Z

Yesterday was the first vintage fair in Hull, quite nice that it was in the Guildhall although you can't see much from the picture below.

I have to say, now that I've been and as I've got the York vintage fairs to compare with, that it wasn't as good or rather there wasn't the variety of stalls that you get in York. We hoped there would be homeware, fabric / linen and arts and crafts but there was no fabric of any description, the only bit of homeware was a stall where they had made cake stands from loose plates and had some charity shop tea cups, and I didn't really see anything new on the craft stalls.

It was mainly clothes and not brilliant clothes either, and over priced, there seemed to be rack upon rack of horrible patterned, 1980's jumpers and smelly, stained arran jumpers. The odd bit of groovy 60's or 70's clothing is always so small and fitting in style that I don't stand a chance sourcing anything.
So, did I buy anything? Well I was remarkably restrained and only parted with a fiver for these 2 scarves! But I might sell one on Ebay.

I did manage a bun with a cuppa, it had sparkly glitter sprinkles on the top and I think I spent the rest of the afternoon with glitter bits round my mouth! Not a good look!
The catering was courtesy of Miss Poppys tea party, Beverley, who I know from networking.

After the vintage fair, made a quick trip over to Hepworths Arcade, had a look in the groovy Beasleys shop.
Some things never change, Dinsdales joke shop is the same as it was when I was a small child spending my pocket money on sneezing powder and jumping beans!

Was surprised to see Mr Baxters shop, next door, closing so nipped in and he is concentrating on online sales as he's run the shop for 40 yrs.

And, one final picture as I always think The Land of Green Ginger is a wonderful name for a street. I spotted this plaque on one of the office doors and it appears to be a line from one of my favourite films, Stardust, "second star on the right, straight on 'til morning".

Spoonflower contest - Kites

2011-11-25T08:21:00.000Z

I have a new fabric design in this weeks Spoonflower contest, the subject was Kites so I made this collage effect design with coloured newsprint and machine stitched kite strings.

http://www.spoonflower.com/contests/109

Festive Giveaway - coming soon!

2011-11-23T09:53:00.000Z

I haven't done a giveaway before, mainly because I don't have many followers of the blog, but maybe I can drum up a few more by Tweeting about this!

I plan to launch the Giveaway at the beginning of December so I will post an update of how to take part in the first week of Dec. I'm afraid I can only offer the Giveaway to my UK followers due to overseas postal costs but do pass this on to any other bloggy friends who may be interested.

The Giveaway may take the form of one of my handmade textile gifts or perhaps material, I'm not sure yet, I might even go mad and offer a choice!
Either way I thought it would be a fun way of getting into the festive spirit with my online friends.

Watch this space!

Christmas Craft Fair preparations

2011-11-18T21:34:00.000Z

Any spare moments are now taken with festive craft preparations. I am having a stall at the Wolds Village in Bainton, E. Yorks, they are having a Christmas Craft weekend on the 3rd & 4th December, I'm only there on the 3rd, 10am - 6pm.

There are a few of us representing East Riding Artists, painters, ceramicists, crafts etc. I'm not sure but I'm guessing our stalls will be set up in the Art Gallery, it's a great place and I can recommend in the tea room their chocolate scones with chocolate chips, served with a chocolatey dip & cream! That's if you like chocolate of course!!

I thought I'd show a few bits n pieces I've been making.

A new range of Harris Tweed butterfly brooches.

Some more ice skate decorations.

Some mini cupcake ring pin cushions.

I'm making these sweetie cones or festive favor bags out of vintage fabric.

I've got lots of half started things which I'm itching to get on with and then I have stock from a festive fair last year which I need to sort out.
So much to do, so little time but it's all worth it on the day!

First Vintage Fair in Hull, 26th Nov

2011-11-18T09:35:00.000Z

A friend has invited me to the first vintage fair in Hull. Looks like it is run by a different promoter to the ones I go to in York so should be interesting and maybe some fresh stalls to look at.

Here is the link if anyone is interested, 26th at The Guildhall, noon to 5pm.

http://www.thevintagefair.com/#/hull/4557306363

Almond Ricciarelli & vintage linen

2011-11-16T13:43:00.000Z

Yesterday, wanting to use up some egg whites and try out a new almond biscuit recipe in practise for gifts out of the childrens festive recipe book I got last week, I realised the one thing I didn't have was the ground almonds.

I brought forward a food shop and as it was a pleasant afternoon I shopped in Brid which meant I could get haberdashery stuff and picture hooks in Boyes, I love that shop, what will I do when I eventually move to a part of the country which doesn't have Boyes shops! I did a bit of festive shopping in M&S where the Christmas biscuit tins are on offer, no trip would be complete without a quick look in the £1 and under section in one of the charity shops (more later), I took a breath of sea air and finally, the ground almonds!

Here's the recipe, if you like almonds then I think you'll like them.
This book is great because with it being for kids the things seem quick and simple, yet there are some quite nice sophisticated ideas in here when you get beyond the gingerbread house covered in Smarties!

My first batch spread and overcooked a bit, usually I'm complaining that the oven is never hot enough but it is at the moment. The last 4 came out better, I just did half the amount to try.

Time for elevenses, they taste really good and have a crispness with the egg white.

I'll finish on the subject of vintage linen.
I went in the St. Catherines Hospice shop on Cross St as the upstairs is mainly things for a pound or less and I've had some great things in the past. I fell lucky yesterday because the linen baskets were bulging with tray cloths, tablecloths, flowery 60's pillowcases etc.
I got all the bits n pieces below for £2, most things were 10p each, I couldn't believe it. It would have been quite easy to buy sackfuls but I had to be selective and so there is plenty left.

Brid seems pretty good for picking up vintage linen, maybe because of all the B&B's.

Nutcracker Man Cut & Sew Kits

2011-11-14T15:10:00.000Z

Last week my printed fabric arrived from Spoonflower with the Nutcracker Men cut and sew kits. I spent some time chopping the kits and packing them before photographing them to list in my Folksy shop.

I am selling them mostly as individual items but I have listed one full set with a man in each colour because I think it will make a lovely string of bunting.

This was before I cut into the lush piece of fabric!

Before packing.

Packed and ready to go.

Here's one I stitched up. Stuffed him with toy filling but would be equally nice filled with dry rice, lavender or cloves.

Bob the bunny's visit to the best coffee shops in York

2011-11-12T22:17:00.000Z

What a lovely autumnal day it turned out to be. Just as well as Bob had planned a trip to York to sample some of the best coffee shops his owner knows.

This was no ordinary trip, this was purely a coffee trip, no shopping, just a peaceful potter around the streets with juice from the bean to keep us going.

First off was the newest coffee shop in York, Spring Espresso on Fossgate. So new, they haven't got the sign up yet but Bob had no trouble sniffing out the espresso!

Spring is run by the lovely Steve & Tracey who we had briefly met at The Attic before. This is Steve preparing a flat white.

And here is the delicious drink.

Not only do they prepare fantastic coffee, they have the most amazing tea and Piao-i tea infusers. This is some jasmine pearl tea infusing, ooh it was so fragrant, mmmm, like spring (pardon the pun) flower meadows.

The shop has some interesting handmade furniture from reclaimed Yorkshire timber, it was a fascinating start to the day.

Swiftly moving on, Bob and I headed towards the river, our destination Lendal Tower.

New to us, although pretty well established already is The Perky Peacock, run by its namesake owner, Nicola Peacock.

What a quirky little coffee shop, housed inside the tower. Bijou but beautifully formed, full to the brim with customers so we sat outside in the sun and sipped our delicious flat white and homemade ginger biscuits.

Nicola popped out to say hello but Bob had bounced off to admire the river at that point so he'll meet Nicola next time!

We were just starting to get that caffeine fueled buzz, but that wouldn't deter us from scuttling across town to our most frequented venue, yes you guessed it, The Attic above Harlequin.

The doors had more or less just opened but someone had beat us to being first up the stairs. no problem, still plenty of seating.

We were tempted by a sweet sounding Mexican espresso, we weren't disappointed, it was very palatable indeed. The water was divine too, it had turned quite warm so the cooling and caffeine diluting effect was much appreciated.

All this scurrying about had made Bob quite peckish so no trip to the Attic would be complete without a portion of our favourite snack, herb & garlic bread, excellent fodder for a young rabbit like Bob.

Our trip had drawn to a close, the money was all gone, we were high as kites on caffeine, The Attic was now very busy and it was time to go home for a rest.

Bob enjoyed meeting all our coffee friends, old and new, sampling some wonderful, drinks, hospitality and service. York is certainly becoming a hot spot for good coffee.

Bye bye Bob.

The Little Organic Bakery - Bridlington

2011-11-12T21:13:00.000Z

My friends in Bridlington have just launched their new venture, as previously mentioned, and now they are officially open I feel happy to release some more details.

The Little Organic Bakery is run by Katy and you will find the most delicious sweet and savoury bakery items, in the most generous portions and fantastic value for money. Katy's son Oakley is running the Crema Espresso bar in the same building, pulling coffees from a fabulous retro looking hand pumped machine.
Go through to the back of the building and you will find Jean's gallery housing her atmospheric local photos and then upstairs you have a delightful range of textile gifts, many of which are made by Jenny, along with other treasures and sparkly things.

For anyone thinking of making a visit you will find the map and opening times below, head for number 12 Wellington Rd.

Last night I was invited to the launch and it was a marvellous and magical evening, of food, music and good company. The musician was Kristina Olsen, a Californian with a wicked sense of humour with the most amazing stories to tell through her songs and music, a really talented lady who I thoroughly enjoyed and she's currently on tour in the UK. She did 3 encores, we did have a break half way through for Katy's wonderful veggie curry, homemade bread, other nibbles and then choc mousse, lemon pot and cakes, wow it was a feast!
We participated in a raffle to raise a little cash for some good causes and a wonderful evening was had by all.
Thank you to the Wheelwright clan for creating a special little corner in Bridlington.

http://www.kristinaolsen.net/

Vintage linen finds in Hornsea

2011-11-11T11:10:00.000Z

I was at the lovely hairdressers in Hornsea mid week and despite being a bit itchy and prickly as is often the case following a hair cut, I did manage a quick visit to the Hornsea Lions charity shop and found these 2 lovely tablecloths which were a staggeringly cheap 25p each!
I also got a brand new christmas gift cookbook for 50p.

Tonight I'm going to the official opening of one of my friends and customers in Bridlington who have opened a new organic bakery, coffee bar, gallery and textile gift boutique at no. 12 Wellington Rd. We are going to be sampling lovely food and also being treated to music from a lady who I can't remember her name!

Rare Hornsea Pottery charity shop find

2011-11-08T15:25:00.000Z

I had one of those exciting moments in one of my local charity shops at the weekend.
Last week I had seen this little piece locked in a cabinet of the shop, I couldn't see the base stamp, it wasn't familiar to me and although the shop had labeled it "Hornsea £10" I wasn't sure about that so came home to investigate it in my book and rarity guide.

Couldn't find anything on it whatsoever so decided to go back to the shop on Saturday, ask to see it to confirm it was Hornsea and then make a decision. Yes it is a Hornsea piece but I don't normally buy that type of thing, more favouring the stylistic pattern designs of John Clappison, but I had a feeling about this mini tankard and the stoneware felt nice so I bought it.

Having got the tankard home safely for more research about what Burns Cottage is or represents, I'm not much further on and all I have gleaned from the article below is that Burns Cottage was on the site of the current Hornsea Museum and that this piece is probably quite rare. Someone turned up at the recent nostalgia day with one and mention of another one is in the museum collection. I may find out more next time I visit the museum.
It's quite nice to think that as a Hornsea Pottery society member I was in the right place at the right time to salvage this piece.

http://www.thisishullandeastriding.co.uk/Potted-history-view/story-13223845-detail/story.html

Also on my travels at the weekend, I bought this damaged Eastgate Fauna jug for a couple of quid. I really don't like the fauna items and was pleased to say I had non in my collection up to now but there is method to my madness. The society have asked me to design this years Hornsea Christmas card and I'm having a few ideas, one of which might involve this bambi jug!

Ladybirds in November!

2011-11-07T07:50:00.000Z

I'm sure I don't normally see ladybirds in November but there are still huge amounts of them here, on windowsills, the odd few in the house and this collection on the brown bin! Some are the dreaded Harlequins but lots of native ladybirds too.
Most peculiar, must be the mildish weather.

New mini business cards have arrived

2011-11-04T15:01:00.000Z

I had been meaning to order some mini business cards for my Fabric Mountain shop but like everything, stuff for yourself always goes to the bottom of the heap when there's so much else to sort out. I did find time though last week and they've arrived already.

I was keen to try the service of Moo printers because their products look so lovely and the fantastic thing they offer is multiple designs on one pack of business cards. So if you order the pack of 100 like I did, you can either upload 100 images (if you've got time) and have each business card different, or do like I did and upload 20 images to give you 5 of each. It's brilliant, for me I got to try out some of my designs which haven't gone to print yet and so I can see the colours and how they reproduce which is a nifty way of sampling to see if I want to commit the design to more print work.

The printing is double sided and as you can show off so many images of your work they really are great for artists, craftspeople, photographers etc. Mine will double as gift tags as I made sure I left a hole punch sized space at one end.
They come in a cute box with a mini filing system of dividers and they also sell mini plastic card holders as well as felt ones too. It's all very groovy. Take a look at the site, I fancy some of the sticker books.

www.moo.com

Festive Decorations - Paperclip Ice Skates

2011-11-03T10:17:00.000Z

You know how sometimes you keep seeing things, well my online browsing keeps showing me these wonderful little festive ice skate decorations, made quite simply with a paperclip and some felt. What a great idea.

As my craft fair is exactly a month away I need to make some things quickly so this looked like the perfect way to have something festive to sell.

The little ice skates I've found online are actually decorations and they are lightly stuffed with polyester filling. I've made mine a bit different by not stuffing them and leaving the tops open so that a tiny pressie could be popped inside. That way you've got 2 things in one, a decoration or a small festive gift pouch.

I have added some embroidery and fabric to make the stockings a bit more luxurious as a gift item.

Halloween greetings!

2011-10-31T10:09:00.000Z

It's Halloween, greetings one and all! This is the end of another seasonal year for me. For a year which started out on such a positive vibe, the one thing I tried to achieve, an escape to the country, has remained an elusive dream. My task now is to manifest harder that dream into a reality during the coming year.
I shall mark the day with some candle lighting and feasting.

Cute vampire box of sweeties from M&S.

Homemade almond All Hallows biscuits.

Can't wait to try these handmade Belgian Halloween choccies my sister brought over at the weekend. They look too nice to eat, toodstools, pumpkins, leaves and the little owl!
Here's to a magical day!

Short days, autumn trees

2011-10-30T11:45:00.000Z

So the clocks have changed and with the onslaught of winter I can officially feel cold and miserable for the next 5 or 6 months!
I will of course be trying to fight those feelings of grimness and see if I can muster up a positive attitude to get me through the bleak months. Lack of light and heat really affect all that I do in work, arts and crafts so I'm hoping for a mild winter, maybe that's expecting too much, maybe as long as it's not as bad as last year then I have a chance!

Last week on one reasonably dry day I cut the grass which I hope is the last time this year.

I've also been photographing the changing colours of some trees I look out onto. I started about 2 months ago and here is the series of weekly colour changes from start to this morning.
Looking at the pictures all together I thought it was more dramatic than what it is but I think a lot of that is to do with the colour of the sky.

Spoonflower samples

2011-10-25T16:26:00.000+01:00

Spoonflower now have an option to order a collection of swatches as a more cost effective way of sampling your designs for the purpose of checking colours and pattern repeats ready for selling in the marketplace. It's like a contact sheet with all the designs on one strip, here is the first one I've ordered with my 50's atomic style designs. It's not a bad size for making small things with either.

Black Garlic - Day 1

2011-10-20T23:38:00.000+01:00

Here we go again, I won't go into too much detail about Black Garlic as I did that earlier in the year (June 2011), but just to say I am trying the fermentation experiment again. Today is day 1 of 40 and this time I'm wrapping the container in foil which I don't think I did last time. Foil helps to stop contamination and also supposedly less garlic vapours escape.
Fingers crossed.... see you in 40 days!

Spoonflower contest - Hanging ornament

2011-10-19T14:01:00.000+01:00

My latest fabric design will go live in the Spoonflower weekly contest tomorrow evening. The criteria this week was to design a cut and sew hanging ornament. I took that to being a festive ornament and I have reworked one of my Nutcracker Man drawings and turned him into a jolly little decoration.

I got rather carried away with colour combinations once I got going. The top picture, red and cyan version is the one I settled for entering.

Hopefully there will be time to order some of these for my craft fair to either sell as kits or ready made.

Fabric apple pin cushions

2011-10-19T12:05:00.000+01:00

I've just completed a couple of cute little fabric apple pin cushions as seen in the current issue of Mollie Makes magazine. The small one (which is a bit bigger than a creme egg) was a bit too fiddly to handle so I'm going to scale the pattern up and make much bigger ones next time.

I've booked a stall at a festive craft fair on Dec 3rd which is actually a weekend event at the Wolds Village, Bainton so any spare moments I have should be spent making things in preparation.

York vintage fair & clothes swap

2011-10-17T11:11:00.000+01:00

On Saturday I went to another vintage fair in York, this one was in the lovely setting of St. Williams College round by the Minster. It was such a lovely sunny day it really lifted my spirits, or maybe that was the delicious little snack I had beforehand at the Attic above Harlequin!

There were some quite nice stalls at the fair. I took some clothes so that I could take part in the clothes swap, there wasn't a huge amount that appealed to me for swapping as items to wear but I picked up a few tops with groovy fabric so that I can chop them up to recycle.
I didn't use all my clothes swap tokens so they will carry forward to the next event.

There was a small selection of vintage fabric for sale and I purchased these 2 sugary pink flowery pieces.

Soon be cooking again!

2011-10-16T17:16:00.000+01:00

After months of wanting the oven servicing the aga man has finally been today. It appears they are very busy at the moment hence working Sundays. It's meant wasting the day waiting in for them but hey ho, I can't wait to get cooking and baking again. I also can't wait for that warmth it will add to the kitchen.

Managed to get the old thing turned off last night and cool enough to clean this morning. Here it is, waiting to be serviced. It is slowly warming up as I type. Still going to have a microwave meal for tea and then won't get chance to use it tomorrow as I have a busy day doing final preparations for a presentation I'm doing tomorrow evening on design to my networking group. But hopefully on Tuesday I can get back to normal.

Looking forward to River Cottage Veg tonight, I bought the book yesterday, looks to have some fab recipes inside. I can appreciate that Hugh went veggie for 6 months to see what it's all about when the veg are the main part of your meal. Couldn't see Gordon Ramsey doing this!

Cheese, cheese and more cheese please!

2011-10-14T16:53:00.000+01:00

The postman keeps some strange hours, he has just been at 16.15pm! It used to be delivered quite early morning, but now it averages 10.30 but then recently it goes to the other end of the day, apparently depending on whether the depot tell him to start at our end or finish here! Oh well, I'll let him off because he's just brought a lovely parcel.... cheese!

I am partial to a good cheese and the best I have discovered was in Wales from the Blaenafon Cheddar Co. Superb taste and texture. It looks like they are doing a festive cheese by the look of the pudding one on their leaflet.

Yesterday's Vintage Fair

2011-10-10T15:34:00.000+01:00

It was a last minute decision to visit the Vintage Fair in York yesterday as the weather was particularly foul. But I decided to go seeing as the next will probably not be until the spring and that seems an awful long time away.

The fairs can be a bit hit and miss but the usual lady with the fantastic stash of vintage fabric was there and I got the groovy 1960's geometric brown & orange plus the small pink floral piece.

I got this great book which is like new for just a fiver, and something odd I bought (4th pic down) was a set of 4 napkins all the way from Alaska, lovely simple prints on an oatmeal linen.

I picked up a flyer about another vintage fair and clothes swap in York next weekend which might be worth attending to offload some clothes I've not been able to sell on ebay.

Goodbye Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T08:30:00.000+01:00

Woke up to the not totally unexpected but very sad news that Steve Jobs has left us.
The style and simplicity of Apple's homepage this morning sums up the man's innovations perfectly.

As a Mac user since 1988 I can honestly say the tools Steve Jobs has given people like myself has enhanced my creative work and changed my life forever. To that I am in debt, thank you Steve. RIP

Spoonflower contest - Ditsy prints

2011-10-05T13:54:00.000+01:00

The current Spoonflower contest is for a design featuring ditsy prints, doesn't necessarily have to be flowers but I've gone for a traditional floral scatter print of little embroidered flowers.

My weekend

2011-10-03T09:52:00.000+01:00

It's been an odd few days, by Thursday night it was decided my work computer was unrepairable most likely thanks to the power cut by nPower (complaint letter in the post).

Friday..., couldn't do any work so decided to make the most of the unseasonally nice weather and went to Whitby, always best to avoid Whitby on a weekend but with the weather so sunny it was just as busy on Friday. Bit too hot for me in the open sun but a walk up the steps to the abbey and that was quite breezy and the narrow shady snicket ways were nice and cool.

Saw this lovely cat lounging in the shade and getting a stroke and attention from anyone who passed her! What a life!

There are some interesting shops and galleries in Whitby, the usual black jet shops, goth & hippy shops, plenty of charity shops but I didn't find much to tempt me on this occasion. Other than this delightful little birdie necklace from the Ruby Tuesday shop which had many things to tempt me!

I had to take a picture of this bag, one of my friends think I have a direct link to Willy Wonka's factory as I'm known for sourcing unusual & retro sweeties, what a reputation eh!

Saturday was expensive, had to buy a replacement computer for work. All the weekend has been taken up retrieving files, backing up and setting up the new Mac. It will take me a few days settling into the new system. Change is good but it takes time to get back up to speed. It also signifies the end of an era, I can no longer run Quark as my version is too old, my scanner and printer are too old to install drivers to run them so I hope to find a printer in the not too distant future.

For a bit of relaxation I quickly made a lavender heart for relatives 60th wedding anniversary this week.

Weather Good, Life Bad!

2011-09-28T21:57:00.000+01:00

What a rubbish week I'm having, it seems so unfair as the weather is beautiful outside and would normally lift my spirits.
The trouble with working on your own is not having other work colleagues to let steam off with when life starts playing nasty tricks.
So the blog is a good place for that.

Since about a month ago there have been noises in the loft, and unfortunately it's mice, one of my pet hates, as is any pest when it's in the wrong environment and in my living space. What with the 2 wasps nests, the revolting spiders in this place and now the mice, I've had enough. We have been setting traps and so far have caught 9 which is more than when they were here 2 years ago. The problem with the mice, even if you wipe them out the house has so many holes, gaps and places they could return that there's not much you can do and especially when it's not my house. I feel like I can't go away for a few days even if I want to incase they get out of hand or worse get in amongst my craft stuff which would be the absolute worst thing.

Anyway pests aside, yesterday was a nightmare, an unexpectedly power cut off happened at 7am and was off for 8 hours, so stopping work. My mobile was also dead so I was completely cut off from the digital world so I headed off for the library to use a computer, not great as I'm a Mac user and they only have pc's.

I didn't bother with any work when the power came back last night so it was this morning when I discovered another problem. Despite having a power surge socket on my computer, the force of the power cut yesterday has done something to my work Mac and I've not been able to use it all day, infact the disk may be damaged and typically there's not been a backup for quite some time. Great, just when I've got loads of urgent jobs to get finished!

An hour since the last paragraph and my Mac expert has dissected the disk and we have some life and have managed to do a backup. Not sure how stable the computer is after all this and maybe when it gets turned off it won't come on again but won't know til tomorrow!

Signing off for coffee fix now!

In My Mug 150, live at The Attic, Harlequin, York

2011-09-26T18:37:00.000+01:00

Yesterday was my exciting coffee afternoon at the Attic as part of the live video blog for In My Mug 150 with Mr. Has Bean.
The scene was all set, the laptop was in the corner, sampling table set up with plenty of water and Gordon and the team raring to go pulling shots.

It wasn't without one or two technical hitches for Has Bean, not being able to link up to as many people & shops as first planned but Steve made the best of it.

The coffees we were sampling were Indonesian.... Jantung Seed and Longberry, really rare coffee with only 3 bags of each varietal in the world, wow!

First we tried them as espresso (2nd pic), then with milk (3rd pic) and we gave our comments and tasting notes which in turn were submitted live to Steve. It was a great experience, my tastebuds are nowhere near as sophisticated as some of the people round the table but I did enjoy the experience very much.

After the main part we got to try them as brewed coffees with some lovely cakey nibbles.
Fab afternoon thanks to Has Bean, Gordon and the gang and met some lovely coffee obsessed people. We even got to take home some of the surplus beans from the tasting.

The 4th pic is my latte art as I'm sat typing this!

The 5th pic shows an old teapot I found in a charity shop the other day which I have been trying to clean up for use with the water pouring over the Chemex. However had a word with Gordon and as a cheaper solution for water pouring to the expensive Hario kettles he recommended a simple oil pourer and I sourced the last one in Barnitts!

Exciting coffee happenings

2011-09-21T10:45:00.000+01:00

Last week I bought a new coffee making device. It is the Chemex, a wonderful, retro looking object (been around over 60 years) for making a fine, clean cup of brewed coffee.

Don't you think the box and the instruction leaflet look very 70's!

The Chemex method is very similar to drip through coffee, using a filter paper but the filter paper is much thicker. This means the brew flows through slower for a richer cup of coffee, you are only talking about 4 minutes brew time. Unlike a french press where the sediment is sat in the bottom, this produces a 'clean cup' as the grinds are sat in the top to be thrown away.

This photo shows the coffee at the 'bloom' stage before you add the remaining water. (All the coffee and water need measuring and timing to achieve perfection)

Here, the remaining water has been added and you simply wait for it to filter through.

That's it, pour and enjoy!

On the subject of coffee geekery, I am attending what's going to turn into a live video blog link up on Sunday. A selection of coffee shops & customers who use the Has Bean coffee have been invited to join in this event of sampling some rare coffee. During the coffee sampling, the shops taking part (Harlequins Attic York), will be connected to Steve at Has Bean, as he addresses the world on all things coffee for this special edition of his video blog! In My Mug 150. Can't wait.

http://www.inmymug.com/

Scarborough & Sledmere exhibition

2011-09-18T17:50:00.000+01:00

It was a lovely misty but bright morning so had an early start in Scarborough. The mist soon burnt off and it was sun and blue skies all the way.
One of the cliffs in the distance looked lovely with mist still surrounding it, sort of looked like it was shrouded in dry ice.

The donkeys were still on the beach, doing their thing.

It was really quite warm. Lovely blue sky over the Grand Hotel, and the gardens and architecture looked great.

I couldn't resist this next picture, I used to love Sooty, I had a Sooty puppet and a Sue but didn't get a Sweep and I wanted a Sweep because it had a squeeker in it! This looked like quite an old machine down by the amusements.
Don't worry I didn't embarrass myself and have a go!

Scarborough done with by lunchtime and came home via Sledmere to visit the touring exhibition of litho prints by Matisse, Chagall & Miro. Particularly enjoyed the Matisse paper cuts and the Miro but despite being prints they were hugely expensive.

By the afternoon it was chucking it down and we've had a few ripples of thunder too.

Spoonflower fabric parcel

2011-09-15T11:40:00.001+01:00

I had a large bundle of Spoonflower fabric arrive yesterday. It seems like ages since I ordered at the end of July.

The top picture shows a selection of samples, the cream background leaf fabric is for sale on Folksy. The bottom picture is my Halloween Skirt kit which is child sized and this one will go to my friends little girl as a birthday cum Halloween pressie as she seems to like all things ghoulish and vampires!

Bird fabric designs

2011-09-13T08:35:00.000+01:00

This weeks Spoonflower contest is the very popular subject of birds. It has a restricted colour palate of 3 colours (black, white & pale green) plus one of your own choice.
I wanted to enter this contest with one of my little bird illustrations which I use on some of my own promotional things and greeting card designs.

I created quite a few variations. The bottom design is a more stylised, Scandinavian inspired design. I then moved back to my original idea of using my favourite bird illustration and couldn't decide whether to use the design with the hearts and the eggs, or the hearts and the flowers. After many colour combinations I settled on the top design.

Chances are very slim this week for even coming in the top 100 as there are 342 entries, which be warned if you go looking, take ages to click through. There are some really lovely designs in the collection.

My best ever Spoonflower contest result!

2011-09-08T18:59:00.000+01:00

I've been excited all day because this evening was the result of the Spoonflower contest and when I got up this morning I received an email from Spoonflower saying congratulations I had come in the top 10 for this weeks contest.

I still had to wait until this evening to find out where in the top 10 and I'm so happy to have come 4th, only about 30 votes separated 2nd place to 4th place and the winner was a clear winner with twice as many votes.

Lovely winning fabric. I'm so pleased to make it in the top 10, a first for me.

http://bit.ly/o0xjhY

Not been a bad day because went to see one of my old customers in Bridlington who wanted to talk to me about their new business venture (hush hush at the mo), but lets just say it involves veggie food, good coffee & creative things... I think that about sums up all the things I like too!

And, lovely people that they are, I left with arms full of stuff, baking, local apple juice and cook books.

Really looking forward to designing their new branding.

Blustery in Hornsea today

2011-09-06T22:50:00.000+01:00

I was at the dentist today in Hornsea, goodness me it was windy & wet. I was crossing a road at a junction when a gust of wind came from nowhere and nearly took me into the air.
After a chat with the dentist, mad Scotsman, and a quick dropping off (not buying for once) of some stuff to the charity shop I went down to the prom to see the sea.

It was a stormy sky with a black band of cloud, the tide was coming in, the North Sea was very muddy close to shore as it crashed in but there was a hint of blue on the horizon. I couldn't resist going on the beach to chase waves and get my feet wet!

I finished up with an ice cream, well you have to don't you as it's the seaside, it was nice but the cone as you can see was one of those cheap tasteless ones.

This weeks Spoonflower contest

2011-09-05T14:55:00.000+01:00

The subject for this weeks Spoonflower fabric design contest is Bowling and it didn't really grab my attention at first. But at the last minute I had an idea for a design which is taking the theme bowling fairly loosely and adding a bit of artistic license!

Somehow bowling balls reminded me of atoms (goodness knows why!), atoms lead to atomic and then before I knew where I was I was doing a very rough scribble on my Wacom of a 1950's inspired atomic fabric.

I've created it in a few colour options, the one I have entered into the contest is the pale coloured one bottom right.
Oddly enough, to say I threw it together very quickly, I seem to be getting some lovely favourable comments from the Spoonflower community and I'm quite pleased with it so I reckon I will get some samples printed.

Japanese Paper Beads

2011-09-04T17:24:00.000+01:00

I got some lovely, but quite expensive, origami paper in Hobbycraft. I haven't risked any on a folded creation yet but I have rolled a few bits and made some paper beads. These are the results. I am trying them on Ebay to see if there's any interest.

I've made paper beads before and they do make nice delicate bracelets.

Cupcake ring pincushions

2011-08-31T16:45:00.000+01:00

I don't seem to have mentioned any handmade goodies recently so here is a quick look at my cupcake ring pincushions. Newly created to sit on your finger and allow movement of both hands when sewing.
They are now for sale in my Folksy shop.

Hornsea Pottery Nostalgia Weekend

2011-08-31T11:23:00.001+01:00

August Bank Holiday weekend was the Hornsea Pottery Nostalgia event up at Freeport. Following the one day success of last year's event, this year it ran for the 3 days.
I set off bright and early on the Saturday morning, running with the theory the early bird catches the worm! For a long time I have had 2 main things on my Hornsea wish list, those being a cat cruet set and an Aphrodite vase, both John Clappison designs.

My luck was in, a great selection of items were on display and I initially whizzed around looking for treasures. The very last stall I saw, coincidentally the stall of Dorothy who is HPC & RS membership secretary, had the cat, fish & owl cruets. What joy, I couldn't resist as the cats were smiling at me in beautiful condition and I did get them for a better price than I've seen them go for on Ebay so I was very happy and I think Dorothy was pleased they would go to a good home.

It would probably take years to stumble across the cruets in a charity shop so it's nice that I can enjoy them now. These cruets are from 1966-67 and were made as gift sets for Boots.

Here are some of the other stalls, it was fantastic looking at the pots and hearing bits of history about pieces from their owners. Lots of lovely tea sets but no Aphrodite vases, however I made contact with a seller who can probably sell me one from his collection. Think I'll have to save up a bit before that!

The museum were there with a good selection of ceramics and also pieces of original artwork in the form of watercolour paintings of some designs, plus some moulds this one is Concept.

One final purchase, very cheap as it is a slight second with kiln mark on the back, is this lovely Leo Lion mug. I think it is from the Jungle Mug range of about 1979. Love the way newspaper clippings have been collaged together to create the design.

As usual experts were on hand to offer advice to people popping in with their treasures and much excitement occurred when a lady came in with a Mermaid dish, it is believed that only 12 of these were ever made back in the 50's so hardly anyone had seen one. An interesting end to a great day, I hope the rest of the weekend proved as popular.

Finished the origami

2011-08-28T19:43:00.000+01:00

I finished off the origami sunburst I was making. I got into a bit of a pickle with the instructions when I started to assemble it. Just couldn't get it to make sense despite reading it over and again. Anyway, I did what I thought was right and I've got a quite nice looking thing but it's not exactly to the pattern I was following.

I left it a day, put a fresh set of eyes to the instructions and eureka, I think I have it for when I make another one!

Selina the Stoat!

2011-08-26T15:14:00.000+01:00

Every now and again I see a stoat, once I saw 2 together doing that mad dance of the stoats you see them doing on wildlife programmes. I love watching them.

It had been quite a few months since seeing a stoat, which was odd as there are so many rabbits about, but in the last few weeks I think I've seen the stoat at least once a week. I have decided to call the stoat Selina after one of my friends. Selina the stoat, like my friend Selina is a little bit crazy and not very good with directions. The stoat seems to be doing this crazy zig zagging up and down to and fro at the moment. Starts partly climbing a tree then comes back down, back up, all a bit mad really!

Needless to say all this happens so quickly that I never have time to go and get my camera, I just enjoy watching the moment.

Today, whilst I've been sat doing my origami looking out into the garden I saw a bush move. Wasn't sure if it was the rain drops causing the leaf movement, ... no, it was Selina the stoat dashing across the garden, back and forth like a mad thing again. Fortunately I had my camera to hand so jumped up to the window for a better view and unfortunately saw what she was excited about.
I hope this isn't too gruesome for a blog post. She had a dead blackbird, fortunately it was well and truly dead and she did that thing cats do, playing with it and tossing it in the air. All quite bizarre, these are the best pictures I got before she eventually dragged it into the bushes. Not sure if it got eaten as she was up the garden wall and off again a few mins later.

Seem to be strange things happening here at the moment. The worst is mice returning in the loft.
Also found about 5 large eggs not in a nest but right next to the house, too big for a small bird but a bit odd if they are something like a duck. Anyway one day there were 5, now something has moved them about a bit and there are 2, whether this is stoat activity again I don't know.

Caffeine fueled crafting!

2011-08-26T11:51:00.000+01:00

What a frustrating day yesterday, the router went funny and so I lost the internet for most of the day.
Never mind, it was a good excuse to tear myself away from the keyboard and do some crafting.

I was reading some graphic design blog recently which talked about how creative people mainly use the right side of the brain. This guy talked about how sometimes when you start to feel creative burn out, the best thing to do is try to stop thinking creatively, rest the right side and go off and use the left side of the brain. What he said made a lot of sense to me, right side thinkers are often impatient, they skim read, they stay away from numbers and logic, all that kind of thing. He recommended trying things like soduko, puzzles, crosswords, proper reading rather than skimming, writing, origami, etc. All these activities will help the left side and will complement your thought process when you go back to the creative work.

Interestingly enough, I bought 2 new craft books when I was in the Lakes, and one is Origami Jewellery. I decided I'd give it a go after lunch.

Settled down to a snack at lunchtime and popped the telly on ready for the news as I wanted to see the Steve Jobs stories. Well how spooky this was, on a programme before the news (Lets Do Lunch with Gino & Mel) I thought I know that face and voice... it was Youri who I did my barista training with. He was showing them how to do some latte art and he did great considering it must have been quite scary getting your milk texture perfect under pressure in front of the cameras. After I'd seen Youri I felt quite frustrated that my latte art isn't brilliant so I popped the machine on, texturised some milk and indulged in a couple of cappuccinos. I was quite pleased with my latte art hearts, I think it's probably the best I've done to date.

Back to the origami. I spent ages chopping and folding an old map, I thought I was soon to be at the stage of assembling all these little pieces but having folded them, I now need to unfold and add some blobs of glue. That's where I'm currently at so I haven't got a result yet, and as you can see the internet is back so might be a few days before I reveal the brooch I'm making.

I hope the weather improves for the bank holiday as it is the Hornsea Pottery Nostalgia weekend which I'm visiting tomorrow. Followed by a new crafty market I'm also hoping to see over the weekend.
Hope everyone has a good few days off. And to leave with one final scary thought, this is the last bank holiday before Christmas!!!

Blackwell House & Lowther Castle

2011-08-23T13:30:00.000+01:00

On my trip to the Lakes I treated myself to a visit around Blackwell House, a beautiful arts and crafts house, situated in Bowness and overlooking lake Windermere.

Some of the house interior seems quite Tudor in style but the house was only completed in 1900 and it's one of the most important icons of arts and crafts architecture. Inside there is beautiful panelling & plasterwork, exquisite stained glass, textiles and carvings. It is a homely house with a lovely feel and also strikingly modern in places.

No photos were permitted inside so I bought the guide book and some postcards.

I love the arts and crafts ethos, the ability to achieve beauty through simplicity and practicality, very much inline with the make do and mend principles of todays crafters.

http://www.blackwell.org.uk/

Another interesting piece of architecture, although currently being restored, is Lowther Castle. It wasn't too far from the hotel I stayed in so went past it a few times and it looked rather impressive in the low evening sun.

A week in the Lake District

2011-08-21T09:49:00.000+01:00

I managed to get one of those last minute holidays through laterooms website and it's been a lovely week, I think to get only 1 wet day in the Lake District is pretty good going at this time of year as we move towards autumn.

I stayed in the Haweswater Hotel and luckily had a room overlooking Haweswater which you can see in the 2nd photo, this was the view from the room. The other views are from the hotel terrace and down the road.
The hotel is a bit out of the way and down single track roads but one of the things which appealed to me when choosing it was the fact you will definitely get to see red squirrels. I've only briefly seen these wonderful little creatures in Scotland so to see them at close hand has been an absolute joy. The squirrels come down to the bird feeders on the hotel lawns and so you can watch them from the dining room windows, I also got within about 2ft of one outside. Difficult to get any decent photos as they scamper about too quickly so these are my best.

Up in the hills near the hotel is a nesting pair of golden eagles but I wasn't lucky enough to see them.
A lovely place to relax though and most of the rooms are without TV's so you really can get away from it all.

I hope to put a few more posts of places I visited.