New Year ... New Beginnings

Happy New Year!

I wish you a year filled with peace, hope, health, happiness and joy :)

Well, 2012 was a funny old year - some good bits, some not so good bits, and some in-between bits - Mum was really ill; Morgan was ill too; I turned 40; lost my day job; held an exhibition; I was in and out of hospital; we had some wonderful trips; I finally got to visit my brother's restaurant; I had work featured in three exhibitions ... but most importantly I got to spend the Christmas and New Year holiday with the people I love most in the world, so the year came to a close with lovely shared times.

And now, it's a new year (again? how did that happen?) with a very big new beginning for me!

After losing my job in the Summer, a combination of illness/surgery/recovery for the rest of the year gave me a lot of time to consider my future. Thankfully, with Morgan's support, I am now self-employed :)

And, following many (many!) months of negotiation, I am exceptionally happy to share the first pic of my new shop!

I haven't fixed an opening date yet as there's still so much I want to get done.

So I will be off for now to go and make a start.

Promise to catch up with you all properly very soon :)x

what a week!

from sushine and shorts to snow and scarves - within the space of a few days!

much as i did enjoy our mini-heatwave, it really didn't feel 'right' that it was so warm so early in the year, i mean the tulips hadn't bloomed yet and it was scorching.  plus, i wasn't getting anything done ... as soon as the sun was shining i dropped everything and got myself outside!

having said that though, i didn't exactly welcome the snow!  my poor wee plants are looking very sorry for themselves this week as everything has been severely nipped by the frost.

here's hoping for more 'normal' spring weather this week :)

happy spring!

well, the vernal equinox happened a few days ago and now the clocks have sprung forward so it must be spring :)

although it feels more like summer at the moment! 

we've had a few nice weekends now and have been able to make a great start in the garden, although i'm worried we may have been too quick off the mark as we had a couple of frosty mornings this week.

roll on summer :)

a winter solstice

happy solstice day!

from here on in, the days will start getting longer.  spring is on the way :)

more deccies

i came across this project on a few different sites while browsing online recently (something i do when trying to avoid housework!) and thought i could use up some man-made 'wool' we had left over from an outdoor weaving project.

so, despite a slight balloon phobia, i gave it a go.

a few tips for you before starting:

= don't make the pva too watery and thin as it will quite literally go everywhere (unless that's just me being very messy?).

= place a LARGE towel underneath the bowl with the pva in it if you want to avoid having to peel dried splashes of pva off the living room floor.

= if you hang the wool-wrapped balloons up to dry, check your reflection in the mirror before leaving the house. again, this might just be me, but the pva had dripped all over my hair and i hadn't noticed before leaving the house - think of that moment in "there's something about mary" and you will just about get the picture!

just in case you haven't already seen this a thousand times before, here's a quick tutorial:

1. mix a little water with some pva in a bowl.

2. partly blow up as many balloons as you would like to use.

3. loosely wrap the dry wool around the balloon to try and gauge how much you will need. add a few centimetres (or inches) extra and cut a length of wool for each balloon.

4. keeping hold of one end (this is quite important if you don't want to be digging around in cold, slimy pva for the missing end) carefully place the wool in the bowl of pva and water.

5. hold the balloon in one hand and start wrapping the wool around the balloon with the other. realise at this stage that any attempt to create an intricate pattern is harder than you realised and fall-back on the favoured "it's organic and the design just evolved" approach.

6. try to cover the balloon as evenly as possible without crossing over the same point too many times as the wool may just gather in a thick bunch.

7. hang the balloon up to dry and move on to the next balloon.

8. absent-mindedly wonder what that tapping noise is while you are repeating steps 1 to 6 but become so absorbed in wrapping slimy wool around a slippery balloon that you really don't give it too much consideration.

9. stand up to hang the second wool-wrapped balloon up to dry and discover that 'tapping' noise was actually the first balloon dripping watery pva all over the living room rug.

10. thank your lucky stars that you have a partner who works night shift, giving you ample time to clear up and try to dry out the rug!

(feel free to miss out steps 8 to 10).

11. once you have covered all of your balloons, give each one a final roll in a thin layer of pva and water just to make sure that every piece of wool is covered.

12. leave to dry.

13. once the wool is dry and you are happy it has stuck to itself, pop the balloon! if a few strands appear loose, just paint on some more pva and leave to dry again.

14. you are now left with a delicate wool lattice.

15. display in a bowl, attach to fairy lights, or add some ribbon and hang from the tree to bemuse the postie like i have done.

if you do make some, please share the piccies J

deck the halls with ...

... dried oranges!

well, it's third time lucky for me with these decorations. you wouldn't think that drying oranges would be that difficult would you?

last year i decided i would dry some orange slices to hang prettily on the tree and around the house. i don't quite know what went wrong but they ended up all brown and squidgy! then i ran out of time and inspiration so just left it as a failed experiment.

this year, a little more browsing on the internet seems to have done the trick and it worked!

well, it worked on the third attempt - here's a wee hint for you ... when you're waiting for the oranges to finish drying, don't think "oh, i'll just wrap myself up in this snuggly blanket and watch a little tv for the last hour they're drying" because, if you're anything like me, you'll wake up six hours later and just manage to stop the little blackened orange slices from setting your oven on fire!

so, i think the trick was slicing the oranges and placing between two tea towels for a day to remove a lot of the surface moisture.

then i popped them in the oven (on a rack, to allow the air to circulate) at 135C/275F/Gas Mark 1 for the first hour, and turned the oven down to 110C/225F/Gas Mark 1/4 for the next two to three hours.

i did keep an eye on them this time and turned them every hour. i think they took a little longer than three hours but perhaps i had sliced them a little thickly. what you're looking for is the flesh of the orange to be dried out without starting to brown.

and here are the finished deccies ...

 

just back but about to go away again!

well ... this past weekend was just amazing! wonderful company, great food, fantastic horst couture garments, such creative feltmaking ... i feel like i have just had the most amazing dream!!!

so, i'm just back but my feet still haven't yet touched the ground - i promise to blog and share pics really soon, and also catch up with you all too, but i was straight back to work and then i'm away again this weekend. then on hols for a week ... and i wonder where the time goes?!

look forward to catching up with you all soon and in the meantime, happy mid 'summer'!

you have to laugh

this ...

is the day i have put aside to photograph all of my new work!

at least i won't have to water the garden tonight :)

bloomin' lovely

yaaaay, the garden has woken up after a long, dark, cold winter!

it's a wonder to see that so many of our plants survived under the snow and ice - especially the oregano and the sage which weren't even under cover for the winter.

then there are the lovely daffs that greet us with cheery yellowness each morning

and the gage and plumgage, full of the blossom-promise of fruit to come

now i just need to find the time to catch up on the weeding!

look ...

blue sky! yes, genuine blue sky - with added sunshine!!!

please, let this be the start of a long, hot summer (with just enough rain, at night, to keep the garden watered).

british summer time starts here!

the clocks have moved forward ... it's officially summer!

happy new year!

i wish you a year of peace, hope, health, happiness and love :)

to welcome in the new year we sent up some paper lanterns and were really surprised and delighted to see we weren't the only ones. the sky around us was dotted with so many lanterns, it was really quite something. we were too busy enjoying the sight of them all to actually take any pics though! so here's some of ours ...

more snow ...

really ... ?

for us ...?

how kind!

but we really do have enough already thank you :)

it's the shortest day!

happy winter solstice :)

the earth is turning toward longer, lighter and (hopefully) warmer days. a lovely thought for when we're sitting in front of the fire tonight eating some of the berries we picked this summer and then stuck in the freezer just for tonight.

more snow, some ice, bit of a thaw

guess how long it took us to dig the car out .. ? only to wake up to a blizzard the following day!must admit though, that i have quite liked the change of pace that the 'snow chaos' has caused.

we've been really lucky, i know, and it must have been awful for the folk who haven't been able to get out and about or who have been stuck in their cars overnight.

but i've really enjoyed being in the house with the stove on, pottering around and doing those wee jobs i never seem to have the time to do. we've been taking lots of really long walks, enjoying the scenery and playing in the snow. a trip to the grocery store meant walking with huge rucksacks on our backs and only buying what we could carry, you pretty much stick to your shopping list when you know that you've got to load it all onto your back for the trip home! i've also been doing loads of baking (pics and recipes to follow). we've been feeding and enjoying watching the antics of the birds who have been very regular visitors. we switched the tv off and listened to the radio, and some old vinyl (yes, vinyl!). plus, i discovered that i could actually walk to the day job, whilst doing a bit of bird watching along the way. much more relaxed way of life with the added bonus of some exercise thrown in too! i'm definitely going to try to use the car less and less from now on. a couple of years ago i did acutally have a whole summer without a car and cycled to work, but then winter came and i was persuaded we did really 'need' a car and then got lazy again!

we did have more and more snow during last week and everything was transformed into something really quite magical
even the tree decorations i made as part of the international day of felt

then we had two whole days without snow! it started to thaw a bit during the day, then refreeze at night, making for lots of lovely to look at, but dangerous to stand underneath, icicles

well, it looks like we may have a bit of a thaw on, i've seen the tarmac on the road for the first time in two weeks! off to walk into town now :)

snow-jumping

let me introduce you to a little known sport, or as it’s referred to more accurately by aficionados: art-form, called snow jumping.

there is one very important pre-requisite for this activity: you need a shed-load of snow to be dumped on your location daily for about four days in a row, with freezing temperatures at night to maintain consistency and depth.

preparation is key: you want to wrap up warm with plenty of waterproof clothing on top. make sure that there are no tiny gaps between gloves and sleeves, scarf and neck etc. in fact, tucking your vest into your thermals is also a good idea (but not the sexiest style you will ever carry off) to prevent any ingress by the tiniest amount of the cold stuff, which will melt as soon as it reaches any of the cosy parts of your body and turn to freezing water which will then run down your neck, leg, arm etc. not good.

to allow you to take part at home, here is a quick guide. bear in mind that perfecting this technique takes many, many hours of practice so don’t be too disheartened by your first, stumbling attempts.

step 1. find a stretch of particularly deep, untouched, lovely white stuff.
step 2. run as fast as your many layers of clothing will allow.
step 3. launch yourself from the ground by pushing off with one foot.
step 4. bearing in mind that points are awarded for style and panache as well as distance travelled and landing, turn/twist/spin/kick/flail/somersault even, as many times as is possible.
step 5. the landing, ah the landing, my favourite part. if you have nailed your take-off perfectly, then landing pretty much takes care of itself.

to assist you: if you’re doing it right, the end result should look something like this:happy snow-jumping everyone!

what a difference a week makes

this is what last week looked like ... we had gone to a local hide to do a bit of winter birdwatching but the scenery was so lovely we spent a lot of time admiring that too!

and this is what we have now ...although, we actually have a little more snow now! this pic was taken a couple of days ago and it pretty much hasn't stopped snowing since.

here's some more snowy pics from our walk ...

the trees still haven't finished their autumnal display



only one thing for it ... make snow angels!hope everyone is safe and warm, with plenty of supplies.

fall back

so, an extra hour this weekend! what did you do with yours ... ?

i had great plans for the magic hour, i think i had a to-do list which would have taken me about three hours in all honesty and then i thought, well why not just kick back for a change, use the 'extra' hour to have a cuppa and read (a whole hour reading is a rare treat these days).

the sad truth - the hour passed me by as i slept in!

happy mid-summers!

can you believe it's nearly the longest day already? where has the year gone? either it's a sign i'm getting older or i'm having loads of fun - probably a combination of both, but i'm going with 'time is flying by because i'm having so much fun!'

have you got any plans to celebrate this weekend?

if you're in the area, i can totally recommend the mid-summers event at the crannog centre on loch tay. we went a couple of years ago and it was such a special night, i still get emotional when i think about it. the crannog has a fantastic atmosphere and it was lovely to sit around the fire listening to traditional music. you can get all of the details here: crannog centre events

we're still unsure what direction we're going to head, i think we'll wait to see what the weather is doing first. m has a rare weekend off so i'm going to leave the felt mine behind for four days as we pack up the van and go camping, cycling, walking, wildlife watching ...

hope the sun is shining for you wherever you are :)

our first snowdrops

spring is on the way, spring is on the way (although waking up to more snowy scenes yesterday you wouldn't have thought so!).

m finished his set of shifts the other morning so i picked him up at 8am laden with binoculars, bird book and picnic! what a glorious morning we had, we headed onto a little island on the tay (right in the middle of perth) and saw: deer; a seal; goldeneye; heron; goosander (a first for us!); cormorant; goldcrest; blue tit; chaffinch; goldfinch; a massive flock of domestic white geese and a few birds we weren't quite sure about because they wouldn't stay still long enough! and we also saw our first snowdrops of the year :)

then we sat on a fallen tree to enjoy our picnic, aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh what a blissful way to start the day :)