29.8.12

all things bright and beautiful


these organic flowers were so beautiful,
they will stay on my table a lot longer than most,
just what was needed,
as well as rest, recovery and recuperation,
we don't tend to be so good at that do we,
thank you to soulemama for her timely post.

I think during my cold I shook off some heavy stuff,
still shaking it off actually,
......shaking and making!

I've needed things here to be lighter, brighter, simpler......
I've needed to draw the line in the sand around me (metaphorically of course)
which says, this far and no further.

don't get me wrong, the daily things are still happening,
but with a new awareness of where the boundaries are,
and a new voice which says, this is enough.

I'm now about half way through the handmade market place.
and just letting some of the ideas settle now.
The chapter on branding has made me think,
and there is a fair bit of advice about setting up a self-employed business.
this is the first book I have read like this,
and it happened to fall into my basket after reading  this post by Julia Crossland,
a self-employed artist,
here she reviews this book and several others.

I'm inside and outside,
nature and craft,
I like this combination.

my new little makes are pot-holders,
some new hooks will be found,
for there seem to be none in this house,
how have I managed?!
I will show you them hanging up and looking pretty.

here is the page which is tickling my toes in the new issue of mollie makes!
......I think I might be developing a fancy for some liberty fabric,
or perhaps these would be nice made from some vintage sheets!
new possibilities.....

I just want to share this from my walk,
the clouds were clearing here,
the sky was a pretty blue,
a lovely blue space,
in this place I love, 
where do you find the space to breathe out I wonder?


26.8.12

the happy world of thrift and handmade

today we went 'a-car-booting'
I am very happy with my collection of treasures,
it's sometimes nice to speak a few words to the previous owners before taking things cheerfully on their way.....
colourful threads and plastic bubbles happily accompanied me today,

this book is proving interesting and may lead to good things.......(i hope)
......watch this space.......!

a nice surprise to see the sunshine today,

25.8.12

just a little colourful something

I have a sweet lodger who unexpectedly gave me some get well soon flowers,

I crocheted a little something to go with them
and now my summer cold is much better!

20.8.12

thank you.....


first off I just wanted to say thank you,
this week and my last post has been a hive of activity,
it's been so lovely to read your comments and I've met some lovely new folks,
so a big thank you for all the support, especially my early followers!

these pink roses I planted this year in front of my balcony,
they are called compassion,
I hope they will climb and ramble as far as they can!
***
.......well, I've checked the calender and we have only two weeks left of holiday,
I'm trying not to feel panicked!
I feel like we have hardly done anything or been anywhere really......
except for the olympics of course,
it's just been a hanging out at home kinda holiday.

so what have I been doing?.....
well here's a few snipits,


eating juicy blackberries from a very brambly patch in our garden,
feeling very healthy.
I told my son these were natures happy pills!!
all those anti-oxidants......it's got to make you feel good, right?


reminding myself that I do know how to cook, at least a bit......
this is 'omelette with whatever you fancy',
I added cooked onion, peppers, courgette, tomato,
 indian cheese (paneer) and a good load of smoked paprika,
I had to finish the top off under the grill,
yum!


I have been chatting to the cows on the common,
there has been a mutual moaning about the weather!
although there have been some sunny days too,


I've been renewing my appreciation of dappled sunlight,
 appearing through shady woods,
not so keen on the squelchy mud though......


and slowly making more cushions,
I realise I simply have to finish all these cushions and do something with them,
I have been sitting and wobbling on the fence of indecision for far too long........


reading this little message left for me a while a go and remembering this is true,
even when other terrible teenage things are said........!


and today I am sorting out my craft room, I was up until late last night beginning, finally.
so my mission of the day will be this, it feels good to remember what I was doing, 
what I was in the middle of, 
what my ideas were.....!


so this is me this summer.

******


and I must also remember to thank Caroline of  scraps of us for awarding me with the liebster blog award!
The word leibster means dearest in German.
 This award is given to blogs that have less than 200 followers,
as a way of raising their profile and to encourage new bloggers,
how nice!

Anyone receiving the award can pass it on to 5 other blogs that they enjoy/admire,
and with less than 200 followers,
......if they would like to,
so I would like to award this to:-



Sassy of  muddle puddle


Lizzie of  the pea pod

I hope you get a chance to pop over and visit them,
  have a good week,

Heather 


15.8.12

a parcel in the post


A nice little parcel has arrived from Jane at teawagon tales. You can visit her etsy shop, little teawagon. Thank you Jane! I've been wanting to get some vintage wall paper for a while now. I was very happy to receive this. Have a look inside.


They're lovely aren't they. Gosh some of these really ring bells for me. I wonder if we had any of these on the wall, when I was a child, maybe.....


well any ideas what I have planned for these?.......yep the white box is a dead giveaway isn't! I found this on a recent thrifting trip, I've been wanting to decorate one of these for a while, so I'm happy to have found this. I've already given it three coats of paint, but I think it's going to need another, and then the exciting bit can begin!


I was going to use pva glue, I wondered whether wallpaper paste would be better and then I remembered mod podge, which I was calling modge podge until just recently! I love the packaging.....


I think you can use this as a sealer and paint over things and get different kinds of finishes, but I was way too impatient to research it properly as I just wanted to get sticking! I brought this from ebay by the way. There are many different kinds for different uses, including a sparkly finish, so I'm looking forward to finding out more. I only painted underneath the wallpaper. It dried really quickly and smoothly. None of the paper turned into wobble boards as I seem to remember pva can! and here is the finished result. I love it. I may have to re-paint my entire living room to go with it!......






what do you think? I will find some little treasures to put in it, but for now I'm enjoying it as it is. I used all of Jane's pieces of wall paper and one of my own. Anyone keen on collecting vintage wallpaper could take a look over at Ada's blog, vintage sheet addict, who is hosting a fabulous give-away open until the end of August, for some lovely designs. I really enjoyed this project and now I'm wondering what else I can cover. I have my eye on a little set of draws, but of course I will need more paper, unless, I do a patchwork effect.......for me patchwork and mosaics seems to be everywhere at the moment. Here's another look at something that's coming together at the moment.


Hope the holidays are going well for you. A lot of rain came down here today and the shorts I have managed to wear in one form or another all month so far, have not been worn today! although a bit of blue sky is squeezing through now so there is hope they may come out again....
Bye for now,
Heather 


9.8.12

lots of colour changes!


You may have noticed some changes around this blog of mine! Isn't it fun changing things around. I've always liked moving things around and I've always been a fan of multi-coloured things so I expect I will eventually work my way through all the colours! I am remembering to back-up my template and blog, so if it all goes pear shaped I will be able to recover it! There is a great tutorial over at carina's craftblog which shows you how to back up your blog and your template on blogger, so thank you Carina! I will try and do it every week.


The seventies flower pattern that I've added to the header is from a plastic ring binder folder that used to belong to my mum, there's also a matching pen case to go with it, I'm so glad we kept it. I've had a lot of fun with pic monkey, a photo editing site. Just drag a photo from your computer into the edit photo box and off you go! Sometimes I think a good honest photo looks best though......

I would love to have a better camera. This just isn't possible at the moment, so I'm trying to make the best of what I've got, which is really a fujifilm happy snapper! I have had a good read of the instructions and now know how to bring more light in and use it for close up shots, and that it's best to turn the flash off. But it would be lovely to take really defined close up shots that I see around. So I'm practising with this one first.


It would be nice to get a really good close up shot of the wild flowers on the common at the moment. I realize that I love these wild flowers best. All the delicate flowers which have been grown by having their seeds scattered around in the wind. The cowparsley, the harebells and the pink clover and all the lovely wild grasses and meadow flowers, so pretty.....the purple flowers against the green grass, remind me of the curtains I had when I was young. Chosen by my mum, I think a lot of the fabric I love comes from my mum, who had flowers on everything!! .....and who also loved to sew, using the singer sewing machine, which belonged to her mum and that I use now.  


It's nice to have my feet back down the ground again after the whirl of London..... You may also have noticed I added solo mum to my profile. It might answer some questions and I think I like this term best, especially as it not one that seems to obviously refer to status, if that makes sense. This certainly isn't going to be a blog about that. It's not a big deal. Although sometimes it is.....! This is more a blog about making and being creative as well as the things that inspire and delight me! I have lots of ideas cooking and I hope to be able to bring them here somehow.....


I realise that I never showed you a picture of my sunshine pillows, made during that really hot weather we had in May? I can't remember now, it may even of been April.....very simple, envelope style. I made them after reading Homespun Style, the lovely book by Selina Lake. I challenge anyone not to read this book and not have to immediately go and make flowery cushions!!..... I'd like to make some more using lots of different fabrics, if I could just put down my crochet hook for a moment!

In the meantime I have an exciting craft project coming up soon, just one more layer of paint to go......
                                                                Catch you soon

                                                                       Heather



6.8.12

summer flowers



as promised here is my short and sweet post!
I need a burst of summer colour after being in London.
these lovely colours were found in our local park.


this little project was begun on the train and is coming along super fast!
and these are all the colours I have in this merino wool,
it crochets a treat.
I just love the whole crochet as patchwork idea!
will show you more soon.

Have a good start to the week now!
  



4.8.12

the olympics and citizenM


Did I remember to tell you we were going to see the olympic volleyball at Earlscourt?   
I'm not sure I did,

we were a bit sorry not to be going to the olympic park.......
but the olympic spirit was very much alive at Earlscourt.

I had a crash course in how to play volleyball,
we watched a very fast and high powered game.
it was very exciting,
we joined in the mexican wave
and the noise level was through the roof!


having managed to get there early, three hours in fact!,
we had a long wait and a big build up to the event,
we even managed to get our photo taken holding the olympic torch,
it was really light,
I was really chuffed to do that!

travelling to london on the train was fun and really easy,
it's an hour and a half from where we live.
lots of people going to the olympics with their Union Jacks,
London was at its busiest and best,
with many different nationalities,
and lots of friendly volunteers to help people find their way.


The next treat of the day was  Hotel CitizenM,
this place was really beyond our budget,
but......
having been open only for three months it was on special offer!
still outrageous but then all the other accommodation in London was as well.
The reviews on this place were great in comparison to most of the others
 and it seemed like it would add to the whole experience.
I thought I had gone to design heaven....!


the room felt like being on the star ship enterprise!
with mood lighting and an ipad which opened the blinds,
 uber modern.

   
I must have looked rather curious taking pictures of everything!
but I knew it was probably a once off,
and I was really enjoying myself.....
look apple macs to use whilst having breakfast!


the reception area,
love the seat!


 the courtyard in the middle of the hotel,
gorgeous red garden furniture,


just look at the choice of seating and all those lights!
we became very attached to the place and only just made check-out,
after having to extract my teen from the ipad!


walking around South London, near Bankside, where the hotel was, 
things have really changed from what I remember them as,
the whole area has smartened up with new artwork and modern buildings,


this is the Shard building, now Londons tallest building,
a walk across the Millenium bridge.


we found this on the bridge


it says "lets stay together" and on the other side three initials.
how sweet, it was only put on in the last day or so looking at the date.
I've never seen this before, I was quite touched.......


teaching my son to use the underground and getting lost in the subway!
coming out here to see the queen waving,

we also did a bit of mudlarking on the banks of the River Thames, for those of you who don't know,
this is the same as beach combing!
all kinds of strange things have been found!
we found some pieces of old clay pipe that the sailors used to use,
and some sea glass and pottery. 

.......feeling totally exhausted by this point,
we decided to veto the science museum for another time!
and came home on the earlier train,
the dog was pleased......
(a friend house-sat for us!)


on the way home I started these,
not quite the olympic colours!
but more on this to come.

thank you for reading this very long post,
I will try and make the next one short and sweet!

Heather