30.3.13

Good friday.... a snapshot

a snapshot of my day,


I have been making Easter flowers to decorate my branches, I'm having a bit of a flower craze here at the moment! I loved how they turned out and how they are cheering up my living room.


I walked the dog up on the common, the breeze has dropped and it was really quite lovely to be back in our usual stride, taking in the views and marching along. We have been spending some time in much lower and warmer places!

A supermarket dash, no.... not for a free trolley load! it would be quite handy at the moment though.

Vegetable soup for lunch.

Chicken and vegetable soup for tea!!....... I know, lots of soup, this one was a special request. Loads of soup to eat up now. Good job it's healthy.

One load of eternal washing.

Washed up twice.

Restrained myself from eating chocolate. Do spoonfuls of chocolate spread count!..... If there's any left I might make cupcakes topped with choc spread and little eggs.....I might.....but  it's not a promise!

I've cleared up the next few items from the attic. I have decided this holiday to tackle the attic. My aim is to clear most of it. So.....each day I am deciding about a few things at a time. Where do they need to go? keepers or leavers? I'm quite enjoying it.

I'm sorting through videos now. Yes we still have a old tv/video! and I'm finding hard to part with Flashdance, actually I might watch it..... I'll probably end up dancing around the living room! well a girl can still have dreams......

Oh and I spent the day here and there catching up with lots of reading. I am using bloglovin as a reader and getting used to that. I have transferred all my blogs over to here quite easily. So far so good.


I thought I would show you my little easter rug. It's found a home on my chair. Infact it's just right for here. It started well, but turned out to be not  the one! Not the one for spending weeks and months on. So it's happily finished and has a place, I just can't cope with any more unfinished things. CLEAR is my word this year remember.

It did turn into a bit of an experiment with the zigzag edging and border.The colours were gentle, but rather reminisient of egg yolks!! definitely a spring rug.


oh and last thing, this cushion is making me very happy. I keep walking through and looking at it sitting happily on my couch, where it's staying! Popping with colour and very happy.


I'm a little miffed with my camera though as it's a bit shy with the green, which should be a few shades brighter. Does anyone else have this happening? I feel a new camera calling, although I'm uncertain how we will meet! but I will be ready when we do.....

Happy easter eggs! 

edited to add : if you have not already opened an account with Bloglovin, you can follow this link here. It's very easy to transfer all the blogs you are following in your google reader. They remain in your google reader as well, so for now you will have the choice of where to read them.

25.3.13

Love and hate


I don't know about you but love and hate exist in my life right now. That might sound a bit strong, but true.
It's the great paradox of life.

Sometimes you have to fully express one to be able to reach the other. Dark and light, yin and yang. In the Tao, they would say one cannot exist without the other. Each force contains the seed of the other. And one can become the other.

I hope this is true.

and so I must remember this when I'm banging my fists against the proverbial wall. You can't force people to change. I know this. I have learn't this the hard way. All I can do is step back and hold up my light, and sometimes my dark. Because both forces reside here. And sometimes there can be found a point of balance between both, which allows both, and knows both to be true. Here. Now.

We have had an unusually slow awakening this spring in the northern hemisphere. A couple of false starts. Moments of breakthrough and then back into the warmth and covering. (hiding) I feel an empty space, waiting to be filled with new things, a longing. But still withdrawing as the cold now demands I do.

I must be patient. The breakthroughs will come.

This is a picture of my Magnolia tree, how it will look. It's buds are still tightly wrapped, and that is how it is right now.

We have been long in our burrows this year. Creativity is bubbling quietly in the inner warmth, waiting for it's grand moment.


I experienced a love hate relationship with my last piece of work. It was a strange thing. I will show you, but not today. Now I am happily re-instated with my mass of colourful wools and enjoying them very much.


For I am filling this space with colour and hoping for some other things.

I have decided to drop 52 weeks of happy. Other ideas come into my mind instead. I will probably still do happy posts now and again. (I do hope so!) there may be commitment issues amongst other things.....! If I start following a perscription I can find myself only thinking about things in one way. So sorry to Jen and all the others. It can be a great way to catch those moments in the busy world of family life.

I hope your inner warmth is bubbling with good things!

Heather
    X 




14.3.13

taking things gently......

This morning on the common I let the lovely warm sunshine melt into my face and hands and gently warm me.



I have to confess that this really freezing cold spell we are having has left me feeling quite cold and stiff and a bit cranky.




I need warmth! please.....and lots of it. Yesterday evening I came home and realised I needed to create nurture and a gentle place to rest for the evening.

Queue, an evening on the couch, blankets, hot water-bottle, crochet and mollie makes and lots of heat. Just what the doctor ordered!

It was was made even better by the fact I had this waiting for me in the fridge ready to just pop in the oven!



A hearty shepherds pie made from Sally bee's book, The Secret Ingredient. I know, it's just gets better! I had made this yesterday and then not actually cooked it in the evening due to other events. So it was just waiting.......and didn't require any real effort, other than eating it!


I need easy crochet at the moment, I found some colours which are really calling me at the moment. Found a combination that I like and am just staying with them. Nice and easy. Gentle colours, with a bit of zing in the middle all edged in a lovely grey blue, which is most definitley one of my soul colours. Do you have a soul colour? I think soft blues and greys is where I go to rest when I have been working with a lot of colour.


I even found a spot in the midday sun on my bench for a while today.
It's nice to crochet something for me. Something simple and that doesn't require any real decisions...... It's surprising how much decision making can go into bright and random crochet!
I'm enjoying the sameness.

At this point it could be a cushion, but I quite fancy something simple to drape across the back of my sofa. Something that will sit quite easy with what's here. I think this would work. I'm starting to thinking about adding some light and  pretty spring colours, to my living space. Perhaps some sweet florals and the colour green is begining to call a little, it's quite exciting really! 

I have to say an easy evening on the couch is enough to restore optimism and a concerted effort is needed to do this regularly! If we can listen to ourselves and hear when we need to bring nurture into our lives and be gentle, I think the world would be a better place!! 

Wishing you much warmth and comfort,

Heather
    X   




7.3.13

Miss Trissie

This is the real Miss Trissie. She was my grandmother and she was born in 1900. In this picture I think she about 15 years old. I love what she is wearing, and although it would seem otherwise she was born in Coventry in the UK. Perhaps this little bodice and shirt was the fashion then. Her name was Emily Beatrice and everyone called her Trissie.


Trissie loved to sew and when she was 18 years old she was given a sewing machine for her birthday. This wonderful Singer sewing machine has been looked after by her, then my Mum and then me and works really well. I love to use it and the sound it makes as it sews. I had it serviced a couple of years ago and it was given a tune up and a clean and it's just like new! Incredible for a machine that must be about 100 years old.


I use it all the time when I sew my cushion covers, one day it will be other things, but for now it's cushions. I have called this sewing machine Miss Trissie and I think she would like that.



Both Miss Trissie's sit happily with me in my craft room, one by the window and the other on my desk.


I do use an electric over-locker, which is a whizz of a thing and a new thing for me. Great for finishing off the seams.

One day I would like to try some free-style applique and also work out how to use the different feet that come with it. I must be brave and try them out!

How about you,
Are you using a sewing machine?
have you ever used an old Singer machine?