the patchwork dress

eco sneakers

Hello! I don't feel like I've got much to blog about at the moment - have had my nose down in work and writing for another assessment due in tomorrow, which has been extended until Monday. It throws up the conundrum of whether to keep working on it over the weekend - but as I was looking forward to a weekend off for once, I think I will just reread and cast an eye over what I've done already before submitting it. I need to play! - but it does mean instead of slaving over an academic email tonight, I can write my blog!

This is something I've been meaning to mention for a few weeks - I recently bought, and am very delighted with my Simple Shoes Eco Sneaks which you can at last order online in the UK here.

I also ordered a pair of shoes which were a bit small and returned, but I was particularly pleased with my boots as they were (are still) in the sale, and because they look very neat - you know how some trainers can make your feet look big? But these are dainty enough to be worn even with a skirt.

But what I like best is that the soles are made from car tyres, and they say they use the most environmental processes they can and non toxic glues etc. Some of the other shoes do appear to have leather on them, but generally they are a friendlier type of shoe. (apologies for the fluff on the sole in this pic!)

Hoping for some sunshine this weekend so we can get outside. It has been pouring with rain and dark skies all week, all rather humid. I hope wherever you are you are having a sunny weekend, or the weather that is right for you.

garden

my blog seems to have turned into a gardening blog all of a sudden - it's the place I've been spending all my spare time lately - am so tired after work, even 5 minutes out there makes you feel as if you've done something, and I find being outside so therapeutic, even though I am a novice gardener.

These are the sunflowers that Melissa sent me last year in this post..

the tomato plants I bought a month or so ago from the Red Cross Plant sale in the village, are now up to my shoulders! The first flowers are coming out, and I have been getting tips about growing tomatoes from a chap at work. I was just commenting to N last week about how quickly they are shooting up - and that I'd been advised to pinch out any new growth between the stem and leaf - when he told me he'd kindly been pinching off the flowers to help. The tomato growing has consequently been left to me, and I also gained some courgette plants from a friend.

today I have been out madly tidying in the garden, and replanting an old trough - moving the plants I wasn't so keen on, to turn it into a herb garden. In there are parsley, basil, some coriander and one or two lettuce... The parsley marker was bought at Potfest on the last foray. I really like the typewriter typeface on it!

Speaking of forays I have had a couple of good finds at work. During the week I savalged 3 old wooden pallets from a skip, as since N had seen an article about this designer in Dwell magazine - he'd wanted to make one of these...

I am so delighted with my recycled sun lounger. (By the way, if you like this kind of thing, check out Scrapile as well.) Had been needing some garden furniture to add to the 'bench' and had been planning an expensive trip to Ikea - so the next day he made a table to match!

which also doubles as a footrest and another sitting bench. Total cost £0 - from 3 pallets.

I hate having to work on Saturdays, as it means a 6 day week and I miss my morning of R4 and pottering in the house. It knocks the system, which I don't think recovers without a break - so thank God I am having a week off later this week. However, being at work did have some payoff as I was given this Cath Kidston fabric by a colleague - with another piece in beautiful roses.

All I need is some time to do something with it!

Bon appetit!

gold, green & blue

from the weekend...

gold, green,...

..and blue. Such a rare thing in Scotland, I had to take a photo... not a cloud. Those 2 'wee guys' flew into the picture just as I snapped. They wanted to record it for posterity too!

Then, today I received these lovely artist date cards from Barbara. She made them from photos she took of a visit to a mosque in Aleppo a few years ago, stuck to postcards she didn't like. I love these images and the rich patterns. Unfortunately the photos I just took were a bit blurred... so they are featuring as a backdrop to my other favourite green thing at the moment...

the Strickpuppe (german for knitting doll) which I pur-chased at the Quilt Show Traders Market a few weekends ago. I haven't quite got round to figuring out how to use it. I used to do something like this called french knitting as a child - with 4 nails sticking out of a cotton reel. You can weave or knit a kind of cord. I was strangely drawn to buying the Strickpuppe... for a bit of fun.

Also because she reminds me a bit of a Russian Doll, and is quite East European looking.

...and for her smiley face!

bobbin' about

Popped into Oxfam today and seems like the craft fairies are busy again - found an old tin biscuit box full of crochet weight 'floss', including these on wooden bobbins for 50p each. Not sure what I will use them for - maybe strings for gift tags, or some future project.

The basket was another recent 'find'. I was joking that I seemed to be taking my cards round selling them on people's kitchen tables - so what better for door-to-door sales than a lovely wicker basket! Again, it was just sitting by the door as I walked in the shop... not to be missed! I love the idea of reclaiming these things and helping out Oxfam at the same time.

Can I resist going back for more of these?

Think I will need a bit more patience and practice before I'm ready to crochet this weight!

clearing space

As part of the spaceclearing this week, I uncovered a box of stuff I was 'keeping good' for a future house - where I felt we would have more space to give it justice. My cousin had mentioned a South-West corner, and I liked the sound of that!

... these are very cherished things I brought back from my trip to New Mexico...in 2004! Just when was I thinking it would ever be the time for them to come out? So decided here and now is good enough.. or maybe this is the time I've been saving them for!

The rug and cushion come from Ortega's weaving shop in Chimayo, New Mexico. The Ortegas are a family of weavers going back 8 generations. Entering the shop you can see through to the looms in the back where they still work. Every item is woven slightly differently and the colours are gorgeous. There are piles of rugs, blankets and mats in all sizes and colourways, cushions and a large display of Navaho style turquoise and silver jewellery. You really feel this is the real, special thing!

...there's that Thunderbird again, from the painted adobe walls outside the shop.

I love the old stripey Pendleton blankets you often see in these colourways, tucked under a western saddle in old photos - and aspire to owning some/one! of these! Beautiful.

The enamel cup, saucer and a matching bowl came from Serendipity in the town of Angelfire - how's that for a name - for a pioneering coffee swilling pre-hike out to the studio type breakfast. Kind of Cath Kidston - but not.

So after wondering why I've had them hidden away all this time, and what that has to say about me... they now have place in my home... the blanket actually fits snugly over the 'workbasket' I salvaged a few weeks ago, (keeping the wool warm) and covers the mess of projects going on in there... like the colourful lid on a cauldron! And the cowboy enamelware? ...looks like beans for breakfast...

some news...

diddlydeepdeedeep...here is a (rather long) news flash

recycled cards:
I recently had a serendipitous sale of what remained of my stock of cards in my Etsy shop to Jane at Snapdragon flowers who wrote a very nice account on her blog here. Whenever I need to blow my own trumpet I shall direct people to this!

All very serendipitous, because in the whole wide world Jane lives not far from me at all, yet found my blog through cyberspace via the flourloft, so thanks to Ginny there.

Jane was also the featured stallholder at the Country Living Spring Fair - so I was excited to hear from her as I loved her stall with it's bright green French delivery van, flowers and textile gifts everywhere. She also has some interesting and similar thought processes to myself about running a sustainable 'business'. Although daily I think about moving away from the label of 'business' and letting the whole thing evolve... rather as it's doing, actually...

I also completed and delivered a big fat pile of cards to Entrading
with about half of them Christmas themed. In my excitement to deliver, I totally forgot to take any photos of them, so you'll just have to go along if you are in Glasgow and check out the shop. They are such lovely people and pioneering an eco design ethic in Glasgow, with a great café too.

(Best way to find them - either from the front of the old Odeon cinema in Renfield Street, look up West Regent st to your left and they are up the hill at the lights...from Sauchiehall Street, turn up Hope Street at Watts department store, and they are a little further on the left, by the lights at West Regent Street.)

**I'll be doing some more cards to put in Etsy this week.**

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book and fabric stash:

I got some great new books recently... guess what I'll be doing over the next while. The Kaffe Patchwork book was a gift from my friend Suzanne who is back blogging with abandon!

The crochet book came from the recent Quilt Fair at Ingliston showground. There were 2 really good creative and textile orientated book stalls, this one, and of course Kaleidoscope of Milngavie, who have more quilting books than I can look at in one afternoon.

I recently ordered Simple Sewing by Lotta Jansdotter from Amazon, as have seen it around a lot but not inside it, to inspire me to do something with this lot

of secondhand or clearance fabric in a heavier weight that I have been stockpiling for some householdy projects I think...

I particularly like

and

I think coming across this fabric on Saturday has inspired me to do something with this stash

there are 4 small curtains worth of this fabric- I just love it!

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where to find it all:
Lastly, I also picked up this great map called 'dear green place' which you can order here of all the 'reuse' organisations and shops in Glasgow...

... it's a very well produced little leaflet with the map scaled in walking and cycling minutes.

Part of a much bigger scheme, you can check out here to see if a local map exists of your area in the world.

Byres Road

Maybe because it's turning autumn, but I am becoming quite squirrelish gathering things I can bury away in my creative stash for winter projects!

I had a great day on the Byres Road in Glasgow yesterday - nearly a couple of months since I have been there - but met a friend for coffee and cake at Kember & Jones (again! I do love it there!). There were a couple of guys discussing a film pitch, I'm sure I saw a well known actress come in for her cappuccino - and sad, I know, but did feel a bit more in the hub of things - ok, so it's not LA!...

...but enough to bring me home with a skip in my step with this colourful bag of goodies. The crochet book came from the Oxfam Bookshop by Hillhead Library. They've got quite a good selection of secondhand craft books - a whole shelf just on needlework! I picked up this 1970's crochet book: 1. because I love the retro cover, 2. because the pictures inside look quite clear to follow. I'm amazed at the textures you can create with crochet, and bored N all night by saying WOW - look at that one! Very nice dear, some knots. So I have threatened to crochet myself a gored anklelength skirt and perhaps some chevron booties.

On that note...

I found a great selection of vintage silk scarves at one of the shops in Ruthven Lane. This one is much too nice to cut up, so any ideas aside from cushion covers or a flag to 'autumnal vintage stash acquisition'?

The stamps and paper came from Damselfly in the much overlooked Ruthven Mews which really is a lovely arcade that should be a lot busier, but an oasis of calm if you need it - and they have a nice little indoor/outdoor café too.

Kowabunga!

** first things first, if you haven't already seen the mini autumn giveaway of the last post, please do leave a comment at the end of that day's post...

...still time til Friday to enter!! **

All I can think of is the word Kowabunga with reference to what happened today! I notice it is/was used as an expression of exhilaration when riding the waves by surfers... all part of being (in) the flow!
Did I tell you there was a little patchwork type shop, actually on the corner opposite my house strangely enough - I don't go in that often, but today I needed some elastic to make something for a friend, and I noticed some books on sale, cheap, donation to charity...

The shop lady pointed out that there was also a box of "stuff" which I could help myself to in return for a donation.. Well, since I received the idea of doing the mini autumn giveaway, I have stumbled across some odds and ends I thought may be fun to put in a parcelette, so decided to have a rake in the box.

There were two ringbinders full of embroidery threads (the lady pointed out it was a sample of nearly the whole Anchor thread range) and bags and bags of thread. I pulled out some other bags too. I discovered at home some of the threads have hand written tags of the natural dyes they have been coloured with!

This is one of the folders' contents... I worked out afterwards (from what the lady told me) there is nearly £170 ($340) of thread just in these folders!... and it's all going to my Mum. (well, most of it!)

I seem to keep coming across embroidery things - which I don't do so much, and as my mum has been thinking of taking this up again I pulled out some things for her - there was even little bits of blank canvas and an embroidery hoop.

I'd already selected these books and patterns - the Brazilian Bracelet book is for me - I don't know why but I feel strangely drawn to weaving and plaiting something! I didn't read it too closely in the shop, later discovered that you need cotton thread to do it (I think I know where I can get some now!).

All I can say is I'm having a lot of fun!