the patchwork dress

easter bun(ny)ting

Last Easter weekend I made some easter bun(ny)ting to hang across the dresser.  I'd bought the timber bunnies earlier, and just wanted something to hang them from.  It's the first thing I've made using my sewing machine in ages - and at times I wished I hadn't started - it was rather a lazy bunting, and I wasn't sure whether to give the bunnies little yellow ribbon bowties or not? What do you think?

I also bought some new seat cushions from H+M home - they had some nice stuff for Easter/Spring.The cushions are intended for outside, but Charlie immediately tried them out and gave them the paws up.

 

wintry walk to loch lomond

Last weekend I did a wintry walk with my camera to Loch Lomond (just across the fields from my house actually).  I thought the snow would be shin deep, but already it was melting off the grass. A bit disappointing as my whitish coloured snowboots came back all covered in mud!

The tree lined ridge in the loch photo is the island of Inchcailloch, and Conic Hill to the right - the actual Highland boundary fault crossing the loch.

saturday morning collage

I had a little 20 minute wandering through 3 magazines, just letting my subconscious pull out anything that appealed to it.  Of course Charlie was there to help, there he is providing some paperweighting in the top left corner!

I'm a bit too lazy (and lacking space for display) to stick it down, so took a photo and posted it here!

2012

2012 was a strange year - very busy with hardly any time to be in this part of 'my world'.

Started the year working in Manchester, then Edinburgh, Belfast from May-October and then back to Glasgow.

All that runnng around lead to burnout all through November, December and part of January, first losing my voice for 3 days (hence the napkin with notes to N!). 

But 2012 also saw me getting my first electric guitar, and at the end of the year, entranced by his ragamuffin image on the shelter website, we welcomed Charlie into our home, where he has blossomed and become more vociferous as we start 2013!

Revisiting this makes me excited now for 2013, and having had such a great time discovering Northern Ireland, praying for Peace there very soon x.

a letter from Nepal

 I received this drawing from a 9 year old girl from Nepal.  The letter tells me she lives in a house made of bamboo and mud, with a slate roof and a dung floor.  The family use straw for cooking and get water from a bore hole - collection takes around 5 minutes.  This girl goes to school, but her family use an open field for a latrine as they have no toilet.

I have been a sponsor with Plan for nearly 10 years.  Recently my sponsorship with the first child (also from Nepal) ended when Plan decided they had done enough in that community - R was now a teenager, and they moved my sponsorship and their efforts to another area.  It was kind of sad to lose R - so I decided to write her a final postcard, and also an introductory one to my new sponsored child, S.

Plan go into communities in 'developing' countries.  Through sponsorship, they set up a link with an individual - and over the years there has been an exchange of photographs and drawings (from her), postcards and the odd gift from me.  All correspondance is sent through Plan, so there are no direct details of addresses or contact, but roughly once a year you receive a small piece of post, a message and a photograph from the family - and likewise you can send them a message or a small gift (although they may have stopped that now due to costs?).

I must say as it went on I found it harder to write, once initial formalities had been exchanged - and I think the main cause of this was just overwhelming guilt - news from my world seemed so priviledged that I found it uncomfortable to talk about my life.. even a simple laptop like the one I'm using now would be 'out of this world' for my sponsored child.  So mostly enquiries are made to the health and happiness of the family - and perhaps the thought is really what counts.

It is lovely to receive post from someone you have never met, but have this strange link with, and makes the transaction more human than charity.  It's rather humbling.

Plan tell me that in R's area of Nepal they helped to install 1159 wells, 1341 toilets for families - they also support schooling, education and health education in the sponsored areas.

If you are interested in the scheme, Plan can be found here.

 

5 x 5 x 5

This blog was 5 years old on the 5th of the 5th month of May... just to show what a terrible blogger I've been I haven't even got around to posting until today!

Five years of blogging has opened some amazing doors to me, including meeting lots of other crafters and bloggers, making things, and connecting with folksy and etsy to sell my wares and buy others!  Lately I have got absorbed away from this life into other areas - and that may be what this year is about, mainly my work life and just more downtime for recovery inbetween.  Sometimes I don't feel like saying much - or maybe I don't have much of interest to share!

A habit I've developed is being swayed by technologies hosted by other blogs - over the last 5 years I've tried facebook and scrapped it, (it just annoyed me, I don't 'like' it although can see it suits a lot of people), looked at twitter and couldn't be bothered, started a tumblr but couldnt get it to work or pursue it, oh - and Polyvore - same with Pinterest... note to self "must persevere".. or should I? Do I actually have the time?

I recently upgraded my phone to one that has 'aps' - and passed my old phone onto N - who promptly amazed me by discovering all these functions on it that I never knew it had, or even tried to work out!

So, resolving to play around and explore more with the new phone, I recently downloaded the Instagram ap (which again have seen now on numerous blogs)- and played with the filter process on these 5 pictures from the weekend - which were all taken on my phone.

I really like the effects and wonder if this is something I may stick at - however there is something about having too much technology at hand for instant results, like Pinterest etc which detracts from the process of cutting out a picture, grouping it with others and sticking it down.. I'm not sure if I am a technophobe or not - or if there is something about the satisfaction of hand and eye which trumps all aps.

I heard on the radio today about the futures of 'augmented realities' with google specs that will do this and that for you - and to be honest I am concerned about losing function of the brain and the senses - the subtleties of energies, sixth sense and intuition - all of which enrich life far beyond any ap - giving the sense of wellbeing technology is supposedly freeing us up to find.  But sometimes the best days are the ones you leave your phone in your pocket, or even better your house, while you go out and use your amazing nature given and free aps of the senses!

But don't listen to me, this last shot is often my replacement for the television set.

lemon + raisin madeleine sponges

These are so quick and easy - all you need is a madeleine tray and a lemon outside of storecupboard staples, so great to rustle up at last minute and also quite tasty for mornings.  I have adapted this recipe and reduced sugar so they aren't overly sweet - the lemon and raisins give flavour...

...I have even put these into bake while in the morning shower, and taken them into work where they've gone down well, and no-one could tell they were wheat free!

Lemon and Raisin Madeleines

4oz (125g) soft magarine (for dairy free use PURE)

1.5 oz of (caster) or demerara sugar

5oz of plain gluten free flour (DOVES) sieved with 1 teaspoon of g/f baking powder

2 eggs

juice of 1 lemon

handful of raisins, or cherries, or almonds (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 160C/325F/Gas 3, and very lightly grease a madeleine tin.

2. Put margarine, sugar, flour, baking powder and eggs in one bowl and beat together until the mix goes light coloured and creamy in texture.  Add the lemon juice and mix through lightly.  Fold in the raisins or fruit.

3. Using a desert spoon, drop mix into tin - remember the mixture will expand during cooking (I don't mind colouring outside the lines) -  and bake 160C/325F/Gas 3 for approx 20-25 mins, or until golden + cooked. (time may be shortened in fan asst ovens).  

(This recipe was adapted to gluten/dairy free from the 'One bowl sponge cake' recipe by Evelyn Rose, P417, The New Complete International Jewish Cookbook - and will also work with normal wheat flour + dairy.)

things afoot...

Spring is in the air.  Today we are being treated to spells of sunshine and showers.  The birds seem frisky and full of song.  Spring is afoot.

Speaking of feet, I am working on a second pair of socks from this book, using the bamboo sock wool bought in Harrogate.  

the book is laid out as a graphic, broken down into steps and stitch numbers to keep you right... also a pic of what the socks should look like completed...

They are more complex than my first pair of socks, and you have to really keep an eye on the ball, as the pattern is worked in a repeated round of 4 rows, with each row different.  

I find I like to 'knit' - and 'purl' is just a distraction until I can 'knit' again. It's a strange game I'm playing with myself...  'Purl' just makes the 'knit' times seem better, and there is enough knit and purl exchanges in this to keep it interesting!  Does anyone else do this?

There are a few errors where I lost track, and my cast on is a bit annoyingly lacy - but I hope to improve these with experience. These, as they say in Glasgow, will be just 'a wee pair of wearing socks' for N around the house, while improving my sock knitting confidence.

'One Good Market' got in touch to say they were closing down the site, and hence my shop - a shame - it wasn't working out for them.. truth be told it wasn't working out for me either, but I assumed everyone else was doing a roaring business and it was just me.. so I don't feel as big a failure.

- so I am back to keeping my Folksy shop going, but feeling quite relaxed about the whole thing.  It's important to have some projects which are creative satisfaction outside of work and 'business', and while it is nice to sell things I also want to find time for enjoyment and gifts, otherwise everything can end up as 'business'.

Keeping things flexible means I can wax and wane the 'selling' side of things to keep in balance with periods of freelancing and grow it when things are quiet.  Whatever it seems important to love what you do, or at least have some part of life where this can be your credo. But, hey, you never know what's coming and I do still love reading about those who have given up the dayjob on Etsy!

urban fox :: manchester

Just got back this week from Manchester, where I have been an urban fox for 5 weeks, working on "Mrs Biggs" a drama production at ITV Granada..  I loved being in Manchester, for a city it's got quite a relaxed vibe, very well appointed with shops and great transport i.e. the Metro tram network and free city centre buses.

It was quite a shaky start to the year with power cuts at home (we had more than 10, and my car exploding on the M6 and having to be RAC'd back home from Carlisle).  So let's hope it can only get better!

One highlight was meeting up with blogger Sue (Mouse) which was lovely, at the fabulous John Rylands Library - an oasis of calm in Spinningfields, with a rather gothic Hogwarts interior (and nice café).  

It was like a working trip or holiday, and the freetime I had, I used to explore the town and discover places like:

• the Manchester Craft + Design Centre - a covered market of little maker studios with its own café - I was rather envious of their handmade world and private/public spaces!
• Manchester Art Gallery + Museum - this was one of my favourites by Holman Hunt, and Grayson Perry's drawing 'Print for a Politician'
• The Trafford Shopping Centre (omg! - a mad Disneyland)
• Morecambe seafront

Needless to say I only took my 'works' camera which I forgot to take away on my days off, so hardly took any pictures except these 2!  

This is the view from our office at Granada - some mornings the tower blocks in the distance lit up with the rising sun, their windows turning to golden sequins. (Nic, I think you may have said that!)

It was a great location to work so close to the town, and open views with lots of light. (Un)fortunately the studios are moving to Salford to be beside the BBC and media village that is springing up there.  There was a nostalgic feel of working studios - years of Coronation Street, plus Countdown and the infamous Jeremy Kyle being filmed there!

24/2 : seasons greetings

(view towards Ben Lomond over freezing cloud formation on Loch Lomond 2011)

I'd just like to thank you for following my blog this year if I've not managed to thank you personally, - and for leaving comments and support if you have done - it means a lot to me.

I also hope you've found something of interest, and perhaps inspiration through my ramblings, and hope to see you again in 2012!

Merry Christmas! xx