This morning I reached into the cupboard for a tea cup - wren or owl? I plumped for the wren.
As I looked out into the garden, there was 'the' wren bobbing about, darting in and out of the foliage and at insects ontop of the composter. Last Saturday I was delighted to see her as I opened the blinds - marginally screened from the garden I could watch her fairly close-up without her knowing, as she pulled off insects and little grubs from the ferns.
Next thing I knew there was a strange bird in the garden. It was very beautiful with a long tail and graceful air. By its movement, I guessed it must be some sort of wagtail. It had a look around in shock like someone who has gatecrashed the wrong party - Oh, I'm not sure I belong here! before she flew off in a start.
I immediately referred to the bird bible and think it must have been a grey wagtail. Beautiful shades of pale greys and fine yellows, tapering into a long and refined tail. Funnily enough over the page, the next entry is the wren itself. So here were bird bible neighbours appearing in the garden in a sort of reverse alphabetical order.
I've been finding it hard to relax the last couple of days. After an intense period of work and study, at last the marks for my final project were released, and I am now a fully fledged post-graduate screenwriter! Sometimes endings are as difficult as beginnings and I am having to learn to handle the end of this cycle of activity before the next begins. Although the term 'restlessness' means without rest, there is an underlying sense of needing to do things when the truth is 'put your feet up'. I think many freelancers and/or creatives experience this feast or famine of activity and I have come to terms with putting up with the strange country we go into between bouts of activity and learning techniques to notice the signs and ways to 'come out' of it.
Yesterday I enjoyed a day off, which meant I could go to the local coffee morning and veg sale at the local farm. My friend and neighbour Susan dropped by and we had a catch up in the village hall. The atmosphere buzzing with chat, while a few locals set up stalls of jumble and handmade crafts. Not Etsy standards by any means, but I liked these little hedgehogs by a local woodturner, and bought them in homage of our recent visitor. By evening they had named themselves Sir Hogsalot, Sir Snuffalot, and Iggle Piggle - and it looks like they are off on an adventure. Maybe I need to get out more.
Then by coffee time this morning, a package had arrived..!
Whilst blog surfing last weekend I bought myself one of Tamar's beautiful necklaces as a graduation gift to myself. I love her sense of fun and colour, and her lifestyle of interiors and handmaking. It arrived this morning along with one of her lovely cards and wrapped in a cute box. I really love the bird pendant which is about the length of my thumb.
I shall leave you with an image of the summer - when I was writing for the final project over my birthday weekend, and drinking organic champagne in the garden. How decadent!
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!
So goes the famous warcry of the Togs, a very British institution from the morning BBC radio 2 show hosted by Terry Wogan.
So if you are short of things to watch this weekend, I have been watching lots of short films for my course and had to select 3 of note... Jack-Jack Attack by Pixar (this is a naughty link on Youtube, but it can be purchased through Itunes and is on the dvd of 'the Incredibles), In God We Trust, which is again an abridged version of the original that I saw via Spiritual Cinema Circle, and The Furniture, which is part of an amazing PBS site offering all sorts of interesting independent documentaries - from people doing amazing things, to just beautiful cinematography.
this sweet little package arrived in the post from Jessicah in Australia.
a while ago I sent her some bits and pieces I'd hoarded for jewellery making, but would likely not get round to doing - and she made and sent me this lovely necklace. I really like it, thanks Jessicah! There are more for sale over at her Etsy shop - so please check it out if you'd like one. They are so unique and one-off!
I also heard from Alisa with whom I did the scrap-swap last year. She sent me a photo of a lovely bag she made from a fat-quarter of black and cream fabric that I had also sent in the scrap-swap package. I had 2 pieces, and the idea is that we would both make something and compare... I think I've got some catching up to do!
**ETSY FLASH! THERE WILL BE SOME NEW RECYCLED CARDPACKS IN THE SHOP - probably this weekend, once a customer has chosen which ones she would like.. so coming soon...
Last week got a bit dry, setting up things for my writing course - like doing all the online stuff (including joining Facebook, something I didn't really want to do, but decided to embrace - as it is a really good way of keeping in touch with those on the course... if you are anyway mildly interested in what I look like, it's now or never...) - also doing more spaceclearing in the 'writing space' so that it is organised and set up to manage my coursework.
...so you can imagine my joy when this unexpected parcel of things arrived about an hour ago from Victoria at dearmeagan.blogspot.com in...
!
...full of fabric bits and lovely magazine images, just the sort I would use to make cards, but am going to keep this lot, Victoria, thank you, for my own scrapbook!
I got a bit confused initially because I'd had an email from another dear blogger who said she was sending me a parcel, so I thought this must be it until I read the envelope and card! How wonderful.
Also included was this Irish linen teatowel which goes so well with this older post - I wonder if she knew? It's funny thinking these were made in Ireland, as the colours do seem from warmer sunnier climes!
On Saturday I visited Lomond Shores which is a favourite place of mine to go for a wander and have a coffee looking up the loch to Ben Lomond. It also houses the "gateway centre" to the National Park, so is a funny mix of outdoors and retail park. I like the architecture and think the whole scheme was very bold. Unfortunately the Drumkinnon Tower, which is an amazing circular building based on a Scottish broch has become a bit of a theme park where they keep otters (I'm not even getting into that debate) - I know it has 2 or 3 theatre/cinema screens inside and think it would make a great centre to show and host a variety of arts and media connected to Scotland (but then that's just my gig). Sadly too the outdoor clothing shop and bookshop have both closed, and it does feel as if it could do with some rethinking, as it has loads of potential.
...it was a bit cold for icecream...
On Sunday I attended the John Sayles masterclass as part of the Glasgow Film Festival. It was my first artist's date in ages. Sayles is a screenwriter, author, actor, director and film-maker. He talked about making his own films by investing his own money into the production through a series of working really hard writing for others, and reinvesting in his own projects. Although I'm not so familiar with his own films, I was really interested to hear him speak from a point of process ie. about actually being a writer and filmmaker and what makes him tick. I wasn't disappointed, he was eloquent, informative and amusing... you can see why he's had so much work yet even within Hollywood he has kept down to earth.
I feel as if I have taken some big steps over the weekend. On Saturday I attended the induction day for a post-graduate course in Screenwriting at Edinburgh's Napier University.
This is the amazing new building they have renovated especially for the Scottish Screen Academy, just off the Napier campus. There was even a village style newly built Starbucks on the corner, a spanking new Tescos and a Chocolatier around the corner. Someone up there likes film-makers!
I must admit that I was having mixed feelings until that point of whether to do the course or not - many subconscious fears coming to the surface! I'm sure there will be moments when I will want to run away, but these seemed to equal the excitement, potential and stories that were running through my head on the way home. Fuelled possibly by a day of drinking coffee, in between being handed scary sheets of paper with words like assessment, number of hours, script etc typed on them.
So a mixture of excitement and feeling slightly overwhelmed, tempering with ideas popping out of my head all over the place, rather like the bulb shoots in the garden. If I was dial-up before, I feel as if my head, and energy have now gone Broadband. How am I going to manage keeping up my blog, all these assignments, and being a freelancer? Quick, another cup of coffee and do my blog to get it off my chest.
I recently caught BBC radio 4's From Our Foreign Correspondent presented by Kate Adie - and although I'm not usually a fan of news programmes, if you are fed-up with new media and 'news at ten', listen to this . A return to correspondence, journalism and storytelling we hear 4 or so reports from BBC journalists around the world with a personal voice. They take the big story, bring it zen-like to earth and transforming it by mentioning their daily life, how their lives as correspondents relate to the story they are reporting and the contacts they meet. A previous week's journalist told of the barrier fence between two warring countries through the journey of a man snuck through a hole in it, in order to go and buy a mattress - returning disappointed with a box of crisps and a crate of coca-cola. Another spoke of the Ivory Coast where the end of civil unrest has meant the postal service could be reinstated after 5 years of no delivery or collection! Each piece is well crafted, funny and human. The voices that come through these pieces as well as Adie's herself, are powerful, very listenable - and like the old BBC - trustworthy.
(the show was also issued on the World Service, incase you can't access the BBC site from abroad, with a different announcer).
This package arrived from my dear friend Barbara last week. Ever since I heard about Fine Cell Work (through Selvedge magazine, I think) I've been fascinated by the idea of these prisoners making these beautiful embroideries and patchworks as a positive skill and product while they are serving their sentences.
They recently had a small exhibition at their offices in London, and Barbara went along and kindly sent me this package of bits and pieces they had for sale - including the little cushion/'lord-a-leaping' xmas decoration which has been made by an inmate. It has a little cardboard tag on it with a reference number so he/she will get some money from what he makes. Think I will use it as a needle cushion as they tend to disappear into my pincushion.
It's a wonderful and very interesting scheme - and if you have £50-£100 to spare, you can sponsor an inmate to make you a cushion or a quilt and receive the training and materials required. Once the cushion is received, FCW encourage you to write and thank the prisoner who made it, which increases their feelings of self-esteem and value. It would make a worthwhile gift - perhaps for a wedding instead of a toaster!
Yesterday the doorbell rang and a delivery man asked me to sign for a box. We were expecting a delivery of one of these, but after I signed for it, realised that it said "M&S flowers" on the box. (Snapdragon Jane, look away now!)
...far more exciting than the logmaker (or is it?...), it was a delightful surprise delivery from my friend Jill as a gift for our new home. I'd not really done anything about spring bulbs when we moved in, as with so many other things to do, it seemed like a bit of an indulgence. But I do LOVE them. So this was a very nice surprise, and a promise that Spring will arrive. Although it would probably look good by the front door, I put it in the garden just outside my sewing room window so that I can enjoy it everyday.
Speaking of which...
..still a work in progress, but I was keen to post about it now, as it will never be 'perfect' - the chances of me catching it on a tidy day with sunlight and all the pictures on the wall may be a few months off yet! So here it is Stage 1!
BEFORE... (as it was when we moved in)...
...hm, in need of some t-l-c I thought...
and for several weeks it was like this...
...war torn dumping zone...
So I much prefer it like this!
...there's the ol' sewing machine... cutting mat... ready for action.
Total cost of revamp £13.99 for the stripey Ikea rug.
We pulled up the carpet to discover the blue floorboards, which I may repaint, but quite like and will do for now.
The cream blinds had a scalloped edge and braiding that I didn't like, so cut it off and hey presto, got 2 new plain blinds! Luckily the 'weighted edge' was above the scallop, but you could always trim and rehem an old blind, as usually they are much longer than the window anyway.
The pine chest at the end of the room is holding all my secondhand fabrics. It was originally in another room and most of the drawers were stuck. With the aid of a can of Pledge and a rubber mallet (!) - oh the Boxing Day fun we had - we got the drawers out and N planed them down. If he'd taken any more off he said, they would have become trays.
The Hornsea pots on top were charity shop rescues which now hold & keeps tidy - threads, strings and things. (That's the Creative Café coffee pot there too, where we put our written intentions inbetween meetings. We then pull them out at the next meet, usually having forgotten what we put, and are surprised to discover that one if not several have come true. Mine was moving house!)
The Ikea clear fronted chest under the sewing machine was a giveaway from my friend Suzanne. Now I have a bit of a confession... I saw in a magazine a "gift wrapping table" - it looked like a huge tupperware table with legs like a wallpaper pasting table - and I exclaimed WHAT! are you MAD? - a table to store giftwrap and all your ribbons etc on extending legs. Madness I cried. Then thought, what a good idea, I'm fed up with rolls of wrapping paper stuffed behind wardrobes and squished ribbons - so they all fitted in the bottom drawer! neat and tidy. If I read this elsewhere I'd think 'anal', but actually the satisfaction of having it 'out of the way' does exceed this.
There is still the unseen end of the room which is housing some piles of magazines and some storage boxes, but it generally all is much neater and more organised and feels more efficient. Magazines come in the door, go to the cutting table, recycle bins underneath, scraps into the logmaker, cards out the other end!
Watch this space!
Well, I'm not sure who's birthday it was supposed to be, but I met up with mum on Thursday and she gave me this that she been working on...
It's not everyday you have a wee cry in John Lewis café, but I was very moved... it's beautiful, and so much time and labour has gone into it.
Plus, mum didn't know but I have a cherished Chrysocolla bear that I bought on the Taos trip, and there he is at the bottom of the embroidery.
I love this, and have a plan, along with a few other little bits and pieces I'd like to frame and hang on the 'ancestors/family' wall in my sewing room.
I had a good day in there yesterday, as suddenly I could see where everything needed to go, and had a rearrangement. This involved emptying things out of storage boxes, regrouping by use, and re-storing. During the process I considered what I use often, what didn't really need to be kept (in there), and also what I wanted to have to hand as a reflection of where I'm at now, and what I intend to be focussing on in the next months.
Arriving home after on Thursday night there was also this wonderful package waiting for me, a swap I'm doing with Kate Headley at Redheadedsnipit.
Kate was clearing out this owl tapestry from her sewing room recently, so we agreed to do a wee swap. My heart leapt as soon as I saw this, as I have been hearing the occasional owl hoot here at night - so I'd like to do something at the cottage with it, although not quite sure what yet. Thank you Kate! Check out her beautiful shared photoblog with her friend Laura Crow Miller.
Kate also included these other goodies of fabric scraps and magazines - including this lovely Anthropologie brochure, which reminded me a bit of Toast clothing... beautiful styling and interiors of a romantic life!!
...check out the bird duvet cover... and of course this latter photo is very much my look at the moment, cleaning out the mould from the skirtings in the sewing room... the rubber gloves that is. Most likely though I shall be wearing my new fleece (also a gift from mum!!) until Spring, when after having it surgically removed, I shall emerge, butterfly like - perhaps into some clothes like these.
I've been busy having a big clear-out this week, and it seems to be taking a lot of my time, but it's really good to do! Loads of old clothes I never wear - I've been in this process of spaceclearing for so long, I honestly didn't think I had anything left to discard - but oh yes! Wearable things I've sent to the charity shop, and the rest have gone in a bag to be recycled fibres.
The main point of the clearout is also to create a more harmonious storage arrangement for my card making supplies and a more fluid process for production. Rather than just move things around, it takes a reassessment and I find I end up pulling everything out, rather like a Kerplunk game, the rest seems to come tumbling after... Then I can reassess, throw out, group together and re-store. It's feeling much better already.
In amongst this and winter storms, I managed to catch some daylight today to photogaph some 'inspiration through the post' which came over last weekend.
These scraps of Japanese fabrics came from the lovely Sally Anne as a gift after I mentioned the quilt in this recent post. I just love all of these fabrics, and yet to have a clear enough head to think what to do with them...hm, watch this space.
My second surprise was from Meg Jewell of Dolly Dillettante, who won a gift package in the autumn mini-giveaway.
She very kindly sent this package with some of her work - 2 little patchwork pouches, a lavender bag made from her own garden, embroidery pattern, postcards of St Johnsbury, Vermont where she lives (I bet it is beautiful in autumn!), little xmas gift tags, vintage xmassy buttons and all wrapped up in a piece of lovely colourful fabric.
She is a very skilled seamstress and embroiderer, you can see the quality in her work. I now have a patchwork pouch for my crochet needles!
Thank you both very much!x
It felt like an abundant leaf-fall this weekend, as I also received both of my subscriptions to Selvedge and Quiltmania magazines, which I know I've mentioned before - but Selvedge is particularly feasty for winter eyes this issue...
...and I liked this quilt from Quiltmania. It looks fairly simple and very effective, and just the thing I'd like to curl up in this season. I think I would make it without the centre panel, just the simplicity of the contrasty stars works for me.
I'm never sure if it's ok to reproduce pictures in a blog, but if it inspires you to buy the magazines, I'm sure they won't mind!
...this little chap arrived in the post a week or so ago from my friend Barbara. It's a cork bird made by the artist Kate Bradbury.
I asked Barbara to send me more photos of Kate's exhibition which she had attended, as she said there had been lots of these birds made, and I wanted to see them en-masse.
the exhibition looked like a lot of fun, and judging by the floor in this photo, others thought so too!
Kate uses a lot of found objects in her work (the corks come from her workplace by the way!).
I thought the bird could be the 'bluebird of happiness'. I saw a bluebird on my trip to the States, with Elizabeth, our mutual friend. It flew across in front of the car as we drove along, and I was amazed at the colour although only seeing it for a flash. I was reminded of this as I photographed the bird this morning - from the rear it suddenly looked like the native american thunderbird, one of my favourite images.
Life is made up of small pieces stitched together - frames in a movie, or patches in a quilt.
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