White

Enjoying the process of alteration .....

Pumpkin ~Tag Tuesday

I went on a bit of a journey with my tag this week!

  it started off with the two little Halloween themed embroideries 

the idea being I was going to do a double layered tag but 

 I went round in circles and nothing looked right

so I resorted to fabrics.

Halloween isn't really my thing, probably why I couldn't get a feel for it

but I'm happy with my Pumpkin tag.

for the theme of Halloween.

Layers of frayed edged fabric and dyed scrim 

Hand embroidered pumpkin on linen scrap with sparkly fiery orange crystals. 

Stitched pieces

been stitching little bits and pieces.......

with little scraps and buttons

French knots & back stitch

stem stitch and satin stitch.

Warming things up!

was my first thought when I decided to play a little

with my watercolours

over the first double page of my sketchbook last night

a quick 30 mins rough sketching whatever came into my head and painting in low light.

Sketchbooks and Magazine

I have decided to join in with Lynn's 'Sketchbook Friends' 

I'm going with my own chosen theme of 

'Captured Moments'

I like to chop and change medium a lot I feel that this would best describe anything I might add or explore in my book from day to day, week to week.

 I'm going to use the little book that I had set aside for housing my Tags, but that idea didn't work out so well so I stopped, but I will keep the pages in there that I started to working on, they are, after all,
Captured Moments 

 background page for snowy tags

 for my white tag

for my vintage photograph album tag.

On the subject of books I bought the first issue of the new
 I signed up for the trial subscription of 3 issues of Homemaker Magazine for £6 which sounds like a good deal to me but I was a bit disappointed when I read in the confirmation email that I had missed out on the 1st issue and my subscription would start from the second issue, (wondering if this was a ploy?) anyway so when I popped into the supermarket last night for a couple of things, I bought the first issue.

 with free Christmas source book

Only halfway through reading it but I like it, beautiful pictures, packed full of ideas and on line info too.
 There are a lot of cut outs and vintage style printed pages to keep including some pretty spotty paper chains (I think these will end up in my girls room ;)
I look forward to trying out some of the ideas and using the templates.

Garden Changes

A few weeks ago, after much deliberation , Kevin decided to make big changes in our back garden.
 The raised beds at the back of the garden produced such a disappointing crop this year, and some closer inspection also revealed a very large infestation of ants!
We decided the space could be put to better use if we moved Kevin's 7x16 foot workshop from the side of the house to the back of the garden.
 This move would free up the back of the drive and make better use of the garden space.
This picture was taken last summer when we had a good crop.

The raised beds were emptied and lowered

Some of the boards were lifted and rearranged to form a rectangle base for the workshop

filled with hardcore and soil from the beds
with a little bit of help from our garden helper and her wheel barrow :)

then there was a thick layer of sand,

then a thick membrane,

and Eco base blocks, now its ready for the move.

The rest of the soil from the raised beds didn't go to waste either,
 but put to good use out in the front garden :)

There are problems with this space, it gets water logged and overrun with weeds and moss, 

levelled out with soil

covered with thick membrane and this lovely golden flint gravel.
We are so pleased at the difference this has made,

It just looks so much better don't you think.

Fabric painting with seed pods

This weeks theme at Tag Tuesday was Seed Heads.
Today I had some fun with fabric and paint.

 I used a Star Anise seed head to print red and gold onto cream cotton

To add a little colour to the background

I sketched an outline drawing of a star anise seed pod and placed it over the fabric and then sponged over it with pink watercolour fabric paint. I let it dry and then ironed over it to set the colours.

 I used this fabric to make my tag, I cut a strip of the fabric when dry and frayed the edges, I then machine stitched it with gold thread to a wider, thicker cream fabric and again frayed away the edges.

Star anise and whole cardamoms were then hand stitched in place.
I also did a mono print with a darker wine coloured fabric paint on a large white ceramic tile.
With a small paintbrush I did a quick outline using the Star Anise as my inspiration and took a print with some cream cotton.

I went over the outline that was left on the tile with some gold fabric paint in places and placed the same printed fabric over the tile to pick up the gold.
I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.
Not sure what I will do with it next.
 It was nice to do something creative today :)
Yx

Not all goes to plan

On Sunday we packed our little Monza and headed off to Dunbar
 for the second week of the Fife school holidays.



 The plan was for me to stay here with Charlotte and Harry

As promised, here is a little picture of my prayer flags in place, don't they look pretty!

Meanwhile Kevin went back home to begin major a workshop move in the garden.

On Sunday evening we enjoyed sitting in the awning with the heater on and with Charlotte all ready for bed in her cosy all in ones eating freshly cooked pancakes with butter, lemon juice and chocolate spread...yum!

Monday was a lovely sunny day and first thing after breakfast, Charlotte and I set off on our little bike to find the duck pond down at the glen, I'm kicking myself that I didn't put the camera in the bike basket, the cycle down to the glen was quite steep and when we got there the pond was full of ducks and swans all looking for breakfast, some kind people who were staying in one of the chalets backing on to the pond gave Charlotte a morning roll to feed to the hungry flock, she was delighted.

After about an hour we headed back up the steep hill back to the caravan. I wasn't feeling too great, a bit out of breath, lacking energy and an annoying cough had started. Harry and I took it in turn to take Charlotte to the park in between reading and eating, I was looking forward to the next few days in the caravan.

Back home Kevin and David were getting the workshop dismantled in the dry weather.
I have so many pictures taken by David and will have to do a separate post on this.

Unfortunately I began feeling quite unwell on Monday during the night I woke up a few times in the night and Kevin decided that as the weather forecast has changed for Tuesday he would come down and stay with us until it improved.
On Tuesday I worked on my tag

Having put a little thought into it I had an idea while packing the van.
I quickly printed of a little image onto fabric transfer paper and popped some supplies into my bag.
I set to work to make something of it.

 The image was of a rusty anchor taken on Crete in 2003

A rusty nail which Kevin gave me before I left when I asked if he had any rusty things I could use.

My finished tag.
Im pleased I was able to post it on time thanks to the wi fi access at Thurston Manor :)

Kevin arrived in the afternoon.
Tuesday night was really bad with both of us feeling really unwell and decided it was time to pack up and go home before we got any worse.
We packed up Wednesday morning and came home :(
I think that was our last trip away for this year in our little Monza.
Still trying to get rid of this cough, still keeping me awake at night.

3 Prayer Flags & 2 swaps

I'm now able to show you the 3 prayer flags I have made so far,

 two with the theme of giving thanks and one of friendship.....

this one I sent to Jan
and in return

she sent me her beautiful shabby chic creation full of roses, lace and buttons
here is a closer look at the detail

I just love it! Thank you so much Jan x

this one I sent to Mo
and in return

she sent me her beautiful creation with felt flowers and hand embroidery and also this lovely tag
with hand written friendship poem I love it Mo thank you!

I'm keeping this on as its the first prayer flag I made.
All three will hang together in our little caravan.
I'm hoping to add more soon :)

Rainy Day & Autumn Leaves

This weeks theme for Tag Tuesday is 'Rainy Day'

Whenever I tried to think of an idea for a tag 

I kept hearing the Nursery Rhyme

I hear thunder.....I hear thunder

Hark don't you? ...Hark don't you?

Pitter, patter rain drops 

Pitter, patter rain drops

I'm wet through; So are you.

I really enjoyed working on this little tag which is.
 Fabric appliqué from my scrap box which I machine embroidered.
I added a length of musical ribbon for a tie.

Last weeks theme was Autumn Leaves, Berries and Conkers
This is a combination of something I made earlier,

  an embroidered leaf stitched on soluble fabric using machine silks and wire.

 I wrapped the excess wires together with brown satin ribbon to form a hanging loop

 and added a dangle of linen thread which was threaded with a selection of crystal beads in autumn colours and a dyed fabric scrap stitched with the word 'Autumn'.

A week past Sunday

We went for a drive to Aberdour to go for a walk along the beach after dinner

It was a lovely evening, too chilly for sand castles but Kevin brought a ball along as Charlotte loves to play kick around with it, in fact it was one of her first sentences 'kicka-de-ball daddy' 

unfortunately it wasn't too long before the ball ended up in the water, poor Charlotte was devastated, no one had wellies on so we had to watch it float away, drifting along sideways until it got caught in the rocks.

Lucky for us the tide was going out and soon there would be a walkway over the rocks to get it back.

Phew!!

while we waited, we did our next favourite thing, 

collecting beach treasure.....

 always excited at what she finds ...bit like her mummy ;)

 you can see just how much the recent rains and floods have left their mark 

gouging a trench from the path right to the waterline

you can see just how much sand has been washed away.

 as always we took a walk along to see the boats, 

 this is a little art gallery

the tide going out, leaving boats stranded in the sand...

a lone cygnet forages for food 

art is all around

everything still has meaning

I never tire of this beautiful beach we love visiting in all the seasons,

with it's treasures endless ...