Rest and relaxation - harder than I imagined!

I went in to have foot reconstruction surgery two weeks ago; I suffered osteonecrosis when I was a teenager and had radical surgery, over twenty years of dancing and walking around left my foot in a very sorry state - and I am so grateful to the surgeon and hospital staff for their wonderful care. It is marvellous to live in a country where you get the health care you need without having to worry about the costs involved. So I find myself having to sit down and recover - which is harder than I imagined!





 
 E picked me up from hospital with the most beautiful bouquet of sunny yellow blooms, Gerberas and Yellow Roses to brighten the bedroom and here they are two weeks later still looking bright and beautiful. I love the contrast of the blue vase - and our home has the most delightful French doors that give such a great soft light for photography.
  Recovery is so delightful - I finally had time to do a little painting - and what a beautiful spot to paint! I managed two canvasses: one was a still life of tulips I had photographed, once again the combination of cobalt and yellow the other was a fun butterfly using various shades of glitter. I managed to get most of the glitter on the canvass but was a little bit sparkly for a few days!
 
 These delightful sweet peas were a get well soon gift and I am so humbled to receive so much kindness from friends and neighbours. Get well soon cards have overflowed from the mantle shelf to the dresser and visitors have been very frequent and welcome. It has surprised me just how hard it is to be on the receiving end of so much kindness, but it has certainly aided my recovery and made me feel appreciated.
  This lovely bowl of fruit was a welcome thoughtful gift - the apricots were delicious. I am struggling with my diet at the moment - since discovering lactose is triggering my migraines I have been migraine free for a while. However, I forgot to mention it to a dear friend who invited us round for tea and cake - only to discover she had made a full afternoon tea with sandwiches, scones cream and jam! I was too embarrassed to 'make a fuss' I thought it would be ok, but the following day I suffered one of the worst bouts of migraine and sickness I had in years. So much so that it has made me frightened to eat a lot of things.  I now keep a food journal which has helped me track some of the foods - but I am still having digestive problems. I know that I was given strong antibiotics during my surgery so have been using probiotics.
 Of course I could not live without chocolate - and the current trend for Veganism has made this a little easier as well as the food labelling laws. So my weeks of indulgence included a package from Montezuma's - organic, dairy free chocolate. This is sublime and I find I don't need to eat that much to satisfy the craving now and then. I've since discovered that there is a vegan chocolate factory not far from where I live! So it is on my 'to visit list' once I am mobile again.

 

 I am enjoying enchanting afternoons spent listening to radio plays while stitching - my winter embroidery is coming along - I have also found time to do some much needed hand sewing repairs to my clothes. It is such a calm, meditative practise that is fast becoming my preferred method. The sewing machine is not as accurate nor is it quite so relaxing.

 

 Mr Barnykins has been really enjoying his time with a wonderful local dog walker - I think she gets far more fuss when she arrives than I do, but then I am here all the time at the moment. I think he is trying to pretend it was someone else who is responsible for the inside snowstorm! Happy Sunday.

Sunday 14th August 2016

 Somehow, Saturday morning breakfasts are the best of the week, not only time to make these little scotch pancakes (they are low GI and wholemeal!) but all the lovely promise of two days to enjoy.

We went on with our local to Glorious Goodwood Ladies Day, it was a beautiful morning - I think I enjoyed seeing the outfits more than the horses. This red dress really caught my eye - these sisters were enjoying pimms before the racing. Unfortunately, after an hour of sunshine the rain set in! At one point we could barely see the horses! I came home with the same money I left with - having only lost one bet! which was quite an achievement.

 

 My cucumber is really doing well - the fruits are enormous! We are investigating a couple of recipes for preservation - it would be nice to enjoy the freshness for as long as possible. My tomato plants are also giving a few ripe fruits - delicious and sweet. It has encouraged me to buy some winter cabbage and spinach seeds to see us through the winter. The veg box I bought a couple of weeks ago is still going strong - with a few fattening leeks among the seeding herbs.

We took a trip to Little Woodham in Gosport - it is a delightful little living history village - populated by re-enactors of the mid 16th Century. More on this visit soon.

   

 We are enjoying having the Aga - it is our only cooker - it's gentle heat is always welcome - despite the summer our kitchen remains pleasant. I decided to try a cooked cheesecake recipe - as the warming oven is perfect.
 

I find that if you cook the biscuit base with the cheesecake it comes out all soggy - so I made the cheesecake first then added the biscuits to the top.
 

 It might look a little messy, but it takes delicious!
 

 Mr D made some poached peaches for breakfast on Sunday... enough to bring the sunshine for the rest of the week.

Little Sausage dog Pincushion

 Oh how I am missing the Great British Sewing Bee... Heather's lovely little sausage dog pincushion was always sitting next to her sewing machine. When I saw the patten in Love Sewing Magazine I decided to make one of my own  
 I had some lovely pink tweed left over from a project I made 6 years ago! As the pattern was for a door stop, I decided to decrease it a little. Everything is so much easier to hand sew - especially when you are working with tiny fiddly pieces like the head gusset and tiny ears.
 I decided to embellish him a little with some lazy daisies and fly stitches along his back.

He is a very friendly chap!

   

 I visited the D Day museum last week and thought I would show you a lovely exhibit; this lovely wedding dress is a good example of clothing that would have been usual for 1940's women. It would have been home made, either by the bride or someone in the family, and most likely from parachute silk.
 

 It is a simple design with a central panel - it is so nice to be up close to a dress that is not couture (as many on the internet are), for me it is an example of what ordinary women wore - more home spun, in design and technique and therefore more exciting in some ways.

 You can see the machine stitching on the bodice, the gathers are small however, this dress has a long train and long sleeves, which may indicate it pre-dates clothing rationing. I did not wish to touch the fabric as it was on display - so I could not guess if this was parachute silk or rayon - you can just make out the patterning. The little bag is such a lovely addition - someone put a lot of love and attention into making the dress for a bride who married in 1944. With the invasion imminent it was tricky to organise a date for the wedding, but this bride managed to do so before her husband went to France

.

 The bag and the train have these beautiful little pearl beads - which would have been difficult to get hold of during war time. It does make me wonder if this dress was made before the war and re -modelled - wedding dresses were often lent or borrowed during the war as fabric was rationed and was scarce. Usually a bride would dye the wedding dress after the wedding so she could get more wear out of it. So while this dress looks very simplistic it is quite a rare find as many dresses would have been re-purposed after the event.

How to recycle your old wax candles to make Vintage Tea Cup Candles 

Movember fun

Mr D is taking the Movember challenge

You can see the needle felted moustaches here

A peek at the studio

I am in the process of setting up a new studio, which is very exciting, but first I thought I would share my little studio space I have in my small flat.

My first studio was a large summer house at the bottom of the garden, I was studying at the time and my children were teenagers so it was the easiest way to find sanctuary to write my essays! 

It was featured in Prima Magazine and I was very proud of it. 

This beauty holds zippers, sequins and metallic embroidery threads.

When I moved to my little flat I decided that the second bedroom would make a great studio. 

I had a magnificent find in a charity furniture shop, three large Ikea bookshelves for £30! 

They run almost the whole length of the wall, 

but it makes it ideal to keep lots of things close and handy. 

I love books, here is a small part of my crafty ones

I have a large selection of crafting books, the oldest one is from the 1930's 

I love to be inspired by craft books although I struggle to follow a pattern

Usually I adapt it in some way. 

I am a huge fan of beautiful boxes, I like everything neat and tidy 

but labels are essential when the boxes all look the same! 

these contain paper, birthday cards and embellishments 

the wooden case holds pastels.

You can just get a glimpse of the wicker picnic baskets at the top of the shelves, 

I have a whole basket of felt. 

I love jars, and embellish them with glitter and glue before storing 

buttons and bows. 

The vintage quality street tin contains a lot of crayons

and the basket has a lot of cherry blossom 

flowers for a project I have in mind. 

This little wicker basket set is perfect for all the clutter bug stencils 

and the boxes alongside hold computer leads for my embroidery machine, 

and pots of acrylic paints.

The big oval contains a huge muddle of bias binding and ribbon

the suitcases contain zips, Rubber stamps, embroidery wool, 

felting fleece, gadgets and gizmos. 

The pretty shoe boxes contain some vintage sewing items and metallic pens. 

The large box at the bottom is where I keep magazine cuttings of inspiring pictures, 

the two books store all my sewing machine accessories like feet, bobbins and frames. 

Button tins, sewing boxes and cutter bug all jumble together. 

The small tins store buttons, cable needles and feathers! 

I like to keep things in boxes so that they are handy when I am in the middle of something. 

I have most of my fabric and other larger items in storage, 

so I am able to work in a clear space. 

The walls of the studio are white and the wall opposite has a large mood board 

for things that inspire me. Photos from holiday, quotations 

together with postcards and cards that are like small works of art. 

I also have a large corner desk that takes up about a third of the little room, 

with a lovely northern light. 

I would be interested to see your little workspace... 

ttfn xx 

Book Review - Sweet Shop of Dreams

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the fire is so delightful.... its the time of year for snuggling down with a good book. We have spent a couple of Sunday afternoons companionably reading; the ticking of the clock being the only sound to compete with the beating of the rain on the windows. One of us will break to make a pot of tea - usually there's some cake or other. 

I read many books at once: a lot of spiritual development books that simply cannot be read in one go, sometimes it is nice just to read something that is not to taxing. 

This book is a lovely read, the main character, Rosie, is very endearing, she leaves behind a rather grey existence in London to travel to a remote village in Darbyshire to tend to her elderly aunt, Lillian. 

Alongside the Rosie's tale is Lillian's story of lost love, a wartime romance that was never given the chance to grow. I found Lillian's story deeper and somehow more substantial than Rosie's comical exploits as she comes to term with living in a strange place. 

There appears to be a quotations from a 'book about sweets' with most of the chapters having a page dedicated to a particular type of sweet - old fashioned ones, fudge, liquorish etc. It is never quite clear if this is Lillian's writing or simply quotations from an old book. With all three being separate it made it rather difficult at first to get into the story, but by the middle I became used to the disjointed nature. 

While it is a fairly satisfying read, I felt that it could have been better. I was waiting for Rosie and Lillian to bond, but oddly enough they never really have a good conversation. I found it most odd that Rosie arrived at Lillian's house late in the evening and the following morning Rosie simply gets up and leaves the house to explore. I found that a little unbelievable, it would be incredibly rude so the relationship between these characters never really establishes itself. Rosie does nurse Lillian, but they are kept apart, the writer even resorts to conversations held on a child monitor. 

I imagined some form of connection between old and young, with Lillian tutoring Rosie in the art of sweet making, but all that happens is that Rosie simply orders sweets from suppliers. The sweetshop could have been far more magical. The sudden emergence of another character to help run the shop so that Rosie can spend time with her man seemed a bit too easy. 

I miss Mauve Binchy, she would have really brought the characters alive, I used to end her books feeling I was saying goodbye to dear friends, but I did not have that connection with Rosie or Lillian. 

Its an enjoyable quick read, like eating a boiled sweet, nice while it lasts but not really substantial, but then that is what Chick Lit is after all. 

ttfn x

Oops! Darn it!

There I am in the middle of my current project for a workshop at Eternal Maker, when suddenly I realise that I have cut through the largest piece of my project! Accidents happen and while it might be frustrating (the perfectionist in me says buy more material and start again) the realist in me says that its repairable. Ok so not perfect, but then its an opportunity to share a repair technique with you. 

I have used it on clothing and it has been surprisingly invisible, one of my favourite gypsy skirts got caught up in the chain of my bicycle and ripped. After repairing it this way, I was able to wear it again and as the fabric was patterned, no-one noticed (or if they did they were too polite to say!). 

The important thing is to prevent the ragged edges from fraying. 

Thankfully, iron on interfacing includes a heat activated glue that will seal off the edges nicely. 

Match your interfacing colour, use black on dark colours and white on light colours. 

Cut enough so that the piece has at least a 1cm allowance all around the cut. 

Iron the wrong side of the fabric, drawing the edges together as closely as possible.

Lay the interfacing on top, then a pressing cloth (if you prefer your iron to be free from glue)  

Press the iron firmly and try not to move it around. (movement will shift the frayed edges). 

Allow to cool slightly before moving the item so that the glue can set. 

This is the stitch display on my sewing machine, look for something similar. 

Stitch 22, 23, or 24 are all forms of darning stitches. 

If you don't have multiple stitches then use a zigzag stitch set to a medium width and short length. 

The important thing is to get the right matching thread. 

I find it easier to use an appliqué foot

so I can see the edge and ensure the stitches bridge the cut.

If you use a normal foot just make sure the cut edge runs along the front groove guide. 

Allow the machine to go at its own pace, it will be slower than a straight stitch. 

While this close up shows the stitching its not quite so bad as it looks. 

I will post the project later and you will see for yourself. 

ttfn x 

Ode to Autumn - Make your own Harvest Wreath

I really enjoy walking my dog, we follow a path along a hedgerow and it is a real pleasure to see how much this changes over the seasons. It reminds me of school projects, collecting leaves from the nearby woods, the seasonal displays that seemed to create a wonderful rhythm with nature. 

Last year I was enthralled by the pretty shapes of the ivy leaves and they inspired me to make a winter wreath. This September the hedgerows are full of fruit and berries, the hawthorne berry looks so bright and cheery, blackberries abound but its the shapes of the foliage that catches my eye. Filigree leaved ferns, the flowers of the ivy, the marvellous variety of shapes of the leaves from oak to maple. 

These tiny crab apples simply spill from every branch, in clusters of tiny apple perfection - 

they seem like food for fairies. 

The wheat has gone, leaving behind stalks and dry earth but I felt inspired to pay homage to Autumn and create my very own Harvest Wreath. Salt dough is the perfect medium, as bread distorts the shape as it proves. It also means that I can keep the wreath to display next year if I want. 

Make a dough using half salt to flour, (I used two cups of flour and one cup of salt) 

Add enough water to make a dough and then divide it into three. 

Put two lumps of dough in a plastic bag until needed to prevent the dough drying out. 

Roll out with a rolling pin until about 0.5cm 1/2 inch, thick

Use a saucer or side plate to create a circle template. 

Then add a handle, (you can use the plate edge to create smooth curves) 

cut away the excess dough.

 Place the plaque carefully on a baking tray lined with parchment. 

Roll out sausages of dough in long thin strips and cover the 'handle' area. 

dampening the area with a little water to stick the strips to the base. 

Make a little bow at the curve and add a little mouse if you like. 

Place two paperclips with their closed end overhanging the base 

at the 11o'clock and 1 o'clock positions. 

Place a little dough over the top to seal them

ensuring there is enough visible to allow you to hang the plaque

Make the ears of corn: make a small sausage about 1cm half an inch long, 

snip along the sides with small scissors. 

Dampen the base a little with water, lay the corn down starting from the outside and 

working towards the centre. 

You can make bigger/smaller ears of corn if needed to fill gaps. 

When your dough model is complete place in a low oven until hard. 

Depending on your oven it can take hours or left overnight. 

If it doesn't brown up as much as you like you can use watercolour paints

or felt tips to highlight areas. 

When you are happy, seal with a spray varnish. 

Hang your plaque somewhere you will enjoy seeing it, 

but protect it from excess moisture otherwise it will crumble. 

ttfn x