Drawn in

I have been writing articles for a while now, but I have decided to take a break - I have found that I spend a lot of my creativity thinking up projects for the magazine but I would like to spend a little more time playing with projects and allowing them to develop and grow, as well as play with new techniques and ideas. 

Another reason is that I have not been doing a lot of art lately, and I am craving time with crayons, pens and pencils. I drew this heart for my son about a year ago, I developed the work further to submit to the Royal Academy of Art Summer Exhibition, it was an exploration of the concept of love. I have to say I like this little drawing, it is about 6 inches wide by 3 cm deep, the reason I am telling you this is so that you can understand that the little loops and flowers are very small indeed. 

Another of my favourite ones is this one, not only do I love Neruda's poem but I really enjoyed the process of creating it. I call it doodles as it is totally unplanned, I just allow the pen to go where I think, creating a shape and developing it gradually circle by circle. 

This pepper was drawn using the same pen technique about 3 years ago, I was on an art break holiday, and I used the size of the circles to create form. 

Lulamae's cake and do

On the last Wednesday of the month Lulamae's holds a cake and do, this month we made these cute little hearts, just getting ready for Valentines day. It was so lovely to chat and eat cake (again!) I love the fabric which is one from Mollie Makes. 

the back is lovely too! 

I have been enjoying needle felting, which is dry felting you can shape the wool by stabbing it with a long sharp needle. I made this little teapot badge, it is such a therapeutic hobby, and so easy to achieve results with. 

Re-invention of wooly wonder

This cushion started out as a jumper from a charity shop, it is a gorgeous cashmere wool jumper in a lovely delicate shade of pink, although the computer does strange things with colour! It is also square, but the angle of the camera gives it a slight wedge shape! 

Before the transformation, I love the scarf too, but give me time and it will magically transform to something else. 

Here is the detail of the middle panel which I have smocked, I love the depth of the smocking it really gives the cushion some lovely structure. 

Will post a tutorial on how to make your own but could not wait to share, as you can see it still has my chalk markings on it! 

More vintage finds

I could not resist these two little beauties in my local charity shop, it is a great place to find some gorgeous china. One is jasmine and the other is camomile, but they are lovely bone china and I adore the wide brimmed shape, they have a lovely fluted design on the sides. They are marked as Royal Suffolk, I could not wait to get them home, give them a wash and then get out the tea pot. They are delightful to use, and my friend T is coming round soon, so I guess it is time to re-fill the pot! 

Girlie Birthday Party - tea cake and crafting!

I bought this lovely basket last year and when it had finished flowering I put it in the garden, last week I discovered the bulbs had pushed through the snow so I brushed it off and put it on the kitchen window sill where I can enjoy it while I wash the dishes. It is a lovely reminder that spring is not that far away. 

I had a lovely weekend, after the gym on Saturday I just hung about the house enjoying having very little to do, and on Sunday I had my Girlie birthday party at Lulamaes in Arundel. Its ages since I had a Birthday party but this was a very grown up affair, with cream tea, cakes and crafting. There were ten of us in all and everyone went  home with a lovely felted brooch or pendant they had made. The cafe itself is beautiful, so delightfully decorated and the cakes are home made and sublime. Everything was provided for us and all we had to do was sit down, chat and enjoy ourselves. I went home feeling thoroughly spoilt with some beautiful gifts - definitely a birthday to treasure for a long time to come.  

If wishes were fishes...

January is supposed to be the most depressing month of the year, but is usually a month where I ponder on all the opportunities that lay ahead- the large blank diary that sits on my desk is a physical manifestation of all those days on every page waiting to be filled. 

After the bustle of Christmas and the high exuberance of seeing in the New Year, I feel now is the best time to make plans,  when everything is closed, it is too cold to go out and the spring flowers and bulbs are buried deep beneath the hard frosted earth.  

I find it heart warming to make plans about places I want to go and things I would like to do. Winter is a time for resting offering an opportunity to simply dream and plan.  So many people are down on winter, but I think contentment comes from acceptance of what you can't change and turning it to your advantage. It is about focussing on what makes you happy, so for me winter means cosy nights - snuggling on the sofa in my warm home while the rain drums on the windows and the wind sings round the roof. 

So I come to my wish jar - it was just an ordinary jam jar, but now it is a very elaborate one. It has no top for a reason,  a magical element to it - it is about attracting what I want in my life, so no barriers or lids, I want to draw it all in.

The idea is to fill the jar with things I want to do - this can be about life ambitions, or simply about gallery visits, or places of interest or even fun activities. So I have the John Soanes museum in there already: I have been meaning to go to the museum for ages but have never got round it it. 

Other things are shopping lists of plans I have for my home - I want a mirror wardrobe in the bedroom. 

The idea is that at least once a month or maybe once a week, you take out a wish and make plans and allocate time to do that - not necessarily there and then but book a date - then do it! If you can't do it alone, get a friend to do it with you.  

Is it magical really? well I am not sure about that, some people would suggest that it is about ambition, focus - other people would say it is all about the law of attraction - I just know it works and I believe in it wholeheartedly.  

A couple of years ago I wrote that I wanted to be a published writer, and within a few months I just happened to go on an outing with a friend of mine - he was into photography and wanted to see an exhibition with some friends of his. Well they were nice guys, but very into the technical aspects of photography which left me a little bit out of the conversation - but I was enjoying listening to them. One of the guys suddenly sat down next to me and asked me if I enjoyed sewing - it was such a bolt out of the blue - completely unrelated to what we talking about. It turned out that his wife was an editor of a sewing magazine and she was looking for contributors. Within days I had met with her and talked about thirty ideas I had - three of which she commissioned - within a few months I saw my name and article in print and got paid for it. 

I don't really mind how you see it, wether you think it is magical or not, for me I like to believe in a little magic, that somehow it is possible to draw things into your life that you want. I know that it all sounds very simple, but there is a flip side to this. It is called gratitude - it creates a connection and a joy of seeing the wonderful gifts that are given to us every day - sometimes all it takes is the ability to focus - have eyes to see them. The second is to be thankful - to send a message back of appreciation. 

So I have a thank you jar - there are two lovely elements about this jar - who doesn't like to be valued? A thank you is always something that shows appreciation and it also means that it is more likely to happen again - back to the laws of attraction. So it is also an invitation to the universe to send more! 

The second element to the Thank You jar is that when something lovely happens it is jotted down and put in the jar - so at the end of the year it gives a great record of all the lovely things that have happened. They can be simply getting great service, or the kindness of a stranger or the sheer joy of walking in the pristine white snow. What this exercise does is create positive memories of the year. 

There is a school of thought that time flies when as you get older, the theory is that it is unique experiences that embed in our memories - it is why we have so many childhood memories and so few after that time. Each new experience marks time so that by the end of the year we have packed a lot in - as we get older, our brains switch off from repetition so that there are no markers to look back on - hence time flying - a year can pass and we wonder what we did. 

Well this jar is a beautiful way to see how many blessings there are in your life - I expect mine is going to be full to the brim by the end of the year. 

It was such fun, I haven't done painting for ages! The jars are brightened up with a mixture of glitter and PVA glue - it usually needs a few coats with drying periods in between to build up the glitter. The objects are then just glued on using a hot glue gun! I have trouble stopping at this stage as there are so many opportunities for glitz! I used butterflies on each jar because for me they represent transformation. 

You can make one any time of the year, birthdays, holidays or simply wet wednesdays. 

Coffee Break

I have not abandoned my sewing machine, I have been busy stitching away, but I cannot really share what I am up to as I have to send it to be published! However, I can share with you my little coffee cosy which is published in Sewing World this month. I also wrote about our local sewing group called the Blake Belles.

I was inspired by a small box of ribbons!  This makes a good two or three cups so I needed to keep it warm, but coffee cosy sounds so odd! 

The weekend flew by in warm contentment, I spent most of Saturday playing around with fabric as it was too cold to go anywhere, the snow had settled - the roads icy and hard. 

 I made a fruit cake this week, with a few seeds and nuts in the mixture. I have quite a sweet tooth and so I try to have something on hand that meets my needs but isn't too calorific, but most importantly is good for me. 

Sleet settled in for the afternoon, but I took the dog for a walk in the wintry conditions but really did not stay out that long - the dog kept on stopping and looking up at me every few moments! 

I made some lovely red pepper soup - I really like the intensity of flavour you get from slow roasting peppers - they are so sweet. I am also trying my hand at bread making, with some success. It is very simple to make the hardest thing is having the patience to wait for it to rise. Like us all it is also about staying warm!