Saturday, 23 April 2011

Bluebells.

Ok well this obviously isn't a bluebell! Last weekend I went to a Quilt Show and there was also a bluebell walk to do there. We wandered through these beautiful woods and right near the end, amongst the blubells, we came across these common orchids.

I took lots of photos of the bluebells and I only had my little camera so I was trying some depth of field shots (well I think thats what they are called!). This is my favourite one as I like the contrast between the bluebell and the tree trunk, with the path going off into the distance.

This was the blue carpet, in a sunnier patch. I love bluebells, they seem so English and they smell divine!





Thursday, 21 April 2011

Patriotic!

Phew, what a job! We are having a craft day at school next week for the Royal Wedding. Each child is going to decorate a piece of bunting by printing in red, white or blue and add a few sequins if they wish. So I said I would cut out the bits and then sew the tops over ready to be threaded on the tape. Well finally I have finished! 200 bits all ready to be decorated and strung up for the celebrations.

Wednesday, 20 April 2011

The whole picture!


Here it is......this is the finished article! Some long while ago, when I was first recruited into Guiding I went on a Camp in the New Forest and we each got one of these miniature bird boxes to decorate.When I got back I ordered some for myself and they have been hanging about ever since. Now a technique I have been wanting to try for ages is when you get paper napkins and stick them down with loads of PVA....so when I finally found some I liked at Wakehurst Place I knew that this is what I was finally going to do with my Bird House.For the roof I inked, gessoed and sprayed on some book pages that I had stuck to card and then I inked two colours through some sequin waste. To make the tiles I punched out about a million little hearts and curled them slightly before sticking them down in rows.It still needed a little something so I added the vintage lace edging and some subtle glitter on the white patches. I was going to add some dangley bits to the corners but I think actually it is finished just as it is.

I think I have 3 more houses somewhere.....





Monday, 18 April 2011

Sneak Peek

Been a bit busy over the last few days so here's a sneaky peek of a project that is under construction...

Saturday, 16 April 2011

Baking today!

I unexpectedly had a free morning so I decided that I would bake some cupcakes. First of all were custard and apple cupcakes...

The recipe said "put some mixture in the case, add some custard and top with mixture" Well what a mess, the custard was rather runny and they overflowed everywhere sticking to the tin and completely dissolving the paper cases! Still I expect my lot will still eat them. Next I did Ginger and Lemon cupcakes which were a WHOLE lot more successful!
Now I think I might get on with some Inchies.....

Friday, 15 April 2011

My next hobby?


I got my sewing machine back today having had it serviced so of course I had to sew something to check it was ok! So I did another textile panel, this time Winter.

Then I decided I wanted a go at free machine embroidery as I bought Jess some dissolvable fabric and she has been whizzing away on HER machine all day , creating these beautiful lacey designs. Hmmm I thought, that would make some nice leaves to embellish my Autumn panel....I had to borrow her machine as I don't have the correct foot for mine and these were my efforts! Don't think I will have any sort of future in this art! After all the stitching you run them under warm water and the plastic goes just like snot (sorry but it really is!) and then all melts away! They are drying at the moment; I hope they look better tomorrow!

Thursday, 14 April 2011

Art Journal , Week 15

I LOVED doing this one, despite having NO idea what to do. Brief this time was "Travel, love it, hate it? Worst journey/best journey, use a map for BG". I can only think of one really awful journey that we have had and that was a caravan holiday to Norfolk so I started with a map of Norfolk. I really wanted to draw so off I went with the car and caravan, not that ours looked like this at all, (although the car was red!)
The rest just evolved, I knew I had to have hidden journalling as there was a lot to write so I came up with a pull out caravan! The story is this; we were all packed ready to leave for our holiday at 8am or so. All we had to do was hitch up and leave but whilst we were reversing the car towards the caravan the tailgate came crashing down, smashing the rear windscreen. We took it in to be fixed and spent the day in the garden as it was an absolutely scorching August day. We collected the car about 3pm and were just about to leave when the man said "so it will all be fine to use tomorrow morning". Hang on, we thought, why not tonight? It was apparently glued in and the air pressure of driving with open windows could risk the whole thing blowing out! Well it was far too hot to even contemplate driving with the windows shut (pre air-con this car was!) Eventually we set off about 5.30 driving very carefully and being very hot! All was fine until we just reached the top of the M11 and had a blow-out on the caravan! The fact it was an odd size etc meant we would have a bit of a wait to be repaired and by now it was gone 7pm. We dutifully unloaded everyone from the car, climbed the embankment and sat in a field, all 6 of us. Eventually my husband had to flag down a police car as no-one arrived and it was now 10.30pm and dark!!! The long and the short of it was we eventually got under way and reached our campsite about half past midnight to be met by the farmer with torches and lights and cups of tea! We set up the caravan, awning and a tent and put 4 sleeping children to bed without a soul on the site knowing we had arrived and finally got to bed about 3am!! Luckily we then had the best holiday ever with fabulous weather throughout!

Best journey? Easy peasy Easyjet planes to Edinburgh, turn up, get on, fly, get off, no hassle!