Felted House

Happy Christmas

2011-12-22T10:10:00.000-08:00

As the last few days before Christmas will, I'm sure, disappear in a haze of tidying, cleaning and possibly drinking ginger wine, I just wanted to wish you all a Happy Christmas. Thanks so much to those of you who have supported me in what has been a grim year, and I hope to catch up with you early in 2012.

And finally, it had to happen........

Note Monty and Leo's COMPLETE lack of concern for the chaos they have caused. After I righted the tree Leo stretched up on his tippy-toes and leaned on it hard so that it fell over again. Now I have weighed it down with a brick I found in the garden.

Beaded mohair cowl

2011-12-18T08:44:00.000-08:00

I am just taking a few minutes out of busy Christmas wrapping to show you this. It's the only thing I have knitted this year and I'm proud of the fact that I actually managed to finish it, as I do have to confess to having several knitting projects on the go all still with needles in that may possibly not see the light of day again.
I love Rowan Kidsilk Haze and have always wondered if I could make anything meaningful with just one ball of it since it's so expensive, and the answer proved to be yes. I did a bit of internet searching and came across this pattern on the Knitty site which was perfect. I don't wear it up round my hair but just keep it round my neck, it just folds over at the top then so it's in two soft layers rather than one big tube - it's nice and cosy and better than a full length scarf for keeping on inside the house or office.

I thought I'd buy some beads first and then take them into John Lewis to match some wool up with them, and found some olive green silver lined ones which catch the light really well.

I've never knitted anything with beads before but in this pattern you follow a chart and use a crochet hook to hook the beads onto the required stitch as you need them rather than trying to thread hundreds of them onto the yarn before you start. I've never done a lace pattern before either but after making a few mistakes with winding yarn over the needle I got the hang of it.
It's made on a circular needle - my tension is really loose so I downsized the needle as I was worried I'd run out of wool otherwise - that was the right decision I think as I finished up with only a couple of metres spare.
So there we are, a small crafty achievement.

Elsewhere I've managed to sell all except about 30 of the oldest books at my mum's so that's brilliant - very emotionally hard to get rid of things that belonged to my parents and that I grew up with, but all necessary. I'm taking a break from the house till after Christmas now.

Leo and Monty are being very silly.

Here you can see Leo's reaction to his first Christmas tree - a bit of a blur of excited paws! He's also been squeezing himself ontop of the radiator in the kitchen to try and keep toasty warm, but doesn't quite fit.

It's been interesting wrapping presents as they're SO obsessed with ribbon. I shut Monty in the utility room yesterday to give myself a bit of peace while I got on but he climbed up the flimsy net curtain that hangs across the door using his claws - all 5 and a bit kilograms of him, and he was nearly at the top when I decided I'd rescue the curtain before he completely shredded it. I tried explaining to him that he was NOT a small kitten but he didn't look convinced.

Still here

2011-11-26T10:21:00.001-08:00

Leo and Monty are watching the birds and the last of the autumn leaves fluttering in the garden.
They have settled down into their own routine now and found their favourite places in the house to watch for wildlife, chase each other, sit and sleep.

Leo is here helping me make cupcakes for a friends wedding.

They are both really friendly and will have a long purr but still don't want to sit on our laps, sometimes if we're good they'll sit next to us on the sofa!

I am so out of touch with what's going on here with my friends in blog land, I'm so sorry that I have missed so much of your news. The weeks and months have rushed by in a bit of a haze, today is the first day I've felt a glimmer of light at the end of the never-ending tunnel that is clearing my mum's house.
We worked really hard on the garden and have turned it from worse than this (this was after clearing the derelict summerhouse and rubbish out of the way)

To this - taken in the summer, which I'm really pleased with.

There are still many months to go and it's all really emotionally draining and hard work, I only got to the end of the rubbish inside about a month ago and now have got to sort 2000+ books, china, furniture etc. I've got a book man coming to see me next week, someone a friend of my mum's knows and I'm so excited to think we may be able to make some more progress - the books seem to be multiplying infront of my eyes and it will be such a relief to get rid of some.

But for the first time it feels like it might be possible to do it, in the last few months I've just sunk under the weight of the task and it felt overwhelming, I've just ended up withdrawing from everything to try and get through it all.

Felting has sadly had to stop and I've only done one craft fair this year and have hardly been able to make anything, although I did manage some cobweb felt for me which I'll try and post about separately. I'm hoping the new year will bring a few chances to be creative again.
Leo and Monty thankfully don't steal felt like lovely Archie did, they steal hair elastics and shiny gift ribbon instead, but Leo has proved he is very good at helping laying out fibres evenly and pressing them into place.

Leo's box

2011-06-30T06:19:00.000-07:00

Sadly I have no time to blog properly but I gather from a couple of friend's blogs it has been declared International Box Day, so I felt I couldn't pass up the opportunity to quickly share Leo having a bit of a mad time discovering his tail in his latest large box.

The cats have settled well and have company all the time since my eldest has just finished GCSEs and is now dossing around the house all day. They mainly sleep and he mainly plays on his computer but at least nobody's on their own!
I am still very much in the thick of clearing at my mum's, I have been there either two or three days every week since January and we are STILL not at the end of the rubbish, it really is quite discouraging, although the garden is fine now and we can get into each room. I bring paperwork home and go through it in the evening but it is taking over life, though I do want to get on as fast as possible so that it's OVER. The next stage is sorting the things that are left into categories and trying to find the right places to sell or give them to, so we have a long, long way to go. I found some paperwork from the year 1671 last week, not sure what it is but it's so old I feel someone somewhere might be interested, I can't just put it in the recycling, and most of the things left are like that, historical in some way. What with our own house and garden and my other job it's all a bit much but we do have a holiday soon which I'm sure will be a good break. I would really like my life back now but have to be patient for a lot longer, while trying to remember to stop and look at the flowers each day!

Flowers and a cat update.

2011-05-19T13:14:00.000-07:00

May I heartily recommend these flowers as something to grow in your garden if you have room. They are sweet rocket (Hesperis matronalis), self-sown from a couple of plants I bought from the market about 5 years ago for 75p each - they've been spreading around gradually and this year I had a bed half-full of them, all for free! I'm sure you must be able to grow them from seed though, well worth it as they should just keep on self-sowing. They are in mixed purple, white and paler purple and are gently scented. But what I hadn't realised was what fantastic cut flowers they make.

These ones have been in the vase two weeks already with petals gently dropping occasionally but still going strong - often flowers taken from the garden can last a disappointingly short time but these have been brilliant. The ferny thing with them we inherited with the garden, I think it's a kind of Thalictrum but whatever it is it's lasted just as well as the rocket.

Other cheery flowers at the moment are these beautiful roses (and Fairtrade, didn't know you could get Fairtade ones) given to me by a friend for my birthday:

I've never had enough to properly fill my grandmother's rose bowl before and it was really nice to put them in it. Monty draped himself around the arrangement for added decoration.

Leo is obsessed with chewing plants, so nibbled on all the ends of any green parts of the roses. He's had to be banned from the front porch, where I have an artificial flower arrangement, because he was chewing the plastic grass and then being sick. Plastic grass. Thought cats had more sense. It's in the bin now. (And yes I had provided a bit of real grass to chew as well, because I'm never quite sure if they need something in grass, although that made him sick too!)
They are settling in well, we have covered our sofas with a ridiculous array of mis-matched throws to protect it, and they seem to be learning to use the scratching post, which shakes when Monty sharpens his claws because he is SO big and strong.

Leo is very helpful and tends to stay with me in the day - here he is helping with filing papers.

He tried to help with cake-making too but I got him a bit floury by cuddling him half way though.

So they are both slowly becoming part of the family and Leo particularly is very affectionate now, which is lovely although of course I miss Archie's cuddles because he was such an unusually snuggly cat, but I think Leo may well be similar one day.

Finally, some words of advice from one of my birthday cards, surely we should all follow this as a matter of principle in any circumstances we may find ourselves in:

A house is not a home without a cat.

2011-05-01T12:03:00.001-07:00

Or two.I miss Archie terribly each day and still wake up very upset, but we decided very quickly, particularly our younger son, that cats are very much part of our life, and so I have to make some introductions in a minute.

Thank you SO much all of you who offered such support and concern, it's quite overwhelming to hear from so many people and I am very grateful. I'm still struggling and feel like I'm not in my own life, but time and friends will help.

So now to our new furry additions.
They are both rescue boys from our local RSPCA shelter - they had come from a room, just a room, with over 30 cats in, all their lives in one room, although well enough fed and looked after. These two seemed to have a bond, with the little one headbutting and curling up with the older one all the time when we visited their pen, so home they both came. They both had terrible sneezing fits for the first week or so and the little one just sat all day, but now they are absolutely fine and full of energy just as cats should be.

Monty:is the handsomest black and white cat ever, with neat white feet and beautiful white whiskers. He is very solid and tall, with a very wavy fluffed-up tail. He may be about 4 or 6, nobody seems to know. He is friendly although still a little wary.
Monty likes food, climbing, running off with the grey furry mouse-toy, chatting, chasing feathers, food, looking out of the window, food, chasing a ping-pong ball in the bath, food, and sleeping on son no. 2's up-in-the-air-bed.

Monty is in the process of re-modelling the sofa so that it has perforations.

Leo:is a very fluffy, soft black kitten, about 6 months old. He is very like Archie but has, to me, a very different face. We love black cats and yet they often get left behind in shelters. When he came home he was SO thin, you could feel all the bones in his spine and his shoulder blades stuck out, I think the older cats had been pushing him out of the way at mealtimes. Now he has a tummy like a small round, fluffy football that sways from side to side a bit as he walks. He didn't know how to play with anything when he came but now it's lovely to see him running off with the grey furry mouse and feathers. He is affectionate and has a little cuddle and a purr every day.

Leo likes food, squeaking loudly to get more food, chatting to Monty, chasing Monty's feathers and stealing the grey furry mouse, food, sitting in the sunshine, food, chasing a ping-pong ball in the bath with Monty, food, and curling up with Monty on son no.2's bed.
Leo is re-modelling the carpet on a daily basis. This is how we chose our carpet - nice and flat:

This is Leo's preferred design - nice and loopy with lots of sticky-up bits:

Sadly it is a very large and expensive carpet to replace. Every morning when I come down I take my pointy pair of scissors and try and poke the loopy bits back into the carpet backing, but that just leaves holes. Leo is definitely winning.

It is good to have furry lives in our home again, but Archie was SUCH a good cat we'd forgotten what havoc cats can cause, especially when there are two of them. And it's not the same - Archie was so special, he slept on my shoulder for a bit every night, I've never had such an affectionate cat and will never forget him. But these two are making me smile again and are good to come home to, as long as they haven't destoyed too much. We've not had two together for years, it's so nice to see them playing and hear them constantly chatting to each other, and of course they love curling up together too.

A heartbreaking farewell to Archie.

2011-04-08T06:14:00.000-07:00

My beautiful, sweet, black, shiny affectionate boy is gone - he ran straight under a car this morning and we lost him instantly, so very, very young. I'm still in denial and such shock, it seems a never-ending time of losses, you pick yourself up after each one but it gets harder each time and you do wonder sometimes how many more you can cope with. He was such an immense comfort at the end of each day, after struggling through endless clearing and dust and mess and emotionally drained after a day at my mum's house he was always such good company and I so needed him to stay with me. There is something so tragic about a life cut so short, he had such a lovely nature and was supposed to share life with us for many years.

He was so loved and was so very happy, jumping about chasing after butterflies and bees yesterday in the garden - on our side of the road are about 50 interesting gardens to explore and an enormous field with great edges to find small creatures in, no reason at all ever to go across the road. There are many, many cats in our area, all happily trotting across, it's got speed bumps and a low speed limit and I really thought it was a very low risk road indeed, Newton and our other cat scooted across many times a day for years without so much as losing a whisker, we hardly ever hear of any cats being lost. I guess perhaps some cats have road-sense and others just don't. I know many of you, especially overseas, keep your cats in but it just wasn't an option here, much as I wanted to.

So I'm not sure how life will go on, it's hard to imagine life without a cat but I'm not sure I can go through losing any more, we'll have to take a day at a time, perhaps the only thing to do will be to find another furry companion, we'll see. Having lost one at 8 and now this, I keep looking at other people around who have cats that are older, who live to twelve or fifteen or beyond, (and at those who trot about from one side of our road to the other) and thinking 'When is it my turn?' I seem to have lost my own life and feel like I'm living in someone else's bad dream a bit, but we're making slow progress with my mum's house and one day I guess we'll move forward again. I haven't forgotten about any of my friends here in blog-land, and I'll try and catch up with what you're doing as much as I can.
Any of you with cats please give them an extra stroke from me, I know many of you will empathise.

Thank You

2011-02-20T10:18:00.001-08:00

Thank you to all of you for your lovely and supportive comments on my last post - I'm so sorry I haven't been able to get to say thank you individually to any of you, but I'm truly grateful.

Life is all a bit overwhelming still at the moment with so much to sort out, but I know one day I'll get there. We had a skip come yesterday at my mum's house and with the help of some very good friends we began to clear some rubbish outside, so many pairs of hands made so much progress and even though I'm an only child I am incredibly thankful for my mum's cousin, who goes to her house every day, and for all my friends who are there for me, when people are traipsing around ankle deep in mud getting soaked to help you you know they really care.

I'm trying to clear the inside of the house. It's very hard, most of the rooms look like this:

You can see some of the beams of the house - when I've cleared out I'll try and show you the rooms properly. Everything's all mixed up in each box, in each one could be a couple of old books, perhaps the odd piece of costume jewellery, or even the odd bit of silver, some family letters giving information about relatives, some pages of my mum's own notes about her life, usually a couple of financial documents, some pens, elastic bands, some junk mail, some mouse droppings, almost always an odd sock or two and a pair of old tights and lots of dust.

I am not joking. Especially, sadly, about the mouse droppings. A couple of dead pigeons had fallen down my old chimney a few years ago too and were lying there extremely dead, but I'll spare you any photos. It's not all that bad - some boxes are just junk mail and it's really satisfying to just recycle the whole lot! I felt quite ill at the end of yesterday though and must make myself wear a dust and mould mask I think, however hard they are to breathe in.

I've chosen to go through each one because I just don't want to take the risk of throwing away something precious - I'm particularly interested in finding out more about one of my great-grandmothers, I've found four postcards she wrote in 1906 at the bottom of a draw but don't want to miss anything else. I also found yesterday the letter from the BBC in 1957 offering my mum the job of reading the news, as well as my silver Blue Peter badge! So it's a bit painstaking, but I'm very efficient and can clear quite a few boxes each day.

I'm finding all my dad's clothes as well as all mine and my mum's - some of hers are from the 40s, 50s and 60s but sadly most seem wrecked, but I'll salvage anything I can, there are a few lovely dresses. So it's emotionally and physically draining, but I'm sure we're making slow progress and it's always really nice to find a family letter - I was never really that interested in family before but now with everyone gone it seems very important. Thankfully my grandmother was very good at writing people's names on the back of old photos so I've got good clues.

I may have to give up being thorough and just chuck stuff away quickly if it all gets too much, but there's such a lot of history in that house it seems a shame, documents and letters from the first world war time too which I'm sure someone will find very interesting even if I can't keep them all. One day I'll try and show you some of the nice discoveries, there are a few - I'm now wearing my grandmother's engagement ring - not valuable but really nice to have. So I'll take photos of prettier things next time now I've showed you the dust and mess!

A time to mourn.

2011-01-27T06:47:00.000-08:00

I have been away a long time, because after many weeks of illness, my mum declined very rapidly over Christmas, and then passed away at the beginning of January. Although we knew she was ill doctors had given no indication that her condition could be fatal until just a few days before we lost her, and was a shock in the end to see such a rapid deterioration. She had not been in her right mind since the illness began and wasn't herself at all, but in the last days she slipped into unconsciousness and they just couldn't do anything for her as the infection had taken hold and she wasn't able to fight it. I am finding it unbearably sad to lose her, except of course that we do have to bear it and carry on as best we can, a day at a time.

The reason I have a photo of daffodils is that she loved them, I always bought them for her birthday on January 22nd, and so chose them for her funeral flowers - a lovely cheerful yellow on an otherwise quite wintery day. Such a shame she couldn't be at her own funeral - she'd have loved chatting to friends and family afterwards.

She had a really fascinating life, very far from ordinary, daughter of a very well respected GP who had the title of Honorary Surgeon to the King (and Queen - we have a coronation stool somewhere!), she became an actress, spent some years with travelling theatre companies in the 1950s and then became the first woman to read the news (she's not famous because it was only for the West Country region rather than the whole country). More minor acting roles followed and one film until she married in 1962 and had me, then she cared for me, later her mum and sadly later still my dad as they both developed Alzheimers.

She had an immense zeal for life and all the beauty around us. She sometimes drove us to distraction with endless conversations - about theatre, about history, about long-lost distant relatives, about people she'd just met who she'd found out all about, just because they were people and she was interested in everything about everybody, really genuinely interested.

She used to go for walks in the local woods and then draw us maps of where the very best bluebells were, just so she could share her enjoyment of them, and has left money in her Will specifically for snowdrops to be planted in public places so that others can enjoy them year after year, that just about sums her up perfectly I think.

We lost my dad a long time ago but she kept his ashes till she could join him - so earlier this week we buried them both together, just as they would have wished. Very hard, and so final somehow to see the casket in the ground with both their names on, but they are just where she wanted to be in the churchyard right next to the house they loved and lived in for many years.

It's not a great time of year is it for anyone, still cold and grey, and I'm looking forward to spring coming as I'm sure we all are. In the meantime I seem to have masses to do, and am unfortunately the reluctant nearly-owner of a Grade II listed 16th Century cottage in need of very extensive clearing out and rather extensive renovation too - perhaps more of that in another post! So felting and blogging sadly will largely have to stop or be very infrequent for the time being, hopefully when things settle a bit I'll be able to carry on, and the house is certainly fascinating even if terrifyingly full of stuff. In the meantime here is another photo of the flowers, last week we found in the house this silver rose bowl which I never knew existed - a present from my mum's father to her mother on their wedding day in the 1920s, and a lovely discovery which I'll polish and use as much as I can, how nice to have such a connection to the past.

Happy Christmas and Archie in the snow

2010-12-23T13:24:00.001-08:00

Those of you who have been following a little while may remember that I'm a great advocate of the 'buy yourself presents' way of doing things - that way you get things you are truly happy with.

I've been trying hard to support other craftspeople and artists by buying from Folksy this year, even though I still haven't quite managed to set up a shop of my own, so was delighted to find these beautiful Christmas Robins from the Linen Cat shop - and I ordered a set for a friend. Well, when they came I just hated to part with them, such lovely deep rich colours and so cheerful, so I sent them off and then promptly ordered some more just for me. They came so quickly and were beautifully wrapped with great details on the labels and packaging, and this morning I hung them up on my garland.

I finally got round to putting a few decorations on our tree too, but Archie was un-decorating it as fast as I was getting them on, thinking it was a great game. In the end I had to leave a lot of bare branches at the bottom of the tree with things hanging further up. We also had to move a couple of bags of presents which had been lovingly wrapped by my friends in lovely rustly tissue paper, There are few things more attractive to a cat than rustly paper AND a bag to stuff his head in, so my presents are now ontop of the wardrobe - in fact there's not very much we've left under the tree at all.

Archie is loving the snow - it seems to be making him a bit skippy and mad, and he's been staying out for ages despite cold toes! Here he is nearly up to his knees:
And here he is all black, skipping about in the white snow, just like a young cat should. He starts tentatively for a little while then pounces on it before trotting off!

I hope all of you have a very Happy Christmas and are able to enjoy some rest and time for yourselves. We are struggling as my mum is deteriorating drastically each day mentally, so it's very tough, but we will make the best of everything and spend some time with good friends and family, and I'm finding that being with my boys is so helpful as I can think about my life going forward despite all the difficulties.
Thank you for all your friendship and support this last year which has meant so much to me.

A very cold Craft Fair

2010-12-21T09:02:00.000-08:00

I'm very behind with posting about this as it was a few weekends ago when we had all that ice and snow. Now of course we have more ice and snow and I can't actually remember it getting much better in between, it seems to have been fairly seamlessly bitter and cold, at least it's pretty.

Anyway, my craft fair was in this beautiful building which is Leicester Guildhall - I was so busy I didn't get photos of all the rooms but here is where I was, the Lord Mayor's Parlour.
Behind me was very old stained glass - in some panels people had scratched their name and the date, so it was a fascinating place to be:

Last year I'd had a look round as a customer and it was supposed to be one of the best local fairs to sell at, this year someone had taken the decision to charge people a pound to come in - not a lot but that charge featured on all the publicity and I wonder if it put people off coming, that and the weather. So it wasn't as busy as previous years, but a couple of my things went to very good homes. When you've spent a couple of hours or more making a unique piece you do feel a part of yourself has gone into it, so it does make a real difference to sell to someone who actually says how much they like it.

Unfortunately there's no getting away from the fact that it was FREEZING! We had to have the door to outside completely open so people knew to come and see us, so we really were shivering - on the Sunday I brought two hot water bottles with me - one to keep and one to give to someone else. I managed to stuff mine up under my dress and put a belt and my money belt over it to hold it to my tummy - all was going well until about lunchtime when I was in the middle of talking to a customer and it slipped out and fell onto the floor with a big sloppy thud!

Craft fairs are so varied - I've really enjoyed the ones where people want to ask me about how I make felt as I like describing the procedure, but this was one of those ones where most people seemed to walk straight past me, sometimes I think it's a question of perhaps not having quite the right products for the exact customers that come through the doors - the photographer next to me was constantly busy and his pictures had such a wide-ranging appeal that he did really well. I said that I blamed him for my lack of success because as soon as people got half way along the room, level with me, I could hear them exclaiming 'What fantastic photos!' and speeeding past me to get to him! He was lovely, kept getting me cups of tea, and of course knew I was joking! His photos were indeed stunning and he deserved to be really successful.

I was initially disappointed with sales, because let's face it, it is a lot of effort to do a two-day fair - not only your time standing, but all the packing up and transport too, and you do always hope to do well. But what I remember most was what a lovely group of people there were in our room, and indeed in the other rooms, and a good friend gave up a large part of his Saturday to come and sit with me and help out, so I say it was a complete victory for Community Spirit!

Christmas Wrapping with Archie, by Archie.

2010-12-17T08:15:00.001-08:00

I'm finding this is a great time of year to help my mum with lots of things. It's my very first Christmas and I'm very excited about all the decorations. I like the things that look like bits of trees best - I've managed to run off with small pieces of those and hide them under the kitchen table for later. I quite like trying to chew the fairy lights too but my mum says I'm not allowed.

Let me tell you how cats can best help their humans at this time of rustly paper and ribbons.

First you will need to hide behind any rustly paper ready to get all big-eyed and spring out at your human just as they may be trying to stick a piece of sellotape on a present, so that they are so surprised they stick the sellotape to the wrong bit.

Then you should see how well you can sharpen your claws on the end of any spare paper you can find - my mum did take a photo of me doing this but it was very blurry as I was sharpening very fast. This helps add decorative perforations in the edge of the paper to make it extra special, here is my suggested design:

Then you should roll over and over on the paper as it is spread out and start chewing any nearby curly ribbon.

This helps unpack the ribbon ready for your human to use.

And then finally don't forget to demand constant attention, this helps by ensuring your human feels needed.

A follow up about John Lewis

2010-12-15T09:36:00.000-08:00

Now, where were we all that time ago, before life got so complicated?
You may remember, or probably won't, ages ago at the end of this post, which came in my previous crisis-free life, that I'd left a load of stuff in John Lewis. Well following on from that I would like to say how fantastic the store can be. There are many reasons for this. Obviously it has many pretty, shiny, stylish and desirable things all laid out in attractive displays. It has many departments on many floors containing virtually everything you could need in all areas of your life, and, of course, it has a haberdashery department. Only in a parallel universe could I dream of being able to shop there regularly.
But it's so much more than the products they've got - it's the way they treat customers. I feel like I matter to them - nothing is too much trouble and so far all the assistants I've met have been unfailingly attentive and helpful without being pushy. It seems to be how shopping should be, and used to be in the past when people had time and a smile for you.

But I wasn't prepared for what happened following my experience of losing my stuff in my brain-less daze. Well I did ring up the day I lost the bag and there was no trace of anything, but even if there had been I'd have had to go and get it, or replace it all, so off I set on an 8am bus (that's very early for me on a Saturday) and got there just as the store was being unlocked the next day. I made my way to an assistant to explain brainless daze and forgetfulness and she took me to haberdashery to see if anyone had handed my ribbons in, but they hadn't. But the manager was there and overheard and told the assistant to take me up to Customer Services and.....if my bag hadn't been handed in he told her to ensure that all my items were replaced free of charge. Can you believe it? Of course he had heard me say 'small bag' and knew it was haberdashery rather than Jaeger/Jigsaw (as if) but even so I'd spent getting on for £20 and was quite overwhelmed at their offer to replace it all when I was the one who'd lost it.
In the end when we got upstairs yes somebody had indeed handed my things in - I couldn't really imagine anyone wanting to run off with tailors chalk, embroidery threads and a thimble but you just never know.
So faith in human nature is restored, and I like John Lewis even more. And so I bought these very nice mugs from them - I fell for the bird as always.

Archie liked the unpacking of them as you can see from the first photo. He's been enjoying wrapping Christmas presents as well. I haven't enjoyed this as much as he has.

Happy birthday to Archie!

2010-12-12T09:04:00.001-08:00

My beautiful Archie is now a whole year old - in fact his birthday was a couple of weeks ago but in the middle of the chaos of life I didn't manage to post anywhere near the day itself.
I know from the lady who owned him and his mum that he was the first one of the litter of five to be born. He has been the sweetest kitten we've ever had, no bad temper at all and so cuddly even as an adult. Hard to believe he has changed so much from the tiny black-with-tabby-stripes fuzzy ball of fur here:

to his present sleek self! He is still very stretchy and bendy as you can see:

I couldn't work out how to post videos when we had him, but here are two short ones from when he was tiny - I love the second one where he topples over but pretends it was nothing to do with him!

Now of course he is so much more sensible and grown up. He likes to watch TV with us - Frasier and Grand Designs are his favourites so far, we don't know why:

It's proving to be a pretty grim time for us. My mum is still in hospital, mentally much worse than ever, it's unclear how much she'll recover so we're just trying to take a day at a time and see what happens, while clearing what we can from her house bit by tiny bit. Archie is keeping me going with lots of cuddles!

Felting with silk fibres

2010-12-04T15:38:00.000-08:00

Firstly thank you for your lovely comments of support on my last post - it does feel like a grim time but I'm trying to look for some good things in each day, and if you're actually looking for the positives I think you find them more easily.

As well as the situation with my mum's health over the last few weeks, I also had a committment to what was supposed to be a very successful craft fair, so I did push myself to make a good selection of things. I made a lot of felt incorporating dyed mulberry silk fibres and was really pleased with the way they showed up and shimmered against black or other deep colours:

I did this flat piece first to make into a notebook, and liked it so much I made a seamless bag too:

The photo at the start of this shows a shoulder bag I made - I chose the colours of silk in blues and purple to match the fairtrade ceramic button I'd bought earlier, a friend of mine was owed a bag as a present and chose this one when she saw it, so I was pleased it had gone to a good home!
I also used some more dyed silk hanky to make other notebook covers in different shades, as well as a bit more sari silk - that's always a bit difficult to felt in securely but the wispy silk fibres have been really enjoyable to work with and I'll try to think of even more ways to use them in the future.

A wintery season.

2010-11-28T10:58:00.000-08:00

This is our beautiful winter-flowering clematis, it looked so lovely against the very blue sky.

It has been ages since I posted, and I need to tell you why, since life as I know it has radically altered, keeping me away from many things I'd like to do. I have been completely unable to visit all of my blogging friends and I am concerned I may have missed many significant events in your lives and not responded to comments, and if so I am very sorry. The joy of having a blog for many of us is the fantastic relationships we have built up with other bloggers and I hate that I can't be involved in what is happening for you as much as I'd choose.

My 82 year old mum has been poorly for quite a while now, but her friends and I have been increasingly concerned about her behaviour over the past few weeks and I have needed to become much more involved in her life than ever before - 6 months ago she was completely independent, driving, involved in many social groups, even giving talks about her experiences as an actress. Then she developed auto-immune hepatitis, the treatment for which is strong immunosupressants to stop the body further attacking the liver. She's not been right since but very rapidly declined over the last two weeks and has been admitted to hospital, where she is being treated for an infection that is making her body shut down while it fights the infection itself, and she is very confused and hallucinating, totally changed. There is every chance she will recover from the infection in time, but due to complex circumstances I won't go into much, it will be against medical advice for her to go home - whatever happens life will be extremely difficult for a long while. She lives alone in a large, timber-framed, listed sixteenth-century cottage with some small outbuildings and ever such a lot of rooms, filled with an incredible amount of objects/furniture/paperwork/family things/junk mail/you-name-it-it's-there. To her, everything she has is needed. To gently suggest clearing anything produces great distress, it's been like this all my life, but now has reached a critical stage.
So that's about where things are, and why I haven't been here.

We know she will be cared for in hospital for a while and can plan round that for a couple of weeks but I have to say it's been chaos recently, and as soon as she is medically stable and the hospital is ready to discharge her, the real problems will begin as we try and find a workable solution to very tricky issues.

I have fantastic friends, and have been almost overwhelmed with how supportive and understanding my mum's friends have been too - they care about her a very great deal, but are also mindful of the problems we will face to get her back into a more ordered home environment.

I'm hoping over the next week or so to post about some more cheerful things that I've been waiting to share, including how great John Lewis is after the experience I shared in my last post all that time ago! And, of course, how wonderful Archie is!

Autumn at Chatsworth

2010-10-22T12:41:00.000-07:00

We have had a very busy half-term week. The place I wanted to go most was Chatsworth as we've been the last two autumns to see the sculptures in the garden, and we finally made it yesterday. It was very cold with varying amounts of sunshine but son no. 1 likes cloud (and rain) and pronounced it was "Just the right kind of grey". I argued that there couldn't be a right kind of grey when it comes to weather but he was happy enough!
We had a really nice walk around and visited the cafe twice to warm up. Beautiful autumn colours were all around us as well as lots of artwork to look at.

This one is a mirrored twirling set of triangles - the reflections are fascinating:

The boys hiding from the camera:

And I love this one of them walking ahead together, talking to each other all the time:

I've been particularly 'hormonally challenged' this week, culminating today in mental shutdown following a trip to Leicester nearby specially to buy crafting supplies for a craft even I'm running at church later on next month - £20 worth of ribbons and all sorts from the John Lewis haberdashery (I love that word) department. Except that I left the bag with everything in it somewhere in the shop and came home without it! So I've got to go all the way back on the bus early tomorrow and buy the whole lot again! Boo, hiss to nasty, bad hormones that seem to completely remove any rational behaviour and thought altogether. I have been self-medicating with some red wine.

Newton and the Fierce Apples

2010-10-16T06:50:00.000-07:00

This will appear to be a very random post - well it is a very random post, but there is a reason.
I was reading this post on Wednesday from Fuzzy Tales, and was wondering if lovely Derry the cat was playing with a real or pretend banana (sorry this will only make sense if you look at it). Now this might seem like a ridiculous question to ask - what cat would wrestle with a real banana? Except cats can be a bit odd sometimes. It turns out Derry had a catnip toy banana which must have been great fun, but the reason I was entertaining the idea of it being real was this video I took last year of Newton who I happened upon while he was defending himself against these very dangerous Bramleys. So this is specially for Kim:

We'll see if Archie takes a liking to attacking any other kind of fruit.

Felt Flower Coasters

2010-10-11T13:56:00.000-07:00

There's lots of felting going on here, I've got many things to make, which is busy but good.
A friend bought my sample set of four of these coasters in the summer - I thought they'd be a good idea to go with a teacosy I made ages and ages ago but in the end that sold before they did. Now it's coming up to Christmas she asked me to make another three sets for friends, exactly like hers.

Could I find my notes of how I'd made them, what exact colours I'd used, the size of my flower template, most importantly how far apart I'd placed the flowers, any details at all?
No, of course not, because I only ever thought I was making one set. I did manage to find an old photo eventually and the final measurements of the circles, so that was a start.
It's really important to write everything down as you make things, you just never know when you're going to need the information!

After a bit of trial and error I took the plunge doing them all at once:

I did put the flowers a tiny bit closer together than I should have done, but it all worked out ok in the end.

When I'd done the whole piece it made me think about making a table runner - not with such a regular pattern on it but just trying a longer rectangle - mind you it's hardly worth it with Archie around, I think he'd just keep hooking it off the table with his claws or just plain attack it while it was minding its own business.

And finally, since it is now feeling decidedly autumnal and slightly cooler I have selflessly tested out this £2.97 per bottle Tesco substitute Ginger Wine - and I can report back that it's definitely very good value for money. I never realised it's actually ever-so-slightly less alcoholic than some ordinary wines, which presumably means I can have more of it?

Playing with silks

2010-10-03T12:57:00.001-07:00

There are so many things I want to post about - the autumn colours, Folksy purchases and supporting other craftspeople, the interesting world of Royal Mail Recorded Delivery (where you pay extra for the peace-of-mind that comes from knowing your item has been delivered, only in my case 75% of the time I've used this service they've not collected a signature thus leading to extra stress rather than any peace-of-mind whatsoever), Special Delivery versus FedEx ( I really will try and fill you in one day because it's all quite interesting if you need to send stuff out), but I am struggling so much with time I'm just going to stick to a bit of felt for now. I'm in the middle of many projects but recently went a bit mad with ordering silks - here are my packs of dyed silk hankies:

I must, must, must look into dyeing my own, but no way is it going to happen quite yet, so I took the plunge and paid for them ready-done. There's also a new hank of sari silk in there - they're from Fibrecrafts, which stocks a more purple sari silk than some other places, although there are always lots of lovely colours mixed up together.
I've used the plain silk hankies over cream wool tops before just to give a bit of texture and sheen but cut these ones up a bit to make a contrast with the background.

I really like the effect although would love even deeper colours - I'd hoped they'd be more jewel-like and that I could use them against black but I think they're a bit pale, but I'll enjoy experimenting, if I can find a parallel universe in which there are 40-hour days.

Here is the card my OH got me for our wedding anniversary last week - 22 years this year. Very like Archie indeed, eyeing up all the butterflies:

Archie himself has taken to watching TV while assisting with any technical computer problems I may be having - he'll be demanding a salary in salmon Whiskas Temptations soon.

Cat Yoga

2010-09-19T06:12:00.000-07:00

I can only assume someone has been teaching Archie some kind of strange yoga pose for relaxation, because look how he is lying. Surely this must be one of the most odd arrangements of cat limbs ever, how can he stretch his little tummy round that much? He really is very bendy.

He has lost none of his longing to sleep on my laptop, as you can see - since I've been told laptops get rid of significant amounts of heat through the keyboard, it doesn't seem like a good idea to be insulating it with all that black fluff, however comfy he is. He always knows I'm going to ask him to move.

We lost him for a bit yesterday, he's so black it's impossible to spot him in dark corners, but I'd looked everywhere and thought he must have somehow got out. Then I found him, fast asleep and curled up, in here:

Obviously he got up when I got the camera out.
This is not good - he's never got right in before and slept- I often put a load of clothes in and leave the door open while I scour the house for odd socks to top it up, throw them in, slam the door and start the cycle. This would be a disaster if he sneaked in for a nap in the meantime, so I've had to put a note on the machine saying 'Check for cat'.

Must show you this last photo, I promise it is absolutely and completely genuine. Last week I left my laptop on the kitchen table to go and make a drink, and when I got back, Archie had renamed one of my folders with his little toes. All by himself. He obviously didn't think much of the contents.

Opinions on Colour

2010-09-16T11:59:00.000-07:00

First of all thank you all so much for all your support and comments on my last post. My mum's still having yet more tests and sees the specialist again tomorrow, but seems to think they may be closer to a diagnosis, we'll see. She sounds a bit brighter, and is glad now her endoscopy is over!

Anyway, onto other things for now.

I love colour. I'm very, very fussy too, I know which combinations I like and which I don't. None of those complimentary yellows-with-purples and blue-with-oranges thank you very much, although red with green is fine at Christmas. Just about.

As a smallish girl I remember one Christmas my very favourite present of all was a big set of wax crayons - not just your normal 7 colours, I mean a really big set with 5 greens, 3 pinks, 4 purples...you get the idea. I think I must have been about seven. I looked at all the colours for ages - I didn't want to use them, I just wanted to line them all up in a lovely harmonious order - graduating the colours - no clashes. When I was a few years older I got some posh watercolour pencils in a tin - I still have them. They always had to go in the tin in the same order - again, no clashes next to each other, just the best order for adjacent colours to merge together as much as possible.
I'm still, of course, exactly the same, because I think that sort of thing is a really fundamental part of who you are. Sadly I don't have time to spend hours lining things up in beautiful harmonious colour-sequences all day, but I can at least ban bright yellow from the garden and grow single-colour flowers in my chosen colours ( magenta and orange often - I copy Sarah Raven much of the time and get my seeds from her). I don't like bright yellow, unless it's sunflowers, and even then I prefer the ruby red ones.

Aren't people strange? I plan to become more eccentric as I age.

Anyway, I absolutely love choosing and combining colours in my felting - it's one of the reasons I love the process so much, the ability to blend layers of different colours and merge them together. I have, of course, tended to use colours I'm drawn to myself - I've never made a bright yellow anything, nor grey, nor beige, I can't wear those colours and just don't feel positive about them!
But it's really good to be forced to think outside your own box. The times when friends have asked me to make particular things in colour combinations they've chosen have been good for me, and I've discovered I like the end results even though I wouldn't have chosen them myself.

Why am I rambling about this now?
Well I had a lovely lady buy some hairslides from my website last week, and she asked if I could make two more, in navy and maroon. These are some of my normal colours, bright or light, not sombre at all.

I was quite unsure about such deep colours but made a small selection of navy, plum and maroon flowers,

and found that with the beads (beautiful lustred ones that you can't see fully in the photo) and the green leaf

I did like them after all, and I was glad to be taken into slightly new colour territory. So I perhaps need to experiment with new combinations every now and again and not be too set in my ways!

Of course we should stick with what we love best and be true to our own styles and designs, but it did make me think more about experimenting a bit. Do you stay in your comfort zone of styles and colours if you craft, or in the way you dress or furnish your home, or are you always trying new things out?!

Ups and downs and being busy

2010-09-10T01:25:00.000-07:00

It's proving to be one of those times when I feel like the days are slipping past and all muddling together, I'm sure most of us feel like that at busy times. I've sadly had much less time to post anything and I think may be entering a stage of life when that continues. Worse, I haven't been able to keep up properly with blogs I'm following, so I'm very sorry I haven't been able to comment as much as I'd like, it doesn't mean I don't care.

Lots has been happening here, not all good, but then not all bad either.

School has started again, we're back into routine, which is good, although it does bring some challenges. Son number one is now fifteen. As he is not the most organised person in the world I asked him to get EVERYTHING ready for his first day of school the night before. He said he had. At twenty past eight on the actual morning he told me he couldn't find his pencil case and that his shoe-lace had broken before the holidays. He also told me this morning he couldn't find his tie and he didn't want to use his spare one because he didn't like it any more because.......he had drawn a biro face on it last term.
I have spent half an hour today de-staining it, washing it and mending it.
Such are the joys of term-time!

Briefly, the 'downs' are that my 82 year-old mum has been undergoing tests all summer, we still don't know what's going on but there's some problem with her liver - so that's been a concern for a long time now. Her GP is one of my oldest and closest friends, and she's a thorough and excellent doctor, so she couldn't be in safer hands, but there's also a specialist involved who's still running more tests, so we're still waiting. We sadly lost my uncle, my mum's brother, last weekend too after a long illness which suddenly deteriorated, that's been distressing and more so as he lived in Canada and she couldn't go to the funeral or see him in his final days. So all in all she has needed to talk and be listened to more than normal, and is finding everything hard to take in. I'm an only child and we lost my dad a long time ago, so I need to make sure I'm available to support her even when I've got a long list of things to do. Usually she keeps busier than me with all her interests and groups - she's got a better social life than most teenagers, but right now she's not feeling well enough.

But there are 'ups' too - I've been making lots of things ready for the Wandsworth Artists' Open House event the first two weekends in October - I have an artist friend who opens her home and shows her paintings, and she shares the space with me and other artists too. Do download the leaflet and have a look through if you are anywhere nearby - it looks fantastic - so many different styles of art to see. I wish I could go myself as I want to see everybody else's work and meet all the other people involved - perhaps next year!

So I've made some more tea cosies as they were successful last year.

And lots and lots of flowers. And a few new bags.

This black one's got some sari silk incorporated into it and has come out really well. Always so hard to know what people will like but I'll send a selection.

Archie has been helping with my felt roses. First of all he helped by being beautiful and black and being a faithful companion.

But then temptation rather got the better of him:

After that he found I suggested he go out in the garden and play.

Archie scared us all to bits last Tuesday by completely disappearing from 6.30 in the morning till 8.30 at night - he's never been away for more than four hours before. I'd just printed out the first 50 'Our cat is missing please could you check your outbuildings' leaflets and had them in my hand ready to go out the door, when he trotted in calmly as if nothing had happened. And they say pets are supposed to reduce stress.

Archie's soggy day - by Archie.

2010-08-26T14:34:00.000-07:00

Today I have not been at all impressed with the weather my people provided for me.

My dad let me out early and it was cold and wet, so I came in straight away and shared the wet with my mum by jumping onto the bed and snuggling my dampness into her neck and face - what better way could there be to be woken up?
Then I tried again when she got up. There was still wet everywhere.

Can you see how deep it is outside my door? There was so much wet I had to skip through it and pick up my paws as I ran.

When I came back I was all spiky and had to have a big wash.

I thought I would see if it was different if I went out of the window instead of the door, because you never know.

Unless you try.
Here you see I am a soggy cat sitting hunched up in the garden. I am staring hard at my mum to get her to make it warmer and drier.

This has been the day with the most wet in it that I've ever had.
I have been bored, bored, bored all day, I have ate a lot and slept a lot and been slightly grumpy. It's really not quite an acceptable level of service when humans can't organise some sunshine properly.

Sculpture in the Garden.

2010-08-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

We live not far from Leicester in the Midlands, and a few years ago I discovered that they have a sculpture exhibition in the Botanical Gardens each summer - we've been every year since. The sculpture above is called 'Souls'.

I love the Botanical Gardens - beautiful trees and plants, a real escape from the hustle-and-bustle of the city centre, and totally free to get in. I sometimes catch a bus there and sit with a book and read, it's like an oasis of calm in a busy life.

It's also about the only time I ever read apart from when I'm on holiday!

I also love sculpture, and particularly in the setting that a large garden offers, where you can see the light changing all the time and wander along coming across new pieces round each corner.
This year there were lots of sculptures, this one was my favourite - obviously as we're all so different we all are drawn to particular styles and make a connection with perhaps just a few pieces.

It's called 'Hold me Close', there was something about the intense expression, desperately needing to be held, that I found very powerful.

Here are a couple of others I liked.

This one is called 'Tree of Hope'.

These were beautiful transluscent coloured glass, but I couldn't get the sun to shine through them while we were there!

There's also a beautiful tranquil pool:

There's my OH sitting at the far end. There were some clever but not pretty large white flowers all made out of plastic bags, and a very bright bronze man you can just see, but I preferered the reflections.

There are always some flowers around and places to sit,

if your sons don't want to go home as soon as possible after you've dragged them round.

How to make decisions.

2010-08-20T09:13:00.000-07:00

Roll the dice. Definitely always time for a cup of tea. A friend gave me this years ago and I found it at the back of my cupboard recently - it would be a great idea if you could personalise it for particular people.
Sadly there is no 'cake' or 'chocolate' option, or 'stroke cat' - I'll show you the others:
No thank you, I don't really iron.

What kind of shopping? Clothes/shoes shopping?

Only if it's cake.

Perhaps later.

Perhaps tomorrow, but I think cleaning's over-rated.

There doesn't seem to be one either for 'pull hair out whilst trying to re-format website', which is what I've been doing for a few weeks now. I'd been meaning to re-do photos for ages and have had a new layout sketched out for over a year, but have been battling with website-composing software versus Internet Explorer (which most people use but we don't - we use Mozilla Firefox because I live with a man who dislikes Microsoft intensely). To cut a long story short the different browsers read some website pages differently meaning that just as I thought I'd finished and published it all I re-checked it on Internet Explorer (had to use sons' computers - they came with it) and everything was all out of line. Thankfully the man who dislikes Microsoft also won't be beaten by a computer and eventually sorted it all, but it has taken SO much longer than I thought, not perfect by any means but better than it was. Wouldn't it be great to just be able to make things and have someone else do all the computer stuff and sales - I think it's rare to find crafting people who really enjoy selling, it's usually more about the making!

And so finally I've been able to get back to felting - tea cosies this week - they are drying on top of the boiler very high up. All felt, whether wool tops in plastic bags, pre-felt, wet felt, drying felt or finished felt, has to be stored on the top of cupboards out of reach of the cat - Archie is obsessed with clawing it and running off with it in his mouth. We keep finding bits under our bed which he's stolen. Last week after I'd re-photographed some of my felt notebooks I came down the next morning to find he'd chewed his way into the box they were in and taken three out and dragged one of them off into his cardboard box to play with, where I have to say it was looking very sorry for itself with puncture marks in the pages and cover. It's not for sale now. Newton never touched the felt, he just stole food - aren't cats funny, and all different?

Elsewhere the garden is still producing, though I'm waiting for my very large Brandywine tomatoes to ripen.

I started them off really early (for me) but I don't think it's been sunny enough here. The courgettes are busily trying to secretly turn into marrows while we're not looking - this photo was taken a couple of weeks ago.

The basket's now sitting in my kitchen full to the brim with much larger ones - just managed to sneak another two into our veggie mexican dinner but there are still so many.

As well as continuing to steal felt, Archie is really growing up and skips about the garden most of the day, very happy to be able to chase so many butterfies. If he runs out of energy he sleeps on the blanket in the old rabbit hutch (can you spot the feather?)

At night he curls up and mainly sleeps on our bed - he's started getting up for a little play with his feathers (if he can't find felt) in the middle of the night. He does like his feathers a lot - would you like to see where he's left them all?

Outside the back door.

By his food bowl.

By his cat tower with his other toys.

In our bedroom.

Under the bed- this one's for playing with in the middle of the night.

Of course boxes are good to play under/in too. With or without added felt.

Despite all the trouble he is, he is still of course my most favourite black cat in the whole world.

Shells on a felt beach

2010-08-02T13:53:00.000-07:00

While I was at one of my favourite places on holiday, Studland Bay, I was having a walk through the waves just at the edge of the sand when a big gust of wind blew my new straw hat into the water. I rescued it but it was very soggy and unwearable, so I turned it over and used it to collect some of these shells.

Not particularly beautiful shells but some very shimmery pieces that really caught the light.

I was looking down at the waves and the shells half-buried in the sand, plus the odd bit of seaweed, and thought I'd try to represent it all in felt. Wise family members dissuade me from taking my new-ish camera near water, so I couldn't take a photo.
Can you incorporate real shells in layers of felt? Well, yes you can, if you really want to, but you have to be careful. I laid out two fine layers of fibres, then put some shells and pieces of shells in, then added another two fine layers of fibres so they were covered. I used some edges of silk squares for the swirly froth as the waves break on the sand.

When the piece was felted together well, I rolled it up using bubble-wrap and a foam pool-float - I usually use a bamboo blind but I thought that might be too hard for the shells!
When the felt had shrunk and fulled a bit I gently cut small holes in the top layer just over the shells to expose them a bit, and then carried on rolling.
All was fine until I thought I might throw the felt just a bit since it didn't seem to be hardening as much as I expected (how silly is that - to treat it really carefully to start with then chuck it against a table?)- this was when I broke two of the shells, I thought they might be a bit more protected by their cushion of felt! But they'd lodged in their little pockets of fibres so well that I was able to insert another couple quite securely. The shimmery pieces of shell did break up a bit but stayed lodged in the surface.

Always worth trying out ideas, I like the finished piece as the colours are lovely and soft and it really does remind me of looking down at the beach as I walked.

Archie's summer afternoon

2010-07-27T10:53:00.000-07:00

Here I am today relaxing at the back of my garden.

But I do have a gate into a very large field - perhaps it's time to be brave and explore.

It's MUCH bigger than my garden.

Look, my people are playing with their new toy - a flying disc.

May I come and play too?
You are a long way away.

Now I'm here, surely you'd love to play with me instead? I'm sure I'm irresistable upside-down.

Now I have to go and hunt down a leaf, excuse me.

Person number two. Will you please throw my leaf for me? And stroke my fluffy tummy again while you're there.

Even better than a leaf - a lovely feather.

Will you throw my feather for me so I can jump and chase it?

That's quite enough running and jumping around, I'll have a rest now and chew my feather in peace. You can go back to your game now.

A week by the sea

2010-07-25T09:18:00.001-07:00

We've just returned from a lovely week in our favourite place - Swanage in Dorset. It's the third year we've been and we love being there, it seems a very friendly place with a sandy beach and interesting shops, but not too big and impersonal. We know where the deli is and what to buy from it and I always buy lots of second-hand novels from the Oxfam shop to keep me going for most of the year - then I take back the ones I don't want to keep the next year! This time we stayed in a flat right in the middle of the town, noisy but brilliantly convenient. This was our view from the kitchen:

but we could see the sea from every room, I was lying in bed yesterday looking at the boats bobbing up and down. The boys had fish and chips twice from the opposite shop, I watched them going in together while I was cooking something slightly more healthy for the grown-ups!

We had sun every day and walked last Sunday morning from our front door along the coastal path, the very first photo I posted is Swanage bay looking back.
And on we went to Studland Bay which is a beautiful unspoilt long stretch of beach with proper sand-dunes and lots of soft sand.

We went back a few more times in the week as the top bit is not usually very busy and is great for burying your brother in the sand and other beach-related activities:

At night we could look out and see the pretty lights in the street:

We loved watching all the people come and go and the hum of chatter and muffled jazz coming from the pub next door.

And we walked along the coastal path the other way one evening to look at the moon, and back at the bay.

It's so peaceful and restful being by the sea when it's gently lapping away at the shore, and it was a really lovely escape from the hustle and bustle of term-time life. I'm finding it very hard to be back as I'm returning to a couple of stressful situations but am so glad of the experience we did have. I've got a few more photos I'll post another time rather than do a really long post now.

Archie had a good time away at the cattery, was 'a little monkey' according to the ladies there (they love him and play with him lots), because he climbed on top of everything including doors so he could be nosy and see what everyone else was doing. He was very glad to sleep on our bed last night but decided at 4am that it was time to get up and play - we let him out of the room so he scurried downstairs to fetch his long black feather and favourite plastic strip from the top of a tortilla packet (strange kitten, but it really is his favourite thing in the world as it rustles and can be carried about easily) and brought them both all the way upstairs to share with us as he batted them and chewed them at the foot of the bed. Of course he's been asleep most of the day now.

I'm back at work tomorrow so it'll take me while to catch up with you all and find out what you've been up to!

Vintage summery china

2010-07-16T06:46:00.000-07:00

Ages ago I showed off my e-bay Colclough china purchase in this post, and said I was collecting more - and finally I've managed to post some photos.
It was a very bright sunny day when I took these, it's grey now!
I'm really not normally a flowery person as I said before, but when I saw on my e-bay travels that the design with the gold bands and wavy edges seemed to come in several pastel colours with and without various floral designs I just had to get a mixture.

I've seen that there's a pale green with tiny forget-me-nots on as well as the pale blue one I've got, but that was in the 'sold' listings, so I'll have to keep looking.
So what I need now is a group of friends to come round for a civilised tea-party with scones and jam and sponge cake - and a bit of sunshine!

Felt pebbles without real heavy pebbles

2010-07-09T09:59:00.000-07:00

I've been making felt-covered real pebbles for a long time, to use as paperweights, but was recently contacted by a lady interested in lightweight felt pebbles to replace some ornamental rocks belonging to a friend of hers.
She'd asked for a mixture of colours rather than just greys, with something that represented the striations in rock- so I tipped out all my colours and put some greys and purples together, and made each one wrapped with some white silk - I used the cut-off edges of silk mawata squares but I'm sure strands would have been easier and worked just as well. It took ages to build up the layers of felt for the larger ones as they shrink down so much but I always enjoy a challenge!
Here's the first set I did.

Having sent my customer some photos, she then asked for a few more larger ones as well. I'd just about reached my limit of size by wrapping wool, so off I went to the chemist for some bath sponges, which I hoped I could cut into shape as a base, then I just wrapped the tops round it.

The largest one was quite a challenge as it ended up SO large I couldn't keep hold of the layers as I wrapped,

so it ended up being pretty loose and took ages to felt as I had to make sure I didn't rush it and crease it.
But in the end I'd got a good range of sizes and off they went in the post this week. Archie helped with the packing up.

I wish I'd been able to get a photo of when he stuffed most of himself head first into the envelope. He'd been trying to run off with any available pebbles for ages so I'm very relieved they're safely in the post - I'm hoping they'll be just right for my customer's friend!

Archie happily sleeping

2010-07-07T07:09:00.000-07:00

Archie is very, very comfortable here in his favourite place for sleeping. He has been bouncing around in the garden all morning and has snuggled up on his hammock bed on his cat tower. He's getting very long now and doesn't really fit on unless he curls up, so he's done a lot of stretching his toes out today and has paws dangling over the edge.
But surely this is the most un-dignified position to choose?

I felt unable to take a photo from directly above to preserve his modesty, but almost wondered if I should start a most-un-dignified-cat-pose competition. I expect there has already been one somewhere.
While Archie has been snoozing I have been gardening and picking blackcurrants, then I realised I'd have to defrost the freezer so I could put them in. So I'm very bored waiting for it to finish.

Thank you for all your helpful comments on my last post - I'm actually really enjoying having no sweet things as it's made me eat really healthily - lots of avocados and green veg and fish (I had smoked salmon for breakfast this morning which was a bit odd, and also a bit expensive but at least it was on special offer - Archie was very happy to sample a bit - he's just learnt that people-food is very interesting!)
I do feel better for it so far, so will carry on as long as I can. And I will pop to the doctor too to ask for a blood test just so they can check everything's working properly, it can't do any harm and I'd never thought of low thyroid function, but it does fit with some of the symptoms so would be good to rule-out. So thank you once again for all your support.

Redcurrant Jelly

2010-07-03T09:34:00.000-07:00

Aren't these just so beautiful - the way they are so very red, and shiny, and translucent, against the green leaves? They are right at the end of the garden and I usually forget to net them so the birds often get them all. This year I draped a net over most of them and the birds enjoyed what they could reach, but I got the rest. There are still some ripening so we'll have another picking session next week.
Quality Control approved them:

then I had my fist go at redcurrant jelly. It was immensely cheering working with such a deep red liquid, here it is in the pan:

I heard you had to dissolve the sugar thoroughly before boiling so I stirred it for ages.

In the end I only had enough for one jar, but it does look very lovely when the light shines through it.

Sadly though I boiled it too long, it seems to need about a minute or even a bit less and I wasn't watching carefully enough - so it's set very, very firmly making it un-spreadable, in fact probably inedible in its current form. But I shall save it for Christmas recipes- you either need a spoonful for red cabbage or cranberry relish or both, can't remember without checking, and I'll have another go at the jelly next week!

Thank you all of you for your support after my last post, I'm feeling a little better and calmer and am also trying a healthier diet recommended by more than one person as helpful - basically it's no sugar at all, as little wheat as possible, preferably none, and lots of protein and vegetables. Strictly speaking you're supposed to leave out sugary fruit too for the first couple of weeks but I'm looking at my ripening pears knowing nobody else will eat them, so I'm going to have to give in a bit, I'll compromise by having them with some nuts to slow down the sugar release (all very scientific). I'm sure there are many eating plans that recommend this way of eating, I've certainly seen a few before - but it's putting it into practice that's the hard part. I think the main thing is the no sugar because processing it stresses your body and can worsen your mood when the levels dip again, so I'm trying to love nuts and seeds instead of cereal bars for snacks. Apart from a tiny taste of my redcurrant jelly I've left all other sugary things well alone, and I'll stick to it as long as I possibly can because eating unprocessed nuts, seeds, protein and vegetables has got to be better than eating biscuits and jam sandwiches at tea-time, which is what I was doing!
So I'm sure that will help - it also gives me something to focus on and means I'm concentrating on looking after myself, which we can tend to forget about when we're low. And if it doesn't quite help enough I won't hesitate to seek other solutions. Now I'm off to make a cup of (healthy packed-with-antioxidants green) tea and resist the tub of mini chocolate cakes my son wanted for himself yesterday!

Catching up

2010-06-27T09:26:00.000-07:00

It's been a busy time recently, as I'm sure it is for a lot of us with gardens to tend, although it's been such lovely weather it's been a joy to have a garden as well as a slight chore! Here is our bench which I've newly sanded and oiled for the first time in years, I must remember to take the time to actually sit on it now! I even have a few ripening strawberries in a hanging basket. The small white globes are IKEA solar powered lights which have been great, I ended up leaving them out all year and they even glowed gently in the winter!

And here is the best view of the vegetable patch:

from this angle it actually looks like I'm growing vegetables, because the runner beans are in the foreground, although a lot of it is just flowers. Of course flowers are very nice in a vegetable patch too and attract bees, it's just I didn't quite manage the amount of veg that I'd hoped for.
I'm trying to contend with the pigeons.

So far the score is me 2, pigeons 8 - that's how many purple sprouting brocolli plants they've stripped of leaves so far. In fact you may have to look hard to see the stripped stems on the left. I didn't realise how difficult pigeons were and am hoping to try and save the remaining plants with some netting.
Archie likes the vegetable patch too:

No prizes for guessing what he's up to here. As long as he's not doing it in the neighbours' garden I'm quite happy.

Archie has only just discovered catnip - he's literally turned his little nose up at it before but something must have clicked in his brain because yesterday he was rolling around and hugging it and squashing the little plants to pieces.

I re-planted three inside an upside-down hanging basket to protect the roots - we'll see who wins that one!

Lots to be thankful for, and yet I have to confess to struggling recently with keeping up with life in general. I have been functioning slowly but have been very, very anxious about everything and pretty low, in fact very low. There are particular reasons, but the reasons don't justify my reaction - I am one of those people who has spells of being unable to find a proper perspective on reality, cycling through anxiety and worst-case scenarios of things that probably will never happen - this is just the way some of us are I guess. I'm feeling a little better this week and am trying to take steps to keep calm, including herbal tablets which I think may be helping a bit. But a lot of us get these periods where everything is hard, I guess we must all find our way through in our own way and wise friends have advised me to use whatever 'tools' are necessary to help, even if that means seeking out a doctor's advice and possibly medication. I've fought against this a lot, as many of us do, but the sensible thing is to consider all options, you don't get a medal for struggling on, and life's too short to waste days if there's help out there. So I'll take it steady and see how it goes.

Frustratingly hard to create when you're low though - I've done bits and pieces of familiar designs but nothing new. But there will be time for that later.

Yesterday though I did do a craft fair - my first one outside - it was a good location in a local village square and they had live music and entertainment on all day so there was a very good atmosphere and thankfully lots of people. I was a bit stressed setting up because of course being in the open people just came early as there were no doors to open at a specific time!! But once I'd settled and contended with the wind lifting light felt things off my display, I did enjoy the day. This is the view I had - they even had the Town Crier ringing his bell and announcing things.

I don't know whether you can see the strange monsters opposite - you may be able to if you enlarge it -the man was selling his fantasy book and these must have been his creations, there were quite a few of them, rather odd to see a row of 6-foot aliens at a craft fair but all good fun.
Here is my stall:

lovely stripy cover and larger than I've been used to which was great. It's really nice to meet people and chat to them about felt - I was surprised that two of the most enthusiastic customers were men- one bought a felt bowl and the other was looking at things actually trying to persuade his wife she might like something (she didn't in the end but he did apologise to me and say he tried hard, which was lovely of him!)
And now onwards into another week. Hope you all have a good one.

To frame or not to frame...

2010-06-18T05:55:00.000-07:00

I've just collected this piece from the local gallery who have been trying to sell it for about 9 months. It's been an interesting experience raising all sorts of questions about the cost of framing a textile piece, in fact framing ANY piece of art, and gallery commission.

I made the felt as a sample for a larger wallhanging with more leaves in it, that I sent in for an Open Exhibition last summer:

(not a great photo but it gives some idea). The gallery co-owner bought the larger one for herself and then she is going to frame it, well her partner at the gallery is, so it will just cost her the materials. Now I can't exactly remember how large it came out, I think it would have been about 50-60cm square-ish, but to have a piece that large framed for ordinary people would surely cost a lot of money.

Anyway, the gallery ladies said they would like to frame the smaller piece and see if they could sell it. I personally like the idea of textile wall art just being hung as it is, like you would hang a quilt, so that you can see all the textures really properly, but everyone has their own opinions, and of course it's easier to dust if it's behind glass.
I think they have framed it really well, the frame compliments the piece and doesn't detract from it at all, I was really pleased, and I think it probably changed my mind about framing felt! The framed piece is about 40cm square - the cost came out at £45. So to re-coup the cost of framing, plus the gallery commission of 35% which is at the low end of what commission can be, they ended up putting the picture up for sale at £95, fully expecting it to sell. Now I'm not saying that galleries are unfair in taking commission, of course they have to, and you are paying for their running costs and customers and display and reputation, it's only right.
Now I was in the shop while my picture was displayed in the window (a very proud moment for me, probably never to be repeated!) and I could hear customers saying how expensive it was, which it is for a small picture, I quite agree!

So framed it's really expensive for someone to buy, and yet if it had sold for £95, I would have got slightly less than £17 for my several hours of designing and making, once the commission and framing cost had been taken off.

Isn't it all complicated?
Anyway, I decided I'd take it back and possibly try and sell it direct at a craft fair, which would mean that I wouldn't have to build the commission into the price.

But now we've put it up in the kitchen we like it so much where it is that we're just going to keep it!

So there we are, the dilemma of framing and costing and galleries.

Now to end on a different note, in the spirit of complete honesty about what my house really looks like, I'm showing you my magic curtain, which I made on Monday evening.

Here is my horrid utility room:

It's a bit like Monica's secret cupboard in Friends if you've ever seen that episode, it's really terrible. Note the sacks of wool and mess and broken cupboard doors (also you might be able to see that our kitchen bin is held together with duck tape). And that's only one half of the room, the other half is worse and has a computer and years of paperwork stuffed sideways into shelves (the papers that is, the computer is upright).

So here is my magic curtain:

Mess....what mess? All gone away. Surely now it no longer exists at all?

Archie helped.

What is it about cats and ironing boards?

A Senior Moment, or 'Spot the Deliberate Mistake'

2010-06-04T05:32:00.001-07:00

I needed to make tea and re-fill the tea-caddy, my mind was on something else, can you see where I may have gone a bit wrong? At least I managed not to pour boiling water on the two teabags I'd put in the tea-caddy.
This was completely genuine, sadly. I'm currently 43, how much worse do you think this may get?

I post this in the hope that it will make any of you who have ever done anything similar, feel better, and that you might know you are not alone. Of course if there are none of you out there who have done anything like this, I should begin to worry now.

Archie recommends....

2010-06-02T05:57:00.001-07:00

These hand-woven hogla fibre baskets from Traidcraft.

But which one to choose.....

One just about perfect for squeezing into (just):

the other one a little too large but useful for sharpening claws on the bottom and turning round and round in, and hiding treasures in.

Elsewhere there's been a bit of an incident. Archie says the important thing to remember here mummy:

is that I caught the tiny fly that was at the top of the window flying about before I crash landed on your things, you really should have moved them earlier like you were thinking about. Never put off till tomorrow etc.....

Other people's talent!

2010-05-30T12:43:00.000-07:00

To start I'm just showing you you a couple of things I got recently. First here is my lovely coal-tit painted by Sam - I'd loved her bird pictures (and indeed all her illustrations) that I'd seen on her blog and had asked her to do a small one for me to go in my kitchen, and she sent me this one, isn't he beautiful?!

We have real coal-tits occasionally in the garden so it's lovely to be able to look at this one all the time, just got to get him framed! (Sam if you are reading this there is a small thank you parcel in the post!)

Second - I did a local craft fair a week last Saturday, which sadly turned out to be very unproductive in terms of sales (my friend Tammy sold just a single card) perhaps due to the extremely hot weather, but I did meet a couple of other stallholders including Sue (who has a Folksy shop here). It was a slightly strange experience only because I'd seen her work featured on Narkeymarkey's blog here just a couple of weeks before, and had liked the look of her little fabric kittens, and had completely over-looked the fact that she was so local, so wasn't expecting to see kittens to choose from so close by! I bought this one for me:

and one for my mum, who is also very much a cat person, they're just so appealing!

I'm having a bit of a creatively low phase right now, sometimes your confidence just goes a bit doesn't it (did anyone see the Child of Our Time programme last night? I think my personality is mainly just neurotic!), so I've been in the garden for hours and hours trying to really tidy it up properly - nearly there now, just a few more seedlings to plant out and borders to weed a bit more. I'm hoping to get felting again when term starts and routine goes back to normal. We're looking forward to a week together just at home. The boys have been seamlessly playing on various forms of electronic games (Wii fit table-tennis as I type) but we hope to get out cycling for a day. Archie's been climbing up his first tree:

- he did keep getting his little legs in a bit of a tangle with the branches so didn't go too high. I was in a hammock for a few minutes' rest and he kept popping into it to say hello!

Hope all of you have a good week.

Archie's Diary no.6

2010-05-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

My mum is so busy in the garden I don't know when she'll get around to posting again, so I thought I'd better get on with my own post.

I have so much to tell you. I'm nearly all grown up now. Now I have big springy legs I can jump up really high and get into cupboards (time for a wash while I'm in there):

I can also jump on top of every cupboard in the house so now no place is safe from my exploring - I am very good apart from when I spy a buzzy fly trying to get out of the window. Then I just forget about everything else and leap madly up and down at it over and over and over again, crashing down on whatever is under my paws at the time. My mum for some reason thinks it could be time to move her special things from the windowsills. When I catch the fly I eat it very noisily and my mum has to go away until I've finished because she doesn't like the crunching and the wings sticking out of my mouth.

I had quite a long trip to the vet when the vet put me to sleep and removed some things that I thought belonged to me - I was a bit wobbly for a while but I feel fine now.

My mum hasn't made much felt recently but I did help her pack some of it up in a box.

But my most exciting news in the whole world is that my dad said I had to go out on my own, so I have been doing lots of exploring outside my house. This makes my mum very worried but it makes me extremely happy.

I have a big, beautiful garden to explore and trees to climb and hedges to poke my nose through and dogs and neighbours to stare at. The dogs were a bit upset and growly and my mum says I have to stay away from them. She also said I have to stay away from the other neighbours as they don't like cats at all, but when they were out today I went through the hedge and sat on their patio table.
I can also help my mum with jobs - here I am helping her clean the outside table by walking through the very dirty wet splashy bits, then walking over the clean bits so I leave nice pawprints:

I also discovered my dad's kayak - it's high up on top of the wood pile under the carport so I'm sure it will make a good shelter. Perhaps I could surprise people by popping up out of one of the two holes:

I have been up on all the other high-up things like the garage roof and the pergola - I can see lots from up here, look how tall I am:

My main mission though is to chase flies and bees and leap all over the plants as I catch them, and to stalk the birds. I love finding feathers and they are my best treasure. I have to carry them in to show my mum and then take them outside to skip about with, then bring them in to show my mum again so she can admire how I have chewed them, then I take them out again.

After all that intrepid exploring I'm ready for a rest on my mum's new blanket - always better when someone is lying underneath it and I can curl up behind their legs:

Another year older

2010-05-17T07:55:00.000-07:00

Hopefully another year wiser as well, but I'm not so sure!

Here are a few of the lovely things I had from my friends and family.

A bit of a duck egg greeny-blue and pink theme going on don't you think?
A large jug to go with my smaller one was very welcome, and now has even more flowers in it although I had to take out the spiky foliage as Archie just kept on chewing it! The pink bird I bought for myself from the Fairtrade shop in Leicester - I just couldn't resist him (or her) and the simple bird shape is one of my favourites.

I had these beautifully wrapped Emma Bridgewater flower mugs from my in-laws:
and now want to collect them - they are very pricey but I can ask for one each year as a present!
And these lovely hand-made buttons:

came from my friend Tammy, who has recently opened her own Folksy shop and has committed to trying to buy hand-crafted things as presents whenever possible, so had chosen them from another Folksy seller. I think this is a really important thing to do, to buy from within the ever-growing community of like-minded crafts-people. I'm yet to sign up to Folksy as a seller but I think I'll start by looking to choose my presents from shops there and on similar sites- there is such a large range of lovely things available and it seems to be a very friendly community as some of you know because you're already part of it!

I ended up going out for coffee, lunch and a Pizza Express dinner on the day so what with the chocolates son no. 2 bought for me and the very rich dense chocolate cake he made for me all by himself, I still feel quite heavy and solid!

He also chose me some body scrub - didn't he do well?!

Son no.1, who is getting on for 15, sat at his computer having commissioned his brother to go shopping on his behalf. He later found three pound coins in his pocket and I suggested he go the relatively short distance to the local Tesco Express to get me some flowers, at which point he fixed me with a look and said "I'm not walking up the road with a bunch of flowers!" I told him this was fine, as long as he firmly embedded in his mind that once he had a girlfriend or wife, their Birthday would be of paramount importance and he must put lots of effort into choosing special things himself and on time!

On the morning itself I woke to see Archie's nose all upside-down very close to mine, he was all curled up and purry and said he was sure he himself must surely be the very best present of all!

A very long day

2010-05-09T13:14:00.000-07:00

Today was my first Craft Fair of this year, and it's taken me an age to get ready for it. All the making of new things to go with what I already had, and then all the details like pricing labels and then packing everything up too - this was quite a challenge as Archie just loved trying to break into the boxes to extract things. I don't know why he's so obsessed with stealing felt - I guess it is light and he can easily get his teeth and/or claws into it to run off with it!

Here is our stall in the corner of the marquee:

I was sharing with my good friend Confessions of an Artist, who today was also being her other self The Silver Moon

with her beautiful silver and sea-glass jewellery displayed on driftwood very effectively.

It ended up a lovely sunny morning as we were setting up, much better than the rain we had yesterday, and there were lots of people coming past. A lot stopped to look and some asked me questions about the process of making felt, and it was good to meet a few of the other stallholders too. The craft fair was part of the whole Countryside Open Day at the local Common so there was lots going on all around us - a Birds of Prey display outside, Llamas and Bee-keeping demos too, I didn't manage to get any photos of them but it was a good atmosphere.

I expected to sell more than I did especially of my smaller things, which is always a bit discouraging, but I did get lots of positive comments and met some very nice people.
The upside of not selling much is that I can have a proper rest for a while and everything is nicely packed up all ready for the next stall in a couple of weeks. Now I'm going to have a cup of tea and a slightly earlier night!

Rhubarb Cake

2010-05-01T15:22:00.000-07:00

This is our vegetable patch. Yes I know it's not got any veg in it yet - I've never had much success direct sowing, so my seedlings are in the greenhouse in modules waiting to be planted later!

But as you can see, it has got a large bushy rhubarb in the corner, which we inherited with the house nearly fourteen years ago. When we moved there was just an enormous patch of earth plus the rhubarb, currant bushes and some raspberries which kept going till a couple of years ago and now need replacing. My OH put all the beds and paths in a while ago and although it was a lot of work it's made it much more managable. I don't have time to really devote to the veg as the rest of the garden takes so much time but I'm doing courgettes, brocolli and some salad leaves plus some flowers and beans if I get round to them too!
Anyway, here is my favourite thing to do with rhubarb, it is in fact my favourite cake of all time I think - I'm trying to diet at the moment so it was a stupid time to make it, but look how beautifully pink the rhubarb is,

I just couldn't help myself. It is called Rhubarb Cornmeal cake form Nigella's Domestic Goddess Book - here is a link (to someone else's blog, just to save me typing it out!) if anybody would like to try it. The polenta/cornmeal is such a lovely golden yellow colour

and helps to soak up some of the rhubarb juices so that the cake isn't too soggy!

Perfect for tea and cake in the garden on a sunny spring afternoon - haven't quite managed that yet, and this cake's nearly gone, I'll have to make another one...

Two Awards

2010-04-27T12:25:00.000-07:00

I have been really grateful to receive two awards recently, but have been so busy I have only just managed to post them!
The first one I got ages and ages ago, (sorry) from Old Kitty at Ten Lives and second chances.

And the second more recently:

from Alijane at Gingercat.

Both awards require quite a lot of thought from me to come up with 7 interesting/unknown things about me, I'm cheating slightly (as usual with me) by combining the seven things from both, as I'm sure I really can't think of fourteen. And I think I may have been supposed to do something else as well and possibly haven't done things quite properly but I'm so busy right now this is all I can manage! By now most of you realise I won't be actually passing anything on to specific people, but I do appreciate them both, thank you both of you very much.

So I leave you with seven random things, not sure how interesting they are! (they are a certainly long enough, I got a bit carried away once I'd started, for which I apologise.)

Perhaps the most interesting, although it's not about me really:

1) My mum is/was the first woman to read the news - she's not famous as it was only the regional news on a programme called Points West rather than nationally, which is why nobody really has ever heard of her. Here she is in 1957:

Now sadly the press cuttings from the time are buried somewhere in her hoarded papers and I can't wait to find them again one day, they contained some amazing letters from people, expressing opinions along the lines of - "how can we allow a woman to read the serious issues of the news - she just cannot give it the gravity it deserves" and "we don't want our husbands being distracted by looking at a woman" - I can't remember exactly but these were the kind of sentiments being voiced, really incredible and so interesting to see how things have changed.

Of course to me my mum is my mum, but she has had an absolutely fascinating life, involved in travelling theatre as an actress and even in 'A Town Like Alice'

She's the woman on the left. She only had one line, and died in the desert!
Anyway, that's my most interesting thing! Perhaps one day I'll share some more about her.

2) I grew up in a Sixteenth Century timber-framed cottage - reputedly the oldest house in the village. The walls were originally wattle and daub, with brickwork later, and I had holes in my bedroom wall that I remember plugging with pink toilet paper. My mum still lives there.

3) You wouldn't know it to see my DiY now but in my student days I wrestled our (I lived with a girl friend) dying twin-tub onto its side while it was half-full of water and somehow fixed it (I think prayer may have been involved in this process somehow - seriously!)

4) When I was seventeen I camped half way up a welsh mountain in gale force winds and rain, with other people from our youth group - we had gone on an activity week at an outdoor pursuits centre. It felt like one of the longest nights of my life. I don't camp any more.

5) One summer holiday when I was a student I got a holiday job in a cafe on the edge of Lake Winderemere in the Lake District. I hated the pressure, couldn't use the till and one day flooded the whole cafe with milk from the milk machine because I forgot to turn it off. Apparently everyone did it once. I decided to leave after a couple of weeks to make sure I wasn't the first one to do it twice.

6) I used to work full-time in a reprographics department with a massive photocopier, it seemed ten-feet long but was probably only six or seven. It did whole booklets at once, and with an attachment even folded and stapled them. Surprisingly very happy days, due to my lovely colleagues.

7) I was a terribly deceptive child - I used to hold the mercury thermometer over the heater while my mum went out of the room so it looked as if I had a temperature (got to be careful with this though to avoid making it too high). I coloured my thumb nail in with a pencil to make it look bruised so I could get out of a piano lesson (could only use this one once) and when I was fifteen I managed to get out of a whole half-term's swimming lessons by lying creatively, for a whole six weeks (I absolutely could not bear to be seen in a swimming costume). I can't believe I did all this now!

Well, that's quite a lot of information, not sure if anyone will have made it to the end!
Have a good week everyone.

Archie's Diary no. 5

2010-04-24T13:20:00.001-07:00

Hello again, I thought I would tell you my latest adventures.

I am, of course, growing much bigger and am very hungry all the time. I would mainly like to go out in the garden all the time and chase bees. I have a loud and very insistent meow now and I can use it really well, if I do it long enough by the back door and jump up and down to get at the handle someone usually takes me out.

I went up to the vegetable patch this week where my mum had just sown some seeds and dug them up a bit so I could wee in the earth. I love to stare at the bees and then pounce on them. My mum can't hold a camera and a harness very well while I'm pouncing but here I am staring:

I do like to suddenly charge off up the garden too in quite random directions. Usually I am following the bees, and they do keep changing where they are buzzing. The neighbours must think my mum is mad running after a kitten on a harness, especially as they don't like cats at all. I am scared of the neighbours and run inside when they come out. I have met the dogs next door on the other side too. They ran up to the hedge and barked a lot. I stood and looked at them for a few seconds and went bushy then ran back home. My mum feels she would like to keep me safe on my harness for a bit longer but my dad says I have to go out without it soon.

When I am in I have to find other things to hunt, but sometimes I make a bit of a mess.

My mum is training me to help her make felt by sitting and watching.

I can do this for a bit but then tend to creep up slowly to get closer and play with the net. I stole a finished felt pot of my mums this week and ran off with it, carried it around in my mouth and killed it.

She gave it to me in the end because she said I'd wrecked it. I also ran off with a needlecase but she managed to save that. She's not ever really cross with me though because I am a very sweet kitten and still like lots of snuggly cuddles.

Felt Roses and a cat thief

2010-04-21T08:06:00.000-07:00

There has been a lot of felt-making going on here recently, but very little completely finished yet. Here are my strips of felt ready to be made into rose brooches, I thought the colours just looked lovely together. I had another sackful of wool tops arrive last week and spent a very happy morning putting new colours together - I think it's my favourite part of the whole process and not nearly such hard work as the actual felting!
I've finished just a few brooches so far.

Archie has developed a real desire to hunt down felt items he can carry in his mouth and charge around with. He's quite determined about the whole operation. He's broken into two boxes now where I've been storing small felt things and has been doing it very secretly while we're in another room, but last night OH found him in the process of happily stealing one of the roses and managed to rescue it.

I've done a few more bags, they just need straps. I did finish one for a friend's birthday yesterday:

it's turned out a bit different from what she asked for, she wanted one with an asymmetric flap bit, like one I did ages and ages ago that she bought for one of her friends, but the way the band of colour migrated during felting meant the flap had to be symmetrical or it just would have looked odd. Luckily she still liked it. The colours are very vibrant blues and greens in the coloured band but try as I might I can't get good reproduction in a photo.

I've been busy bidding for more vintage china on e-bay and will post photos when it comes. It's a very addictive habit though, and I must stop soon!

Proper tea in the garden

2010-04-17T14:44:00.001-07:00

I have to start by saying this is not how I live my life! I think it's the first and only time ever that I have bothered to make such an effort with a drink, I tend to whizz as quickly as possible from one thing to the next and find it difficult not to be doing something all the time, and the thought of sitting still and doing nothing makes me feel strange and fidgety. And I never bother to set the table for a cup of tea like this when it's just me, or two of us.

But then if I don't make an effort to have space in my day to stop, think and appreciate what I have got then my day is emptier, it just becomes a list of chores to get through.
So I am going to try and do this more often. It was such a beautiful afternoon and we'd had a busy day so it was lovely to stop and pick some flowers from the garden. Can you spot who suddenly came to join me, just for a fleeting moment:

Must love wallflowers as much as I do! The beautiful deep, velvety red is one of my favourites.

The china cup, saucer and milk jug are my latest e-bay purchases.

I have been wanting some proper tea cups for a while but it took me a while to find some I liked - these are apparently from the 50s and are made by Colclough, which I'd never heard of- very pale green and very pretty, and I'm not sure what's come over me really because I'm not a flowery or pretty china person at all. I bought some more today, on e-bay again, and they've got flowers on, so I must be having some kind of a personality change. Once I'd put my tablecloth on the table and laid everything out it felt like being in a cafe for tea!

The garden is at its best right now, it never quite regains this level of promise and colour again.

It's a long thin garden with a veg patch at the end and it gets progressively messier and weedier the further you get from the house. I'm busy sowing some summer-flowering annuals but it really is best in the spring and it was lovely to come down this morning to see the sun shining through the leaves and tulips.

An Archie Update

2010-04-11T11:39:00.000-07:00

Here is Archie's latest present. I have to admit here to being completely extravagant about this - but we had a very cheap one before for a long time- in fact the top half of one set and the bottom of another which didn't match - and I've wanted proper 'cat furniture' as it's called for years - something with plenty of claw-sharpening space which didn't clash too terribly with our room (I nearly got one two weeks ago but OH rejected it on the grounds that it had giant plush blue paw-prints all over it).

So here are some blurry 'action' shots to show how much Archie loves it!:

He can leap all over it and run up the posts very well.

His favourite thing is to try and catch the mouse and then take it away,

but of course as soon as he gets it down to ground level it just springs back up, and he has to start all over again.

The mouse was having a bit of an identity crisis when it came because it had a tail and some bright feathers - but now it is just a flying mouse and doesn't have this problem any more - can you see the tail on the floor at the bottom right of the photos?!

He is growing really fast and eating loads, also sleeping loads!

We took him back to the vets as he still has some inflammation following his vaccines, but she said she was sure it was nothing to worry about at this stage and had just been on a training course about exactly this sort of a reaction, so she said she would keep a really close eye on him. He didn't bite anybody this time!

He has been out for his first few trips into the garden, he doesn't mind the harness at all and quite likes playing with it as we try to put it on and take it off.

The garden is an interesting but scary place - he crouches low as he walks, until he sees a bee to chase, then he jumps and runs after it! The neighbours are very scary - one does lots of hoovering (obviously not in the garden, but the door is often open) and the other has two very loud barking dogs, so we go out at quiet times for the moment.

Climbing on my shoulder gives a good view of things:

(My head is in my hands as I'm trying to sort out a website thing!)

When he's worn himself out properly he comes and sleeps on my bags of wool while I'm felting next to him. He is getting beautifully black and shiny!

Happy Easter! And a wet holiday

2010-04-03T08:09:00.000-07:00

We have just got back from a lovely but very wet break in Derbyshire. It's good to be home and I missed Archie SO much, the woman who ran the cattery said I couldn't have him back because she wanted to keep him! Although she did say he'd escaped a couple of times and run up the corridor, and had been climbing up her legs. He's come back a bit bigger with a slightly deeper meow, and he's been helping with unpacking:

before curling up on my lap purring where he belongs!

We got back to these lovely spring flowers in the garden,

I love the blue Pulmonaria as it's a true blue and contrasts so well with the greens and other colours.

And these tiny stripy tulips are outside my kitchen window looking very bright and cheerful unlike the weather.

It was good to be away in such a comfortable place - we stayed in this cottage:

at Bolehill Farm. It was so warm and cosy with a small woodburning stove and so clean with heating and lots of equipment all included - (I've never been able to blend soup at a holiday cottage before!) They seem to have gone to a lot of trouble to go the extra mile for people, so I can highly recommend the place if you like Derbyshire.

We only managed one cycle ride and a lovely walk along part of Lathkill Dale in the sun:

before it snowed! The rest of the time we explored local towns and their coffee and tea shops!
So it's been a good break but it will take me a while to catch up with everyone and find out what you've been up to!

Happy Easter to you all.

Approaching Easter

2010-03-26T12:39:00.001-07:00

The sun was out this morning and it was so lovely to see it illuminating some green shoots in the garden. And the kitchen looked like Spring had finally arrived as I had put out my Easter decorations earlier in the week.

I put out far less than usual because of Archie! He's already broken a couple of (real, painted by me!) eggs and run off with a chicken,

and as for my string of tulips we didn't even get to the hanging stage.

I hang the decorations on twigs from the garden that I painted white a long time ago. Cats have snapped bits off during the years but there are still just about enough to hold the eggs and chickens. I love the feathery fluffy chickens:

but OH hates them with a passion!

In honour of Rocky-Doodle-Doo at felters journey here are my silly cockerels!

Archie likes to play with them too.

A friend took me shopping last week and I finally found what I have been looking for (in John Lewis): a dotty jug to exactly match the kitchen - now I've found it I will ask for more as presents in different sizes because the colour is just perfect.

I've always wanted a life that involves a proper milk jug too, but that means I have to slow down enough to pour the milk into the jug and bother to put it on the table (and the table usually has felt all over it, not breakfast!)

It's been a very busy week and OH has a new job which involved a very tiring day of interviews yesterday, so tonight I have lit my candles and am having a glass of wine to celebrate making it to Friday!

Have a good weekend everybody!

Archie's New Toy

2010-03-21T08:11:00.001-07:00

I've found this lovely new toy in the kitchen. I had to climb up my mum's legs to find it but once I got there it was great.
Splashy stuff comes out, I do like playing with it and don't mind even when my ears get wet.

A flowery day

2010-03-19T15:50:00.000-07:00

Actually a few flowery days rather than just one, spent making these. I spent a long time putting different colours next to each other to see what contrasted and blended and really enjoyed making them as they're all different. I've got more lined up to do tomorrow if I get the chance too. Archie does tend to try and run off with them so they have to be guarded carefully as they're drying!

Remembering Newton

2010-03-16T14:00:00.001-07:00

Now it's getting a bit warmer I've been going out into the garden more and hanging the washing on the line - and that takes me right next to the place where we buried Newton.

I had such a terrible dilemma about what to do with him - cremation is now a very plausible option for a beloved pet, and we have an excellent crematorium nearby which came highly recommended by a friend. Of course the decision is an immensely personal one, and I think if there had just been me to consider I would have taken this option, because I didn't want to leave Newton behind if and when we ever move house and I felt I needed more time with him close by. But son no. 2 was particularly distressed at the thought of cremation, and we do have two of our other cats buried here. So as we were running out of time we took the decision to bury Newton too.
This we had to do in the dark and in the snow late one evening the week he died, as it needed to be a private family event and we had my in-laws coming to stay the next day. In fact the stillness of the evening and the blanket of snow made it perhaps a more special time. He is buried in his favourite outdoor place - he used to curl up and sleep there in the summer, flattening the long grass into a perfect circle in our wild-flower patch.

I had his name inscribed on a large pebble,

and this I found really helpful as it can stay on his grave for as long as we are here, but if we do move I can take the pebble with me as a memorial for him in our new home. I'm hoping to get similar ones inscribed for our previous cats too so we can do the same with theirs. It came from a place called Letterfest which I'd found a while ago, they found me a larger pebble specially.

This week I moved some of my snowdrops and crocuses to just around the pebble - the lovely clear bright white and purple catches the light, I can see them from the kitchen even though it's a long garden, and they'll come up every year. I'll try to find some other bulbs to plant too, perhaps something that flowers in the summer and autumn too. They'd need to be taller to be seen in the longer grass and be able to cope with being a bit dry - if any of you have any ideas of what might be suitable I'd be grateful to hear them!

A very busy week

2010-03-14T12:56:00.000-07:00

I know everyone's (quite rightly) posting photos of snowdrops and other spring flowers at the moment, so here are mine. I made the pot years ago at a pottery class I used to go to. It was good just to go into the garden and bring some loveliness back into the house! I was trying to test out my new camera - you know the really posh photos have the background all out-of-focus in a special way - there's even a name for it which I forget. I'm only having success using my super-macro lens and my smallest aperture number, which works for some things.

In fact this particular photo I think isn't mine at all and was probably taken by my friend Tammy at Confessions of an Artist as we were having coffee at the time and she's very good at photography and was helping me!

Anyway, I must confess to being just a bit low this week - I think my hormones may be ganging up on me! The time has definitely come for some healthier eating and more exercise - both very basic things that can make a huge difference to how I feel. I've been very busily making things and filling every minute with tasks of some description - I think that's the problem really - the days pass quickly but sometimes you can feel you've missed something you should have stopped to notice!
I have had a rest today though, and a lovely lunch cooked for me by OH and the boys - salmon en-croute with a watercress sauce inside (very green but even son no. 2 liked it, and he doesn't usually do green!), and lemon souffle pudding - so I hope now I'll feel more ready for the week ahead when I wake up tomorrow!

I've started getting ready for craft fairs coming up later in the spring - I've done a lot of these needle-cases:

which have been popular in the past, just some more pincushions to do this week, then I'll get onto some new flowers and bags.

I've got a few other things to show you:

These are the beautiful cards I bought a little while ago from Sisters Crafty Creations shop - I have a couple of friends who like the colour lilac and these will be perfect for their birthdays coming up - I love the silver embroidery and like all the things in the shop they are real works of art. Wipso was the first person to leave a comment on my blog and it's been lovely getting to know her in blog-land. She and her sister Twiglet always amaze me with their productivity!

And I have very kindly been given this sunshine award by Juliet,

so a big thank you to her. She has very recently lost her dog and of course my heart went out to her having so recently lost Newton myself. As you know by now I'm afraid I break the proper rules of awards and don't pass them on officially, but again will take the opportunity to say thank you to all of you for your friendship.

And onwards we go into another week - I do hope you all have a good one.

Archie's Diary no.4

2010-03-07T08:47:00.001-08:00

It's been a few weeks since I told you how I was getting on - there's so much happening and I've been doing LOTS of growing.

This is my squeaky mouse - he came from my first home, my mum doesn't like him as he is meant to sound like a real mouse. Dying presumably. I love him.

I'm still very sweet but also have wild times when I charge around the house very fast and hop sideways all bushy with a big puffed-up tail - my mum says I look very silly. It's not polite when people laugh at you.

As you know, my mum was a bit worried about the lump I had on my side, so a while ago now I had to go and see the vet to ask her what she thought. She was the one who stuck a needle in me last time, so I wasn't sure I wanted to see her again. She said she thinks I am swollen up when she put the needle last time, and hopes that the swelling will soon go down as she thinks my body is reacting to my vaccinations. My mum felt mainly better about this, but hopes this will not make me react badly in the future.

I had to have the second half of my vaccinations, and as soon as the vet tried to hold me I ran away, so she had to get another lady to help. When the vet gave me my injection I bit the other lady, but afterwards she and I had a nice cuddle, and then I had a nice cuddle with the vet. She was the same vet lady who looked after Newton (and drove him 20 miles to the heart specialist on her day off) and she said to my mum and dad how lovely he was, and how he was so good-natured during all his treatment.

I am not going to be good natured during any treatment at the vets, I have already decided.

I'm grown-up enough to assist with making the coffee now, here you can see I'm supervising to make sure it's all done properly.

I am also helping with the cooking by climbing up onto my mum's shoulder, wobbling about precariously and peering a bit over the cooker to see what's in the pans. I'm very keen on climbing and can haul myself up on the cooker to get on the work-surface - my mum says I will get my paws burnt this way and must find another way up.

I think people make great ladders, but my mum and dad don't agree.

I've found some great things on the work-surface - here's a nice plant with traily bits:

Whoops, I may have broken it just a little bit:

I've also broken into the forbidden kitchen cupboard under the sink:

I got right down the gap at the back, but then I got out by myself.

My dad has a magnetic catch to fix on it now as I'd like to go in the gap again, every day, and scrabble at the cupboard a lot trying to get in.

I still sleep with my mum and dad and behave very well, but when I wake up I'm SO excited to see everybody that I still charge around pouncing on noses - I can build up quite a speed and charge very fast straight for them - my dad isn't very happy about this and grumbles a bit. My mum just hides her face under the quilt. I get in the bed then and pounce on my tail - then someone gets up and gives me breakfast.

I do love to help my mum get dressed in the mornings - she can't manage properly by herself. Tights, jumper sleeves, skirts, trouser legs, underwear - you name it I can grab hold of it and try and run away with it. She says it's getting a little bit frustrating every morning to have to unhook my claws from everything as she puts it on.

Time to go and do more climbing. See you soon.

A photo shoot

2010-03-05T07:17:00.000-08:00

A while ago I had an e-mail asking if I'd like to sign up to try and sell some of my things through a new website - it's launched today and is called WowThankYou (there's a link on the right at the side of the blog if you want to have a look.)
The idea is that it's the place to go if you'd like to buy a hand-made gift for someone. As it was a completely new site there was nothing to see while signing-up which made it hard to judge whether it would suit the kind of things I make, but since I've not yet attempted anything other than my own website I thought I'd try this one, although looking at it today I can't believe anyone will ever find any of my products at all, there are so very many on there. They've also taken mine out of most of the categories I'd put them in - I think they're in an "other" section so I'm not very hopeful! But you never know, there's always a small chance, and in the words of Tesco 'Every little helps'.

So last weekend I spent a LONG time trying to take photos that showed my tea cosies in a nice and hopefully attractive setting.

Of course, we never, never have tea like this, because it requires a tablecloth and some ironing (I don't really iron - I smooth clothes out hopefully on a radiator, which sadly doesn't work for everything). Usually I take a Simpsons mug of tea up to son no. 1 in his dreadfully messy room where he is surgically attached to his computer, and the rest of us wander round with mugs - but I love the idea of this kind of a tea, it is how I'd like my life to look, and I have to say after doing the photos I plan to try and make it a reality occasionally from now on.

I wanted to set up a small table in the sunshine in the garden, but the weather was awful so I had to stay inside. I bought tulips specially in the market for a pound a bunch, and went to the charity shop to find a proper tea-cup and saucer, and plate (70p for the lot!). I made a victoria sponge cake and asked my mum if she had any silver teaspoons (she's got everything in that house). I sent son no. 2 down the road to buy a croissant for an 'Easter breakfast' (he got to eat it when we'd finished), bought some Easter eggs and got my Easter chickens out, which I thought made everything look suitably Easter-y:

though when I looked on the Easter section today they weren't there which is a shame. You might recognise the actual tea cosies as they're both ones that Archie has been helping with!

Even though it was a LOT of work I really quite enjoyed it, and it's made me want to update all the pictures on my own site and re-design it - I think this will take so many hours I probably won't manage, but I'll try. All I did when I started and before I had a better camera was to put everything on the kitchen table, and nothing looks interesting flat on a table, felt has such a beautiful texture it deserves something better!

Even though I'm not sure about the new website suiting me, nothing's ever wasted - this has made me think yet again about how to display things better, and perhaps has taken me a step closer to trying something like Etsy. At the very least I got a tidied-up kitchen and some pretty flowers which are still on the window-sill, and we all had lots of cake!!

A bit dotty

2010-02-27T14:41:00.000-08:00

I'm fed up with all the dreary weather and I'm ready for some pretty colours - so here are my latest ones. A long process making the dots but I do find them and the pastel shades cheerful and am making lots of different dotty things.

To go with cheerful dots are cheerful daisies too, on a nice spring green background.

I'm all set for tea in the garden - how many weeks do you reckon we'll have to wait for that? I've got my little round table out on the lawn ready - (how dotty is that?! Good to be optimistic though.)

It's been a busy week of trying to felt here - as you know Archie is a tremendous help to me and greatly enhances the whole experience. He does truly love sewing too and likes chewing all types of thread. A couple of afternoons I've just given up trying to do anything creative and have played with Archie and waited for my boys to come home instead- as soon as the first one has walked through the door I've just presented them with a kitten and run off back to the kitchen to try and get on!

Procedure for felting with the assistance of a kitten, using a resist.

2010-02-22T10:36:00.000-08:00

Begin this procedure by putting kitten in his bed for a sleep:

Now follow the numbered steps below:

1. Separate wool tops into pieces for each layer.

2. Tease out wool fibres and begin to lay out in very fine tufts over the resist.

3. Retrieve other pieces of wool tops that kitten has grabbed and run away with into the next room to chew and play with.

4. Continue laying out fine tufts of fibres.

5. Peel off last few tufts of fibres kitten has run through and disturbed, straighten, then re-lay.

6. Put kitten on floor.

7. Remove residue of fluffy wool fibres from kitten's mouth.

8. When first side of template is complete, cover with net and sprinkle with water to wet down the fibres.

9. Remove kitten from the spare piece of net he is playing in.

10. Put kitten on floor.

11. Put kettle on for cup of tea.

12. Remove kitten with wet paws from puddles of splashy water on the surface of the felt.

13. Hold kitten in air while he shakes the water off his paws.

14. Put kitten on floor.

15. Turn template over, carefully fold over overlapping fibres from other side, and commence laying out fibres on second side.

16. Repeat steps 2-7.

17. Make cup of tea and stroke kitten.

18. Put kitten in next room and shut door.

19. Turn template over to first side again.

20. Peacefully for 30 seconds commence laying out fibres for second layer.

21. After 30 seconds shut ears to pitiful wailing emerging from next room.

22. Continue laying out until pitiful wailing turns to kitten-yowling. This is much, much quieter than cat-yowling but more distressing and harder to ignore.

23. Let kitten in.

24. Kitten will be extraordinarily delighted to see you after what has amounted to about two and a half minutes of separation, and will begin purring ecstatically, looking adoringly at you and saying silently 'Please never leave me alone like that ever, ever again, I am the sweetest most adorable kitten in the world, I love you and I will be good.'

25. Stroke kitten.

26. Talk to kitten sternly about the importance of being able to continue working.

27. Put kitten in his bed.

28. Continue laying out fibres on both sides of the template until there are three layers on each side and felt and kitten are wet.

29. For the felting stage cover with net and sprinkle soap flakes on felt then add hot water. Rub the felt gently to keep all the layers in place. At this stage the kitten will join in trying to rub the felt, but won't be gentle and may use claws.

30. Put kitten on floor. Brush off surplus soap flakes from kitten's head.

31. Kitten will by now have worked out that the fastest way to access the felting table is not by a series of chair-hopping manoeuvres, but straight up your legs.

32. Put kitten in next room, shut door and work extremely quickly, getting the felt ready to be rolled before giving-in to pathetic meowing.

33. Give in to pathetic meowing and let kitten in, kitten will again be delighted to see you and will need a cuddle.

34. Explain to kitten you will be rolling the felt and he should watch. Put kitten on floor.

35. Commence rolling.

36. Disentangle kitten's teeth from edge of bamboo blind.

37. Put kitten on floor.

38. Commence re-rolling, alternating directions.

39. Remove kitten's front paws from bamboo blind.

40. Put kitten on floor.

41. Make more tea.

42. Check watch to see when it is time for glass of wine too.

43. If too early for wine, try chocolate.

44. Remove kitten who will be sitting on felt while you have made tea/poured wine/eaten chocolate.

45. Put kitten on floor.

46. Continue rolling the felt until piece has hardened to the correct degree, alternating steps 35 through 45 as necessary.

47. Rinse felt and leave shaped to dry.

Kitten will now be looking tired, and will curl up in his bed and sleep for the next three hours, which is by coincidence precisely the amount of time you have spent trying to felt.

But he will be ready to play the whole game again tomorrow.

Baking on a snowy evening!

2010-02-18T11:42:00.000-08:00

It's been snowing here today - just as we thought it was changing to warmer weather, and we can't believe how white it has been again!

Time for some baking!
I had been meaning to try these delicious-looking torcetti piemontesi that Annalisa shared a few days ago on her lovely cooking blog. We have a bread-maker so I'm afraid I cheated (sorry!) by putting the ingredients in there on the dough cycle - not the proper way I know, but I didn't have the time to mix by hand. I used strong plain flour and added 150 ml of warm water, which was ever so slightly too much, so I had to add a few shakes of flour to the pan of the machine after it had started mixing just to make it not too sticky - I turned round after doing this to find a very surprised looking kitten sitting up with floury sprinkles all over the top of his little head - the bag of flour had a hole in the side and as I carried it through the room he'd got a dusting while he was napping on the chair! My OH said he'll have to get used to it as I'm a very messy cook!

I shaped the dough (though not as carefully as I should as I was so busy) and rolled in sugar as Annalisa said, and baked! It was quite a long time after our dinner when they were ready and we ate loads - lovely while still warm. In fact as I type this I think son no.1 has just come downstairs to get the last couple!

Annalisa has also very kindly given me these blog awards:

Even though she is far away she has become, like so many of you, a good friend, so thank you again!

I'm not going to pass these on to anyone particularly, but will again say how much I value your friendships, all of you!

Blue Sky and an Archie update

2010-02-16T12:29:00.001-08:00

It was a lovely sunny and, dare I say it, even warm morning this morning, so OH and I managed to get out by ourselves for an extremely muddy walk - but what a beautiful blue sky, I can't remember last time I noticed or saw one! It was so good to be outside and not be freezing cold!

We treated ourselves to a mocha and cake when we'd finished:

and sat outside in the courtyard of the cafe - to go with the blue sky was some vibrant green moss and the bright colours made me feel a bit more hopeful that spring is on its way.

Thanks all of you for your good wishes about Archie - it was his trip to the vet today - she thinks the lump he has is probably a reaction to the innoculations he had three weeks ago, which has set my mind at rest a bit, we've just got to keep an eye on him and see if it goes away in the next month, which it should.

Here he is hating the sound of the hoover:

He wants to play with our noses (and OH's beard too) as soon as he wakes up now, and gets so very excited to see us that he doesn't always remember to keep his claws in as he did before, so I think his days sleeping peacefully and purrily between us may be numbered - OH is running out of patience and needs his lie-ins during his week off!

A bit of Sunshine

2010-02-14T14:09:00.000-08:00

Lyn at everyday life has brightened my day by sending me this sunshine award, just looking at the colours makes me smile as I said to her, especially at such a grey time of year, and I'm still feeling a bit low in all the greyness as I'm sure some of you are too.

Now I'm aware that blog awards, instead of bringing nothing but happiness, can cause some negative feelings in some people, I know a couple of you out there have experienced this recently. I will always be pleased to receive one and genuinely thankful, but also usually prefer not to pass them on to others specifically (I'm making a slight exception this time).

Please can I tell all of you who I've got to know through your comments and blogs that I very much value your friendship, and you really do all make me smile, I'm not just saying that - my sons see me smiling at my computer as I'm reading your posts and comments on my posts, and just say in an exasperated way 'Are you blogging again Mum??!'

So I would like to offer this bit of sunshine to any of you who would like it - please accept it to pass on as you wish. I would particularly like to offer it to my good friend Tammy at Confessions of an Artist because as you will see if you pop over to her last post, she's not having a very creatively-successful time despite much effort, and particularly needs a bit of brightness in her life, although not of the salmon-pink variety (you'll see what I mean on this post!)

But please all of you do feel included - it's a lovely cheerful picture to have on your blog!

Archie's Diary no.3

2010-02-13T13:30:00.000-08:00

It's been another busy week of discoveries and growing.

I found this big noisy white box in the messiest room in the house - it has a round window in it and sometimes the picture inside swirls around:

I thought I should investigate more but it wasn't very easy to get inside:

I helped my mum with some felt - I walked on it and had to keep shaking my paws a lot as it was all wet, you'd have thought this would have made me get off, but it didn't:

She had to move me in the end so I sat on her shoulder for a while but she said it was still too difficult to get anything done while I was there especially when I tried to climb onto the top of her head, so I went to sleep on my nice warm towel bed she made for me on the radiator next to the table where she works:

The next day I helped with some drawing, I like to bat the pen around till it falls on the floor and then chase it:

I still love cuddles:

My dad says I look very silly upside-down.

I can climb higher - I like scrambling about on the basket full of felt bits - you can just see the tiny, tiny patch of white fur I have at the top of my chest, and look at all my beautiful sharp claws which are so useful for climbing up people's legs with:

I found some lovely string next to the front window:

I tried to carry it to a better place but it was stuck to the material at the window. I do like to carry things around - I bought my mum's nail-file all the way down the stairs to play with in the kitchen yesterday.

My mum is worried about me because I have a small lump on my side - I have to be checked out at the vets this week, my mum is finding it hard because she's just lost an ill cat and wants me to be perfectly well, and I am still so little. I feel fine and the lump doesn't hurt me, so we hope it's nothing serious, then perhaps my mum will finally relax a bit, it's about time she did.

Since I agreed to stop playing with her hair in the middle of the night she has let me sleep in her bed again, I'm very good and curl up on her shoulder all night. I wake up when it's light, which she says is fine in the winter but I'm not allowed to start skipping about in the summer at five in the morning, I've no idea why not, sunrise seems like the perfect time to start playing with my tail.

A Red Heart

2010-02-07T09:36:00.000-08:00

I've been doing a spot of blog-hopping, as you do, and saw that Lyn at everyday life had been making button hearts and linking to this post here by LissyLou. To raise money for the British Heart Foundation LissyLou is having a craft stall on 26th February and was looking for donated items in a red or heart theme she could sell to raise funds. Well I'd been meaning to try out a lavender bag in red, so this was the perfect time to actually get round to making one, so off it will go in the post tomorrow.

Not much else happening here, rather a sleepy Sunday, especially for Archie, although he has been doing rather a lot of bouncing between naps.

Archie's Diary no. 2

2010-02-06T08:36:00.000-08:00

Well it's time for me to say hello again.

This week I have been mainly helping.
Here I am helping to tie shoelaces:

And here I am ready to help with baking:

It's also been a busy week of skipping about sideways and trying to climb up people's legs.
I'm growing bigger and can get onto the table now to help my mum with making felt. She didn't seem very pleased about this especially when I sat on it all.

My mum thought I might like to sleep in her room. I did. I slept curled right up tight under her chin all night, I only didn't sleep for a bit around four in the morning when I thought it might be time for purring and playing with my mum's hair. It's funny because I had such a lovely time but the next night she said I needed to sleep in my own bed in the kitchen again.

I have been busy improving the home decor. I do not understand the human obsession with displaying plants vertically, surely this horizontal arrangement looks much better don't you think?

Here I am hiding in my favourite place in the cupboard in the tiny gap at the back of the cable-box (note the dust) - it's lovely and warm and nobody can get me out till I'm ready.

It's all ever so tiring being a kitten. Me and my mouse are worn out now.

Another felt flower

2010-02-05T11:51:00.000-08:00

Well the last week seems to have flown past, how can a small kitten take up so much time? (Boys off school ill too, although at least they could kitten-sit while I went to work for a while).

I had this Sarah Raven catalogue lying on the table and really liked the colour of the lily on the front - so used it as my starting point for my latest flower (mine isn't a lily because it only has five petals). Much finer stamens this time which I prefer - still a bit experimental but nearly there with a process - I like the way it will all felt together without having to sew it, though it does take a long time, especially with Archie trying to help by playing with the blind as I rolled!

Archie's Diary - with apologies to non-cat-people

2010-01-31T11:07:00.000-08:00

Hello again, just to let you know what I've been up to this week.

I'm happy in my house but don't have much sense. I hurt my arm dashing around hauling myself up on things and had to have a day resting. The sofas have all had to be covered up with old sheets to stop me scrabbling and scratching them as I do love to climb.

I've met another small black kitten who lives in the cooker and looks just like me. The first time I met him I went all bushy and ran away sideways, but now I try and play with him.

I'm ever so clever with my mum's laptop, I do like sitting on it when she's not looking and while she was cooking I managed to sit on the function keys and printed out 14 pages of html code for her blog - without anybody knowing until they went to look at the printer. My mum didn't even know how to do this.

I like to be cuddled ALL day, except when I'm playing or climbing on the keyboard. I'm in the process of adding a decorative border of perforations along the edge of the music books, it may take me a while.

My mum is very odd. I keep looking into her eyes and stroking her face with a gentle paw, but instead of making her happy she just seems to get all over-protective and worry about me even more, because she says I'm SO nice and gentle and affectionate. Some people are never satisfied - personally I think she's really lost her marbles, but she says it's because she's only really just lost Newton and the thought of losing me comes into her head and she needs a bit of time and a bit more sunshine (and less hormones whatever they are) to get a proper perspective back. My dad thinks she's lost a few marbles too.

A little bit of felting

2010-01-29T12:41:00.000-08:00

In between the times spent cuddling a kitten, I have been managing to make a few bits of felt. I'd planned to spend January trying to finish working on my own way to make larger flowers. I'd made one as a corsage in the autumn and several people had asked if they could have one, but I was never fully happy with it, it always takes me a few goes plus tweaks here and there, and I ran out of time to experiment. I made this one earlier in the week, a bit smaller than my original. I anchored the stamens in a different way, next time I'll make them a bit finer but I'm nearly happy with the design. So I'm looking forward to being able to have a proper play with colour combinations soon, I've got lots of different silk fibres to try.

I also managed a small bowl, usually I've done these in much more vivid colours but I'd got some brown Rowan wool in the sale and thought I'd go for much more muted tones. I wasn't quite expecting the design to disappear as much as it did though - it's really blended in, but there's always a place for subtlety! One of the magical things about felt is the slight (or sometimes great if you're experimenting) unpredictability of the final blending of the fibres.

You can see the brown fibres being folded over onto the inner layer of un-dyed ones:and the spiral design on the outer layer before it all blended together! Some feltmakers do this whole process the other way round, laying the decoration next to the template and making the first layers what will be the outside and the final layers what will be the inside, and turning the whole thing inside-out at the end.

These two pics were taken in daylight and the finished one in artificial light - despite white-balancing I still haven't worked out how to get the colours to look exactly the same!

Blog award

2010-01-27T09:00:00.000-08:00

Annalisa, who has a really interesting cooking blog here, has been kind enough to give me my first blog award. Here it is, and I'm about to try and put it at the side somewhere too! So thank you! I do enjoy cooking but often run out of time to try new recipes, I do like looking though and it's great to see recipes from another country.

I'm still learning about blogging and awards, some things are still a bit of a mystery!
This one comes with some things that you do - mainly making a list of ten things that make you happy. This I can do!
I've deliberately chosen things that make me happy, rather than things that give me a lasting contentment, as I think these are often different things. I am for the most part truly content with the life that I have and very thankful to be in the situation that I'm in, I know I'm very fortunate.

But happy things that lift my spirits, in no particular order:

1 Walking though woods on a sunny late spring day, with bluebells.
2 Finishing decorating the house for Christmas (about the only time it's all tidy at one time.)
3 A purring cat or kitten wanting a cuddle (Archie has today started purring.)
4 Taking a walk with one of my boys so that we can have a proper talk.
5 Family holidays in Swanage - we love it there and there's a beautiful quiet beach nearby.
6 Spending time with a good friend and really finding out how they are.
7 Designing and laying out a piece of felt (the actual felting can be hard work!)
8 Escaping with my husband to London on our own (only managed this a couple of times.)
9 Finding little tiny seedlings on examining seed trays.
10 The atmosphere at the beginning of each new season.

Once you start thinking about it there are lots of things.

Now I know I'm then supposed to pass the award onto 10 other people. This is where I'm going to break the rules slightly, for which I apologise to anyone who likes to see rules followed exactly. Awards are supposed to be nice things, but I know not everybody likes them and I'd hate to make people feel awkward. So I'd like to say I enjoy catching up on all my follower's blogs and have enjoyed getting to know those of you kind enough to form a friendship with me, so I'm going to offer the award to any of you who'd like it, but no pressure to accept or do anything with it, I hope that suits everyone. If you want to see how it's all done properly pop back to Annalisa's blog and you'll see!

Now I'm off to cook dinner (not nearly as interesting as Annalisa's recipes - just baked potatoes!)

A lovely gift

2010-01-26T08:56:00.000-08:00

I must show you the beautiful gift Lyn has sent to me, which arrived today with a cat card too:

She is such a talented artist as you will see if you pop over to her 'art' blog, and has done this picture of Newton specially for me, this was a complete surprise gift, I had no idea she would be sending something so personal and special. It really does capture his character, not always easy when working from a photo, and will be a treasured memory of him and of her friendship, so thank you Lyn so much, I know I've already e-mailed you but am saying it publicly as well!

Following Newton's death I have been so grateful for the support of friends, and being so new to blogging I've been so touched by the messages I've had from those of you I've never actually met, some of you are a very long way away geographically but it has felt like you're just around the corner! My good friend Tammy really is round the corner, and has been fantastic too. We continually try and encourage each other in keeping on being creative and I'd be lost without our weekly (if we can manage it) coffee-and-inspiration meetings! She's another very talented painter as you can see from her website.

I have another thank you too, to my friend Annalisa who has given me my first blog award! I'll be posting properly on this when I've worked out how to do it!

Archie is getting on well and is becoming more confident by the day, he had his first innoculations today which he hated! He's managed to get into a few cupboards and being so small and black we lost him in the big kitchen one. He is trying to wash me as I type and has a damp leg as he's run right through his water bowl!

Archie

2010-01-24T12:41:00.000-08:00

Hello, I have a name now, I am Archie.

I am settling really well.
Here is my favourite toy:

Today I have been mainly sleeping.

Yesterday I was mainly playing and running under cupboards.
I would like to get inside the cupboards.

I have funny pinky-brown toes:

Now I am having my mad half-hour and dashing from one end of the room to the other, and chasing my tail. See you again soon.

Trouble arrives.

2010-01-23T08:43:00.000-08:00

Let me introduce you to the smallest and newest member of our family. We're still testing out names that fit him, so I'll have to let you know later what he is going to be called.

Part of me never wanted another cat again because I loved Newton SO much, each relationship we have with our pets is special because they are all so different, and I will always miss him very much. But the house was so very empty and we couldn't imagine being without a cat to love, so this week we began looking. My husband and I were both hoping for a little black boy, and I saw an advert for him and his siblings yesterday morning. After a long day waiting to get in touch with his owners we sped over last night to find he was the last one left of his litter - he had a black and white sister, tabby sister and brother, all playing madly together, and about to be collected by other people. I'd have definitely taken the whole lot of them if I could! We felt that he'd been very well looked after, they'd taken him to the vet to be checked over as well, which not everybody does.

He is nearly 9 weeks old, quite fluffy and not quite black - he has quite a brown head and faint tabby stripes in the daylight.

He is desperate to play all the time until he is too tired, and likes playing with the blind-cords best of all. He keeps forgetting that we are not really scary and runs away to hide under the cupboards often, before coming out for more games. He will sit on our laps for a cuddle only when he's run out of energy for anything else. As I type he has fallen asleep while under the cupboard, with son no.2 asleep on the floor next to him.

Oh, and he likes to climb, he's going to be BIG trouble. He's eyeing up routes to the top of everything.

So here we are, a new phase in our life beginning - at the moment he is still a stranger to us and us to him and it will be lovely getting to know him. As I knew it would, having a new life in the house has made me miss Newton even more because of the depth of the relationship that we had with him, but I'm sure in time we will build a unique relationship with this little one as well.

So I'll keep you informed of all his various new antics and hope you enjoy sharing our experience of him growing up!

Finished Notebook

2010-01-21T07:07:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update on yesterday's post.
There are many ways people make notebooks, I use the whole piece of flat felt, trimmed to size, as a soft and flexible cover, and hand-cut pages from nice textured paper, then just bind with posh ribbon!

The pages can be replaced just by undoing the ribbon and re-threading it again with new ones. I always do the lining in a different contrasting colour.

They're nice to hold and I carry one of my oldest with me to make 'creative notes' or sometimes just shopping lists in!
As I commented earlier my friend uses a completely different technique to make a re-usable cover to fit hardbacked books you buy from stationery shops - she uses a template and resist to form flaps to tuck the cover into, something I've just never got around to trying. Sometimes best to stick with what you know and just admire other people's work!

Finally some bright and cheerful felt

2010-01-20T15:15:00.000-08:00

I have been pretty low recently and it's taken me a long time to get out my wool, but today I had nearly a whole day at home so I tipped out my sackful of beautiful colours, opened my cupboard so that yet more bags of wool tops started falling out onto the floor (they're really crammed in and never fit properly) and had a good look through all my supplies.

I settled almost straight away on an extremely bright scarlet and cerise to make a notebook cover from, decorated with this recycled sari silk yarn.

It's very hard to capture the richness of the colours but it is such an intense red and the silk makes a fantastic contrast both in the cooler tones and the shimmery texture against the wool fibres.

It was good to be felting again and I had lots of ideas for new things to make, but have succeeded in getting almost everything out and spreading different colour combinations of wool and silk all over the place, so that most of downstairs looks messy again.

Cheerful birds

2010-01-15T02:24:00.000-08:00

It is incredibly dreary and cold here, the rain has come yet the slush is still resolutely staying in the garden!
So onto more cheerful things, I thought I would show you another present I bought for myself (a highly recommended practice as you always get something you like).
As I said in one of my earlier posts, I've been very drawn to bird designs recently, and came across these lovely things from ISAK recently,

I ended up looking at the website every week until I decided I had to have them. Our kitchen cupboards are painted in a duck-egg greeny-blue sort of colour, and we have wooden worksurface, so they go really well in here. The cup lids are unfinished oak although I oiled them as it said you could, which darkened them a shade.
My husband arrived home to find me arranging the new cups and admired them before asking 'And what are you going to keep in them?'. Surely this is not the point. You buy the lovely things then afterwards a use suggests itself to you, or not, but either way you have cheerful birds.

Trying to keep busy

2010-01-12T03:46:00.000-08:00

It is unbearably empty in the house and very lonely, but life goes on. Thank you all of you for your kind comments, they have really helped. I've been trying to keep busy so have been attempting something creative (keeping busy hasn't extended to housework yet).

I bought these gloves:

in the sales and they are made from very simple treble-ish crochet, just worked in rounds, yet because of the nice soft fluffy-ish wool they are really warm. I replaced the original ribbon with one I preferred, and really like them. So I had a half-hearted attempt at doing my own at the weekend, using the end of a very, very old ball of mohair-type wool - it's probably about 20 years old so I've no idea what it is actually made of.
I ended up working round and round doing one treble crochet and one chain, and working into the gaps of the previous row on the next one, making it all up by just trying-on all the time till I got about the right size, leaving a gap for the thumb by doing a long chain then picking up stitches round the hole later to crochet into, like you would with knitting, I just finished the thumb bits yesterday. A bit sad because when I started them Newton was sitting next to me, very ill on the Saturday night, and I ended up crocheting a bit of his white fur into them without realising and only saw it last night when I'd completely finished!

Having saved enough to finish the thumbs, of course I ran out of wool completely for the hand part about one and a half rows from the end of the second mitten, so it's shorter than the first, but then this was all a bit of an experiment so it doesn't matter. I like the idea though, and so when I next go to John Lewis might treat myself to a ball of lovely Rowan Kidsilk Haze if they still do it or something similar, and have another go, at which time I'll try and formulate a pattern and let you know. Of course this would be the very opposite of being thrifty and perhaps would be too decadent. I'm sure any fuzzy wool would do though - I think it has to be fuzzy to make it look a bit more interesting. They were so quick to do because the stitches are so open, and you could easily thread ribbon through the gaps in a contrasting or similar colour. Probably would be better if I joined the rounds properly instead of doing amigurumi style, must look up how to do this. I'd like to persist though because with a nice ribbon through they'd make a good present for friends next year. I'm wearing them now as I type and they're surprisingly cosy.

My good friend Tammy at Confessions of an Artist has been very productive and those of you interested in re-using and recycling, as well as knitting, might like to see what she's achieved in her latest post. I love the sock, she's knitting it with two colours held together for the main part and it's lovely and thick, not quite sure if I'm patient enough for socks, I'm such a slow knitter, which is why I'm getting more drawn to crochet. I never thought of actually unravelling jumpers from charity shops either but it's a great idea.

Also for any of you who don't fancy knitting or crochet, look at what Twiglet has done to make her mittens in her post.

I must go and do some baking now, we've completely run out of cake, thank you Lyn in yesterday's post for inspiring me to make a lemon loaf cake, I reckon I'm just about up to that and I even have the necessary lemons!

A cold, sad day.

2010-01-10T06:29:00.000-08:00

We lost Newton in the night.

He stopped purring yesterday evening so I knew it was time, and I'm very grateful that he died at home and didn't have to be taken to the vets.

We will miss him so much, but he brought us so much happiness while we had him and we have lots to be thankful for.

Newton helping with letters.

2010-01-08T14:28:00.000-08:00

Newton was just about well enough yesterday to help me with my thank you notes when I got back from work, I'm supposed to have finished them today but haven't quite managed. They are really lovely ones from Paperchase that I was given as a present last year, with a beautiful pattern and such a great contrast of colours.

It's been a really worrying day today though as Newton was completely off his food, the vet said he'd lost a lot of weight when we took him last night, we can't get him to take his heart tablets at all, no matter what we bury them in (and we were trying tiny bits of cheese and ham from our own dinner!) he won't have them, which can't be good. Just half an hour ago he's been eating again after a special new appetite-increaser-pill from the vet, so we may be able to tempt him later with more deceitfully disguised drugs, but cats know when you're trying to give them medicine! He's happy to be stretched out in front of the stove again this evening where he belongs and is still purring at us, but is definitely deteriorating fast. It's a bit of an emotional roller-coaster, a good day followed by a bad day when I try somehow to prepare for being without him, then a better time when we cling onto the hope he might stabilise for just a bit longer.
I am grateful for friends who understand how devastating it is to face losing a much-loved pet.

French Onion Soup for Cold Days

2010-01-07T09:39:00.001-08:00

I have just re-discovered this recipe, and wanted to share it with you. It's somehow for me a holiday recipe because of all the chopping of onions, and it always seems like a 'special' soup rather than an everyday one, but I have to say it was brilliant for warming us up at the weekend - so I recommend you give it a try in this very cold spell!

My usual mistake is not having the heat high enough to caramelise the onions, they need to go a nice brown but with plenty of butter and oil shouldn't stick too much - just keep moving them around. (Not a good diet recipe, especially with the toasted cheese!) I never bothered with making croutons as it says, we just toasted french bread one side then turned it over and piled on grated gruyere before putting it back under the grill, then floated it in the soup bowls afterwards (you can see ours didn't really quite fit). We didn't add brandy either because the boys were having it, but I bet it's good with it in!

Proper snow at last

2010-01-06T06:01:00.001-08:00

While the rest of the country seems to have had many inches of snow, we've only had a pretty, but not deep, sprinkling. Until yesterday, when we had small but persistent flakes and the boys could go out into the field at the bottom of the garden after school and get extremely cold and wet making a snowman and sledging down the hill. Newton is not allowed out, the vet said so, but he really wanted to go too.

Getting darker but they were still out in the field.

Still out.
Everything had a pinky-orange glow because of the street lights.

The tree at the front looked lovely with snowy branches lit up with the Christmas lights:

And when the sun came out this morning it all looked beautiful: