28.10.15

hello autumn world....


Oh here I am...back again, and it's Autumn :-)


How lovely. I've had a bit of time to reflect and review. 
To work out what I'm doing and how I want to carry on.


I have two pages of notes, but I think I just need to sum it up instead and say,
I still want to be here.


Three and a half years on. 
Two hundred and twenty three posts later. 
A few strange what an earth was I thinking of posts, (all still there!)
I like it here.


But I can't step back into it in the way that I was.
I can't step back into the spiral of blog reading.


I find myself spending much less time on-line. 
It's been a bit of a habit to break.


I feel like I'm getting to know me again.
Discovering blogs and blogging came at a time when I really needed it.
I always wanted to create a little business,
and I really want to put my energy there.
Which I guess means making things and doing shop things :-)
So this is what I plan to do.
I hope you understand.



I think there will be more tales to tell,
but it's definitely important to step back and watch the world go by now and again.


Blogging has helped define who I am, 
helped me to see what was already there, with new eyes.
Helped me to see what I want to move towards, 
and brought untold amounts of inspiration.


and I know that whatever that may be, 
it will contain a little bit of everyone I've ever met and enjoyed something of.
And that's the beautiful thing about creative glimmers and life evolving.

Thanks for reading and commenting along the way.


2.8.15

summer here so far.....

Hello, I just thought I'd pop by. I don't want to leave my blog for too long, so here's a little update of some favourite shots from the last couple of weeks.


My breakfast. Yes all Japanesey style!


A delicate white rose in the garden. Soft and dreamy!


Watching the evening sun at the end of the garden with the dancing fairies.


Golden hour.


A beautiful rose in all it's stages.


Looking through the impossible tree.


Watching the pair of circling kestrel's every day on the common.


and enjoying the sweet meadow grasses.


A colourful Portishead Marina, Bristol, on a summers day. A fairly near home adventure.


The life-boat ramp, I just love this shot. Lets launch!


Simple treasures from the river estuary. So very lovely.

Just a simple summer wave here from me. I hope August brings some lovely things for you. Keeping this space simple feels like the right thing for me to do right now, I hope you understand. I'm just feeling a kind of warm happy glow about this simple blogging, so I'm going to go with that!

Sunshine smiles from me to you.

1.7.15

crochet on a summers day....


Well it's so hot here today that my brain has turned to mush and I thought it might be a good time to blog. Being that it has been about 3 weeks since my last post and perhaps the heat will melt any blocks that I seem to have. 

Today is the hottest July day on record. 36.7degrees at Heathrow. There's talk of possible thunder storms on their way tonight. I'm doing my weather presenter thing again! The crochet was from yesterday, so far it's been too hot to crochet today.

The other day I heaved my old swing seat out from under the exploding bamboo plant it seemed to be supporting and decided it needed to be used as a seat. I had to find an old mattress, cover it with cushions and a nice sheet and put it in a shady corner. I realize you can't really see all that here. But anyway, summer with a swing seat will be good, especially as I think we really will mainly be holidaying here this year. 

Although yesterday a bird dared to poop on my lovely sheet, whilst my back was turned, so leaving crochet casually strewn around is not a good idea. Thankfully it was not on the crochet!


This is my view of the climbing rose, so I can't complain! Isn't it lovely. Smells good too. I also have a rather huge and wonderful new bird table to show you soon, made for me by the teen as part of his woodwork lessons. We just need to varnish it and then think of some fun decorations, I'm sure he won't mind!


And the lovely common is truly in it's sweet place right now. All the meadow grasses and wild flowers. Beautiful. Like a painting. I feel very lucky to have this view. I don't feel so land locked I think because I can see the river in the distance, which is kind of coast line really being at the top of the Bristol Channel. I expect it's a little cooler at the coast today, perhaps.


It's been early starts this week, tying to beat the heat. I'm up walking here by 7.15 with the dog. By the time we're back at the car it's almost too hot. Although 2 and half weeks ago it looked like this

It always feels good to come back and blog....I don't know how the summer's going to go. I'm still really in the process of de-cluttering my life and also hoping to expand my shop and keep on making.
I have forever de-cluttered my clothes and my books. I've probably halved those now. The real job that I keep putting off is to sort out my photos, both in albums and on-line. I think I will feel considerably lighter once I've done those. And of course there's the daily dramas to negotiate.

I've decided to turn off comments, once I've worked how. We all have to try things out and find our happy place on here. I'm going to try it out, maybe for the summer. It's just to simplify things, which is really where I'm at at the moment. I need to step out from the spiral of expectation and hopefully things will feel simpler for you too.

So I am just trying it, following my intuition. I am quietly on instagram too. Maybe we will have a chat there, or flickr or facebook. So many choices!

Have a lovely summer, going to go and share the fan with the dog now.

5.6.15

some summery things.....

summer flower garland
I have been sorting out my craft/work space just lately. Actually I've been sorting out my whole house really. A lot of purging and clearing has been going on here behind the scenes. I think it might be never ending, I've been doing it for years. I'm also good at bringing it in though. But saying that, car loads have left, and it's beginning to feel like there's a little more space around things.

A happy discovery was this garland I found in my bag of crochet things. It's from a couple of years ago. I love it, it reminds me of when I first discovered the joys of crochet. I love all the different colours, you can see that can't you! Some I don't have anymore, lovely Rowan wool.

blues and greens on the common

In life, I feel like I'm getting ready to move into a new role. At home we are just beginning the last 6 weeks of school. After that I will no longer be a Mum of a school age child. It will be college and a whole new chapter. I feel like we are in a transition or getting ready for one.
.
I want to keep on blogging but I feel I need to wear it loosely.
Really I just want to make sure my focus is where it's needed, especially over this next six weeks.

a Peony saved from the mower
So I stepped back a little from blogging, I kind of gave myself a week or two off. It felt good, to just relax and be a reader instead.
I find it can take a long time to blog, or maybe it's just how I have been doing it.

By the second week I was starting to compose blog posts in my head!

fabric memories
I was sent a lovely gift of this Greensleeves fabric, by Claire from Poppysnest, who kindly agreed to a little blog swap. My Mum had curtains in her living room made from this material, which I spotted on her blog. It's a very much now fabric with Honeysuckle and summer flowers. Thank you Claire.


blue gingham nets
There has been a bit of sewing recently.
These blue gingham nets are a little experiment around where we eat. I was hoping to encourage my teen to sit here again, now it feels a little less like a gold fish bowl! I like it, it feels a bit cafe style, and a bit more private. Not that I want to shut anyone out, but the arrangement of people moving around here has changed thanks to a stuck door. Some of you might remember I have a couple of hardy cabin dwellers living here too. We share some parts of the house. There are some things you not allowed to build in your garden, without serious planning permission anyway!

lego vintage style caravan
 Well who spotted the cavaran?! This was a christmas present to me from my teen who found a long forgotten still valid lego voucher! The only things he would have ordered cost hundreds, and it wasn't going to happen. So I asked if he wouldn't mind me very much getting the caravan! I know, it's really childish. It took me about 5 months to make it. Isn't it sweet and why do they always put in extra parts?! I think it was the bunting and flowers on the window sill which sold it to me. Oh and the back opens and the sunbeds come out, easy now!

Anyway back to grown up things.

I made a little place for plants and crystals.

 I think I may be a bit more relaxed about blogging, whatever that means. Of course you will often find me and my photos on flickr and a little bit on instagram, which I like as much as putting a nice sweet in my mouth and then forgetting about it once it's eaten!

widflowers on the common
And you will always find me up here everyday with my camera, because this is my sanity and my breathing out, oh and my exercise!

the first climbing rose
So until next time, go well, and enjoy the weekend.

17.5.15

This weeks sights.....

flowers from the garden
This is May's freely growing offering from my garden, I know I'm very lucky to have these out there.

tulip in the park
The park is another space, enjoyable in a different way. A whole lot of planning happens here. I do like their choice of Tulips.

cowslips on the common
On the common the Cowslips are doing their happy dance. Seeing them in the sunlight makes your spirits soar!

Cowslips and Orchids
I always think it feels like the earth is wearing it's big flowery shirt.

fresh oak leaves
 The day I got rained on, I managed to catch these very fresh oak leaves, I noticed how quickly they changed colour.

yellow retro fabric seat cover
At home I turned this already tube shaped piece of yellow floral fabric into a seat cover. It was very easy. I think someone else had done the same thing!

River Severn estuary - Portishead
There was a little jaunt to a new to me place by the river at Portishead, while the teen played airsoft. It's the river estuary at Bristol, I had several hours to explore and wander. This may become a regular two weekly thing so I'm not complaining.

The marina at Portishead Bristol
I had a good wander around the harbour and watched the lifeboat doing it's maneuvers.

estuary glass
I found glass on the beach too. I was very happy about that! Lots of it and quite big pieces, not very worn. I think from the more modern day drunken sailors to be honest. A camper van would have been nice to pull up on the beach front and hang out for the day. I noticed a few folks doing this, especially nice in cooler weather. One day!

wild garlic in the woods
Back at home this Wild garlic growing in the woods is always a show stopper. I always forget and then come along to find it. So lovely with the bright green canopy. The Beech leaves seem to green up last.

horse chestnut blossom
The Horse Chestnut blossom is always a delight. Such pretty colours. This has to be one of my favourite trees, there's always a very special place underneath a Chestnut tree! I always have to go under and just be there for minute, a little spot of tree hugging :-)

***

So this has been my week. I've spent a lot of time thinking about this space here and what I want to with it. Also the idea of a creative business and how that might fit in with my life. A lot of research has been done about how people do that and what needs to be done, more officially than unofficially. It's actually left me feeling pretty frustrated with the labeling and brackets we seem to need to operate from in our lives, more so when we have families to consider. It's easy to discover how the bracket we want to be in doesn't exist, at least not as part of the system. 

Overall I'm suddenly becoming aware of the ways that we do actually limit ourselves. It usually seems like the only thing to do, or even the right thing to do, but it still places us in a limiting situation ultimately. Where our life stays the same to meet that criteria. It doesn't open us to the full possibility. 

I feel there are probably people everywhere this is happening to, even if they are not aware of it. Perhaps this is what happens in a society. It places them in a group, which is not without it's support and help of course. But it just becomes difficult to let go of that and move into a new way. It's a curious thing and like I say I've just began to notice how many ways it happens, even in our speech and assumptions we make about ourselves. 

This may be the beginning of a life evaluation! I guess I feel the pull to move forwards but don't really know how to, just yet.

♥ 



13.5.15

vintage sheet stash bundles

Hello, I thought we could do some collective oohing and aahing!
I have been chop chopping away and making pretty fabric pictures. I can't decide which bit I like best. The prettifying and photography or the making. 

colourful vintage sheet fun!
vintage stash bundles at the ready!
There's been a lot of chopping and then more chopping, and now I've finally just added these stash bundles to my shop. There are 15 different retro floral patterns. The squares are 10 x 10 inches in size.

vintage fan!
They are a good size to make a string of colourful bunting for the summer! or perhaps a small child's quilt or cushions. 

lots of colour
They are all washed, pressed and ready to sew.

kiss - heartnote by my little red suitcase
Of course each parcel will have a little dangly heart popped in it too.
No parcel would be ready without one!

Thanks for calling by, hope your week goes well.