sending it to Laura Donald in Glasgow, Scotland
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
At the Weekend
We had a long weekend away in the Lake District. The sun shone all weekend. We hiked each day and watched the sun set over the mountains in the evenings. Perfect.
click on the image (and click again) to see more detail.
Thursday, 21 April 2011
Wednesday, 20 April 2011
Tuesday, 19 April 2011
Cosy eggs
I've made three egg cosies (or cozies) for the shop. I gave them a sort of Spring theme and chose colourful floral vintage fabrics. Each one has a contrasting fabric inside and they've each been sewn up with bright threads. I decided to make 'fabric pompoms' rather than wool ones and I liked choosing matching felts from my collection. 
I like to imagine one of these decorating a boiled egg for someone's breakfast in bed : )
I like to imagine one of these decorating a boiled egg for someone's breakfast in bed : )
Monday, 18 April 2011
Walking by the Water
For those of you who are new to this blog, this is a post I would previously have put on Kites Are Fun. As I have now consolidated my blogs to this one space I am posting it here. Just to expain why it's a little different to my usual posts.
It’s the first day of the second week of my holidays. This morning, as I waited for the train to take me to a maths test, I was thinking about my long To Do list and wondering where the first week had disappeared to. My friend from university texted to say she wanted to have some fun this afternoon; my reply was that I could have lunch but I had a lot to do. I passed my maths test and immediately fun started to sound a lot more appealing, so I invited my friend for lunch.
I met her at the bus stop as she hadn’t been to my flat before. She’s a new friend and I was looking forward to showing her where I live and the local area. We stopped in my Turkish shop, the one I’d told her about, to buy some fresh bread for lunch. 
I made us a quick salad. As we chatted over lunch, I realised how I was eating fast and she told me she likes to take her time, her boyfriend’s family is Italian and they like to slowly enjoy their meals. I showed her my To Do list and we spoke about how I could get it done but I still felt anxious. It was sunny outside so we decided to go for a walk along the canal. 
We were both full so we walked slowly, along through the park, along the canal, along the path, passing the heron, past the barges, watching people work on their boats, enjoying the sunshine. The water was mucky but we didn’t care, we both agreed it was calming.
On our way back we stopped for a cheeky half. The table was next to the water and we chatted in the sun. My 'half a larger top' tasted like summer. As we sat and watched the water I realised that an afternoon of relaxing had made me feel much calmer. My friend reminded me that half the things on my To Do list are nice jobs that I’ll most likely enjoy and that the other half can be left for another day. We walked home feeling very happy and I thought to myself ‘next time I have lots to do I’ll have to remember to do nothing’.
Thank you Kate for a lovely afternoon.
Sunday, 17 April 2011
Thursday, 14 April 2011
Wednesday, 13 April 2011
Making the most of my holiday
Good morning friends, thought it would be nice to share some pictures from yesterday's making session. I altered a pattern to make some 50s style highwaisted knickers and I was really happy with the result. The blue fabric in the third picture is what I made them from. I've also been working on some egg cosies for the shop and they should be ready in a couple of days. I've worked on the shape and they're looking good. I hope that you are finding time to work on projects too. Enjoy your wednesday.
Monday, 11 April 2011
At the weekend
Some of my favourite parts of the weekend. Click on the image (and click again) to see in more detail. Today Anna Emilia Saw
Good Monday morning friends. I have a two week break from my university course and I'm hoping to be around here during that time. I couldn't think of a better way to start the week. What a treat we have today! The wonderful Anna Emilia has kindly answered my many questions and drawn the most beautiful postcard for us. Every time I read Anna Emilia's blog I find myself imagining atmospheric scenes of nature. She has the ability to completely transport her readers to another world through both her paintings and her words. I'm so very pleased that Anna Emilia has taken the time to answer questions and paint a postcard. Thank you Anna Emilia!
Anna Emilia, please tell us about your postcard and what you have chosen to draw? Today I traveled by train from a small weekend trip and on the way I saw how the weather had changed the landscape while I was away. The snow was going away. There was some green grass on a field that was on a hill and a lot of streams of melted snow. Whiskers of the sun, as I like to call the sun rays, were tickling everything.
And, have you decided who you will be sending it to? It will be traveling to a dear friend in Edinburgh.
Please think of a journey that you take often. It can be long or short. What do you see on that journey? It is the way from my grandparents´ to a small forest pond. It is a small path in the forest, the most soft moss and pine tree needles are covering it. Curvy and high pine tree roots are making it a bit challenging. On both sides there are growing the sweetest blueberries. A cuckoo is singing in a tree.
One of my favourite things about reading your blog Anna Emilia, is that your words and images transport me to an atmospheric imagined world. Can you tell us what you see that inspires you to create this world for your readers? Thank you dearly Jill. As I call it "a small weather diary", I like to think it as a collection of different kinds of weathers. For me weather is something that is around everything in this world and that way the weather knows everything about this world. Through weather I try to find some of those stories happening in this world. If someone enjoys them with me, I am very happy.
Please describe the view from a window in your home. Behind my window is now a dark night, but in that darkness is a small lake, which is still frozen. Behind the lake is the town: it´s chimneys and towers. There is a wide starry sky and the rest of the whole universe behind that.
I often carry a notebook and pen with me, to take note of any interesting sights I see. Do you have any particular materials that you always take with you? There were times that I always kept a sketchbook and pens with me and we even went to draw together to coffee houses with a friend. Lately I have marked everything interesting into my mind. It might work better for me to carry thoughts longer in my mind and just before starting to work with a real painting I draw a sketch quickly on paper. Sometimes I just start to paint. But still I do carry always a pen with me just in case.
Whilst arranging this little ‘interview’ you mentioned that you were staying up late painting. Can you tell us about when you paint, do you make special time to paint each day? In the mornings is the best time to paint for me. Just now that it is spring, I feel more inspired. That evening I had heard a blackbird singing for the first time. Nothing is better than a bird singing behind your open balcony door during night. If they are working eagerly with their songs, then I love to work with my paintings too.
Could you describe some things you see every day that you feel are important to you and your life? Everything that happens in nature. It is lovely to observe small changes and how powerful things can happen with so little things like seeds or a few raindrops.
Weather and seasons play an important role in your work, can you tell us a little bit about why weather is so important to you? Perhaps how your environment changes through the seasons? My parents are farmers, so I grew up with the nature and the weather around me. In Finland the weather is not that gentle if one is cultivating strawberries, and most of my childhood memories are connected with the weather (and strawberries). I love to feel the nature around me, it is almost like a never ending story to read from a book. This year the winter was a long and cold one as in most of the Europe. But there are small flowers already even not all the snow left yet. This time of the year I wait eagerly that the grass grows and I can go to have small afternoon breaks in the botanical garden, to read or draw on the grass.
Please tell us what you see in the morning once you've got up. It is a tree that I have drawn with a ballpoint pen once in Iceland.
Please tell us one thing you saw recently which stayed in your memory. A woodpecker was making a hole in an alder tree some weeks ago on my afternoon walk. There I was watching him working, his only tool being his own beak. It made me to remember how good a simple and calm life is.
**********************************************
Thank you so much Anna Emilia. You answers were so enjoyable to read. I always feel a calmness after reading your words and looking at your pictures. Thank you for taking the time to join us here.
Wednesday, 6 April 2011
postcard: 6th April
This week I'm taking part in poppy talk's spring colour week. Today's colour is pink. See all the contributions here
sending it to Anita Niekel in The Netherlands
postcard: 5th April
As part of poppy talk's Spring colour week. I didn't get chance to include it in the flickr pool yesterday but that's ok. It's fun to use my watercolours. Can you tell from this photo that it's sunny today?!
sending it to Bernadett Ronsch in Gorlitz, Germany
Monday, 4 April 2011
Forever Dolphin Love
I thought it might be fun to share Daniel's latest music video. The morning of filming he rang me and said two of the actors hadn't turned up, and could I be in it?! It was fun to see him at work and I think the video turned out really nicely. I'm the one who doesn't look like me : )
Postcard: 4th April
This week I'll be taking part in poppy talk's Spring colour week. It doesn't feel long ago that I took part in the winter one. You can see all the pictures that people contribute each day here. Each day I hope to paint a picture relating to that day's colour. Tomorrow's colour is yellow.
sending it to Mousy Brown in North Wales, Britain
In other news, I want to ask advice. I just got a new computer and I'm still trying to work out how to use it. My old computer had photoshop for editing pictures but my new one only seems to have 'paint' which doesn't allow me to edit the lighting on photos and things like that. I wondered what programme you use? I can't afford photoshop and I wondered if you know of any affordable image editing softwear? Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)