Enjoying Autumn

Hello!


We've been enjoying a weirdly warm November here, although I'm not complaining, there is something rather nice about wearing just a t-shirt and cardigan when you're meant to be swaddled up in scarves and winter coats!


This last weekend, we took our annual chestnut gathering jaunt to Clumber Park.  It's a little tradition that we began a couple of years ago and makes for a nice day out with a tasty picnic, flask of hot tea and forest walks.  After a damp start, the day turned out to be fine and sunny, just the right kind of day for romping about in fallen leaves, gathering up those shiny brown nuts and dealing with cheeky squirrels.

Someone seemed to be having fun, dancing in the leaves...

...and it's amazing what you find when you're searching for chestnuts!

This little fella came right up by our feet, and helped himself to some of our haul!

We had a lovely walk through the forest; I love being near trees, I find them very peaceful, they have a lovely calming energy...

...and the colour of the leaves this time of year is breath taking!

I think nature is good for the soul; watching the seasons unfold, seeing wild animals and birds in their natural habitat is a lovely antidote to the often busy and full lives we lead.

Talking of busy...and I'm going off on a right old tangent here!  Remember a couple of posts ago I told you I was finally making a start on getting rid of four years worth of accumulated junk?  And you might remember I showed you this corner of my bedroom (*shudders at the sight of it again):

I confess to being pretty alarmed at the thought of tackling that lot, I can tell you.  But as I sat and looked at it (as it looked back at me, all momentous and impossible) I had a thought: take it all to bits, and then do it one bit at a time.

I gave myself half an hour.  Three bags of really good baby toys, unused cushions and throws for the charity shop, and one big bulging bin liner for the rubbish later and it now looks like this:

I cannot express how light and happy this made me feel.  In fact, I did a little jiggy dance and squealed a bit.

I've also got a few nice toys that I'm going to have a bash at selling on ebay too - you can't see those though, I've made a fresh pile of stuff to the right of this photo (lol).

It really does help (when clearing out and clearing up) to repeat the mantra 'I love my home' instead of 'damn I hate chores'.  It kind of has a calming effect, and creates an urge to actually make your home nicer (or it does for me!).  I'm not after a perfect showroom style house, that would never be us in a million years as we like our trinkets, colour and lived in feel a bit too much to go minimal!  But I'm certainly feeling happier at how things are coming along, and much relieved that so much unused stuff will be hopefully finding new homes, with owners who actually want it!

One last thing before I go...

(a recent watercolour sketch from my sketch book)

I realise it might have been some time since I wrote about anything arty or woolly.  I want to reassure you that there will be some hooky posts on the horizon, and some arty ones too.  I'm in the middle of working on some ideas (painting wise) which will hopefully see a new range of artwork available for children and families.  I'll be sharing more of this with you soon, but for now let me just say it's an idea that has been percolating for many months and I'm looking forward to starting it!

On the hooky front, my lovely scarf just needs those pesky ends sewing in and I'm kind of contemplating another blanket...a stripy sort of blanket, which would be good to have going alongside the little squares one I've got on the go already.  What do you think?  Let me know your thoughts, I'd love to hear from you!

Sending love,

Julia x x x

Being Creative Gallery ~ September

Hello to you!


September seems to have whizzed by very fast, and I can hardly believe that it's the 1st of October already!  I imagined that when I wrote up this gallery page about our Autumn theme, I would be looking out my window at stormy grey skies, and frisky breezes whipping up carpets of fallen leaves into spirals of colour.  But today, as I write this the temperature is creeping up towards the 80's, the sky is pure azure blue and there is a magnificent yellow sun cracking the pavements.  Butterflies are wafting about the garden lazily, and we are wearing our t-shirts and coolest clothes.  Autumnal it is absolutely not but there we go, that's the Great British weather for you!

I decided I would add my most recent painting to the Flickr Group this month. After all, it was painted with this time of year in mind and represented a coastal Autumn to me.  I've also noticed some new offerings in the group pool which I haven't had a chance to comment on yet (but I'll make time to visit and have a good old nosey as soon as I get the chance) and there looks to be some really interesting offerings this month.  
I continually love how creativity is expressed in so many different ways - the members of the group who share their work surprise me each month with the variety and ingenuity of their creations.


So!!  The theme for September was Autumn.

For those of you who would like to share your work via your blog/Flickr or other photo hosting webpage, you are very welcome to add your link to the widget at the bottom of this post (please just link to the page your work features on).  Don't forget to use the whole caboodle of http://www...etc or else the link won't work.

Anyone who has already posted in the Flickr Group are also encouraged to share your images in the gallery here too.  Please don't be shy about sharing...encouragement and support is the key to growing in confidence with your creativity, and although it can feel a little scary, I think you will feel a huge sense of achievement when you share your work and get feedback from the other participants or blog readers here.

You will be able to add your 'Autumn' themed work to the gallery here until the end of October.  There is also a list in the sidebar so that the gallery pages are easier for you to find.

For those of you who are working on the project and don't have the facility to share pictures of your work, then you are welcome to add your thoughts about your creative journey so far in the comments section at the bottom of this post.
I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on taking part in the Being Creative Project, so please do share or feel free to email me privately.
The theme for October is: Fire

You can post your work freely in the Flickr group as and when you like; don't forget to make use of the Discussion facility if you have any questions, or require some support :)

I'm really looking forward to seeing what you've done this month - thank you so much for aking the time to share your colourful and glorious creations! 

Much love
Julia x x x

(edited: oops, seems I got ahead of myself on the calendar! We're in October, not November as I previously wrote, but the theme is still Fire - apologies for the confusion) x

Gently Bobbing Along

Hello.

I hope you are all well and will forgive my little absence - I meant to write last week, I really did, and then, you know how Life Happens and sneaks up on you, gets in the way of the nice normal stuff...

That's kind of what happened here :)

Anyway, in between the hectic happenings and early nights (necessary from all the hectic happenings), we have been doing some rather gentle nice things here and there...

There have been some genuinely lovely Homey Moments these last couple of weeks, those moments where you suddenly feel very cosy in your little abode and so very glad to be surrounded with your own bits and bobs, books and pictures, jugs of golden autumn flowers, and Stuff.

Ive noticed this feeling usually starts to happen at this time of year, like a Nestling in preparation for the colder months - I feel very happy pottering about in the house, baking things and just appreciating my little domain and it's little lived in corners; switching on my white fairy lights whilst cooking tea, lighting candle lanterns early evening...little things like that :)

We have been on slow jaunts, enjoying the ruby amber beauty of these warm autumn days...something so inspiring about those bright red leaves against a cerulean blue sky and the comforting feel of smooth, shiny conkers clustered in your pocket.

Did I mention we had been baking? After what seems like weeks of not doing any, Nigella seems to have worked her magic on us here and we are happily road testing all manner of delicious treats from her new book which I treated myself to whilst in Wales over the weekend (told you it had been hectic). Yesterday we made her Choc Chip Cookies:

There aren't many left :)

On the art front, I have managed to find snippets of time to create..

...I'm currently finishing hand illustrating some Christmas cards - here's a wee peek into my sketchbook as I played about with some seasonal images...

I'll be launching the first peek of these cards on my Newsletter - and I will also be offering one as part of a giveaway Im hosting on my Facebook Page ~ you are most welcome to sign up to either by clicking the links.

Thank you for bobbing by today - hopefully life will settle itself down a bit now and things can resume their usual happy pace which means more time for Blog Visiting and the like.

Sending you love, see you again soon.

Julia x x x