Snow, yarn and other such ramblings

There's been a spot of colourful hooky going on in these parts.

After a bit of pootling on Pinterest and various and delightful craft blogs, I discovered a newish craze for granny square blankets emerging.  Aha! I thought; I could do with one of those very things for my own sweet bed!  However, Christmas was upon us, and I had neither the time nor inclination to contemplate a new blanket project, so I filed the idea away for future reference...fast forward to January, and I eventually caved in and bought a new stash of Stylecraft Special DK wool to set about making a granny square blanket of my very own.  My heart had been well and truly taken the moment I cast my eyes upon this beautiful blanket here although there are many fine specimens to be found upon the interweb as I'm sure you will discover.

I cannot lie to you, I was so smitten with Sandra's colourway that I ordered pretty much the same shades of wool that she had used for her blanket.  And it's coming on a treat; its a fine way to pass a happy hour on a winters eve, curled up on the sofa watching Miranda, gigglesnorting like billy-o and knocking up a few squares in deliciously vintage coloured yarn.

I'm using the join-as-you-go method, fiddly as heck, but saving me a lot of sewing at the end which can be a tad time consuming to say the least.

During the day, I've been working my little socks off on some new pieces of art for my solo exhibition...would you like a peek?  You would?  Here you are then:

The Coastguard Cottages

Beside the Waves

I also have a plan to create some coastal inspired characters on some small box canvases, with an element of collage and stamped text about them.  I'm mighty excited by this sudden flurry of inspiration and I'm making sure I write down lots of notes about these ideas in my book, should they happen to dissolve and disappear from my busy little head forever.

After a colourful week, our world suddenly turned very grey and white.  The snow finally came to our little corner of the world and we decided that we would go out and enjoy ourselves enormously.

There was sledging and snowman making, the obligatory snowball fights and wanderings down the back garden to see the river which had turned into a magical winter wonderland...

I love the sculptural shapes of the branches and seed heads, and that glorious blue sky!

As I work, I see my little feathered friends making more frequent visits to the feeder (which is hung a couple of feet away from my window).  I love to watch them, and wonder how something so small can survive such terribly cold nights...

Another feathered soul paid us a visit too...can you spot him?  He's a regular visitor, and can often be seen stooping in the shallows, waiting to catch a plump trout for his lunch.

Back inside after our snowy meanderings, hot chocolate of the best kind, topped with the squirtiest of cream and tiniest of marshmallows is consumed and jammies are put on.  It's only 3 o'clock in the afternoon, but it's a snow day from school and there's no need to be going out again; may as well just cosy up indoors and do a spot of painting with C...

...and on a whim, I dug out some papier mache style hearts and painted a whimsical little Valentine's scene.  These hearts are secretly magnets, but would look rather dandy in a nice box frame I think.

So my week is only just begun, but already it is filled with the simplest and nicest of things.  And if it needed icing on the cake, it came in the form of an email from my lovely agent, who wrote to tell me that three pieces of my artwork have been accepted for licensing by a client, and therefore shall become cards or suchlike.  I am delirious with delight, because this is another one of my dreams come true.

And dreams do come true you know, if you believe they will.

I'll see you again soon, have a wonderful week and thank you for coming to see me today.

Love J x

Being Creative Gallery Check In ~ March

Hi Friends!


First of all, apologies for yesterday - Blogger decided to somehow simultaneously publish two posts of mine at once, so I'm very sorry for any confusion there!  I've decided to post the Gallery Check In a day early for the Being Creative participants (originally planned for tomorrow) seeing how that post sort of self published itself, I figured I might as well put it out there now in case participants were looking for it and wondering why they couldn't read it.  

I'm really looking forward to seeing what people have come up with for this month's theme of Garden.
For myself, the project so far has been really inspiring.  I've made time for creating art in mediums that I rarely use and without any real purpose in mind other than having fun with colour and having a theme to work with.  I liked the focus having a theme gave me, and I decided to create some art based on the bird life in my own garden working with collage and pastel crayons.

I think, working as an artist, it was a really relaxing process for me to be able to switch off from the business side of it all and just allow the freedom of Creating For Fun to flow.  I have been blown away by the gorgeous work that has been popping up in our Flickr Group already, and the group has only been established a couple of weeks.  Thank You to everyone who has subscribed to the group so far, and to those who have been adding work to the Flickr Group.


For those of you who would still like to share your work via your blog/Flickr or other photo hosting webpage, then you are very welcome to add your link to the widget below (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!  It's going to be wonderful to have a monthly source to access everyone's work ~ and 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 Garden themed work to the gallery here until the end of April.  I will also be creating 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.

__________________________________________

Oooh!! An one last thing before we start to add our links - the theme for April is DESSERT

Again, this theme can be interpreted or taken in any direction you wish, or you can use the word as a focus point.  There will be another gallery opening at the end of the month here, but the Flickr group is available for you to add your pictures to every day if you wish.

If you would like to join the Being Creative group and haven't already then you are so very welcome to do so - it's totally free and you can take part on a regular or more infrequent basis, whatever works for you best.  You can register your commitment to taking part by clicking here and adding your link at the bottom of the page. 

And now...here's the gallery for March - it's your turn! :)

On the Home Front

All is blooming in the riverside garden, despite the heavy downpours! August arrived with yet more rain and whirling winds, leaves being blown off the trees and a very autumnal air was felt by all. Surreptitious thoughts of warm soup and tarte tatin seemed to drift as if by magic, into my mind, obliterating in an instant all ideas of crisp summery salads and dining outdoors!

We have all been struck down by a rather awful head cold here. This last week has seen us snuffling around the house with tissues permanently stuck to our faces, coughing and sneezing and feeling generally worse for wear. However, light at the end of the tunnel, we now seem to be over the worst of it and I for one am starting to feel a little more like my old self again. Which means feeling more like doing Things.

My newest Thing is a new blanket - oh dear yes, Im not content with having a big blanket on the go already (which is only a third complete) - no, I found myself in Cole Brothers (like Diane at Heartshaped, I just cant call it John Lewis ;) and I found myself holding the lovliest organic wool in the lovliest muted shades and, before I knew what I was doing I found myself handing over my stash to the smiley lady at the counter.

Now how did that happen?

I have to confess to being too easily inspired by lovely Lucy at Attic24, I had been perusing her patterns and was rather smitten with her hexagons, even through the fug of a cold I sat and read the instructions until I was sure I could do it and then rustled up a prototype (which the Little Daughter is now delightedly using as a coaster).

As soon as I was able, I set about starting it - big blanket has been shoved back into its project bag til a later date...I haven't forgotten it, no, I will absolutely most definately complete it...I just need to have small crocheted love affairs with other projects in the meantime. :)

So this is how it looks so far. Lots of sea blues and soft turquoise with white, and a couple of driftwood shades with a bit of sea thrift pink thrown in. The idea is to make a throw for the lounge when its finally decorated - yes, in approximately 3 weeks we will see delivery of a big skip and we will be demolishing our lounge and dining room of all its 1970's wood and grim stone corniches. Bring in Danny on the 1st of September and my lust for Smooth Walls will be quenched! Im going to take pictures of the project as it unfolds - we are most excited to be able to finally make a start on our living area, our intention was to do this work in 2007 but a certain Little Girl put in an appearance and any of you with little people will know how all plans go out the window when children arrive on the scene!

One thing my Little One does enjoy doing now that she is 2 is Helping. She likes to Stir and she loves to Bake. The other day we made bread.

Here is our loaf, resting and rising...

Exciting moment...popping it in the oven! (Little Daughter so excited and wants me to keep opening the door to peep at it).

...and finally ready to eat!

Its most satisfying to slice into a loaf of bread that you have made yourself, especially when it is still slightly warm...spread it with butter and jam...MMMMMMmmmmmmmm!

My sister and her family are staying at my parents cottage this week, so if the weather holds we will be out and about - already we have been to our favourite local farm, Cannon Hall which is a happy balance of animals and playpark for the small ones and a very good farm shop/deli and coffee shop for the big people - not to mention a rather gorgeous garden centre across the road.

Everyone happy. :)

Hope you are all well, oh - a quick mention here for Kar who often leaves lovely comments for me here, I want to tell you I have tried in earnest to respond to your delightful posts at your blog, but for some unknown reason my computer freezes everytime I try. I will persist I promise, but I do think your blog is very lovely and thankyou for visiting mine!

Sending love, sunshine, peach iced tea and homemade cookies!

'Til next time ~

Julia xxx

Ps: It seems my little blog has been nominated by the lovely people at Dorset Cereals for a Little Blog Award, so if you enjoy it too, why not give me a little vote? Just click the picture link up there on the right - thank you ever so much, its really very, very nice of you. :)