That Was a Week That Was

We thought we had been organised in using the back bedroom to store everything from the hall and bathroom but then the plumbers arrived.  That meant emptying the airing cupboard too.  And then they wanted the carpets and floorboards up as well. John was here alone as I had been rushed into hospital and so everything was moved rather quickly into the only room left, our bedroom!  Well that was a bit of a mess.

The thermo store looks like something Heath Robinson would be so proud of.  John managed to take out the remains of a chimney in there and gained a lot of room. There is still plenty of work to be done to tidy everything up and totally rebuild the airing cupboard but we have heating and hot water again. 

I was in hospital from the Monday to Friday night as I had lost 8 pints of blood in less than 36 hours from 3 lesions in my stomach.  Looking at the photos of inside I have very thin stomach lining and I know I'm ulcer prone, too many years taking Voltarol.  Unfortunately one of these lesions seems to of happened over a vein and bled rather heavily.  We can only guess that, as it is very near my hernia, it rolled and split. I wasn't very well for a time and had to have four blood transfusions. Mind you with all the moving of stuff and no water perhaps the hospital was the best place to be for a while there! 

The rest of the build is coming along nicely with more plumbing in the bathrooms being finished, plasterboard going up and the whole of the old roof being replaced as well as the new bit. We also opted, after a lot of thought and looking at many options, to go for lovely eco cedar cladding along the back and gable cheeks. That has also all arrived.  

The new windows arrived two weeks ago but they had made them in the wrong colour.  As they were timber and not painted they have had to be totally remade again, a bit of a delay!!! In less than two weeks we leave for Australia.  Luckily the builder is staying here to carry on and hopefully the windows will arrive for him to fit so he won't be working in the dark for too long! 

As you can imagine I haven't been too well to make much. The brain has been more than a little foggy.  Not sure if it's lack of blood, lack of oxygen or just me in general! I could spend a little time sitting at the kitchen sink using up some of the felting wools I bought for the Fiona Duthie workshop on making felt wrapped soaps.  Quite a pleasant task and something to go on the charity table at next years open studios. 

I also completed the online workshop to make wands.  A strange subject I know but one that took my fancy. I also made a stand to keep them in and this is the end result. 

They were very hard to photograph!  I think it was because of all the bling and spangles. 

I think I have an appointment to finalise the bedrooms today and then I will go and potter in the studio.  No bending or lifting to strain the tum and plenty of sitting down as I run out of puff pretty quick. 

A Little Bit of Sunshine

Thank you all so much for the messages on here and by email.  You're all lovely.  I hope I replied to everyone but the brain has been a little foggy.  This week hasn't been fun but it's gone and we now move on.  

I've not been too much in the mood for making things so I thought I'd go around the garden instead which always cheers me up.  When we moved in ten years ago it was more or less a field with some tree stumps in it! We spent the best part of four years fiddling, planting, digging, building and setting it up.  Well now it is virtually self caring with a few tweaks each week by John and Brian, I just do the directing. 

We lost a rather tender Solanum jasminoides alba on the pergola after it's second year but replaced it with it's more common purple brother which took off.  This year it's looking wonderful. 

I think the cardoons are aiming to take over this year too.  

This is Tully Doo 2 who always smiles rain or shine. 

The acer Crimson King on the right was almost up to my chin when I put it in in 2008 and it's now over 20 feet glowing in the sunshine.

We put the rose ropes in to help disguise the greenhouse and they are just starting to look, and smell, fabulous. 

There's always plenty of room for doggy playtime. 

The build is starting to show shape.  All the what were ceiling joists had to be replaced with flooring ones and, as the space is 35 x 14 feet that took some time.  Most of the walls have gone up, the steels are in and the roofing joists are just beginning to grow.  A tricky job as three roofs have to meet and the old one across the middle of the photo behind the chimney is far from square! Andy the builder has the patience of a saint. The worst of it is now done and hopefully the rest should, should be plain sailing. 

The security lights come on when the dogs trip the sensors.  Do you think they can see us from outer space?  

Last weekend we had a fabulous walk out with Pointer doggy friends.  14 Pointers and 3 wannabes!! It was wonderful and they all were beautifully behaved.  

One of the ladies took a quick snap of me and Ellie when were were having lunch in the pub afterwards.  A very, very rare event me being on the other side of the camera! I look a bit windblown though. 

(PS You can't see the grey but it's coming along quite well.  About 1.5 inches showing now and I've just had 4 inches cut off).

Summer is trying hard to arrive but Spring just won't let go yet, still a little chilly.  I hope you have a good weekend.

In All the Chaos

I've only been absent as things don't seem to be getting done.  I'm having one of those times where I am actually creating but not many end results are appearing.  I did do a whole week after Easter of just coursework so that's nothing to show really.  

Another bag finished.

This started out as a sample piece of beaded on quilting I made in a Lisa Walton class a few years ago.  Why let it go to waste?

I drew out and constructed another house, partially stitched and ready for attaching below.

 And a base for the house to sit with.  All will be revealed sometime soon I hope.  It's with the Dorset Art Weeks in mind, one of the larger pieces I want to show.

Another bag has been started this time trying out the Michele Carragher dragonscale technique.  I'm quite enjoying this mostly because the house is freezing cold and I can take this outside into the sunshine to warm up! 

Evening stitching has been a waistcoat for me, sorry no photo, and this little cardie with hearts for Olivia.  The felt it's sitting on is light grey so I will let you try and adjust the colour balance in your imagination!

Finally the partial rebuild has actually started on the rebuild part!! We have the fireplace again, which will come through the floor-to-be on the very right of the photo out of shot, and all the new floor joists are now being bolted in to replace the what were ceiling joists.

On the delivery we were one length of wood short which arrived a few days later with John's name on it.  You can see it in the photo above resting in the middle of the picture.  It is now in the fabric of the building and John has been immortalised with it!

This week has both the Shepton Mallet Creative Craft Show and the Brockenhurst Needlework Fiesta.  I think I will maybe skip the Shepton Mallet as I'm not really after anything in particular but will enjoy the Fiesta one instead as I've picked up some nice bits I didn't know I needed there before.  It's also a nice excuse to say hello to Myfanwy Hart and Maggie Grey too.

Happy Easter Hols!

I undid the erosion bundles yesterday.  I thought two months was long enough.  I did use damp fabric when I rolled them but it has been so dry I don't think any colour travelled as far as it could have had there been more rain. I only found one solitary spider so good on the creepy crawly front.

Anyway, here are the results.  The red is from the madder root chips and the blue from some random squirts I did with a little dye I had in a spray bottle.  There are some great browns from bracken, teabags, rust and walnut and I'm not sure where the greens came from, or the black but I like them. 

They are now all ironed and in the 'I don't know what to do with them yet' pile.


John and I are reveling in having the house to ourselves and quiet for a few days.  It's been quite an upheaval so far. There is now no upstairs bathroom so that means staggering downstairs a couple of times a night.  We leave a light on down in the big hall so we can see but the dogs have been moved into there too as their hall is out of action so they are disturbed as well.  All the furniture has had to come out of the main sitting room and shoved any which way into a spare room and we are living in the family room part.  All a bit upside down but my studio is untouched so I have peace in there!!!

The night of the high winds last week was very hairy.  The whole house shuddered as the cover over the scaffolding expanded and then deflated with a huge snaps and bangs.  The noise was phenomenal, I'm sure the neighbours love us. The sheet men have been around since and strapped it down tighter and, thankfully, the weather seems a little calmer.  At least it's dry up there as we have no roof but the security lights coming on at night make us stand out like a giant lightbulb!  They can probably see us from space.

I am going to an exhibition opening this afternoon of some of our Dorset Artist's Printmakers and Art Books at L'Artishe Gallery Swanage, which I am looking forward too.  Also last week saw the first in an online magazine featuring some of or Dorset Artists and that can be found HERE if you would like a look.  It was all compiled by a Weymouth photographer Sarah Broome who has never done anything like this before and has truly found a hidden talent!

I hope you have a wonderful long weekend doing whatever it is you do at this time of year.

Monkeys in the Rigging

This week I have had a bit of a mixed bag.  Lots of blasting on with samples for my course. Sampling means lots of pulling of fabrics and any other bits and my little studio is a wreck!  Other than that I have done......

A little bit of papier mache.

Some weaving with pipe cleaners and cotton string.

Here is someone who will eventually make use of the above.

I still have a fair bit of the twiddly bits to do but he's not too far off being finished.

Also I finished another bag made with flimsies and silk.

The title of the post is in reference to the amazing guys who have done this to our house this week!

I cannot believe how they scramble around up there with such ease!  Mind you it's a fairly solid structure now and Monday will see it being covered in plastic.  John calls it our very own Faraday Cage and it certainly blocked the Sky signal and the internet one too so all that has had to be moved temporarily.  Here is John, who absolutely hates heights, having a look to see what our new view will be when it's finished.

When the plastic is on we won't be able to have any fires.  Mind you that's not too much of a problem with the big one in the snug at the moment!!  That end wall has to come down and be rebuilt as the chimney is coming away and that's the end where the bats are.

I have a special section of scaffolding up and over my studio to support some boards which are to stop anything falling through the roof of it and it's a little darker in there than I'm used to but I think I will be hiding in there quite a lot!

It was good to see the start of the F1 begin again with an interesting Quali for some of the teams.  Things can only get better we hope!  We have rugby this afternoon and tomorrow too, sadly already nearing the end of this years 6 Nations.  At least we have the world cup at the end of the year!

Have a great weekend whatever you're doing.

A Few Finishes and a Yay!!

I have really been stalling lately and decided to just pull some fabric, play and stitch and see what came out of it. No planning or too much thought, I just needed to try and kickstart a creative flow.

I cut up a selection of fabrics, layered them, stitched them together then cut them up again. It was fun rearranging them on a background and stitching again.  14 inches square.

They did need just a little bit more though so I folded some of the corners revealing even more layers and added beads.

I also managed a start on one of the purse frames.  I've had this piece of patchwork pinned on my wall for years!

I was never overly fond of the colour so I added layers of wool tops with the embellisher, yes it coped fine with all the seams. (And a form of felting I actually enjoy!)

I added machine stitch in a pattern with a sort of wisteria idea in mind.

I then added lots more stitch, some chopped sari silks, a layer of chiffon and even more stitch so I think that idea went out of the window.  I made up the purse shape and added beading.

In the end there is virtually nothing of the original fabric left on show but I'm quite pleased with the result.

I did indulge in spending a whole day just with pencil and paper.  I'd forgotten how much I love just line and tone. These don't photograph too well I'm afraid coming out a little harsh and lacking in the detail.

Ruger

Ellie

And finally, our front lawn this morning is starting to look like this.

And the view from the in the house is very exciting!! (Not the man, the scaffolding!! What are you like?)

You would not believe the drawings for this project.  For now I will leave you with what the front of the house looks like at the start of this project.

Fingers crossed it looks as good as we hope it will at the end!!