Still Ne'er Clout Casting

It's now June and this is our Hawthorn, almost reluctantly opening a few of it's flowers.  Normally it's managed to carpet the lawn with petals and the rose is taking over by now.  I guess this is one May tree that is definitely feeling the lateness of the year. Jumpers and socks are stil to hand. 

We took the dogs for a very blustery walk up to Win Green on the Bank Holiday.

We can see it from almost everywhere around here as it is the highest pont on the Cranborne Chase (910 feet). It's only a couple of miles from the house too but we had never actually been up there.  The view is 360degs like this with a little clump of beech trees on the top.

This week I handed in the Chatelaine.  I know they won't be shown until 3rd August but I thought I'd rather it be there and safe than here and forgotten!

The port tube had a bit of a makeover.  I quilted and beaded the damask to make the cover and the inside is just plain.

It took a while to work out the hanging hook but thanks to John's odds box in the garage and a Dremmel I managed it.  Very pleased over all.  (Sorry just realised you can't actually see that the lid lifts with a hook underneath to hang the chatelaine from. )

The Dorset Art Fair is on this weekend at Kingston Mauward, Dorchester so I think we will have a nice trip over to there later to see what they've all been up to!

But I've just been outside and I think John is having a bit of a play with his girls first!!!

Have a great weekend.

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Chatelaine Finish

I have managed to bead all the pieces together now (lets see how Picasa deals with long thin photos because as a rule it hates portrait!).

As usual my photographic skills have truly let me down.  Believe me I have the kit, I have the books and I have the friends with the great advice... but I'm just not a photographer.

I've also not really staged it very well but I'm sure you can imagine it's not the easiest thing to take a photo of.

It will do!! Next I have to think of a way of presenting it and I have a thought or two but it will have to wait a while.  

I recently left a comment on Maggie Grey's blog and won Dale Rollerson's book on using Romeo. 

And I have just recieved this lovely pile of yum from Maggi too. A great place to go should you need some hand dyes. 

I have been pottering around in my lovely little studio space (hard to think I once couldn't bear to call it a studio!) and becoming rather grumpy at a) not finding what I want without pulling the place to pieces or b) panicing that I don't have enough storage or space. 

I think a part of the problem is that I do quite a few disciplines and several of them have tools and equipment that are interchangeable.  This means of course that I can't have some things totally kept together as I'm often borrowing from one to do another. 

I have also noticed that when I really, really look I have a half empty box here and a draw with wrong things in there.  I feel I have just about come to the end of my 'needtobuyeverythingouttherecozi'vejustgottohaveit' stage, which has taken 5 years! I suppose there is only so many things that make up the basic tool kits of these hobbies and starting from scratch is quite hard.  Jan and I went to The Big Bead Show at Sandown last Saturday and I was really very good only buying a few rolls of ribbon and some sanding papers for the metal clay. I am now about to move on and try and use what I have.

I am going to Go For The Tidy Up!  Yes I am going to (try to) sort my room into a more organised space and repurpose all those badly used drawers, boxes and shelves that just collect.  I'm starting with the book shelves in the hall so I have somewhere to aim the books that are taking up a huge area of my desk.  I will also then be able to go to the collection of books for the type of info I need rather than wasting half the morning trying to find one! At least I have been a good girl and used the My Library app and I do actually know which books I have, it's just the where.  Shame the app doesn't home in on them too. 

So, wish me luck and I hope to surface again having found all those things I forgot I had!!

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Seemingly Eternal Beading

I think I'm winning with the Mac. I don't have a retentive memory when it comes to technology.  I'm a plodder that will keep going until something happens and usually manage to win in the end. (Unlike someone else in this house who just starts banging the mouse and yelling grumpily until I come to the rescue).  Thank you to those who have been helpful and patient!

The latest piece on the chatelaine has been done.  I spent the best part of two and a half days on this.  I become so cross when I stitch for hours and only a little seems to appear!

 

I'm nearing completion on this so will either go for the final stretch, or more than likely put it to one side for another little while and play with something else. I think that's the major part of the bead embroidery done now though. (Yes! Another pair of scissors!  but these came with the challenge).

A couple of weeks ago I managed to put together a collagraph plate, my first one away from Sarah Ross-Thompson; she has now moved to Scotland and is missed!

My button polish used to seal the plate came in a plastic bottle that I couldn't undo the safety top on.  I took it into the garage to use some water pump pliers on it and just as it it came free the flimsie  

bottle squeezed and there was button polish all over me. Actually it was all over my favourite cardie. 

I could have cried, but it wasn't over any of the cars, thank goodness!! Cardie has now been washed a few time and finally the polish is just about gone. I did say it was a fave one, John bought it for me. 

And this Friday, Saturday and Sunday it's the triple marathon, Juassic Coast Challenge Elsa and Mike are taking part in, the link to the sponsor page is on the top right.  Please, please keep your fingers crossed for them and everything else crossed for some decent running weather.  

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More Movement on the Chatelaine

I have managed to turn this little pile of bits...

Via this...

And this...

Into this.

With this inside.

The large crystal had to be used somehow and I thought about it for ages.  When I rummaged around I found the little purse and knew it would kill two birds with one stone as both a free option addition and a vehicle for the crystal.  The purse had a slight dent in the mesh that the crystal sat in perfectly.  The purse was brass to start with but I painted it with black enamel. The silver coloured clip in the top photo is from a Christmas cracker several years ago.  I knew I'd find a use for it one day.  I've secured it onto the back of the mesh purse with wire to act as a belt clip so that was another compulsory part of the brief fulfilled! I then beaded onto Ultrasuede back and front and fixed it through the mesh with stitches and lined it with silk and more beads.  I can't say I'm totally thrilled with it but it does the job.

I wanted to also to bring in another colour other than just the black and gold.  There were some AB in blue hint on some of the black beads on the needle case so that is where the blue comes from.  I may go back and add a few more of the blue to the needle case.

The Big Garden Bird Watch was a couple of weekends ago and we did our usual count.  This year all the old familiars like the Sparrows, Chaffinches and Goldfinches, all of which we have plenty, seemed to be having an away day but we did have a couple of new visitors.

It took us a while to work out what these two were as they are so tiny, our smallest bird in fact, and incredibly fast!

And, though the photos are very blurred as we were sat away back from the window and they were in a shrub about 25 feet away you can see they are Goldcrest.  So, so exciting!

We also had a return visit from this rather elegant female Blackcap.  A pair that we are seeing a little more of though not too regularly.  

I think the regular feeding is key in having so many different birds.  I know we are very fortunate to have space to have lots of feeders and they are placed in the open but not too far from shrubs and trees.  Birds like to see what's around them and have a bolt hole too.  We also took a while to find a supplier of good seed and nuts, birds really do respond well to good food! 

Well it's a beautiful, sunny day and the Daffodils are coming out to join the Snowdrops and the buds are really fat on the Magnolia so it almost feels like Spring. I hope you have good weather where you are. 

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A New Year Begins

Happy New Year!!! 

I wish you all a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year and thank you for following my bloggy ramblings.  If there is one great thing that comes out of blogging, (apart from chatting to and sometimes meeting other bloggy peeps), it's having the slice of time diary to look back on.  Sometimes it's quite surprising!  

I did have to do a bit of scrambling in the email box to find out when exactly this little lot had arrived. 

They have been sitting on my desk since AUGUST!!! I'd better pull my finger out.  

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