Bird Watch Time Again

Only seems five minutes ago we were doing this!  Not sure how many we have done over the years but even our records at this property are starting add up and make a picture.

Go to Big Garden Bird Watch to sign up and enter your results this weekend.

If you are on my Facebook you may have seen that this week we have had two visitors in the house already!  This has always been a very avian property, probably because of the high and dense hedges we keep, and we do spend a small fortune feeding them all including the pheasants even though I'm rather partial to having one for dinner now and then! (Not one actually from our garden!)

I will leave you with a few pictures of the visitors, a Robin in the house today and a quite young and small male Sparrowhark visiting in the garage on Wednesday.  We wonder if he is the baby of the male and female we have had around her for a few years.

First Sight of the Sea

It was such a beautiful afternoon today after all the rain this morning that we decided to take the dogs down to Studland Beach.  (Sorry, yes another doggy post).

Ellie has only been 'out' a week and has met mud, puddles, the pond (yes she swims!), hedges with deer and rat runs and hares and pheasants that leap out into the air in front of you.  The beach is something completely different!

Of course Ruger and Tully were straight in, Ellie managed to wet her paws and wisely decided it was cold.

But the joy of running with her two bestest buddies kept me busy too!

If you're wondering what Tully is wearing, it's the latest in doggy flotation jackets.  When you're shaped like a brick you tend to swim like one too.  Though she is convinced she could actually do the Channel I think she likes the little bit of support.  Not bad for a little dog who actually detests rain or anything slightly damp.

Of course there are some out there who swim like a fish with the webbed feet and bow wave too.

We had Elsa, Mike and Remi here at the weekend.  Last summer we very nearly retired our good old faithful, rather stressed Stressless chair and bought a new one.  I'm so glad we decided to wait until after any puppy antics had been settled.  Remi and Ellie may look cute but they had exhausted themselves playing on it for at least an hour beforehand!  We may look at another chair next summer instead!

I Knew it Would Take Time!

But boy oh boy, where has January gone?

Ellie has taken up quite a lot of it, as I'm sure you can imagine.  From tomorrow she is all safe to go out in the big wide world so that will be another huge step forward.  She is growing well and has a few basic things understood.  Mind you going out to the loo when it's pouring with rain isn't one of her favourites, and who can blame her!  Thankfully the dogs have their own area in the house and accidents are kept to a minimum.

We had the Openreach engineers here on Monday trying to fix everything.  Apparently last Friday one of the maintenance teams had been shoving cables down the wrong conduit in their eagerness to fix the storm damage and totally messed up the whole village.  There were crossed lines everywhere, quite a lot of door knocking with messages and diverted calls to mobiles by BT for those of us who had them.  Unfortunately the people we were crossed with didn't own mobiles so we were receiving their calls too, including one at 1am wondering if everything was all right!  By then tempers were a little short.  We seemed to have the most complicated problems because of having two lines, that new fangled internet thingy (not many in the village have internet, see comment about not having mobiles either, talk about back and beyond!) and other things attached like security and fire alarms.  The poor guy we had assigned was backwards and forwards between the exchange, the green box and us for most of the day and he had been given 15 jobs to do that morning!  Mind you sorting us had a sort of knock on effect for a couple of others but he still moaned that his targets would never be met that week.  Hardly his fault.  There were at least six other vans in the village too all trying to sort this mess made by one slip of a maintenance team.  Why do these this always happen on a Friday too?

I have managed to do some very quick bits in my sketchbooks.  Not many as it turns out but at least some. Just mainly sloshing a bit of paint around whilst waiting for a certain pup to settle at 6 in the morning really.

This was pure doodle.  And then a bit of paint.  And an alternative background added so a few mornings worth really.

I found a picture in a magazine and tried blending it into a background.

This one I picked up my pencil whilst sipping coffee and sketched a owl pincushion Elsa had made me but I put him on a branch

Ellie has been very good overall but one morning she did discover my box of willow charcoal.  With a piece that was left I sketched my mug and rug.  I may go back and fiddle with this one.

I can't tell you how hard I find it to do these things!  They are too naive for me!  I really am not used to just sketching quickly, I want detail and accuracy and I struggle with just accepting that all these pictures are OK in their own right.  The urge to rip them out of my sketchbook is huge but I am resisting.  I am not a great natural artist, I have to work at it so I focus on detail. I want to let go of that and just 'do'.

And I have done a little stitchwork.  :-)

 I have to do a few samples this morning for the C&G and this afternoon Elsa, Cat and I have a girly time in Salisbury booked.  Something to do with a wedding I believe, lol!

Thank you to those who commented whilst we were out of connection and those who emailed.  Hello to some new followers.  I have a lot of blogs to catch up on and I apologise if I don't manage to comment on any for a bit, there's a lot to plough through as well as life to live!! I've missed you all.

Have a great weekend.

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Incommunicado

In one of the big storms on Thursday we lost power and the phone lines. It was only for an hour or so and there was a lot of chainsawing somewhere in the village. We still have lost one of the phone lines which just happens to be the one with everything on it including the Internet. John had a hell of a time with Sky to put out an engineer so we've now reverted to BT, who have GB based call centres, but we are still waiting, but it is the weekend. Thank goodness for the iPhones even though it's hard work using them sometimes! Stitch work is doing well. Ellie has found her routine with us and the other dogs so I have more little bursts of time. I have even managed to also pick up a pencil or brush most days too just for a quick 10 minute play with paper etc. to try and stretch myself a little. Hopefully all will be resumed shortly!

Woo Hoo We Made It!!

Happy New Year!

We puppy sat Remi while Elsa and Mike went to a wedding. Puppy tumbles everywhere.  Hard work but the new year arrived as it should.

No resolutions, they are only made to be broken.  I will be loosing weight though, the wedding is more than enough motivation!  I will also try and be a little more creative in all departments.

My painting has been non existent so a few weeks ago I signed up to a course by Flora Bowley .  I love her use of colour and she uses acrylics which is a medium have not really explored much.

I am trying to slot in the C&G when puppy permits but I am keeping her away from my room at the moment as she is still in super explore mode.  I do try to keep the room tidy and pet proof but it also helps that Ruger, Tully and Oscar are all laid back animals and not too bothered about putting their noses where they shouldn't.  All they usually want is somewhere peaceful to sleep.  My little room has been a haven for them over last month!

There is a lull in activity at the moment, all feeding, watering and exercise has been done so now they sleep!  I hope your New Year is creative, inspiring and productive!

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Merry Christmas

Well you could probably guess that life here has been doggy dominant.  I have sneaked about a total of an hour in my room to have a quick stitch and play on the City & Guilds.  I did manage to knit a pair of bed socks in the evenings though!!

And just to bore the pants off you all, and to remind me that sometimes there is calm in the House household, if very brief, I will leave you with some doggy poses involving sleep.  (If you look carefully you may even see the odd quilt or stitched cushion!)

Thank you for following our blog this past year.  From this family to yours, we wish you a

Merry Christmas and wonderful New Year.

Chaos Reigns Supreme

Finally, after a lot of searching, juggling and decisions we managed to bring home our latest edition to the family.

This is Ellie.

She did do a lot of sleeping most of the way home, which we were grateful for.  Seeing as we were in the car for 4 hours we only had 3 wees and all in the right place.  No other accidents or car sickness.

Mind you, now she is finding her feet, I think the resident stuffed duck population is in for a hard time.

But you know butter wouldn't melt really.

Ruger and Tully are not quite sure what to make of this energetic, squeaky little thing and Oscar is grateful he can jump onto high places.  We can't wait for her to meet Remi who is a lot nearer her size!  Vets and vaccinations tomorrow.

Everything, including Christmas probably, is on hold for a while!

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Sharon B's Studio Journal Class

If you were wondering about Sharon's studio journal class I mentioned a few posts ago, this is where she is now advertising it.

Sharon B's Studio Journal Class


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That Rorschach Effect

Rorschach played in my head with those fabrics I dyed last week.  John kept seeing things and so did I.  We didn’t necessarily see the same thing but there were a lot of insects and bugs!  Anyway I saw these in this piece and had to play. 

I think it was the pupa stage that caught my eye more than anything but there had to be an adult stage as well, and the fabric had provided that too.  

I added some Inktense pencil to give depth to the background but the only thing I added to the pink fabric was a very slight metallic sheen from some Lumiere to the adult as a lot of beetles have that irridesence to their carapaces. 

Freemotion quilting and a jewellery headpin with silver bead for the pin and it was finished.

Someone was a slight distraction at the weekend.

And I made a Thing! No recipe as such.  I had been having a pre Christmas rummage in the larder and found a couple of bags of dried fruit and glacé cherries, you know the sort of thing that lurks.  I put all it all into a bowl and added some brandy, sherry, glug of honey, juice and zest of a lemon and a splash of water for lack of orange juice and left it while I thought of what to do with it.  I had also found a bag of premixed shortcrust pastry but I knew I didn't want to make mince pies, I wanted it to be a little more though I didn't have many ingredients really.  I made up the pastry and lined a 9inch square loose bottomed cake tin to a depth of about 2 inches.  I poured in the fruit which had now been soaking for about four hours and were much more plump and topped it off with a Bakewell topping, without the almonds, made with 5oz butter beaten to death with 5oz caster sugar, 2 eggs added and 2oz plain flour folded in.  In the oven for 35 minutes and this popped out.   

It is (was) very yum and quite rich but the sponge bit meant it wasn't overkill on the fruit.  Lovely with vanilla custard and would be worth doing again with the nuts too. 

And finally this is Oscar watching The Frozen Planet with us on Sunday.  He was facinated by the little mice under the snow but when I took the photo the owl that was after the mice appeared on the screen.

It didn't catch him, honest!

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Shades May Be Needed!

Yesterday I dyed some fabrics using the method shown by Laura on DesignMattersTV a few weeks ago.  Where she scrunched into flat trays, I only had empty laundry gel capsule tubs.  I scrunched in the same way like a concertina and then gently wound it around so it looked like a Danish pastry so it would fit in the bottom of the tubs.  I have a few whitish patches but then each of these pieces of fabric, apart from two almost all orange ones, are 1 metre by 1.5 metres so quite large.  I wanted vibrant, I think I managed vibrant!

I think next time I would use smaller pieces and perhaps sacrifice some of the crystalline effect for less white areas.  I mustn't forget also that the chances of me using this as a whole cloth are about 0 so they will be cut up  and the colours redistributed.  At least they will all have a united theme.  They are fascinatingly like a Rorschach test though, I could spend hours looking at them! 

And the single colour ones are textured too.

My sewing machine has been in for a service so I have been muddling along on my workshop one.  Still a great machine, but not my Bob.  Yesterday I phoned them as it had been three weeks and they said it would be 10 days max and I was told that yes it was done, had been sitting there for ages they just hadn't managed to ring me.  Great service, not.  If only the recognised Bernina dealers weren't so far apart!!

We have been to a couple of Christmas Craft fairs and, because we're doing a little of the Buy British and local thing this year we actually finished our shopping well before December.  Mind you I do tend to buy and make gifts through the year so there's not a loony rush at the end but now we have reached December I am a little more happy to start thinking about the whole thing, especially the cooking side of it!

And just because he simply is just so adorable....

I can't wait to give him a cuddle again this weekend!

Off to to some C&G now and wait the arrival of John and a sewing machine.

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I've Become a Nanny! Sort Of...

Elsa and Mike have their new addition to the family.

Isn't he the cutest!  Just love pointers and their wrinkly baby faces.

I have been creating, honest!! Had a day set aside and Sod and Murphy both came to join in and then John had a rather nasty tummy bug for a bit.  and, and, and.....


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Out and About

We had a trip out to the Wimborne Food Festival a couple of weekends ago.
Lots to see,

 buy,

 and certainly smell.

 Even the Minster joined in.

And a little entertainment from the Quayside Cloggies morris group.

It was a lovely morning out and we come home with quite a few tasty goodies that didn't last long!

When we were in Dublin last month one of the galleries had the new book of Hans Christian Anderson Fairy Tales just released and I bought it because it is years since I thought about fairy tales and also because the illustrations were by Harry Clarke.

Certainly plenty of inspiration for some textile work one day and almost a forerunner of zentangling!

I have mostly just been working on the City & Guilds as far as creating is concerned.  I have had a few sudden panics about not actually doing anything that I want to do, only things that are sent out to do. Don't get me wrong, I am very much enjoying the course and I'm having tremendously encouraging support from both my tutor and John, I just keep having flashes of things I could make outside the course (like the trolls) but I don't really want to start anything new knowing there are some exciting things coming up in the course that should be taking priority and plenty of past things I should be finishing!!  A real war of the devil and the angel within. I am becoming better at telling them both to shut up!

With the knowledge that I really am terrible at keeping notes, using a journal and sketching out my sudden thoughts for future reference, I have signed up for Sharon Bogon's Studio Journal course which starts in February.   Still a long way off I know!!!  Plenty of time to start accumulating all those Post Its and scribbles.  The course is not on sketchbook work or art journalling, it's purely on using a journal as part of a design process.  Hopefully I can actually learn a discipline that will add to and enhance what I am learning in the C&G and to take forward, at least the course is only for 6 weeks.

I have managed to quick knit some fingerless gloves.  That's finally used up some of the sock yarn I had as part of the sock club from D&T Crafts last year and re-aquainted me with double pointed needles, something I haven't done for years and don't particularly enjoy!  In the colour way 'Aquarius', good for walking the dogs and hiding doggy slobber and mud anyway!

And Friday I managed to send off another section of the C&G  just as the dogs demanded their walk.  Yesterdays sandy charge around was back down to Studland.  A beautiful morning for it too.

Waiting for the ferry to Sandbanks we had this chap sit on the wall and tell us all about the castle on Brownsea Island behind him.

Thank you for the kind words about Foxy.  He is missed by his brother who has also decided being the only cat can have huge advantages.  No one has the heart to move him from in front of the fire or off the clean washing pile.  Even the dogs have given in complaining that he's taken over their bed.

Have a great Sunday.

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