3.1.12

Out, about & inside


I love this time of year - everything goes back to normal and my world can putter on, but with a whole shiny new year to get things done in. We don't really go in for Christmas - Andy has to work (even on Boxing Day this year) and I prefer to work - but we took a couple of days off at New Year and drove out and about in the comfort of The Wheels. Had a quiet lunch at the Farmer's Arms, a great family pub in Guiting Power.



It is a rare thing in the upmarket Cotswolds - a normal, nice pub with a comfy atmosphere. No posh gastro-anything, no minor celeb chef serving pickled pheasant with pineapple. We like it. And it serves great local Donnington beer - for me the passenger that is, the driver had a nice ginger beer. (A tip for tourists in the Cotswolds looking for a traditional pub - find a Donnington Brewery one, all the ones we have been to are excellent)



It's all a bit dull, blustery and rainy here at the moment, so I have been driven around and parked about, so that I could do some (very) rubbishy landscape sketching. Snowshill is a favourite area for big fields and lowering skies.




Despite the gloom, the landscape is still stunning, especially over the Wiltshire Pewsey Downs. Sweeping and mystically atmospheric in all weathers, even on a murky day.




My favourite clump of trees; I can see it from all angles on our summer circular walk.




Spot the Wiltshire White Horse winter sleeping on the hillside.



Silbury Hill manages to camouflage itself very snugly into the surrounding countryside. To get an idea of how big this amazing prehistoric man-made mound is, the tiny little light to the middle left is a car headlight, on the road which runs past it.




As is tradition, I had a big studio tidy, ready for the new year. I have another full order sheet and am ploughing my way through a big list which includes some very remorseful and late emails to friends around the world and explaining why I didn't do a Christmas card this year. I don't deserve you, I really don't.



Updating my website is proving to be several days worth of work in itself; I'd rather be needle felting, but I can't punt for new illustration work without a decent website. Oh dear me, it is a very dull job indeed. By the way, a little tip; if you are like me and have several piles of *stuff* taking up floor space, simply amalgamate them into taller piles! I am quietly proud of this flash of genius.




What isn't dull at all is organising my first needle felting workshop which is happening later this month - two days of private tuition down in Bath with nine people. I have never been to Bath before, so it will be a very big adventure.



24.12.11

Santa



Santa - 'Santa Claus' - an alternative name for 'Father Christmas'




Santa - A girl's name of Spanish origin, meaning 'holy'.




Santa - a small needle felted dog, just four inches tall. Santa and I would like to wish you all a peaceful Christmas, however you celebrate it and thank you for your company; my world would be a much poorer one without my blog friends, silent or otherwise. Santa says - 'rrruff!!'


21.12.11

A Cotswold Gallery




We have acquired the winter use of a vehicle and it has transformed our lives; the aim is that Andy won't risk life and limb on the motorbike when it is icy and snowy, on his long commute to work. But it also means that we can get out a little more in the bad weather, when it's just too darned cold and wet to go on the bike. Previously I have rarely ventured out much at this time of year, rural public transport being too costly and there are limits to how far I can get on my bicycle.


I've never lived with a car of any kind before, apart from a few years with my foster parents. However my cantankerous foster father made a particular point of not giving me lifts anywhere, even on dark evenings, which can be hazardous for a teenage girl. It didn't kill me, but it made me even more aware, if I needed it, of how little he cared for me. So this is an unimaginable luxury and I am enjoying every single minute of it, while it's here. I can actually sit back in the warm and look at our gorgeous Cotswolds, in their winter splendour, in comfort, while sucking a sherbert lemon. Which you can't do on the back of a bike.


We were headed over to Winchcombe, as I wanted to visit a couple of Twitter-friends. We arrived just as a rainbow was disappearing into this historic town, which nestles snugly in the landscape, surrounded by wooded hills and on the doorstep of the stately
Sudeley Castle.



Firstly I visited Bob and Carol at
Sprogs, which is the best toy shop in the Cotswolds. No tatty plastic to be found here, just well chosen, beautiful toys and gifts for every age. I stayed chatting for them for ages (poor Andy!) and managed to do a little business there as well, so a return trip in January is arranged. My next visit was to see Jane and her newly re-furbished Winds of Change Gallery, who is featured in the current BBC Homes and Antiques magazine. I've met Jane before, last summer, but haven't seen the gallery since the change over.


It is gorgeous. Jane has exquisite taste and has created a stylish, clean but comfortable setting for the lovely arts and crafts collection, much of it local.




Although it is a modest size, there is a feeling of lightness and space.


This wonderful rocking horse (with a real horsehair mane) was painted by local folk artist Katie B. Morgan and carved by her father. Katie is a traditional fairground and gypsy wagon painter, amongst other things and
her website is well worth a look if you love this kind of work, as is her interesting blog.



Andy was very taken with this hand crafted ladder back chair -




And I am saving my pennies for a
Woolsoft 100% British wool cushion - maybe for our next house, if we ever get there.



Jane provided coffee with mince pies and we stayed for some time, discussing this and that, making a date for another meeting soon, when I hope to meet Katie B. Morgan too. Jane welcomes browsers and visitors, so if you are local to the Cheltenham area or nearby, (or even just passing through) do stop and say hello. Winchcombe is a vibrant town, with two great butchers and a nice variety of shops and pubs, with some stunning local walks and the famous
Belas Knap Long Barrow just up the road.


The short afternoon was darkening and we began our journey home, back through the quaint High Street of
Winchcombe town.


Catching the last fragment of winter sunshine which brings out the soft richness of the neutrals in the landscape and bare trees.


Later in the week I also made time to cut a new block of my 'Little Hare' design. as the old one was a bit battered. I seem to have re-learned my rusty printing skills, as to my amazement, I printed off 30 or so near perfect prints first time round and knowing how popular the first one was, I've put some of them *here* in my Etsy shop again, at the same 'under a fiver' price.

14.12.11

Outside looking in




The wonderful thing about keeping a sketchbook is that you can tell it secrets that you would not tell anyone else. Whether anyone else understands what is inside, or even likes it, is neither here nor there.







9.12.11

Nothing but needle felt




I feel I ought to make some kind of apology for my blog being about very little but needle felt - however, that is what my life mainly consists of. I don't go out, don't do the cinema/eating out/shopping/concerts/whatever most people do. I tend to stay in my overcrowded room working and hope to earn a bob or two along the way. I did manage to update my shop recently and have stock for the first time ever. Sparrow Hill Cottage was snapped up within seconds though.





I have
two teeny tiny toadstools left, gift boxed and tagged - and am happy to add clips at no extra charge, for pegging onto trees and wotnot.




My new fox and polar bear brooches were also bought at once, so I'm offering them again as custom orders, with a four day lead time, each one taking a day to make.





Nobody loves my
crow brooch! Andy hates it. Maybe he's right.




I have four robins up for grabs -




- and just two
Silver Pine danglies left -



And for the first time in two years, I have desk top calendars, at the same price as they were two years ago.



None of these things are as desirable to most people as a Kindle, an iPad; or a new pair of fashionable shoes, (none of which I possess). I like to think that they will last a lot longer and are a heck of a lot cheaper as well as being 100% handmade.

6.12.11

Bracken hare



December's hare is called Bracken and he is going to my very first male customer. In nearly four years of needle felting, all my customers (apart from the odd one buying for his lady love) have been women.




Bracken is definitely a 'chap'; he is heavier in build than Willow and has big paws to 'box' with. There is a great little home video of boxing hares here.




I read somewhere that hares take on the colour of the earth where they live. Last Sunday we were over the border in Gloucestershire on a cold winter walk. There were three orangey tinted hares grazing - this is a terrible photo, but they are actually a long way from us, and my zoom was struggling.




This is the field next door, beautifully ploughed and glowing copper orange in the weak sunlight, not unlike Bracken himself. So maybe it is true; all the hares I have ever seen have matched the earth of their area.


3.12.11

The Fibreworks & a giveaway



The other week I popped over to the nearby market town of Chipping Norton, to meet up with a fellow blogger/Twitterer, Cristina Colli. She has the most gorgeous lifestyle and interiors blog with exquisite photographs that put my snaps to shame, appropriately called 'Positively Beauty' and she was showing me the new wool and haberdashery shop on the block, The Fibreworks.





I can remember this little shop in other guises, but it has never looked as beautiful as this. Light, airy and yet cosy, it is a treasure house of lovely and unusual yarns, with a well lit bay window area, where you may sit comfortably to knit or browse one of the many craft books on sale. Claire and Lesley, the shop owners, are always on hand with advice and help, should your latest creation be proving a challenge.




I don't knit - craft and needle felting being my 'day job' five day a week at least, I shy away from having a crafty hobby. But the wonderful wools on display were almost enough to tempt me.





I did lust over the pretty haberdashery section though and invested in a couple of thread winders, with the noble intention of beginning to tidy my tangled thread box. The shop (despite the absence of people in my photos) was bustling and humming - Chipping Norton needed a shop like this.





I was actually there to talk about doing a needle felting workshop there next year; I am already booked to do a weekend course down in Bath, this January for a private group. After some discussion we felt that starting with a simple thing such as a flower brooch would be a good three or four hour project for beginners.





We haven't decided on a date yet, but if you are in the Chipping Norton area and think you might be interested, do contact The Fibreworks, we should hopefully have sorted a date out soon. Their blog is here with photos of the various workshops and happy crafting customers they have had in the short time they have been open.





Here is Cristina, asking advice about some hand warmers she had begun at a knitting course there. Claire and Lesley give everyone a warm welcome, so do pop in if you are local or even just passing through. Chipping Norton is a really great little town with a wide variety of independent shops and a bustling atmosphere. You might even bump into me if I've winkled myself out of my studio.





There is a review of both of my Puddletown Tales books (featuring my needle felt toys) on the UK Handmade blog, and a giveaway of one of each titles. To enter, you need to click here to visit the blog and answer the simple question. I'm also adding a signed postcard and pin badge with each one. CLOSES TUESDAY NIGHT DEC 6TH UK TIME!

And finally...thank you to the Cuteable blog, for giving my Teeny Tiny Toadstools a mention!