Attic24

Back Home

Helloooooooo! I'm back home again, giving you all a gentle little wave from the Attic window. We were away last week, off on our usual Summer trip down to Dorset to spend time with my folks. It was a much needed holiday in more ways than one, a break from routine, and a chance for me personally to rest and recharge my rather flat batteries. I made the decision to disconnect myself physically and mentally from the internet last week and took a complete break from technology (save for a few quick snaps shared to Instagram). It felt good (and necessary) I must say, and I feel much better for taking a good rest.

Dorset was as lovely as ever, such a tonic to be beside the sea and have nothing much of an agenda for the week. Easy, lazy days, outings taken on a whim according to the weather and also (unusually for us) a couple very low-key days where we did absolutely nothing at all. On those two days (which were wet and cold) we just stayed put indoors and chilled out. It felt strange to do this actually, but the Little People seemed happy with their electronics and J and I spent time chatting and reading. Sometimes it's surprisingly hard to slow right down and accept that it's perfectly ok to just take it gently every once in a while and do very little.

As you can see, the wet stay-in days were indeed balanced rather nicely by some gorgeous sunshiny days where we did get out and about and made the most of being outdoors. I'll share some more pictures with you in the next few days, I do really enjoy recording our holidays with words and pictures, preserving the memories for future pondering.

Now do you want to hear something surprising???

Weeellll...........for the first time in a very long time (talking years here)...........I am not (I repeat, NOT) suffering from any post holiday blues. EH???? How does that work then????!!! Not sure to be honest, but I am thankful. On our last day in Dorset I found myself all of a sudden really looking forward to being home again, which pretty much hasn't ever happened before. Even though our house is messy and chaotic, there is also rather a huge dollop of cosy, homely comfort within these four walls, and I was craving it. I am glad to be back home.

We are at the start of a three week period now where I will be home with the Little People whilst J is at work and as a result I am honing my multi tasking skillz. I am pretty good with the whole juggling thing though, and so far (half way through day three) all has been going well. I am making simple lists to keep me on track, balancing out basic housework (the bare minimum), laundry, food shopping, baking, cooking, de-cluttering (a little each day), child-led activities (a lot each day it seems, but that's ok), small outings (to buy art and craft supplies, which was rather enjoyable), and work (Yarndale stuff this week as we are working on the brochure).

I am enjoying the fact that the Little Peeps are on the whole pretty good at filling their days with stuff.

Little Man is almost 13 now, a taller-than-me, athletic, quietly confident young man. He divides his days between solo time in his bedroom and being out and about with his group of buddies (a bmx bike craze has landed here), so truthfully we don't see much of him day to day. We come together for evening meals, but everything else is flexible. He tried, for the first time, to skip evening meal on Monday and I laid it down loud and clear - absolutely no way, that precious 30 minutes of family time around the table is a non-negotiable slot in an otherwise pretty flexible day. He took it well, with a quiet, accepting shrug of the shoulders.

Little Lady is 11 and spends a fair bit of time in her bedroom these days, doing her own thing. But she is also a sociable little thing, prancing about downstairs, singing, dancing, chattering away, joining in with her Little Brother whenever there is some sort of activity going on. Sometimes it will be something simple like sitting to watch a film, other times it will involve painting, colouring, hama beads or crafting. Still a lot of creativity going on daily here it seems, and I love to see it all unfold across the table tops.

Little B is 5 and still very much needing my time and attention throughout the day. I am trying to balance out his needs by encouraging him to think of activities he would like to do rather than always looking to me to organise everything for him. Yesterday he asked for the paints to come out and proceeded to paint me a rainbow which made my very happy. We also took a trip out to the supermarket to buy some fresh craft supplies (oh the joy of coloured card and glitter glues!) so there has been much snipping and gluing going on.

As for me - not much me time at the moment, but I am trying. I bought this wonderful book a few weeks ago and have only managed to read the first article so far, but it is a lovely, gentle reminder to slow down and appreciate the good of these fleeting summer days. Talking of which.....here are a few Postcards from Dorset....

.....lovely reminders of a Summer week by the sea.

Oh, it feels really good to be back here, I've missed you all! More ramblings from me soon xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

PS Just remembered this post from seven years ago (SEVEN!). Gosh. things change a lot and then again not so much with children....

 

 

 

Gently Does It

We've enjoyed a very gentle week doing very little here in the Attic. It's been indulgent, lazy (oh so lazy), relaxing and fun. Good times. 

The weather has been mixed, but aside from one or two forays to the supermarket to buy essential food supplies we've not left home, content to stay put within the cosy four walls of our home. If you wanted to find me during this past week, all you had to do was go to the Big Chair in the light of the bay window which is where I've mostly been sat. The chair and windowsill have become my studio for the week and I've absolutely loved the hours of crochet time that I've been granted.

My new blanket is well under way and I can't tell you how much I'm enjoying it. I'm making 5-round granny squares, with the 6th round being the join-as-you-go round. Unusually for me, I decided to make all the little middle squares in one go (there are 126 of them), well that's to say I've worked on these a bit each day over the course of this week. I love that I've done it this way, I love looking at them all nestled together waiting for their turn to become proper squares and part of the bigger picture.

The Little People have been a delight this week, slightly irritating at times (sooo many requests for food!), but pretty great really. Little Man (age 12) is very independent these days, coming and going with his mates, dividing his time between home, the park, the shops and various friends houses. Little Lady and Little B have played a lot together, which I've enjoyed watching from the quiet of my crochet corner. 

Yesterday, we all sat at the table together and did some Easter colouring, cutting and sticking, it's been a while since we did this together and I enjoyed it.

We need new pens though, many of the colours are beginning to run out now after several years of heavy duty use. I've always bought Berol Colouring Pens for the Little Peeps, they are absolutely brilliant. We have a mixture of fine, broad and brush pens and like I say, they are very, very well used here.

Whilst we were in and out of our craft drawers searching for glue and various bits, we re-discovered this old tub of cutters and tools. I've had these for ten years or so now, they were originally bought when Little Man was a tot and we were in the midst of a play-doh obsession. These days we've gone back to the old fashioned medium of plasticine, oh the smell of plasticine is sooooo nostalgic don't you think? I was instantly transported back to my own childhood the minute a got a whiff of it. Love that stuff.

Little B made this Easter wreath from an activity book I picked up last week at the supermarket. He was so pleased with it, and visibly delighted when I hung it up and told him how much I loved it. He then asked if I could "photograph it and put it on your blog", made me smile :)

I love these sort of slow, relaxed weeks, they are very good for mind, body and soul. I love the ease of simple stay-home holiday days and the palpable contentment they bring.

I hope you're enjoying a wonderful Easter time full of things you love too. Gently does it remember......

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A Gathered Wreath

 On Saturday when I went out for my little walk to the woodsy bit of the park, I wanted some fresh air and "breathing space" but there was also an extra little something on my agenda. I was off on a secretive Gathering and Foraging mission. 

Since joining in with Instagram, I've discovered some wonderful writers and photographers who create and share the most beautiful nature-inspired ideas. It might be a little jar of flowers and foliage, or a carefully curated collection of natural finds, or an elaborate arrangement of natural objects, but no matter how simple or complex the set up, the resulting photographs are incredibly beautiful and inspiring.

So last week I came across an inspiring place called Little Green Shed. Labelled as a Lifestyle Blog, it's an appealing mix of interior design, creative makes, reviews, interviews and musings. The thing that drew me to this blog was a series of collective images entitled "Nature in the Home" - this is where Lou invites her followers to submit their own photographs for a weekly series all about bringing itty bits of nature indoors. It's a simple idea, but what makes it so lovely is the stunning quality of the images, it really is an absolute feast for the eyes. If you follow this link and scroll down through the images you will see what I mean, it's a whole lot of inspiring, visual fabulousness!

I love discovering new blogs and new outlets for creativity, I think it's really brilliant when you happen upon something unexpected which sets you off on an inspiring journey. On Saturday, I was on that journey all right - I had this idea in my mind and nothing would have stopped me. It was this image that did it. Such a simple thing, a wreath made entirely of dead things foraged natural finds. So I took myself off to the edge of the woods and foraged and gathered dead things into my spotty cloth bag. Dried grasses and weedy looking dead stems and twigs and the such like. I felt a bit conspicuous tramping about in the soggy undergrowth plucking dried up bits of foliage but the few dog walkers and mums with toddlers at the park paid me no attention whatsoever.

Gathering and collecting from nature is not a new thing for me though, I've been doing it for as long as I can remember. Ever since I was a child I have collected shells, feathers, seeds, stones, leaves and flowers, you might even remember six years ago when I shared the contents of my Secret Drawers? It's a bit of a strange habit I suppose, and it is hugely reassuring and comforting to know that there are others out there in the world who also do this same thing. Phew. I'm not alone.

I really love these dried out stems of unknown plant life, they are so delicate and pretty and very apt for creating a winter sort of a wreath. Lou's Winter Wreath is made using dried sweet pea stems, bracken leaves, dried seed heads and hydrangea flowers, so I kind of followed that recipe for my own Gathered Wreath.

I have done things a bit differently though, in that I didn't happen to have a pre-formed twiggy wreath base to hand so had to think of something a bit more homemade. 

I used a length of thin garden wire to form a ring, bending and twisting the wire round three times to make it strong enough. I formed a small hanging loop at the top too, then used four strands of green yarn (my cowl-neck poncho yarn in fact) to wrap around the wire. 

Do you remember in October when I showed you my Autumnal gatherings at the start of my Cosy Blanket journey? The above picture is a very, very lazy confession - that tray of natural finds had been put on top of a cupboard and abandoned, gosh, the housekeeper here at number 24 is an absolute disgrace you know. She didn't want to throw the tray of nature in the bin you see, and she couldn't quite think what to do with it all, so she simply left it to gather dust. Tut tut.

But despite the dust and a little bit of shrivelling, everything had dried out so beautifully that I was inspired to use some of it in my Gathered Wreath. I especially love the hydrangea flowers, really rather pretty in a subtle and faded kind of way.

I thought I might copy Lou and use some feathers too, seeing as I have a pot of them sitting on my mantelpiece waiting for some such thing. Feathers are lovely things to collect, aren't they? Well I think so.

Anyhow....my method of attaching the gatherings was a bit haphazard and mainly involved wrapping stuff up in more yarn.

I just kind of decided where bits were going to go, wrapped them tightly with yarn, then used a darning needle to secure the yarn ends back into the yarn-wrapped wire ring. It worked really well and once the twigs were bent into place and secured, it began to look pretty wreath-like....

...it's a bit rustic, a bit wobbly, but the simplicity of it pleased me very much.

Next job was to add in the dried up bits and pieces, the grasses and the plant stems that had gone to seed. I found there was no need to tie these in with yarn, they were so light and thin that all I needed to do was simply weave them gently in and out of the twigs, taking care not to break the delicate stems.

I love the very natural look of this wreath, the more I worked on it, the more it grew on me.

I tucked in a few feathers here and there, then assembled the best of the dried flowers from my dusty tray to add a little bit of prettiness and some subtle colour.

I tied up a small dried posy of flowers and berries, then used my hot glue gun to stick the posy to the bottom of the wreath. I also glued some of the hydrangea flowers around the wreath, I couldn't think of an alternative way of attaching them, and actually the hot-glue method was rather easy and brilliantly instant.

 And here is the finished wreath.......Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 It's a bit strange when you spend the morning doing something like this all alone in the house. I was so completely absorbed in creating this wreath, for no other reason than for personal pleasure. There was no-one to share it with, nobody to explain it to, but that was ok. This wreath isn't meant to be for anyone else other then me. I twirled around the room with it, trying to decide where to hang it.

In the end I hung it on the bit of wall to the left of the bay window, although really it's not that great there. The light is poor, so you can't really see the subtlety of the colours or the detail of the dried things, so I think I might move it after Christmas.

It was very hard to photograph properly, and I have a huge amount of respect and admiration for all those clever people who make their "Nature in the Home" photographs look so stunning.

I have to tell you that although I am very taken with my wreath of gathered things, the rest of the family think it is absolutely terrible. They just cannot understand why I would want to make something that is so useless and looks so dead.

I guess at this time of year, we are accustomed to seeing full-blown leafy creations, bursting with lush foliage and evergreen vitality. Oh well. I like it what I made, and I like that it came together so simply.

I am trying not to keep referring to it as the Dead-Things Wreath, which is what the Little People are calling it.

It is my G a t h e r e d  Wreath, so there.

xxxxx

ps I found some lovely natural wreaths here - feeling inspired to do some more twiggy things!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hama Beads for Mums

I confess that lately I've become a teensy bit addicted to the art of placing small plastic beads onto a white plastic board. I went through a brief spell of guilt regarding the sheer amount of time I've been spending either placing the plastic beads on the board or surfing the net looking for suitable designs for the plastic beads. But it didn't last long (the guilt, that is), and I soon got over it. I figure that if something as simple as Hama beading is giving me this much pleasure then I should be celebrating it, not feeling guilty.

The thing is, I got innocently caught up in Little Lady's rekindled Hama bead phase (now over it seems, as quickly as it began) and I followed her sweet footsteps into the depths of Pinterest. Oh yes, you can see where this is going, can't you? Much to my delight, I discovered that all manner of Tapestry Designs can quite happily be translated into plastic bead format, resulting in a wealth of design possibility aimed squarely at ladies of my age. And so I give you Hama Beads for Mums - a little nudge into this simple, creative, feel-good hobby. The above pixelated image is from a Cath Kidston book I believe, possibly the "Stitch! " one, although I'm not 100% sure about this as I found the image on Google.

I translated the little flower motif into bead form using a small square board, then adapted it slightly and made myself a little heart.

Ta-dah!!! This provided such a perfect diversion from the business of Doing The Housework, I was most pleased with the outcome. It also enabled me to get out the ironing board and iron, thus convincing myself that I really had done some housework after all. Well, I did go on to iron a few shirts afterwards, so it kind of worked as motivation in the end. Kind of.

Yesterday was a stay-home Sunday and I managed to spend much of my time flitting between leisurely pursuits of my choice (oh happy day!). The Hama beads called to me once more, especially as I had just taken delivery of a  Large Square Board. I wanted to try out another Cath Kidston design which had caught my beady eye on Pinterest (source here). Fortunately for me, we've amassed a fair stash of Hama beads over the past 7 years, so once I had the large board at my disposal, it was Hama-Beads-a-go-go!

Just as with a needlepoint design, the secret here is to establish a middle line, then work the design outwards from the centre.

It's insanely satisfying watching the pixelated flowers come to life....

....and the more you do, the more satisfaction there is.

I worked on my masterpiece solidly for an hour or so whilst my Little Peeps were busy playing with friends, then off to the ironing board I trotted....

.....it didn't go smoothly. I failed to get the iron hot enough the first time round and ended up with more than half the beads scattering themselves across the ironing board when I lifted up the ironing paper. It was one of those moments where I didn't know whether to laugh, cry or spit out a stream of cuss words. In the end I simply stood patiently at the ironing board and spent the next 20 minutes painstakingly putting every single bead back and trying again. Second time round I only lost a corner which was fairly easy to fix. Then third time lucky and it all went well. Phew.

This is my ironed plastic masterpiece, and I honestly love it. I love it! It measures 14cm square and looks very much better when viewed from a distance so that the pixelated image springs to life. I've got it propped up on my shelves at the moment along with  my collection of jugs, but that's only because Little B has stolen the lump of Blutack from my desk drawer. I do rather like to stick decorative things about the house in unexpected places, just for the pure pleasure of coming across them during the course of the day. I think I might put this one up on the bathroom wall when the blutack materialises, the colours will look lovely in there.

I wonder how many of you have Hama beads in the house (they're also called Perler beads)? They have very therapeutic properties you know. I've been asked about the ones I use, they're the "Midi beads" (as opposed to Maxi or Mini), you can buy them in packets of single colours, or in tubs of mixed colours . You then only need a suitable Pegboard and some sort of ironing paper (I use ordinary baking paper as I've lost the official sheet of hama bead paper), and away you go. Oh....I almost forgot....just in case you might need some sort of reference point, I've created a Hama Bead inspiration board on Pinterest, you know, because I thought it might be useful. Not because I'm obsessed or anything. Ooooo, have you seen the little Russian Dolls? And the birds?

x

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn View

I keep wondering if after so many years of not liking Autumn all that much, I might've changed a little in recent years? I know that I don't dread it in the same way I used to, and I also admit that I have become rather fond of certain Autumnal aspects. The morning skies in November can be pretty spectacular, and despite the rapidly shortening days I find myself entranced by the Autumn light.

It's been a mild Autumn here in my patch, and here we are in mid November and still no sign of frost. I am glad, cos I'm always sad when the cheerful nasturtiums and geraniums come to a cold, frosty end. No frost, but bloomin' 'eck it's been cold! My hat and wrist warmers are out of the storage bag to keep me cosy for another year and I've enjoyed the comfort of wearing those familiar, well worn things.

The colours of Autumn are undoubtedly one of the season's highlights for me, and I gather them in as I go about my day to day pottering. Some days it's just a visual gathering, but often I feel compelled to pick up fallen leaves and bring their glorious colour home to my table.

Now that the Summer is over, the Little People have returned to indoor play and much of it still takes place around our table. There is a rolling programme of activity, a sort of a table-top dance that takes place each day as crafting, homework, paperwork, crochet, reading, socialising and mealtimes all take their turn about the table. During this past week we have had domino runs, card tricks, loom bands, colouring books, writing, drawing and Hama beads. Oh, I do love love love the Hama bead thing when it is in full swing here, it really makes me happy to see all three of my Little Peeps engaged in this simple act of creativity. Little Lady is the most prolific at the moment, she made me this really cute fox after spotting it on Pinterest. Little B made the coloured mat for Foxie to sit on, and this little table still-life makes me smile every day :)

On Friday evening we conducted The First Lighting Of The Fire, it always feels like a celebration when the first fire of the Autumn season is lit. After dinner I sat right in front of it with my cosy crochet until I got too a tad too hot and sweaty and had to retreat!

I went for a walk yesterday morning, a short solo stroll through the local woods to take in the Autumn views. The rest of the family stayed home, I was surprised that even Little B declined the offer to go for a walk in the woods, although he did waver ever so slightly. No matter, I was happy enough to set out by myself and enjoyed the mild weather, the fresh air and the soft shafts of sunlight.

Much of the leaf colour has already been and gone in the woodland, I was a bit late to see it this year.

Our slow cooker is being used for many of our meals at the moment as we get back into the season of warming curries, wholesome stews and hearty soups. I've got a few slow cooker recipe books, but this one is my absolute favourite and it has never failed to deliver great tasting, easy recipes that work every time. This morning I made the minestrone soup which cooked slowly all day, and we ate it this evening with a generous helping of grated cheese on top and some warm cheese and tomato flat bread to dip in. It was absolutely yummy and was wolfed down appreciatively by all five of us (Little B made me smile by pronouncing it "IncREDibly delicious"!)

I have to tell you, I am thrilled that my little thyme plant has thrived this year in the back yard. Being able to step out the back door and pluck a few fresh stems to add to my cooking this morning made me absurdly happy. I don't have a great track record with thyme (I've dealt with many a deceased plant in my time) so I am willing this one to come safely through the winter and carry on providing me with it's aromatic leaves. C'mon little plant, you can make it!

Ahh Hama beads again, I told you I do love it when these make a come back in the Attic. Yesterday I found myself drawn into Little Lady's ongoing Pinterest search for appealing designs and fell head over heels with this little Russian folk doll....

....yes, all my own work (cold, Autumn afternoons are just made for gentle activities like this). I am rather pleased with her although I find myself a teensy bit bothered by the holes all over her face, poor love.

And finally - the view from my eyes down into my lap this morning as I granted myself a little bit of cosy hooky time on the sofa. My Home Poncho is often on my person now we're into the cold months of the year, it's colour, warmth and comfort is absolutely wonderful.

Here's wishing you all a heap load of happy views, both inside and out.

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Pumpkin Love

When we were down in Dorset last week driving back and forth to my Mum's cottage, we drove past a small farm house selling pumpkins. Each day there would be three or four beautiful orange pumpkins of varying size placed on the wall in front of the house, with an "honesty box" and a hand written sign pricing them at £2.50.

I spent many hours sat with my Mum last week whilst J took the Little People out and about. When we got back one afternoon the Little Peeps made me close my eyes as I went into the kitchen (I honestly had no idea what was going on), then there was this big Ta-daaaaaaah!! and this amazing pumpkin was revealed. It was such a sweet thing for them to do to cheer me up, as they know how much I love carving our annual halloween pumpkin.

Because of the way the pumpkin had come to me this year, I wanted to do something a bit special with it. I hopped onto Pinterest and began drinking in all sorts of ghoulish ideas for spooky pumpkin lanterns. Nothing quite grabbed me until I came across this Night Owl. The design came from a website called "Zombie Pumpkins" (yes, really) and I managed to fairly easily print the design and trace it onto the front of my gorgeous Dorset Pumpkin. 

On Friday afternoon, The Little People were off getting dressed and made up ready for a Halloween Party, so I was given full, peaceful permission to Do The Pumpkin. I used an ice cream scoop to carve out the pumpkin flesh, then a small sharp kitchen knife to carefully cut out the shapes. Finally, I used a lino cutting tool to carve some extra patterns, and I tell you I was one happy, satisfied, Halloween Mummy!

I was absolutely chuffed to bits with how it turned out and couldn't wait for it to get dark so that I could light up the candles inside.

Everyone who came to our door trick or treating that evening loved it, and even took photos of it. It's definitely my best halloween pumpkin to date, and the Little People were suitably impressed by my carving skillz.

I was left with 600g of scooped out pumpkin innards, so on Saturday I decided to have a go at baking a pumpkin pie.

I don't think any of us here in the Attic have ever eaten pumpkin pie before, so it was a bit of a gamble really, but I did want to give it a go. I found a recipe on the BBC Good Food website, then set about doing pastry stuff and making my spiced pumpkin filling. It took an age to do.....and the result? I have to confess that none of us really liked it! I mean, it was oh-kay, the spice flavours were really quite strong (I might've put too much ginger in) and I thought it was going to be much sweeter. But anyhow, we all really tried to like it, and bless the LP, they didn't want to tell me they didn't like it until they saw me screw my face up then they were able to breathe out and admit they didn't much care for it either. Oh well, you can't win'em all. Pumpkin soup next year then.

I've had pumpkins on my mind all weekend, thinking about how much I loved doing the carving and how I would really like to have a go at making more pumpkin lanterns. The above pages are cut out of an old Country Living magazine and have stuck in my mind (they're about 6 years old I think), I just loved the simplicity of making these sort of seasonal decorations for the home.

Last week I also came across these beauties on Facebook, which has certainly fuelled my carving-craving! Aren't they beautiful? They were designed and carved by a super talented artist called Amy Swann, who is perhaps better known for her incredible wedding cakes.

And then today, I found these wonderful designs on a US website giving ideas for things to do to celebrate Fall. I mean Autumn. Autumn-Fall.

So can you guess what I did this morning? Yeah, course you can, I am nothing if not predictable.....

....I got out my nifty little lino cutter, ready for an hour of peaceful gouging. I bought my cutter from a local shop but they are easy to come by online (on Amazon UK here)

I wanted to do another pumpkin, but in the days after Halloween there was not a pumpkin to be found. So I had to settle for a short, squat little Butternut Squash. I chopped it's top off then set about getting rid of the innards. I can definitely recommend the ice cream scoop method, it works a treat.

I hollowed out the lid too, but in the end I discarded it and made a candle pot instead of a full candle lantern.

I didn't bother to draw the design, just waded straight in with an idea to create some stems and leaves and maybe a birdie. I didn't really faff too much, just went with the flow....

....and produced something rather pleasing and very rustic shall we say. But oh the pleasure! I was sat in my little back yard with a cup of coffee, scraping and cutting and piercing to my hearts content.

The instant results were very gratifying, and I immediately put my carved butternut lantern to good use on the table.

Oh, cute!

This little project has really pleased me today and delivered a welcome dose of happy. I know the lantern won't last long, but that just makes it more special. It's of the moment, and I like that.

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Felt Minecraft

At the beginning of the week, Little Lady asked me if I could help her make a felt toy. These days I don't attempt to instigate creativity with the Little People, although every so often I will make a suggestion for drawing/colouring/hama beads etc if they are kicking around bored and restless. I tend to wait until they are keen enough to suggest something themselves and then I try hard to accommodate any requests that are forthcoming re creative activity. Even if deep down my immediate response is "Not-on-your-nelly" I try and suppress whatever negativity sits there within myself (oh the mess, this is so not the right time, lets wait till the weekend, I'm too busy, it's too complicated, it won't work, go find something else to do etc etc), and beam out a "Yes-lets-do-it!!" response. I was actually pretty delighted with the request to stitch a felt toy. We have felt. And I love stitching. I was happy to make time to help out. We went straight to the laptop and I started to search for pretty, cute toy patterns that we might attempt to make. I got a wee bit giddy at the sheer volume of cute little felt creations out there, oh the possibilities! So much fun!

But Little Lady had her own ideas, and to put it bluntly, she completely poo-pooed my own cutesome suggestions in favour of her own thing. She told me that she wanted more than anything to stitch a felt Enderman. Ohhhhhhhh-kaaaaaaaayyyyyy...............E-n-d-e-r-m-a-n. I spelt it out and googled it to see what she was on about and felt ridiculously disappointed. It is all black! And it really is more than a teensy bit weird!! For those of you who don't know what an Enderman is, it's a character from the popular Minecraft game. And for those of you who don't know what Minecraft is, you can find a reasonable explanation here. Needless to say, I live with three enthusiastic Little Minecrafters here at number 24.

So let me show you what an Enderman looks like.....go here to see. Although I was initially doubtful about this project, the very good thing about recreating Minecraft characters is that they are made up of squares/blocks, so the construction is reassuringly simple. We found what we were looking for here (just in case you ever have a burning need to make yourself an Enderman)

We had to go shopping for black felt as surprise-surprise my felt box contains only rainbow colours. But the Trip To Purchase Supplies became an excitement in itself, and the Little People loved going to the stack of felt squares, and then the huge rack of cotton threads to pick out what was needed,  it was joyful!

Once all the pattern pieces were cut, I taught Little Lady how to start off, and how to make neat little whip stitches. She is a fast learner and took to it straight away.

For the eyes, I decided not to attempt stitching them, but to use the magical ingredient Vilene Bondaweb instead. It's an easy to use iron-on adhesive for fabric and is totally amazing. I've used it such a lot in my 25+ years of stitching and can highly recommend it.

It didn't take Little Lady long to make her Enderman head and she was soon whizzing away with her black seams with no help from me whatsoever.

Meanwhile, Little B had started to feel left out and was keeping on and on (and on) to make his own felt toy. He wanted to make a Creeper he said, a green Creeper please Mummy. Yes, another Minecraft character of course. So we took a second trip to the shop and I gave Little B 55 pence to buy a small sheet of creeper-green felt. He helped me cut out the square pieces and again we used Bondaweb to attach the black facial features.

To be honest I thought the stitching was going to be a nightmare as he was so insistant that he do it himself. But I found that so long as I guided him with where to put the needle for each stitch, he could managed perfectly well.....

....he really did good! It was a bit intense and his attention span and ability to sit still was pretty short (he is only four mind you), but I found that he had his own rhythm. He would do maybe five concentrated minutes of stitching, then he would literally jump up and race around the room to let off steam. He would come back to start again sometime later when he was ready, and gradually over the course of the day we made good progress.

Little Lady however was the total opposite and her concentration and staying power was impressive. She sat for many hours in the Big Chair and stitched and stitched and stitched. All day she stitched.

By bedtime she had made and stuffed one head, one body, two arms and two legs. That's an awful lot of stitches!

The next morning I helped her to stitch the body parts together.....

....then she set about making a grass block accessory for her Enderman.

With quite a bit of help, Little B eventually finished his Creeper head on the second day and he is soooo pleased with it. We've yet to make the body and legs but honestly I don't think he's too bothered about that now, he just seems to love that he stitched something and is ridiculously proud of it.

And Ta-dah!!!!!!!!!! Here is Little Lady's Enderman, complete with grass block! It is strangely endearing (in all it's blackness), and best of all she absolutely loves it.

It has been everywhere with her, carted around in a rucksack if we go out, and tucked up in bed with her at night. It's been a really happy, creative project for us, and I am now waiting patiently (but hopefully) to see if she asks to make something else. I'm secretly wishing for something a bit cuter and more colourful to follow, but am trying not to influence her. Well not too much anyhow, but I love the look of this Super-Cute book, and I might possibly be onto a winner with this felt guinea pig ornament......

 

♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

Raindrops

Michaelmas Daisies

Mini Ripple Doll Blanket :: Ta-dah!

Geranium Love

I can't tell you how happy I am this year pottering about in my little  4m x 4m back yard, prettifying it for the summer. It really is the tiniest of spaces but it feels cosy and manageable and gives me just enough outdoor space to play in without any tremendous responsibility. It is somewhere that I can sit with a morning coffee, crochet a little, chat with friends, play with Little B, grow flowers, sip a chilled drink on a sunny weekend afternoon with J and hang my laundry out to dry. And really, that is absolutely all I require from an outside space. Open greenery and a view would be lovely but at this busy time in my life, truthfully I am glad that I'm not burdened with hours of garden labour. Small and easy suits us just fine.

So I've got this collection of old pots which have been cleared of weeds and dead things, waiting to be planted up with summer colour. It's exciting! For various reasons I'm without a car so I can't indulge in any major garden retail therapy at a nursery or garden centre. Instead I am trickling in a few pots at a time when I can manage/remember, picking them up from the market or with the supermarket shop and carrying them carefully home with the groceries.

This year, I am mainly filling my pots with cheap and cheerful geraniums. I love these humble flowers very much, love that they don't mind a bit of drought, and that the substantial local mollusk population don't seem to like nibbling them either. In short, they are resilient and that suits my rather slap dash approach to gardening.

But most of all I love the colour of geraniums. I absolutely adore the bright and bold shots of red and pink dancing above all that greenery, it just makes my heart sing a happy song!

When I bought these plants, the flower buds were very tightly closed and so I only have a vague idea of what colour they will turn out to be. The plants all had labels so I was able to leave the white ones behind, picking out the reds and pinks, but I am still waiting for them to bloom....

...ooooooh, I am really looking forward to seeing this one open fully, I think I may swoon a little at that delicious red/pink petal combo!

Back in the Springtime before geraniums were really on my mind at all, I happened to catch sight of a pretty geranium mosaic on Facebook, made my the talented Felicty of Just Mosaics. There is a whole bouquet of mosaic flowers that you can choose from on Felicity's website, and you may remember that I already have a vase of tulips here in the Attic. That's her beautiful studio up above there look, where she creates her mosaic pieces, isn't it lovely?

Well, I loved the original red geraniums design that first caught my eye, but decided to write to Felicity and ask if she might possibly make me my very own picture which had both red and pink flowers in it. I also asked if I could maybe have my sky background just a little bluer please, if at all possible, and sorry to be so demanding, please, thank you! Bless Felicity, she is the kindest and most accommodating person, and she assured me that I could indeed have flowers in two colours, and a nice blue summer sky.

An extra-special thing that Felicity also did was to email me little progress updates as she was making my picture. Such fun! I watched each day as the flowers bloomed (in red and pink!), and then as the stems and leaves grew. I saw the terracotta pot arrive, and then the most gorgeous blue sky surrounding it all. And then, oh, what the heck??!! I got to see a mucky mess!! I think Felicity really got a bit of a kick out of sending me that particular progress report, naughty thing! But then finally, the finished picture was there on my screen and I was absolutely thrilled. It was just as I had imagined it in my mind.

The real deal is very much more beautiful than the screen images, I have to say. The colours are beautifully vibrant in real life, and of course it is all glossy and shiny and bounces light around the place which adds to the colour intensity of the tiles.

I can tell you (cos I just this minute counted) that there are seventy six individual pieces in this mosaic. I just love thinking about things like that, like wondering how many thousands of stitches are in my crochet blankets. I love handmade things very, very much. The talent, the time and the love that goes into designing and making handmade things is incredibly inspiring and a little bit mind boggling.

I've hung my mosaic geraniums in my kitchen, above my kitchen sink. Sorry I can't show you them in situ but my kitchen is rather small, dark and dreary and it's very hard to take pictures in there. I tried, but they all turned out fuzzy and pretty rubbish. You'll just have to imagine it, and know that it makes me smile many, many times each day.

Now tell me.....what are your favourite summer flowers for growing in pots?? I'm going to visit the plant stall at the market tomorrow and wonder what would look terrrifc with oodles of geraniums. Marguerites? Petunias? Marigolds? Go on, throw some floral ideas at me!

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ps if you like to bob about on Facebook, do go say hello to Felicity {Just Mosaics}, her page is a riot of colourful creativity ♥

 

♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

2012 :: Year End Review :: flowers

Open Studio :: June 2013

Prettifying

If ever there was an object that was screaming out to be Prettified, this is it. This grey rectangle of metal is possibly the dullest looking thing I have ever purchased in my life. Do you know what it is? It's rather oddly called "Spontan" and is in fact a Very Useful Object. A magnetic notice board no less.

I knew as soon as I bought this useful bit of metal that I would not in any way shape or form be able to leave it alone. It would most certainly have to be tarted up, that was for sure. This morning, when I was putting the finishing touches to it, the word prettify came into my mind. What a smashing word that is!!! So much cuter than the word upcycle. I looked it up in the online dictionary just to check if it did actually exist (many of the words I use do not exist), and yes, it is indeed a real, bonafide word.......

pret·ti·fy  (prt-f) tr.v. pret·ti·fied, pret·ti·fy·ing, pret·ti·fies

To make pretty or prettier, especially in a superficial or insubstantial way.

HA!!!!!!!! That made me laugh out loud! Insubstantial indeed! Well. I am about to show you how I took the drab grey metal and did some superficial and insubstantial things to it.

Mod Podge . I bought this bottle ages ago after seeing it very successfully used in Blogland to cover hard ugly things with pretty fabric. I had thought (and do still think) that Connievan would benefit enormously from some fabric+modpodge treatment, but haven't yet got round to it. So this was a first time experiment for me, and I am happy to tell you it was a resounding success. Easy to use, and with fantastic end results, this stuff is crazy-marvelous! If you're going to try anything like this, I would also highly recommend you purchase a foam brush. I used a 2 inch one and it was just right.

You need to work quite quickly when you first spread the Modpodge onto the object, and this foam thing did the job beautifully.

So easy, did i say that already? First cut your fabric to size (I used a thin floral poly/cotton), leaving about an inch all around which you will trim off afterwards. Spread your hard object all over with a generous but even spread of MP. Lay your fabric on top and smooth it down firmly with your hands, eliminating any creases and air bubbles. It's not as hard as you imagine it to be. I recently covered Little Man's school book with that clear sticky plastic stuff and that was a holy nightmare, so this was childsplay by comparison.

I took some care over the corners and made some impressively neat tucks, adding quite a bit more MP to make sure it was all sticking down firmly with no flappy bits. Once it was all stuck down, I then coated the whole of the fabric with a thin layer of MP to give it a matte glaze finish.

Allow it to dry completely before trimming neatly around the edges with a sharp craft knife or rotary cutter. And that's pretty much it....I'll show you the end result in a bit, I need to talk about magnets now.

I bought this set of 24 magnets from Amazon cos I liked the bright jolly colours. But when they arrived, I had a little light bulb moment and decided that they would also benefit from a little bit of insubstantial prettifying. Buttons, I thought. They need buttoning.

There is no shortage of colourful buttons in the Attic (thank goodness), so I was able to set to work straight away.

I put a little bit of stitching in the centre of each button, totally unnecessary of course, but I like the extra little bit of detail. Then I went down into the cellar, unearthed my ancient hot glue gun, plugged it in and set to work blobbing and sticking.

I love them! They are fun and colourful and go really well with the fabric.

I'm going to use this as a sort of changing inspiration board at the studio, a place to keep pretty paper things. Do you like the lovely bird card? This is the work of textile and paper artist Nancy Nicholson, my latest crush. Her style is bright and jolly with a little bit of folksy fun thrown in. I really love what she does, especially the paper products, which she calls Interactive Stationery.

I treated myself to some of her Topiary Birds, and I love having them in the Attic.....

....they landed on the mantel and look very at home. You must go and have a snoop around Nancy's home....you will love it. It is amazing. Inspiring. Go look, and enjoy.

I'll be taking my newly prettified inspiration board down to the studio tomorrow. Uh-huh. Yesterday we finally finished the decorating, hooray!! It was such bliss to tidy all the messy mess away, sweep the gorgeous floor, bring in the first pieces of furniture and add some fresh flowers. There is still much to be done, but the hard graft is over. Let the Prettifying commence.

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ps I have (of course) been taking photographs of the studio over the past month as we've been working hard to get it ready. I'll be sharing the whole story with you here very soon. It's all so dreamy!

 

Upcycling

I bought these delightful little "sol d'or" narcissi from the market yesterday, it was the gorgeous colour of them that grabbed my attention (am I right in thinking that sol d'or translates to golden sun in English?). But oh my goodness, I really hadn't bargained on the scent of them, and as I sit at my desk to write this morning, there is the most incredible scent of Spring in the air. It's absolutely knockout! Thinking that three vessels on the table is possibly a little excessive so I'll be moving one of the little jugs up to scent my bedroom later. I've already got some in the bathroom....ahhh, you can never have too many fresh flowers in the house.

Anyhow....this post isn't supposed to be about the whiff of flowers, I got distracted a bit there, sorry. What I want to yarn on about today is my recent upcycling exploits. I've kind of grown to like the word Upcycle, even though it annoyed me for a while with it's trendiness. I used to think why say upcycle when it's just about giving something a makeover? It's the same with vintage and retro, which is really just a trendy way of saying old isn't it?

I bought this last weekend, on a complete whim when I went out to buy eggs. Instead of going straight to the butcher, I detoured past the second hand shop and saw this quirky little (vintage? retro? old?) wire veggie rack sitting forlornly on the pavement amongst the second hand furniture. It called out to me, begged me to take it home and love it. And for the price of £6 how could I refuse the call? So I came home to the Attic with half a dozen eggs, a bunch of daffodils and a wire veggie rack tucked under my arm.

On Thursday I was lucky enough to have a precious child-free day and the weather was gorgeously bright and sunny, so out into the back yard I went to put my upcycling plans in motion. First stage, a good ol' rub down with some hot soapy water.

Second stage, lots of newspaper and a can of spray enamel paint bought in the sale from a local discount shop. Teal Treasure indeed. My favourite colour of all time (although I prefer to call it "Tiffany"). I don't have any experience of using this spray stuff, and truthfully I didn't do a very good job. I didn't listen to the words on the can and was a bit heavy handed with it. So it dripped a little, and also the can ran out before I had truly finished covering all that wire. So the upcycling is a little bit patchy and blobby. But the colour............oh the colour!!! Look see.......................

......isn't it lovely? So much more appealing than mucky old cream.

I do believe I managed to transform this unwanted item into a colourful thing of beauty. A real treasure. Useful too....can you guess what I'm going to use it for? What do you suppose those wire baskets will be crammed with? Of course......yarn, glorious yarn!!! Yippeeeeeee for the thought of a whole colourful rack of yarn that can be maneuvered about on dinky little wheels! I will of course bombard you with pictures when I've got around to filling the baskets, it'll be a visual feast.

This was my other spontaneous upcycling project this week, yesterday to be precise. Another impulse buy, this (vintage? retro? old?) wooden cutlery tray was sitting in the window of the Oxfam shop as I walked past, price £2.99. I do happen to like aged wood, but I am not too keen on the colour brown. So after lunch yesterday, I set to work with my upcycling plans. I have a modest stash of Decopatch papers left over from previous projects, so I trimmed some to size and finally managed to wrestle the lid off the top of my decopatch glue. It worked a treat...the decopatch papers are very thin, a bit like tissue paper, but the magic glue transforms it. Not only does it easily stick the paper down, but it provides a very durable finish, making the whole thing very hard wearing and practical.

So this old wooden tray has been successfully upcycled and repurposed at the same time, how about that? I'm going to be using it as a desk tidy, to hold essential bits and pieces on my new " Lovely Shabby Chic Solid Pine Farmhouse Kitchen Table with Farrow and Ball Painted Legs!"...haha, LOVE the dramatic Ebay descriptions with Lots Of Capital Letters! Yes, I have a new piece of furniture being delivered later today after a frantic, nail biting finale to an Ebay auction a few days ago. Oh the drama of those last 30 seconds!

The farmhouse kitchen table is not going to be living in the Attic though. Nor is the upcycled wire yarn rack, or the upcycled wooden tray, no no. They are all destined to go and live in my new studio. Studio. St-u-di-o. Oh that word!!! Makes my heart flutter, it still seems so dreamlike and unreal! I am desperately desperate to tell you the whole tale, but whilst we (my studio buddie and I) are busy renovating the room we will be sharing together, I feel inclined to keep it under wraps. There will be an overexcited post all about it very soon though, as soon as we have finished the dirty work. There has been much hard graft going on. Lots of cleaning, scraping, sanding and oiling (the floor), and now lots of filling, sanding, priming and painting (the rest of the room). Soon though.

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Edit to add :: Interesting article HERE about defining antique/vintage/retro (be sure to read the comments!).

I think the rough conclusion is thus ::

Antique = at least 100 years old
Vintage = 20-99 years old, from the era it represents
Retro = newer, but made to look like an item from the older era.