Berries and bulbs

I don't know the name of these red berries, but the hedgerows and trees I see on my walks are looking stunning. They're especially pretty when it's been raining and the twigs and berries have little shimmering droplets of rainwater hanging from them. I love the colours of autumn, all the russets and golds.

Today was a getting on with chores day, which meant laundry and tidying up. Taking advantage of a mild dry day I finally got the last of the tulip bulbs and alliums planted in the back garden, and did a wee bit of tidying up. (Through I'm conscious of leaving enough stalks and leaves for the wildlife to shelter in.) I remembered to trundle the green recycling bin out of the front gate, ready for the binmen tomorrow to empty. If I'm unsure whether it's a black or green collection scheduled, I could go online and check the council website, but it's easier to peer down the street at what our local binfluencer has put out. Apparently, every street has a binfluencer who puts their bin out first and always knows what colour wheelie is timetabled to be emptied!

Our street's binfluencer is also a very nice chap and a keen gardener who, a couple of years ago, gave me dozens of dahlia tubers, and who also gets his exterior Christmas decs - a giant snowman and a santa who's perched over the front door! - put up extra early. It's like the first sign of the festive season to come when the snowman and santa make an appearance. I reckon he wisely waited until Storm Debi had passed before he set them out. Wouldn't want 'em bouncing down the street, would we? Who knows where they'd end up.

Apart from those domestic arrangements, I also squeezed in more gell printing, and made paper flowers for collages or art journalling. Also, had a go at feather shapes and poppy seedheads. These are some of the gell prints I did, and I was pretty pleased with 'em.

I initially decided I'd restrict the colours used to different shades of blue.

But other colours crept in.

I also used lots of reds and pinks, just didn't get around to photographing those. Well, tomorrow I'm nipping into central Leeds for a womens rights meeting - haven't been to anything like that for a while - but I'll manage to zoom into a few shops too, and hopefully do a detour into Hobbycraft and possibly the museum. I'm not great with crowds and the city centre's busy on a Saturday, so we'll see how long I last before I cave in and crave home comforts and peace 'n' quiet.

Have a great weekend. Bye!

Comments

Threads of Freedom and charity shop bargains

It's Saturday afternoon, and I haven't done half the things I'd meant to. Partly because I spent most of this morning messing about with paints, stencils and the gell plate. Never mind, everything on today's 'To Do' list will join tomorrow's 'To Do' list ... it's hardly life or death if I don't haul the hoover around the room or pull up weeds in the front garden. I thought I'd show you what I made on Wednesday. I'd gone to my monthly StitchArt group, and this time we did something a little different. There's a project called 'Threads of Freedom' which is working with various community groups across the city. It's about creating little stitched pieces, some of which will be included in a textile panel to go on display at Leeds art gallery. There was lots of fabric we could choose from to sew with, and I picked this vintage tray cloth with the roses embroidery. My own embroidery's not a patch on those flo...

Sari scraps, PVA, a couple of books and a necklace

I'm typing this as snow's falling, and has been steadily all day. It's not settling to any great extent, though I bet by tomorrow morning the paths will be slippery with ice. Which always makes me paranoid about falling over and at the very least looking undignified, but at worst breaking a bone or twisting an ankle. Oh well, it's ideal weather to stay inside and craft, isn't it? I finally got around to listing packs of sari scraps on Etsy this morning. I only made up six bundles as I've no clue whether they'll sell or if I've set a reasonable enough price point. Time will tell. This is a link to the listing, if you're interested. This vaguely pink fabric isn't from one of my Etsy packs. It's from a bit of experimenting I was doing yesterday. I'd seen a post on Instagram showing how a DIY version of batik could be done without using hot wax. The Instagrammer used PVA instead, and I wanted to try this out....

Another week's flown by ...

Saturday's rolled around again, and it's not been the most eventful of days. Cleaning and hoovering, a walk to the shops to buy groceries, an hour on the allotment, then home to do some odd tasks in the garden. The strawberry plants are sending out runners, so I've been dealing with those, plus deadheading the perennial sunflowers, and cutting back the gone-over flowers on the sage and marjoram. I'm sad to see those blooms gone as the bees loved them. This afternoon I spent a few hours finishing 'Dawnlands' by Philippa Gregory. It's a really good book, a page turner where you care about the characters and want to be reassured everything's going to work out well for them. Plus you become enraged about the corruption of the so-called justice system at the time of the Stuart kings and queens, about transportation of prisoners to the West Indies, and about the vile nature of the sugar trade in the 1600s and the vast profits made from it....

rubykittyruby

Search This Blog