These boots are made for walking ...

A long walk was called for today, especially after all those calorific Christmas treats. I laced up my walking boots and went along to St Aidans, an RSPB reserve. It was very busy, everyone else having the same idea. The paths were muddy enough for me to have wished I'd put my wellies on, but it was lovely being outside, and there was even a bit of blue sky to cheer us all up.

The twitchers, with their binoculars and long lens cameras were out in force, though I've no clue what particular birds they were so interested in.

Once home I completed a couple of small sewing jobs that'd hung around for ages, plus something I'd started only the other day. It was a little fabric bird. Made from leftover material I'd previously painted and stencilled, most of which was used for mini fabric dolls (blogged about in an earlier post). I attached tiny gold coloured sequins and stitched an outline of a wing in gold thread, plus beads and tiny metallic bells to hang below the bird. Oh, and one of my boho style handmade beads for the bird to dangle from.

It's now nestling in the branches of the Christmas tree among the baubles, tinsel and other sparkly things, looking very much at home.

Hope your January's getting off to a good start. Bye!

Comments

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....

In praise of wool

Just a quick post today. I'm offering you a short but peaceful break from the overwhelmingness (is that a word?) of Christmas. By now you've probably eaten your bodyweight in sweets//roast potatoes/pigs in blankets/cake/After Eights ... whatever your festive indulgences are. You're under-exericsed, over-stimulated, feeling broke and possibly guilty about an argument with a relative or friend you've never entirely got on with. So, here's something to take your mind off all that. I've two videos to refresh and revive, and they both concern wool. Interesting fact. Well, I found it interesting. About 1% - yup, one per cent - of the world's textiles are made of wool. Out of curiosity, I also googled how much is made of cotton. That's higher, but it's only about 24% and that's heading downward instead of up. Synthetic fibres are the bulk of all textile manufacture. Anyway, back to woolly wonders. My firs...

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