My ... Totoro

A Walk in the Fog

After dropping my daughter off at school, and armed with my camera, I went for a short walk to the park and creek near us.

Trees in the park

Spiderweb

A feather caught in the grass

I need to work on my macros shots. I think for these type of photos I do need a tripod as I wobble a bit.

an old boat in the creek

 

There is a path that goes round the Creek. 

But today I decided not to go there!

Taking part in a Textile ATC Swap

In the Autumn of 2013 I took part in a textile art card swap, organised by Very Berry Handmade.  I had seen the earlier one and regretted not taking part, so as soon as I saw the Autumn one, I signed up.

The theme was Autumn and after a bit of thought I decided to go with a tree or leaf. Walking to work one day I saw a lovely coloured leaf and that inspired me to concentrate on a leaf and its beautiful colours.

An art card is 3.5 inches by 2.5 inches. In this swap it had to be textile.

I do like embroidery and mostly do it free-hand. The last bit of this type of sewing was a card for my sister's wedding.

Using a real leaf as my inspiration, I drew a leaf noticing how the veins grow from the base. Then I cut out my leaf shape, pinned it onto my fabric, then using little green stitches traced around it. So I was left with the leaf shape on little stitches. 

Then I used a couple of colours together and did a split stitch.  I had wanted to use split stitch since watching a documentary that talked about medieval textiles, an example can be seen here.

The leaf. You can see the outline green stitches.

Finished and mounted onto card.

The Finished Art Card

When finished I made a fabric, card, fabric sandwich to make it firm.

And then I sent it off. The recipient kindly gave me lots of positive feedback and I am so pleased she liked it.

I sent my card to one person, and another one sent one to me.

And when it came in the post it was so lovely I nearly cried.

This wonderful card has been made by Chris Butler, she was so thoughtful and seeing that we had been to Belgium and loved it, made a card based on the houses in Bruges.

It sits on my mantelpiece and will one day be framed.

And so to the next swap. I have signed up as soon as it was announced and I am sorry to tell you that it is now full, so keep an eye out later in the year on Very Berry's website for any future swaps (her website is lovely anyway).

Joining in with a swap like this makes you consider techniques and materials that you might not usually use. It really stretches me creatively and I love that.

The Unveiling of Charles Dickens

There have been no large statues of Charles Dickens in the UK. This has now changed as recently the new life sized statue of the author was unveiled in Portsmouth, his birthplace and my city.

So I went along with my camera.

And luckily it was a lovely day, compared to the rainy and windy days we have been having. 

There were some cyclists to keep us entertained (did they have bicycles in Dickens's time?)

And there was the statue waiting....

It was a lot smaller than I thought. But then I realised it was life sized which is rather lovely.

There was a wonderful talk by  Joanna David and Edward Fox, with readings from Dickens's works which makes me want to read him again.

Then...

Here is is

 

Ready to talk into the microphone as he did love orating.  (Thanks Lois, I hadn't notices it was so close!)

The boy behind him is Charles Dickens's great, great,something grandson.

So that is the life sized statue. If you want a smaller one then may I recommend this one

Isn't he wonderful? He is made by the talented Amy of The Greedy Crocodile.

It was a bit busy that day so I am still waiting to go down to the Guildhall Square and see him and have a more personal meeting.

A nice bit of piccallili on my crackers.

I love piccalilli. The colour is bright and wonderful and it tastes tangy and delicious.

My mum used to make it so it has has childhood memories.

Over on flickr I saw a jar, and asked Marmalady's to reserve me some. It arrived yesterday and today I had some for my lunch.

It was lovely. Just as nice as mum's.

Visit Marmalady's shop on etsy
and folksy

Buy Handmade this Christmas

Inpsired by this lovely video on etsy https://www.etsy.com/blog/uk/2013/11/26/christmas-creative-coats/, I thought I would share a few photos of button making.

All my pieces are handmade by me, with care and thought.

You can buy from me in my etsy shop https://www.etsy.com/uk/shop/Bigbluebed
and in my folksy shop http://folksy.com/shops/BigBlueBed

Working...

Working on orders, and new pieces for my shop.