Autumn's definately arrived

So on Tuesday my lovely friends at www.fromthewilde.com had got my Autumnal cushions into Great British Life, and today they're in NorthEast Life ,   http://northeast.greatbritishlife.co.uk/article/autumn-interiors--ten-great-ideas-for-revamping-your-home-43272/   At a loss to know how to celebrate (doing something Autumnal?  making cider with the windfalls maybe, going for a walk in the woods, or then again maybe making some more Autumn cushions) I just texted my sister to let her know the good news with the message "I'm in North East Life!" and she's texted back "Where? Newcastle?"  .... Hope I never get in to "The Mail" she might think I've got stuck in a postbox......

Man with a Van

I'm getting to quite like driving Colin's van, and thinking it has much more use than my car for moving stock around especially to craft fairs and the like, and it's even better now it has a handbrake again!  Poor Colin was very distraught all today, missing his van, at least they're reunited again, for now!

Thank you for being my friend

Thanks to my friends at the very lovely www.fromthewide.com, my autumn cushion has been featured in       "Great British Life" magazine

http://www.greatbritishlife.co.uk/editorial-image/id/180347/?qid=0 

Walks away with big smile on face :o) but now, like a small child, too excited to sleep!

                                      



Cosy on the inside, wet and wild on the outside

TreeHuggery has been out to the Moorgreen show this weekend, and the wet weather didn't seem to put off many people at all, everyone was out in their muddy boots, and when cars got stuck in the mud, they were just pulled out by tractors. We were in the art and craft fair so we were really sheltered from all of the wet weather, but the drawback was that I didn't get to see the racing pigs, the dancing diggers or the sausage catching competition, and I didn't get chance to weave a fish or have a go at water divining (although I'm sure Col, and our plasterer (who usually gives the divining demonstrations there) will be able to show me how to do that.  The upside of being at my stall, and not walking around the show, was, apart from being dry, meeting all of the lovely people that come by, and receiving all of the lovely comments.  Its quite insular working on your own, and its difficult to know how your work will be recieved by people who don't know you, and so its always really nice when people come over and talk.  This weekend has been particularly lovely for that; one lady came over to tell me that she's seen my bags before, and we found out, that (small world) she saves onion skins for me to dye with, she gives them to her Nordic Walking instructor, who is my running buddy, who then gives them to me.  Another lady, has taken the time to email me after the show, to tell me that she liked me work, which was lovely to recieve.
 In a world where so many people shop over the internet, and scan their own goods at check outs, we're in danger of missing out on interactions, and missing out on so much more, its a bit like my descripition of the Show "cosy on the inside, and wet and wild on the outside" we're in danger of creating places where we don't leave our houses and if we do, we just hurry on by in a souless experience.

From Holloway to Botany Bay

Well not quite Botany Bay, but to Australia!  I've had a request for my silver birch prints to be sent to Australia, - I'm hoping that hand delivering them is tax deductable!

Divine Inspiration

Col's been learning how to use divining sticks with expert tuition from our Plasterer friend (is it any wonder our house is taking so long to renovate, when they're both engrossed in this!)  and the other question I should be asking, is "how come there a set of divining sticks, readily to hand, in what is esentially a building site?"
Actually though its really interesting, apparently the idea is to concentrate on a specific question, with a yes/no answer - such as "Is there a well in the garden?"  (we think there is under the old garage base), or even is "there more than well  in the garden"  - apprently the divining sticks can do more than follow water, they can follow boundary walls, or pretty much anything, and diviners follow a trail with only one of the sticks, not two. The two are used to get a yes/no response to a specific question, and they'll eitther cross each other or repel far apart. (Apparently Col is a "negative deviner" his go outwards (or repel), whereas most peoples cross (go inwards)  You can find out which you are by asking the rods a yes/no question that you already know the answer to.
The diviners were at the Moorgreen show today, and it would have been interesting to have seen them, but I was busy hosting my TreeHuggery stall, and as always chatting to some really interesting people, finding out about other peoples arty passions, and hearing about the poor little pup who came third in the cutest dog competiton - competing against two other dogs - aaaah!

Moorgreen

i'm taking some of my TreeHuggery collection to a stall at the Moorgreen show tomorrow, and am really hoping that the weather is kind to us - otherwise I might need to get one of the steam engines to pull my car off the field!

Autumn in the Dales

Very excited to be working with Karina at the lovely Studio 61 in Holloway on an exclusive collection of textiles pieces for the collection "Autumn in the Dales".  I've already made a start, and they're slightly more abstract than my usual work, and as always they're very tactile.  More later.....

I'm in Holloway

The lovely gallery Studio 61, in Holloway, Derbyshire have done a beautiful job of giclee printing my fine art prints and greeting cards; all of the textures really stand out, and end up with the curious result of you wanting to reach out and touch, even though you know its paper and not material.
Studio 61 are going to stock my designs too, so all in all its been a pretty good day, I'm now busy signing my limited edition prints (I feel like a proper artist!) and mounting them ready for Sunday's show.  Its all go here....

money for nothing

An estate agent told me today, that she's had a few buy to letters pull out of sales, because they hadn't taken into account the cost of their own monthly mortgage repayments when they were thinking about the monthly rental fees that they were going to be getting from renting out properties. 
At first I thought this just showed how incredibly stupid some people are, but as I write this now, I think it also typifies the "something for nothing" mentality that so many people have;  they fixate on what somebody else will be giving them, but think there should be no cost to them ..... 

Living the Dream

Today we've swapped apples with one neighbour for a mighty fine chocolate cake, and with another neighbour for onions and garlics - it's really nice to see how happy people are giving and receiving the little things in life, and makes me think that we're  getting closer to our dream of living the good life.
I'm also really happy to have found out that my piece "Alone" which is currently being exhibited at the Derbyshire Open in Buxton has been sold.  Obviously the money is really appreciated, but just the fact that somebody likes your work enough to want to buy it, is a really really lovely feeling, that it's almost impossible to describe.  (Although Colin did joke that my parents or my sister had bought it me as a present, thinking it was the kind of thing that I might like!)

And the small hand says....

This morning I got to work for 8am.  I should start at 9am, so for a few minutes I was really impressed that I was the first one there, as that hardly ever happens, but then it slowly dawned on me, that I was a whole hour early, and really hadn't been paying enough attention to what the small hand was saying.
Still better an hour early, than an hour late, and better than what a friend of a friend did.....She had a small snooze when she got home from work on the Friday evening, and when she woke up at around 8, she got dressed for work and went to wait at the bus stop for her Saturday morning stint at work..... Fortunately the sight of lots of other people at and around the bus stop in their "going out" clothes, alerted her to the fact that it was still Friday evening, and 8pm and not 8am in the morning. Doh

a walk on the wilde side

the lovely on line gallery www.Fromthewilde.com are now selling my silver birch tea cosies, egg cosies and cushions - that's a whole woodland of pieces!.  I'm feeling very flattered that my pieces are amongst such beautiful things, and what with the Brinsley wreck being almost habitable it starts to feel like the good life is only a small step away (and a walk on the wilde side is here already!)

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Not enough hours in the day

I have a craft fair to go to over the bank holiday weekend, and while I already have a lot of stock to take, I was anticipating that I would have plenty of time to get all of the little bits and pieces done - but I have no idea when I'm going to fit it all in, the weeks seem to be flying by and I haven't even had chance to go running more than twice a week - I really could do with creating a 26 hour in a day, theres loads of ideas I want to get off the ground for TreeHuggery, and loads of ideas for my textiles degree, but at the minute I'm having to keep them all in my head - with the occasional burst out that becomes a sketch of ideas!  Hopefully the delay will come out as some really tactile, and colourful ideas. 

ice, ice baby

Just come back from a lovely evening run across the fields - there were 100s of bunnies scampering off as we approached, and we found some new footpaths that have only just  been cleared, its lovely running in new places.
When we got back, we decided we ought to hose our legs down with icy cold water - we used to do it all the time when we were training for races, as it helps prevent injuries - to be honest I was dreading doing it, and stuffed my hand in my mouth, expecting that i was going to scream, but after such a hard run on a hot summers evening, it was a lovely refreshing feeling, and something i ought to get used to.

Hold the Front Page

After another typical day  ...go for a run and a dog tries to attack me, and a stressed out horse is on the wrong side of the electric fence, then go post to a letter, and a dog nearly knocks the door down, then go shopping and nearly get run over by a man reversing, who's oblivious to everything else apart from getting his parking spot.....and thinking here we go again, I've just had a lovely suprise.... some of my first year textile work is being displayed on the home page of the Open College of the Arts....
Daft thing is, I looked at it and thought, mmmm that looks like the kind of thing that I'd do, it was only when I checked the name, and looked back at the piece, that I managed to believe in myself enough to know it was mine. This was my working samples for the Sirens corset that I did for the final submission.
I've always thought that it would be lovely to have my work on the home page, and now I've had a piece exhibited on the home page as well as showcased during the final submission - its a nice surprise.

Treetime Teatime!

because its always time for tea!, to compliment the egg cosies, I now have a range of tea cosies too  - available from http://www.treehuggery.co.uk/Tea-Cosies.html

The Death List

This morning I've been working in a pharmacy shop, earning some extra money to pay for the fine art printing.  I noticed that they have a "death list" a list of people who have died, so that they can tactfully avoid inadvertently delivering prescriptions, phoning with reminders etc, so imagine my horror when, as I was leaving, they asked if they should add me to the list.  As it turns out they were referring to a list of people who can help out, and not the list of the dead - I really shouldn't jump to conclusions.....

where the streets have no names....

Today I've been doing a mail drop of electorial reminders - I've quite enjoyed myself walking around, first basking in the sunshine, and later being refreshed by the rain (although not so good for the envelopes) and I have enjoyed listening to a group of young lads trying to decide whether I was a postman or post lady (I can't remember ever being to PC when I was their age)
That aside I never realised how difficult it was to do deliveries - there's an enormous amount of houses that don't have numbers; some streets don't seem to have any street signs; lots of streets veer off into alleyways, that on first sight look like they're only a walk through, but actually have houses up there; letter boxes are so discrete they're almost impossible to find, and when you do eventually find them, they're so full of draft excluders, that its almost impossible to post a letter through them, and then of course there's always the fear that if you guide the letter in with your hands that a dog will take a nasty bite of your fingers (i've known it happen to far too many people)
Thankfully I didn't do what one postie friend did, which was walk half way up a drive way, before realising that he was walking in freshly laid concrete - oops.... I can't say that I blame him for swiftly retracing his steps,  chucking the junk mail and cleaning his shoes in a nearby stream.
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