Paintings

I just had to show you this beautiful painting of Lucy that Sam painted for me. Isn't it lovely? She has such a delicate style and has captured her down to her whiskers!

Hubby and I love this painting, it will be framed and hung on the wall pride of place. Do pop over to see Sam's paintings and much more on her blog here.

The reason we are the proud owners of the above is a long story. I saw a lovely photo of Sam's cat Silkie Sue on her blog and just had to do a painting of it.

So I did and I sent it to her. It was so nice to do and I really enjoyed it. Sam and Rob liked it too-which is good! Sam said some lovely things about my work, coming from a professional illustrator, I was delighted. Thank you Sam.

*****

We received two paintings for Christmas off my Mother in Law too.

Both watercolours she has done recently. One is the Summer House of a Manor House in Shropshire the other is one of our favourite places, Dinas Head in Pembrokeshire.

We have lots of paintings to hang!

*****

Little red riding hood and other tales

The rag rug is coming along nicely. I have managed to do a bit every night and it shouldn't be too long before I can show you the finished rug. A few people asked about it in the comments to my last post. It doesn't hurt the fingers at all and yes Gerry it is a wooden clothes peg with one of the 'legs' cut off and the other sharpened to a point.

Now next Thursday is World Book Day (4th March) and we are all dressing as book characters at school. I was thinking I would go as Little red riding hood. I bought some scarlet fabric from the market and I am in the middle of running up a hooded cape. I will also show you this when its done. I think the adults at school are more excited about dressing up than the children to be honest!

It has been rain/sleet/snow for the past few days. a bit miserable to be honest. I am popping over to see my mum tomorrow to spend the day with her and if the miserable weather continues we might not get out for a walk but that might just be a good excuse to stay in warm and cosy and finish my rag rug.!

I have put on some daffodils to cheer you all up. I am glad you liked the snowdrops in my last post too.

End of half term

I know how lucky I am to have the school holidays to do what I want. We are trying to plan our holiday in May/June half term which will be our main holiday. It is a price we pay for working in a school and only having certain weeks off, the price ofthe holiday is cut dramatically the week we return to work.
Thursday

The second half of the week was a lot more relaxing. I had to take my car to the garage in Huddersfield on Thursday and it was booked in for 8am. I left in plenty of time and arrived far to early. I sat for half an hour outside the garage and chatted to a car hire man who was waiting to drop off a car. When The staff arrived at 8am I left the keys and wandered into town. There is not a lot to do in any town centre on a dull, grey February morning at 8am. I walked around the market where they were beginning to set up the stalls for the day. I took photographs of the lovely buildings with the view of doing some Matthew Rice style paintings from them at a future date. I had a coffee then when Waterstones opened spent a lovely hour looking at books and yes I did purchase one!

Then I made my way home at 10.30am and home in time for a cake and coffee and a sit down to do some painting.

I did a painting for my Blogiversary winner Gerry and then couldn't resist doing a little something else for another fellow blogger. I can't show you yet but when they have received them I will.

Friday

Friday was a funny day. I couldn't settle to do anything. I posted Gerry's parcel and did some ironing, a bit of painting but not anything worth while. I had to restrain my yellow hyacinths with a bit of ribbon.

I had a boiled egg and soldiers for lunch, see I told you it was a funny sort of day!

Saturday

Saturday we woke to this-

More snow over night.
But I was so excited as I was going on a Rag Rug Workshop at Touchstones in Rochdale.

I went on my own but met some lovely ladies there. I sat next to Cath and we did have a bit of a giggle and offered each other advice etc. The workshop was taken by Diane West (she doesn't have a web site) and the hessian, fabric scraps and tools were all provided.

I decided to use the woven and wool tweed bits of fabric which were all quite muted colours.

The design is drawn first in chalk then when ready in thick felt tip. You work on the back of the rug when doing this type of rag rug. (Prod down, hook up. This was not hooking)

You prod the fabric through the hessian with a proddy stick made from a dolly peg.

This is Cath demonstrating the technique.

I was quite pleased with my efforts by the time we stopped for lunch but we all wanted to get back and carry on as soon as possible.

We reluctantly packed away at 4pm and Diane made sure we took sufficient fabric home with us to be able to finish the rug.

My circle design I later decided reminded me of my dried Hydrangeas.

I am going to do aubergine and navy in the background. (I sat Sunday morning doing some more.)

Then I walked around the excellent exhibition at the gallery which included work by the very talented Abigail Brown. I just love her work.

Sunday

Today more snow and a lovely walk before rushing home to do my rag rug while watching Larkrise to Candleford.

Hope you all had a good week?

The week so far.

Half term has so far been very busy. I've hardly had time to sit down!

Saturday and Sunday

The weekend was spent doing a bit of cleaning, making the house tidy and pottering in the greenhouse.
Monday
I spent the day in Liverpool with my mum. Wandered round the shops, and down Mathew Street. The area is famous for the Cavern where the Beatles played. The photograph above is the statue of Eleanor Rigby and this below is John Lennon.

Tuesday

Today was a miserable day, cold, wet and grey. I had promised myself some crafting or painting but ended up baking most of the day.

Some friends left comments on my last post asking for the recipe for the Chocolate cookies, so here it is-

Chocolate Chip Cookies.

165g dark brown sugar

100g granulated white sugar

20g cocoa powder

60g pecan nuts, chopped

170g chocolate chips

220g plain flour

half teaspoon baking powder

half teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

125g softened unsalted butter

1 egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla essence

Preheat oven 180 degrees centigrade. Place all dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix together with your hands. Mix in the butter, egg (beaten slightly) and vanilla essence. Shape the mixture into walnut sized balls and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet 5cm apart. Press down slightly with the palm of your hand. Bake in the oven for 18-20 minutes. cool for 5 minutes before removing from the baking sheet onto a wire rack to cool.

Of course it was also Shove Tuesday, so we had pancakes!

Wednesday
I had a lovely day with my KS Shan in Preston today.
We went to the Harris Art Gallery and Museum. Looked around this lovely exhibition.


We had Tapas at Duk and then back to Shan's for tea and biscuits.



I must show you some heavily edited photos of me wearing my new hat. My mum knit it for me for Christmas then the lovely Simone sent me a felt flower brooch that went perfectly with it so now it lives on the hat!

Just look at those laughter lines (crows feet!)

I took the Gerbera Brooch Shan commissioned up to Preston yesterday and you can pop over to the Emporium to see a photo of it, I liked it and more to the point so did Shan!
So half way through my half term holiday, what does the next half bring?

weekend goodies

We have had a lovely weekend so far. Friday night we went to a restaurant called the Old Bore at Rishworth. Its a place I pass twice a day but we have never been in. I took this photo on the way home from work on Friday...

...then when we arrived at 7.30pm I took a few more photos-bit blurred but I think you can tell it's decorated like an old Scottish Hunting Lodge.

The menu is excellent and the service is also very good. We had a really lovely evening.

Now this meal was our Valentine meal. We always try to go out for a meal around valentines day, usually not on the day itself.

Saturday I went to my friends to bake chocolate chip cookies with her and her two daughters aged 7 and 10.

We did have a fun day, lots of licking of fingers and excited waiting for the cookies to bake. The girls all chocolated up, then went to play upstairs while we had a glass of wine and a good chat.

Today started sunny and I plan to do a bit in the garden and tonight we are going to see Sherlock Holmes at the cinema. Hubby bought me a card and a lovely felted purse with a heart on it from the Royal Exchange Craft shop in Manchester, am I not a Lucky Lady? I know Valentines day is not for everyone and I wish all my readers a happy day what ever they are doing today.

It is apt today the sun is shinning because I have received this lovely Sunshine Blog award from Bad Penny over at The Hen House. It makes me smile. I would like to pass this on to a few people new to me. They may want to pass it on to someone else or they may not, either way please pop over to see their lovely blogs by clicking on their name.

Donna
Felted House
Middle Cottage Diary
A Homely Heroine
Thimble Fingers

Snoopy Dog Knits
Ashfall

Frogs Dogs and ferns

Sad

I have a heavy heart tonight. Remember this post? I took some children to a local Bird Sanctuary with a cheque for money they had raised.

Well unfortunately the Sanctuary was forced to close it's doors last week. All because the council was trying to get it to have a Zoo Licence which they could not afford. I feel so sad. Please pop over to read the last post the trustees put up on the website and tell me if you understand the reasoning behind it!

Lovely things...

I have found a lovely website here. take a peek, lots of lovely things to buy, special interiors and vintage goodies. It's run by Jo and called coast and country home and it is based in Norfolk. She also has a blog here.

It was snowing on and off today but hasn't settled.

It did look good all swirling round and with the sun shining too.

I am so looking forward to catching up with friends and family in my half term next week. And I will send off a few parcels amd do some more crafting.

Hello to ALL my followers! I have a few more join me recently and I do try to make contact to say hello but sometimes I can't find a blog. So Thank you ALL for following!

Bye for now!

New post

I had such a lovely weekend, very indulgent! I managed to do a small watercolour of Nadolig. He is a cat who lives in Wales and I did the painting of him for his owner, Mr Griffiths who is feeling unwell at the moment.

I made some button hearts and started an embroidery, not done embroidery for YEARS!

Tonight, Hubby is treating me to a night out. We are off to Hebden Bridge to watch 'Nine' but first we may have time to sit down and eat at the very nice Fish and Chip restaurant in the town.

-He knows how to treat a girl!

PS I have put a new post on my Emporium so click on the picture of Lucy in my sidebar to have a peek.

Taking it easy

Hello everyone!

This weekend I plan to do a bit of crafting, a bit of cooking a bit of walking, a bit of gardening and No cleaning! Well I have done a load of washing and washed up, but that's it!

I have been making some button hearts for Lissylou for her BHF stall. Lissylou also recently posted about her note books.

Above is a page from one of my notebooks.

*I keep note books, I list things in them.

*Things I would like to see, do, go to, watch, visit etc.

*I cut small items out of magazines and stick them in.

*I doodle in them and sometimes sketch things in them.

*They are great to look back through.

I am planning a little embroidery later too.

I received a lovely package last week from the very generous Simone.

Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others cannot keep it from themselves.

J.M.Barrie

A beautiful card, a Sweet Sally Sewing Set, the 2010 Friendship book and a lovely felt heart. The felt heart goes so well with a scarf my sister bought me for Christmas (Sorry the photo is a bit dark!) Thank you Simone.

My class 5 at school were making collages out of recycled plastic on Friday. They worked very hard and I thought I would show you some photos. Shan gave me the idea (which I wrote down in a note book!) and these photos show the before photos.

They then got arranged between two pieces of cling film and covered with baking paper before ironing with a cool iron to fuse the plastics together. I will show you the display when I get round to doing one.

Also at work last week we made fruit smoothies in class 3. There was a tiny bit of fruit left so I made some mixed fruit jam. just enough for a jar and a half. I will take a jar into school next week and the class can taste a bit on some wholemeal toast as a treat.

On the way home on Friday, I saw an elephant!

Can you see him in the sky, with his trunk held high? (not sure where his legs are though!)