In My Studio

Finally there is an air of calm here after the muddle of the last couple of weeks...taking everything out of my studio for the new floor to be put down was the only way i would have got round to moving out so much paperwork, magazines and boxes and baskets stuffed with art and crafts materials...now it has all been sorted, lots disposed of or stored up in the attic ...

                       ...the things i use regularly are to hand on the shelves, or in the big white basket...

           ...and the bits and bobs i'm so fond of are stored perfectly in these faux french spice drawers....

 ...here is the studio clock (brought back once from a seaside trip), a rosy pincushion, the contents of one of those little spice drawers, and coloured chalks for message writing.....

 ...a few glimpses around the room.....the little keep calm picture my daughter made me, two of the pictures I enjoy having around me (there are other prints too, and a pinboard with commissions listed on, and another with postcards and cards pinned on but i haven't found places for those yet)....the little fireplace is filled with hydrangeas at the moment as you can see...

 ...one of the two work tables i use, this is the one where i draw, paint and make stitchy projects, the other is where i make cards and papercraft projects....i used to have an actual drawing board but now i prefer working on a flat surface so i removed it to give me more space....

...bunnies and books, garden snippets and sketch pads, the big cupboard which is now TiDy and all the toppling piles of old magazines have gone to other homes so i can store lots of materials in there again....the wooden chair is my computer chair (it belonged to Mr P's granny and i've painted it several times already)..so there it is, a quick view of my workplace, where i do all my writing and designing, creating and blogging...hope you enjoyed a peek at it!
The next magazine craft project has already begun in my new tidy studio, and it's not looking quite so neat as it was... more normal again...but after that bit of life laundry it all feels much nicer now. Thank you so much for dropping by and for your sweet comments and emails. Have a happy weekend, everyone. Back soon xxxx

Sorting Things Out

 That's what I've been doing every spare moment over the last few days...sorting out the contents of the studio....the new grey floor was put down on Monday surprisingly quickly, and we were able to put the work tables and the computer back in so Mr P could get it re connected for me to work again....

....I found so many things buried in boxes and baskets...like the little sketchpads above that I began keeping as a page-a-day visual journal a few years ago, the idea being that you work on one page a day until you are happy with it...

...they were fun to do and did encourage me to think creatively and in a different way from the design work I was engaged in at the time....

 ...a treasure trove of old fashioned stationery supplies, lovely to use for scrapbooking (now that was a hobby which led to the most tremendous amount of hoarding of small objects and ephemera that could one day be extremely useful)...

 ... ..little wooden pegs, essential in my studio for pegging things up on display, and pegging things together....

 ...lots of black and white scrapbooking supplies...the badge was from the Tate Gallery a few years ago...

 ...and so the sorting goes on and only certain things are allowed back in to the new TiDy space....I will have finished soon and then I will show you some pictures of how it looks (while it is still tidy)....

...tonight, after the last two evenings of intense sorting (oh those 'keep or throw' decisions are soo taxing) I am going to watch a movie and do some relaxing crochet!!!
Thank you for visiting me here and for your encouraging comments on my last post about the upheaval of this huge sort out...I'm so glad it's almost at an end now. In a day or so it will be time to bring in the pretty things and arrange a few flowers...have a great week everyone...back soon. xxxxx

Sew Busy

 Autumn flower snippets picked today in the blustery sunshine, between the showers.....between being very busy.....

 ....and the flower sugar nine patch quilt, finally finished over the weekend....I sewed on the binding partly by machine (between a shopping trip and our evening meal) and then slipstitched it down while watching a movie that evening....that's how I work, fitting my crafty projects in with my domestic life like jigsaw pieces...just like most women do.....

                                                       ...here's the new quilt hanging up.....

 and here it is spread out on the table in my almost cleared out studio....that's the main reason why I'm so busy this week.......

 ....clearing out years of papers, art materials, boxes of ephemera, stacks of magazines, folders of artwork, books and more books....everything has to be taken out and the furniture then removed so the new flooring can go in....

 ...I knew it would be a lot of work...but I knew I'd just have to do it and it will be worth it....

 ...in the picture below you can see the empty bookshelves behind the folded quilt...it took a long time to move everything off those shelves....but now everything is out...and the rest of the rooms on that floor are now messed up with the contents of the studio, but gradually I'm sorting out the stuff to keep and the stuff to go....and in a week or two I'm hoping all will be orderly again and much nicer than before....

 ....my crafts materials will be sorted and only the books I really want will be on the shelves (the rest will be in the little book room up on the top floor where I keep masses of reference books).......

....and all will be calm and tidy just as I like it.....but in the meantime I have to be sooo busy sorting and making decisions about keeping or not keeping old letters, scraps of paper, old sketchbooks of ideas....old cards from loved ones, old work documents, and things that might come in handy some day....sooo much stuff.....I hope to get it done quite soon though and look forward to getting all the rooms back to normal...

Wishing you all a happy week with lots of sunshine and sweet flowers wherever you are...thank you for dropping in to see me here and for the lovely comments...back to the tidying now...and back here again soon too  xxxxxxx

Sweet September

 September is a special month for me for lots of reasons...it's the month when my twin baby sisters were born, and it's the month when my own first daughter was born too ...on the day after my sisters' birthday though many years apart ;) ...and although it means the end of summer there are often still warm and sunny days to be had in September...lots of plans to make as schools and colleges go back and we look to settling down to  new projects again after the summer holidays...I feel the most nostalgia in September for schooldays and starting college terms...I picked the sweetpeas above this week, we still have plenty flowering but I know they won't be around much longer, especially as the wigwam of canes almost blew over in the blustery rainstorm one day this week....

 ...this is a sweetpea scented candle in a vintage cup, bought from a lovely lady at a craft fair in Devon...I put the candle in my studio but at first the scent was so overpowering it made me sneeze and I had to move it out until it diminished a bit...it's fine now, and I'll look forward to lighting it a little later in the season when the real sweetpeas are over....

 ...sweet treats...the chocolate vintage buttons from Hotel Chocolat I got for my birthday, shared with special friends and made to last...almost too pretty to be eaten really which is why they've lasted so long...

 ...a little last taste of summer...lavender cakes...I just make my usual simple all in one sponge recipe by Delia, but add some lavender flowers to the icing...put them in a tin overnight and the cakes are infused with the lavender oil next day...they smell and taste delicious....

 ...still flowering and bright....the pots outside the back door....this year I mean to bring the geraniums inside to protect them for next year...sometimes I forget to do this until the first frost and then it's too late....

 ...we have been picking loads of beans which we luckily love to eat...I like finding them amongst the leaves...simple pleasures...and picking some of the mass of herbs to dry or freeze for winter use....

 ...crafty wise I found some sweet fabric to use for the binding of my quilt...this green flower sugar is a new one...yes, another flower sugar fabric I've just discovered...here it is on the ironing board about to be ironed and cut into binding strips...the quilt is almost finished and I hope to bind it over the weekend...

 ...and although I haven't mentioned my new crochet love for a post or two I have still been doing some hooky playing around and when my quilt is finished it will be a big hooky project next...

Thank you for dropping by, I love your visits...wishing you a wonderful weekend of peaceful, happy, sunny, cosy, crafty times....back soon xxxxx

Happy Wednesday

 Here I am, in the middle of a big tidy up of my crafts materials, and I thought today  I'd show some pictures I've taken around the house ....not the untidiest bits of course, this is supposed to be nice to look at :)

 I love my summer candles, glassware and flowers, with some shells I've collected too...as soon as dusk falls the candle light looks so pretty reflected from the glass containers...the sweetpeas are still blooming too...

 ....a little jar from the lavender farm we visited filled with some garden snippets...I like it when the jar labels stay on after being wahsed...

 ...when we arrived back at the weekend we received some plums from friends...I can't believe it's already plum time here again....after I'd arranged them....eaten a few mmm delicious....

 ...and taken photos of them in pretty bowls.....I made some crumbles with them.....some to put in the freezer for weekend treats in the future, and one to have immediately warm from the oven with creme fraiche....

                                     ...our first crumble for ages....feels like autumn is almost here....

 ....pictures of yarn are becoming more usual for me now as it keeps appearing all round the house in various bags, baskets and any container that happens to be there when some more woolly goodness arrives.. I am so enjoying acquiring lots of colours which I never bought when I only knitted because they weren't suitable  for wearing...crochet is a real liberation for the use of colour isn't it??

 ....here is a quick picture of some of the simple crochet flowers I've been making, using some of the bright shades of yarn...they are going to be part of my new project which I hope to tell you more about  very soon..

I have some design work to do today, a lovely project for an inspiring magazine editor which I wish I could tell you about now...but all in good time....and then I hope to have a bit of hooky time this evening, and I have a list of other crafty things I want to make ....but first I must just finish off the tidying in here....

Thank you for visiting me here and for your sweet comments and emails I love to hear from you....wishing you a very Happy Wednesday....Back soon xxxxx

Happy Week

These beautiful flowering tete tete bulbs were a little present I gave to my mother yesterday - so bright and cheery I had to snap a picture before I gave them to her. And I have been given something too...another blog award! I feel very lucky to receive this award from the lovely Millie at milliemeadowsweet - do visit this pretty blog, if you haven't already, and you will wander into a magical and enchanted world. Thank you so much Millie!!

As I've already told you lots of things about me recently - how about seven pictures of my week instead?

one: opening the box newly arrived from my publishers, David & Charles, containing the makes from my two latest books - Home Sweet Home and Simple Sewn Gifts...lovely to see all the things again and I'll show more pictures of them when they are all fully unpacked....

      two: choosing seeds for my new spring planting - the plan is to have the most flowery garden ever...

    three: spending time in the kitchen sorting out the baking cupboard and putting the flours in labelled jars..

       four: and at the same time making flapjacks again...mmmm....only eating one a day though!...

     five: finding this sweet vintage jug at the back of a cupboard and bringing it out to enjoy properly....

 six: loving these tulips flopping around on my kitchen table - when they open out they form such huge flat petalled flowers not at all like tulips but beautiful all the same....

seven: and loving these little yellow violas which I rescued from the garden centre where they looked unhappy and weather beaten and in need of tlc - after a day or so on my windowsill they look much more perky and content.....I hope you've enjoyed my seven things today. I don't really know who to pass this award on to - everyone on my list who hasn't already got it? You are all stylish bloggers!
I hope you are having a happy week and enjoying life's little pleasures, with maybe a bit of spring sunshine too. Thank you so much for dropping by and reading this and for your wonderful comments too. See you soon! xxx