No.2 spirit doll

Such lovely weather that makes it difficult to knuckle down and work. However I have finished my second spirit doll - AIR - and because she was so white, I decided to colour her face with moonshadow hint of silver. I didn't realise it would come out so dark, but at least you can see her face.

The market took a nosedive this week, with everyone heading for beaches and outdoor persuits. We did get people going through but they were not buying so I came away in deficit this week. I am hoping it picks up soon or I'll have to find another job and that would be tragic.

I volunteered to pick up the newsletter from the printers for the U3A last week but once I'd been accepted I learned it also involved collating the pages, counting them, sorting into batches and giving them out at the lunch. That's the last time I volunteer to help out there. (maybe not...) We are also having a Jubilee party in June and we have to decorate hats to mark the occasion and a prize will be awarded for the best ladies and best men's hats. I decided on a spitfire logo (blue, white and red circles) and a spitfire aeroplane attached with a wire - hopefully! I'll add pictures once it is made.

 

I went down to Plymouth a couple of weeks ago to see my new granddaughter - Sara - such a lovely tiny baby who reminded me of a pixie,with her little pointed chin and ears. As good as gold she was and I came home and made her some little boleros and a buggy blanket. I fell quite in love with her and maybe I'll see this one grow up as living so far from my other 4 granddaughters has made this impossible in their case.

Where inspiration comes from?

Where does it come from? I have to say - everywhere - what I have found is that if you don't look for it, it seems to pop up right in front of you. I was reading my latest copy of Cloth, Paper, Scissors and near the back was a picture of a leaf, cut to look distressed and such wonderful colours. What came to mind was leaves printed on lutrador, burned out and layered over organza to produce a pocket for lavender. This could be a new sachet product for my stall. Also I came across a recipe for lavender bath salts on facebook of all places!

The only limit to all of this is the 6 x 4ft x 3ft tables I'm allowed at the market, which can look quite messy if too many products are put on them and my customers get overloaded with choice.

I recently added some Russian dolls, printed onto cotton and stuffed.  These have proved quite popular and I need to make them weekly it seems. My posies are also popular and I wondered if it was the price that attracts the customers or the novelty? I'll have to do some market research this year and then I can reduce my products to those that people are looking for.

Back to work now...

Spirit doll

The past week as seen me with a dire cold, maybe even 'flu, not sure but it felt epic! After two days of coughing and sneezing and using a tree of tissues, I woke yesterday with a brainstorm...a spirit doll had kept me awake since 4am and I could not wait to get going making one.  I did some research and found a freebee pattern then dived into my scrap bin for the right fabrics etc. Yesterday it came to me that I should make 4 of these spirit dolls, Earth, Fire, Air and Water and as my first doll was from an orange kimono piece that made her FIRE. I also belong to an online doll making company called Dollmaker's Journey and the latest newsletter gave us a tutorial in making angel wings...how appropriate was that! So today was spent doing these lovely fairy wings for my spirit doll.

of course they are not visible in this picture and I'll have to do a second photo for next time. I often wonder how all these separate elements come together when I'm making something and all because I felt so ill; but they did the job of getting me going again and ready for the market tomorrow. After that I'll have a go at AIR which will be white.

My first Video

This is the first time I've had a video to upload, never mind uploading it and I'm curious as to how it will turn out. It is Digger and Peggy having fun with the dog walker and a large pond. I love seeing them race around and enjoying themselves, hope you like it too.

This week has been busy with visits to the vet for the hydropool and me going to the opticians and physiotherapy. My left eye has settled down after the shock and although it is still a bit hazy and will get worse, that is old age creeping and nothing change that. The physio is not so great and involves a lot of pain and I have a problem managing it. I'll have to visit my doctor to see if she can help.



Well, enjoy the video and I'll put up a couple more later in the week if this works out.

Fish tank

My dog, Digger, had a "jack russell skip" when he came to me, and I thought it was just a quirk but it seems it is much more serious. He suffered a major tendon rupture in his back leg's knee joint where the bones had 'skipped' out of line and became quite lame. He has been through major surgery to have a pin put in to stabalise his joint and is recovering quite quickly. Here he is in the hydropool, where he can exercise his leg and strengthen the leg muscles.

Looking through the end of the 'fish tank' you can see him looking at the nurse who sets up the hydropool, and below you can see him sideways on in his special harness which has a handle on the back so that she can lift him if he gets into trouble. There is a treadmill moving in the bottom that makes him walk at a slow pace, making him use his back leg.

He really loves going for the sessions and actually runs to the room and greets nurse Angela. He has two 5 minute sessions in each bi-weekly appointment at the moment which will be increased over the next 4 weeks until he can use his leg properly. Unfortunately, it seems that in most cases the other hind leg will have to have a similar operation, but I'm hoping this will not be the case as he's been through so much in his short life.

In the meantime I have to keep the back door open for him because the dog flap needs to be increased in size and lowered for him, to accommodate his short legs, bless him, I am waiting for Joe to come and put a new one in the panel.

So cute

I had a mental epiphany and worked on two new ideas this week. My mother gave me a little sachet in the shape of a pair of shorts that she had bought many moons ago and I bought some scraps of material and made little key ring shorts scented with honeysuckle.

Then yesterday I looked at some circles of organza my friend had given me in white and lavender. I started playing with them and sewed some ric-rac around the edge of the white circle then a gathering line 2" from the outside. I gathered it into a pocket and filled the centre with honeysickle pot pourii then added 3 roses and a bow of green ribbon. It looked like a wedding favour or hostess gift and really quite cute. I tried the same technique with the lavender circles but with a lilac flower edging and filled with dried lavender. Again so cute!

now how do you follow these little whimsies? I'll have to think hard and long to find other ideas as cute as them.

On the personal front, I found out, by elimination, that the food the vet had given me for Digger was the cause of his sickness - go figure! I went to our local pet shop and they recommended a bag of organic chicken and brown rice cubes that he scoffed immediately with no barfing. Not only that but I was given a card with two stamps on it and when I fill the card I get a bag free PLUS another card with two yellow stickers that enters me into a draw and I get another bag free when that is filled up too. Hey, I'll be back there regularly to get my stickers and both dogs are now eating well. Digger sees the vet again tomorrow when he will be assessed for sessions in the hydropool to get his leg muscles working again. Should be fun...NOT.

I think its the warmer weather and days of sunshine that are waking me up and getting my creative juices going. I do hope other people are feeling the same and doing whatever they are good at.



A New Year,

A new set of problems! Starting with my mobile crashing and losing all my pictures and some contacts; then my car needed jump starting and a new battery; then after having a mammogram I was called to Exeter for more scans and a lesion was found. They attempted to do a biopsy but I'm allergic to local anaesthetics and went into full anaphalactic shock; then my dog, Digger ruptured a tendon in his leg and needed an operation (He's recovering nicely); then when my vision didn't clear after the induced shock I saw an optician who says the lens in my left eye is hazy and will need a replacement operation sometime in the future (when I'm blind!); then I started a series of physiotherapy at the hospital for my back which is proving extremely painful. During all this I organised my mother's 90th birthday in Cheshire. So up to now, it has been one thing after another and I'm exhausted!

However, I have been filling in the time left with making stock for the forthcoming holidays and have come up with some different items, namely dolls' sun bonnets - cute - and fragrance hearts - exquisite!

They can all be fragranced with either lavender or honeysuckle - my new fragrance - I found that some people don't like lavender and would like to buy the gift if it has another fragrance, so I've added another table to my stall solely for this new venture.  I am also slowly catching up with my U3A Devon History group and have taken on a committee membership. I got landed with the minutes and actions listing which was what I did as a Project Administrator in another life. I organised a speaker for our February meeting, a lovely guy who kept us laughing and amused for 45 minutes on a talk about Mrs Beeton's book of Household management. I can now skin a hare, should I ever want to.

The market has slowly improved, salewise, over the last two weeks but before that it was touch and go if I made my stall rent and car parking fees but we have to turn up or the market will fold and we will all be out of a job. It surprised me that our takings were so low over the Christmas period and none of us made enough to cover living expenses. Hopefully the warmer weather will bring the tourists back and we'll have enough to salt away for next winter. It's all a learning curve and has some harsh lessons.

In the news

An editor of a German magazine called Spotlight rang me up to ask about my lavender stall last week and asked about how I started and all the highlights and pitfalls I had encountered. Its aimed at helping German people with their English as there are so many words that can mean different things in each country. I find the magazine very helpful to my English too and it really grabs my attention.

I came to a full stop last week, I felt so tired that I spent days just sitting and reading - not like me at all, but thankfully my mood is over and I'm now back on track with my stock making. I have come up with a few new ideas having ditched a couple of items that are not selling. Plus my workshop has gained a ceiling, floor and end wall thanks to my new man friend. As soon as I have more cash flow I'll get him to finish the outer and inner walls too. This would mean I'll have a lovely warm room to work in instead of freezing during the winter and a bonus of saving on my heating bills.

Christmas is round the corner so I'm working next Sunday as well as all the Sundays leading up to Xmas in December. This will be a first for me and I'm wondering if it will be too much to do two days together...we'll see.

The new ideas I've come up with are dryer sachets - to put in the dryer with your wet washing, small pyramids in quilting fabric, lacy pin cushions, beaded socks, hand-dyed hoover-oids (for putting in the hoover bag), headache sachets, eye masks, armoires (with printed and painted art deco moths on them) and lastly keyrings.

These little beaded socks are knitted in purple, lilac or white crochet cotton on no.14 sock needles and I've had many lovely comments on them as I sit there in the market knitting them.

I'm now working on a bath soak, a combination of lavender and epsom salts and think I will put them into an organza pyramid sachet to make them more interesting. But that's for Xmas.

I am also giving out a brochure to visitors to Barnstaple market to launch a mail order scheme. I have not had much luck with this in the past but hopefully it may take off. The saying is 'nothing ventured nothing gained' so here goes...

You may have spotted the mention of a man in my life, Joe, he live about 1.5 hours away but makes the journey each week to visit me and takes an interest in my work. He has shown me all round North Devon, Exmoor and the coast and I've seen more of North Devon in the last six months than I have in the past 5 years. It is very beautiful in a wild and craggy way and the more I see the more I want to explore other parts.

Folks are enigmatic

Such a long time since I blogged that I smacked my hand...Oww! Won't try that again.

I started my market stall at the beginning of June and it was quite a rush as I had thought of started on June 23rd. However I seemed to be a success and was encouraged to try another day - Monday - as well. Not such a good day but still profitable.

I set up an excel list of each item I sell and put in the sales of each day hoping to get some idea of trends. But folks are enigmatic! What sells out on one day sometimes doesn't sell again for ages, and what had been passed by suddenly is popular...go figure!

This means I have to trundle ALL my stock to the market and back, in a suitcase with wheels, so that I can please most of my customers. However, only one item does not please and that is the Baby Sleep hearts, so I've taken the words off the centre and substituted little velvet flowers, which seems to get their attention.

Some customers have time to stop and chat and I've been regaled with some very funny stories. I also got quite a few compliments on the layout of my stall and the fact that I have such a wide variety of choice within the lavender theme.

I have to get down on my knees and pray for bad weather now, so that customers come to the market instead of the beach...naughtly of me, I know, but I have to help my business grow, don't I, and it's only for two days.

Well, back to work making stock...

Back at the market

It has been a long time since I had a stall at the market. Last Thursday I set up my new Lavender stall with all the stock I had made over the past two months. The display is not quite right yet and I invested in some crystal organza to replace the cream muslin.

 I have a centre aisle stall with 7 tables which have to be covered so I chose a lilac velvet to give the lavender theme. I also spread some loose lavender over an oilcloth and set about bagging it up into little sachets for customers to buy. The smell seemed to draw them to my stall and get them looking at the various items on display. I have been working on some shoe stuffers for next week. Gingham fabric filled with lavender and a ribbon pull at the back. They look quite cute. My doll Doris was almost bought by an enthusiastic customer so I had to remove her as I don't want to sell her - she brings customers to the stall and adds a certain charm to the sleep pillows. Well, if anyone has any ideas of what I can make that can be stuffed with lavender, please let me know - I'll be most interested.

More grist to the mill

As you can see I have added to my stock of goodies for the market in July. I didn't like the cream sleep pillows I made first and have ditched them and made organza pillows instead. I've filled little organza bags with lavender to fill the hatbox, plus large bags of lavender for customers to fill their own.  The lace on the medium bag is taken from a table runner and glued onto the front of the bags once filled, then a little baby's breath glued on top. Very fiddly. I have also filled little bottles with lavender essential oil and sealed them ready for labels and pricing tags. Also, not pictured here, I filled tiny organza bags and placed 9 into a circular tub, tied purple ribbon round them and glued a couple of flowers on top. I'll put up a picture next time I blog.

I never realised how much time it takes to tag every item, but customers won't pick items up unless they have a price and a 'Made in Devon' label to take home with them, so it's worth it in the end. I also have to put large notices with each item on the stall like the "4 for £2.00" for the hatbox and descriptive notes on lavender for customer queries.

This week has been especially busy because my washing machine broke down, then the tap connection under the sink started dripping like mad so I had to turn the water off and this meant waiting in for repair men to come and charge me the earth to rectify everything. Isn't it strange that electrical goods always break down together as if they have a union - one out, all out?

Well, back to work...

Stock and stuff

I'm so busy making stock for my new venture that blogging has taken last place. From 1st July I shall be selling lavender and lavender products at the local market on Thursdays and need to fill the tables; so I've taken a leaf out of my friend's book and made all the items she made before she sold her business plus a few of my own invention.
Take a look at my pictures to see what I've been up to the past 6 weeks:

 

The pomander was really easy to make but the other stuff was more time consuming. In the picture above right there is a sleep pillow at the back, a lavender sack to the right, and at the front, a pomander, gingham lavender filled heart and a domino car freshener for the gents.

I still have to make 5 clear cartons with 9 small organza bags inside each, a ribbon round and a flower on top, also various organza bags filled with lavender to sell separately. Then there are lavender scented clay drawer fresheners, clay hearts (same) to order, little bottles of essential oils to fill and cap etc, etc. I have never worked so hard since I gave up making waistcoats.

I did find time to go to my Devon History group and listen to a talk about Queen Anne's Walk in Barnstaple, by the architect who restored the monument. He showed us pictures of his research back to 1850's to make sure all the detail of the monument, friezes and wall sculptures were authentic. It was a fascinating talk and lasted well over the hour scheduled for it.

Apart from all that, my washing machine broke down last Monday so I'm back to hand washing...those were the days, remember?

Calmer

Things have calmed down chez moi, because I gave up one of the clubs I was attending, they had come to the end of their programme anyway, so it seemed appropriate. I can now concentrate on the U3A and my Devon History. I have also started at the market again, helping Sue on a Saturday to give John a break. She is moving towards doing milinary and fascinators and she is very good.

I have also started cutting out all the deadwood in the garden - shrubs I lost to the frost. It has taken 3 wheelie bins to move just one lot of cuttings from the buddlias that grow rampant in Devon. Everywhere else they are sold in the gardening nurseries, but here you can find them growing wild almost everywhere.

Still no-one has moved in next door to me, and I have grown used to being on my own, it will be quite a culture shock when a family does move in. I just hope they are reasonably quiet, because I'm too old for family squabbles.

I have also been in my loft looking out patterns and fabric stored there for summer clothes. I'm slowly working my way through my stash that I brought with me from Cheshire. That seems such a long time ago, and I hardly remember my life there any more. My patterns come mostly from the US and a lovely lady called Lois Ericson used to make the most innovative patterns up to size UK30 and even suggested how they could be altered and made more interesting. I was sad to learn she had given up selling them and will have to guard my copies like gold to make sure they last me.

new website

I have been working on a new website for the U3A group I joined last month. Today I finally got it published and just have to wait for the committee to let me have any changes they feel it needs.

I had to use a software package I'm not familiar with called WebPlus X4. As I'm a visual designer I found this package very good and only had three problems whilst setting it up. The Webplus forum was excellent for solving these problems and it has only taken a week for all the pages to come together. I feel quite proud of this 'child'.

I have also had to increase my output of the Bridal wallets I designed as they are going like mad. I managed to get 28 made last week but it took all my time up and my dogs were beginning to get stir crazy and demanding to be taken out.

So today I'm back to mundane tasks like washing clothes and cleaning round. What will I do next? Hmmmmm.

Me and my big mouth

I attended my first U3A lunch yesterday. I was met by the luncheon secretary and hosted at the top table, which was out of sight of the screen and talk, so I had to move my chair to be able to see the presentation. This put me in sight of all 100 members much to my dismay. The talk was on 'Myths and Legends of Baggy Point' which is a local finger of rock that goes about 1.5 miles out into the sea on the coastline near where I live. The one item that struck me as the talk finished was the many ships that had come to grief along that coastline. We were also told that the reason we had a coastal path was due to the need of the excise officers trying contain the smuggling that was rife in those days.

The luncheon finished with the Chairman, Ken, reading out notices amongst which was a call for a new webmaster as the lady who was doing it would not be continuing. Afterwards I asked Ken what was entailed and before I knew it I had become the new Webmaster!

The downside is that the host site is closing down due to local council cutbacks and all the information will have to be transferred, but the upside is that I can start from scratch with a new host site and that has to be good.

So my new life has begun, I'm out at meetings twice a week and have doubled my trips out with my dogs. I have also started using my Wii excercises again to combat the weight I put on whilst taking some terrible tablets. On top of that is my work with Sue where we have come up with Bridal Wallets - a pouch in waste damask with a beaded edging on the flap for putting money, cheques or vouchers in - for giving to wedding couples.

Talking of dogs wanting their walk...

Coastwise club

I went to the library for my weekly club outing and attended a fabulous talk on 'The Frozen Planet'. This talk was given by a BBC photographer who had been contracted to film for a proposed series starting in September. He showed us his arrival in McMerdo bay in Antartica, hosted by the US, the equipment they had to use to drill the hole down through the ice so that they could dive under it. Then followed a series of photos showing what lived under the ice and the brine tunnels that formed down from the icecap. Masses of star fish live off the plancton etc brought down by these brine tunnels until they hit the ocean floor and skid away.

Then he went on to show pictures of the Killer Whales that hunted in Weddell bay, in particular the class B killer whale - identified by its long white eye patch. They only seemed to go after the Weddell seals and had a distinctive way of washing the seals off the ice flows - the pod would swim a distance away and line up, then all charge towards the iceflow and stop dead just before it, causing a huge wave to upend the flow and topple the seal into the water where a designated catcher was waiting. This has only been seen about 5 times in the world but in Weddell Bay it happened quite frequently.

He also showed us a female Humpback whale actually rescuing a seal from the pod by surfacing upside down under the seal as it was toppled, and catching it on her belly then swimming away with it. The photos were truly awesome!

The photographer is now filming in Africa which must have been a huge culture change for him, ice to heat.

New links

I was just trolling through some information from Cloth Paper Scissors when I came across a new website - just set up - with wonderful mixed media journalling techniques and articles.

http://www.createmixedmedia.com/

I've not read the free ebook yet but from the front cover it looks exciting and there is so much to delve into that it will take a while to assimilate it all. However I thought it worth posting so that anyone else who is interested in mixed media can have a look.

Finally finished

My daughter send me a calendar she had made where she had cut out the faces of family and superimposed them on various other photos. I wanted to be able to use this calendar but it was not in the right format. So over the past weeks I have been collecting stuff to turn it into a calendar book. I had a cardboard sleeve used to package a sheet, a piece of fabric paper I had painted and stamped and Hated! some grungeboard letters etc. I covered the sleeve with the fabric paper, machined the letters on top and coloured them; then felted some wool rovings to make a cover for the spine. Next I made a concertina of folded card to use as an support for the pages and added the calendar papers but opposite each month I put another piece of plain card to add all the achievements for that month.

Here I am as the Statue of Liberty (Bert always called me Libby or Liberty when he was making a point) on the September page.

Although I hated the fabric paper, once I had added all the other elements it looked much better and it gives me hope for the other pieces I have done and ditched in my 'hopeless' box. It just shows that you should never throw anything away because it can always be reclaimed.

Busy, busy, busy

All of a sudden life has taken off here chez moi. I was contacted by a dear friend who lives in the US, we'd worked together for years and are now both retired. We skyped last week and caught up with all that was going on, past and present - a wonderful time.

Next I saw an advert in the freebee newspaper by a local group called Coastwise who were giving talks in the local library and during the summer they visit the local beaches for cleanups etc. I thought to give it a go so I went along on the Thursday and listened to a talk about the Atlantic Array that is proposed for the Bristol channel in a couple of years. I never dreamed that so much work had to be done before even starting the project. I know my eldest son is interested in working within the Windfarm community so I took the time to talk to the presenter and asked for a copy of his presentation.

Whilst there, the lady sitting next to me and I got chatting and she gave me information about another group called 'The University of the Third Age'. Basically U3A is a community of retired people that meets once a month and is subdivided into study groups which each member can join separately. When a group gets too big, another is formed with a slightly different name. I got a copy of their newspaper and found lots of groups listed and decided that I was interested in the 'Gardens Group' who travel round the south visiting gardens, and the 'Devon History' group. Unfortunately the Gardens group is fully booked but there may be chance to start a second group if someone has the courage to lead it.

All this is so exciting and new and could lead to inspiration for my art attempts, perhaps giving it new perspective.

Tomorrow's talk by Coastwise is about sea shells and their impact on the environment. Again I'm looking forward to the talk and maybe a few sketches whilst sitting in a dark corner.

Window cleaner

Why am I so excited about finally finding a window cleaner???

Ever since I moved to Devon I noticed that window cleaners are as elusive as the tin that was once mined here. Today as I took the dogs for their walk round the block, there he was, finishing cleaning the house up the road. I pounced on him immediately, dogs in a tangle of leads and asked, very politely, "do you do domestic houses?" The foolish man said "Yes". Another pounce got him to admit he could have a word with his boss, come round almost immediately and assess my windows.

I don't know why I should be so happy, but if I can finally see out of the top windows that must be the bonus for this year! Extra plus was that he was so reasonable, much less than my mother pays in Cheshire but I'm keeping that to myself.

So one happy teddy meets the New Year with a smile!