Stringy things!

Remember a little while ago I started hand spinning some yarn for class? Well this is the final result! My inspiration was 'dry stane dykes' and I used a variety of materials to capture the essence of these beautiful structures in the form of crafted, hand-spun and machine spun yarns.

At the end I had loads of test yarns left over which I decided to knit into a little patchwork rock cosy to display how the yarns might look when knitted up - it was so fun!

I'm pretty happy with the result and am dreaming of making these yarns into some beautiful jewelry like this by Heather Goldberg, oh so pretty!

Zing - M.I.A

Sad news. Poor little Zing has been lost in the post - somewhere between Scotland and Australia. Have you seen him? I hope he's ok, its been weeks since we last saw him. I'm hoping he met a nice lady cat on the plane and stopped off for a romantic tour of South East Asia, or maybe a nice little girl or boy found him and took him home to hug and squeeze forever. If you see him please tell him we love him and miss him very much and to hurry home.

Things you might not know about me No.3...... and a birthday treat

You may not know that I love tea. You probably also don't know that I have a particularly special favourite type of tea. Have you ever tried Jan de Vries Dutch Herbal Tea? You should try it - its magnificent.

These are some ingredients: peppermint leaves, rosehips, strawberry leaves, juniper berries, sage leaves, golden rod herb(?!), birch leaves, lavender flowers, passion flower herbs and many many more deliciously chopped up tiny wee pieces of plants! WoW! Now I'm not really a herbal tea fanatic - I'm more of a coffee kinda girl but this tea has converted me - I've been raving about it for weeks - and Px loves it too so I've been buying it in bulk!

The other day I tried to make my own dandelion tea from the over grown mass on Px's lawn. I picked off all the little yellow heads and boiled them up. The result was surprisingly palatable (helped along with a spoonful of sugar!). I used the heads but I understand the leaves are good too when dried out. I'd like to try making some strawberry leaf tea this summer, I bet its super tasty.

This is my special little Spode tea cup and a pretty little bag of cookies my friend Marianne baked for me last month for my birthday. Lucky Loulou! They were so tasty with big chunks of dark and white chocolate mixed through. Thank you Marianne!

A New Creative Space

I've recently been in the very fortunate position of having a huge room at my parents house (actually my wee brother's old room) where I can spread out all of my arting and materials and do my work in. However, my mum is reclaiming the space as another spare room is needed for the guests coming to my sister's wedding in August. I've had this in the back of my mind for the past year so have never fully organised the room and haven't spent much time making it into a nice homey workspace knowing I'd be moving out anyway. So here's a little glimpse of my room as it is - its not pretty and I'm not particularly proud of it but its done the job......

SO....fortunately we live in a big old farm house and have a little playroom 'up-the-backstairs' where we spent countless hours as children playing dress-up, Sylvanian Families and listening to LW Radio Atlantic 252 (remember that?)! I love this wee room and have always dreamt of converting it into my studio and now its finally happening!

HOWEVER, this room is also a shambles with decades of the junk, treasures, toys & memories of a family of six accumulating and never really being tackled....until now. This is the 'playroom' as it is.....

Up the backstairs.....

Look at my lovely view of the woods!

Narnia is a crumbling wall.

Needless to say I've got my work cut out for me! I'm waiting for the plasterer to come and fix my walls before I can paint then start moving in! Watch this creative space!

Things you might not know about me No.2

So I've finished uni now for Summer and therefore have no excuses left for not getting other things done such as crafting and blogging. I've got loads of fun projects lined up for the next few months so hopefully my blog will be brimming with new and exciting things.......

Anyway......to continue on from a previous post, the second thing you might not know about me is that I love love to bake..........

I made these little beauties last week - its honestly the most satisfying feeling!

I don't consider myself to be a particularly good cook, I get all flustered if there's more than one thing happening at once, timings and techniques are not my strength......but give me 20 minutes to prepare and point me in the direction of the Aga and i'll make you a mouth watering pie or a lip-smacking lasagne no problemo! That is providing I remember to set the timer.....

My most frequently baked thing is banana bread, it's just so fantastically easy and we can all pretend its so healthy and good for us cause there's half a dozen squished up bananas in it!

Mmmmmouth is watering a little at the thought and I have got some bananas which have just turned, maybe I go make one now.........