Tuesday just rocks up and along

I have been trying to get going on my next big project but apart from pages of words spread all over the table and the fabric ready at my sewing machine I am making slow progress. Mainly because we are busy. Loads of parcels appearing and lots of packaging needed to be done. We used to sell Corriedale wool in 200gram packs and when they sold out I dropped them off the catalogue and didn't re-order but a couple of weeks ago I was using some with my needlefelter and thought - these really are good and the needlefelter loves them - so I placed a huge new order and Ian popped them on the web - mostly to package in 3 shade sets of 150grams - and I was quietly waiting for them to arrive so I could quietly package them. Murphy popped in and all these people started ordering them - before they got here. but they did rock up yesterday afternoon just in time to package the first lot and today I have been working away like a little beaver and getting ready to place a new order. This above is Pansy. For felt making I love our 18.5 micron merino which Jacinta and Martien dye for us and we sell it natural but the NZ Corriedale has a wonderful springy texture to it.

Here he is - Ian is pretty sure it must be a South Island one... I used to spin an awful lot when we lived in Wellington and knitted and crocheted copious garments for everyone including the public when I worked at the markets. Spin up and crochet up during the week and sell it all on the weekend - something like that.

 As well as that (and a pile of other goodies to arrive) CPS Pages rocked up too. I ordered a lot because I thought it might be good and it is - they will all go out tomorrow and there are about 5 copies left if anyone is interested.

Studio to get on with big project? Tomorrow....

Busy Saturday and Relaxing Sunday

I had 6 lovely ladies here yesterday for a wonderful workshop - I hope they enjoyed it - I haven't done this before and it involved cleaning and clearing my studio which in retrospect has been excellent. I had, of course, far too many on my list of things to play with   but we used transfer paints, painted fusible webbing, played with Lutradur and Evolon and TAP - so I think we did pretty well. Ian was the chief chef and he did a very good job too. I enjoyed it enough to start thinking about some more for next year which I shall pop in my Workshop tag soon for a response of interest.

Afterwards, we went up Beaufort Street to check out the Beaufort Street Festival - this was the giant sock bird created by Wendy Herrington. one of the best parts of having a festival is that Beaufort Street is closed to traffic and there were lots of people wandering enjoying themselves. It is very good for the local businesses and should happen more often. Maybe it well now we have a new mayor who is pretty active. We queued up at GoGos for a take away and then decided to rest our weary feet (I had been standing all day) inside GoGos restaurant where we had a very nice curry and made some new friends with the people at the next table who had been at the races all day - say no more...

Karen brought me a lovely bunch of wheat - I expect from her farm - I have been doing a few sketches.

Today I have scrubbed the studio floor (it's polished stone and came up a treat) which was well overdue and I Have cleaned out a few more things and created a few more spaces and put most of my big baskets of work in progress back inside. Ian has cleaned all the decking and re oiled it so we are going to be looking pretty smart for the coming times.

not really my studio

I have been in the studio most of today - cleaning it up for tomorrow's workshop - of course lots of it is in our bedroom but I did see Ian's eyes light up when he saw me carting a couple of bags to the rubbish bin.
So this is not my studio but the wonderful garden in Marrakesh - don't you just love the colours?

I guess lots of people have been there and fallen in love with the colours. I could easily go back to Marakkesh.

I shall be up bright and early tomorrow - at least the studio is ready - I hope they all enjoy their day.

Happy Wedding Anni

 It's Kaz and Bruce's wedding anni today - well done you two - you will catch up with us one day. Hope you both have a lovely day and night.

 Talking of lovely things - one of my holiday finds arrived today - silk string. Each hank has 10 different colours of silk fibre which look string like but can be pulled apart - fluffed out - whatever you like - fab to use in your silk paper making. They are $5 each or 5 for $20 Ian hasn't put them on the web yet because he was busy popping the silk cocoons up. We haven't been able to get these for ages and these ones are in excellent condition - not hairy like the ones we had before. I had almost given up on them.

Do check out my next taster - it will be up for 5 days.
I am just starting my tidy up for my Demystifying the Distressables workshop on Saturday.

Tonight we are off to the final ACO concert for the year - looking forward to it.

Provence - not quite a slide show

I was going to create a slide show of our Provence photos - the real ones taken by Ian - but Slide show is closing down so while I search for a new one I shall pst lots of pics instead for you to enjoy.
What I have discovered is that if you click on the first photo it brings them all up so you can look at them all liks a slide show. 

 Arch at the top of Menerbes

our hire car at the bottom of our steps in our very own car park

 Dale in Le Petite Luberon - walking day

 view from Menerbes

 wonderful roofs (rooves?)

livng area in our villa  - as you can see I am trying to load up the table like I do at home with my stuff.

 Street in Menerbes

 street in Menerbes at night

 La Veranda where we had two wonderful meals and only a few minutes from home.

 grapes in Menerbes looking down from our villa

the gate to our villa

 grapes of course

more grapes

Hope you enjoy it - we had a wonderful time. Busy as beavers back here now. Such excitement - our face book page has over 1000 likes (strange word) so thank you all - check out and leave a comment because I am giving away 10 daily prizes for 10 days  - that's one for each 100.

Happy BIrthday Grant

Happy Birthday Grant - hope you are having a great day in London. Many happy years ago on Flutterby on Lake Rotoiti - up bright and early while we were still asleep down below! But now I think about it - someone else must have been up to take the photos.....

Those were the days for sure - Ma and Pa style sailing - including relaxing and barbecues in our private bay (until others arrived). Lots of tadpoles coming home at the end of each weekend if I recall correctly.

texture

Not particularly good photos but I have been working on the next holey moley club lesson which is rust and rort and I wanted to work with some texture. Khadi paper has a wonderful texture (the khadi books are walking out the door but once they have gone there will be no more until next October - they are too heavy to have sent) and I have rubbed over the surface with Shiva Stiks and then sprayed over the top with some ink. It actually looks rather yummy as the Shivas are a great resist. I am planning to stitch once it is all dry etc. Khadi paper being a cotton rag paper, is wonderful for stitching and I think everyone must know, almost my favourite. When I had the books sent to me at Ally Pally, I also got some very large pages which I have plans for but I am going to have to be frugal with these as there aren't many and it was quite an effort working out how to get them back with us.

For this one I used a Stylish Stencil - Chicken Wire - so simple but effective. Rubbed the stiks over the surface and used a toothbrush to spread it and blend it. I find an old toothbrush better than  stencil brush.  Then I sprayed it with a Moondshadow Mist. Again it looks a bit dark here but trust me it looks great.

K.D. Lang (always wonder how bad people's names are that they won't use them - after all I am stuck with Dale - wonder what the response would be if I started calling myself  D.E. ) - the concert was good - this is the third one we have been to - we both decided we enjoyed the earlier ones better - this one was rather more like a rock concert and she didn't do many of her lovely soft ballad songs. But it didn't rain and the only eventful thing which happened was my brand new chair which broke under me - all replaced now and a new one in the shed for next time.

Back to the mags - I have found 1 copy each of the latest CPS and the CPS Gifts if anyone is after them. They had managed to hide away where I could  not see them.

Thanks for the comments about my new French books  - bed time reading for me....

flower stitcher and some lovely little books

So many people have bought the flower stitcher and my book in the last few weeks so I thought I would show one of my pieces. It is very similar to the cover on the book - lots of different stitches and all using one thread - Carnivale. Variegated threads are my favourites - the colour plays all over the place. I am working on a few pieces on Romeo but they are not for showing yet.

When we were in Provence I bought a number of beautiful little books - all in French of course so it will encourage me to practise my French as well. This one is a cook book - using fleurs - I got it for Jacinta as well for the magnificent colours. Expect to see some of these combos coming up before too long.

Full of exquisite drawings -

and another

 and this one is my diary for 2012 also full of lots of recipes. Should keep me out of mischief. Since I coudln't find any Provencial fabrics (other than table cloths and napkins and the like) I think these are more my scene anyway.

Tonight we are going to the KD Lang concert at Sandalford winery. It is expected to shower so we have plastic for under us, our low chairs, our picnic and plastic to cover us. We can only get wet but we are looking forward to it.

bowls and good thoughts

In Roussilon we bought a couple of beautiful bowls - we don't buy a lot of stuff when we are away but we usually look for something we can use - a jug, salad dish or bowls. These two were beautiful and made locally. They have slightly different patterns. There was a big choice so it took us some time. back in 1992 when we did our big o/e trip and drove all around Europe, I bought a big jug with apparently an original East German design from way back when. I am amazed it got home safely and I do love it and use it every day.

Inside colour of the bowls - not both the same but the turquoise is wonderful.We have used them already.

This is our resident kookaburra - he seems rather set on staying. I was trying to work out why one f the waterlilies seemed to keep losing water and then I discovered why - this guy dive bombs in and has a lovely swim - quite often.

Ian loaded three books onto the website yesterday - they are all excellent but this one when I popped it on facebook - both of the authors popped in to make a comment - this has never happened before - rather exciting. I think it will be a really useful book for many people.

It is still mag time - the Studios arrived this afternoon - they will go out tomorrow - ther are a couple left over if anyone is interested. It is always very popular and we keep having to bring in more each issue.

and this is a new mag - Stitch Gifts - looks good and we have sent these out and there are a few of these left too.

I have managed to post out half of the POMs (products of the month) and to load my next Taster. Hope you enjoy it.

Welcome to November

Yes I know this entry is a day late but once again I nearly forgot my November cat - it fell off the ledge onto me to remind me.

We have been a bit busy today and I am really pleased that only one person has emailed to say she couldn't open the newsletter. We don't want to change the way we write it and send it - I know lots of people look forward to a 2 page pdf and anyway we have control over it doing it ourselves.

I haven't got very far with my circles but I  have cut them all up and lain out a background which will be foiled and things - still deciding. I have made a few rosettes to go on each. The red one is the only bit of red in the hank. they are very easy to make using the sari ribbon - you probably should iron it first but I haven't. I have simply used whatever amount of each colour cropped up.

If you are chasing the taster - it has gone but I will have a new one tomorrow. Ian has loaded three new books to the website - they are all excellent.

Off to dinner with Val and Jim soon - haven't seen them for ages.

photographing work

I have noticed these days that people rush around shows and exhibitions gleefully taking photos - I don't condone or condemn this practice. The internet and i-phones etc have made it very easy to photograph and publish to social media. but I must say that this year at Ally Pally I have never seen so many people rush to our stand and click away to their heart's content without a please or thank you or who even does this work belong to? I try to take lots of my work for the wall display to feature our lovely goodies, our colours and what I am doing and I never ever begrudge photos - they are all a bit far away anyway. But this year we started handing out a flyer suggesting some acknowledgement if using the pics in a journal or folio etc. Some people were still not that pleasant about it. One lady even tried to get into the stand so she could could get better photos - I declined that one. The upshot was that I checked out the exhibitions and didn't feel I could photograph anything. I talked to one exhibitor who asked for a donation and she had collected quite a lot of money. Anyway I 'stole' the above photo from Julie's blog - I am sure she won't mind. It was a piece on the Textile Study Group's exhibition from Ruth Isset - I have always considered Ruth a great artist and was lucky enough to do a workshop with her back in the mid-90s. Always sharing  and I love catching up with her. She uses colour so well as you can see from the work above.

It is the Melbourne Cup today not that you would know here - we have managed to forget to watch it once again. Very warm day and I am still working on those circles and Ian is working on the newsletter.

The downside of going away for nearly three weeks is that the tree roots get excited and  cause havoc with our toilet system (as Lisa experienced....) - Ian got some special stuff to pour in but we have had over a week of the toilet not even thinking about flushing for quite some time and musical chattering in the bathroom. The plumber forgot to come last Thursday and we didn't want to remind him over the weekend in case he charged weekend rates so we have just quietly hung in and suffered. He turned up this morning and everything is back to normal - thank goodness.

Finally - here is the November newsletter for anyone having troubles getting the pdf from my email to work.

Nov newsletter

nice relaxing weekend

We have had a very nice relaxing weekend and even our front path is all tidied up and a few plants planted - some of my herbs misbehaved when we were away so they have been banished. The helicopters over Perth seemed to have quietened down a bit - maybe the d and d conference has ended - the Queen flew home yesterday. She is pretty remarkable for 85.

Last night we went to a fabulous concert - Teddy Tahu Rhodes and David Hobson - a couple of years ago when they performed I couldn't remember David's name and I got firmly reprimanded by David's no 1 fan and then totally ignored when I said his voice was a bit thin at the top. (from my previous life I do know a bit about music and singing and voice) - however I will take it all back because he was superb last night and of course Teddy has a voice to die for. So apart from the lady in front of us who smelt like a camphor box and took great trouble to open noisy sweets during a song rather than in between, it was a superb evening. I know I sound like the Grinch who stole Christmas but the smell made my eyes water and the crinkling - well......

Thanks for the comments about the circles - I thought the same but I needed to try it from in and out. I learnt something! I have made quite a few more - not sure the colour does much for me but I may cut them up - and think how I might use them. It was the idea and since I am teaching Hot Needles Cool Stitches embellishing workshop in Melbourne in January, I want to play with a few new ideas. These ones are on felt so it may make them too thick so I might do some more on polycotton. An idea for thought and further play.

I haven't done any stitching on my painted sample but I have created 2 more - this one uses gold metallic paints and Aliya, Isis and Kari Opulent paints

and this one copper flakes and Alizarin, Cierra and Mala. It gives me a chance to see how the three colours work together. These really are the most delicious paints.

Thanks for the comments on the Taster (and the orders) - remember each one will only be up for 5 days and then a new one will appear.

a day off sort of

It's a public holiday here today and apart from the persistent helicopters flying overhead (paid for with my taxes for sure) and loads of noisy police cars roaring around with sirens blaring - it has been a lovely sunny day. The Queen is in town and lots of other people who think they are important but really they could do all their chat by conference these days and save a bit of carbon or two. I believe they are talking about poverty and yet in the paper this morning I spotted a photo of 120 places at the dinner where no one turned up but the food was still served.....

Anyway we have been working at slow speed - nearly all the the London stuff is back in place and I have started working on a few new things. Working on some circles with the needlefelter and sari ribbon. I haven't ironed it but used it as it rolls off - this is one of the new silk ones - they are all different and it is hard to choose which one. This one I have worked from in the middle of the circle to the outside.

and this one from the outside - I think the first one works best. it is more dimensional. What do others think? Playing around is what helps I really do believe. Thanks for the comments - I think one of the saddest things is when people get carried away with their own importance and become a wee bit arrogant and lacking in humility or maybe it is because they are deep down lacking in confidence and feel threatened. I don't know. All I do know is that I would hate anyone to think I am up myself..... I am really just a back room person who likes to play.

Away from all of this - my first taster is up in the Taster section.Do go check it out and tell me what you think.