Accidental inspiration

Sometimes  inspiration needs a little nudge.

Two of the felt group members paid a visit to Colinette yarns the other week and brought the spoils of the journey for us all to look at and to share amongst us. 

 Up until that point I'd been wondering what to make on the day but when I saw the yarn I was away incorporating it into some lichen-ish stone-ish felt with thoughts of my day at Newgrange in my head.

 The wool is amazing and made beautiful Celtic spirals which are now just waiting for some stitches.

I do love this olive and grey scheme.

Can you have inspiration in retrospect?

Last week I was driving through Preston and the sky was deep leaden greys in front of me. There was a tree in bud, perhaps a sycamore? The sun was shining on its olive/mustard leaves against the grey sky and the bark was smooth and  silvery. Exactly the same colours as I had enjoyed when putting this brooch together.

Now for some excitement. I had been asked by Dunelm if I would be a product reviewer from time to time. Now, I don't advertise but am always willing to mention places and products I use so I agreed. 

The parcel arrived and I had no idea what was in it so it was quite exciting, and revealed these two books of paper.

As readers know, I am not a paper crafter but I do know a nice bit of card when I see it, so I'll review it as objectively as I can.

There were two books, one 12 inches square, a really great size for measuring and using, although I might have preferred A4 so I could feed it through the printer. 

I suppose if I want to I could cut it down a bit.

The 12 inch square one is called 'New Leaf' and has 48 sheets and 16 designs of acid free heavyweight cardstock. 

Its really sturdy and cuts like a dream. 

There are flat prints like this

 

 and some embossed prints like this. This book of card has a lot of 50s themed colours and designs .

There are some glittery prints.

For someone  not keen on glitter I find  it quite subtle and I can see it has its uses.

 Some of the prints are double sided so thats an extra bonus, I especially like the polka dot ones and shall be using those myself.

There was also a smaller book 8x8, called Sweet Owl, with again 48 sheets half glittered and half double sided. At first I thought they were all owl themed like these two pretty little pages

 but then I discovered some very romantic pinks with great potential for tags and gift cards.

For more details got to the Dunelm Website and see all their paper and other craft materials.

Its May and although the weather isn't great the bluebells have struggled through (although my sweet pea seeds I planted about 6 weeks ago haven't) so I thought I'd add a few pictures of bluebells and Hetty and Spring in general.

 These ducks, about to cross the road had been heading down out path until Hetty spotted them.

 Finally, I found this in what I euphemistically refer to as my alpine bed. Its really an old salt glazed sink which is now a solid matt of roots under some gravel with mainly weeds and a bit of sysirhincum and some gentians in it. 

Look carefully. 

Its a baby Larch tree. 

A gift from its dear mama which we sadly had to cut down in the Autumn. In all the years we had the larch, we never had a seedling grow from it before.

I think I'll plant it so we will have larch again and by the time it gets too big for the garden like its ma did, I'll be long gone!

Into the blue

Although the Village I live in isn't the prettiest or the most picturesque, it is in a lovely setting on the West Pennine Moors, a relatively 'undiscovered' area.
There are woodlands for wanderings

and wonderings. Ponds for ponderings (is this a bouquet for a wood nymph?Click on the picture for a closer look, its exquisite and totally natural)
and moorlands for musings and meanderings, and, at this time of the year, listening to the cuckoo.

And of course all this leads to inspiration, and a colour shuffle.

I do my best designs when I am walking with Willow
Willow doesn't see very much these days, but she's good company and keeps her opinions to herself, and plods on stoically even though her legs buckle a bit now and then.
Of course I've forgotten everything by the time I get home, and so has Willow.

So I don't embarrass her with questions.

Talking of questions. Thank you to Lindsay at ethelandednastearoom for tagging me. Her blog is definitely worth a visit.

I've tagged

Laurie at 23 Beechhill
SSimpson
Celia at Cheshire Cheese
Tin can canoe
Ann at Textile Art Showcase

There. I've done it. Nice to have been tagged but nice to have successfully tagged.