I made the front page!

Etsy Front Page 9/9/09 astashtoys, originally uploaded by Etsy Front Pagers.

Always an honour.
Such a nice treasury.
I only found out by accident and was able to go to this flickr set where you can see all the recent front pages.

As this is a very short post I'll use this space to thank all the people I can't reply to for their comments on my last three posts.
If you are a 'no reply ' blogger, why not consider adding an e mail address to your profile?

All your comments come to my e- mail inbox and I can just click reply and answer you.
The sun is shining today .
Lovely.

A Good Laugh

No matter how grey the sky...


..how wet the ground...


..how steamed up the windows...




one can always be cheered immensely
by a rude tomato.



No fig leaves available.

In this climate?

Strange Monday

Sometimes you just don't get the shape of the day right.
It all went wrong very early.
My husband had been working until midnight on a major report to be e mailed today for a meeting tomorrow.
But the main computer wouldn't 'come on'.
You know these technical problems...the screen was black with white writing with words like bios and cmos and dmi and other stuff with no hint as to whether those are nouns verbs or what.


I wrapped parcels to send to Etsy buyers, clicked a few buttons on the main PC and then texted both sons for help.
One phoned and instructed my husband on the correct procedure after of course asking 'have you switched it off and on again' . Der..
No luck, because the phone is downstairs and the PC upstairs and at our age its hard to remember what you went upstairs for let alone instructions for re booting the PC.

I photographed a few brooches in response to a phone call .
My husband rang the news through that the report wouldn't be ready and went off to cut the grass.
Meanwhile I was rooting down the back of the sofa looking for my favourite pen to address the parcels and I found the long lost cordless phone handset and put it on to charge.


It made all the difference..
So when number one son phoned the instructions I was sitting in front of the PC and could say No when he said' does it say..?'
To cut a long long story short..its fixed.
So you'd think I could get on with some sewing wouldn't you?
No.
I'd tutted and huffed so much about not saving stuff to the external hard drive that then I had to teach himself how to do that.

So anyway...later I made a purse.
It didn't take long because I used a piece I was going to make into a brooch and Harris tweed..
Its just a little one.
Do you think the combination of felt, velvet and Harris tweed works?

What an odd day.
Weather forecast for tomorrow is on ...and I quote,
'the rough weather is going to be over the Northwest'.
and
'the further South and east we go the warmer it gets'.

Same but different II

For the last three years at this time we have been on Greek Islands stifling in heat, cooling off in warm blue waters, eating our fill of feta, relishing retsina and overdoing the ouzo.

For the last three years those precious weeks have been my summer.

Because the truth is, its been three years since we in the North West had any kind of summer and I think this has been the worst of all.
It may be due to the lack of a dog, but I feel as if I have missed out on the sight of flowers growing whether in my garden or wild.
I took this picture last summer, on one of the better days walking with Willow.



A combination of shade, wind cold and wet have done for what is , at the best of times, a difficult garden. Even the nasturtiums have refused.
Its a source of great sadness to me that I can't have rows of delphiniums , a fence of sweet peas or even a lupin.
The odd rose has struggled up but they too have become leggy and spindly.
The height of the house prevents the sun reaching the narrow garden until about 11am, and the row of 60s houses behind the too-high hedge suck it down before 6pm.
This height and narrowness creates a tunnel for the wind that blows off the ridge over the road right through my garden.
If I didn't love my house so much I'd move to one with a better growing space.
All this is bearable in a good summer.
In a good summer I relish the coolness of the old North facing kitchen. The wind is a welcome cooling breeze and to be able to sit in the shade is a bonus.
But it hasn't been a good summer.
Even the slugs have kept a low profile this year.
Remember this?
Its hard to believe its over for another year.
But I don't mind the Winter, especially if its going to be like last winter.

The same wildflowers on New Years Day this year.
So different.

And this one, which I recommend you click on, is for Emma because I love this.

Same but different?

I hope so.
Even though I've made dozens of these and enjoyed every one, I still manage to discover that there are ways of making it more fun.


The sputnik shape above is a small variation on the floral.
Of course there's always Paisley, one of my favourite motifs but quite difficult to do in this trimmed felt method.


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Then there's the possibility to make the variation in colour.
Its quite tricky to come up with different schemes when you've made so many but I thought as autumn approaches (actually it feels like February today)I would colour accordingly.
The background felt here is a really nice mix of wool and silk fibres in browns and olives and navy blue.

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Just right for the 'season of mists and mellow fruitfulness'!

But if anyone is feeling a bit less mellow how about sophisticated silvery grey?
Thats the misty bit.
Sophisticated splats?


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Or splodges?

So....

.........you lost four pounds each in two weeks and are going away for a few days.
So you're going to be sensible .
You arrive in the city and have to eat in a restaurant so you order the fish.
It has tartare sauce all over it so you won't eat that ..but somehow its gone and the plate is empty.
But you're not having a pudding so when the waitress comes you open your mouth to say 'nothing thank you' but 'whitechocolateandstrawberrycheesecakeplease..' comes out instead.
So you just have to eat it.

So...you won't have much for breakfast..just a bit of fruit and some muesli, but all they have in that line is a sachet of Alpen .
You pour it in the bowl and realize it bears very little resemblance to your usual variety but you've put milk on it now so you have to eat it.
You won't have anything else but he brings toast you are alone by now so you have to eat it. Then he stops for a chat and puts the basket with the pastries down on the table so you have to have one.
So you won't have much lunch.
Just a bit of tuna and a salad but it comes with beautiful brown bread so you have to have that..with butter and your friend buys a cake for herself and your husband so you have to have a bit of that ...
So in the evening when you get to the coast you arrive in 'CountryLivingLand' and look...



So guess what?
You eat it.
You just have to don't you?
Later you go for a meal in the pub.
Clever you.
You remember from the last visit how enormous the haddock and chips was last time you came here.
So you order the childrens portion.
Feeling very virtuous you enjoy every mouthful and you're not going to have a pudding but then you spot 'pear tartetatin' winking at you from the menu so you have to have at least half of that.

So..next morning you sit at the Awardwinningbreakfast table and order a very small portion of cereal but their small and your small are two different smalls.

You placed your order for smoked salmon and scrambled egg the previous night so you're committed, but you couldn't have know it was four slices of salmon and at least three eggs each could you?
And the toast...the bread for the toast....heavenly brown bread.
Toast.
The best food in all the world.
So you do your best to eat all that and on the whole..you succeed.

So..you make up your mind you absolutely-will-not-have-any-lunch because you want to be ready for the meal you booked for the evening .
Later that day your husband..not you.....no...not you.....wants a coffee and a cake in a cafe.
You definitely don't want a coffee so you have a glass of water, and you don't want cake but you spot a very small quiche and after all its been hours since the scrambled egg and its a long long time till supper so that will just put you on.

You call back into countrylivingland while your husband waits in the car and just look whats on the windowsill!
Glowing from beneath a glass dome.
Two pieces of home-made carrot cake.
So you scoff one quick because that doesn't count, and rush out again.
So now you need a walk.
A long long walk .


Virtuous again.
And so it goes on.
Just before you go out you order your breakfast for the next day ..a small (underlined) portion of kedgeree,
and set off for the next evening meal, which turns out to be the best meal you've had in a long long time.
No pudding though.
There's the other piece of carrot cake in the room isn't there? And a spare piece of flapjack?
Two cakes. Two people.
So .............

So when you get back home the next day you're a bit worried about the scales.
Because the breakfast kedgeree was delicious, and on the way home you visited Holt and remembered reading about Byfords on someones blog so you just had to have lunch there .....

So.........will it be the same four pounds next time I lose it?

Daisy chain

These are much smaller flowers just over two inches wide and I've made them to wear as a necklace.

I satin stitched them , by hand, on to a handmade cord.
They can be moved up and down the length of the cord so they can be worn overlapping, up close to the neck,

or more loosely arranged with a space between.
I actually made more than 5 but I like it with this arrangement.
Do you think these are worth obsessing about or shall I stick with brooches?
This isn't me by the way, its Constance Truelove my mannequin, named after the very delightful and much missed lady who gave her to me.

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