Thursday, May 22, 2008

Hello

I just thought i would pop in and say hello as I haven't had a chance to post for a while. Things are pretty bust right now and i know my posts will be few and far between for the next few weeks or so, particularly as i like to write long posts with a few pictures which take a bit more time to do so i need a good block of time to do one.

The workshop is on halt for a few weeks also as both R and i have a lot on. I am suffocating under the clutter in the house at the moment and need to get back into housewife mode before i can't find the children!! The end of the school year is coming up fast and there are lots of events etc to go to and help with... and Alice and I have 3000 of our guardsman shirts to label and bar code for the Royal Collection shops...gulp! (a little design side line for us, but this time since we have time...haha we thought we would do the labeling...we must be mad!)

Oh and please pray that Alice's solo creative project won't be premature (yes...she is gloriously pregnant with only a few more weeks to go) or i will be doing all the labels on my own!

I also have a solo project going on, though not as exciting as Alice's.... a new blog which is very seperate from this one and which i will run on the side but still keeping the Flour Loft as my main blog. It's really more of a personal photo blog where i am exploring my love of taking photographs, so you can always catch me there in the meantime. The link is sweetmyrtle .



I will leave you with this little Robin who flew down to say hello to me yesterday when i was lucky enough to go here for a few hours to see the gardens with my lovely friend Debbie.

Wishing you all lovely weekends doing all the things that make you happy.

Monday, May 12, 2008

dreaming...

I am a bit of a dreamer. I like to muse over things and always have ideas bobbing around in my head of things i am planning or the seeds of new creations. This past week i have been musing about flowers for the garden. I mainly grow herbs and veg with a bit of fruit but really fancy introducing a bit more colour and tartiness to the garden. On Friday i treated myself to a little wander around our local garden centre with only myself and my thoughts to accompany me. I wandered around for ages. It's a good time to go to see the variety of plants available and to get ideas. I wasn't intending to purchase anything but something wouldn't let me leave empty handed. After coveting a beautiful heuchera, a replacement eucalyptus (yes mine died) and a nostalgic hydrangea (fond memories of visiting my granddad's house with a lilac hydrangea to the right of his front door), i came away with two dramatic 'gallery' dahlias (art nouveau) and 3 blue trailing verbenas. I wasn't even sure were i would put them. It wasn't until i got home that i realised my chosen plants reflected the exact colours i was wearing.


Have you ever done that? Deep pink really does seem to be a favourite just now....

my gardening gloves...



... and my new tulips are a similar colour.


Later that day i sat outside with all my gardening books dreaming of flowers and sowing my new seeds. Early that evening i started digging up a bit more lawn to make a bit more planting space.




My favourite flowers are echinacea or 'cone flower'. My clever youngest daughter discovered this and brought me two types of echinacea seeds for my birthday. They were sown a few weeks ago in a heated propagator and are doing well, so fingers crossed that they will be successfully potted on.


I also have studio progress to report...

The old purple wooden door was removed and a huge hole in the end of the building appeared late on Saturday afternoon.




The idea was to reuse the window we took out last week and put it where the old door was. This is a south east facing aspect so it made perfect sense put a window here to allow more light into the room.




The windows were originally recycled from an house near my father in law's some 7 years ago. Much as i hate UPVC i would rather reuse them than for them to go into landfill. Why buy new when you can recycle? You can see from this picture all the crates of fabric and stock piled up inside. Not long now before i can start to unpack.




My good man worked late into the evening to finish off the block work. He was able to reuse some of the original blocks which we discovered were actually sandstone. Unfortunately they had been painted a shitty brown colour so we hadn't realised . I had over painted them 'fly blue' some time ago... this was his first ever bit of wall building i might add. It's taking shape now. We covered it with a tarpaulin for the night just in case of rain....


and on Sunday morning the window went in, much easier than we had anticipated. So now the new shell is complete and it's just two more interior walls to finish. We sat outside last night drinking beer and marveling at what had been achieved. I want to move in now, but it'll be a few more weeks at least... so i shall continue dreaming for the time being....

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Our Bank Holiday

We were so lucky this May Bank Holiday to have glorious weather here in the South of England.
My brother in law and his girlfriend came down to visit. These visits usually combine football with a wee bit too much to drink. This did happen but i also witnessed brute strength, lots of dust and some circular saw action. The two brothers took out the old window and made a opening for the new door into the soon to be 'garden studio space'. This was the result....



While they were partaking in brute force us 4 girls went off in hunt of some Maytime festivities.
We managed to find my older sisters folk group who were dancing locally along with 3 other local 'sides' in an event organised by Pilgrims Morris. She belongs to a Ladies North West Morris group. They wear clogs with bells attached and often dance holding garlands.
Some years ago i made her a little folk dancer doll in her colours. Before you ask... no my sister is not the one on the top left!!




We also found these beautiful gardens and Castle ruins. The girls got snap happy with the camera. These are their photos... My eldest got really excited when she saw the lady bird photo opportunity. (top right...click to enlarge)



I love watching them take photos. It gives me a peep into how they see the world, especially when they are given the freedom to shoot whatever they want to. The camera also has a film setting. Now that they have discovered that there is no stopping them... we have just been watching some very funny video they took around the house discussing to camera the clutter and the mess. Maybe they want to send it off to 'Clutter Nutters'?! We had better watch out.. or worse still... 'How clean is your House?'

So an enjoyable long weekend with good company, lots of sunshine and gardening and most excitingly for me the studio space a little further on as we now have a door ... Actually 2 doors... but that's the next job... to take out the old door and to put the old window in it's place.
Hope you had a good time too. How did you spend yours?