hey, love, castle

My house is my castle and full of the things I call treasure ... but the roof is leaking again and I am uncertain of many things. yet rather than brood, I always seem to be somewhat observational in these situations and perhaps ever hopeful that fortunes will change... I would like to type this sitting in the kitchen sink, for I am in a rather Cassandra Mortmain sort of mood today...

Everything is so pretty but there is a terrible draught...

Under a fir tree

This little tea cup filled with fir and pine cones sits on my mantlepiece...

My birth tree is the Fir tree (the Mysterious)... and according to my reference this means I have extraordinary taste, I handle stress poorly, I love anything beautiful, I can become depressed at times, I am stubborn, I tend to care for those close to me as well as helping strangers, I am rather modest, I am a hard worker, I am talented, I am unselfish, I have many friends, I don't want foes, and I am very reliable...

I would say this description is pretty well accurate... and I am glad to be an evergreen.

heart shaped box

Today was one of those perfect sort of days. The frost was thick and there was ice on the lake, and we took a walk to visit our swans...

J was dressed in her favourite coat - she calls it her 'white bear'...

There was frozen moss...

a tree framed view of the palace...

and lunch in our favorite cafe with toast and pink milk and turkish delight ice cream...
and as we arrived home the snowfall came thick and fast... it looked soooo beautiful...

then we ran inside for more homemade gingerbread and hot tea but the fire...

today there was something magical in the air... something I wanted to catch hold of and keep in a heart shaped box...

gingerbread day...

Today we made Gingerbread men... Gingerbread fairies... and Gingerbread bunnies...

J had the best fun rolling and squishing the dough and decorating ...

and they passed the taste test too...

white bears

Gosh... we have colds and runny noses, little toddle-belle and I. We are truanting from playgroup and hiding indoors today with homemade soup, The Lion , the Witch and the Wardrobe on DVD (with some scary bits fast forwarded as she is too small), play doh and fairy lights...

The temperature has dropped to zero now and there is frost and rolling mist. I am re-reading North Child by Edith Pattou. It is wonderful, based on the fairytale East of the Sun , West of the Moon, a white bear takes a girl away to a place carved into rock. Oh how I love it. Set in Norway and another of the animal groom fairytales I love so... Just as Beauty in Beauty and the Beast has her room of books in Beast'd castle due to her love of reading, so Rose in this story has her room in the white bear's castle full of threads and yarns and a loom due to her love of making things.

There is also The Princess and the White Bear King. This book's artwork adorns my daughter room...

How I love white bears.

The Lying Carpet

We are in the library at least twice a week so I always spot the new titles and am often the first person to hire things out (!) Last week I took home The Lying Carpet by David Lucas. It is the most head spinning book. I think it reminds me that life is a choice, its about truth and lies, inertia versus adventure, whether to watch or whether to 'do'.... that sort of thing. It involves a talking tiger rug which frankly I just love... and a beautiful little girl statue called Faith. The drawings are perfect too. Anyway its wonderful, mysterious, a fairytale, a bedtime story... and now I want to own it so I might read it whenever I like.

cream and white

My friends send me the most wonderful things... inspiring words and stream of consciousness thoughts... photographs of winter trees in which the criss cross of branches look like little fairy ladders, and beautiful white vintage lace...

And I spotted these at the supermarket of all places. Such beautiful cards... I will be sending them this yuletide, but of course, a few will be kept to adorn the walls of my bedroom.

This week has been all about trips to the library sale (children's books for 10p!), knitting endlessly (my meditation), and planning our little trip away next week..

happy weekend. x

Seeds to grow

Many years ago I used to feel out of synch... then I discovered the pagan wheel of the year. I rediscovered the seasons and their meaning. I found out why I love autumn...


My Halloween / Samhain thought list:

* I will think back over the year past, read old journal entries, be glad for what I have, learn from my mistakes...



*"On the night of Samhain the veil between the spiritual world and the physical world is at it's thinnest. " So I know those who are gone are hovering just over my shoulder, helping me daily and giving me little pointers, little visions...

* I will fill the house with squashs and pumpkins and branches, leaves and seeds from our walks.

*I have a new notebook to list everything I want to achieve next year. It will slowly fill ... and come february I will be ready to start acting on it... I call the list my 'seeds to grow'...

* I have new candles to burn.

crunch crunch crunch, the leaves underfoot.

autumn sowing / sewing

Yesterday I did some autumn sowing in my kitchen garden. Some broad beans behind the lavendar... and some spinach in the pots by my back door. I am not sure you are supposed the do the gardening in a white slip, wrinkly grey wool tights and a pair of pink kiddie shoes... but hey, the shoes do match my gardening gloves...

I love pottering in the garden and I am slowly finding the time to increase our 'homegrown' produce. In spring I will clear more ground and spread out the veg a little. Till then its autumn spinach and broad beans sprouting up outside while I cook up the rest of the apples and cultivate lots of luscious herbs on the window sill inside...

Today I woke early at 5 am and could not sleep longer. I love early morning rising. So I snuck downstairs to finish sewing the Ophelia bag I started so many weeks back. Planning to do some finishing touches after this post. Sigh. Happy weekend. x

More Bill Gibb...

I adore this woodland inspired dress. the dress itself is perfect, the setting, her hair... its like a glimpse through the trees at a magical realm.

Little bumble bee buttons and a whitework embroidery depicting a bee. At some point I will doubtless steal these bee themed ideas for my own creations. How I love them.

Pretty fabric designed in 1977. I love the stance of these birds, one serene and watching the other startled and about to fly. The thistle there I guess for Gibb's Scottish roots.

I hope our trip to the library tomorrow throws some more unexpected published magic my way.

some powder pink fur & green ribbons

Over the weekend I had some fun making this collar. Its knitted in powder pink Jaegar fur which was on offer at my local yarn store. I bought it in other colours too - woodland green and light fawn. I couldn't resist.

Finished it with thrift shop lace and two vintage button box buttons - one wooden heart, one shiny mother of pearl. It also looks very cute on Baby J , but she wouldn't stand still to have her photo taken ;-)

And a while back I had knitted this lace effect collar in leftover creamy yarn. I finally finished it with a striking greenest green ribbon and some more thrifted lace. It is kind of inspired by the Elizabethian collars in the 16th century. Because I guess Elizabeth I is kind of my favourite historical character. " I may not be a lion but i have a lion's heart"...

Oh I am very pleased with it. x

Pomegranate & Birthday

Every autumn when I was little my Dad used to bring me a Pomegranate. I love to cut it in two and see the little red juicy seeds. Eating it is a ritual which I like...

It is my Dad's birthday today. I made him a chocolate mint cream cake.

Fashion & Fantasy

I have been reading a biography of fashion designer Bill Gibb. I picked the book up by chance in the library. Gosh its wonderful. Perhaps I was the only one, but I hadn't heard of Bill Gibb. I am so glad I stumbled on this book because it has been quite inspirational. He was influenced by medeavil history, pre-raphaelite paintings, gypsy culture, flowers... his dresses were art. He said he never saw anyone wear one of his designs but he didn't care. He was a true creative soul.
I want to copy some pictures to show you. (I can't find much online.) But here is the above pic for now...
I love to find new inspiration like this.

a hummingbird with a paper heart

If I were a word, I would be verb. A 'doing' word. I do not stop. I am never static. Like a hummingbird I must keep flapping my wings, must keep thinking, changing, making, doing, becoming...

I have been taking some time to gather ideas this week. To be inspired... by the blogs I read of course and also by some new books, both bought and borrowed, and by the slow turn of summer into my favourite season, autumn.

Last night I read Magical Hoofbeats . I imagine galloping towards woodland on the back of a white mare. Do you know I have never been on a horse? I have added it to my list of 101 things I must do soon, or at least, sooner or later.

I have read LOTS of books this week. Each will be mentioned in their turn.

And I have been playing with paper. So I have also finally started my little scrapbook project. I keep a paper journal you see. But lately I took a notion that I would like to 'depict' as well as write my life on to paper. So my new scrapbook journal is in words and pictures. Therefore it is less rambling and more satisfying... but oh, I see that I have started to ramble on this blog instead...

gathering apples, stitching flowers

Today we gathered the apples from our garden. The tree was heavy with them and leaning to one side. We will eat them crip and fresh,

stew them,

and bake them, to make little mini crumbles.

The Ophelia bag/purse is coming along nicely. I love this fabric, the grey-blue like water and the pretty wild flowers.

Tea & Toast

Just sitting down with a dainty cup of Lady Grey and the new Toast catalogue. I love the setting and styling and most of the clothes... I always swoon over Toast, but I can't really afford to shop there... I just steal ideas.

I have been sewing up some new brooches and making hair clips and knitting a lovely white camisole for myself from some bamboo yarn and using cotton yarn to design some pretty bags. I realised how little free time I have however, and I am kind of reminiscing when I was pregnant and I swirled about the house barefoot - baking cupcakes and playing with fabric and yarn.
But you know, one day there will be time again and as Baby J leaves the house to explore alone... and I will reminiscing about this time we have now where we have tea parties with toy food, hunt fairies and play dress up... sigh.

Its raining today so I am happy.

Lace and tiny footprints in the snow

I am loving lace. I am just home from my local charity shop with arms full of vintage lace. So strange what people will give away. I am delighted with it.



My Snow White bedside journal is finished

Its so dreamy... white vintage fabric and white lace sewn snug with a tiny handmade poison apple button in the centre and a silk ribbon to close.

I have also received a few custom orders this week so I am having fun designing for specific people... and meanwhile baby J has started walking!

Twinkle Twinkle

Here is the little outfit I made baby j:

Here is baby j rocking the little outfit:

Pink wine

what a magical weekend. the little fairy princess enjoyed herself. my reward: pink wine. goodnight x

fairies, fairy cakes and stars

When Baby J and I got up at 6am this morning we saw a fairy who had fallen asleep on our back door. We didn't wake her.

I spent the day baking for Baby j's birthday. Her cake is a mini iced star motif cake wrapped in a polka dot ribbon. She only needs 1 candle. Its surrounded by fairy cakes that spell out her name. I also made some extra cupcakes topped with little hearts made with the new mini cutter I just bought. Mr K ate the extra bits of cake that were leftover. Baby J stuck her hands in the icing and smeared it around a bit. mmmmmm.

Tonight I am drinking white wine with strawberry milkshake concentrate added to it (is that wrong?) and letting the dishwasher do the work...

I am so in the mood to watch Marie Antoinette. (if I ever have another daughter I might call her that.)

White as Snow

I have already written about my tendancy to move from obsession to obsession when it comes to fairytales... Most recently it was The Princess & the Pea and for the longest time Beauty & the Beast was my fixation. Over the past weeks it has been Snow White. I find that these obsessions overtake me quite naturally. I will be sitting there and suddenly think "I must read Snow White". I think its because in some ingrained way these tales are part of my psyche and whenever I need a little help to work things out, the right tale for the job pops into my head.





If you analyse it, Snow White is about puberty and the steps we go through to reach maturity. I may be married with a house and a kid, but I still need to enter that glass box now and again for some thinking time. We all do. Or maybe take a long hard look in the mirror mirror?



I really love the above edition by Josephine Poole which I amazingly found in the charity shop around the corner from my house. Why do people give these things away? It was 35 pence.




I also love this edition by Berlie Doherty which i bought ages ago in 2004:

Just look how beautiful Snow White is in the illustration.

So now I am inspired to design a Snow White themed journal... since my Princess & the Pea journal worked out so well (and recently sold on my Etsy , yay!)

little stars

This week is Baby J's birthday week. I really can't believe that on Saturday I will become the proud owner of a one year old daughter. How did that happen? (Well I KNOW the stork brought her but...) Never did a whole year whizz by so fast.
Tonight I finally decided on a theme for her party. She is really into 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star' and every time she sees a star she does the actions to the song: a little open and closing hand like a twinkling star. I sat and cut out a load of multi coloured stars tonight for decorations. There are cakes to make too of course and her little fairy outfit is finished too, complete with star shaped wand.
We both love pretty things and hunting for fairies in the garden, building towers and knocking them down again, following cute dogs in the park, reading picture books, bashing the piano and making castles out of cushions...

I have lots of pictures to upload (and lots more news) but I am too sleepy.

x

lemons and violets

Inspired by reading about fairy crowns I spent the afternoon in the garden knitting a little crown for my own baby fairy. Its not finished yet, its for her to wear on her birthday next saturday.

In the evening I had the luxury of a long soak in the tub accompanied by a vintage teacup filled with vanilla tea. I like to drink tea in the bath. Oh and my bar of soap that smells just like turkish delight. mmmmmmmmmmmmm.

I had time to luxuriate tonight because last night I finished the first 3 things for baby Violet's bedroom (my friend's daughter). The colour scheme they picked was sunny yelow and purple, but I have been thinking of it as lemons and violets...

Now I just have to write a rambling letter and then mail everything...

Lady of Letters

This week I am a lady of letters... in more ways than one.

1. LOOKING at letters.
I am reading Patterns of Childhood and gosh I adore those old samplers. I remember spending a few blissful hours in the embroidery room at the Burrell Collection in Glasgow. It was in that room I decided to work towards some kind of 'domestic art' business venture one day and to leave behind my previous career in the book trade. I knew then my passions had shifted (though I still adore books, I just don't want to work with them).

2. MAKING letters.
I am spending every evening sewing and embellishing fabric letters. They are very pretty (pictures to follow). These are for selling on Etsy and also for a friend's daughter's bedroom and my own daughter's room too.

3. I have always loved WRITING letters. And I am enjoying rekindling old penships and writing long rambling letters full of ideas, shared experiences, favourite poems and pictures torn from magazines.

4. Then there is READING letters and postcards that flutter to my doormat. And I always did have a 'thing' about postmen...