Dreams and Driftwood

Aberdeen 

I seem to of been in hibernation for a bit, creativity has eluded me these past few weeks, but once again I have bounced back for a while anyway!! The picture of distant boats on the sea at Aberdeen reminded me of my Paper Boats, setting them to sail and hoping they reach their destination.Words written oh so carefully on  paper, of secrets hopes and dreams, then carefully folding the paper into a little boat, and letting it free on the waves, along with its spell, watching it drift away on its own, finding its path and enjoying the adventure, a bit like me really, seeking out a new journey, new dreams to reach for. 

I know I am not the only person who sends dreams across the ocean....I have a friend who on finding driftwood, sends it back on its journey after whispering a few quiet words. I wonder if their hopes and dreams are similar to mine.. maybe.. I shall never know. But its a bit like a child crossing their fingers for luck....you never know what may come back :)

 I picked up some driftwood on the beach in Aberdeen and unlike my friend I brought them home to capture their colours and textures in pencil. I wonder what stories these sea washed branches can tell? Adventures from all over, stopping here and there for a moment... or longer, someone walking on by and throwing them back, or a dog picking them up taking them to their owner for a game of fetch. Children decorating sandcastles, or playing games of dragons and knights in armour, with the branches becoming swords, or people like me stopping to admire their rugged beauty and wonder......making up fanciful stories....

You know I do believe paper boats come home, and driftwood keeps its words of dreams inside resting one day on the beach....and like the boats when they are discovered by the right recipient the words are shared..... Who knows...Dreams can come true....
Well hugs 4 smiles, and I hope your dreams come true as well xxx

Endings and New Beginnings.....

Hello all, hope everything is good in your world? I have been busy lately so there has been little time for dropping by here. Our house right now is full of endings and new beginnings. Morgan has come to the end of his school life and moves on to Uni in the Autumn....as does his girlfriend Em. Charlene graduated from Aberdeen Uni last week and is now taking that scary step into the workplace. Gareth is about to change his job and move on to greater things, and his wife Sarah has just qualified as a Doctor. So lots of changes for them....of luck gang and I am proud of each and every one of you x

I realised along time ago, you only borrow your children, nurture them, love them and guide them. Enjoy as many moments as you can with them as they grow up so fast. Let them go and tread the path of life, spreading their wings, allowing them to reach for their hopes and dreams. Now I stand on the sidelines and watch....giving them guidance if need be, a shoulder to cry on and the odd dinner or two....oh and some things will never change... my love for you all.....x

So I believe now its new beginnings for me....where this path will go I have no idea....all I can say is, it will be fun finding out! xx

Bright lights ...oh and more strawberries!!

Hello once again  :) I hope all is bright and happy in your world? 

My days have been busy, gathering yet more strawberries, we are now up to 75pounds! But the crop has now finished....good in one way as I will admit I am getting tired of the red juicy sweet fruits. some nights as I shut my eyes the first image that pops in my mind is a bowl of strawberries! Now I am on to gathering broad beans, blackberries, mange tout, beetroot, broccoli and redcurrants. As I shelled the peas and beans and prepared blackcurrants yesterday, my youngest son said "You know that is why we have Tescos to make life easy, pop in buy the veg, take home, cook, eat and enjoy", he has a point, it took a good couple of hours to finish the task. But when I served up some of the bounty for Sunday dinner the chore was forgotten and the taste of freshly gathered and prepared food was sooooooooo good.
I have also had some creative days, another bag based on the Bright Lights theme that I and a few other textile artists are working to. Hopefully this time next year we will be taking our combined work on exhibition.

This work started life as pieces of collaged vintage textiles and threads, then heavily machine stitched together to form a whole cloth. The shapes of these bags are based on loose drawings of the human form. Once cut out the new cloth is embellished, lined and stitched. Apart from small seed beads I make all the components myself, again using up-cycled ingredients! The colours are based on some lovely dancing bright light reflections across the water in Sydney Harbour. A feast of colour for the eyes that always inspire me on my creative journeys. I return to these images time and time again. 

 Detail of hand made cords and beads

Close up detail of design and stitch

 Contrasting lining

Another close up of detail

I hope you have enjoyed the riot of colour and its made you smile and brightened your day? 

Hugs 4 smiles M xx

Are we human...or are we strawberry?

Yep more strawberry stories lol.......we have had a bumper crop of them this year over 52lbs now and still picking. I have enough jam now to last us around 5 years! If I mention the strawberry word the family groan and vanish in case I put yet another culinary strawberry delight in front of them! We have had scones, victoria sponges, cheesecake, strawberry shortbread muffins (they were scrummy, I will put the recipe up at the end of this) strawberries in balsamic vinegar, mousse, ice cream and lots of bowls of the soft fruits with cream!


Having gathered up another 12lb on Monday I spend a while carefully washing them. As I sorted through putting perfect ones in a bowl for friends and family, small ones for cakes and tiny ones to turn into jam. I stopped to look at the misshapen ones and put them to one side,

Wondering what to do with these not so perfect ones It came to mind that just because they were not perfect strawberry shape, on the inside they would be as sweet and maybe even better than the ones I had singled out as perfect. I decided that would serve up a mixture of all shapes and sizes and figured that the odd shaped ones were actually not only more interesting but they tasted sweeter too.


This got me thinking so many people aspire to be perfect and tend to shun those who do not fit into the same box. We all come in all shapes and sizes with different aspirations,jobs, hobbies, personalities and ideas. Me being one of the the misshapes, struggle with being different. But these strawberries have taught me that no matter what our daily struggles are we are as sweet if not better inside despite our flaws!

STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE MUFFINS

Ingredients

• 2 Cups plain flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 Cups. sugar
• 1/2 C. butter
• 1 egg
• 1 Cups double cream
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1 Cups diced strawberries, well drained

Directions

Preheat oven to 180We  degrees. Grease 12 muffin cups. In large bowl mix together flour, baking powder and sugar. Cut in butter as for pastry until it is in small pea-size pieces. In small bowl mix egg, vanilla and cream then add all at once to flour mixture. Stir with spoon until blended. Gently mix in strawberries. Spoon into muffin cups and bake for about 25 minutes. Cool completely in pan before removing. Sprinkle with icing sugar to serve. 

Hello once again :)

Hello everyone....how are you all? I have been busy lately and have had little time to myself to write on my blog. The 3 groups that meet here have been busy and creativity is in abundance, which in turn inspires and motivates me to be creative myself. These past 4 years have been difficult and that has resulted in my mind closing down and not allowing me to live my normal life. Hey ho that the way it goes sometimes.


We drove back up to Aberdeen again, this time to help move my daughter out from her apartment. She has finally graduated after 4 years of study. Back at home now she is seeking a job, although I get the feeling it wont be long before she returns to education as she has spoken about doing a Ph.D......SO only one more trip to the granite city for her graduation day....I feel another new dress is on the list...he he.


Last weekend saw us at Royal Ascot once again. And guess what.......I won a small amount on my first race :) The money was irrelevant but the joy of at last backing a horse that did not come last or fall was a thing of wonder and joy! I was so excited and returning back to our table I shared my excitement with the rest of our group. A glass of Champagne was poured and that's where my clumsiness took hold! Waving my arms around whilst talking often gets me into trouble and today was no exception.My hand made a connection with the glass....you know one glass of bubbly can go along way when its knocked over. That soon brought me back down to earth, and I sat down with a very red face! 
The arrival of the Royal party brought lots of hand clapping and cheering, which was nice. Also the fashion show that was put on in our restaurant was pretty spectacular too, with my favourite being the Vivienne Westwood collection, she is always a source of inspiration for me!


The next day we attended the last of day of a 3 day Hindu wedding. It certainly was a feast for the eyes with the most wonderful colourful, glittery saris on display. Although we were given a sheet written in English with all the ceremonies that we were going to see during the 2 hours I was still at a loss sometimes to know what was going on. All the same I would not of missed the experience, or the curry and the hospitality of wonderful people! Oh and the bride looked stunning and was very beautiful. I wish them all happiness for a long and happy life together :) 


Well that's it for now....later I am going to bore you once again on the subject of strawberries. Watch this space!!! 
Hugs 4 smiles M xx

Sunday and Strawberry Jam

Ahhhhhhhhhh Sunday means tea and a read of the papers over a lazy breakfast of boiled eggs and buttered toast, and yep I let the fairy out of the egg....see an earlier post about that!
I prepared a big bowl of strawberries last night ready to turn into jam this morning. The whole house now smells delightful...I have home made bread on the way so I am sure it wont be long before everyone congregates  around the kitchen table for an early lunch of warm bread and jam....mmmmmmmmm  So much for watching our waistlines!!!
Looking over the strawberry patch this morning another large bowlful are ready to be picked.....time to share some with my friends me thinks. 
Have a great rest of Sunday, I am off to my studio now to do what I like best and carry on with my latest project. Hugs 4 smiles M xxx

Legends and Lore of Strawberries:

In provincial France, strawberries were regarded as an aphrodisiac. Newlyweds were served always served a cold strawberry soup.

The strawberry was a symbol for Venus, the Goddess of Love, because of its heart shapes and red colour.

Have you every eaten a double strawberry? Legend says that if you break the strawberry in half and share it with a member of the opposite sex, you will soon fall in love with each other.

In parts of Bavaria, people still practice the annual rite each spring of tying small baskets of wild strawberries to the horns of their cattle as an offering to elves. They believe that the elves, who are passionately fond of strawberries, will help to produce healthy calves and abundance of milk in return.

Queen Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII had a strawberry shaped birthmark on her neck, which some claimed proved she was a witch.

To symbolize perfection and righteousness, medieval stone masons carved strawberry designs on altars and around the tops of pillars in churches and cathedrals.

The strawberry, a member of the rose family, is unique in that it is the only fruit with seeds on the outside rather than the inside.

Bright Lights and Strawberries!

 Front of bag

Hello and a very happy weekend to you all :) Hope your week has been bright and happy? I have been really busy and the days have flown by. Nutty Knitters met on Wednesday and as usual more chatting, sipping tea and this week spoiling ourselves with a fresh Strawberry Cheesecake! My crop has started early and we have picked 12lbs of delicious berries....My family are already beginning to tire of cakes, desserts and savoury home bakes using yet more strawberries. 

Yesterday our textile group met up in my studio to discuss an exhibition for next year, and of course more tea and the offering was strawberry cream cupcakes. The brief we are working to is 'Bright Lights', its so nice to get together and see our creations coming together. We all work in so many varied ways, and certainly inspire each other :)

After sketching a few ideas I gathered up a selection of fabric, ribbons, and thread 'ingredients' and created collaged surface, which was then stitched to create a firm fabric. Having cut my design out of this new fabric it was time for the fun stuff....embellishments.....lots of beads, machine embroidered cords and fabric beads were created then all the components were stitched together to create the finished bag. 

   

These pictures show the back of my bag and some detail of the stitching and embellishments. I love working with these colours, and return to them time and time again...Happy colours! 

So I am on a roll now and having spent a day last week designing I was eager to get started today on the next piece towards a new collection of work.

Most of my day today has been spent in the studio, preparing the base for another stitched creation. Hopefully I will get to embellish it tomorrow and then finish it off during the week. So watch this space :)

Oh and no doubt I will continue to gather strawberries and bake....If anyone has a favourite recipe for strawberries....oh and blackcurrants, as they are on their way too....please can you post them up for me to try...Thanks xx

Have a good rest of weekend, hugs 4 smiles M x

Detail of fabric beads

Yummmmmmmmmmmmm x