Creative Wednesday - Button Trees and Embroidered Flower

As promised in my previous post, here are some of my creative endeavours, which also fit into the unfinished projects category. The idea is to do a creative post every Wednesday, but we'll see how that goes!

This piece of embroidery above was started with the intention of making it into something larger and more 'arty'. That probably won't happen now, so I think I'll try to make something smaller with it. Maybe just a padded ornament, but that sounds a bit dull, now I'm writing it. Hmm...

The second piece is a button tree. I made a few of these, months ago, but never finished them, because I couldn't decide how to stand them up. This one is just plonked into an old cotton reel. I'm not sure if that works or not. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Finding & Finishing

Every day, I get an email from Etsy called 'Etsy Finds', which showcases items from the handmade and vintage shops on Etsy. Every day I look through it to see what's been featured, always with a small glimmer of hope that one of my items might just make it on there. It never happens.

But then, on a busy Sunday when I didn't even have time to look at the email, one of my items, the Swedish Dala horse, pictured above, makes it on to 'Etsy Finds'! Someone reserved it, along with some other stuff, and then I got two more emails asking to buy it. And 30 people had made it a favourite item. In my dopey way, I just thought 'Goodness me, those Swedish horses are popular nowadays!', and it was only when I saw the email that I realised why. (You can see the selection of finds here.)

Needless to say, my shop was not as well-stocked as I would have liked, so I haven't been inundated with other sales, but many thanks to Etsy for including my shop. Interesting that they go for the 'tasteful' end of my offerings, rather than the kitsch stuff, like this crazy cowboy! Maybe I should have put him on the Swedish horse...

I also discovered my Flickr photostream was getting some hits over the weekend, thanks to the picture of my hallway being included on Desire to Inspire, a rather lovely interiors blog. I'm starting to feel famous!

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Two blogging projects have come to my attention this week. They're both about making things, and chime in very well with what I've been thinking about lately.

(Don't be put off by this pic from an old Sindy annual, which features some of the worst craft ideas ever! Click on it to see a large view.)

First was from a Thrifty Mrs, who has launched her 52 Marvellous Makes Madness Challenge. The idea is to make something you enjoy making, each week for a year.

I had been thinking I should try to make my blogging more regular, and include things that I've made, and so the idea of a weekly 'make' sounds great. I'm not sure I can manage to make something for fun every week, so I might cheat a bit and show you some old projects.

And on the subject of old projects, I recently wrote a list of all the crafty projects I'd started and not finished. There were 18 I could think of, straight away. If I dared to look at the bottom of some bags and boxes, I know I'd find more. Sewing, crochet, art, - I start things and then move on to something new. I've sometimes tried to analyse why I do this, but quite honestly, I can't afford that much therapy! I decided recently that I should try to finish some, if only to get rid of those annoying bags of yarn/fabric/thread etc,

So it was perfect timing to find the next blogging project on Joys Quilts. It's called 'Finishing Stitches'. The idea is to get on and finish some unfinished projects that have been hanging around for too long. The deadline is the end of July, so I'd better get a move on.
Now where's my needle?

Nature Ramble

I have to say I'm not really the outdoorsy type. But in the recent glorious summer sunshine, even I wanted to get out and enjoy it. So on the past two Sunday mornings, I've been getting out to the countryside and going for a walk in the fields.

While I was out, I was lucky enough to spot these timid creatures.

And I was delighted to see so many flowers...

The country people have quaint customs...

And I walked so far, I started to wonder just which country I was in...

I was certainly glad I had a stout pair of boots...

Yes, okay, you've guessed it. When I say 'countryside', I mean just on the outskirts of the city, and the 'fields' in question are scattered with cars and their boots full of old junk. But I did do a lot of walking - over three hours to get around the whole thing! I might take a flask of tea and pack of Kendal Mint Cake with me next time!

Long and Lovely and Lush

If you recognise the words of the title above, then it's just possible you studied the poems of Gerard Manley Hopkins at school, as we did. I can't say I 'got it' back then, but the words of his poems often come back to me, when I see a bit of the old Nature being particularly splendid.

The words come from 'Spring'

"Nothing is so beautiful as spring—
When weeds, in wheels, shoot long and lovely and lush;"

They often pop into my head now in early summer, when I see exuberant hedgerows, bursting with long grass and wildflowers.

"What is all this juice and all this joy?" 

Our English teacher told us it was sap rising, which for some reason, we thought hilarious at the time, and tried to use the word 'sap' as often as possible in lessons.

This hot midsummer is definitely long and lovely and lush round here, and I've managed to spend some quality time lying around looking at green grass and blue sky. A very summery occupation, and a little bit unexpected.

 Despite the freedom of not having a 'proper job', Mr Kitsch and I don't always take 'days off' as such. Our work time and fun time is quite confused and intermingled. And like most people, 'free' time often involves doing chores or essential shopping. Also the lack of a 'proper' job means the lack of funds for a 'proper' holiday. So when all this good weather started, Mr Kitsch suggested a 'staycation'. In other words, stay at home, but act like you're on holiday, going out on day trips and visiting places you haven't been or don't often go to. (And not worrying about chores when you get home!)

I'm not sure we actually succeeded in having a 'staycation', but we did take some proper days off. We went to Bath, we spent a wonderfully lazy afternoon having a picnic on The Downs in Bristol, near where we live. Last week we went to the Gower, and spent the afternoon on the beach at Oxwich. I even swam in the sea (very briefly!). The Gower is where we had our first holiday together, and is always lovely. The beaches are huge and sandy and generally uncrowded.

This week we went to Clevedon Court. I don't know why, but we never managed to visit it when we belonged to the National Trust, despite it being so nearby. It's a small place, but a delight to visit. The front facade is very impressive, but I totally failed to get a picture of that, so this is the back garden with palm tree

There is also a room full of 'Nailsea Glass', which apparently doesn't come from Nailsea at all. On the way home, we got Greek kebabs, which didn't come from Greece, either. Lovely and Lush!

Getting clogged up

I don't why, but just lately I can't seem to go out of the house without returning with a souvenir clog or two.
And when I say something like that, I know the vintage thing is possibly... getting out of hand?

But new obsessions keep gripping me. Right now, it's what I'm calling 'Chalet Chic' - a particular kind of folk art style that encompasses clogs, cuckoo clocks, Russian dolls, gingham aprons, Heidi and reindeer. And in this particular photo, a llama.

The llama is typical of the way that things have a habit of creeping into the house unexpectedly. I didn't know I wanted a souvenir llama until I saw his little furry face winking up at me from a box under someone's stall on Saturday. In fact, all these little knick-knacks I got at car boot sales over the weekend were unexpectedly essential to buy.

I suppose some foolish people might think that going to five carboot sales on Saturday is asking for trouble (oh, and there was another one on Sunday....). But quite frankly these people are poor misguided souls who have no appreciation of the finer things in life.

I grant you, buying more vintage buttons might, on the face of it, seem a tad bonkers, but really you only have to look at how lovely they are to know that I'm perfectly justified in buying them and the lovely fabric they're sitting on. The fact that a lot of this stuff is still cluttering up the living room floor until I find a place for it, isn't a problem, surely? Just step over it, can't you?

Folk House Flea Market tomorrow

Just a quick post at the last minute to remind anyone in the Bristol area that the Folk House Flea Market is being held tomorrow. It generally has a bit of everything, vintage, handmade, new and old. If you've never discovered the Folk House, it is something of a hidden treasure. The entrance is on Park Street, a busy shopping street in the centre of Bristol. It looks very unprepossessing, but when you walk down the little alleyway/corridor, you come out into a sunny little courtyard, where you can sit and have a cup of tea, with the entrance to the Folk House behind. It's main purpose is for adult education, and they have a great range of art and craft evening classes and workshops. 

If you can make it, please come and say hello, as I will have a stall there. I can recommend the cafe too!

Must dash and finish packing my boxes!

Catching Worms?

Why do car boot sales start so early in the morning? At 7am, for pete's sake! I'm not a morning person. More one of 'the children of the night', to be honest. So it was a huge effort to get up on Sunday morning to get to a car boot sale even by 8am. But the lure of a field full of kitsch tat managed to get me out of bed. And despite having told myself I mustn't fill the house with more rubbish, I managed to buy rather a lot. 

The miniatures in the first picture still have their contents. Anyone for a 40 year-old Chianti?

'Specially for little girls'... and big ones too! If you're as old as me, you might remember Twinkle comic. I remember it first coming out and having a free gift of a charm bracelet. So I had to get these old annuals. Not sure if I have any excuse for the china....

Ahoy me hearties! Some nautical needlepoint, and and a flower loom for 'casting off my craft' (do you see what I did there?).

Toro! How could anyone not want a plastic Spanish bull's head on their wall? I think it looks rather fine with our Day of the Dead collection and matador tambourine. 

Well, I think it was all worth getting up for!