Spring is Springing

Oh blessed spring! The weather is getting milder every day and we are loving all the blue sky days and the opportunities to frolick outside.



Work is still chaotic, so little time for creative stuffs, but I am on it, slowly but surely, and will report more here soon.

In the meantime, my baby Bear is enjoying his naps in the sun...







And above, the reason our house is called River Cottage! A most perfect place to lounge at sun down.

Happy Birthday To Me :)

It was my birthday yesterday, the first day of spring, and more importantly, the first day we have had together as a family in, oh, much too long. Simon and I usually work alternate late shifts and Saturday/Sunday, so yesterday was a rare and precious treat.

The sun was out (mostly) and a lovely day was had by all, we spent an awful lot of it outside, oh how sweet to finally be able to play outside! The cherry on the proverbial cake was indeed, the warm breeze that allowed me to hang out the washing for the first time at River Cottage.





A Birthday cake was baked by Nana - with s eggs no less, a double celebration after all!



Even the daffodils were bobbing their sunny heads at the joy of it all.



The land around us is changing now, we are really looking forward to our first summer at River Cottage. It was a very happy birthday indeed :)

Word Play

Well my cloth is coming along nicely, I have spent the last few evenings stitching the quote that I wanted to include. I used purple metallic gutermann thread, which is not easy to embroider with and text is quite boring to stitch too, so it took a while.



Here is a photo of how the cloth looks as a whole, there is still much work to be done but I am really pleased with how it is coming together, it makes me smile :)
More silver leaves need to be included, the tree trunk to the right needs to be stitched in (I am rather anxious about doing that, it is a big area of stitching to cover!) and the leaves to the top left need more branches and lots of more leaves.



The background is also due some special treatment.... not sure what yet, more white stitching to give texture to the cloth and secure the weaving for sure, and perhaps more... I like that this part of the story has not unfolded to me yet. Oh yes, there is still much to be done and much to learn.
You can view a full size photo of the cloth here.

Happy Weekend to you! <3

Blog Love - Aventures Textiles

Before I went on a blogging hiatus a couple of years ago, I used to feature lovely blogs I found every now and then.
Well, I haven't done that for a while, but yesterday I stumbled upon the most delightful blog and I just have to share it with you.

Cécile Meraglia is an incredibly talented and inspiring textile artist, and documents her work on her blog Aventures Textiles .
Now, I realise most of my lovely readers will not speak French, but there is a handy dandy translation tool on Cécile's blog, and honestly, the photos of her beautiful work speak for themselves. I had a little rush of excitement when I stumbled upon her Flickr photo stream, her work is pure eye candy.







Do pop over to her lovely Blog and say hello, you can also find her on Flickr.

Hey Doodle Doodle

I brought a whole load of stuffs back from France with me after the burglary, I have been enjoying looking through all my stuff that I haven't seen a while, over the weekend I found an old doodle journal. The first two drawings are from last year, before we left France, they both tickled me pink because I remember drawing them both.



Amber really did pull Hazel's tights down (I believe they are panty hose in the US?). Needless to say, Hazel was none too impressed that I chose to record her moment of shame in doodle form, bless. The little circular window on the door is representative of the boat we were travelling from on a trip from France to the UK.

The second is a doodle of a very odd dream I had about Danni Minogue, I still can't work out where the paragraph begins and where it ends and my memory does not serve me well on this ocassion, so who knows what on earth that was all about! Something in there about Bingo, I don't think I have ever played bingo, maybe I should! (It is on my flickr if you care to enlarge the pic and try and read it, good luck!).



The last doodle is a more recent addition (14th of Feb 2011), I did this at work after we closed a particularly big deal, It was a good day! I'm glad the good days are more plentiful than the bad right now, the doodles continue....



A Bientot :)

By The Bluegrass Giveaway

My lovely friend Sena from By The Bluegrass is having a most awesome Giveaway, lots of yummity loveliness up for grabs, so do pop by and say Hello for a chance to win!

I have also added my blog to Blog Lovin, come follow me :)
Follow my blog with bloglovin

The light at the end of the tunnel

I was stitching away the other night, when I suddenly realised how quickly I had completed a little corner of my cloth, and it suddenly dawned on me that I no longer laboured over each stitch. I can talk, watch tv, sing along to the radio and stitch and stitch, without hindrance. I stitch so fast, my fingers are on fire.

This is quite an important realisation. You might remember me recently writing about one of the horrible symptoms of PND being a lack of concentration, which made hand sewing very laborious indeed. The more I thought about this change, the more I realised most all of my symptoms have all but gone. When did that happen? I just don't know, I guess it is a gradual process. Just as PND creeps up on you like a slow rising tide, so too does it creep away, and before you know it, you are no longer stranded.

I decided to celebrate by making myself a nice cuppa and getting down to some more stitching, and being as I had no champagne, I took a leaf out of my colleagues book and chowed down on some fizzy cola bottles, not a bad stand in, I must say.



Anyhow, I think I can safely say (touching wood here), I have come through the worst of it, and feel very much back to myself, in fact, probably much improved, they do say, what doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, after all. Not sure how much truth there is in that, but I like to think a grain or two. It has certainly been a challenging time and it feels good to be able to once again draw on my inner reserves and find they are topped up and serving me well.

On a final note, I did not speak too candidly about PND here. It is a dark and quite frightening subject that is somewhat taboo. So very few women even admit to suffering from it, let alone discussing it honestly. Most women with PND feel deep shame and worry about being judged, and people DO judge, they judge because they do not understand.
So, with that in mind, take a minute to read this and this. If you have any loved ones who are pregnant or have little ones, whilst a web page of text will only give you a glimpse into the reality of PND, it might at the very least prepare you to show some compassion an humility to anyone suffering from this horrid illness.

I dedicate this post to mothers everywhere, those who have suffered, are suffering or supporting their own loved ones through PND, and those mothers who have managed to hold on to their hats too. Mothering brings us great joy, but golly is it a difficult job sometimes. So heres to you all, mum's everywhere, I salute you!

Also, big love and thanks to those close to me, who have propped me up with their relentless support, understanding, kindness and love, you know who you are, I love you always <3

Lovely people

Lovely lovely blog friends, you are so sweet, thank you so for your supportive words and good wishes! It certainly lifted my spirits to know there are so many kind souls in this big world holding me in their thoughts right now.

The whole burglary debacle was quite horrible, finding ones entire life's belongings (or at least what is left of them) tipped on the floor is quite a sight, and not one I wish to remember. It took four days to pick up the pieces.
That said, it was lovely to return to France and visit some very dear friends. We ate, we laughed, they cheered me very much and rallied round en masse to help list all the missing items and deal with the Gendarme.
I drank rather a lot of homemade Sloe Gin and rather too much Eau de vie, the rip your head off after one sip kind of apperatif that I generally avoid, but as they say, when in Rome.... or France, as it were.

So, I returned to England with my heart a lot less heavy and with a good deal of our family treasures (thankfully not treasure in the eyes of nasty burglars).
After a tiring 16 hour journey, I arrived back home to find the most prettyfull parcel of loveliness to greet me, all the way from Australia no less.



These treats are from my very sweet friend Dot, what perfect timing Miss Dot, you are such a peach!
I am bowled over by her darling collage birdie, which I have adopted as a kind of good luck charm and have thus been carrying to and fro from home to office each day. Oh yes, this little birdie is so far very well travelled, never mind that it has come all the way from sunny Aus, it now looks over me as I set about my daily tasks. Whilst I sleep, it sits soundly in the dining room waiting for my little family to troop down to breakfast, where it greets us with all it's vibrant, twinkly cheer! I do love this birdie so, Thank you SO much Dot!

Miss Dot also included a delicious stash of colourful fabrics, a postcard featuring one of her collages and oh my, that trim, I am so in love with the leafy trim, I have a thing about leaves at the moment....



This is the third oh so sweet, and all together kind, gift I have received from lovely blog friends, in as many months. I am so moved by the kindness this community has shown me, you all rock so hard!
Alas, my crafty little hands have been working overtime to prepare wee treats to send out, seeking little treasures here and there, stashing them away until the packages of pretty things are just so.

I have also been sneaking a few minutes each day to stitch my woven cloth, progress is slow on account of sheer lack of any real time to dedicate to this project right now, but those few minutes each evening feel so good, so indulgent and very satisfying.

The wee caterpillar has appeared in his rightful place.....



and the prettyfull butterfly has been dancing amongst some newly added flowers (some not yet stitched down), as butterflies do...



I do love the colours in this cloth, I love the story, I love everything it means to me right now, a journey of sorts, and a jolly nice one at that.
Big love to you all, and thank you again for being such perfectly awesome and wonderful blog friends! <3