Illyria

perfect

Jamie in his Huck Finn Pants

I wanted to add decorations for an Easter tree, and until we moved I had a beautiful lilac branch that I had painted with irridescent acrylic and used for all holiday occasions – but it didn’t really survive the move. So I have a new branch that was pruned from the crab apple tree at my folks and I wanted some new eggs to hang on it for Easter.

I have been using my decopatch and tissue paper collection, just some finishing to do.

Making a baby hat for my friends little girl, in Paton’s DK and Rowan Cotton Glace. I was told by a woman in a yarn shop in York that the yarns were not exactly the same in guage but they are as near as you can get and the two colour ranges work together so brilliantly, I think you would be hard pushed to notice it really.

And cupcakes, Nigella’s with a little lime zest added and lime creamcheese icing. Yum!

I watched Julie and Julia recently, food can be so much more than I ever thought, family memories that last forever…

In January my sister and I popped out to the John Lewis Haberdashery because of another makeover, the sofabed.  I love to have a good rummage through the clearance baskets, but there was no yarn so I wandered about the Debbie Bliss, and half heartedly fished about in the fabric remnants. And these were at the bottom!

Now I was a bit put off by the picture, until I realised the hens were totally blank so I could do whatever I wanted, and I knew it would be better than this! Suddenly I was seeing them in my favourite pink and blue, with quirky eyes, so I rushed home for my tester pots…

…and here they are. Kissing! They still have to get spots painted on them, but they have cheered me and everyone who sees them up, and I will use the stencil on some tables I think, so no waste there. The planter behind them I got from Sainsburys, I am not supposed to be impulse spending, but the deed is done.

I grew up with hens, and we had a couple of pet hens that came into the house for snacks, one called Chicken Chicken (I know) and one called Biscuit. They were very sweet and so soft to touch, they had lovely low chirrups and sadly I think the foxes may have got them – the foxes usually got most of the hens.

My job was collecting eggs, and I still remember the proud day when I found 32 hidden under the hay baler  -  a big deal when you might only get six or eight in a day. More on eggs as Easter is coming up… eggciting!

So I too have fallen for the craze and a few weeks ago the pattern arrived through my letter box. I had a sale skein of Silk Garden Lite, and mixed in some other yarns to build a turquoise/pink/purple piece….

… which I think is going to be a cushion cover asI have run out of the Silk Garden yarn and I wanted to try it in a thinner wool.

Enter Silk Garden Sock, which has replaced Noro Blossom as my all time top favourite yarn – although I also like the Kureyon Sock. I have tried dyeing my own yarn and have a friend who is rather good at it, but Noro produce the most amazing blends of fibres and slubs and I am in deep smit. So I have started the wrap in the sock yarns, also found on sale.

I am looking for the book with the crescent moon shawl in it, if anyone wants to lend or sell me a second hand copy, as I really have got to stop spending money on these things and bust my stash – I did get the flower shawl from Pomadour, but am trying to save for a holiday!

The little yarn investigators are doing great, but I did nod off on the sofa last week and awake to find yarn cobwebbed all over the living room and hall. The source of the problem was that it was wrapped a couple of times round Mira’s waist and it took me over half an hour to detangle!

Things are beginning to settle down after a bout of chicken pox and I have got some stuff done in the home!

The kitchen is going to be bright, with pinks and blues!

This will be a crochet star garland, once blocked and sewn to a crochet chain!

I have an obsession with tester pots, which means that I have lots of colours to play with for painting wicker baskets etc later.

My favourite white is Jasmine White, from Dulux, in the endurance paint, which is expensive but so worth it when you have children. The living room has been done in Natural Calico, and the kitchen in Sweet Sundae, all scrubbable!

I officially cease to be a seconday teacher on the 4th of Jan, but I have lots of teaching spiritual development gigs lined up… 2010 was an amazing year for me spiritually and I’m looking forward to going further up and further in. I hope to spend lots of time on family and home and if you don’t see me, its because the home part needs a LOT of work!

I am mostly using Facebook. It is much quicker, and I am also mum to two very active, demanding children, a half time teacher, and part time spiritual practitioner, and spur of the moment creativity is likely to be shelved while we move house in three weeks.

Please friend me on Facebook (as Heather Thorp, in Glasgow) if you want to hear my latest brief musings, and I’ll let you know how I figure out my communication when I have a decision.

Thank you for reading!

xx Hevs

I had got up one Saturday morning with the urge to doodle – and this is what happened…

I photographed my drawing (no scanner), printed on cotton, made a sandwich with some angelina, net, and wadding, stitched round the edge randomly and voila!

Then I thought they would make great t-shirts…

And I painted…

Home and Hunmanby:

What a smile! My boy is not only sitting, he has moved from tummy crawling to knee crawling and…  on our trip to Birmingham we had pulling himself up to stand.

We went to visit Ben’s sister, who cooked us the most amazing meals and took us to see sharks and otters and other cool fishies.

Ardtalnaig