A Summer Flashback: Visiting Osterley Park

Right at the end of summer (in the middle of that heatwave we had at the start of September, which I am totally counting as summer because it was craaaaazy hot) I headed to West London for a Nice Day Out at Osterley Park.

Osterley Park itself is free to visit, but within the grounds you'll find Osterley House and its gardens which are run by the National Trust and have an entrance fee.

I got to the Park nice and early, walking up the long drive towards the house...

... past the Garden Lake...

 

... to the house itself. Pretty fancy, huh?

 

 

The ceiling of the portico is a teaser for the intricately decorated interior of the house.

There are some really fabulous spaces to explore here (several of which you might recognise from the movie The Dark Knight Rises, in which Osterley House starred as Wayne Manor) - just look at the entrance hall!

I happened to be reading this pattern-filled issue of UPPERCASE magazine on the train that day, which turned out to be the perfect reading material for a Nice Day Out spent oohing over patterns and repeated motifs and design details.

I spent ages looking round the house and its pretty gardens, and wandering round the park eating an icecream or two (on a hot day like that one was you definitely have to have icecream breaks instead of tea and cake breaks!). 

I have to admit that I'd never even heard of Osterley before buying my Art Pass but I'm so glad to have discovered it, it's a gorgeous place and well worth a visit. I highly recommend the introductory talk (available on the hour) - this was very entertaining and a great introduction to the house and its colourful history.

Even if you just visit the park and don't venture inside the house, you can take a peek inside the stable block...

... where there's also a nice cafe and a little shop selling second hand books and plants from the gardens.

On the drive out of the park you'll also find a farm shop. I bought a selection of veggies for dinner, including this rather fabulous Romanesco broccoli (featuring yet more patterns!).

I'd never tried one of these before and couldn't resist treating myself to this one simply because of how gorgeous it was. I'm pleased to report that they're very tasty!

Blocked

You might have noticed that it's been a bit quiet round here lately.

I have - very frustratingly - been suffering from a patch of blogger's block. Ugh.

With any kind of creative block (the writing kind or the crafting kind) I've found the best thing to do is to give myself time. Time to rest and relax, to soak up some non-work-related inspiration and give my ideas a chance to quietly simmer at the back of my brain until they're ready to bubble over from my, er, brain pot? (that metaphor went a bit weird, didn't it?)

Hopefully I will be back to my usual irregular-but-frequent blogging "schedule" soon. Please bear with me!

Behind the scenes I've been working towards a few deadlines, doing lots of stitching for a secret project (which is going to be a gift so I can't blog about it yet) and taking regular "cuddle breaks" when this small furry dictator demands them:

I have a stack of magazines and a blanket stationed ready for when the "GIVE ME CUDDLES NOOOOOOW!" yowling begins - something to read, and something to stop my knees getting spiked by our kitty's very sharp claws / stop my clothes from getting covered in fur! (Pictured: Work/Life 3, the UPPERCASE directory of illustration)

With Wimbledon in full swing, we've been watching lots of tennis :)

I've also been adding some more "destash" craft supplies to my Etsy shop as I continue to clear out my studio...

 

 

 

 ... click here to visit my shop & see what's currently available.

P.S. I'm trying out a slightly different blog layout with bigger photos - what do you think?

Scraps, Colour Samples and a Crafty Cake

This week has been very hectic as I've been juggling a bunch of different projects - brainstorming ideas and pitching designs for a couple of deadlines, stitching and photographing things for another, plus doing all the usual crafty, bloggy, emaily stuff that goes on in my working week.

One of the projects I'm working on involves pretty Liberty fabric. The scraps are so pretty I can't bear to throw even the teeniest of them away! I must think up a way to use them for something crafty... hmm...

The dark weather this time of year makes photo-taking a challenge. There's just so few hours of usable daylight and sometimes it's so gloomy that "light" seems like too strong a word to use! I am currently dividing my schedule into "daylight" and "non daylight" tasks, so I can make the most of the light that is available before it fades.

A particularly tricky thing to photograph even in good light = neon colours, which I was working with this week. I did lots of experimenting with different backgrounds to get the neon shades to look right.

 

 

One of my "non daylight" tasks was to sort through some old sketches and project proposals, adding unused ideas to my box of "project idea" index cards. One set of sketches has some colour samples attached, which I thought were much too pretty not to photograph before I threw them away:

It has mostly been work work work work work here this week, but there has been time for cake (check out those button-shaped berries and "knitted" leaves!)...

... and for a flick through some copies of the wonderful UPPERCASE magazine.

I've been meaning to buy some copies of UPPERCASE for simply ages but after listening to this interview with the editor I could resist no longer and treated myself to some back issues plus the lovely Work/Life illustration directories.

They are going to be perfect reading material for evenings when I want to relax and soak up some inspiration away from the internet (I love you, internet, but too much of you is a bad thing!) and for when our yowly cat decides it is time for me to STOP WORKING AND GIVE HER CUDDLES THIS INSTANT :)