Little Red and the Wolf

Red Riding Hood fabric lavender and rice warmbag

I am the first to admit that I'm a procrastinator, I work slow and in my own time, you can push me but most likely I won't budge until I'm ready. I haven't been crafting much the last week or two because I really haven't felt the buzz of craftiness, and the happiness of playing with materials. I think mostly I am feeling homesick for the states, even though I'm well aware that I will be flying out to Seattle in a few weeks time to visit my parents in Idaho, and hopefully to meet with Selena on the two days we have booked to stay in downtown Seattle at the end of the trip before flying back here.

The picture is of a lavender and rice warm bag that H and I made for Frizbe's younger daughter's birthday this week, he choose the fabric and helped me sew in on my little sewing machine. It was very sweet that it was so important to him to make a warm bag for little N. When I asked why he said it was because I make them and they smell good. Bless.

I did have did have a bit of good news yesterday, when I visited Out Framed Gallery in Ripley, where they have a display of my jewellery on sale. I showed her the lavender sachets I have been making and she loves them and will be taking some to have in a little basket in the shop from Monday (when I can make a few more from a few different fabrics) and she went gaga over my little Owl pin cushion which I brought along to show her. So I guess I know what I shall be making over the weekend. Oh and she gave me a commission cheque for two bracelets that sold! I think that means I can order some goodies from etsy don't you?

I'll post the names chosen for the Pay it Forward scheme a little later today, and some further adventures in book clubbing too.

my crafty space

I took this picture a few days ago to share with you all. Its my crafty space... a bureau from Ikea. I have finally given up on the box room to be my crafty space, M thinks we could still share a desk but in reality that would never work because I would have half finished projects dotted about the big desk and he would want to do his picture editing after a wedding and it would be a train wreck in the making.

So last week I shuffled most, but not all, of my crafty things into the bedroom to reside in and around the bureau.

a few items on the desk

a Starbuck's coffee cup (of dubious acquisition) filled with paint brushes

a cup of coffee, filled with er coffee

dinky sewing machine

toadstool painted page

basket full of inspiration (books and magazines)

sketchbook on the go

various tubes of paint and some prepped music sheets

my plush owl prototype

if you look at the very far back of the desk and squint a bit you will see a needle book and pin cushion from AnnieB, a little clothes peg doll from Hope (which I still haven't blogged about as I'm so behind on posts). It needs work and a few more cosy details but seeing as we haven't even decorated in the bedroom yet we will get round it sometime soon.

so what does your crafty space look like?

Tales on the Farm

When I was small we lived in an old farm house in rural New York State. My mother is of the opinion it was an awful place full of hicks and horrible winters. We moved away when I was 5 but I can still remember the wonderland I thought the farm was. We had goats, geese, chickens, cows, cats and dogs, I was in kid heaven, but I had my enemies too.

The billy Goat for instance.. he loathed me, just me was fine with my parents, with all the other animals but hated one small girl child with wild brown hair and holes in the knees of her jeans. Every day my mother milked the goats and every day the billy goat would rear up on his hind legs, paw at the air and bleat at me. I was terrified so my mother gave me a stick, I'm not sure if that counts as animal abuse or not but the Billy Goat would loom over me and I would wave the stick in his general direction, and miracle of miracles he would back off. For a bit anyway then he would loom nearer and stand on two legs challenging me, and I would brandish my stick and wave it at him.

We also had a goose and gander, the goose thought my mother was her mother and would follow my mother everywhere on the farm, into the house out of the house, everywhere that my mother went the goose went. The gander on the other hand, well he was pure evil, spawn of the devil himself. Everyday after kindergarten he would wait by the fence for me to step off the school bus.

I would hop off the school bus, the big bus if the bridge was ok, but the short bus if the bridge was broken, or under repair and no heavy trucks allowed, slip through the gate and there would be the gander. He would charge me honking and flapping his wings and I would run in terror to the farm house braids flying. If I wasn't quick enough the gander would nip at my heels, and my clothes. This happened every single school day. I still don't know what I ever did at the age of 5 to incur the wrath of the farmyard.

I had one more enemy though, one of the cows, a brown Jersey cow with beautiful dark liquid eyes and long lustrous lashes. My parents thought it might be fun to put me on the cows back. The cow thought otherwise and bolted leaving me hanging round her neck as she bucked and kicked rampaging through the barn until I fell off into a rubber feed bucket listening to my parents laughter. I loved it all though and missed it when we moved on to new adventures in California.

Why am I reminiscing about the past? Because I am feeling a bit lost and homesick at the moment. This is the first autumn since I moved to England that I won't be flying back home to the states. I know very well that this is my home here, my house, but I miss the states, I miss my parents, and my friends Meg, Jaci, and Gin, I miss pumpkin patches, apple orchards, Cinnabuns, yard sales, and just being in the US of A. M says we will be flying to Seattle in spring, then the long drive across Washington State to reach my parents home in Northern Idaho. Its a long time till spring though and my thoughts will be with my other home. What I wouldn't give for some decent Mexican or Vietnamese, or even french fries and a strawberry shake at Denny's!

Tonight my friend Frizbe is taking me and the kids to Asda Walmart, for a wander down the Halloween isle so I can have a few moments to look at glittering plastic spiders, vampire teeth, horrible candy and orange plastic jack-o-lanterns. A small piece of America in Derbyshire.