gave me sunshine..... made me happy

Goodness, what a few days it has been here in the hens teeth household.

Lucy, our eldest came home from London for a few days, to go to the 'V' music festival. We live just a couple of miles from weston park which is one of two venues that simutaneously holds this gargantuan festival. This is my girl at 'V' enjoying the music and sunshine.... Mark and I enjoyed Liam and the gang too, along with Snow Patrol, singing to us in our back garden, whilst we sipped red wine and watched flickering candles. Every now and again the collective roar of thousands lifted and carried to us on the breeze. Makes me goose pimply thinking of it. I really enjoy the festival being held in our location. You can catch the happy buzz of thousands of young (and older), carefree people for a weekend..

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Lucy has a dear friend in London (not Liam!) who cares for this darling creature. 'Tickets' was bought home for us to take care of, for the weekend and what a pleasure it was......

Oh, how I love her, especially when she had a mad mo and ran round the room like a thing possessed, oh the darling creature. I whispered to Lucy, to say to her owner in London, that if ever she needed rehoming.......................

Our dogs, Rosie and Daisy weren't too fussed though!

Leaving Holly in charge of the 'baby' I dashed to the Festival of Quilts on Saturday. Inspiration and shopping heaven!

Loved this piece, mixed media made by Maria Manuel, right up my street!

Ladies, concentrating hard.

I had a great time and met up with an American bloggy friend Tracie Lyn Huskamp of The Red Door Blog who was teaching a workshop. She has a new book coming out called 'Nature Inspired' which I was lucky enough to buy from her. Brilliant to meet you Tracie.

Whilst waiting for my ride home, I played Andy Goldsworthy with the nature at my feet.....amazing what you can find at a busy roadside in Birmingham!

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It's also amazing what you can find in a car park in Kilburn High Street, London! Yesterday we took Lucy back to London, parked up and dumped up the corner was a rather soggy and dejected ensemble. Dread to think! (Why only one shoe? Answers on a postcard please.)

Said 'goodbye' to Lucy and shot off to see the John William Waterhouse Exhibition at the Royal Academy.


What can I say, to see these iconic paintings that are so familiar to us, in the flesh, was an honour. The Lady of Shallot bought tears to my eyes and Hylas and the Nymphs, well.......

Next door to Burlington Arcade.

and to Laduree, oh my heart's desire.....

Mark spoilt me with a box of the delicate beauties. The box and bag alone are gloriously beautiful and the macaroons! I hooked the bag onto my little finger and ponsed upto Piccadilly Circus, pretending that I was awfully rich and shopped at Burlington Arcade frequently darrrrling!Oh my. oh my. Oh my.

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Changing the subject.....I just wanted to mention too, that I can never think of a title for any of my posts, so I have decided to use song lyrics that have a tenuous link to the content of my posts. Gold star to anyone that can identify the song.

Thank you so much for stopping by. x

Our Feathered Friends

Keeping to the bird theme. This is a favourite brooch of mine. It is printed tin and is made by the very talented melanietomlinson. Take a look at her fabulous work, but be warned, you will be tempted. She makes the most incredible automata too. Birds of a different nature being this pair of Budgies, found at a Charity Shop, flaked paint and all, but very sweet.

Then onto a little bit of birdy love, made by yours truly!

I have no skin again on my 'sewing' finger but as ever I suffer for my art ;-)

This is a pic of the button I was chirruping on about, in my last post...glimmering gold to silver.

Thank you for stopping by. x

Raindrops on roses...hrumph!

Well raindrops may look pretty on roses but the persistent persisting down is beginning to get the most stoic of Brits down. There is a tremendous amount of mumbling and grumbling about the never ending summer rain.....

I'm just sorry that we cannot enjoy our summertime, out and about, but we Brits mustn't grumble ;-)

Onto crafty stuff.......

I managed to transfer a couple of the drawings of birds, I did in my sketch book last weekend, onto silk and have been working my little pinkies to the bone. Due to the inclement weather today and fading light at 6pm this evening!!!!!....the photos could be better, but one has to make hay whilst the sun shines, ha!

Lots and lots of layers of vintage fabric goodness here, linens and lovely rosy cotton, mixed up with muslin (how I love muslin, the loose fraying edges, really rocks my world, no I haven't been drinking). I also used some other rosy fabric and free machined the bird shapes. I added a little factoid about Carrion Crows just for hell of it too. (Should have been Seagulls really, as they were my inspiration), strange but true!

Onto my second piece which again is full of textural goodness. In fact, there may even be too much textural goodness here, I have gone a little bit billy bonkers with it. But it's so pretty (may I say myself). Lots of Liberty Lawn with lace and rose vintage stuff again, all sitting in happy cohabitation with a silk copy of a birdy drawing. I also used a very, very special old mother of pearl button...this may sound odd but it is the most stunning colour...shimmering silver and gold colours, just beautiful.

Well my dear friends, thank you for popping over and indulging me in my ramblings. x

Oh by the way, my lovely, dear friend Michele of Cowboys and Custard has opened (along with her friend) a fab new website, selling gorgeous vintage items .......... millyanddottie Pop over and say 'hello'.

Birdy doodles

Here is a coin purse that I have made using vintage french fabric. Isn't it pretty? Mind you anything floral against a black background is always gorgeous and dramatic. Anyway, this lovely stuff has been turned into a long line coin purse and is now residing in Etsyland.

Visiting the likes of this beautiful place last week, has filled me with inspiration. Well, to be precise bird inspiration. Seeing or rather hearing all those huge monster Seagulls has made me want to paint and draw birds.So in my night clothes, before anyone was up this morning and what a glorious morning it was, I set myself up in my garden, in the sunshine with pencils and paints. What a peaceful, glorious hour that was! Just me, the dogs, the chickens and plenty of coffee!

I've got it in my mind to create rather naive drawings to use on fabric transfer, as a backdrop to my collage embroideries... I would just like to give my work a little bit of a new twist.

It isn't half good fun daubing paint onto a blank page and using a pencil in the soft wet paint.

Added bits of text and doily to this one....

and embroidered a little, on here

tried to get the St. Ives naive thing going on here.... Mmmm ?

More backdrops for future work...

Well that was my day in amongst sorting washing, vacuuming floors,watering garden pots etc. etc.etc.etc.etc.

Just wanted to leave you of a close up pic, of a divine spool of lace I purchased yesterday. It is so perfectly wound and still having it's label makes it a joy to have.

Thank you for stopping by. x