Hello winter

Jack frost has been up to his old tricks again. I am hiding for a few weeks in the countryside, away from the traffic and noise and general madness of yuletide consumerism. But he has found me. And he is relentless.

 The little valley around me hasn't thawed for days. Neither have my feet.

There is half a mile between me and civilisation. A beautiful, crunchy, crispy, slippery half a mile. The little kid in me loves to trudge through these leaves. I feel like a giant ploughing over a carpet of frosted flakes.

But the artist in me wants to preserve these little gems. Discarded leaves dusted in ice transform into something quite beautiful.

The sensible part of me knows that they will soon start to melt, so I find a happy medium. The artist gets out her camera and snap snap snaps, then the kid gets her wellies on and jump jump jumps!

That old Jack is a handy little decorator though isn't he? Who'd have known I'd want to cut a bramble and stick it on top of a Christmas cake? Maybe I need to make some sugar leaves before I start munching on a hedge on my way home!

You Get Rainbows When it Rains

The sun is shining but autumn is nipping at the door . I am currently wrapped up on the sofa with a hot water bottle feeling particularly sorry for myself. I'm on my third course of antibiotics for a nasty bladder infection. Today is the first day in a week that I've felt well enough to do a bit of sewing (I have a hexie project on the go - pics to come!). Fingers crossed I'm on the mend now!

But I can't really complain. Because someone made me a rainbow cake...

... and it was delicious.  :)

I dream of Origami

Small and intricate and delicately folded, I am feeling the need for Origami in my life.  I don't have any projects on the go to keep my hands busy of an evening, so I'm off to find some paper and to start folding! Who's with me??

Love Lace

Hello hello!

Well guess who finally got a land line sorted? Clever little me, that's who!

It was a rare and beautiful day yesterday and I could feel my soul smile a little as I sat in the sunshine, soaking up some much needed vitamin D. We haven't had enough light filled, airy summer days this year, not by far. Here's hoping we get another couple before those dark winter nights creep in!

Stamp me up

I've always fancied making my own stamps. At work we have little birdy and leaf stamps that we use to mark off drinks on our loyalty cards, and there's something so satisfying about squishing the tiny little blocks into the ink pad! Here's some monday morning stampy inspiration for us all:

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Hello Birdy

So I first met Eve O'Neill on the dance floor of my local live music venue. It took me a while to put two and two together and realise that she was the proprietor of Fforestfelt, and creator of these beautiful felted birdies!

I never cease to be amazed by how realistic Eve's felt sculptures look. They're absolutely stunning.

You could easily mistake this guy for a real life visitor to the garden!

Eve's business is flourishing, and she was recently featured in Country Living Magazine too! Quite deservedly I think you'll agree.

If you'd like to see more of Eve's work visit her website, or facebook profile.

Crafty Storage Solutions

So, I have somewhat of a space issue when it comes to crafting. I live in a teeny tiny little shoe box of a flat and as renting workshop space isn't really an option for me at the moment, I am going to have to be ridiculously organized in running Crafty Jemima from home (Yes those of you who know me may well be laughing right now!). My only saving grace is that I have beautiful high ceilings and so plenty of wall space. So I'm looking out for some creative storage solutions, and here are some inspirational pics that tinterweb has to offer:

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I wish wish wish I had a closet like this!!

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I have a ton of empty jars and bottles so something like this will do me fine.

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There's a great little tutorial goes along with this pic - click on the source button and hop on over.

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Magnets are the way to go me thinks!

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I literally don't have enough space to do this, but the shelving is inspired. Anyone of you lovely crafters have any tips / clever storage solutions in your craft spaces??

Hi!

Hello Strangers! Oh how I have missed you! I am sat in the window wishing the sun would rise high enough to warm me a little, waiting for two loaves of onion thyme bread to prove and listening to the gurgling of fermenting hop wine. It's time for a cuppa, but I thought I'd drop in and say hi before I whack the kettle on.

I haven't had an Internet connection for a fair while now, and I'm struggling to keep up with my online craft community. But I've decided to bite the bullet and install a land line, so hopefully I'll be cooking with gas again soon! So lovely ones, you'll be lucky enough to see a lot more of me soon!

Another decision I've made recently is to re-stock my folksy shop and hopefully open up on etsy too. So watch this space within the next couple of months for lots more crafty goings on! How exciting! Right well I'm off to put these loaves in the oven and make myself a warm cup of tea. Happy crafting!

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Ebenezer!

Bah Humbug! I've been struck down by a chesty cough and I'm struggling to feel the least bit Christmassy. Christmas is normally my favourite time of year but this year it seems to be flying towards me so fast I can't enjoy it. Maybe a visit to Granny's for the season's first mince pie (because Granny does make the best mince pies!) will put a stop to all this moping. But I've got to get rid of this blasted virus before I can do that. So in the mean time, I've had a scout about the interweb for some festive makes to banish the scrooge in me! Fingers crossed!

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WIP

I am delighted to report that a fair bit of crafting was taking place over at Jemima HQ last week. It's not often that I have the opportunity to spend some quality time with the sewing machine. The conditions need to be right - comfy warm clothes, no distractions to lure me out of the house, and a nice acoustic play list or a good audio book.


I bought some gorgeous Christmas fabrics a few weeks ago so this was the perfect opportunity to get making. Can you guess what they are yet?? I'll be gingerly cutting some different fabrics to make some more today as I was unfortunate enough to come into contact with some peanuts over the weekend. So it's a slow day getting over the allergic reaction for me today. Plenty of hot tea and vitamin C and maybe a little bit of knitting will set me right again. :)

Happy Halloween

Happy Halloween! We celebrated Halloween early this year and had our ghoulish fun at the weekend.

I got far too engrossed in carving my pumpkin and forgot to do important things like eat and entertain guests. I think it was worth it though:


Then I had lots of fun making myself even paler. Apparently the undead look becomes me!


I hope you have a spooky night whatever you get up to. :)

Brrrrr

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I am a seasonal crafter. This past week, the weather has settled into it's usual autumn crispness, and out have come the woolly jumpers, leg warmers and bulky hats. I love this time of year. Cold and crisp, I've switched from warm milky coffee to hot tea and the knitting sticks have been clicking away. I am a day away from completing my very first jumper - and it's a jumper for me! Imagine that. Of course the camera situation lingers still, but I shall have the all revealing "ta-dah" post for you later this week, when I've sewn it together. I can't wait to wear it!

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Now I have been known on occasion to bring my knitting to the beach, but on the whole I get disinterested with it during the summer months. Maybe it's the association between woolen garments and the cold winter months that make me neglect my needles in the summer, discarding them to grasp on to that little glimmer of sunshiny hope, but it seems silly really only to start making warm, lovely, wrap-me-up-and-keep-me-toasty things when the cold weather is already at your door. I could do with a new hat and scarf already, and I seem to have misplaced the hand warmers I made early this year. I guess my hands will have to move a little faster to keep up with my ever growing make list!

I have managed a fair old bit of people watching over the past few weeks and I can say with delight that fair isle is still very popular this year, so I'll have to get the squared paper out and come up with a few designs for my new makes. Anyone else had success at creating their own fair isle patterns? x

Great Aunty Nel

Yes it's true that I sit and knit in my rocking chair, that my sofa sports a purple granny square throw, and that my flat is kitted out with all manner of charity shop treasures. I have, on many an occasion, been called old before my time. But I'm not sure how I feel with the concept of becoming a great aunt. At the grand old age of 25. No that wasn't a typo. I did indeed say 25. Look I did it again!

For those of you baffled by this concept (believe me I am!) I should explain that my dad had his first batch of kids at 18, and was a graying 40yr old when I was born, so my oldest niece is subsequently only a couple of months younger than me. Keeping up? And it turns out that she has not one, but two buns in the oven! And would you believe that she has two identical buns in the oven?? Oh my! Two lovely, squidgy, can't tell them apart bundles of trouble expected to arrive early next year.

So, once all my Christmas makes are done, I'm in danger of going overboard making things to fit little teeny tiny people. Teeny tiny little boy people no less. I just can't decide what to make - there's so much adorable stuff out there!

Doodle Days

It is extremely frustrating not to be able to do something you love to do. Especially when it's been so hard to explain why I've found it so difficult to craft over the past few months. A few weeks ago I had a bit of an "aha moment" when I realised that I associate crafting with illness, with not being very mobile, and maybe even as a way of fending off the insanity of insomnia. In essence, I used to craft when I was at my lowest, and I think somewhere in the back of my mind I still associate the two. My life is so different since having surgery and moving back to Wales last winter - I am well, I'm healthy, I'm physically active, I sing, I'm sociable, I'm rarely at home, I'm happy - everything that I wasn't last year. And I think my avoidance of crafting is because I don't want to revert back to the way I was.

I'm being silly. Crafting is not going to make me ill again. And the sooner I break that association the better, because quite frankly (beware of the forthcoming blowing your own trumpet moment!) it's something that I'm good at. I shouldn't let my strange brain hold me back.

So, get to the point Nel. You're quite right I am rambling somewhat. I have been missing crafting. A lot. I've been craving that feeling of accomplishment when you see ideas plucked from your brain materialise into something real, touchable, beautiful. So to give myself a creative quick fix (and a little to save on funds, but mostly to satisfy a making itch), I doodled a couple of friends some Birthday cards:

My sister's fella now has an excuse to be grumpy and cantankerous!


Again, apologies for the crappy photography.

I think I'm really developing a liking for doodling. It's taming my symmetrical brain, things don't need to be even, seams don't need to match up, anything you imagine is fine and nothing is wrong. Happy days! And more importantly it's easing me into my old creative ways. I think all in all, it's gearing up to be a handmade Christmas after all!

Inspiration

It's October. October! Is it really October?? I decided that the best way to deal with my lack of sewing inspiration was to do nothing. Just let it come in it's own time. But that seems to have backfired somewhat because it's October. (Is it really October??)

But never fear my fellow craftsters, a recent addition to Jemima HQ has turned my uninspired-ness on it's head. Look!

I have been given, yes given, a 1947 fully functioning electric singer sewing machine. With detatchable hand crank no less. It is hands down the best present I've ever had.

Very annoyingly I've been having some camera trouble but I had to take this quick snap on my phone to show you the paintwork - it's pristine!!

Isn't it the most beatiful thing you've ever seen? I am officially in love. And I can't wait to give her a good workout. Watch this space for lots of crafty goings on! :)