A Long Weekend at Findhorn and Some New Makes

We're very lucky to have friends with a static caravan at Findhorn Sands and have been invited to stay quite a few times now. It's such a relaxing place with the endless beach and quaint harbour area that on a nice day we just stay put and potter about between the two.

The weather was not great on this visit but it made for some interesting skies.

And a rainbow is always nice, especially when reflected in the bay.

Despite the low temperatures and heavy showers, we still enjoyed a sunset. Could have done with some gloves though! I'm really pleased that we managed to camp and spend two nights in our tent. I thought that maybe last year's holiday cottage for our main summer holiday had spoiled us forever but I still love my tent! Looking forward to using it again in a few months time.

We stayed another two nights in the caravan which was great fun with 4 children......I fell asleep the minute I got home to my own bed! haha

On Monday we went to visit Logie Steading near Forres. I've been keeping up with Diva Designs for years online but hadn't met them in person or been to their studio before.

What a beautiful place! It was lovely to see their felt work up close and to chat with Kirsty. 

Hellygog next door were having their grand opening day. Artists Jude and Steve make a variety of wall art and textile pieces and also stock local handmade gifts. Very child friendly and welcoming. 

Within the Steading there is a lovely cafe, bookshop, whisky/wine shop and art gallery and across the road is a really nice park for children. There are also river walks which I would have loved to explore but the weather was against us.

Kirsty let me raid her stash and I also treated myself to a little felt flower kit.

All these years that I have been making felt and I have never tried making a flower! 

This was my first attempt.

The individual layers are like little petunias.

I tried a second one with some shaped petals and the petunia on top. The colour combinations and textural possibilities are endless! They are quite time consuming to make though.

An alternative way to wear it would be as a necklace. I had some space dyed pencil rovings that I quickly felted to make the cord. 

I'll enjoy wearing these myself and might make some for my next fair at Falkland on Saturday 11th July.

What I will be working on this week are these new long rectangular pendants below. They measure 2.7 x 5.2 cm and come with a lovely 18 inch chain that has an extender making it wearable up to 21 inches.

I'll be making them in various colours with square earrings to match.

Last week I added lots of new Felted Sheep Jewellery to my Etsy shop as well as some felt leaf brooches. 

I'm expecting a delivery of new printed cards and mouse mats this week as well as my 2016 Calendar possibly next week. I know, I know, it's only June but I have to be organised with these things. Having it all ordered already leaves me free to make new things :)

New Hare Notebooks

Since I was commissioned to make a box with a Moongazing Hare on the lid back in May, I have been asked to make more boxes and to make similar as framed pictures so I have had my latest piece printed as a Notebook cover and as a greetings card.

Notebooks £5.95

The notebooks measure 14 x 14 cm and the pages alternate between plain and ruled making them perfect for sketching and keeping notes.

The cards measure 12 x 12 cm and are left blank for your own special message. They also look great framed!

Also new in stock are these square Island Cottage and Boat cards.

Cards £2.50 each

And Washing Day is back in stock as well.

I made the original for this picture quite a few years ago now. The sea was made using the embellisher machine, incorporating lots of texture and colour with a bit of stitch for added detail. The roofs on the cottages, the sea wall and the washing were made from Harris Tweed.

My four different Mouse Mat designs are all in stock again. 'Hannah's House' bottom right is always the first to sell out.

Mouse Mats £6.95

All of the above can be found in my Etsy shop here 

The school holidays here in Scotland are well under way.

I took my daughter on the train up to Findhorn for a few days last week to join friends who are on holiday there.

Thankfully the sun shone and we spent most of our time on the beautiful beach there.

We caught this beautiful sunset on Friday night.

Lovely clouds catching the light.

Below was early evening midweek. The children had a ball with their body boards and I enjoyed a few dips in the sea too.

My 2015 Calendar is still available to Pre Order at the special price of £8.50 (normally £10)

You can find it in my Etsy shop here 

Doorways and Shoreways

Just back from a weeks holiday around the Moray, Findhorn, Dornoch and Embo areas of Scotland. Very much a beach holiday although we went from basking in bright sunshine in summer clothes to wrapping up in woolly jumpers and hats.

We stumbled across quite a few interesting doorways which I thought I might use as inspiration for a textile piece.

I love getting in the sea at every opportunity and a bargain buy of a wet suit for a fiver at a car boot sale meant getting a lot less chilly. The invasion of these squishy jelly fish though put us off going in the sea up at Embo but we enjoyed a good bit of body boarding at Findhorn.

The beaches up there are glorious and endless with hardly anyone on them. I took a walk at 7.30 one morning and apart from a few joggers and dog walkers, the beach was deserted. As you can imagine, I soaked up lots of inspiration for my work. The dunes at Findhorn are fascinating with beautiful purple heather growing in profusion alongside low growing rosa rugosa  and pink sea thrift.

This is a very quick sketch I did with my daughters paints after my early morning walk. I'm hoping to interpret this in textile using the embellisher machine sometime this week.

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