Sunday 30 April 2006

Flickr Packaging Group

I just checked, ther is a Flickr group for packaging. No time to go through it just now but I will try on Monday evening or Tuesday afternoon when I get back on the. I bet it's stuffed with good things. Till then I will leave you with my Chinese Radish seeds tin (from Habitat years ago).


Birdhouses



I like these Going Cheap birdhouses from Her House. They have what appears to be a detachable 'vacant' tag on them, sweet.

Also some nice metal sculptural bird table/feeders here.

Loop BioWall

The Loop BioWall that you can grow your plants up, though it's nice even without them.


Red Flag Design



I want one of these - shoulder tote made from recycled sailcloth by Red Flag Design. I love the colour (or lack thereof) and the texture and worn quality of them. And I bet they are sturdy too. They have other shapes and styles including duffel bags and wallets. Beautiful and Eco and with a link to the sea, now that makes me smile.

Disdressed scalloped skirt

I was doing a search for Japanese postcards just now and I came across this gorgeous skirt with a scalloped back made on Disdressed, a blog I have somehow missed. Now I want to scallop all my clothing. There is also a very cute baby and windblown stroller video clip that made me smile.


Andrea Zittel in NYC

For anyone who liked the work of Andrea Zittel in my previous post she is showing now at the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York.


Packaging, would people swap?



Here's one of my fave Scottish wrappers for Tunnock's Teacakes, they are so graphic and I use them on cards a lot. I have saved up enough for a large wall panel but never quite got round to making it. Here's what they look like when they are flattened out (excuse bad colour on my photo's)...





I love packaging, especially Scandinavian and Eastern. So I wondered, would people be interested in a packaging swap? Used packaging that would otherwise go to a landfill could be such a treat for someone in another country, either to just enjoy for it's design or to use in collage etc. The things I think of as dull and everyday might be a treasure to somebody else.

When I was in Sweden I was permanently scanning the ground for people's old packets but of course it's Sweden, not the UK, so no-one threw their rubbish on the ground and I came home empty handed. I really loved the packaging for flour and salt but I wasn't going to buy bags and carry them all round Stockholm and then back to Scotland. But people must be throwing these things out. I love Scandinavian packaging and Eastern packaging.
What do you think?

People could post photo's of the packaging that they have a regular supply of and then just contact each other about swaps (see me delegating responsibility to the individuals already, I've no time to be a co-ordinator but I love the idea of it happening). Of course there is nothing to stop anyone sending the items with the products inside, it's just that I personally can't afford to.

I should check Flickr to see if there's a packaging group, and if not I could start one, esp. for those rarer beauties or vintage things we couldn't part with.

Glass jewellery

I found this nice looking glass ring on Orange Button


Note - this is not my hand, I wish it was!

Also kind of liked this Wooden Boy glass neckpiece as it's quite unusual...


Saturday 29 April 2006

Pernelle Fagerlund

Carpet by Pernelle Fagerlund who can be found via Danish Crafts.


Small Things

The middle necklace reminds me of Anna's birdie cards. These are from Small Things


Christine J. Brandt

Wonderful oversized rings made from wood and stone/minerals by Christine J. Brandt...



Eugenio Recuenco

Ulla's blog comes up trumps again with stunning photo's by Eugenio Recuenco which came from here and were found via Liquid Blog. Here is one of me after all that gardening yesterday, that's about the size of my 1st leaf pile.



Isn't that dress gorgeous. The photo's need to be seen in detail , they are gorgeous especially the one with the wolves and the woman in the Little Red Riding Hood Cape (I love hooded capes, and wolves). And the room where it has all been photographed is so amazing, I want a room like that.

His site included this photograph that I particularly loved, it looks more like a painting than a photo...


Green things



I've never been a heels person, I mean really, they are not practical for me as a tree climber, dog walker, gardener type person. I like my flats, and I got sore fee so I like my comfy flats, no thin soles for these pins though I wish it weren't the case. SO I like the look of these 'Intrigue' shoes from My Vegan Shoes cause they seem to have good thick soles but still look summery. Just checked, the pale ones are all sold out but they have dark colours too.


I also found the answer to the problems of friends
turning up in their mud clogged boots and threatening to walk over my inherited white flokati rugs. These eco friendly disposable flip flops.

For Organic undies - Green Knickers.

For 'Royal' biccies that are SO tasty and the most refreshing Organic Lemon drink - Duchy Originals.


By the way, I did a MAMMOTH amount of gardening yesterday, so much so that I am blistered for the second friday in a row from frenzied pruning. I have filled 3 compost bins and have enough piled up to fill another 3 after the bin collection on Monday! I also used some of my nicer prunings to make a little cat deterrent bower for the top of one of my birdhouses. I was worried that the cat could easily climb onto the birdhouse from the shed roof and harass (or eat) my bluebirds (they moved in the very day I put the house back on the wall). But cats hate twigs so here's what I did, it doesn't show here but from the front it's a gentle curve of woven twigs resting above the roof...


Friday 28 April 2006

Anna's Craft Blogger Book!



Only got a few more hours before the clouds come and steal the sun but I just HAD to do a quick post about the secret I was keeping. The secret of Anna's Crafty Bloggers book. Yes, a book with some of YOU in it that most of US will want to read.

It's called The Crafter's Companion and you can read all about it here on the Snowbooks site (that's where Anna works) and here on Anna's blog. And while your at her blog you can see more pics of her latest bag as featured on Whip up this week.

Right, now I really will get back to the gardening, those snowdrops need divided and replanted ASAP.

Girls and chocolate

Reading the recent meme I thought it was funny how most of us would spend our five bucks on SWEET FOODS, with magazines as a close second. Sweet foods, heaven. It re-highlighted the fact that this blogging, well the arty carafty blogging, is a very female thing. I haven't seen any Male Meme yet. What would they spend their five bucks on? Not italian desserts or French pastries I'm guessing.

All of this reminded me of my foray into making truffles. I'm not good in the kitchen, it's not that I don't try, it's that I'm TOO creative. I always stray from the recipe, or the timings or some other crucial factor because I just have to know what would happen if...

When I was first trying to learn about truffle making I loved baking911.com because it had all the info about the technical aspects of chocolate making. I also got a bit hooked on the truffle forum* on Jamie Oliver's website. Those women live for truffles! They know everything about them and have so many links it's just frightening.


* Go to the recipe swap page and key in chocolate truffles in the search space.

I made everything with my Organic favourite - Green & Black's chocolate and the truffle recipe on their site was the one that got me started. I think I'll make it a regular christmas thing to try and make them as I like creating many different kinds rather than a batch of just a few kinds. My personal pleasure is anything nutty, I love praline's, but also fruity centres, orange or cherry OH.

This is too much, I have to go and buy choc now. But I'll be good, I'll only buy a tiny bar of G&B dark choc and I'll nibble it with raw ginder - it's my ultimate naughty but healthy combo and the strength of the ginger stops me wolkfing it down too fast.

And so some images... this was my first batch ever, they really were fun to make and each has totally different centres and flavours. By the time I realised the photo was out focus they'd all been eaten!




Thursday 27 April 2006

My metalwork + ceramics

I posted some of my old work on Flickr at last. Old pieces that I found photographs of. As I don't have a scanner (well not a working one) I had to snap them with my digi camera, which never looks good, but I did promise quite a few folk that I'd get some of these pieces up for viewing.

All these pieces are from 1992-93. The bowl is raku fired, I wish I had a view from the top where the hole is, that's the nicest part. It's completely black and smooth inside and the outside creamy with lots of cracked texture and at the top the coiled show with very fine sliced lines all round them and brown colouring. I was in my neutral phase with those pieces.

Hanging over the edge is a whale charm made from fused copper and silver. I think there are 9 charms, 3 each attached to 3 blackened silver chains. I was (and still am) very interested in seeds and pods but also in the sea so I studied shells and whales (which in a group make a pod, I like the word play there). I was studying at NSCAD in Canada when I made the charm. I think it was for a project called 'Relics for the Future' which really suited me as I had previously been making pieces that were meant to look as if they had been dug up and were all partially decayed. I love to see wear and tear on things, age can be so beautiful.



The second photo shows a small experimental piece (approx. 15cm) made based on drawings combining shells and pods. I wasn't all that pleased with it so when I did the final larger one I made it without the prongs and had an undulating edge instead (will show that soon I hope).



It's entirely made from scrap copper and the silver wastage (filing, trimmings etc.) from fellow jewellers as it was about that time that I started to become more seriously concerned about the environment. I was really horrified when I realised what terrible damage silver and copper mines do (not to mention gold) and so I decided to try and only work with waste so I would be adding to the demand for such things. I used to absolutely love going to the scrap yard hunting for copper, though I inevitably came back with anything but... I have some very interesting bits of 'things'.

With most of my work I like to work with texture creating most areas in a very rough way and then bringing up a few smaller bits to the smoothest shine. Unfortunately these photos aren't good enough to show this, I need to re-take the items I have when I unpack.

My Spring Garden

Most of the garden is in the process of being dug up (all concrete and slabs at the moment) so here are some close-ups of some of yesterdays little lovelies that are keeping me from my computer...

Hyacinth


Buds on the conifer, such vivid colour!



Magnolia


Daffodil


They all popped out while I was finishing off my postcards for the yellow/orange postcard swap (no pics, I don't want to spoil the surprise, though it's not my best work as I had v.bad PMT for 2 weeks).

I was so annoyed at creating things I wasn't happy with that I had to do a bit of graphic illustration to cheer myself up this morning, based on my wallpaper designs, here's a detail...



Oh, I finally added a few more things to my Flickr page, I would have done lots but it was taking forever to work, I think my computer is getting a bit old but I can't justify a new one just yet (though I crave an iBook).

Wednesday 26 April 2006

Mocoloco

More blue things found via Mocoloco like this Holman House by Durbach Block Architects, what a view!



Pilons and telegraph poles are one of my 'things' so I love this Urban Tableware by Stella (Jonathan Hopp and Sarah Auslander).



Vintage buttons

More things from my Great Aunt, these vintage buttons are so wonderful, I just wish I had more but 3 is a good number so I'm happy with that. The middle one is so amazing close up and as always, I love the worn out fabric (not that I plan to let it wear any further of course). These are REALLY old but I can't find her notes to give the actual date.






My blue things

I was in the mood to look at blue things today after seeing the bird on the previous post. Here is a small selection and I will try to get off my bum and post some more things on Flickr by the end of the week as I've done none for ages.

My special pyjamas from when I was little, the ones that if
you wear them the monsters under the bed can't get you!



Some of my blue buttons
(finally sorting out the spilled drawer tower)



One of my shell screen prints
Pink on turquoise - 1989 or 90



Shell pattern screenprinted stationery detail
(sorry it's out of focus, it's a photo of a photo)
Pale blue on cream - 1989 or 90



Tuesday 25 April 2006

toata ziua astept noaptea




I was just squeezing in a bit of Flickr time between plant waterings and came upon this. The text says 'all day I wait for the night'

toata ziua astept noaptea



Originally uploaded by oh god why did you do that.

Monday 24 April 2006

GloFab light

About 15 years ago I aquired some fibre optic cable offcuts from a telepone company and had great plans to make all kinds of lighting and macrame light sculptures with it. Unfortunately it was the glass kind an too brittle to knit, knot, crochet so I had to keep it simple (though I've since found sinthetics that work well).

I was interested to see the pieces by GloFab because they are using something quite chunky that I've never seen before...


Sunday 23 April 2006

Me-me 5's

Crafty Bird tagged me last week, it's my first time!

Five minutes to yourself: how would you spend them, ideally?

At this moment in time I can honestly say I'd spend them eating 2 family size tirimasu puddings on a beach or a hill at sunset with the right clothes for the weather, and my childhood dog beside me looking out at the view of land or sea. (and Mr Right could perhaps be walking to the same view point, then I'd consider sharing the tirimasu).

Five bucks to spend right now; how would you spend it?
On the aforementioned puddings! I know, its' so bad but I am having the most unreasonable cravings for them just now. If it was a weekday I'd spend it in a thrift shop.

Five items in your house you could part with, right now, that you hadn't thought of already?
My kitchen tiles, the wiring done by the previous owners, the mineral wool insulation (are you sensing a theme here yet?), all the wood that has nails in it that I will never actually make 'something' out of and finally, my bathroom sink (it's plastic!). All a bit dull but shows you where I'm at and why I'm not making things this year.

Five items you absolutely, positively could never part with in your house?
My photographs, my Apple Mac (except to get a new one), my best fabrics, my art/craft materials and my pallet of sheep's wool insulation. Ok, I do realise that several things on my list represent groups of things but there you have it, I'm a greedy girl who loves her stuff.

Five words you love?
ethereal, aqua, levanter, turquoise, icicle
This word list surprises me because I have real words that I truly love and use but when put on the spot I can't think of a single one.

Five people I tag*
I'm choosing 5 people who have new-ish blogs or who's blogs are new to me, that way I can find out a little more about them if they'd like to join in.
1. Imedagoze
2. Whimsical
3. Sharon
4. Vegasandvenice
5. Paola (ok, not new to me but I'd love to hear her answers)

* I wrote this out earlier and accidentally deleted it, so I'm not sure if I wrote the same people 2nd time around. If I emailed to say I tagged you and your not here then at least you know you were here, and can join in anyway.

Vintage needle case

Some of the most beautiful things I own belonged to my Great Aunt who was a generous giver of threads and haberdashery items which she no longer needed. When she died I inherited her other sewing things including this beautiful very frayed and faded needle case...



I love the frayed eges so much and the tiny clear beads along the side. And yes, even the faded colour, in fact, especially the faded colour. There are the faintest remains of floral painting on the outside front cover. The scale is about the same as a pack of cards.



Ok, I really must go to bed now, it's after 8am.

Yodelling

Just did a very hard nightshift at work so maybe no blogging as I think I'll need another full day of sleep. But you know me, I don't like to leave you empty handed so here is a little gem for those who like yodelling (re. my post here about my yodelling rug).

I found a yodelling podcast! And that led me to a yodelling website (podcast available from the website or in itunes). The site has yodel lesons on it!

I'm so pleased about this, if only I knew about it last year when I had the Alpine themed party with yodelling tapes, I could have had us all doing a yodel lesson over the fondue! I know this sounds cheesy in all senses of the word but believe me, cheesy would have been very fitting, just look at the sort of top quality cheesy-licious fancy dress outfits there were, here's my friend Mr Bob (fancy dress King) dressed as an Alpen box with fabric milk pouring into a bowl hat on his wigged head!...



My equally talented friend Liz came made a Cuckoo clock to go over her head! I've inclued the Alpen box in the pic so you can get the scale of how huge and impressive her cuckoo clock was with it's woodgrain paper and a bird inside...


Saturday 22 April 2006

When is your Birthday?

It seems that whenever I am having a low blog reading week everyone goes off and has birthdays! Happy birthday to all of you who I have missed this week. I slept all day again today after work so only did 5 mins reading. Hopefully I'll post properly tomorrow, especially as I've been tagged by Crafty Bird.

And so my request, when is YOUR birthday? Please do let me know on the comments section of this post, particularly if it is about to happen or is in MAY.

And on the subject of Birthdays this is one of my favourite BLOOM cards from Artecnica, it's so bright and colourful and really reminds me of LA. I've still not seen them here in Scotland but then I don't 'do' the shops much these days. This one, Happy Birthday No.6 is the one I like best though No.7 is a nice shade of green. I LOVE pop up cards.


Friday 21 April 2006

4 lambs

Too tired for posting today so here's a lovely spring photo that MrP took on his walk up the hill the other day...


Thursday 20 April 2006

Anna does collage

Anyone remember the post where Anna claims she can't collage (or was it an email)?
Either way look what I received in the post today...



I love that she made this for me with so many things that make it personal like the ribbon from Plaisir du Chocolat where we had our delicious hot chocolate - oh how I want one now, I'm stuck at home with no food today and too crampy (PMT) to get to the shops.

The whole card is in my favourite colour and as well as my name letterpressed on the card there are little threads on layers of woven tissue and sewn on beads (hard to see in the photo). There's also a print of one of Anna's robins splashing in a puddle in the rain! I'd never seen this before so that made it even more of a treat. And there are little cut out rain drops, I have a thing for cut out raindrops. Which reminds me, I never did post the picture of the teacup/raindrop card I sent Anna on our first swap.

Tuesday 18 April 2006

Studio Ditte

Thanks to Imedagoze (gorgeous blog by the way!) for letting me know that the Garden Carpet I posted about is made by Studio Ditte. She posted about them here.

They have a page called Sampling China with really beautiful photos on it. I like the look of this Concrete Fire on their site and even love the fact that the twigs are tied with red twine, details people, details...




Plaisir du Chocolat

So much gardening so little time. And on that note a very quick part one post of Anna's visit. I'm doing it the wrong way round really but we ended up at Plaisir du Chocolat. Here's a detail of chocolate logo on a small tarte...



They sell delightfully tempting chocolates like these Sologne chocs which have blossom and birds on them...



The cafe and had a bewildering array of hot chocolates to choose from, these people really do know their choc. As it was a chilly day we both opted for a spicy one. It was served from one big old metal teapot, you know, the kind with a nice wiggly old fashioned spout. So tasty too, I forgot take a snap! See the nice wroucht (cast?) iron table as well...



Clearly this is the face of a woman who has already had a decadent rich hot chocolate and is now contemplating the purchase of cake and chocolates to take home with her!...



*note, this is the lovely Anna, not me

Ok, that's part one, more to follow but I can't promise when, this gardening lark is fairly time consuming when it's been left so late. But Spring is really here today. The sun is shining, the Blue Tits have moved into my birdbox, the Camelia and Magnolia both BURST into flower today and the bees are buzzing around the rosemary. Heavenly. Now we just need to get rid of that cold wind.

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