Inchcolm Island

A few days after the Yellowcraigs trip I went to Inchcolm Island for a friends birthday. I'd never been before and I love going anywhere on a ferry. Here are the ferry steps...



My foot on the turquoise deck of the ferry...



A lighthouse on the way there (a short trip, maybe 30 mins)...



And PIRATES!..



Yes, this was the much aforementioned Pirate themed birthday. You may imagine my embarrassement when only 3 of us turned up dressed for the theme. Even Robert (pictured above) who is known for his incredible pirate outfits and who's idea it was to have a Pirate Fancy Dress theme (he was very insistent), even he didn't get dressed for it. I was so dissappointed. We had to lend him various items for the photo shoots.

These are 2 of the 3 pirate masts I made to put in the birthday cake, seen here slightly worse for wear and in my hair after the cake was cut...



And to answer Paola's query about whether or not it is possible to swim in the sea in Scotland the answer is YES.
No pics of the actual swimming as the person who took them hasn't emailed them yet, but here is one of me having bounded in fully clothed having a splashing session with Robert (actually comes from a small video clip).



Don't worry, I took my cardi off before I properly swam. Once again, only the 3 of us who had dressed up were willing to swim, but it honestly wasn't very cold. I always like to have a dip in the Scottish sea at least once a year but you do have to wait till there have been a few hot days to warm it all up.

Lichen covered rocks, I never get tired of photographing things like this...



Veiw as you step off the ferry and look towards the Abbey...



Picnic Pirates at the Abbey wall...



The ceiling in the Abbey...

Yellowcraigs BBQ

It's so good to be feeling a bit better.

As soon as I had a whiff of energy I did a week of catching up with friends and family which was exhausting but very summer holiday-ish. One of my first trips was to Yellowcraigs Beach. I wanted to show the new(ish) Polish people at work a bit of Scotland so we went there for a BBQ as it's less than an hour from Edinburgh. This is the view when you look straight out from the beach to the Island (Fidra, I think)...



It was a bit cloudy some of the time but really warm. Here is the view when you look to the south...



It was a bit like a step back in time to old fashioned 70's sexism as 'the boys' buggered off and left he women to do the cooking. I've grown so used to men trying to hog the BBQ that it was really noticeable that they wanted nothing to do with it initially.

They (the boys) were aghast at me having my own separate vegetarian BBQ, they couldn't imagine how a veggie one was even possible. I doctored this picture to reflect just how much chicken ate...



Evening sun in the grassy dunes...



After the beach we played on the various giant swings etc. in the playground beside the car park. And all thanks to the lovely MrP who drove us out there. He even snapped an acceptable pic of me on a spinning thing, I love this cause you can't see my face but you can see my new waist - look, it goes in the way!

Thanks folks

I forgot to add a link to Daphne at Puppychick yesterday. Have a visit, she has Sudoku for artists on her blog today.

And now some thank you's... in order of receiving,
Thanks to all of you for the treats that have popped through my door recently. You've no idea how much they cheered me up. Here's a very brief run through of the highlights. Personal thanks you's in post soon-ish, I promise :0) xxx
The photo's are not great cause I was starting to ebb away a bit and no oomph to persist with dodgy computer.

---------------------------------------------------------
Old buttons, antique earrings (clip on, how'd ya know), tasty treats and choc from Janet...





See how the breath mints are half eaten already. And the Lindt chocs didn't last long enough for the camera to be found, though the wrapper will last for years cause I love the pattern on those wrappers and always ask people to save them for me.

Janet did so well picking the earrings. I am unbelievably hard to please on that sort of thing but these were so perfect and will definitely be getting used when I'm dressing up. In fact, I have a pirate themed birthday to go to on Sunday (a ferry to a an island for a picnic) so I may pop them on for that.

And naturally I can never have enough buttons. What I loved with these was that the backs were as interestnig as the fronts.

---------------------------------------------------------
Painted plate of moi from Vegas and Venice...





I was so busy trying to capture the cat's frenzied sniffing session that I never actually got a pic of the painting on it's own - whoops! (VV has cats too so there would be interesting smells for him). It's very cute in her classic style and depics me as blemish free, wey hey!

Even more excitingly, I got MORE post from her yesterday containing a Shy Monsters colouring book!!!!!
I have been eagerly awaiting their publication but missed the moment due to the unplanned blog break. I am thrilled with it. I really love illustrated kids books, I mean really really. I'm so pleased to own this and plan to purchase further copies for friends kids cause they are so sweet. I urge anyone with kids to order one here. As well as the book there were the cutest shy monsters stickers as well.

---------------------------------------------------------
Then came a package from my friend Kate in Norway covered in brilliant stamps, I especially loved this one...



She sent me all manner of lovely gifts including the most unusual bag/pouch which had "kitty came home" printed on it. This was so spookily appropriate because whenever I start to email her I always call her kitten, but then change it to Kate. It's weird, I have no urge to call her kitten in person, only on email.

There was lovely blue floral illustration card, a miniature book (german chemistry, my collection is now international and scientific) and a metal tub of Läkerol cactus flavour sweets. They were amazing, quite liquoricey but not so strong and with a hint of something else (cactus?). I bloomin' loved them and had one a day with MrP for a few weeks. Plus I now have a great tin to keep loose things in in my bag.







Well, that only took 4 HOURS to do! I haven't added all I wanted but I have to get ready for work soon. I'm not even going to spell check cause if there are probs I have no time to fix. You all have some lovely weekend fun, I will be working but will be doing the Pirate thing too so I should get an amusing post out of that for next week. Bye xxx

Colourful feet & food

I finally found my ideal blue shoes last month... but they had none left in my size. The curse of big feet. I know this is an odd thing to post but the images were the right size for my blog and needed no adjustment, but I will be posting pics of postal goodies soon.

What I do have a a wonderfully co-ordinating photo of the wonderful Plaisir Du Chocolat chocolates that Daphne (puppychick) gave to me when we met to visit the Edinburgh degree show. Thanks Daphne, the were de-lic-ious!



It was such a good day and I love Daphne, she is as much fun in person as she is on her blog. A great sense of humour, great style and the joy of meeting someone else who understands my frustration at the lack of good stripy socks in the UK. I am VERY particular about the kind of stripes, colours, length, material etc. and this country (or at least Edinburgh) just can' give me what I need. So I have been stripe-less for many years!

I had a trip to the beach today and I can feel my energy returning so I am hoping to post at least once a week, even if the computer is stroppy about it. I miss blogging a lot. I probably still won't be reading blogs yet but I will try to skim through a few on good days.

I also probably won't be replying to emails or comments as I was getting really overwhelmed by them for a while there, which I think is partly what took it's toll on me. But I do read and appreciate all comments so thank you to any who drop by. And thanks for waiting for my return, can't wait till I am on full steam again.

Thank You, you lovely people

Yes, it's me, I'm here!

But I'm only here for a second to say a HUGE thank you to all of you who have sent me wonderful comments, emails and treats in the post. I will be doing a proper thank you ASAP but computer still playing up. Lord only knows if this will post at all, I won't risk any pics just incase.

As well as the computer being sick I have been sick too, but feeling a bit better now and trying to have a bit of a social life this week after not being able to eat food for 8 days the week before! The upside is I have a waist, a real waist that goes in in the middle. A great novelty which I am enjoying while it lasts... but I'm able to eat food again so it won't be around for long, though my appetite is less voracious than before. I think it was a tummy bug, MrP was the same but only for 3 days so he never lost his spare tyre!

This text has taken an eternity to appear, but all is not lost. MrP's computer is slowly getting settled in and I think I may be able to borrow a little soon to post pics and thanks to all you wonderful, generous and talented people out there. Thank you from the bottom of my heart... you have made a difficult month a lot easier.

Love Cally xxx

Francisca Kweitel

I don't care HOW long it takes, I'm determined to do a tiny post on jewellery even if my sentences take an hour to show up on screen (and believe me, that's the way things are going over here).

The brooches above are by Francisca Kweitel shown at Joyas Joias at Velvet Da Vinci.

I'm cat sitting this week and last night Bali, who is very small and kitten-like despite being 2yrs old, spent the whole night sleeping on my chest except for a moment at 2.38am when she popped out and returned with the tiniest mouse to 'play' with. I love her but really, I wish she wouldn't.

Things are also going fill speed in the garden, or I should say GROWING full speed. It's a joy to see the palce bush up after a winter of empty spaces. I'm still getting a lot of munching pleasure from all my salad veggies too, and I'm doing lots of sprouts to really fill out the salads on hot sunny days. We've had a lot of those, though I'm glad there is rain due this week cause my water butts are now empty. It's probably lucky I can't blog so much because the garden would have dried up this week if I hadn't been tenderly watering each plant. Most things can handle a bit of drought but the veggies bolt in the dry heat.

Edinburgh Degree Show visit

degreeshow.eca.ac.uk

17 - 27 June
Mon -Thurs 10am-8pm
Fri -Sun 10am-5pm
(closing 23 June: Ceramics, Textiles,
Glass, Silversmithing & Jewellery)

Edinburgh College of Art, Lauriston Place, EH3,
and Evolution House, West Port, EH3


LETS MEET...
Almost impossible for me to blog now but I am aware that some of us do want to meet to see the Edinburgh Degree Show so how about Saturday afternoon, say around 2pm? Weekdays are better for me but I'm guessing most of you would prefer the weekend but I am happy to go more than once since I never fit it all in in one visit anyway.

If you want to come then leave a post here (or on my email if you have it, I never post it here) saying if you'd like Saturday at 2 or a weekday at another time and I'll find ways of accessing it to sort something. I'm so much looking forward to seeing the show AND meeting some of you too.

I think I may try and go on Thursday afternoon for a first look. My person faves are always textiles, tapestry and jewellery. I also like ceramics, glass, illustration and sculpture, though it depends what they have produced. But I'll look at anything that interests others too, it's good to see new things with people who have different tastes.

The hardest thing will be seeing stuff and not being able to asily blog about it. Darn this pesky melting computer.

boat seat & cut silk

Still no joy getting my computer to work so only a very quick little post, just to keep me linked to this bloggy place, I can't save anything just now so I'm dipping into archives for nice images.

I love this bed/seating boat which was featured in a Scottish Interiors magazine a few years ago (maybe Scottish Homes & Interiors). I think it is totally wonderful, this is exactly the kind of found and reworked furniture that I would gladly have all over my home if I lived in a warehouse with LOTS of space. It's a long time since I read about this but I think the house may be in Fife, Scotland and may be a converted disused cinema with a view of the sea!

The piece below is antique silk embroidery and cutwork. I really enjoy doing this kind of work but I never have the patience to get this level of quality and finish, I'm a girl who always has threads hanging everywhere, but I love thready things so I have no great desire to be more perfectionist about it, though if I make things for others I do tend to clean things up and tie them off a bit more (which reminds me, Nikki, did the package arrive yet? Lots of threads there for Mouse's pleasure).

Barely here

Will this post ever work, will it format correctly? Who knows.

My Mac is dying, I can't afford a new one just now, so I'm afraid that my blogging will be incredibly intermittent for goodness knows how long. I can smell burning and even a single sentence takes a few minutes to show up on screen. So sad. These are a few images from the life I have when I don't blog.

The cones are on the tree outside. The pink corner is MrP's mum's wall, before I repaint it, I liked the way the shadow gathered all soft in the corner. The leaves are my Rowan, still living in a carrier bag after 2 years, but still surviving and lovely. The door is a pic Mr.P took for me when I had cramp and couldn't come on a day trip, I asked for an interesting image of doors or texture or blue-ness, he managed 3 in one!

With things as they are I'm also unable to keep up with blog reading though I am trying to peak at some of you when I get my break at work, though that is very difficult now that the men have discovered online poker! Rest assured that the minute I have a reliable machine I will be blogging my little heart out in traditional style, like you know I want to.

Less blogging

I've been too tired to blog or even read blogs but I did a little perusing today and here were some things that caught my eye...

Abigail posted about 3robbers
Jessica had things to say about smell that are just so true.
Patty has a great garden blog that just makes me want to stop blogging and start digging

Wah, I had more to say but my computer is definitely dying on me, no response to mouse clicks, sometimes it won't type for 5 mins. What will I do? I can't possibly afford a new one, though I would LOVE a laptop so I could sit in the garden to blog.

I'm sorry not to be posting, or commenting on the great blog reads, especially Alicia, VeniceandVegas and Ulla, I tried in vain to send comments earlier but it just wouldn't respond. Luckily Peggy Lee, June Christy and some Yodel music are keeping me calm.

Enough of this, I'm going to feed a cute cat, water my oriental veg (my mizuna makes me deliriously happy, it is so beautiful AND tasty) and then I'm going to sleep, more, before work. Who knows when my computer will let me post again, hopefully something tomorrow.