interesting 24 hours

I have had one of those days when you take action and there is a reaction. Now that I have joined stitchin fingers and put up my landscape pics, I am getting some great feedback from people who are stitching experts (which I am not!) How encouraging!

currently I am taking a little break and making a soft floppy scarf from Happy sock yarn. This will be nice for the summer since I usually like to have something around my neck. folksy has some fine scarves so don't think there is a lot of point putting it (or another like it) up for sale. I love crochet but like exploring slightly different ways of working with it.

Here are a couple of pics of the latest landscapes too!

I have sent an exploratory letter to a gallery to see if they will take my cards, since they are already in one so we'll see what happens. The worse thing they can say is thanks, but no thanks.

And I have found I film I was in on Amazon! Yay! This was something I did with my astrology hat on about 3 years ago and there's also the book I illustrated

You heard it here first folks!

Horoscopes & Astrology by Annabel Burton Astrologer

trawling the net

I thought I would blog and thought that blogs are interesting when you look at what other people are up to and give it out to a wider audience, so googled 'crafts at home' and came up with that stuff where people want to earn extra income by stuffing envelopes and crap like that. And then I googled fibre art - this is joyful, wonderful and gets my juices going. Here are a few little pics of what I found.

this is well worth exploring - like a good book that you can ogle over. lovefibre.com. this link shows a little thing that I did many years ago, when working with an artist friend. We loved the idea of creating something and then cutting it up and reassembling it. I once did a work shop for student teachers which started with them drawing a complicated bundle of sticks and branches in glorious bright pastels and then they tore it all up and created a 3 d version of the their drawings to create the original. Can't remember what I was thinking about, but it got rid of their fear of making a mistake ha ha!!

The lovely sheep is by feltmaker Lee Fitton x

keeping on

Everything seems so relentless at the moment. I had a call from the Gallery yesterday that there had been a glitch with a computer so my cards couldn't go on sale yet, but they should be sorted this week. I just want to know if they are a goer! meanwhile, my youngest daughter is down with pneumonia and feeling absolutely awful. It's not the kind of thing you expect, but then she often gets things that others don't and I just have to deal with it. But it's all quite stressful.

But I am stitching and making more stuff in the evenings. My spare room is in such a state with the ironing board heaped up with swathes of fabric, and bits of thread, all to make these little landscapes. I have decided to pull a few things on my folksy shop as they aren't quite right.

I should be more methodical, and I have listed a few craft sites, like Swanky Maison, Coriandr, Etsy, UK Handmade and some others, but it is so easy to get lost in all these - am wondering whether to join them all and see what happens, but my time is somewhat limited so not too sure. There were some rude things said about etsy on their forum, and I have put a couple of things on there but not expecting a lot of action.

beautiful day

and I have been in Bolton attending an annual astrology event. This is great. I get to eat some gorgeous food and prognosticate on the ways of the world and possible outcomes to current situations. We covered the history of aviation, since Uranus rules flight and will be changing signs soon in Aries. The last time it was there was in 1928 and since then we have had a technological revolution.

Interestingly, the planes are grounded, but then Saturn is opposing Uranus just now and the energy can block, create barriers, and literally ground us all.

I am stitching away happily. tonight I have made half a tea cozy, and photo's some more pics and sold another landscape! That's two this week - so thank you folksy fairy x

goldsmiths - art and craft

I went to Leeds Polytechnic back in the 70's and got a Degree in Fine Art. At the time, art was conceptual,weird, performance, Turner prizesque and I loved painting. Oh dear, I was a bit of a square peg in a round hole and realised that my tutor encouraged me to go Leeds as it was radical and prestigious. Needless to say I was swayed by his arguments and rejected a more traditional college. One of the places that was held in great esteem was Goldsmiths.

Last night I watched the TV programme on this and it was so reminiscent of Leeds 30 odd years ago. The strange difficulty that students had in articulating what their work is about, the loathing of your own work when it's done, the sheer commercialism behind trying to sell your stuff and of course, none of the 'oh I love the colours' 'Wow, that looks great, I want it.' And it made me realise that Art and Craft have parted company.

Now in the handmade movement, people want to create simply to make something beautiful, useful, pretty, desirable and relatively cheaply, and that fits around kids, work etc. I feel much happier about doing this than creating something with meaning, that's challenging, and thought provoking and has to be justified. And now, with my sewn landscapes, I am making them because I love it- the process, the choosing the right fabrics, the colours and the satisfaction of making something that is complete in itself.

sunny day at last

and I have been talking to a lady down the road about pigs and farming, and how new people in the country side manage to mow down all the wild flowers before they get the chance to seed.

We ran out of jam, so being someone who makes life complicated, I dashed to the market and bought up their strawberries for 50p for 2 punnets. Bargain! Made jam which refused to set (probably because the strawberries were too soft) and boiled the whole lot up again. Managed to produce 3 jars and added a bit of Chardonnay to make it posh.

I am destashing and have put some amy Butler fabric on folksy and have also listed my latest scarf here

I have been embroidering again. I am not sure what to do with this as I am not certain that it's all that commercial, but it reminds me of the Welsh hills, the countryside and I realise how much I see these kind of views. Lucky or what!

gorgeous florals

Ok I admit, I didn't chuck out my chintz when Ikea was all trendy and Swedish and minimalist, and I have been a secret flowery addict for years, but I have to keep it a little hidden, since my other half is definitely into the sleek and smooth look. We find a compromise (like it's mostly my way or no way..). so imagine my sheer delight when checking out this month's Good Housekeeping which my dear mum in law gives to me when she's done with it(hint - what a great Christmas present - buy someone you love a subs to one of your favourite magazines which they then pass on to you! Although she wasn't impressed with Country Living, shame).

So here are some pics from the mag plus a few of my little springtime flowery inspirations. Yesterday, I put on a mad hatter's tea party and my little granddaughter was the star, of course, LOVING the little funny plushy squishy fleecy animal monkey thingy I made, and she was so much fun playing with her dad's mobile, especially when we rang it...

So we had cake, and scones, sandwiches, and chocolate and tea, lots of it... Here is my rather strange tea cozy which was admired too.

uk handmade

Okay so I have been off which means I have spent around 12 hours, making, sewing, cutting, gluing and have a brilliant time! My dear other half took himself off to his Mum's and so it's been so peaceful! Not even stepped outside the door today.

I joined UK handmade a few days ago, and this is a great site, but SO much to discover. Folksy is compact, simple and easy to use and I do like that. Hopefully, it will be promoting more and become a real force in the handmade market.

Meanwhile, here is the Easter weekend. I have bought my eggs for the family and need to make fairy cakes and scones for the Easter afternoon tea. Looking forward to a lovely family time - seems Christmas was ages ago! Happy Easter everyone xxx