Picture taking woes!

I finished another project for the Sewing Book Challenge last week and it was another requested gift - this time to cheer my friend's niece who is at college in far away London and missing her home in North Wales.

Its another make from my favourite Sew Illustration, an embroidered needlebook.  I made a pincushion to match and added the recipient's name.

January is not a good time in my house for taking photos of my makes. Even on sunny days the houses opposite shade my windows. I sometimes add my daylight lamp but for some reason it still doesn't make a decent photo so I usually resort to Windows photo editor. But often even that doesn't produce a photo I'm pleased with.

 
I had such problems with this photo of two zip purses this week. Even now I'm not happy with it. I think its something to do with the thread I used - a dark one for the duck and light for the lamb. Too much contrast for the camera.  I found inspiration for the little animals in Francoise's lovely book illustrations. I've loved her books for some time and always thought her simple shapes would make good embroidery motifs.  I'll be trying some more.


Anyway - January is almost over and the sun is rising higher in the sky every week. I'm looking forward to the time when it rises above the houses on the other side of the street and will fill my sewing room with light.
 

Yesterday was sunny and cold - a perfect winter day.  I went for my favourite walk and visited some of my favourite trees. And on the sunny side of the lane the snowdrops were in bloom.

 
These are always the earliest to flower - those in the garden won't come out for another couple of weeks and by then we'll be half way through February and definitely looking forward to Spring!

You were right!

Well you six commenters are all winners!  I did go for a walk but I also made some more roses yesterday morning, started on the garden in the afternoon and had a nice bath with my book as well.  And I'm very glad too as after two glorious sunny days the sky has clouded over today - but it is slightly warmer!

Which is good as these poor little lambs must have had a few hard nights lately - I hope they snuggled up tight to Mum. 

We haven't had much snow here - even the top of nearby Moel Famau only had a sprinkling.  There wasn't even enough to tempt out the usual sledgers we normally see when driving over the tops to the next town on Saturday.

But that sprinkling does show up the cut heather nicely.  These cut strips encourage young growth in the heather to temp the wildlife and make spaces for Red and Black Grouse to lek.

I always stop at this gap in the hedge here.  It looks down the Vale of Clwyd towards the sea - though you can't actually see the sea.  I thought I might take this photo every month this year to watch the change of season.

Although not an official footpath, I've been walking by this stream for over 40 years so I hope the farmer doesn't mind.  It has a lot of memories - not least watching my son and his cousins playing in the stream in summer and walking the family's yellow lab Pen many years ago - she loved to paddle in the water.  And there were always curlews calling on late afternoons in winter but I haven't heard them for a long long time.

But I did stop to watch and listen to a large flock of goldfinches in the top of an oak tree.

It was very cold - the puddles were still frozen late afternoon - but at least that meant the very muddy bit I usually have to try and jump around posed no problem this time.

And finally back into town.  This first bungalow always reminds me of the little house at the beginning of episodes of Bill and Ben the Flower Pot Men we watched as little children in the 50s.

Well, as I said you are all going to be winners and expect a little something in the post in the next week or so.  If I haven't got your address (that's you Julie, Ethel and Gill) please do let me have it.  You can email me on annhayes2008@gmail.com.  Look forward to hearing from you.

Eira Fach, Eira Fawr

We crafters do suffer for our hobby!  Sitting still stitching, hooking and stamping in this freezing weather is not easy, especially when hands are cold and you need to make tiny stitches.  This morning my hands and feet have been like blocks of ice and I think I must get my hot water bottle down from the bedroom and refill it to warm my hands.

My new kitty Titch is very young and has probably never seen snow before.  She's not quite sure what to do with it.  Its still snowing tiny flakes at the moment - just one or two ice crystals stuck together.  I remember we used an old Welsh saying when we were little and it was snowing - eira fach, eira fawr, which literally means little snow, big snow.  In other words if the flakes are small there is lots more to come!

With St Dwynwen's Day just a week away I managed to create some more felt brooches for my Folksy shop this week.  I found this lovely celtic style die last weekend and decided it was perfect to present my brooches for our Welsh lovers' day on 25th January.  I added some suitable Welsh wording with wooden peg alphabet stamps - rather time consuming but the font was just right.  If you'd like to see more you can find them here in my shop. 

 

(source)

Coming home over the mountain this afternoon we saw several fields where people were sledging.  While it's nice to see the kids enjoying the snow, I'm always dismayed to see the aftermath once the snow has melted...... I just hate to see broken sledges left behind, litter and even holes in fences and hedges.  No wonder farmers will hit back by spreading manure on popular fields

December in the Garden

It's a while since I've managed to see the garden in daylight but one day last week I had to visit my Mum in the early(ish) morning and managed a wander with my camera.   The sun was still low in the sky and the brilliant Hawthorn berries (we call them haws) were lit like Christmas lights.

I was in luck too - although the sun was shining most of the garden was still covered in picturesque frost.  Sometimes the bottom of the garden stays frozen all day as its in deep shadow at this time of year.

However my spiky mahonia is covered in sunshine yellow flowers (which I never normally get to see), and I'm glad I didn't pull it out as punishment for scratching my arms and legs all summer when I passed by unwarily.

As you can see, my Romanian willow arch has been woefully neglected for a couple of years and I really do have to cut it back in the spring before it's leaves start growing - I never like cutting off branches and boughs that are showing buds.

And don't you think this little shrub would be perfect for creating a Christmas arrangement - red stems, dark green leaves and white snowball berries.  I'm not sure what it is - the label went missing a long time ago.  It could possibly be a Pernettya (according to Google).

But I do know what these beautiful seedheads are - my Clematis Bill Mackenzie has run riot but its only in winter, when the leaves of the little birch tree have fallen that you can see just how far it has rambled away from its original frame.

Those fluffy seedheads could easily be taken for little lanterns in the gloom of late afternoon - if I could get to see them.

 

The last few days have been miserable, dark and wet and I may not see the garden in sunshine again until the New Year so I'm glad I was able to record its decaying beauty before it all springs to life again in 2013.

Mollie Mouse and a belated birthday giveaway

I haven't had much crafty time during the last week or so but I managed to finish my Mollie mouse last night and here she is! You might have seen some of her family on the cover of the latest Mollie Makes magazine.

I think Mollie turned out really cute but she was a bit fiddly to make.  Jenny Dee's instructions are perfectly clear and simple but I think the fabric I used was too stiff and made turning the small pieces through very difficult.  However I'm keen to try another mouse to see if it really was the wrong fabric - or just my poor sewing skills.   

And because I didn't celabrate my blog's third birthday in January, I thought I would have a little giveaway with my Mouse Mark 2, 3 and 4.  If you'd like the chance to have a mouse in your family, just leave a comment on this post and I'll pick three mouse-winners (one mouse for each blog year) using the random number generater on Leap Year Day - February 29th.  I hope to have three mice finished by then.  International commenters will be very welcome.

I have to say Mollie Makes just keeps on inspiring and I'll definitely be renewing my subscription next month - I can't believe there have already been 11 issues!

What a surprise when we woke up yesterday (Sunday) morning - the first sprinking of snow this year. Very pretty, but by the time I was going to work at 10.00 am it was fast melting and when I got home there was practically no sign of it except on the hills.

The first daffodils are out in the garden but some of them seem to have been eaten by something.  There are no slugs or snails around at this time of year so perhaps the birds have been pecking the buds.

Winter Beaches

The beach in winter....... its COLD!  But I love to walk there, and although it looks empty in my scrapbook page, there were a few other walkers even though it was late in the day and getting dark.  Have to admit though that most of them were walking their dogs.

We noticed this really strange effect of the wind on the shells and pebbles in the sand.  It reminds me of lots of those little mudskipper fish I've seen in natural history programmes on TV.

We had to stop in Sainsbury's cafe on the way home to warm up with tea and a danish pastry!

Late afternoon walking

It always seems to be late afternoon by the time I'm ready to go for my walk down the lane and at this time of year dusk is falling by the time I get home. But this does mean that the setting sun lights up little places here and there, making beautiful pictures - this bramble leaf being one I spied last week.


















I'm very fond of the countryside in winter and early spring when the trees are still bare. Everything seems to look orderly and well kept - albeit a bit muddy. And did you know that here in Wales there are more sheep than people? At this time of year the sheep population explodes as the lambs arrive. One of my favourite occupations is lamb watching - they seem to revel in their short lives even when the temperatures are below freezing.

Big Garden Birdwatch

This weekend is the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch and as a member I dutifully did my one hour watch this afternoon. I always feel a bit put out if some of my favourite birds don't visit the garden during my hour but I was very pleased to be able to record these two (one is the other side of the feeder) Lesser Redpolls - they may have visited before but I haven't noticed them if they have.

It was a beautiful sunny day today even though freezing cold. The bottom of the garden remained frost covered all day, but it was perfect weather be be outside and busy and I was able to do a bit of general tidying. I could hear lots of neighbours busy in their own gardens around about too. If the weather holds I may even have another go at the birdwatch tomorrow and see what I can see.

Signs of the Seasons

My crafting time has been severely cut over the past few weeks as my Mum has been seriously ill and I've been away from my crafty stash for much of the time. So please accept my excuses, and I offer instead something to look at from the garden. Here are two welcome signs of the change of season we are all looking forward to. These tiny spikes are snowdrops pushing through the debris of winter and I like these tightly budded hazel catkins looking rather arty against the rusty roof of one of my son's slowly decaying vintage cars.

I've been stalking the bird feeders again with my camera, albeit staying warm and pointing my lens through the window. We've lots of different bird visitors and I recently lured the Goldfinches closer to the window by offering them Niger seeds - something they can't resist. They live in little flocks and I must say are very prone to squabbling. They are so pretty and really liven up the feeders - as of course do all the tits. We've have bluetits, great tits, longtail tits and coal tits visiting for peanuts and fat treats. I still have to get a good image of some feeder visitors - the very shy woodpecker, nuthatch, and the longtails - and hope to post them here when I do.

One new visitor I was delighted to see was this little female blackcap - the males do have black caps but the female's is brown. This isn't a good photo but I'm proud of her and want to show her off anyway.

Wrap up Warm!

Here's another birthday card I made last week for one of our knitting group. Very apt for the weather we are enduring at the moment. This image (from a copyright-free book I have) would also make a sweet Christmas card I think - especially if it is accompanying a handknitted gift. You can copy the image at the bottom of this post.
We've been suffering below zero temperatures for over a week now and there is no end in sight according to the weather report I've just heard on the radio. Although the snow is beautiful when the sun shines we are now all rather fed up with trying to get about and keep warm. Sitting still crafting is very uncomfortable unless I wear about 5 layers and wrap a blanket round my legs. But this is nothing compared to the suffering of my garden birds. I'm feeding them every day of course but imagining how they manage to survive the long night - if they do - is not something I like thinking about. I was rather pleased to find our local pet shop had sold out of bird seed and peanuts last weekend - its nice to think so many people still want to help our birds in these difficult economic times. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this Collared Dove's partner hasn't succumbed to the cold as I didn't see it in the garden today!
Here's the image I used on my card - click on it then right click to save to your computer.

Edit: Just thought you might like to know the Collared Dove's mate is safe and sound and has been visiting over the past few days - which have been much less cold thank goodness!