inspiration

I have been so amazed and inspired today by this article, I can't stop thinking about it. I can't get this out of my head either: if all of us who have enough gave something to those who haven't, we would only need to give 1% of our incomes to completely eradicate poverty.

be quick...

...if you'd like to buy anything from the winter shop as it will be closing at the weekend for this year. It may be back next year, I'm not sure yet, we'll see. There are still a very few bags, Christmas wreaths, organic cotton washcloths, and these chocolate brown linen hearts, finished off with a vintage button and a tiny string of beads. Postage and packing remains free to the UK. Many thanks to all who have bought from the shop already and for all your lovely compliments and great feedback! Shop link here.

recycled toast

I love the Toast catalogue, but it is too expensive for me and anyway, as I am not seven stone I fear I would look like an overdressed shepherd if I wore any of their clothes. However, it is lovely quality paper with gorgeous colour and detail, so I decided to cut it up and make Christmas garlands with it.

First of all I stuck gold paper to the reverse, then I stamped out hundreds of little scalloped rounds... a bit like making paper mince pies... then I made them into little piles and whizzed them into a long length with metallic thread on the sewing machine. A few minutes spent fanning them out into little globes and the beautiful paper is visible again and they look absolutely gorgeous. It's hard to show how lovely they are on a photograph but the rich colours with the gold accents remind me of Renaissance paintings. I'll be offering these for sale at my last craft market of the season (see below for details).

Next to be sacrificed was my carefully saved pile of Plumo catalogues, which underwent a similar treatment but these ones I have made into single hemispheres for this year's Christmas cards... simple little Christmas trees with surprise fold-out stars on top.

If you are in Manchester on the weekend of the 18th/19th December, please come along to the Whitworth Art Gallery Christmas Craft Market! I'll be there and so will lots of other makers and artists with lots of lovely things to see and buy. I have heard stories about carols and mince pies too...

new things in the shop

There are a few new things in the shop today - market bags in beautiful, washable, soft green and white cotton, handpainted christmas decorations, and garlands made of vintage sheet music...

The decorations and garlands come in cellophane bags and are perfect for popping in with a Christmas card for a little extra gift.

There are still a few everlasting wreaths, sturdy hand-embroidered denim bags, pure organic hand-crocheted facecloths and embroided linen hearts to buy too, but hurry as stocks are thinning out. Don't forget that postage and packing remains free to anywhere in the world!

Shop link here.

a very special hankie

If you are a properly trained museums, libraries and archives person, it's probably best to look away now, as this morning I have been having a lovely time playing at textile conservation, and I'm quite certain that I haven't done anything 'by the book' at all.

This souvenir handkerchief was produced in 1894 to commemorate the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal, and it needed to be mounted and displayed for an exhibition that we are doing here at work.

Ever since visiting the Textile Conservation Centre in Hampton Court as part of my degree course over twenty years ago, I have harboured a secret desire to become a textile conservator, so it was all play and no work to bring in my needles and thread this morning, having been tasked with the job of mounting it on a backing board ready to be sent to the framers. I was very worried about not using archival quality materials or doing something irreversibly dreadful, but after a bit of self-education online, some careful preparation and a lot of teeny weeny stitches, I think that in the end it was a fairly credible effort. I thoroughly enjoyed myself anyway.

apples and mistletoe

Yesterday we returned from a winter weekend in Herefordshire which was spent mostly underneath a blanket of cold fog. It was a time for roaring fires, mulled apple juice and some time looking inwards.

I love the slow disintegration and sparseness of this time of year. At Croft Castle we saw apple trees pruned hard, their branches reduced to gnarled stumps, yet still bearing rough-skinned, golden eating apples with soft sweet flesh. We picked a bag of fresh windfall walnuts, their green cases leaking deep brown dye onto our fingers.

Mistletoe is everywhere in Herefordshire. I love its bare shape, the palest creamy green colour of the berries and its ancient magic and symbolism. It grows in the most perfect balls like ethereal baubles high up in the trees.

Or sometimes low down in the trees, low enough to kiss under.

Piles of prunings surrounded the orchard trees. This is a time for trimming, tidying and sweeping and then leaving things alone to rest quietly for the short cold days and long dark nights.

This is the cottage we stayed in for the first part of our honeymoon in June 2007. It was the wettest summer in living memory and like many others in the country we were flooded out and forced to relocate. You can see pictures from that summer here.

These apples were waiting to be pressed for cider, although they did look a bit grubby. But I expect that all adds flavour. Their sweet heady smell in the fresh afternoon air was wonderful.

One of the things I read while we were away was this astonishing article about the painter Sargy Mann. It is a remarkable tribute to the human spirit and the force of creativity and I found it a tremendous inspiration.

the winter shop is open!

Many of you have very kindly asked if I will be selling online this year, and I'm pleased to say that the answer is a resounding 'yes!' The shop is now nicely stocked with goodies and will stay open for the next four weeks. The first ten orders will receive a little packet of twenty-four advent gift tags (as seen above and below) completely free, so it may be worth your while ordering early if you are the sort of person who might wrap up little presents for your family (or yourself) to find and open in the days and weeks leading up to Christmas. Not only that, but there is FREE postage and packing to anywhere in the world for the duration of the opening.

Thank you also to all those who wished me well for the craft market yesterday. It went fairly well and I managed to survive both the jolly skiffle band and the lack of tea with creditable stoicism. However, I do think, for what its worth and in case there are any event organisers reading this, that on the whole craft and vintage don't make a good business mix. Vintage-seekers love a good bargain, and that's not necessarily the right frame of mind for buying handmade quality craft items which are often a person's livelihood and deserve to attract their true value.

Anyway, do please visit the shop and see if anything takes your fancy. Only five-and-a-half weeks to Christmas, and did I mention that postage and packing is FREE?! (That's shipping to non-UK readers. Free shipping! FREE!)