new beginnings

Well I’ve been away from my blog for longer than I planned, but new things have been happening. Firstly, I start a new job tomorrow which I am very excited about, I have been busy working at my old job and helping out on days off at my new job. It is going to be more hours but they are more sociable hours, no more getting home at 9pm. It means I’ve been rethinking how I do my craft work and what I want to do from now on, so a few changes are afoot over the coming weeks.

 The bits of free time I have had I have been down the allotment enjoying the lovely sunshine we have had recently. The photo above is the first fruits of our labour, a very tasty salad of London lettuce, mixed leaf lettuce, spinach, beetroot leaves, bean tops, radish and rocket – all grown on our little plot. I’m planning to post some before and after photos of the plot soon.

I’ve been tagged

I’ve been tagged by sue from mouse notebook, this is something of a first for me so I’m quite excited. I was planning on posting my answers yesterday but got a bit carried away down the allotment and ran out of time. So here are the questions.

What are your current obsessions?

I’m sure you’ve already guessed the first one, our allotment - I love being down there on my days off digging, weeding, planting and chatting other plot holders over a cuppa tea. The second is food generally speaking – I love growing it, reading about it, cooking it and eating it. I have started visiting a bookshop near work with a cafe inside and reading a different cookery book everyday lunchtime with a cup of coffee or tea and lovely piece of Baklava from the food market, a bit cheeky I suppose but as a result I now have a very long list of books I would like to buy.

What are you currently reading?

Grow your own veg by Carol Klein (given to me by a friend), Veg Patch which is part of the River Cottageseries of books( can’t recommend highly enough, so easy to understand), The Kitchen Diaries by Nigel Slater (one of my favourite food writers), the new edition of Jamie magazine (just started reading and looking forward to the articles on middle eastern cooking) and  Country Living magazine (article on Teresa Green who I wrote about at last years Origin).

What’s for dinner?

Well you would think some elaborate meal from all the books I’ve been reading but no its an old family favourite Corned beef hash. Thursday is night school for my husband so we just have something quick and easy. I’ve recently given the recipe to a friend and its become a weekly meal at her house, everyone loves it. Its cheap which is important in these hard times and very tasty but also very easy to make. I will have to take a photo of my efforts tonight and post the recipe.

Where do you plan to travel to next?

Hopefully Italy, we can’t decide where in Italy we want to go because really we want to go everywhere. We are undecided between going backpacking and getting the train and staying in hostels or just renting a villa or apartment in one place and really getting to explore that place where ever it might be.

What’s the best thing you ate or drank lately?

I’ve really been pushing the boat out on buying nice food lately so its quite difficult to chose just one thing – we’ve had melt in your mouth Serrano Ham, lovely fresh duck eggs and the best free range chicken from the Manchester Farmers Market. But the one that really stands out is sirloin steak, some of the best steak I’ve ever had and I’ve had very good steak in both Argentina and Australia. We got our steak from a butchers farm shop on the way to Styal in Cheshire.

What is the last thing you bought?

Jamie Oliver magazine this morning while doing a bit of food shopping (I’m starting to sound a bit food obsessed, sorry). I missed the first issue but got the second and read it from cover to cover, it really is a good magazine if you like Jamie’s no nonsense style of cooking which I do. What I like about this issue (from just flicking through) is an article on an ceramics designer and maker that Jamie has commissioned to make pieces to sell in his online shop. Oliver has also commissioned a number of other crafts people including textile designers and printers, you can read about them here.

What is your favourite film ever?

This is so difficult to pick just one so I’ve decided to split them into three categories and pick a film for each, I don’t think its cheating is it? My favourite recent film (last 5 years) is The lives of others next is old classics and it has to be Breakfast at Tiffany’s and finally my favourite non-english speaking film is Il Postino(nothing like that dreadful Kevin Costner remake). I feel I’ve rambled on enough so I’m going into detail on why I like them, if you haven’t seen them then I highly recommend you to.

Care to share some wisdom?

To be happy enjoy the simple things in life.

Where would you rather be right now?

My Mum reads this and I don’t want to upset her or have her thinking I’m unhappy (she lives in Australia and I currently live in the UK). But the one place I would love to be is sat on her patio at the table my Dad made with all the family eating one of her amazing roast dinners and drinking a lovely bottle of Margret River wine.

What is your desert island disc?

This the question I’ve added mainly to stop me from talking about food. But it is quite difficult to pick just one LP and if you ask me tomorrow I will probably have a different answer, so right now it would be Bjork and probably her greatest hits.

 

The rules are to answer the questions, replacing one and adding another, and then to tag eight other bloggers to do the same.
I’ve tagged I love cake, Sarah Campbell, ladysnail, linoforrest, of paper and thread, novembermoon, lobster & swan, after all the world is a beautiful place

let me tell you a story

Now the new blog is up and running I can use this blog to document my own work and nothing else. The plan is that this will lead to more frequent posts on both blogs. I do get distracted by all the wonderful work people make and show on the internet and end up looking at that instead of updating my blog, so now this blog has focus I should be less distracted. I will still talk about other artists that I feel have influenced me in some way. The appearance of both blogs will change soon and links will either stay or move to the other blog, this is a job I keep putting off because its takes ages.

New work is on the way at last. Some of the inspiration for my new work is connected to the stories from the kitchen table blog, they have developed quite organically alongside each other and now are real instead of being lots of notes jotted down in my little notebook. I have been interested in the use of text in art work for many years and it seems to be everywhere at the moment. I have previously talked about the use of a diary as a vehicle for expression also. I see them all as a way of telling stories, no matter how simple or complicated. I had previously thought of making objects which had a history, a story to tell but I have since realised what I need to look at is the story itself and the act of story telling. I have been reminded of this recently because I have lent a friend a book I read about 10 years ago If on a winters night a traveller by Italo Calvino I love this book and really should read it again. It takes the art of storytelling to a new level and whisks you the reader away on an amazing journey. So my new work is a collaection of minature stories, presented in different ways and using a variety of marterials and process with stitch being central to it all.

This first piece is a book using stitch and letter stamp printing and tells the oldest story of all – boy meets girl, they fall in love and live happily everafter. I still haven’t decided on the finished form yet.

I would like to learn more about printing and particularly letterpress printing, we have a traditional letterpress printers close to where I live and I keep saying I’m going to go and visit and never seem to have the time. Recently Sue from mouse notebookdid go and wrote this amazing piece about her visit. Sue has also written a very thought provoking piece about the price of handmade and competing with the likes of Tesco selling bags for £2.50, well worth a read here.

new blog

The new blog is on its way. I have been trying to decide if I should use a blogger template or a wordpress template, blogger lets me play with the colours and design a bit more but wordpress allows me to have multiple pages and different layouts. I wish I knew something about editing the wordpress blog. the blog is going to be called Stories from the Kitchen Table and I have lots of post ideas already. I think I will go with wordpress and learn about editing it. You can find it here.

back at last

Well I’m finally back after my longer than planned break. So what have I been up to? I hear you ask. I been quite busy thinking and doing, thinking about how I want my work to move forward, if I still want to design and make or head off in a new direction, you will be able to see the doing over the coming weeks. I’ve spent most of my spare time on out allotment getting it ready and planting the potatoes, it was very hard work but very rewarding and a great time to think. I have been pondering what I really want to do with my life and how to get to the point of being able to do it. So changes are happening, this blog will continue to be about my work but that is all. I’ve decided I need to focus more, which is going to sound a bit mad when you read my next sentence. I am starting another blog which is going to be more about home life, such as, cooking, growing veggies (hopefully) and designers I like with an emphasis on design in and around the kitchen. I have so many ideas swimming around my head sometimes I find it difficult to concentrate on one thing and has a result end up working at a slower pace than I want to. So the two blogs will show two sides of my life and hopefully give me a space to really concentrate on the task ahead and just get on with it. More news about both projects will be posted next week.

a short break

Just a short post to say that I will be away from blogging for a couple of weeks while I’ll concentrate on making . I have plans for new work and a new look to the blog and shop. See you in a few weeks.

work for bushfire appeal

This is the finished home sweet home work to raise funds for the Australian bushfire appeal. I’ve been a bit pushed for time with work and my printer is still not working, think I may need to get a new one, so I have decided not to make three home sweet home pieces. I am going to put a bag and a brooch set in my shop and all funds from the sale of these items will go to the appeal, shipping is free on all items. I now have an etsy shop and all the above items are for sale here.

Bushfire appeal update

I’ve started work on the pieces I plan to sell to raise money for the bushfire appeal in Australia. I’ve decided to make three different pieces all based on the theme of home. This is a detail of the first work, I hope to have all three finished by the end of the week. I have been slowed down by my printer, it won’t print and I don’t know why, its driving me mad. So I have decided to make pieces without using the computer for the time being.

If you want to keep up to date in the UK with events in Australia my lovely sister-in-law, Kay, emailed me this link.

Its great to see lots of crafters raising funds for the appeal, links of some that I’ve heard about are listed below, if you know anymore please add them in the comments section. 6.5sts has written a very moving post that sums up how so many of us feel.

aunty cookie

lino forrest

handmade help

meet me at mikes

Etsy Oz bushfire appeal

New Project – bushfire appeal

First of all I would like to say thank you to everyone that bought the postcards they are all sold now. I have decided not to post the final one because I want to move on to a new project that is very dear to my heart. I’m sure you have all seen the news and the horrendous bushfires that have devastated 3 states of Australia. I grew up in Australia and have family there as I’m sure do many people all over the world. So my next project will be to raise funds for the bushfire disaster appeal, I am going to make an edition of 5 home sweet home pieces and all proceeds will go to the Australian Red Cross disaster appeal for victims of the bush fires. I have chosen home sweet home as the theme because while we still have our homes to go to others don’t. I will post more details over the next few days, hope you can help. If you would like to make a donation directly to the red cross you can do so online here.

third postcard

This is the third postcard in the love letter series, apologies for the poor photo, I was hoping to be finished during daylight to get a good picture, I will try again in the morning and update this image. The final card will be posted tomorrow morning.