Natures Lace Makers

This weeks tag theme was Lace, and not being a lacy kinda person, opted for the natural lace makers, spiders. I wanted to try and recreate the lovely dew filled cobwebs you find on a damp and misty morning, so here's what I did.

 The paper I used is an A5 piece of Reeves Acrylic 300 gm paper. I like this paper as it is a good weight and has a smooth and a slightly textured side. For this tag I used the textured side. First I coloured the paper using the distress inks above in the true TH method, applying the inks directly to the craft sheet and spritzing with plenty of water. As you can see, I hate wasting stuff so mopped up the ink with some scrap fabric which will used in something else I'm sure.

Next I added another layer of ink in the colours above, in the same way but with less water.

Then I stamped the seed heads using a water proof ink, this is very important for the next step or it just won't work.

The colours are much too vivid for my desired misty morning look so I took a big mop brush and a little paynes grey water colour and washed out a lot of the colour. I then added a wash of heavenly white H2O water colour. 

As you can see the flash on the camera really picks this up so you can't see a lot of what is happening below this reflection, but you can see how lovely and muted the colours have now become.

I cut my tag from this half of the paper. I have been using a size 8 tag for all my tags this month which are just over 3" wide and 6 1/4" long or there about.

The cobwebs were then stitched with a fine silver thread and a really fine needle. I added a bit of cotton lace to the bottom which was dyed using some of the same coloured distress inks and finally added a few micro beads to the webs and lace using a dimensional adhesive. 

I have shown you a picture here with and without the flash as the weather is just too miserable to get a decent picture in natural daylight.

This week in the Joggles MidWeek Muse, Barbara has made a great video on making a book using tags.
You can watch it here. I love this little book and will be giving a try I think.

I can't believe I have managed a full month of Tag Tuesday, and a big month is was with five tags to be done. Februarys themes are looking very exciting and should provide plenty of opportunity to keep playing with my stash of supplies I have accumulated over the years.

A Micro Shuffle

My life is a continuous shuffle at the moment, we are forever moving stuff from one place to another so we can proceed with the renovations, which jump from one part of the house to another. I seem to be forever trying to fit the same amount of stuff into an ever decreasing space, so yes a lot of it goes into my work rooms.
After my frustrating hunt for the red and purple beads the other day, I decided to apply the same principal to some of my stuff. All my ribbons, lace, braids and beads were scattered among the pile of containers and boxes you see below, which were scattered in different cupboards and shelves.

 So I armed myself with a stack of zip top bags and set to sorting it all out into colours and managed to condense it to this. The black box is what I now get my fruit and veg in as I have become a very happy Aussie Farmers Direct customer, so now I will get one of these a week and I'm sure I can put them to good use before I have to start recycling them.

 The black box is full of all the bags you see below, each big bag contains a smaller bag full of beads etc. and there is plenty of room to add more if need be.
The red tin contains all the used jewellery my friends have kindly donated to be "upcycled" as Wilma so nicely put it on Tag Tuesday and the little japanese box contains "special" bits

I have always organised my stuff according to type, ie ribbons, lace braids, bead etc. never by colour, which when you think about it, makes much more sense. Maybe I will end up with a black box for each colour and put a larger collection of stuff into each. I will have to cover those lovely yellow lids though!

Ok time for a coffee and then onto my Tag for Tuesday.

A Good Vintage

This weeks theme for Tag Tuesday was vintage, not something I really do, so I took a different approach and made a little mixed media tag of a Green Man who ensures a good crop of grapes to produce "A Good Vintage"

So I sculpted a little face, about 1 1/2" long for my green man and coloured him up a bit with pastel pencils and acrylic paint for the eyes, which are terrible by the way, my eyes just don't cope with tiny detail anymore, should have gone out into the bight daylight and I may have done a better job, sorry no pics, forgot to take any.

 I made the grape vine leaves from some hand dyed scrim and Aleene's fabric stiffener. I treated myself to a Joggles order the other week and thought I would try this fabric stiffener as it was also used in an online workshop that I haven't done yet. To be honest I prefer the Powertex I already have, it soaks into the fabric much better and doesn't leave a shiny finish like the Aleenes does, but thats what the tags are all about, trying new techniques and products. I also coiled some strips of fabric around a wooden skewer cover in cling film to make the tendrils.

 Then came a frustrating hunt for the purple and red beads I knew I had somewhere! Threaded these onto some fine green wire then just twisted them around till they look a bit like bunches of grapes.

  I had a box board (chip board) tag already cut and tested out my new craft mat and blending tool from my Joggles order along with the distress inks and a bit of moon shadow spray to colour up the tag.
Finally I made up the label using inkscape and printed out on the computer, used some rusty hinge and frayed burlap and a gold pen to finish it off.

So there he is. There are some amazing tags over on Tag Tuesday so pop over and have a look at all the lovely tags there .

Tag Tuesday on Friday

Just a quickie, managed to get my tag done although a bit late. Having great fun with these! Not much else happening here as it's tennis time so a lot of lounge laying and tea drinking going on, trying to cut down on the coffee :0

Can you guess the theme for this week, not my original plan, but it's growing on me.

Snow Games and a Present

Here is my second tag for Tag Tuesday, the theme was snow games and it was a good excuse to get out to my work room and use my sewing machine for the first time in what seems ages. I am really enjoying the challenge of making a tag each week, it's not a huge project and allows you to have a play with new materials or techniques. I already have next weeks planned and may even start it today!

The last few days I have been waging war with some Indian Myna birds that have been treating the chickens coop like a drive through, or fly through restaurant. It started off with a pair of them, which I could put up with, then, of course they had babies, three! The other morning I walked out there and word must have got around to the aunts, uncles and cousins as there must have been a dozen off them, poor chooks didn't know what way to turn. They were managing to get through nearly a whole feeder full of pellets too. So I dragged out the bird netting I bought for the garden and with a bit of imaginative tying and stringing, think I have defeated them. A couple snuck in, but haven't been back since they realised how difficult it was to leave again, with me hot on their tail shouting and waving my arms around like a mad women. So the poor chooks must feel like they are in Colditz.

The veggie garden has had a bit of a clear out, the cucumbers were just out of control and taking over everything so I've pulled all but one out. Those great big white things are supposed to be German pickling cucumbers! I was expecting something small and GREEN and the green ones are supposed to be lebanese, but there almost definitely your common garden variety, covered in prickles and full of big seeds. Heres just a few jars of pickles, but really how many can you eat! The girls have had a bit more liberation this week and have enjoyed digging up what is left and finishing off the lettuce. I will have to get stuck into it and plant up some more stuff, but not to day, it's too hot!

Finally, my Christmas present from my Mum arrived yesterday, she always sends such lovely things and this year I received two beautiful pendants. Thanks Mum :)

Tag Tuesday - Snow

Well I managed the first Tag Tuesday, because I had made this tag just before christmas to test out the new cat. The theme was snow so this one was just fine as it is all frosty and snowflakes. I will try and get into my workroom for the next one which is Snow Sports and Games. It's a little hard to get into the real spirit of this one as our weather has finally decided to be summer like, in fact the sun has shone for 3 whole days and it is starting to get HOT. After a very cool start to summer here, the weather people are now saying we are in for a scorcher, can't wait! am not a fan of the heat, particularly as we don't have an air con yet.

Go and have a look at all the wonderful tags at Tag Tuesday, they are all absolutely brilliant.
I'm off to make a birthday cake before it gets too hot to put the oven on.

The End of One and the Beginning of the Next

A quick update on the last couple of months. We finally got away from the house renovations for a weekend and went to Bungonia National Park and Caves. It was pretty hot and very dry but oh so good to get a way for a few days and have a change of scenery.

 I planted up my veggie bed on the 29th October, I only know this as the photo has the date on it, I have a hard job knowing what day of the week it is! I always have a laugh at the back of the seed packets when it says harvest in 4 -6 weeks or whatever. I always think it will take much longer.

But here is the garden today, some of the veggies are nearly done, going to seed in fact. The cucumbers have gone mad and I have them coming out of my ears. Have made some bread and butter cucumbers already and will make some cucumber relish today (maybe).
I have very interesting shaped lettuces as every now and then, I weaken and let the girls out of their end of the garden for a roam. They head straight for the lettuce and give them a severe haircut.

 I managed to persuade Steve that a blackcat was a MUST HAVE item so had an early christmas present. Isn't it a splendid looking beast. For christmas day christmas, if you get me, got some big mats and extension tables to add to it's amazing cutting abilities.

 I made biscotti for christmas presents again this year, but with the help of the cat, gave them some special wrapping, a bit better than the usual cellophane tied with ribbon.

Yesterday we spent a lovely afternoon up the river. My daughter and partner got themselves a boat this year so now we can all go out together. There were plenty of small bass around to keep us entertained for the afternoon, but it was just nice to be out in such beautiful surroundings.

With the festive season and birthdays all but over, it is now back to some hard graft on the house. My lovely new cat and the printer I had for my birthday will be packed away while we build the office. Hopefully the laundry will be done asap as getting a bit sick of hand washing now, my poor old machine in the garage gave up a few weeks before christmas, and although I have a new machine sitting in its box, it needs a place to go before I can use it. As tempted as I sometimes am to put it in the garage, I will be patient and pretend that hand washing is a pleasing mediative sort of activity, HA.

This year my resolution was to make no resolutions. I have decided not to make grand plans and try and organise so much to be done in a day, but start each day with a general idea of what I might get done and be content with what I achieve, hence the maybe with my relish making.

I have joined  Tag Tuesday  it will be interesting to see how many tags I manage to achieve in between building but I will give it a go. I have the first one ready so thats got to be a good start!

Wishing those that visit here a wonderful year.

Bread Update and Ink

Two posts in two days, what is going on? No reno work thats for sure.
Here is an update on the bread as promised. Up until now I have had to add yeast to my sourdough bread to get any rise out of it what so ever, so although I was getting the sourdough flavour, it just wasn't true sourdough. I have been using the kitchen aid to do the initial kneading of the dough, enough to bring it all together, then doing the hard yards myself but still with little success, plus the fact, when kneading the dough the bowl of the kitchen aid gets well and truly stuck in the base, has anyone else had this problem?
I use my bread maker constantly but only to make dough and always have lovely textured wholemeal bread, so thought I would just substitute the sourdough ingredients and do the same thing. The feel of the dough was a vast improvement on any of my earlier attempts and it rose up beautifully while sitting in the kitchen during most of yesterday, my timing was all out to leave it overnight in the fridge, so did it as I normally would with a yeast dough but over a much longer period.
The moment of truth came for me to flip it out onto a hot tray, use the trusty lame to give it a quick slashing and then hope for that "oven spring"

Well it sprung all right, but only at one end? So I ended up with this weird looking loaf and yes the end is missing because I just couldn't resist tasting it piping hot straight from the oven. So if anyone reading this has any idea why this may of happened, please leave me a comment, it's a mystery to me. I thought maybe my oven is a lot hotter one side than the other, very possible as it is an absolute heap of junk and I can't wait to get another but we won't go down that path right now.
It could have been cooked longer and the crumb isn't perfect, but it is slightly chewy with a beautiful crust and tastes just great.

I made my starter and bread using this cookbook

It is one of the best cook books I have come across for a while. The bread making section is brilliant and not too complicated. The starter is simple and straight forward and as long as you use organic flour and filtered water, amazingly quick. I have the happiest, bubbliest starter sitting in my fridge ready for my next attempt.

I used the recipe for the Rustic White Bread with Madre, substituting the white flour for wholemeal and increasing the water content by 50ml.

I put the ingredients into the bread maker in the order I would if making a yeast wholemeal dough and used the dough setting.  This is the closest I have come to that perfect sourdough loaf, and by using the bread maker, the one that took the least amount of effort. It has been over two years now since I went out and bought a loaf of bread, so hoping I can get this method to work with consistent results.

On to the Inks and stamps, they arrived yesterday afternoon, too late to do anything with, so this morning I went out the back to play around with them. They are so versatile and I know I am only scratching the surface of what they are capable of but here are a few pages I have started and some "handmade" tags.

A Bevy of Bits

The reno's are steaming ahead, when the weather allows us and now becoming inside jobs that make living here just that little bit more challenging. However I have still managed to start some stuff and do some stuff so here is a quick rundown of some of the things that have been happening.

I have a table of body parts awaiting stuffing and some wooden disks that were posted today.

I have started this purple and green creation using the Flip La K technique, but now sure where I am going with this now.

Bought some zentangle books, still waiting for one to arrive, as fancy getting back into a bit of tangling.

Here's my practice page.

Re-discovered these, bought them a while back and forgot all about them, have now ordered 12 more colours as have become addicted to them all over again.

Had a play with my limited colours and a few other bits and pieces to make a couple of journal pages and tags.

Finished these

Started these

And nearly finished this.

Planted some seeds.

Managed to keep the herbs alive despite being covered in sawdust at least once a week.

Bought some wicker breadbaskets and a lame. 

I bought the baskets from Breadtopia, they were wonderful and quick with the delivery and have great tips and recipes for breadmaking. I'm still trying to make a crusty sourdough. I have another starter going and today tried making the dough in the breadmaker. As you can see, it is now sitting in one of the baskets, and fingers crossed, it's looking and feeling much better than my other attempts.

If it works out I'll let you know. By the way those bread lames are wonderful for giving yourself a quick hair cut! My hairdresser left to have a baby, and has decided not to come back to work, who can blame her really, but I have lost the only person that understands my bizarre hair, so in desperation took too it with the bread lame and gave myself the perfect hair cut. Just don't think too hard about the fact you could possibly scalp yourself in the process and you'll be fine, and yes I do change the blade before it goes back to the kitchen for it's intended purpose.

Lastly the three new girls have settled in beautifully, they are so well behaved and friendly. I emptied the compost bin a few weeks ago, and after lifting off the bin, left them to go through it and break it all down before it went on the garden. Was like the biggest chicken birthday cake for them and kept them busy for days.

And one final thing, I have fallen head over hills for the Blackcat Cougar and am desperately trying to convince Santa that I must absolutely have one for Christmas.

Little Progress, A Tragedy and A Show

I am not even going to bother to make excuses for not blogging, it just ain't happening right now.

Little Progress

The weather has continued to be awful making the progress of the reno's painfully slow. Hopefully as the evenings become longer and the weather dries up, for surely it must do soon, we can get back into it and make some headway.

A Tragedy

My three lovely girls pictured in the previous post, have, in the words of their former owner, been "kidnapped and assassinated". On a wild and stormy night, when part of our roof got blown sideways and let in lots of rain, a sneaky fox got in and took them. I felt absolutely terrible having been entrusted with their care and couldn't believe that a fox would come into suburbia with so many dogs around, but apparently they are everywhere. Having fenced off the bottom of the yard just for the chickens it seemed a shame not to have them scratching around. So after constructing a very tall side gate and fence, completely re-inforcing the chicken coop and pinning the bottom of the wire fence with very long stakes AND adding indian bells to the fence AND installing a sensor light, we went and got three new chooks.

So meet Lilly, Ruby and Dora, (chickens just have to have names!)

They were completely of the don't touch me variety when we bought them home, but soon learnt where all the treats come from and now when I let them out for their afternoon stroll through the veggie patch, they are quiet happy to come up and try and rip the buttons off my shirt or cuddle up and read a recipe book with me while I decide what to make for dinner. Ruby is even brave enough to follow me into the kitchen, there is something behind my fridge that just fascinates her, strange bird!

So I still have a constant supply of lovely fresh eggs and three new characters to keep me entertained.

A Show

A couple of weekends ago I went up to Dungog for the annual Quiltarama. This year is was held a month earlier and put on in conjunction with Dungog Railway Centenary. It was a busy weekend with lots of people coming through the quilt show. I had made a new workshop banner this year and decorated it with kanzashi flowers and Steve made a stand for it to hang on along with the bird quilt. I had dyed up about 80 new 1/2 meters and some other fabrics and threads so my stall looked especially bright this year.

I met lots of lovely people and hope to see some of them at workshops next year. I also met some lovely ladies that organise the Stroud Quilt and Craft Interlude, which I am going to visit later in September.

I have just bought some e patterns and have an online workshop I haven't had the time to start, so have plenty of new projects lined up, now I just have to find the time to do them.

Till next time, which will be - who knows when!