Fresh

Well hello! Do you like my new header? Isn't it gorgeous? It was designed by my talented blogging friend Jen of two-add-two. I love it and feel that she completely understood me and this blog and what I'm all about. The house, with it's little chimney and Scandinavian inspired flower, reminds me of my gingerbread house. After a temporary break from blogging Jen is back and she has been very busy setting up her own shop - you can see more here at jenroffe.co.uk.

I've been busy this week. I have added some pages along the side so that things like The Collour Collaborative, my recipes and a glimpse of the sort of creative things I love to do can be found quickly and easily. I've spent some unhappy and frustrating hours playing with HTML code (which I know nothing about) and decided that there is a limit to the amount of tinkering I am prepared to do here. My blog will never be a minimalist, perfect space. My house is not like that so why try to make my blog - which is an extension of my home, my life - look the same? I started this blog to connect with like-minded people and to share my love of craft and home, not to get involved in web design. That was a good reminder for me. I want this space to look clean, fresh and, most importantly, welcoming, but don't have the skills or budget to make it look really slick. So it is what it is and I hope you like it.

You might have noticed that I am doing the odd sponsored post from time to time. I'll be keeping these to a minimum, say one a month-ish, and you can be assured that they will be about things I genuinely like, brands I would and do buy from, products I use. I guess you'll just have to trust me on that one. Sponsored posts are clearly labelled as such. If I link to a product or shop otherwise, as I often do, then it's just because I like them, nothing more than that. I know people have different views on whether or not to monetise a blog, it's not for everyone and I respect that. I hope I am still for you. It's still me, Gillian, here, as I have been for the last two years. I am still the same.

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The above images offer a glimpse of my week. Winter walks, a new yarn purchase, a new crochet project, and an effort to eat more lightly sum up this week. I've rediscovered my craft mojo and have been busy with lots of bits and bobs, which I'll share with you soon. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. 

Embracing Winter

Over these last few weeks I've noticed that, in magazines, blogs, on Instagram, and in conversations I've had with friends, as soon as Christmas and New Year are over, everyone is desperate for Spring to arrive. I include myself here. The short days, candles and fairy lights are festive and sparkling throughout December, but come January the winter blues do rather set in and it's easy to feel glum and lethargic. We need light and colour and warmth. The days lengthen and the extra daylight is welcome of course, but as we saw last Spring, there might still be snow on the ground at Easter and it could be May before we're really able to enjoy warm weather outside. I've been giving this a lot of thought lately and find that I'm learning to love winter. I'm determined, in fact. Winter will be winter for the next three months, no matter how many bunches of daffodils and tulips I buy, no matter how often I declare that a mild January day "feels like Spring out there!" to John. Like the natural world, we really need this time of year to rest, to hibernate. We need to feel cosy. I need to hunker down inside with whatever makes me happy (family, cooking, sewing, yarn, Hama beads, jigsaws) and to just give in to it. I don't mean lie on the sofa all day long - I know it's vital for my happiness to get outside for some fresh air and exercise whenever the opportunity presents itself, perhaps for a long walk in the woods at the weekend, or a gentle run with my friends - but to enjoy and relish this time of calm and quiet. It gives us time to be creative indoors, to make plans, to prepare for Spring and all the outdoors fun and longer days that season will bring. 

So in the spirit of embracing winter and all that is comforting, homely and snug, here are some wintry pleasures, some things for the home that I think are truly lovely and make this time of year more enticing.

1. A Willow and Hall sofa. Willow and Hall are a small, independent company who hand make sofas, armchairs, and sofa beds among over things in the West Country. I think they have a particular skill for making furniture which is simple and practical as well as very pleasing to look at and sit on. I like the way you could put whatever cushions and throws you wanted on their sofas and make it absolutely your own, and it wouldn't look ridiculously unfashionable in five years' time either. Their styles and colours are soft, cosy and elegant, easy to live with and easy on the eye. I wish I'd known about them when we ordered our sofa bed some years ago...

2. I love this rural print. It's on my birthday list. 

3. There is always room for another Emma Bridgewater mug in my cupboard, and my heart is set in this snowdrop design, it's so perfectly seasonal. 

4. And for when I leave my sofa and go into the great outdoors, I will need these warm, felted gloves by Katie Mawson to keep my hands toasty but fingers free to take photographs.

5. Look, you all know I have an enduring love affair with wood burning stoves and wholeheartedly wish we had one in our home. I tend to prefer the more traditional looking ones, like these. One day, one day...

So, I think I've got all bases covered there: a comfy sofa, art on the walls, a mug of tea, a roaring fire and warm hands. How do you chase away the winter blues? 

Cakes For The Birds

Hello! I so enjoyed reading your comments on my cleaning out the cupboards post. I liked hearing what you stockpile in your cupboards too, it made me feel that I'm not alone! Today I want to share a brilliant idea for feeding the birds during winter which I read about somewhere recently. You need a few empty yogurt pots (the individual ones work best here), some lard or suet, and some dry ingredients like oats, breadcrumbs, nuts, seeds or dried fruit.

Make a hole in the bottom of your yogurt pot and thread a long piece of string through the hole.

Prepare your bird food. You need approximately one part lard or suet to two parts dry ingredients. Melt the fat in a saucepan, add the other ingredients and mix well. Spoon into the waiting yogurt pot making sure you push it as far down as you can. If it isn't well-compacted it will crumble when you remove it. Wiggle the end of the string so that it's roughly central.

Put your yogurt pots in the fridge to set. Put them on a plate, as a fair bit of that lard will leak through the little hole as they cool and set.

After a couple of hours they will be ready. Cut away the yogurt pots with scissors and then cut and knot one length of the string.

Using the other, longer length of string, hang from a waiting tree branch in the garden.

And that is all! Very easy and a fun activity to do with children too. Now wait for word to get around and all the local birds to come to dine in your garden. I hung three on Saturday. Two remain, a little pecked but intact, but one has just completely vanished leaving nothing but a dangling thread of string. There is nothing on the grass underneath the tree, no crumbs. I blame a crack team of squirrels with night vision goggles; two to dislodge the cake and more waiting underneath to catch it and carry it away, perhaps. But I did see a bird pecking away at one this morning and that made me feel good.

Cleaning Out The Cupboards

I have been really enjoying some time in the kitchen this week. I haven't touched any sewing, crochet or knitting since the New Year (in fact, I've enjoyed a break and am only just starting to feel drawn back to those projects) but I've been feeling creative in the kitchen instead.

Continuing with my house-proud, de-cluttering mood, I deep cleaned the kitchen. I scrubbed the cupboard fronts and handles, cleaned the oven, under the toaster, inside the microwave. Believe me, it's not something I do often, if ever. I emptied and organised cupboards and, while bemoaning my lack of a huge, walk-in larder, realised that I hoard tea. I have boxes and boxes of the stuff; regular "tea" tea, decaf tea, peppermint, chamomile, green tea, apple and ginger, liquorice, chai, and something called "sleep-easy". I've been drinking them up all week to make space for a treat I ordered for myself with some Christmas vouchers - three little boxes of tea from Teapigs; Chocolate Flake, chai and Rooibos Creme Caramel. I can report that the chai is wonderfully strong and peppery, as chai should be, but I've not had time to test the others yet, they only arrived today.

I had quite a lot of food just sitting in those cupboards, half-opened and long forgotten which, with some thought and imagination, could be put to good use. (I have a fairly flexible approach to sell by dates.) I found bags of worthy-looking nuts and seeds, leftover from a failed granola attempt last year. I decided to have another go as I buy and eat a lot of granola - it's a favourite breakfast of mine - but the nice stuff can be expensive. So using Sue's granola recipe I made a batch of my own and it's really very tasty indeed. I find myself looking forward to eating it for breakfast when I get up in the morning, is that strange of me?

Not overly crunchy, just crunchy enough. I didn't follow the recipe that faithfully as I wanted to use up what I had but I kept the ratios of dry and wet ingredients the same, and I will be making more in the future with different combinations of flavours and ingredients. I sprinkled a little of it, warm and fresh from the oven, over some plain yogurt with a drizzle of maple syrup. Delicious.

It also appears that I have about 4000 cupcake cases. I seem to buy them every time I go shopping, like tins of chopped tomatoes, and then forget to use them. I also have more glace cherries than is normal, so I made old fashioned fairy cakes with plain white icing and a cherry on top.

Last of all, I found three half full packets of chocolate chips. I'm not a lover of chocolate chip cookies, preferring oatmeal and raisin every time, but Sue's recipe for chilli chocolate biscuits caught my eye when she posted it last week and they turned out really well. 

The heat left in the mouth by the chilli is pleasantly strong and I thought the children would refuse to eat these, finding them too spicy. But no, they loved them and requested they go in their lunchboxes over the fairy cakes. Thank you for the cooking inspiration and your excellent recipes Sue!

It's probably a very good thing that I don't have a huge, walk in larder. Can you imagine what I'd hoard in it? So, that is mainly what I've been doing this week, cleaning out the cupboards, filling the cake tins and in the evenings, watching TV, in particular The Bridge, Sherlock and Homeland. Dark winter nights were made for tea, cake and good TV.

The Hepworth Wakefield

Yesterday I visited The Hepworth, Wakefield, a gallery about 40 minutes away from us which I have been meaning to get to since it opened in 2011. We are spoilt for sculpture in Yorkshire as we already have the excellent Yorkshire Sculpture Park, but The Hepworth is a unique and striking building and it had the bonus of being warm and inside, which is preferable on a cold January day.

I met my good friend Debora there, and her delightful, chatty, cheeky three year old son. We didn't have quite as long to linger in each gallery space as we'd have liked (the curators get awfully twitchy when little ones try to interact with the art...*) but it was still great to visit. You approach the gallery from the car park via a footbridge over the canal, which gives you a long time to study and appreciate the building as you walk up to it. I liked that. 

But the main thing that struck me was the architecture of the building's interior, particularly the dramatic sense of space - wide, white rooms and long, shiny corridors. I enjoyed the way the windows made art of the outside views, framing the industrial Wakefield landscape and grey skies. I spent as much time looking outwards as I did at the pieces inside.

We had a coffee which turned into lunch and spent a happy time in the cafe, the three of us chatting and playing snap. Outside there is more art to explore and a playground where we braved the cold wind and admired the views of the canal.

It is was a lovely day, a real mid-week treat.

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*To be fair, the gallery is very child friendly indeed, with a really fantastic activity pack and trail to follow, lots of activities at the weekend and in the holidays, a playground etc, but these are perhaps better aimed at slightly older children, over five or six years old at least. 

Settling In

Someone said on the radio earlier that today, the 6th January, can be a depressing day for many. It's cold and dark and the return to school and work after the Christmas holidays and New Year celebrations is generally unwelcome. And I have to say I did want another few days of holiday; after so much time away visiting family, the four of us had only just settled into some quiet time which found each of us engrossed in our various new toys. But the alarm went off for the first time in two weeks this morning, and back to routine we went.

I have been doing a lot of housework, and happily too. On Saturday we took down our Christmas tree and packed away all the decorations.  I tidied, dusted, swept and mopped and gradually reclaimed our house from the festive dust and glitter. It looked a little bare at first but I am appreciating the extra space. I am never sad to pack away the Christmas things. It's wonderful while it lasts, but it has to end sometime. And today, with both children at school,  I tackled the upstairs of our house. I stripped beds and dusted, I washed and folded. I moved furniture and vacuumed behind things - I even cleaned windows. I cleared surfaces that hadn't been cleared for a long time and made space for new toys. It was incredibly satisfying. I remember how, when the children were really small, it seemed impossible to achieve even the smallest domestic task. Just emptying the dishwasher and folding the washing seemed to take all morning as it was so frequently interrupted with feeds, nappies, demands. It was incredibly frustrating at times and I still very much value the feeling of being able to just get a job done - like clean the bathroom - alone, in peace, with the radio on and just my thoughts for company, and it not take all day long. After seven years at home with small people I still appreciate that time to myself, and I love the feeling of order and satisfaction that follows. I feel mentally lighter. I appreciate my home more, the space we have, and feel inspired and energised to do more with it.

Actually, today was extra nice because I unpacked and made space for some of my Christmas presents. I made up the bed with my gorgeous new pillowcases. I stopped for a coffee break and drank it from my pretty mug and I may have eaten a few naughty Christmas chocolates at the same time. I admired my tea caddy and butter dish - I really appreciate it when the things I pick up and use ten times a day are beautiful as well as useful. I was particularly grateful for the the colour and cheer my new towels bring to my grey, January kitchen.  I opened a jar of homemade chutney at lunchtime when I made a sandwich and thought that edible gifts are as fun to receive as they are to give. All little things which made me happy to be in my home today.

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The weather has been really dreadful these last few weeks, with endless high winds and heavy rain. Many areas of the UK are flooded, including some of the coastal villages we walked around over Christmas. I really feel for the people who live there. My parents went to check on their beach hut this afternoon after hearing that the water was very close. It is set quite far back from the sea - about 200 metres at least - and there is a very steep bank of shingle you have to walk over first, so the thought of it being near the water's edge is hard for me to comprehend. It is fine thankfully, but it's quite shocking how the sea has risen right over that huge mound of shingle and carved a ridge right through it. My mum texted me some photos of beach huts actually floating away into the sea this afternoon. The whole shape of the beach has changed in this storm, it's very dramatic and very sad. 

2013: A Creative Year

Happy New Year! We are home from our travels again, surrounded by washing and half unpacked bags, catching up with emails and errands. We spent the new year with John's family in Durham - it was really nice, very relaxed. However, I am looking forward to a return to normality next week. This Christmas holiday has been fun but I am ready for routine, order and a lighter, less indulgent approach to life.

Ok, I absolutely promise that this is the last retrospective blog post. But I wanted to review and celebrate last year's creativity before I move on to this year's challenges and projects.

January, February and March:

We have a shoebox bedroom for a mouse (I need to make another of these!), a warm and cosy chunky knitted cowl, some pretty and decorative fabric leaves, a crochet baby blanket for my god-daughter, crocheted coasters, a Valentine's card, a striped cashmerino scarf for Bella, a bag and a bright, geometric cushion.

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April, May and June:

A quieter few months, as time was taken up with a lot of decorating and gardening, and a large crochet throw. There was another baby blanket, a crocheted snake for Angus, new cushions for Bella's bedroom, fun with spray paint to refresh some picture frames and plant pots and a cotton granny square throw for the sofa. 

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July, August and September:

The childrens' playhouse got a makeover, there was bunting for Yarndale, picnic napkins for teachers, felt animals, holiday activity bags, felt ice lollies, a floral crochet garland, a crochet scarf for my niece, and a square crochet garland.

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October, November and December:

My favourite quarter. I made a cushion  from a vintage sheet, an autumnal embroidery (I very much want to make more for spring, summer and winter and hang them together), a knitted washcloth for me, a pile of crocheted washcloths for gifts, two dolls for my nieces, a pile of Christmas and birthday cards, a beautiful rabbit, a little dog and another doll.

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Phew. I love making things, I do.

A great deal of those were gifts, either for the children or for friends and wider family. Most were sewn or crocheted, a few were knitted. Almost all were done in my spare time, in the evenings usually. I am very glad I made every single one of them. I feel like 2013 was the year I got to grips with my sewing machine; I still can't do zips, but I can make a doll or four. It was also the year I branched out of my granny square comfort zone with crochet, and that was fun and rewarding too. And knitting...ah yes, me and knitting. I was on the last row of an alpaca cowl last night, a project I've been working on for months, a project that was actually for me, for a change, and I spotted a huge mistake right in the middle. So tomorrow I will pull back the entire thing and start again, because what's the point of finishing it now? I'll never wear it, it will feel like a failure. I want all those hours of knitting to mean something, I want it to be right, and it will be, eventually. 

When I look around me at the skills and achievements of others I know that I am, essentially, a beginner in most of these areas. Well, maybe more like intermediate in my crochet skills, and embroidery and hand sewing I think I have a knack for, but when it comes to knitting and proper machine sewing I know that I still have a long way to go. But it would be dull to be good at everything, what would there be to discover, to learn? Like living on a budget, I think I have a talent for spinning out what skills and materials I do have to make something attractive and meaningful, to make life more jolly and colourful. It's a good skill to have, I think.