a frosty morning

pottering down the garden on Monday, well wrapped up for breakfast outside...a great way to start the day...and this is the beauty which met my eye...

we had a lovely halfterm holiday with friends and family, now it's piles of washing and mess everywhere...I just need to clone myself and catch up and get organised ready for workshops, getting artwork made and dare I say it, the C...word?? 

Even my Dad has made his Christmas cake, which is a wonderful thing, the first he has made since my Mum passed on so it's a real triumph...wish I could smell it warm from the oven! He cooked it the Mary Berry way in the bottom oven of his Aga so was up at midnight taking it out! Not bad for 85!

 

and on Sunday I had a stall at the Affordable Art Fair at Rheged..a lovely day meeting some really great people, a little selling and of course some buying as there were so many lovely artists and makers there...

 

think I'd better get out of my pj's now and get down to the studio...there's 'tidying' to be done ready for a textured textiles workshop on Saturday!

have a lovely day!

Emmaxx

life is simple

if you just let it be...

since we came back from the Isle of Mull my mantra has been 'do less'...why do we find it so hard to actually 'do' nothing? 

how can I ignore the jobs that just seem to be so essential and let go? even a little letting go makes life so much more pleasant...

Rather than waiting for the magic moment when everything will be finished and perfect (ha ha!)I am trying to just be in the moment and enjoy whatever that is, whether it's chopping carrots, doing paperwork, cleaning the sink or sorting the piles of washing...sometimes I can't help a little frustration that I would rather be in the studio...but by practising being in the 'just now moment' of mindfulness I feel so much happier and content! mind you 'practice' is the word...or maybe remembering as it's easy to get caught up in the nonsense of things we think we should do! 

I have been reading The Miracle of Mindfulness by Thich Nhat Hanh a small and simple book but full of wisdom and I've found it really helpful

so outdoors I simply try to appreciate the beauty around me, not striving to improve anything, not worrying about how the garden is really weedy and plants not always where I'd like them to be...I haven't gardened much this year and somehow the garden has managed to be beautiful without my intervention...by looking at the loveliness and not judging anything as good or bad, I am more peaceful

and I do get lots of time for being in my creative space...

which is just as well as it's C-art Affordable Art Fair this next weekend , Sunday 3rd November I'll be at Rheged near Penrith with lots of other fantastic arts and makers...do come and see us if you're around!

nature has shown her strength this week, and we must respect her...I do hope none of you out there has been affected by the storm in the south of the UK...I am thankful that so few were hurt, though it has been tragic for some and my heart goes out to them. A reminder again that life is precious and NOT to waste it on nonsense...

Have a peaceful week Emmaxx

time out...

a weekend away with "old" school friends...it's autumn so it must be time to catch up with some very dear friends and be giggly girls again...just for a weekend, forget all responsibilities and glide away on a train, this time to a beautiful old mill in Northamptonshire...a delightful relaxing bedroom with views over the countryside...

after a fun evening chatting and catching up and eating, a nice early night and a refreshing sleep we hit the local town of Daventry for some serious charity shop bargain hunting and a delicious lunch in an art gallery full of amazing art and quirky corners in the old pretty part of town...

then an evening in with more lovely food, Lizzie's fab chocolate cake and of course it's Saturday night so it's Strictly...

 
  

one more sleep, another scrummy breakfast and then Julia and I talk all the way to Leeds...then I'm onto the train...we all head back to our little families, with ever growing up children...and it's a date in the diary for next year...

...a fab weekend with my dear friends but it's nice to be back to my familiar hills and landscape of Cumbria, soft and misty after rain...and husband of patience and daughter mine happy after their weekend of athletics training, chutney making and of course a take away for tea cos Mum's away...

hope your weekend was wonderful too! Emmaxx

Friday night and I'm loving...

the cold weather, strangely, with air like a cool refreshing drink, real weather for October, no longer the warm Indian summer...the garden and hedgerows turning slowly to brown and bare, stripping everything for the winter's rest...

that being snug indoors is so welcome...after a blustery walk in the wind which clears your foggyness and gets the blood singing

that my studio is tranquil again after sharing for C-art with my oh so welcome friends and visitors, but now it's all mine to arrange how I wish, finding all my treasures after they were hidden away...and clearing out the bits and bobs I don't need or love any more ...so much easier when they're all neat in a box than spread out around all my tables...

that I had a workshop yesterday with 2 lovely ladies, helping 
them to be inspired and tap into their creativity, to get confident with free machining and playing with fabrics...and didn't they do well? 2 beautiful landscapes slowly emerged...

(please note usually an embroidery foot is used for free machining, but as neither had one they carefully stitched without a foot at all, obviously you must keep your fingers out of the way! also this doesn't go well with thicker fabrics, so they then used normal stitching witha foot on)

 

and it was a beautfully sunny day too with wonderful views over the fields and hills outside and inside a lovely view of art in the making!

 

first choose your fabrics, cut and lay out, pin then stitch...

hills and fields awaiting definition and detail...wait and see!

I do love a creative mess...fabrics, threads, books, samples, ideas, scraps...getting out the boxes of fabrics instantly brings life to the studio...making it a working space once more...

 

after a day's hard work here are Jennie and Sue's beautiful textile landscapes...  sorry don't think my photo gets the lovely dark blue shades of the velvet here so well, must be the moonlight!

hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Emmaxx

feeling orange...

must be something in the air...autumn is hinting it's here...misty mornings when you can't see the hills, a sense of peace and calm after the heady summer days, quiet birdsong, flowers still colouring the garden...but seedheads and dry grasses filling up the hedgerows...change is afoot 

and C-art has been amazing again, 2 weekends done and one still to look forward to...been so great being with Ian and Steph in the studio once more...making art and conversation

and I've taught 2 lovely machine embroidery workshops too...can't beat a little bit of furniture moving in the middle of C-art!

Stephanie has been printing away...I love watching the process of her inking and mark making and playing with line and texture...

from all these bits and bobs somehow in Steph's hands... magic happens...

and in between talking to all the lovely people, drinking tea and eating cake... I have been able to play with fabrics, thread and stitch...and I am glad that textiles and machine embroidery is what I do cos it's much easier to clean up than paint!

happy? I should say so! 

hope you have a lovely week...maybe you're feeling orange too?? 

Emmaxx