A postcard from St. Ives

Hello, do you remember me?
I've been having some time off from blogging :o)

I've had a really busy year so far and the last few weeks have been busy on the home and work front. I also realised I put myself through it quite a bit by stitching my quilt while recovering from my op, which was pretty stressful, so I've been giving myself some time to recover properly and I'm now doing great






















Wonderful art and photography from my flickr contacts and faves. Please click on the links to see the artists' work

1. Being at the seaside 2. Special treasures 3. The stone diaries XIII 4. Trace elements 5. Sun rising collage 6. Shell art 7. The sea and herself 8. Stars in her eyes 9. Shell organized collection 10. Dog whelk eggs (Jan) 11. Galveston shadowbox 12. Barnacles 13. Little seascape

A couple of weeks ago we had friends down and we spent some time pottering about in St. Ives harbour doing the usual holiday things, then a long weekend "up country" to a lovely family wedding and now, this week, my sister is down staying with us

Vintage St. Ives postcard postmarked 1961














... so there has been more pottering, beachcombing, gallery hopping and foodie treats which always means a welcome break from cooking ...






















Sunday ... we walked into St. Ives along the coast path and I'm sure it must be the busiest I have ever seen it in St. Ives. It was like "sardines" or "Where's Wally?" on the beaches and so hot, hot, hot

In the harbour we had pasty for lunch and then spent the afternoon beachcombing. I always love how different things get washed up on the different beaches around St. Ives. On the harbour beach all sorts of interesting mis-shapen pieces of sea washed pottery can be found and on the beach behind the lifeboat sea glass of every colour is there for the picking






















I found these delicious pebbles in Beau Bon Bon ... a lovely vintage style sweet shop right on the harbour front. These pebbles are made from yummy chocolate






















Monday - it was very hot and I got sunburnt without realising. We went to Godrevy an hour after high tide, walked the coast path, had an ice cream, paddled in the sea and took some photos of interesting beach patterns, then later to Hell's Mouth and had a cream tea in the cafe overlooking the beautiful hedgerows and countryside. It's very hard to diet when you're in Cornwall!









































Tuesday - today we woke to Cornish mizzle (mist and heavy drizzle) but, in typical Cornish style, it brightened up by lunchtime so we went for another walk into St. Ives. We went to the pictures in Royal Square to see Toy Story 3 and loved it! Then a quick mooch round the new units in the Drill Hall in Royal Square and down to the harbour. Soooooooo busy in St. Ives at the moment. Feeling very tired today

The Blackbird's Song















I've had some lovely mail recenty. Firstly, these beautiful ATCs made for me by Dawn Brimicombe, a friend on flickr. She knows I love pebbles and blackbirds so she combined them on her ATCs for me. I've still got to send mine to Dawn, so will show them another time

Seaside















This lovely card is a print of Dawn's artwork. Thank you Dawn ♥


















This pebble card below (along with some photos) came from Gina who very thoughtfully sent them to go in my pebble sketchbook. It features the wonderful pebble themed mixed media textile work of Liz Harding one of the artists Gina exhibited with recently at Prism


















Not only that but Gina sent me these gorgeous postcards of her work The Dancers. I am so happy to have them. Thank you so much Gina ♥
































































Had a lovely surprise from my lovely blog buddy Missy K. She sent me a dark red dotty handmade book filled with vintage style brown paper and a tag that says "things to do". Thank you for thinking of me sweetie ♥






















My first thought was how fab it would be to fill the book with collaged housekeeping tips, snippets of text and vintage images of domestic stuff. So I think I will do that in the New Year when my thoughts turn to sorting out the cottage after Christmas and working up to Spring Cleaning ♥
















... and then this wonderful antimacassar arrived from new friend Julie Shackson. It's so beautiful on crisp white linen. I love it. Inside, Julie had carefully wrapped some seed pods and leaves for me to discover. I made some still life arrangements with the pods and will show them later as we move into Autumn. Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness Julie ♥


















Well, that's all for now. I've got five more days off and then I'm back to work next Monday. I've got absolutely loads of textile work, art challenges and gifts I'm making for blog friends that have been very kind to send me things over the last few months. Being over challenged is the way I work best and I'm also planning a series of giveaways during September

Autumn into Winter is my my most happiest time of the year
Have a happy week and I hope you come by again soon!

Carolyn ♥

Summer Sketchbooks, Seeds and Seaside

S is a super letter!

S is for sepia, St. Ives, summer, seaside, sand, sea, shells, sunshine, seaweed, sunrise, sunset, seedheads, seed pods, sketchbooks and sweet sweethearts

A new day





















1. Misty wrapping 2. Susan in winter 3. Saturday walk #54 4. He says 5. Bookworm detail 6. Night 7. Dry 8. Purple cone flower 9. Milkweed in winter 10. Sunrise and a heavy frost 11. Seed pods 12. Still holding on 13. Fluffy seeds

Thank you to my flickr friends and faves - for Mosaic Monday

S is for seedheads and seed pods. A most beautiful and inspiring theme that I come back to time and time again. I called the mosaic "A new day" because I began making it very early this morning and a couple of the photos feature seedheads taken at sunrise ... they have that warm golden glow with the promise that a fresh new day brings






















This is a seedhead I picked up walking on Saturday and photo'd on an art book I have

















A fave red leaf with more seed pods ...

















... with little black seeds

















S is for St. Ives ... a super seaside place to enjoy summer sunshine, sand, splashing about in the sea, seaweed and shells

This is a photo I took earlier this year and played with the colours and edges in Photoshop

St. Ives in sepia





















Summer swap - here are my ten inchies with an "on the beach theme" for the summer swap at Inchybyinch











They feature the words splash, sea, sun, surf and shells


















In one of my shell jars I noticed this tiny pearly one sitting inside a larger one with grains of sand

My inchies for the Summer swap





















S is for sweethearts - my inchy for the letter S












S is for more sweethearts - a tag I made just because I enjoy making them. This would make a lovely addition to a wedding gift. I have two weddings to go to later in the year. Since starting Kiwi Carole's sketchbook making course I have discovered another use for the tags as embellishments for the pages

Sweet on each other





















S is for silver heart button made by Emma of Silver Pebble






















Sketchbook embellishments - this is a tag I made last week for the letter R (romance) but I kept it back because it fits in nicely with my colour scheme for one of the sketchbooks I'm making. So I shall use it as an embellishment for one of my pages






















I used a snippet of old lace curtain, dictionary text printed onto vellum, a vintage photo embellished with a silk flower and a pearl bead

Romance





















Sketchbook workshop

In Carole's class I am making three books

• soft rose/plum tones
• yellow autumn leaves
• St. Ives sea and sky blue

The colour schemes are inspired by the contents of my erosion bundles and the three sketchbooks will be my finished piece for The Erosion Bundle Project. I will show all the pages when they are finished but I don't have loads of time to work on them at the moment as I'm also working on my FOQ quilt

Soft rose/plum tones















These are some of my painted, stamped and torn watercolour papers. In Carole's class we are encouraged never to use scissors, so fabrics and papers are torn and threads are left dangling. I do struggle with being too neat and precise sometimes but I've always loved torn and ripped edges






















Next came the "gathering" stage. I gathered together other papers to use as pages, old photos, tags, magazine images, pressed flowers and leaves, bits of torn fabric, ribbon and lace, etc. I've got quite a big pile of stuff as there is also all the remnants and distressed things from erosion bundle including bits of fabric dyed with madder, rusted objects, decaying leaves, delicately distressed bits of paper and ephemera to use

I also transferred some images to fabric and tags to use in little stitched collages for the book, will show that another time

I picked up quite a few pretty pink/plum coloured leaves this week which will work their way into the pages too

Windfall















Sketchbook Project - Brooklyn 2011

My moleskine sketchbook arrived a week ago Saturday. It's a nice size - not too big but there are a lot of pages. I am absolutely itching to start this but I really must focus on the quilt for FOQ



















So that's the letter S all caught up with!
I could also have used all these favourite things that begin with S ...

... slate, sunset, stars, stardust, seascapes, sea glass, snow/snowflakes, scrim, sari silk, sheers - distressed, shibori, silk painting, silk paper, silk tops, space dyeing, stitching, stitches, sewing, sun printing, string, stuffing (not the Paxo variety!) and sweet wrappers ...

See you next time!

Carolyn ♥

ps. I had a disastrous dyeing session on Saturday! I saw the lovely pink dyed fabrics on Gerdiary and got some avocado skins to have a try. Put them on to cook ... went away (forgot all about the pan on the stove!) and fiddled about for an hour with this new blogger background ... went back to the pan and one disgusting and smelly burnt mess. It was so bad I had to throw my dyeing pan away :o(

16 things about me

Tagged
I have been tagged by Gunnel for 16 things about me and 16 pictures. Some of this you will already know, but here it is:

1. Me - I liked to sit on pretty embroidered cushions - I could touch my toes in those days!
2. I live in St. Ives, Cornwall
3. I love pebbles and decorate my home with them
4. I love art and painting, especially pebbles
5. I love things connected to the sea and seaweed
6. My initial is C and my favourite colours are white & naturals with touches of RED
7. My style is country and I love berries and candles
8. I am inspired by the patterns of nature especially seeds, pods and seed heads. This is a charcoal drawing I did of an agapanthus seedhead
9. Music is important to me - I love heavy metal and rock. My hero is Phil Lynott of Thin Lizzy
10. Seagulls feature because I live by the sea, I have seagulls on my bag!
11. I love textile art - I studied textiles at College and produced a huge project on pebble patterns
12. I love pebbles and hearts
    
13. My favourite winter flower is a snowdrop and I love flower fairies
14. I love snow and trees. I love branching patterns in nature
15. Combining my love of blackbirds, sewing and the colour RED
16. I love seedheads and poetry about nature

THANK YOU Gunnel for tagging me

I will be away for a few days and then I have visitors down for a little while so I'm taking a short break from blogging and flickr. I will be back again at the beginning of April and hope to catch up with you all then. Have fun while I'm away!

On my desk

I can't begin to think about pink for "A Year of Colour" because I have my seaweed hat on still and I'm currently working on several seaweed pieces, which I will post at some stage. Maybe it's the gemini in me, but I just can't seem to work on one thing at a time. I end up having half a dozen things on the go and then they all come to fruition at the same time. I don't seem to be able to work any other way. My ideas flow quicker than I can keep up with them

This is what's on my desk at the moment














I've photographed each stage of this project and may post it as a tutorial at a later stage

Seaweed Mosaic

Inspired by the beauty of seaweed and the natural patterns of nature


















1. Crazy Hair Day 2. Chartreuse Etched Enamel Pendant 3. Seaweed Press 4. Zonaria Farlowia - Clara's Bell 5. Colpomenia Peregrina - Oyster Thief 6. Weed 7. More Strange Seaweed Textiles 8. Tinted Child As The Tide Comes In 9. Gorumna Seaweed 10. Seaweed 2 11. Sleepy Mermaid 12. Sea Lettuce - Clara's Bell13. I Dream In Chordaria 14. Backlit Seaweed 15. William Morris Seaweed 16. White Seaweed

Thank you to everyone for letting me use your beautiful photos

Seaweed

On My Desk Wednesday - I've not had much time this week to work on my seaweed pieces, but I made a start. I went through my box of greens and gathered some interesting fabrics, sheers, threads and bits. Some of the fabrics I'd hand dyed for previous projects. This is what I found:











































I knitted two lengths of seaweed in one ply tapestry threads on very small needles which took ages but I wanted a thin fine look for it. I want to use these on the stitched collage with machine embroidery

On the colour trail ...

You know how you can lose so much time on the blog hopping trail ... looking at the wonderful art and treasures of your favourite artists and inspiring blogs and hopping from one link to another? I spent a lovely time catching up with Judy Scott's blog yesterday and inspired and excited by the idea of the "Year Of Colour" challenge I hopped over to Artsy Mama and signed up straight away















I like the idea that I am joining in right at the beginning and the Year of Colour challenge will go on all year with a different colour palette each month. January starts with blue, so I will post some pictures to the new flickr group next week ...


















It's been a very cold but bright and sunny day today and I had to pop down St. Ives this morning to the Post Office so I talked hubby into coming with me. We had a lovely walk down through the gardens and woodlands of Treloyhan Manor, along the coast path (saw lots of wild primroses), then across the beach and up the steps of the Pedn Olva hotel, where we stopped for a coffee in the bar of the hotel. The views of the harbour are amazing, but without the chill factor of the cold wintry winds

Unfortunately, my camera has packed up completely since the last posting so I wasn't able to get any pictures today but I took these pictures last week. Luckily, I have a new camera on order which should come next week so I will be up and running again soon … (thank you hubby for the early birthday pressie!)














Well, you may have noticed from the last post that I'm going through a little seaweed phase ... it's nothing to worry about ... I have these little phases every now and then! I have been working on some drawings and a couple of stitched collages which I will show you some time






























I won't have time to work on them at all for the next few days as tomorrow (Saturday) I'm off to Manchester for a long weekend to spend time with my brother’s family. I'm flying from Newquay as it's such a long way from St. Ives to Manchester, around 7 hours drive I think

My talented nephew is appearing in panto (“oh yes he is”). It's Mother Goose and I'm really looking forward to the Saturday night show, Sunday matinee and seeing him in his red tights! So I'd better go and get packed and I'll chat again next week ...

Seaweed on my desk

Due to wintry weather Gardening Monday happened on Tuesday for the second week running. I feel really pleased that we have almost finished the winter clearing and I like to think I'm making lots of room for all the little bulbs to spread out and wiggle their toes. While digging around I found these lovely pieces of bark which I had to rescue and I know I will use them in a project
















On my desk I have some angora wool tops (that I got at Exeter Stitch Show back in September), some yarns in olive and mustard and pieces of dried seaweed































I'm sorry that these pics are not all that clear - my camera has been playing up for a while now, the "zoom" has finally decided to go on strike and won't do anything it's told. Hubby is treating me to a new one as a very early birthday pressie as he knows I'm lost without it, so I will try and replace these pictures later. All for now, got to go play ... have a lovely day ...

Oh, one more thing, just to say I am still plodding through my old sketchbooks and posting older work on my "other" blog - Mixed Media Textile Art - I will be posting a new design project next week ...