Sunday 11 March 2012

Planet watching

Have you all been looking at the planets this month? If the sky is clear tonight look to the west and Venus and Jupiter are hard to miss. They are quite low in the sky and very, very bright! Mars is also visible in the east this month so my insomnia has been quite useful for a change. Wish my camera was good enough to take pictures - you'll just have to see for yourself!


I've been having fun waxing hand made papers again today. It's a quick way to create lovely material for stitched collage. Trouble is though, once I start it's very hard to stop, so, when I ran out of hand made paper everything else was fair game. These bits above are some examples that got the treatment! The two sheets on the left were collographs I made last year. It's lovely to see the pristine white paper take on the golden warmth of the beeswax and become translucent. The little tiger moth is a photocopy and the speckled sheet is my hand made paper complete with onion skins and tea leaves! Well what else are they good for?


I seem to live in black, grey and navy all through the winter so, with the coming of warmer days, I thought a bit of colour was called for. This Vogue pattern was quite expensive but I've made 5 tops from it now so I guess it's earned its keep. Today I made it in coral.....


And a short sleeved version in turquoise. Bring on the sun!


Even the broad beans think summer's coming. How lovely to think we'll be eating the first of the crop in a few weeks!


These little darlings don't look too promising right now but give them a little time and some tender care and they'll be fantastic. They better be - we have 340 of them! They'll be the red part of the red white and blue colour scheme planned for our tubs and baskets this year in honour of the Queen's Jubilee.


All this activity builds up quite an appetite so it's good to know today's bread turned out so well - we won't starve this week!

Hope your weekend was productive too.
Bye for now - Linda

13 comments:

  1. Yes, I watch the stars as often as possible, cloud permitting. Loved the full moon this week but it dulls the rest of the sky a little. I think we are very, very lucky to be dark enough to see the Milky Way. So few actually see it.

    With all this creativity, cooking and cultivation... will you be my Mummy. I can smell the bread fro here! Lol

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  2. The weather forcast man on the BBC said two or three times this week that we would be able to see the northern lights if the sky remained clear. Well I looked and looked but wasn't lucky. I did see the moon, and a pile of stars, but sadly I don't know enough about these things to say what they were....it all looks such a jumble up there! I'm amazed at what you manage to get done in one day - phew, you must have some energy; what's your secret??!

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  3. Lovely post, so many senses talked to! I love the Vogue pattern, this is so just the thing, I was looking for. Would you mind to tell me the number?

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  4. Amanda - apart from the cooking you wouldn't want me as a mom - just ask Laura about that!


    Hi Annabel - I've been searching the skies for Northern Lights without success this week. Disappointing isn't it? Venus and Jupiter are really hard to miss though - just look to where the sun sets and if the sky is clear you'll begin to see them both as the light fails. They look bigger and brighter 3 or 4 hours after sunset when they are lower in the sky and closer to the horizon. Keep looking this week!

    Koubkovi -The pattern has 3 styles of top and is Easy Vogue V1261designed by alice + olivia american designer. Hope you can track it down. If you make version C like I did make sure the boat neckline isn't too wide for you. Cut it exactly like the pattern it's almost wide enough to slip off the shoulder. I adjusted the neckline by a couple of inches.

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  5. Thanks Linda, I'll certainly give it a go and see if I can see Venus and Jupiter....I was really disappointed at not seeing the northern lights. Guess I'll have to head further north to Norway/Sweden etc!

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  7. What a wonderful post to read through! I, too, have been watching the skies this week - the full moon was so brilliant and huge here in North Carolina (U.S.). I loved the waxed papers! And where do you find the time to sew clothes, garden AND bake?! I was tired just reading this and almost had to go take a nap....but then I was so inspired that I wanted to actually do something! Still moving into our new home here, many boxes to still unpack - but I just have to go paint something now.

    Thanks, Linda - you are always an inspiration.

    Cleta

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  8. Hi Cleta Thanks a lot - you're very kind. I hope for your sanity's sake the art materials are the box that's the easiest to find! The other stuff can wait.

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  9. Thanks for the information about the planets! Only an hour ago I was watching them, wondering what they really were, and here the answer is so conveniently! If only the Aurora Borealis would co-operate just as nicely. It's hard to spot it when you live in a city, even if you live quite far north. Have a great week!

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  10. Thank you for a simple way to wax papers, I have a wax pot but it is not ideal and I thought I needed more expensive equipment. Now I'm off to get a block of beeswax.

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  11. Annika, I'm glad you were able to see the planets this week - last night was meant to be the best time to watch but we had dense cloud!

    Jackie, have fun with the beeswax but I warn you now - it's addictive!

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  12. yummmm...the bread looks fantastic!

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  13. The stars are wonderful to watch at the moment our sky's have been quite clear and we had a lovely evening sitting out in our garden on Monday last, enjoying all my husbands hard work of revamping it,(I posted some pictures on my blog on Tuesday (27th) we sat round the fire basket until gone 11pm with such a beautiful view. I have never stitched with wax papers, I have never considered it, I stitch plain and painted watercolour paper, does the machine cope well with the wax?
    Lovely top pattern, will you paint, decorate, embellish them?
    Yvonne

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