We've been on a little trip

Maybe you can guess from Bob's outfit that we've been to Scotland, not so much a holiday but more of a road trip doing things so I haven't got very good pictures to share.

Bob was outside a lovely little bakery cafe, Mackenzies in Strathpeffer, I like Strathpeffer it's a beautiful old spa town with wonderful architecture. The weather was a bit grey though to get snaps but here is a delicious savoury herb scone at Mackenzies and they also have an amazing selection of malts.

This snap is Strathpeffer Victorian station, now tearooms and a couple of little shops.
Carvings are at the station too.

Our road trip took us through Perthshire and I have to say I was completely taken with the beautiful swathes of bluebells across the countryside. It seemed once you drove into Perthshire bluebells appeared everywhere in vast carpets. Sadly I didn't get any better pictures than these whizzing past in the car. I don't think the bluebells are visible on the pic with cows but they are there in the distance.

Bluebells, pink bells and white bells. Anyone know why, is it a soil thing why some are different colours?

One lovely stop off on the trip was Aberfeldy and a visit to our friends coffee shop, the Habitat Cafe. We saw the fabulous new espresso machine which had arrived that week and sampled some tasty and delicious award winning drinks.

Bye bye Scotland until next time. I didn't get to see the Kelpies which I want to at some point but here is the Stirling mermaid.

Textile work for Le Tour Yorkshire

What an odd week, started off with 3 days of downpours and you should see the mud and puddles it brought down here. By Wednesday thankfully better weather as I had a day at the seaside with my sister and nephew over from Belgium. Then today a heat wave and a plague of ants on the patio.

I've been very busy with projects the last couple of weeks, some fairly secret and some just coming out into the open like these.

In just 49 days the Grand Depart for the Tour de France will start in Yorkshire and I imagine it will be a crazy few days. The nearest it comes to me is a brief flirt with York but I'm already thinking it will be too busy and too hot to attempt to go and see it.

Instead I have opted to get involved in a more calm and creative way. My 'souvenirs' for this event are some tiny little textile artworks which have evolved into brooches.

They are made from Harris Tweed with some needle felting, stitching and embellishing.

I have made little linen machine embroidered bags to go with them.

Once I had found some tiny buttons for the wheels they started to take shape.

Adding the riders was the tricky bit.

Only made the very small amount shown here and a couple will go to Gallery 49 and the other few are going to The Attic in York.

Enjoy the sunny weekend everyone, could be as good as it gets for a while :)

Some recent photos

May is well underway and following the sale of one of my needle cases in the previous post I've had an order for 7 more which is lovely.
I'm also very busy with other projects which in turn has lead to going out and about with the camera to the seaside so I have some pictures for this post.

Went to Scarborough last weekend and the Italian gardens had been beautifully planted up, these are just snaps from my phone so they don't really do it justice. The pastel coloured flowers in the centre bed were very pretty.

I always like the reflections captured on a sunny day in the glass on the covered bridge near the Spa.

Today it was Bridlington with the camera and to the beach huts.

Bob came too and posed outside the yellow one with his new car!

It was pretty blustery and we didn't have long before it rained.

Had some fun messing about with photo filters on my Bridlington pictures, the seaside is always a great place to find some interesting and quirky things to shoot.

Love this new ride thing with Triffids!

Beach huts always make me smile and think Hi-de-Hi! Lovely sugary, candy floss, sugar almond coloured doors.

Latest creations - sewing needle cases

It's been a while since I've put any crafty creations on here. I have lots of WIP as I'm sure most of us have but I have just finished some needle sewing cases to go in my Folksy shop.

I like to try and use up scraps for some of my things and this vintage style case uses a fair few scraps and some bits of embellished rubber stamps.

I wanted to make them a bit more interesting and added some accessories and a little pouch with a needle threader included.

Next to use some surplus bits of my camping fabric. I thought these might make good gifts for caravaners or campers, it's always handy to take a needle, thread and safety pins on holiday!

Similar but in yellow and blue.
I like making needle books.

York Festival of Vintage

I made it to the Festival of Vintage yesterday. I ummed and aaahed whether to go or was I too busy this year, the weather was not encouraging me to go either as it rained all the way but I threw caution to the wind and went. All wrapped up for a chilly day and no sooner had I parked up and walked across a field to the racecourse and it stopped raining!

I always have a quick look at the vehicles before I go inside and I spotted these lovely vintage caravans and vans.

Off we go inside and the retro displays of loveliness never fail to delight me in reminiscing of old pieces of furniture we had when I was a kid. The little coffee tables with spiky legs, those sideboards with formica tops and sliding louvre style doors.

I then start to spot Hornsea Pottery on stalls and given that I have a bit of knowledge on the value of some of the pieces, they are very highly priced at this event. If anyone is ever on the lookout for Hornsea Pottery at a sensible price the place to go is Hornsea Freeport Nostalgia Day, Aug 25th, '14.

These Bronte storage jars were about £10 - £12 each which is quite high, 4 Heirloom eggcups were £10, also a bit high.

Next we have the black and yellow Hornsea Elegance cruet set, not sure of the total price.

Moving on I found this wonderful stall with some Scandinavian pots, out of my price range!

I loved this next stall, everything was just so groovy, colourful and flower powery and I could've bought any number of things.

There was a Festival of Britain book on this stall, another era of design which I am particularly interested in.

And look at the typewriters, makes my fingers sore just looking at them as I think back to learning typing at school!

I was very restrained with my buying as I was mainly browsing, here's what I got, a tiny little brass brooch with mosaic bits, I need to restore a few missing bits but I liked it for £3.

Only one piece of fabric bought, it's 1960's kitchen cotton and quite a nice size bit.

And for my last picture, embroidered linen. I found one very reasonably priced stall with all their embroidered tray covers £1 each.
A lovely inspiring trip out as always.