Collage Inspiration!

I've been inspired!

 I went to Yarndale last month, as you know, and met an amazing woman who produces fabulous collages. so when I got home I started searching online to find lots of different styles of collage.... and discovered so much that I was a bit overwhelmed.

 a few days later I joined Jani Franck's 'The Bubbling Well' which is an online space for 'creative beings'.... (you will see the link to the right of this blog). reading Jani's inspirational words and watching her short videos I became more focused and started to really think about the work I could produce. so I made my first collage.....

first I drew out the picture of a cove scene from a recent visit to Wales..... and then I searched for pieces of fabric and paper to construct the scene.  I crocheted piece to represent the large grey rocks.....

and I found some lovely fabric to represent the beautiful pebbles on the beach. 

the pretty primary-coloured boats were represented with pieces of felt

I placed crochet, felt, fabric, ribbon and part of a map on my piece of paper....... and it all started to come together!

but the little felt boats seemed to clutter the picture up too much so they were abandoned..... it was a shame really as they were a very striking part of my original visit to the cove. 

I stuck each element in place with a tiny bit of glue and then used various stitching to attach the fabrics and papers to the backing.  (please note that I am no needlewoman lol)

a page from an old book about the sea formed my coastal path, and ribbons for the sea and sand.  the flowers on the beautiful hillside were a piece of old lace.  I used part of an old map to represent the wider countryside to the side of the cottage, which actually wasn't on the beach, but about half a mile away 

when all the hand stitching had been done I machine sewed it all round...... and then glued it onto a canvas.

Ta Dah!!!

finished and mounted on a canvas

I've just finished a second one but can't show it yet as it is a gift for someone.... but I'll show it when she lets me know that it has arrived safely.

until next time.... blessings, Willow xXx

Adventures at The Bubbling Well

I've just signed up for a year membership of Jani Franck's 'The Bubbling Well'. basic membership is free... and includes loads of wonderful creative things to experience. one of those things is some little videos ... including this one for going on an Artistic Adventure. why not have a listen to what Jani suggests. . . . . . . I'm planning an 'adventure' early next week.... so watch this space to see where I end up :-) until then, many blessings, Willow x . ps.... if you fancy joining me and Jani >>>> Click here to visit Jani Franck.

Yarndale

I'm still trying to catch up ...... so I'm still blogging about what I did in September.

we are now on Saturday 28th September......

oh it was a brilliant weekend!

some wonderful people in Skipton had organised an amazing festival at the Skipton Auction Market, in Yorkshire, England, featuring all things yarn-like.  there were different types of yarn to buy and lots of crafts and demonstrations.

here is the poster advertising the event

M and I planned to arrive at mid-day on the Saturday as I had arranged to meet up with two lovely ladies that I met online and have been talking to for a couple of years.  but traffic was terrible as we got within a mile or so from the venue.  

tempers were frayed as M is a typical man and doesn't like waiting in traffic..... but we finally got parked up and walked to the entrance and were greeted with an amazing sight of loads of bunting wrapped around trees.

bunting on a tree near the entrance

bunting in the entrance hall

 this was the sight in the main entrance hall...... with bunting made by people from 30 different countries..... miles of it!!!

bunting with list of countries that participated

the knitted picnic

it looked like we had arrived just in time for cake!   :-)

knitted sweeties

..... and there were plenty of sweeties too.

bunting everywhere

house bunting made by Lucy from Attic24

this house bunting was fun at the Knit and Natter where I met my friends

Alpaca

I even met, and made friends, with an Alpaca :-))

Lucy Attic24 cosy corner

it was great to meet and chat to Lucy from Attic24 as she has been such an inspiration to me (you will find her blog to the right of this under 'My Blog List').  unfortunately it was so crowded around Lucy that I couldn't get a great photo of her section but she has put some on her blog..... so nip across there and have a look.

I want to thank M for taking me and all the organisers for putting on the festival....

a very successful event!  and a great weekend


more adventures soon
blessings, Willow x

Celebration Time!

so here we are at Thornborough............... (continuing on from my last blog)... and the time of year is September........ the time of the Equinox.... 21st/22nd

as you might remember we were going to celebrate the Equinox and a friend's 50th birthday and then he and his wife were going to fly off to Amsterdam to celebrate their 20th wedding anniversary.  the celebration is a secret.... well a secret from him..... he thinks he is coming to the Henge just to celebrate the Equinox.  so we decided to decorate a marquee before he arrived on the Saturday morning.

decorated marquee

we put a chair in the marquee and decorated it with pretty fairy lights and balloons.  later we added a little table and placed his birthday cake on it and all of his presents.

the cake

here is the amazing cake made by MG...... in the centre is a little green man face but it doesn't show up on my photo.  hopefully someone else took photos of the cake and they are better than mine.

after all the decorating J and I went to listen to an archeologist give a really interesting talk about the history of the Henge.

we were mesmerised by his words and his lovely voice...... so much so that we both ended up having a mini snooze.  sorry to Jan who did the talk..... it was really interesting.... honest.

moon over camp

we were well blessed with fine weather and a gorgeous big moon hung over us to help light up the darkness of the Henge.  there is absolutely no light polution there so when I say it is dark... it is really dark!









below are some of our evening photos giving you a flavour of our party time

cutting the cake

dancing in the moonlight?

party time

chatting

birthday boy and his lovely wife

drumming

beautiful colours in the fire

our lovely fire was enhanced with some fairy magic brought by a lovely lady in the form of little silver packages which apparently you can buy on ebay lol.

some of our group got out guitars, banjos, and drums and played some amazing music.

toasting giant mallows

someone brought some giant marshmallows and so we toasted them on the BBQ and on the fire.

dawn over our 'village'

I'm very much a night person usually.  I hate mornings and take ages to wake up.  but when I'm away in Kitty I am awake at dawn and rewarded with views like this.............

sunset

Sunday was a lovely day of gently mooching around the lovely stalls.  people were selling so many different crafts.  there was a blessing for all the animals in a ceremony and people brought their dogs to be blessed.

L and B and I went for a walk to forage for fallen wood for our night-time fire and came back to the Henge just as the sun was setting.

monday morning quiet

as most of our group.... and also most of the campers in general had gone home on Sunday night I woke up on Monday morning to an almost empty campsite.  if you look closely you can see L and B's firepit sitting on bricks there on the right of the picture.






those of us who were left had a lazy breakfast and then started to pack up our campervans and tents.  by 11.30am we had done a 'sweep' of our area to check that nothing was left behind to harm the wildlife and the animals that the farmer may be putting in to graze.  and by noon we were all driving out of the Henge with a tear in our eye, as this is the last 'meet' of the year, and it is doubtful that we will meet up camping again before the spring.   all very sad :-((

but I'm sure I will get out and about in Kitty for day trips and I'll tell you about them and post pictures.

'til next time, blessings, Willow x

Kitty, Stephen, & Willow Lose Their Way

so.................. last time...........

"Kitty and I had hardly got home and got our jobs done when we were off again..... this time we were back to Thornborough Henge to celebrate the Autumn Equinox or Mabon".

..... and so we were off again, Kitty and I (and Stephen too) ..... this time heading up the A1 on a Friday lunchtime in September.  but Stephen SatNav didn't seem to know that the A1 has been altered several months ago even though I had uploaded new maps *groan*.

there we were.... driving along.... and I realise we are near junction 50 and thought that we should be coming off at J50.  but Stephen said that we had to go on another 4+ miles before coming off.  so...... being very dependent on the modern technology that is the SatNav to get me around, I listened.

the display on Stephen showed us grass-tracking and nowhere near the A1...... but obviously we were on the motorway (Kitty isn't really built for grass-tracking... and I'm not really brave enough to try it anyway).

'Stephen', I said, 'where are we going?'  ......

'in 100 yards turn right' said Stephen.   'we are on the motorway Stephen..... we can't turn right!!'  I replied.

'in 100 yards turn left' he said.  'there isn't a left turn Stephen we are on the motorway with no slip-road anywhere near never mind 100 yards away!'

 'turn around when possible' was his reply!   'TURN AROUND???   we are on a MOTORWAY!!!'  was my yell..... as if my shouting at a SatNav was going to make any difference whatsoever.

so...... what do you do when your SatNav gets all confused?  you have to make a decision.  but maybe I made the wrong one as I decided to come off at junction 51 and work my way back along the minor roads.  with hindsight I probably should have got myself back on the A1 going south and come off at junction 50.... but we make these decisions hoping that our intuition doesn't let us down like the SatNav just did.

so here we are with the A1 now on our left and trying to pick our way along the little country roads that are North Yorkshire at its best.  and now what does Stephen say?  'turn around when possible'.... 'turn right.... turn left'.  and what do I say?  'oh shut up Stephen!!!'  I was tempted to throw him out of the window .... but I thought he just might pick up a route to our destination.  "did he?"  I hear you ask.  NO...... he didn't...... so for miles I carried on along country roads trying to find a signpost for Thornborough Henge....(English Heritage seem to have abandoned the beautiful site in favour of more 'money-making' site such as Stonehenge.... *sigh*)..... so no signs will point you to Thornborough Henge.

after what seems like an eternity but was probably only 30 minutes Stephen finally picked up a route for me.  by now I am really panicking as I was meant to meet friends at 2pm so that we could save spaces for those who had to work Friday and couldn't come until late Friday night or Saturday morning.  not only were we celebrating the Equinox but we were celebrating someone's 50th birthday.... so it was a big occasion.  by now it was 2.30pm.  I began to recognise the scenery as I had been for the Beltane celebrations in May... so I started to relax and before I knew it I was greeted at the entrance to the Henge by a man with a long grey beard in a high-vis jacket (no.... not Father Time.... but Cat.... a lovely man who volunteers to greet people and show them where to park).

none of my friends had arrived so I waited by the gate talking to Cat and a lovely fae-like lady for around half an hour before I decided to park up and get the kettle on.  one by one friends started to arrive..... each one telling the story of being sent down to junction 51 by their SatNav instead of coming off at junction 50!!!

next time I'll make sure I write down travelling instructions and use a MAP.   in the words of Sir Alan............. Stephen!...... you're fired!!!!

more adventures soon :-)

blessings, Willow x

Kitty & I Meet Up With Friends

oh dear!  it has been so long since I last blogged that you have all probably forgotten me.

well.... just in case I've still got followers I'll try to update you on what has been happening in my world.

Kitty Campa and I have been travelling about quite a bit this year.  At the beginning of May we headed off for Thornborough Henge in North Yorkshire to celebrate Beltane.

We ended up meeting loads of wonderful new people with similar interests and have since become great friends and have met up several times during the year.  here is the English piper on the Henge piping down the sun.  we also had a Scottish piper who piped down the sun on the Saturday and the Sunday.

here are the drummers calling us to the ceremony.







After getting home and doing the washing Kitty and I headed off for our annual meet with our Stonewylde friends at Avebury in Wiltshire.




here they are getting dreads in their hair :-)

I've added a few new stickers to Kitty......

.... at the back and on her bonnet.  but I've loads more to add over the months.







Kitty and I spent a week at Moongazy Camp with our Stonewylde friends before heading home.


our next big outing was to Derbyshire to meet up with friends and celebrate Lammas at the beginning of August.





here is one of our group, exhausted after putting up her tent.  this is the reason I bought Kitty :-)   I just drive up to my pitch and park...... and switch on the gas and make a cuppa..... simple!










as you can see, our area of the campsite became very crowded!

the first night we were blessed with the most amazing sunset........

......  but the following night we got this!!!  (yes that is a colour photo!  the sky was black and we ended up with the most incredible storm with fork lightning giving us a spectacular show).  unfortunately many people got soaked wet through in their little tents :-((  although the bigger and better waterproofed tents stayed dry.




our next camping weekend was near Conisborough Castle in August.  we meet up for a picnic every year with our Stonewylde friends but this year some of us decided to camp the night before.

many of us were fascinated to watch two of our men put up a folding caravan.... before we all piled inside for afternoon tea and cakes.

the campsite was lovely and had plenty of space and electric hook-up (a luxury) and showers!!!  :-)













we held our picnic on the Sunday in sight of the castle.

the picnic table was huge.....
and filled with foods that everyone attending had brought to share.

some of us sat under the shade of the beautiful trees.... and some enjoyed the full sunshine.

Kitty and I had hardly got home and got our jobs done when we were off again..... this time we were back to Thornborough Henge to celebrate the Autumn Equinox or Mabon.   but I'll blog about that later.


hope you enjoyed catching up with travels with Kitty

with blessings, Willow x

A Good Spring Clean!

gosh!  it's been a long time since I posted.... sorry.

as you can see the blog page has had a Spring Clean.... a fresh new look ........ but I've had a different sort of Spring Clean for myself........

well.... I'm still having investigations into the pain I'm having in the same area as my gallbladder was in before I had it removed.  Since I last blogged I've changed consultants and had several more tests.  yesterday (Wednesday) I had a colonoscopy.

my appointment was for 2.45pm so I had to take a fast-acting laxative on Tuesday and also on the day of the proceedure and was allowed nothing at all to eat from 1pm on Tuesday.  

the proceedure wasn't pleasant but was tolerable.... and took 45 minutes.  I watched the whole thing on a big colour monitor.  I asked the doctor to tip the screen a bit my way as I was struggling to see it..... he replied that it was for his use and not mine and laughed.  I was really interested in the whole proceedure and the doctor was brilliant in answering my questions about where the camera was in my body and what he was doing.  

he removed a small polyp and took a biopsy or two.  totally fascinating!  watching it on the screen made it feel strangely not inside my body..... until he started to remove the polyp and told me I would feel a slight tug.  what a weird sensation that was!  not at all painful in any way.... but I just felt the tug and saw what he was doing at the same time lol.  

there was no sign of diverticulitis.......... so it seems that damage was done when I had my gallbladder out 18 months ago.  hopefully in time that will heal.... or perhaps I will have to live with it as it is now.

results will be sent to my GP in about two weeks, and will then see the consultant again.... but that could be a month or more away. 

anyway..... for now..... no more tests :-))

blessings to all of you, Willow xXx