Cosy creative February days

 

Let us welcome February and take every chance to show love to all we meet.

Hello all, it seems like only yesterday that Christmas was upon us and yet it is now February.  I hope that you all had a peaceful one and spent the season happily with those around you.  I had a dear friend to stay for three weeks and we had a lovely time here and incorporated it with my family.  Her family live now in Australia and she will be joining them this year so we decided to make the most of our time together and we really really did.

There has been so much going on through January and also trying to get my website up and running which actually had to hold for a few weeks as my Mum has been very poorly, yet bounced back a bit I am happy to say.

 So today is the start of my new year, a little late but there it is. Yesterday I was going through my basket of  ongoing creations and I was happy that I left everything pretty much in order so that I actually can hit the ground running as it were.

This week I want to get everything ready to film some online courses and then get a few uploaded onto the website.  The website has been a challenge to me as although it is being built by someone else, I am very involved.  The thing is it is getting technical people to understand what I actually do.  They used the word Us in something... I will explain, there is no us, it is me!  I am not a huge business so getting them to understand me and what I do has been a trial.   

As you all know by now I do all my own photography and they were popping in photos that they have in their archives, noooo I said this week, I sent you what I have taken..  The colours of things and all sorts really ... we are now getting there and so fingers crossed this will all smooth out this month.

Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon!

It has been extremely cold here and the log burner has been blazing.  Some days I have woken up and thought that it had snowed in the night but actually the harsh

frost has made it look that way,  Jack Frost has been very busy with his brush making everything white and sparkly - it has been really very beautiful but oh so cold.  One day I had a hot water bottle up my jumper I could not get warm at all.  Even so I have walked down by the river to see the beauty that this Winter weather brings.  Feeding the birds with seeds, worms and chopped apple and watched them with delight.

Although we have had cold sunny days most have been dull and the fairy lights and candles have been keeping everything happy and cosy along with my slow cooker so that of an evening I have had a warm meal waiting for me after I finished my day.  Its the cosy hygge feeling I love in the Winter.  In the evenings I have caught up on my reading and have been doing a lot of writing, old school style!  Ideas and little sketches and the odd great film to immerse myself in.   

Watching my little garden I can see the promise of Spring and I have been planning my garden for the lovely promise of Summer days and evenings, loving all seasons myself I try and make the most of everyone.

I had some beautiful antique threads for Christmas from my Mum actually, although now my Sister and I have to choose what we might like from her we make the most of it and always take it in to show her what we have chosen.  This year even though I am told by others that threads and fabrics are basically work tools, its what I chose.  I am making some bits for myself to hang in the cottage and every time I look at them in years to come they will always remind me of my Mum.

In my Threads of Time studio I have had a little radiator heater on low to keep it warm and of course with all the antique fabrics that are in there, its important that it does not get damp and ruin them.  My friend did laugh over her few weeks here that I went down there most days just to check on it all.  She also remarked on the beautiful feeling it has in there with lots of candles and lights too.  I have a project out on the large old table, which has a beautiful old quilt on as a table cloth.  Pin cushions with lots of needles threaded in different colour ways and a pretty tray in the middle with hand covered buttons in it.  I am in the middle of designing a dress for me made from old materials.  The bottom of the dress though is new ish fabric and is from Cabbages and Roses and is in memory of Christina Strutt, the founder of  this gorgeous Company, who sadly passed away in January this year.  It will be worn with pride to Vintage Fairs this year, Christina Strutt has always been a inspiration to so many people with her designs of the most gorgeous fabrics, homewares and clothes as well.  I am getting all the pieces ready and the hand embroidery done ... Then over to a lovely lady who has a sewing shop ( not supplies but alterations and the like) and she is going to sew it all together with fittings in between ....  I am not a dress maker so it seemed the perfect way to do it.

Anyway these are my thoughts and ramblings today and I have missed chatting with you all.  Today is a busy day but this evening I will be curling up with a book by the fire

as ' between the pages of a book is a lovely place to be' and the cosy crackle of the wood burner will keep me cosy.  I am reading one of Kate Morton's books and I simple love the way she writes, loosing myself in her descriptions and story line.  She has a new book coming out soon and I told myself I can not purchase it until I have read this one ... This one came out in 2018 around the August time If I remember rightly and has sat there because of life and what it brings.  So I have decided more reading of an evening and a cut off point for my stitching.

Take care and as always Happy Stitching!

Sarah XX