More Remedies to Store Away

This is my first attempt at Rosehip syrup; just look at all that beautiful bounty from Mother Nature

I plan to use it as cough/cold medicine. Personally, I've never found cough medicines to be effective unless it's the drowsy variety which simply send me to sleep so I don't notice the fact that I'm coughing. Incidentally, in a very poorly moment, I once had a dose of said cough stuff just before having to collect the kiddies from school with disastrous results (stumbling along, forgot I'd taken the dog with me and left him tied up outside the library- only noticing he was missing at tea time when he wasn't scrounging for food!) Anyway, Rosehips are filled to bursting with vitamin C so I figure the syrup will make excellent medicine.

On the creative front, these beauties are winging their way to their new owner after being in my shop for less than a week- time to buy in fresh supplies, I think

I've decided to think positive and make as much as I want to sell, although actually it's usually when I've been thinking pessimistically that I then seem to sell stuff - perhaps I have quite a delay between my thoughts and their fulfilment?

As I have a stall next weekend, I thought I'd better replenish some of my fine art stock and I've been really missing doing some printing. When I was in college a few years ago, I made this ceramic fish plaque to go on the wall outside (it's still not there yet):

Before I'd glazed it, my then glass tutor told me I could use unglazed ceramic pieces as a mould. I decided to use lots of pieces of glass with blue frit ( tiny pieces of glass). But when it came out of the kiln, the pieces hadn't fused together. So I placed all the pieces onto a plain piece of glass with deliberate spaces in between the pieces, and this is how it looks:

I'm going to have a go at setting it into a piece of wood with a night light behind it (put it on the list). Anyway, this is my inspiration for a lino cut. I've reused the lino from a reduction linocut that I did last year

It might look quite pretty printed from this side.

Before cutting my design into it, I've printed the fish shape in blocks which I will then print the carved one over:

The design will be a celtic pattern that I thought up whilst sitting on the sides of the roller disco last Saturday- forced to rest after a particularly nasty fall and injury- waiting for it to heal before I carve this design into the lino:

I know, I should know better at my age

Let Winter Begin

Back in February (I can't believe it was THAT long ago) I mentioned the fact that I was decorating the lounge. In anticipation of cold draughts, we had the radiator moved from the bay window and onto an internal wall. Having the radiator under the window meant we had to have short curtains which looked ridiculous on a large Edwardian bay, and we must have lost loads of heat through the wall too. Having started the job, we naturally unearthed loads of things that needed attending to which is why it's taken so long to finish (actually, I still need to buy a nice big rug to hide my high quality but revoltingly patterned carpet; plus make cushion covers). The last job was making curtains and what a job! I settled on upholstery grade carbon chenille with heatsave linings. Now, each curtain measures 9ft x 9ft and boy are they heavy. At one point I couldn't even lift the fabric up to feed it through the sewing machine- then I realised it was because my little 'helper' was lying on it

It was only when I'd completed the first curtain that I realised our lovely new curtain pole would no way support it; so pause again while the window frame and pole received extra reinforcements. But now it's all finished just in time for the hard frosts we've had this week- the room is even tropically warm with just the log fire going- think of all that energy I'll be saving!

Onto more pleasureable creative activities: After a succesful sale the other weekend, I realised that having also sold pieces on Folksy and by word of mouth to acquaintances, my stock was now one third of its original size- Hurrah!

So more supplies were bought, new pieces designed and made and going into my shop here all ready for the Christmas rush.

A sneak preview of two new designs that of course I love and want to keep:

 Maiden's ring inspired by a time gone by

and the Fiddler's Labyrinth Ring which has a spinning disc- I'm so pleased with this design in a jumpy up and down sort of way and available to buy here