Mousy Brown's House-Creating, crafting and collecting. Enjoying Life.

Beaumaris, Llandonna, Penmon and Puffin Island.

Thank you everyone for your kind wishes for the weekend, we had a fantastic (if very cold!) day at the coast and discovered some new treasures in an area we thought we already knew well.

We started at our favourite beach on Anglesey, Llandonna.  It was grey, cold, empty, wild and windy and very, very beautiful. The boys enjoyed a game of cricket with Snap (and another passer by!), she is a very good fielder but doesn't get the idea of bringing the ball back, so the batter always gets lots and lots of runs!

Sam was brave enough to get in his wetsuit and splash about in the bitterly cold sea.

We collected stones and dug holes and tried believe it was warmer than it was but eventually we had to give in and retreat to the car to defrost.  A short drive to Beaumaris warmed us up and some scorching hot vinegary chips gave us a fresh burst of adventurous spirit.

Beaumaris with its medieval castle and victorian pier, is set in beautiful surroundings beside the Menai Strait, with the spectacular mountains of Snowdonia visible across the water.

We have visited this area many, many times but this was the first time we had explored beyond the town and our decision to go that bit further around the coast was rewarded with the most magical discoveries.

First we came upon Penmon and the abbey of St Seiriol (with its Holy well and amazing dovecot)....

....and we finished the day at Puffin Island, where a bell tolled in a atmospheric way from the funny little lighthouse. 

We returned home, tired, sandy, happy and relaxed, already looking forward to the next time we can follow the call of the sea to visit this area we love.

 

A sunny busy day.

We awoke to sunshine this morning for the first time in what seems like months.  It immediately made anything seem possible and we made the most of every glowing moment..

...making...

...cleaning...

...admiring...

...playing and imagining.

We ended the day tired, happy and with a feeling of achievement that hasn't been there for a while.  Now the boys are safely tucked away and I intend to enjoy a lovely evening with friends, crafternooning.  As it is half term here I am going to disappear for a few days to enjoy some time at the beach - my knitting is already packed, have a great weekend!

Something new (and a bit old too!).

As most of you who regularly visit me here will know, I love to find new and exciting ways to show off the vintage linens I have been collecting for years. Why hide them away where they can't be seen? Instead I like to re-purpose them into useful items so they can be appreciated and used every day.  Up until now I have mainly concentrated on using the larger pieces I have and as far as possible have kept them whole.  When making my camera bag though, I did cut into some damaged and stained cloths and used the 'good' bits to patch holes the patchwork quilt I was rescuing. This resulted in a number of small pieces of beautiful hand-stitched linen being left over. Never one to waste anything at all, if I can help it, I have been thinking ever since of how I will make something special with them.

This weekend I had an idea and after a couple of evenings locked away in my workroom I have just added these two new brooches to my shop.  It makes me very happy to be giving these small artworks another chance to shine, especially as they could so easily have ended up in the bin.

It feels kind of nice to spending my time working to save something someone else carefully hand embroidered many years ago...sort of like a special kind of collaboration, what do you think?

Another walk at Hanmer.

Yesterday, we went back to Hanmer to show Daddy what he had missed when he was in China. The weather was grey and very, very cold.  The sky was grey and heavy with icy fog.  But as walked our cheeks glowed with colour, our fingers tingled with warmth and our hearts lifted with happiness.  That nature cure worked it's magic again....

Quite a little dog and her very big stick.

Snap and I have a very exciting time choosing the perfect stick as we take our walk everyday.

You can see that for quite a small dog she has quite large ambitions when it comes to the perfect stick.

Sometimes though the choice is just too hard!  Have a good weekend, I hope you find your perfect stick...

It's one of those funny days again.

I have pictures of my finished hat...

....and pictures of my finished socks.

Some pictures of things I can't show you.....

....and some I am looking for an excuse to share!

But today, the weather has got to me and I can't get my head to cooperate.

  It is telling me to sit by the fire...

....looking at the raindrops as they slip down the window (can you spot the heart shaped one?)....

....and hope that a good nights sleep bathed in moonlight will wash away the winter blues....

Screen printing day.

On Saturday, my friend Emma and I travelled up the North Wales coast to take part in a screen printing workshop.  It was run by Ario and hosted by the Embroiderers guild (I was allowed to come along as a guest when some spaces were left un-filled).  We got to spend a whole day messing about and getting covered in dye (something I love to do!), unlimited coffee and a friend to giggle with just added to the fun.

We started by getting some screens set up for break-down printing.  This basically involves layering textures underneath a screen and then applying ink to the top to charge the screen.  You then have to leave the ink to fully dry before releasing the dye later in the day.  Above you can see the screen in its wet - prepared state and a print taken off it later in the day.  Although some of the effects were quite exciting, I am not sure how I feel about this technique.  I like to have a bit more control over the end results and felt that it was a lot of effort (and waiting about!) to end up with something that was ok but not spectacular...on the other hand it was the first time I have tried it and it may well be that with more experience I might be able to learn more about how to achieve particular results.

Next we had a go at drawing with dye on the screen and leaving that to dry to release later on.  As tends to happen when you are put on the spot, neither of us could come up with anything very exciting to draw and decided to do a kind of cow parsley design on the screen.  We were happier with the prints we ended up making with this screen  but we agreed that we would probably take a bit more time thinking about our design next time and how it would look at the different stages of discharge.

Once we had our two screens prepared and drying, we moved on to using some soy wax to create a resist on another screen.  I drew my design on a page of my sketch book first and tried to follow the lines through the mesh using the tjanting full of wax.  Although batik was a technique I used a lot at art college, it has been years since I tried to use these traditional tools and my hands have got a lot more shaky! The results were a bit patchy and there were a lot of drips but I enjoyed the chance to play around and was quite happy with how my prints came out on a number of different materials.  Two of these prints became Valentines gifts for my boys this year and they were very happy!

Finally, we had a go at making a paper stencil, which we then used to create negative and positive prints through the screen onto fabric.  We wasted absolutely nothing and made colourful mono-prints using the ink on the stencil before throwing it away.  On top of these we printed using our wax resist design and the building up of layers made for some quite interesting final pieces.  I now want to experiment with these designs, using stitch and build up a layered 3D effect.

I thoroughly recommend this kind of workshop as a way to feel free to experiment and try new ways of pushing your ideas.  For me, it was great to try out some techniques that I haven't done for years and it really encouraged me to just get over the fear I feel that what I produce might not be 'good enough'. I started playing with the fabric pieces yesterday and I'll be sure to show you what they end up like when I am done - whether I like them or not! 

 

Happy Valentines day....

A desire to nurture friendships offline, finish some knitting that is nearly complete and to play with exciting ideas inspired by a workshop on Saturday, mean that I can't fit in all I planned to show you today....

....can I please wish you all a lovely, loving day instead and do it all properly tomorrow?

Simple pleasure.

I am having lots of fun experimenting with my new camera and looking through the lens is giving me a whole different view of the world about me.  Here are a few of the images I have managed to capture that have inspired me with their simple beauty.....

....hope you enjoyed the view, I am off to see what I can spot in the rain!

Last minute knitted gift and a printed t-shirt too!

What do you do if you suddenly remember your Nephew is turning 13 at the weekend and that a cool idea for a gift still hasn't presented itself to you?  I turned to my big pile of craft books and grabbed Last-Minute Knitted Gifts for ideas.  The resulting hat (based on the Kim's Hat pattern) should be a hit if the reaction of my boys is anything to go on! (I now have orders placed by both Jack and Sam and my husband and I want our own versions too...)

 

It was a great way to use up some ends of balls of some beautiful yarns and only took a couple of hours start to finish,  I added interest by chopping and changing the yarn weight, using some yarns together and also popped in the odd row of purl-ling for added texture.

 

A T-shirt jazzed up using a transfer from Sukie Iron-On Craft Pad completes the package which I hope will fit the bill for a new teenager who has a relaxed, surf-dude kind of style. Best of all, all that making resulted in me having 'my favourite kind of day'

Ps - just had to show you this shot of my hat model putting on his best 'cute' face - how funny is that?!