Feeling Inspired with Aspire Photography Training

30 minutes away in Burton in Kendal

is a little gem of a company:

Aspire Photography Training.

It's the same company that offered 

the sourdough Artisan Breadmaking class 

at Lovingly Artisan in Kendal.

Today Aspire had an open day

and I was able to have a little taster 

of some of the photography courses that they offer.

We had a lovely model to 'shoot'

and a lovely bunch of people to shoot her with ;o) ....

(Although I appeared to be the only amateur 

with my little point and shoot - not that that really mattered!)

I have wanted a better camera for a while

and hopefully this might be the push in the right direction,

to revive 3 years of photography training,

when I studied Graphic design all those years ago.

Although, even a point and shoot can take an OK shot

if the light is right :)

 *****

 Lovingly Artisan bread was used in the 'still-life' shoot:

 It was great to see the bread again

 (it reminded me about what I am aiming for in my own bread making)

*****

We also shot some beautiful calligraphy...

All in all, a lovely inspiring day.

Thank you Aspire xx

Artisan Bread-Making

There is a local-ish (about 45 minutes drive away)

 Artisan Sourdough bread maker called 'Lovingly Artisan'

and my husband just loves the bread.

It reminds us of our favourite bakery in South Africa: Ile de Pain.

Anyway he offers an artisan bread making day class called:

'Make it, Bake it, Shoot it'.

I have been gluten-free for about 12 years,

but for some reason I am able to tolerate 

(in small quantities) the sourdough bread.

The sourdough 'starter' is fermented for 24hours 

and appears to create the 'good bacteria'

that helps me tolerate the gluten.

I came home from the bread making class 

and was determined to get baking!

 After an initial hiccup with getting my 'starter' started,

I have been baking....

There have been a few failures, but here is a success:

A green olive sourdough bread!

It was so good, I definitely overindulged!!

Part of the baking course included some photography

(the 'shoot it' bit),

which I will talk about in my next post,

because these are definitely 'before' the photography class photos!! :o)

Bookshelf Quilt

I was asked by a friend to make a quilt

for her mother who is an author....

I hand painted all the book names...

and paper-pieced a few items 

to add interest to the quilt....

I enjoyed the project

especially asking my friend and her father

all about the recipient of the quilt....

Apparently it's been very well received

and I can strike it off my secret project list :)

Happy New Year

I confess... I did lose my blogging and quilting mojo a bit...

last year....

even as I write this I am yearning for my bed :(

This is not like me at all.

It's like the last year of grief and action 

has suddenly caught up with me and I am tired.

So so tired...

(Morecambe beach walk....)

(...one evening after Christmas shopping)

Usually people ask how I manage to do so much

and I usually scoff that anyone thinks I am managing much at all,

but who knew that 3 children especially a certain lovely 

(yet boundlessly energetic and incredibly demanding) 4 year old

would eat into my sewing time so much LOL.

(our usual homemade hot chocolate 

after a cold walk or cycle for the older Kalico kid's) 

(Christmas baking with Miss Kalico - age 4)

Anyway, a new year looms

and unfinished projects call,

as well as new ones begging to be started!!

(A colleague's birthday cake I made this week - it had smarties inside!)

Ideally, I would like to get my house and sewing studio

super tidy and organised and then I could sew guilt free

(while the washing, cleaning and cooking sorted itself out!!)

(a coffee mat for my boss's December birthday)

The holidays are over and it's back to work!

My nephew and his girlfriend stayed with us for a few days 

so we crammed a bit of action into his visit 

including a trip to the local cheese factory,

a visit to Bolton Abbey.... 

and a brief walk to the waterfall: Gordale Scar:

then they went off to to the Forest of Dean 

where they got engaged!!!!

Clearly DH and I did not sufficiently put them off the idea of marriage LOL!

Anyway, I think that sums up me, for now.

No mega New Year's resolutions,

just an attempt to keep my chin up and my fingers full of fabric 

Happy New Year y'all! :)

SSCS 2015 In & Out

Well we waited patiently to open our presents....

even though we forgot to get the cat anything special...

and for SSCS2015 in: 

I was the very lucky recipient of a beautiful mini quilt/table topper

made by Anthea at Hibiscus Stitches

The Kalico kids got sent some sweets

and there was also a mini candle included.

The colours are lovely and just up my street.

Thank you Anthea.

Apologies that this post is so delayed, 

but we have had house guests (who only left today)

and non-stop action since Christmas.

******

Tonight for New year we had these...

Smoked salmon pate balls.

Quite yummy, but the presentation is what sold them to me....

******

And my SSCS2015 out:

I sent Jenny in Australia

a table topper, a vintage sugar bowl and a needlecase....

(click on the link above to see Jenny's photos)

I was so pleased the bowl arrived in one piece!

And that the whole parcel arrived at all - it was so delayed,

I almost started to panic!!

Many thanks to the dear Chookyblue 

for organising the swap despite everything xxx

Merry Christmas

Just wanting to wish you all

a very Merry Christmas!

This time last year,

I wanted Christmas cancelled...

...but life does march on

with some of us missing....

So blogging this year has been bad,

for several reasons.

1. I started a new job

2. I have an incredibly demanding, but loving 4 year old

who really IS incredibly demanding!!!

3. I have 2 other lovely children who are less demanding,

but who equally require feeding, clothing and loving...

4. I do lots of sewing stuff and just don't feel it's blogworthy...

5. I had a fairly big secret project that was not mine to blog about:

More pictures when it's been gifted (tomorrow!)

6. I have been grieving

7. Another secret project:

My SSCS2015 secret santa gift only arrived yesterday!!

It was sent in time, but I guess the post can be tricky....

All will be revealed with that one in time too!

and 7. life just gets in the way!

So......

In the meantime, keep well, be happy 

and love the ones you have xxx

SSCS2015 - Thank you!

Thank you to my Secret Santa Swap partner

for the parcel that arrived today! 

The poor postman was absolutely soaked, 

the parcel was exteriorly super soggy 

as we are having the most dreadful rains and floods,

but thanks to a super mailing envelope my parcel was safe and dry on the inside!

And what was inside!!!!:

A beautiful Cross-stitch ornament, 

Some very kind ornaments for the Kalico kids,

and a very interesting feeling gift...

(yes, I had a good feel!! ;) )

Thank you Secret Partner!!

I got the impression that I wasn't allowed to open the card,

so I shall have to wait until the big day to open my gift.

Thank you xx

And here...

the rains...

non-stop!!

The field in front of our house is flooded,

the small river behind the wall appears to have burst it's banks.

Storm Desmond has hit several areas really hard,

so we are lucky that although there is just a huge amount of water,

we are all ok.

Wet, windswept, but ok!

Hopefully, it will be over soon!

In the meantime, I will be tucked up inside

trying to be fit in a bit of stitching here and there,,,,

Wordy Wednesday

Instead of muttering about my bad blogging,

I will just write a photo-heavy post

to give a small indication of what I have been up to....

I have been making things 

for the Church Christmas fair with a friend

(who is now sick of pom-poms!!)

*****

I have longarm-quilted an old lady's quilt,

that needed quite a bit of TLC to even get it on the machine...

But it has turned out beautifully.

*****

Miss Kalico has turned 4!

A cake for home: 

Some lovely gifts from friends...

And a cake for the party! 

***** 

I made a little something for a colleague

who loves Lavender...

The Bullion stitch addiction continues

though not as relentlessly as before ;)

*****

I have made my ornament for the SSCS15...

This one took 2 evenings 

and was a lot trickier than I imagined,

but hopefully it will be well received.

******

And I am working on a few secret projects.

This one involves top levels of investigation

in order to correctly tailor the concept to the recipient.

So I am sewing although nothing for me.

I had grand plans to make Miss-Kalico and I

Halloween costumes, but I ran out of time :(

A friend gave me a Halloween costume 

in a rather tiny size. Although I was flattered,

I preferred to leave certain curves and bulges to people's imagination ;o)

Anyway, I will try and blog more soon xx