Nini Makes

in-between

Wall garden

I'm savouring in-between time right now. I feel like these ferns that are sucking every drop of moisture from cracks in this wall. Finally getting back into making, squeezing five minutes here and five minutes there, in-between this and that and it seems to suit me just fine at the moment.

The incessant rain has subsided, now we soak up every last ray when the sun appears. Gracie even had a full day of it on Saturday when she went riding, more pleasant than the downpours she's experienced for the last few weeks, which of course didn't put her off.

Village fair

Turns out our village has a huge fair each year; bands and beers, antiques, art and lots of food – we had a fantastic time but I have no decent piccies to show. Here's a funny video about the day that I found, it gives a tiny glimpse. The rain poured in the morning during set-up then it was sunny and warm for most of the day, perfect.

Fi's sparrow

At the fair we got a big bag of roving from sheep and alpacas up the road (bought from the farmers, not the sheep and alpacas :) It was a great opportunity to introduce Fi to needle felting, she's making a sweet sparrow. 

Grasses wearing rain drops

The rain hasn't stopped me and Pippi getting outside everyday, if it had we'd have missed so much.

Drenched dandelion

Like the way dandelions are transformed by water...

Apple blossoms

and the way this old apple orchard is taking it's sweet time coming into bloom.

Larch love

And I'd also have missed out on picking up these fallen larch branches, I love their flower-like cones. I used a little in-between time to circle them up and put them on the wall.

Gracie, lovely pony April and, Cath her instructor (an amazing horse whisperer)

Spare moments have also led back to a long neglected dolly, her face is coming together every time I steal 5 minutes. She's a surprise for a special little person.

Face WIP

Other stuff. I finished The Life of Pi the other day (again chosen from the Oxfam bookshop, and again a title I wouldn't normally choose). It was a good read, it ambled along nicely yet it's chock-full of philosophy to ponder. It was more than good really, I loved it.

Also, our new little garden has been receiving some much needed TLC, mostly in the way of clearing out dead stuff, harvesting the abundant ground elder and mowing the weeds. I spent at least an hour sawing down ivy that was wriggling it's way under the felt on the shed roof and I used muscles I haven't used for years – ouch. BTW, if you pull yourself up on to a roof with ivy, then cut down the ivy, make sure there's another way of getting back down ;)
We're starting to uncover a sweet space with some wonderful flowers, old roses, lovely bay and more surprises popping up everyday. We just have to find the right place for our bird feeders and the space will feel more like home. 

I'm also learning about lots of great activities in the area. I want to take the sourdough bread making workshop, join the Pilates class, the sewing group, the creative writing group, the weekly art workshop... not sure if I have enough in-between time for everything on offer, maybe just one thing.

I hope you're stealing in-between moments for yourself, if so what are you doing with them? 

Jx 

A quick look

Hanging laundry at the Woodshed

One of the funny details I forgot about moving house is that daily life still must go on even if I have a hundred boxes to unpack (or more) and furniture to shift and utility companies to sort out. The dog still needs walks, the laundry still needs washing (if I can get to the machine) and deadlines still must be met. Sometimes my children even expect a square meal, good thing we've moved to a village with an excellent shop – they turn their noses up at frozen pizza, even though I explain that it's a square meal because it comes in a square box ;)

Pippi bringing me the antler she found

Living in a temporary state of disarray has meant my absence here and I've missed you blog; the process of creating I've missed even more. I'm bursting to make things which admittedly has sometimes led to crankiness, but we're getting there.

Here's a quick look at where we've been. The two images above were at of our temporary lodging at the Woodshed, a little holiday home when we were between houses (and without Internet access). The rest of these are from the last week and a half which have been crazy but fun. Good friends even came to stay two days after we arrived and they were very good humoured about wading through boxes (thank you Dianne and boys).

Though we've been in Somerset for such a short time there's already lots to love – like hearing the bells ring out across the village from the church just up the hill, amazing walks and incredible nature reserves, stunning views, welcoming neighbours, a beautiful riding school for Gracie to join with lovely horses and not silly prices and very importantly, a pub with great food and brilliant local brews.

A new creative space in the making

Gracie finally gets to ride, she's been begging for years

Wild pony and her foal on Quantock Common approaching the parking lot

Walking above the village

Special visitors

View from our walk above the village

Thank you for the emails and comments of concern wondering if I'll return; yes I will – see, I'm making a start already with this quick hello. Thank you also to friends who gave us all a lovely send-off before the move, you'll be missed!

Now I'm hoping to get back here more regularly and start making visits to friends soon too.

Jx

Back soon

Pastures green

I didn't realize I'd be taking a blog break. Lots of changes round here and nearly over the biggest, a house move and a move to a new county too. This image via Google is of some of the countryside near our new home, can't wait to get my walking boots on and start calling Somerset home.

See you soon,

Jx

Consolidating

I'm in that mode again. Whittling down all the crap that's accumulated around us over the past two and a half years and getting ready to shove it all in to boxes to move. Some things take me extra time though, like my vintage linens and textiles. Even though it's Sunday I was up at the crack of dawn to sort through some of these in peace, and as usual I'm deciding not to part with most of it. I am parting with some of my more modern fabrics though and as I have no time for selling them I'll divide them up between some of my more keen young students to start their own fabric stashes; Gracie already has a stash of her own started.

On another note, Tristan has posted a tutorial for his indoor shuffleboard type game. It's very detailed, including a fabulous video he put together with his mother as amateur camera woman. Check it out and let him know how you like it if you get a chance.

Hope you're having a restful Sunday. 

Jx

Expect the unexpected

Sparrowhawk, image by Hiyashi Haka via Flickr

This morning I saw a sparrowhawk carrying off a young bird in it's talons. That bird was probably hopping along minding it's own business, pecking the frozen ground in search of loose seeds and grubs when suddenly two giant feet appeared out of nowhere and whisked her away.

It's easy to feel like a small, defenceless bird when things happen unexpectedly. Lately I've been involved in lots of quick action to take control and minimize nasty surprises. It's been busy and a little scary but mostly empowering. I've got an even busier time ahead with lots of personal changes over the next few months but I'm sure the outcome will be good.

Though I haven't been around here on the blog there's been a lot of fun stuff happening behind the scenes. We fashioned a Pippi Longstocking hairstyle for Gracie for a book character day at school, it involved aluminium wire bending and wrapping and plaiting and pinning and it worked! She created her own outfit to match the hairstyle.

Gracie has also decided dipping lollipops in chocolate is culinary genius and so do her school friends who nearly knocked her over to buy them. The children are being encouraged at school to create a business to fund a charity; selling out her lollies two days in a row in a matter of minutes means she's off to a bloomin good start.

And on one of our recent subzero days Tristan invented an indoor shuffleboard game with one of my empty ribbon spools, he'll link to his own tutorial soon but it's super fun to play – it's been our post-dinner entertainment this week.

I've been hand stitching some patchwork strips to repair my ageing linen duvet cover. I'll probably need to bring in the machine though to speed up the process because the tear is becoming too big too fast. 

The birds in the garden (especially the blue tits) have been acting as if it's spring, nasty shock they had with the big freeze this week. We added an extra fatball feeder before the serious cold set in to help out.

And we've finally had enough snow for snowman building this week but a little more tobogganing action before the winter ends would be nice. Our snowman likes cuddles, see? He's asking you for one now (careful though he gets all melty).

 Happy Wednesday, hope to see you soon,

Jx

Fixing

Breakfast?

The photo has nothing to do with my post but Gracie made her own breakfast and offered to share it with me but a hummus, tomato and olive sandwich just didn't appeal.  I took a photo though because she likes to make all her food look pretty.

I've been in minor, new year clear out mode but major fix-it mode. When we returned home from California to hurricane force winds it was no surprise to find a window blown out of the old garage in the garden, on closer inspection I realized it's made of plexi-glass, not the real stuff. I got out my hammer and nails, removed the moulding that remained around the frame, manoeuvered the plexi back in then repaired the moulding. It wasn't hard to do, no wood cutting with fancy tools involved, just my hammer, a screw driver and a few nails.

Window fixed

The top of the roughly made fence which happens to hold up our Sky dish had also collapsed. I only discovered this after several non-TV days. Not really a problem, until my children eventually staged a revolt – I wasn't up to arguing with two jet-lagged kids coming down from Christmas holiday sugar high. That particular repair is temporary because I simply hammered the fence back together again with the help of children lifting the wooden rail up for me. 

I also repaired and hung the post box that the home owners just had stashed in the bushes at the entrance to the house. Don't know why this one took me so long to get around to.

Also, my Jakar electric pencil sharpener, which I LOVE, was also broken, due to a long drop to the stone floor when I was moving stuff around in my craft space. I got out my screw drivers, disassembled the pencil sharpener and had a good look around. I found the source of the problem, fixed it, plugged it in and realized, when it wouldn't work that there was another problem with it that I'd overlooked. After a gigantic sigh I opened it back up, found another potential problem, fixed it and it worked – this time I gave myself a pat on the back.

Clearly on a roll, I took apart Tristan's broken alarm clock (using my eyeglass repair kit) found potential problems, put it back together again and it worked, pat-pat.

Now the small space heater that I use daily during the winter needs a repair, I'm wondering if it's a step too far. Though when I took the hedge trimmer to have the cable replaced I thought "I could have done that." Of course fixing that wouldn't have been necessary had I not "trimmed" the cable along with a hedge.

And on the topic of tools, I fell head over heals for this site, I have my eye on far too many items there to list but first up would be a nice new knife for whittling and general gardening use. 

Speaking of fixing, forgot to mention I took Gracie to see Hugo over the Christmas break and we both loved it so much. I really recommend seeing it in the theatre if you still can.

Are you a fixer? If not, next time something breaks just open the broken thing up and have a look, you never know.

Fixing for me has also been of the mending variety, more on that later. Off now to "fix" a huge tear in my favourite but ageing, linen duvet cover.

Happy Monday to you,

Jx

getting out on grey days

Sunshine inside

Sitting under a grey sky meant a very wet walk this morning and enjoying the sunshine inside. My first bundle of daffodils of the year is making my desk sunny and bright.

Nature notes

I came across an old page of "nature notes" while I was sorting out ugly, gigantic piles of paperwork. Living in a country that often sees days on end of grey skies in the winter, I used to make up little nature scavenger hunts to help get the kids more interested in getting outside when it was cold or wet.

These little nature notes only took a couple of minutes to write up and worked well to get the children to look more closely at the world around them. Sometimes they would fill in answers when they got home and more often than not only one kid participated, but I know the other one was still taking it all in.

It's easy to make them up to match the environment where you live. If it's damp out, rub a candle over the page to keep it dry, if it's rainy then pop it in a plastic bag. 

On this particular sheet these are the questions I asked: 

• Can you find any animal homes?
• Can you still see any fallen leaves?
• Look out for birds with bright colours. Can you see any?
• Are there any fungi still around?
• What kind of trees do you see that still have leaves?
• Are there any bright colours in the hedgerows? What do you see that is brightly coloured?
• Have you seen any animals that live under ground? How about mini beasts?
• Did you find any puddles to jump in?

Very simple and achievable, that was key. I wish these sheets still worked for T & G. Nowadays I resort to bribery more often than not and we stop for a special treat half-way through our walk. 

Hope you have sunshine where you are today. 

Jx

Family time

Christmas Day

An unusually warm Christmas Day, even by Southern California standards, was strange but lovely. Tristan and Gracie could hardly believe it was Christmas. If we're in California for Christmas we're normally in Northern California where we grew up, where my parents still live and it's much chillier.

Splash

Taking in the view

Gracie and Grandma

Stable visit

Chocolate chip pancakes!

Dolphins play

Look! there's one

Grey whale fluke

The ice skaters

Sleeping Beauty's castle

Disney by night

As we were in Southern California my family treated us to lots of So Cal treats while we were there. We went whale watching, ice skating where my nephew, Matthew played hocky for several years, and we hit Disneyland too. In between there was lots of food, good drink and time with family. There were also fierce Words With Friends battles between too many of us to fit around a regular Scrabble board.

Other highlights included exchanging beauty tips with nieces, hours around the firepit and walks with amazing sea views. Thanks family for such a fantastic time, especially Peter and Lindsay who had 17 of us sleeping under their roof at one point – and they were still smiling when we all left :)

We love you,

J, T & G xoxo

 

 

 

 

back again and non goals

We missed our little girl

We've slowly sloughed off the jet-lag, finally got the unpacking finished, suitcases stored away and tree well out of the house. Ready for a new year.

I've got oodles of family pics from our trip which might bore the pants off you but I'll post them so I can remember the fun just a little longer. RIght now I have a little overdue deadline to see to. We had a lovely time in sunny CA but were happy to see this excited little face again.

I haven't yet taken the time to ponder the year ahead, still trying to get my head around the year I've just left behind so it made me really smile when I read about Erin's list of non goals. Now I'm thinking maybe my first goal for the year is to make a non goal list of my own. If you haven't read her post it's about listing the things you're already doing well instead of new goals, excellent food for thought. I'm thinking this might be a gentler way to ease into any lofty ideas for the future by first thinking about the things I'm already proud of.

For My Boy

And speaking of proud, poor T was saddled with an outrageous amount of work over Christmas break in preparation for upcoming exams. He ploughed through page after page and set himself goals for completion. Yesterday, the last day of vacation, he woke and brought me and Gracie tea in bed then went straight to work finishing his mountains of prep. Baking a huge batch of gooey chocolate chip cookies was the least his mama could do for all his hard work – he sweetly shared them with his sister and mama too. His exam results don't matter a jot, his huge, gigantic, enormous effort is all that counts to me.

Sunrise back in the UK

We left some wonderful sunsets over a blue Pacific but back here in the UK we've had some beautiful colour to wake to, though slightly chillier. 

Life has seemed in slow motion this week, I've felt like I'm wading through molasses, but I hope to catch up with friends near and far soon.

Have a wonderful week.

Jx

Good tidings to all

Today was our little family Christmas and look what was under the tree for me, my own little Frosty made in pottery class by Gracie – she's been a busy maker too. I also brought in a few of the last berries on our holly tree, the redwings have nearly stripped it bare.

I'll be offline for a while, we're off now for Christmas in California with American family. I wish you all rest and peace and a wonderful time spent with loved ones.

Jx

PS, It's late, still need to pack for me AND finish one more gift. Oh well, there's always that long flight where I can sleep, better whip up an eye mask while I'm at it ;)