The Yurts

Thank you for your lovely comments yesterday about the card I made for Daniel. Today I'm sharing a watercolour 'story' of what it was like in the yurts. I couldn't recommend this place enough. It was beautiful, peaceful, every detail considered and eco friendly. If you live in England you should check it out here. I'm interested to know have any of you stayed in a yurt before? This was my first time.

On friday evening after work we took the train to Suffolk. When we arrived at the 'campsite' the taxi drove us down a path leading us to a grand thatched cottage. Behind the cottage where the yurts. It was dark and we couldn't really see the site but oh the stars above. We were lead through the field to the yurts. As the wooden doors opened we looked into a cozy, lantern lit yurt. I was so surprised to see a wooden floored, beautifully hand crafted place to stay. We slept so well in the comfy beds as the wood fire crackled. In the morning as I woke I looked up to see the blue sky shining through the sky light. I'd love to stay there in summer when the perspex cover is removed and I'd be able to clearly see the stars as I lay in bed. Oh the stars! We could see so many stars at night!

Daniel and I shared our yurt with Hatty. There's two double beds in each yurt. Early in the morning as Hatty opened the door we looked out at grassy pathways amidst the field, surrounded by trees and able to see the other yurts not far away.

I began to potter around, making cups of tea, putting the coffee on and preparing breakfast for our small group. This was the view from the kitchen. I knew it was going to be a good weekend. I'd managed to find a little haven.

At the weekend

This last weekend was a real nice one. So I've decided that instead of posting the usual 'At the Weekend' drawing I'd share bits of the weekend throughout the week.

It started on Friday morning. I got up early to make pancakes. It was Daniel's 30th birthday. I gave Daniel his birthday present which you can see in detail here. I'd planned a surprise camping trip to go and stay in some very luxurious yurts with our friends. I made Daniel a yurt card to explain all, including the weekend menu!







Back tomorrow with drawings from the weekend.
Hope you had a fun weekend? Thank you for stopping by!

Technical difficulty

I've noticed that if I click on any images on my blog they come up in a black box and they didn't used to do that. When I click on the 'At the weekend' pictures that I posted yesterday they show up small and there's no way of seeing them on a larger scale. It used to be that you could click on the picture and click again to see the details. Nobody will be able to see the drawings properly at the current size. Does anyone now how to solve this?

Thank you so much in advance!
Jill x

At the weekend

Good morning all! Did you have a nice weekend? I hope so. I realised I didn't show a previous 'At the weekend' so this morning I'm sharing two.

Here's one from a couple of weeks ago:

And here's this weekend's:
Do let me know what you did at the weekend. I love hearing about the different lives you each lead.

Postcard:14th September

sending it to Rae Ong in Tasmania, Australia

Postcard 13th September

sending it to Jaime Maddalena in Toronto, Canada

Postcard: 12th September

sending it to Libby Heily in Sterling, America

Tassle necklace

A few quick shots of a fun tassle necklace I made for myself recently. It's the necklace I made when I painted the shells. Its hard to see here, but it has a silver chain attached to a fine plait of thread. I could get quite into making tassles. Just for fun. Hope your week is going well.

Postcard: 9th September

sending it to Anne-Marie Kolodziejski in The Netherlands

Postcard: 8th September

sending it to Tamara Hawkesford in Elton, England

Postcard: 7th September

This is a picture of my friend Jeremy from Texas. He was in France doing the Paris -Brest - Paris bike race. He makes the prettiest bikes ever -totally worth contacting him if you live in America and want a beautiful handmade bike. You should check out his blog here.

sending it to Aniko Fonyo in Japan

Postcard: 6th September

sending it to Raya Lammens in Begium.

Postcard: 5th September

Catching up. Hope you are having a good week.
sending it to Jisoo, Seoul, Korea

A little weaving

I hope you are having a good week. I'm sorry there haven't been any postcards. It's the first week of school and so I've been busy. At the weekend I made a little card for a friend by weaving onto paper. The photos don't really show it, but it looked very fine and delicate, which I was pleased with. When I was at university doing textiles I was TERRIBLE at weaving. The teacher had to put me on a special computerized machine because I just couldn't get the hang of it! So it was fun to go back to weaving and actually achieve something I was pleased with. Even if it was only for a few hours : )

Thanks for stopping by and also for your really kind comments this week, especially about the painted shells. x x

Painted shells

A recent late night painting and crafting session at my desk ended with these painted shells and a pretty necklace (photos of that soon). These are slightly different from these ones and these ones but sort of combine both styles, don't you think?

I hope you are enjoying your weeks and thank you for stopping by.

Cushion cover

I spent the last two weeks working on my classroom, preparing it for the children's arrival tomorrow. Tomorrow! Here's a nice patchwork cushion I made. The cushions were already in the classroom but needed new covers. This kind of patchwork is something I haven't done before but is really fast. Ideal, should you need to quickly knock up a gift for someone. It only took an hour and a half! Not including tidying up of course : )

I layed out the template and just started cutting big random shapes of fabric. I sewed them together and hey presto!

Kitchen curtains

Last week I made these curtains for our kitchen. I actually made them from a big curtain I made for a previous flat. I used Liberty to trim the ends and they are double sided so that I can change them around should I wish. It was hard to get some good photos because of the light, but you get the idea.

Return to shells

Here are three more of the quick shell paintings I did earlier in the week. You can see the others on yesterdays post. You know, when I was a little girl I used to LOVE collecting shells. My mum would always take a plastic bag when we went to the beach so I could collect lots. I had shoe boxes upon shoe boxes full. I don't have those shoeboxes anymore but my own collection of shells is growing. I'm hoping to use some to make more jewellery. I like returning to old ideas. Leaving an idea then coming back to it later, returning to it again and again. Returning to shells again and again throughout my life.

Postcard: 31st August

sending it to Ariadne Skyrianidou in Greece

It's meant to say 'tights'. Is the american word for tights 'pantyhose'?

It won't stay cold for long. It's going to warm up tomorrow - to 25 degrees celcius! Yes!

Forever shells

I'll never get tired of shells - painting pictures of shells, painting on shells, embroidering shells, making jewellery with shells or just good old collecting shells! The other day I did a series 0f large scale (for me) five minute and two minute paintings. Here's a few and I'll show a few more tomorrow. Hope each of you is having a productive, happy and peaceful week.