wreath making with Floral Footsteps

A very talented friend of mine has set up her own floristry-illustration-photography business in Durham called Floral Footsteps. (Check out her website here, it's good for presents!)

For the last couple of years Floral Footsteps has run traditional wreath making sessions in Durham. I didn't make it last year but was very quick to sign up this December and this is the result:

I managed to commit myself to making two wreaths, one for my mum and one for a friend, without really knowing what I was getting myself into. Having only ever made wreaths with florist's oasis before, this was much more time consuming as you begin by making your own base of moss wired onto a metal ring. I won't describe the whole process (you'll have to go to the workshop next year) but basically at the end of three hours I hadn't finished one wreath, let alone made much headway with the second! 

I had however had lots of fun. There were mince pies and mulled juice on offer and lots of happy creative company to enjoy. And, having to finish my creations at home meant that I could add bits and bobs that I had lying around the house such as the gold and red ribbon.

I used to do a bit of floristry at home at Christmastime making advent crowns and wreaths but I haven't done it for a while so was lovely to get into it again. Thank you Robyn!

a very Scottish summer

It's been a while since I've blogged so I thought I'd return with a nice summery post...

I went on holiday to the Cairngorm National Park with my family this year for a beautiful, if somewhat wet and windy, holiday. It didn't rain all the time though and we had some great days out exploring the landscape. Here are some of most Scottish shots to sum up my time away:

View looking back down the valley on the way back from Ben Macdui

Grasses on the mountainside

Out on a bike ride on the Rothiemurchus estate

Huge pipe band at the Abernethy Highland Games

Woods at Loch Morlich

Highland heather

Red squirrel making a bid for some food

Toadstools love the damp weather!

It wouldn't be a real Scottish collection without a thistle

Herd of reindeer on top of Cairn Gorm

Hay bales in the field

Hope you've enjoyed this and maybe feel inspired to visit yourself. I love it that there are so many beautiful parts of the UK that I'm yet to visit!

a botanically themed photo collection

Rain-soaked rose arch walkway 

Last weekend I visited Kew Gardens in London for the first time since I was about two years old. The weather varied from glorious sunshine to thundery downpours so I took photos with plenty of light and contrast but also with the detail of raindrops settled on petals. My mum recently asked if I could make some cards for her so I'm getting these designs printed off for a botanical themed pack of home-made cards. Let me know if you'd like some too!

This is "Mandela's Gold", originally from South Africa- I love it's spiky shape!

Trumpet Vine

I took this photo before I started logging names of plants but it's very pretty!

Jade Vine

Red Lily just after the storm

Allium, also known as 'flowering onion'!

A collection of cactus roses

Dress to skirt in 10 easy (or not so easy) steps!

I saw this dress about four years ago in a sale and loved the material so I bought it even though it was a size too small. I've never really got a lot of use out of it though because it wasn't very comfortable to wear. So this year I made the practical decision to transform it into a skirt. Luckily for me, my Mum who is great at dressmaking wrote out a nicely numbered set of instructions, which I followed (nearly) to the letter.

I had to buy a zip but the buttons I pinched from an old t-shirt that wore out. The most time consuming thing was definitely lining up the fabric because every time I thought I'd got it right and the pattern matched up, it would slide around and end up wonky again! But I'm happy with the end result and it's a pretty popular wardrobe choice for work these days...

My Old Bernina Record

This is my old sewing machine which I love.

My Bernina Record 730

It was given to me about eight years ago by a lady who'd bought it in 1967 for ninety-six pounds and nine shillings. I've been told that it was the Rolls Royce of sewing machines in it's day and although the pedal is sometimes a bit glitchy now, it still runs really well. I used it a little bit when I received it but I have to admit it remained largely untouched for several years. However, having resolved to make a particular effort this year to spend more time investing in creative hobbies, I decided it was time to have another play around with it.

My first sewing venture in a few years

90% recycled pincushion (the wadding was new)

One of my first projects was a pincushion as I wanted something nice and simple that I could do quickly. The patterned material was some Liberty fabric left over from a skirt my mum made years ago and the blue used to be bunting! It was a very practical item to make too and has come in very handy as I've progressed onto more complicated things. Expect plenty more blogs about sewing adventures!

New Term, New Artwork

Term 2 flyer design

We'd been running Vane Tempest Sessions for a term and it seemed like a good idea to produce some fresh artwork in case people were getting bored of the old flyers. I decided to keep the logo and ripped paper on a  brown background for continuity's sake and kept the design hand-drawn but replaced the main tree with a floral design which feels appropriately vintage-y.

Back of flyer

On the back of the flyer, I put the line-up for five consecutive weeks, rather than three (as I did previously), meaning we could print off a bigger batch which have stayed in date for longer.

Poster for February 5th 2011

We also had an extra push when Wolf Gang came to play because they were a slightly bigger band, supported by Emily and the Woods and we were running the night in association with the Grove, a student poetry society. All of this was very exciting so we printed off an extra run of posters, using their own artwork as a background.