A change of home...

This week saw an extremely stressful departure of my horse and myself from our stableyard-home of seven years under difficult circumstances.  
Happily, we have landed in a good place and Merlin now has lots of grass, a huge stable and a relaxed routine so we are settling nicely - he loves the enormous new stable - yesterday he was stretched out and still snoozing at 11.30 am - I spent ten minutes with his head in my lap - he looked at me and gave out a great sigh, which I interpreted as bliss; he settles fine in new places so long as he doesn't feel abandoned - happiness is having a safe, contented horse.  

Just as a little icing on the cake, our new yard has cats rather than dogs and Merlin loves his new feline friends....

That's It, I'm Off.........

Following the spectacularly unsuccessful attempt to get to Venice last month, being grounded by ash, I'm going off on what I'd call a little 'holiday-ette' to Radgale Hall for a few days.   I'm leaving this to be auto-published by Blogger, because as you read this I'll probably be up to my ears in carrot juice and water aerobics (AKA 'Carrot Aerobics', a new craze sweeping stableyards up and down the country).   No, actually to be fair, I've never known carrot juice to be served at Radgale.  

I've been having a bit of a time of things with high blood pressure due to my Rheumatoid Arthritis meds and some stuff going on at my stableyard so I thought a couple of days having breakfast in bed and pampering treatments would be just the thing (its always important to have a good excuse). 

I'm taking Mum, my best friend, who as I write this knows nothing of where we are headed - I've thrown her a couple of red herrings like telling her to pack her passport and walking shoes -- which now makes me think that probably she's thinking we're back off to New York, in which case the Leicestershire countryside is going to be a grave disappointment.

I've visited Ragdale several times but not last year as I had a week's horse training at a British Horse Society place up in Lancashire with Merlin instead, and then shortly afterwards he had his bad accident and I had to nurse him through that.  
If you ever need a real break away from it all, this is the place to go.   If you're wondering about the bottle of Bailey's in the second picture, er - umm...yes, that was when I last visited, but honestly, I didn't drink any, I just took it back home, honestly.

The place gets an extra star from me because they have a resident cat (well, OK, we have two of those at home, but I do approve of that touch); everyone hangs around in bathrobes (yes, even in the dining hall), and there is a Quiet Retreat room where any more noise than the turn of a page of a book is frowned upon - the primary activity is sleeping, and Ragdale's food is - well, amazing.

Mum has had a rough time health-wise in the past several months, and of course, I'd hate to be without my best friend.

I may be back on Saturday, if I can prise Mum off the front door, and I will be mailing out any orders on Monday, promise. 

Oceanic Felted Wrap

This is 'Oceanic', one of my latest creations.   I've used a hand-dyed Merino wool and silk blend (70/30%) with a ribbon border which has almost ruched the edges - I'm going to experiment with more ribbon on other pieces - I like how it has turned out but its so different to how I imagined it - the wool felted beautifully but I imagined it would be lighter in colour than it has turned out - I know what I saw when I laid it out, but when it felted it seemed to be 'concentrated' somehow - its very soft.  This one took around 6 and a half hours to make. 

Soft Silk and Merino Wrap

This one has so much silk in it and is beautifully soft; the colours are a bit of a departure for me but the deep dark berry colours work well with the shiny gold silk; its also a fairly thin piece which means it will have warmth without bulk.   This took around 7 hours to make and will form part of the wrap and scarf collection on the site when I get round to it.  

Today's creative effort - Lavender Scones

Today's creative effort was a little different to other days, because today I baked (we'll have a national holiday to mark the day next year, OK?).   Last summer I harvested some lavender from a bush I have had since I was in my teens - the original bush was in my maternal Grandmother's garden and I've created cuttings and nurtured them along at every home I have ever had. 

I love lavender from the way it looks to the insect life it attracts to its gorgeous scent - so last year I made some lavender sugar which is just basically layering lavender with sugar, because I wanted to make scones with it.  

Well, today I opened the jar - and oh wow, what a lovely smell - I'll get loads out of this old coffee jar because each 8oz of flour only needs 20oz (50g) of sugar - I wasn't sure whether to actually throw the lavender in as well but in the end I thought what the heck, and did it anyway.   Oh honeys, these are gorgeous.   They are so scented and delicious!   And because Mark doesn't like 'weird' food as he'd put it, I made some cranberry and honey ones (those are the darker ones in the pic - I think the honey makes them a bit more sensitive to the oven) and then I went a bit mad and made some more with Cheshire cheese.    Try using lavender in your scones - you'll love it!

Melissa Hair Vine, Tiara and Hair Pin

Here's a hair vine, hairpin and tiara I've been working on as a commission - I've used amethyst, peridot, seed beads and goldtone wire - the tiara took about 12 hours to make and is for someone getting married in June - the hair vine can be worn as a choker by theading some ribbon through the end loops; I love these colours, I am seeing some interesting colours coming through in tiara-wearing now - I'm really happy with the way it has turned out.