Hanging on to Autumn for a bit longer ...

We've had nothing but heavy rain and blusteryness all week bringing down lots of leaves

Appropriately, I found this episode of Roobarb & Custard called "When the Tree Fell to Pieces" on YouTube. Now, because I am very clever ;o) and just learnt how to embed videos into my blog, I'm able to share it with you! Roobarb comes up with an ingenious plan to try to hang on to Autumn for a bit longer by glueing the leaves back on the trees! If you've never seen Roobarb the dog or Custard the cat in action ... I hope you enjoy this little treat and have a chuckle!

When the Tree Fell to Pieces


Autumn into Winter is such a special time that many of us enjoy. It makes me feel like cosying up of an evening with my knitting, a comforting sort of "warms you twice" thing. I've been enjoying knitting loopy fashion scarves with Colinette Point 5 (100% merino wool). I've made 11 so far, here's just a couple ...

Winter Berries














Christmas













I've also been busy painting, distressing and decorating a batch of tags for various projects















More berries ... inspired by elderberries and seed heads ... this is a raw edged calico collage that I made for Viv which I haven't shown here yet

Handmade

It has vintage style lace on calico with linen vase, machine and hand stitching. The seed heads are free machine stitched with beaded berries. The leaves are made from torn brown rafia and free machine stitched. I made the tag too which I painted and distressed with ink then added the little flower to match the piece

Julie - do you recognise the red flowers? They are from the piece of red ribbon you gave me and I carefully cut round the flowers ...















This piece was inspired by elderberries which I found on one of my walks a few weeks ago




















One of the crushed berries inspired some natural dyeing











Dyeing with elderberries



















I was surprised at the colour of the red dye in the pan. I didn't have many berries so the dye was weak but still produced a beautiful shade of berry purple




















I had more wonderful post this week ... I love snail mail the most! This fab parcel came from Gunnel who sent me this beautiful and elegant stitched postcard




















Postcard from Gunnel












This little stitched collage














Detail












Some wonderful red treasures
















Rich reds


















Gunnel knows I love stitching red. Oh yes, there is something so warm and rich about red. Red pleases me all year round. Thank you so much Gunnel, it was a beautiful parcel to receive ♥











Now, I would like to show you this beautiful collaged art card which I got from Melanie Uys. Melanie loves to work with collage and mixed media and has recently started a new blog showing some of her work. Melanie and her husband have The Printmakers Gallery in Tregenna Hill, St. Ives and they kindly sell my bracelets for me, when I get around to making them!














These really useful and lovely red pretties are from a fab swap I did recently with Connie ♥













Since I got back from my family I've made up the creative textile inspiration packs and the textile art hearts, been writing and also wiring up beads for bracelets ...

Now I'm going to enjoy a nice cup of blackberry and nettle tea while I blog hop and catch up with blog buddies ... see you soon!

Carolyn ♥

Seasons

To everything there is a season
a time for every purpose under the sun

Red leaf on a painted sketchbook page















Thanks so much for really understanding what I was saying in the last post

Primroses are really beautiful, delicate little treasures. I love them. But I don't want to see them in November. I prefer them in Spring!

I was disturbed to think that the bulbs are pushing up so much while I'm still enjoying Autumn and we've not had a frosty/snowy Winter yet. Generally, it's very mild here in this part of Cornwall, so that has something to do with it, but the seasons are a little out of kilter and it worries me that this has greater meaning

I'm grateful for all your comments and encouraged that I'm not alone in noticing these things. I took some comfort from JP's words:

"I find it comforting that the bulbs are ready to come, but when the weather changes they will hold fast but still come back next spring"

I hope the bulbs hold fast!

I will be back with my usual ramblings tomorrow ♥

Hips and haws

A very strange thing ...















We've had such blustery, gusty winds and stormy rain in Cornwall every day since the weekend. We returned, after a few days visiting family, to huge piles of leaves six inches deep outside our gate, it was like having to wade through snow

I managed a very brief walk between showers yesterday. In the hedgerows there were still a few wild strawberries from summer, still a few blackberries from early Autumn, very obvious signs of full-on "fall" and then the strangest thing ... pale yellow primroses flowering amongst the sooty earth and dead leaves and spring bulbs pushing up, already three and four inches long

It just made me feel a little bit sad for some reason

Carolyn ♥

November

I hope November will bring fruitful walks, cosiness in the Cottage, preparations for Christmas and time to work in my sketchbook