A photo for today

I got a new camera for Christmas and spent 3 days reading the instructions and two days playing with it. It has LOTS of buttons and I now know how to use half of them.

Anyway I spotted this little guy when I was out for a walk today and he was happy to pose for me.

 

 

 

I liked the picture and started to play about with it and came up with this, possibly a Christmas card for next year.

 







An end to the year

2014 is almost over an it has been a busy year for me and one with plenty of changes.
For the first time ever we became a host family for Wwoofers, Worldwide Working Opportunities on Organic Farms. This means we had people staying with us that helped in the garden, we provided food and board and they gave us 5 hours work a day. Now we are not a farm but are a food producing garden and I use our produce to make preserves to sell and also sell the eggs and salads at the front gate. We are not certified organic but have used no chemicals in the garden since we have had it and spoke the farmer who had it before us  and he hasn't used anything on it for the 20 years he had it. So we had Anabel from Spain, Clement from France, Eloi from France, Grace from Canada, Eoin from Mayo, Remy from France, Ander from Basque Country and Anais from France all stay with us from March to September. It was a great experience for us, we got to pass on skills and learn new things and I would recommend it to anyone needing help with their garden or farm. For further information you can contact Wwoof Ireland at wwoof.ie. I found the forum a great help and full of advice before we made the decision to become a host family.

Ander and Anais taking a break at a festival

Remy working at a show with me

 

With all this gardening I didn't have much time for making any crafts over the summer at all. Then in September I went back to working in adult education and this left even less time. However a new opportunity opened up for me when a room in our building became available to me, I moved all my craft paraphernalia into it and The Stitching Room was created. The Stitching Room is a dedicated craft room where anyone can come and learn a new skill. I have all the equipment you would need including sewing machines, rotary cutter and mats and a small die cut machine.  Crafts covered include knitting, sewing, patching, quilting, felt work, card making and paper craft. It is great for me to have a whole room to keep everything in and somewhere I can drop into during my regular working day as it is located in the building I work in. You can see more about The Stitching Room and details of classes here

The fabric corner

Busy at work

We had a lot of classes planned but the most enjoyable were the ones were we made felt and fabric wreaths for Christmas and some hanging decorations. It was good to see people other than me get excited about odd buttons and tiny beads.

Essential equipment

A finished piece

This then got me back to making some small hanging decorations for myself and we ended up having one Christmas tree (one of three) full of handmade decorations.

A Gingerbread house with no calories

A not just for Christmas heart

Brrrr...it's cold out there.

I woke up this morning and could feel the chill in the air. There is a heavy frost out there and everything is white and shiny. I really want to go out for a walk but it's a bit slippery so will wait and see if there is a thaw at all.

I have been feeding the birds in the garden and they come up close to the window to eat. I am trying hard to identify them all using this great website RSPB Bird Identifier. I know we have robins and blackbirds, a missal thrush and lots of little birds that I wasn't sure of.  I have now identified a bluetit, a great tit and I think a coal tit. They flit around really quickly pecking at the food and keeping well away from the two cats Socky and Simba.

 

 

Happy Christmas 2014

THREE HOURS, THREE WASTED HOURS ....trying to log back on to my blog. I lost all my passwords to emails and other accounts and it took 3 hours to get back here.

We finally seem to be out of a cyber black hole and I hope to be back with a bang in the new year. With new posts, new photos, new crafts, new recipes and new ideas.

The year is coming to an end and work and teaching has stopped now for the holidays. I have new classes booked for next year.  It is also time to start planning the garden and markets for next year.

But right now it is all about Christmas, the trees are going up and the decorations are out.

So far I have two trees up, one in the sitting room and one in the dining room.

 

The table is also set in the dining room with my own homemade patchwork table mats. I have had these a few years now and think it's time to make some new ones.

 

 

I've asked Santa for a really nice camera for Christmas, fingers crossed I get one and will be back in the New Year with some lovely garden and craft photos.

 

I hope you all have a Merry and Peaceful Christmas

 

Back at last

I can't believe it, it has taken this long for us to come back into the land of internet.  I feel like I was 10 years behind the rest of the world in a no media, no connection, no nothing land.  Finally I can get back to blogging, back to online selling, back to online buying (just a bit) and even back to being able to communicate with my daughter who has emigrated to Canada. That was the hardest part, not being able to chat to her.  It has taken me about three hours to reactivate accounts, change passwords, remember accounts I had and sort it all out.
Still a few to go but I will be back this week with news of Farmers Markets, cookery classes with Down Syndrome Ireland, Tweety the Christmas Turkey, new crafts online at Etsy and Wwoofers.
Talk again.