Blog

Butterflies flitting by…

2013-05-17T09:00:51Z

Butterflies are one of the loveliest things in a garden, fleeting, delicate and beautiful. True, their caterpillars can decimate plants, and a cabbage white munching its way through your veg patch is a very unwelcome sight… but I try to forgive them all that for their sheer beauty.

Larger varieties can live for up to a month, but many of the smaller varieties only live a week. All that beauty gone in such a short space of time…

The orange tip is one of my favourite butterflies and it is on the wing from April through to June. The males, predictably, are the show offs with orange flashes on their wings! Their caterpillars feed on cuckoo flower and hedge mustard while the adults often feed from plants such as bluebells.

Other favourites include the red admiral, the tortoiseshell and the very lovely peacock with its stunning ‘eyes’ on its wings. The buddleia in my garden is a huge draw for butterflies and, in a good summer, is absolutely covered in many varieties.

If you want to attract more butterflies to your garden, plant nectar producing flowers. Butterflies visit flowers searching for nectar, the sweet fluid produced by the flower as a reward for pollinating insects like bees and butterflies. Many British butterflies seem to prefer purple, pink and yellow coloured blossoms while clusters of short, tubular flowers or flat topped blossoms provide ideal shapes for butterflies to land on and feed.

No matter how hard we try to encourage butterflies, sadly we are all at the mercy of the weather. Statistics tell us that fewer butterflies flew in British skies in the miserable summer of 2012 than for thousands of years, leaving several species in danger of extinction from parts of the country.

Intensive efforts to conserve our rarest species mean that no butterfly has become extinct in Britain since 1979 but conservationists – as well as butterflies – are now struggling to adapt to climate change.

My little flower garden

2013-05-14T09:00:24Z

I love giving people flower arrangements, or just a bunch of flowers as a present. This was a different idea I came up with when I saw some pretty flowering pots of bits and pieces at the garden centre.

I like this basket idea as it’s pretty, but practical too. You can give it to people to enjoy in the house for a while, then they can plant the pots out in the garden and they’ll live on for years.

You can either line the basket with plastic, then plant the pots in earth almost as if they are in a real flower bed, or you can cluster the plants in the basket still in their little pots. I have added a bunch of pussy willow, some moss and some pebbles and polished marble lumps that I have collected – but ordinary gravel would be fine!

It’s simple to do, even if you aren’t a keen flower arranger and makes a lovely and different present. It would work well with masses of different ingredients – there’s always something in flower amongst the little pots at the garden centre – pansies come to mind!

My life in colour…

2013-05-10T08:56:32Z

I was in Exeter recently in a pretty area on the outskirts of the town where there is a small parade of shops. There’s a couple of cafés, a jewellers, a clothes shop and more – all of them independent and slightly quirky – just my sort of place for a browse among lots of pretty bits and pieces! None of them sold ‘essentials’ but hey - you never know what you might discover for use in a project or to spark some creative idea… so I felt justified having a good rummage!

I spotted some lovely old buttons in one shop window and went inside where they had an amazing collection of old ‘recycled’ buttons of every shape, colour and design you could imagine! They also had a small selection of dress fabrics hanging up. Now I am no dressmaker, but these were lovely and reminded me of frocks my mother had worn. They even had dress patterns – remember the ‘Simplicity’ and ‘Butterick’ brands? – with shirt-waisters and 1960s shift dresses.

Everything seemed terribly familiar and ‘comfortable’ and I started chatting to the shop owner. It was then I discovered I was in a ‘retro’ shop! It seems my childhood era is now on the verge of being ‘antique’ and is classed as retro and therefore very ‘on trend’!

I have to say this didn’t do much for my ego, but rather than feel huffy about it, I just found it fascinating. Looking round this little shop was like stepping back in time and I felt about 12 again, and it was really rather lovely and comforting.

They had games and puzzles that I hadn’t seen for years. Remember how we all used to do jigsaws or play Ludo in the days before playstations and ipads? They also had lots of old cream and pale blue enamel kitchen bits and pieces - now called ‘kitchenalia’ apparently – and all carrying impressive price tags despite being chipped!

What struck me most of all was how the colours then were so different from now. Not exactly more muted, just different shades. One big change is in the quality of print and packaging. Today we can print photos and patterns and pretty much anything on our home printers – look at all the lovely things we print out everyday for our card and craft projects – but back in the 1950s and 60s, most designs were drawn illustrations involving little photography, and the colours were much less ‘natural’ that we expect today.

While I wouldn’t swap our multicoloured hi-tech modern world for the 1960s, it was wonderfully nostalgic, and a little bit sad, to feel I was back in time to an era when life seemed slower and more innocent and it brought back lots of happy memories.

So tell us... What iconic images bring your childhood back to life?

Special Holly Pond Hill Notes

2013-05-07T09:00:49Z

This is such a pretty present to give someone and apart from your time (that is priceless obviously) it is really inexpensive and would be oh so treasured!

The base and lid are made using a Grand Nestabilities die – Grand Labels One, but remember you can tweak the project to use any suitable die that you have. Layered onto the cream 300gsm card used on the base are some smaller sized labels one – these are made from backing papers from the Holly Pond Hill CD that have been stuck onto plain grey board that you would get on the back of pads of paper or in your orders if you order card or paper from us!

The little topper is made from the CD too and layered onto some cream card that has been embossed with a Swiss Dots embossing folder – but again it could be any that you own.

Assemble the ‘box’ by taking the base and the lid – cut a long strip of card about an inch deep and score it so that it makes a square shape. Decorate (and disguise the overlap where you sealed it) with swiss dot embossed paper. Glue this onto the base allowing two pieces of ribbon to stick under this square, they will be the hinges.

Remember to add the loop of ribbon between the cream lid and the smaller backing paper piece of the lid and hide the ends of the ribbon hinges between these layers too.

Finally cut a stack of paper/thin card to fill the box and add a ribbon and a pen or pencil.

My Favourite Flowers

2013-05-03T09:00:38Z

I have been a massive fan of flowers all my life. From big gardens to tiny bunches, huge floristsHellebore arrangements to eggcups with a child’s posy in – I love all flowers, any flowers. Over the weekend, sitting looking at everything finally starting to turn green in the garden, I was reflecting on which flowers would be in my all time top ten if I was asked. Well, here are my top ten... what are your favourites - and why?

Number One – Hellebores
Hellebores (or Christmas Roses) in all colours there are dozens of varieties both single and double in my garden – I just love them!

Number Two – Hydrangeas
Hydrangeas, pink, blue or white! I love the possibilities of hydrangeas, you can press them, dry them, preserve them – all sorts of things and hung up in the spare room and then sprayed gold for Christmas – gorgeous!Classic English roses

Number Three – Old Fashioned English Roses
Old fashioned English roses – beautiful, beautiful flowers to look at and I love them whether they are on a bush in the garden or in an arrangement in the house.

Number Four – Snowdrops
Snowdrops – they are so pretty to look at but they cheer me up the minute any appear in the garden.

Number Five – Cherry Blossom
Cherry Blossom – I know this is a tree and not a plant but I hope it counts – we have a huge cherry tree just outside my bathroom window and I just love the mass of white blossom in the spring.

Number Six – Lily of the Valley
Lily of the valley – oh that perfume, so wonderful and such a delicate pretty little flower.Violets

Number Seven – Common Daisies
Happy memories of daisy chains and lovely lawns, picnics and sunshine – it was sunny during the summer months then, wasn’t it?

Number Eight – Water Lilies
Water lilies – because my dream would be to have a large pond in the garden with stunning water lilies – they are just magnificent.

Number Nine – Violets
These flowers always remind me of my Mother, as we were given little posies of violets in church when I was a child to take home to our mothers... and they are a favourite of hers!

Number Ten – Agapanthus
This one sneaks in at number ten because whenever I see them,Agapanthus it reminds me of my sister and seeing them grow wild in the Channel Islands where she lives.

Infusing oil with herbs and spices

2013-04-30T09:00:13Z

Oils infused with herbs and flavours are very handy to have in the kitchen. They can alter a salad from yawn to yum in a flash. I particularly like basil oil and use rosemary oil when I am roasting lamb. You can infuse any variety of oil, I use a mild olive oil for infusions destined for salad and then any mild vegetable oil if you plan to use it for roasting etc.

It is important to use dried ingredients, if you use wet basil or fresh garlic, it contains a large percentage of water and this can cause bacteria to grow in the oil and give you botulism, which is not worth the risk.

So choose your dried ingredient (or dry them by hanging in a dark place for a week or so) and an attractive bottle. I try and remember that any old bottle produces oil that tastes just as nice but I do love pretty bottles! You can buy bottles that would make lovely gifts filled with oils from Lakeland the kitchen company.

Insert dried ingredients into your bottle and then fill up with oil. Leave on a sunny windowsill for a couple of weeks before using – there see that doesn’t stretch anyone’s cooking abilities! I recommend keeping the infused oil in the fridge just to be safe and I usually err on the side of making it little and often rather than vast quantities that will take forever to finish.

My suggestions for things to flavour the oils would be dried lemon/orange peel, basil, rosemary, garlic, chilli and so many more that I am sure you can think of... they make a lovely nibble before a meal as a dip with chunks of a really good or unusual bread too!

Murder & mystery in deepest Devon…

2013-04-26T09:00:33Z

The west country, with its dramatic coastline, brooding moors and secluded hideaways is a pretty perfect place for writers to escape to - well that’s what I keep telling myself whenever myAgatha Christie enthusiasm flags! Over the years, this corner of England has been home to some of our most popular authors of the 20th century. Two female literary giants - Daphne Du Maurier and Agatha Christie – both spent many happy years in this part of the world.

South Cornwall was the home of Daphne Du Maurier, writer of the haunting classics Rebecca, My Cousin Rachel and Frenchman’s Creek, among many other excellent novels. She lived a reclusive life down on the wild south Cornish coast and nowadays there is an annual Daphne Du Maurier Literary Festival (now called the Fowey Festival or Words & music) which I keep promising myself I must go to!

In Devon, we lay claim to Agatha Christie. The undisputed queen of crime was born on 15 September 1890 in Torquay, just a couple of miles away from where I live. Once her fame was established and money no object, there was nothing she loved more than escaping with her family to Greenway, their Devon holiday home.

The National Trust opened Greenway House to the public in 2009 and for the first time, visitors had the opportunity to view the many personal collections and mementoes of this much-loved mystery writer and her family. It’s well worth a visit.

Greenway is an imposing house, sitting high on the slopes of the valley running down to the beautiful riverGreenway House Dart, near Dartmouth - one of my favourite Devon towns. If you take the Dart River Boat trip from Totnes to Dartmouth – wonderful in itself – you get superb views of Greenway from the river and can appreciate what a lovely place it was for her to escape to.

Outside you can explore the large and romantic woodland garden, with a restored vinery, wild edges and rare plantings, which drifts down the hillside towards the sparkling Dart estuary. Lovely!!

I keep saying to Richard, all we need is a nice mansion by the sea where I can sit and muse while sipping a gin sling and I’ll have no trouble writing all my murder mysteries!! Somehow, I don’t think he is taking me seriously…

Fear not – misting is easy!

2013-04-23T09:00:43Z

This card is one of the projects in the Tom Mielko Project Book and CD – so I won’t go into the nitty gritty of creating it, but I thought it would give me an opportunity to talk about the Cosmic Shimmer range. It’s a massively popular range of spray misters that come in a myriad of colours – all of them super wonderful.

For those of you that are already converts – you might want to look away and skip the rest of the blog! However there are so many people that are afraid of this product – not sure what it does, not sure how to use it – that I thought this was an ideal opportunity to hold forth!

The first thing to know is that there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ with the end result of your playtime. The joy of the misters is that it’s quite impossible to replicate the same thing twice – every piece you make will be unique – which can be a tad frustrating when you create a really special one!

I usually place a sheet of newspaper (tabloid size is quite big enough) onto my kitchen or craft table as this protects the surface from over-enthusiastic misting! Choose around three of the colours, one of which I would recommend to be a metallic. Lightly mist one colour after another and between each stand back and look. When you feel you have misted enough colour then leave it to dry. The piece of card can then be cut up and used in strips, as a large backing piece – or in any other imaginative ways you care to think of.

Play and have fun – and you will create a piece of art that’s unique to you!

The power of three

2013-04-19T09:00:38Z

Have you ever stopped and thought about the number three? No, neither have I much, but if we do stop to analyse, it is actually quite an interesting little beast.

While that old saying 'Two’s company, three’s a crowd,' has a negative slant, the fact that three can be a crowd is actually very useful when it comes to arranging flowers and planting in the garden. It’s also a very important number to remember when you’re writing…

In appearance, an uneven number of things, three, five, seven and so on, always gives a more random, ‘natural’ look. A farmer friend of mine planted all his daffodil bulbs two by two in a regimented march across his lawn and, oh dear, did it look odd! If he’d done little clumps of three it would have looked much better.

I always plant my perennials in clumps of at least three, and the same goes for bulbs. Flower arranging, which I am trained in and did a very great deal of earlier in my career, works a lot with threes and the triangular shape, and the science behind it and how our brain sees things is very interesting…

The ‘Rule of three’ is a writing principle that suggests that things that come in threes will be funnier, more satisfying, or more effective than other numbers of things. And that sentence was itself an example of it!

Apparently, we are more likely to absorb information if it is written in groups of threes. From slogans – the Olympic’s "Faster, higher, stonger!" – to films, many things are structured in threes. Examples include the Three Musketeers, Three Little Pigs and Goldilocks and the Three Bears.

When I’m busy writing – whether it’s an article, a book or this blog – (that’s another three!) the rule of three does come to me quite naturally after all these years. At the moment, as some of you will know, I am working on a novel and, when I am trying to create dramatic, impact I do sit and chew my pen - well actually my finger nails as I type everything - and put a lot of effort into producing the most concise, clever and crafty sentences that I can. A series of three creates a progression in which the tension is created, built up, and finally released.

Will I succeed? Or will time, tiredness and tedium get the better of me…? Only time will tell. I’ll keep you posted on the novel’s progress…!

Tom Mielko stationery gift

2013-04-16T09:01:03Z

Cards are always handy as there are so many occasions when we can give a card – but I love being able to give home made presents too! This collection of notelets and stationery is made from the images on the Tom Mielko project book CD.

The good thing about Tom’s art is that it’s suitable for men, women and children so it makes a very versatile gift for someone too.

The notelets are just small cards with the topper printed on glossy photo paper. The envelopes are all lined with some backing paper which really isn’t hard (just cut a rectangle the same width as the envelope and then draw round the tip of the envelope and trim) but it makes a huge difference. You can always make an envelope template by using a bought envelope, gently pulling it to pieces and then trace around it.

The folder is a fairly straightforward one – a scoring board is really handy for this. Decide what size folder you want to make and then do a couple of parallel scores down the middle – in this case they are about an inch apart.

The notelets and goodies are all held in by strips of velvet ribbon in this example, but you could use any narrow but sturdy ribbon or small strips of card if you prefer. The quickest way to create notepads is to buy plain little white pads or cheapie pads of some description and just alter the covers. Time to have a browse around the pound shop perhaps!