Lisa Hannigan

I had an e mail from a friend this weekend telling me about these videos by Lisa Hannigan, whose album 'See Sew' was an absolute favourite of mine from last year. I had no idea these existed but my friend knows how I love paper in all its glory. There are two worth looking at. There is the official video for the CD using pop-up books and this one for 'I don't know', one of my favourite tracks, involving paper cutting. Both are worth a look if you love books and paper or if Lisa is a new voice to you.

Some you win.... and some you don't

You know when you do something and nothing, but nothing, goes right with it? Ever had that happen to you? Yes ? Then you'll know the feeling I've had for the past few weeks trying to make this bag. It was a great idea - but only in my head it seems... I saw this beaded fringe on a market stall and a vision of it adorning a bag came into my mind so I bought a metre. It was £4, so not a snip, yet I paired it with a remnant of creamy gold curtaining that only cost a £1. Already you can see I was not thinking clearly...

I decided to use some grey linen from Laura Ashley for the top of both the inside and the outside so my husband kindly offered to buy it when he was next in town. I wanted a bare half metre but he came home with a metre because there was a 30% off sale on the day and he thought it was good value. I told him that 30% off of half a metre was better value but I was stuck with it. Now I have gone from the sublime to the ridiculous in what this bag is costing to make but that's nothing to the horrors I encountered when I started. Firstly I couldn't sew the fringing as the beads kept getting under the presser foot. Think - change to zipper foot! Better? Marginally, but it looks OK from a distance. I've picked it up, thrown it down, picked it up, thrown it down for the past three weeks....get the picture?

Then I tried to put it together and the linen was so stiff I ruined the first set of handles. Made a second pair. Ruined those too. So now I'm beginning to thank my husband for buying that metre but cursing at the same time at the cost of the fabric I'm wasting. I had great plans to make a bow on the outside and use stiffening on the bag but abandoned all of those in the end. This morning I made the THIRD pair of handles and just finished it as it was. I can't see me buying any more fringing for another try and it's not even my sort of bag. A classic case of where I had to try something but didn't think it all through in advance. So typical of me.... as is my next idea with this man's jacket from the charity shop....

Now I don't want to offend anyone but what man in his right mind would wear a bright green jacket with red threads running through it? I saw this on Monday and it was only £4. It stood out a mile. Luckily these photos don't show how green it is... anyway, when I looked at the label I noticed it was wool and alpaca so I snapped it up and I've cut out the panels from the back piece and used the lining to make another bag.

Disappointed with my previous effort I decided to hang fire before getting too far down the road. One of my friends suggested I overdye the fabric for the bag or overdye some of the rest of the jacket for future ideas. Another friend suggested I embroider some motifs or something on the material before I make up the bag. As I have a lot of skeins of thin wool, dyed with natural dyes, this is a possibility, but the project then starts to stretch out into something that will take me months to do and I am a quick turn around merchant. If it takes too long I go off the boil and drop it in favour of a quick fix. If anyone has any ideas they would be gratefully received.

Finally, speaking of quick fixes and because I had to try and do something today that I was pleased with, I made this little journal. I got the idea from here which suggests using photographs for the covers. They call it a photojournal but I didn't want to do that. I had these old notecards from Ikea and used the two I had left for the front and back covers. I cut the text block from a note pad I had and found a strip of decorative paper for the binding. All you need to make it is some pva glue, a brush and some pegs or bulldog clips. The video tutorial on the link is very good and the book only took about 45 minutes to make. This includes hanging around waiting for glue to dry, so worth a try.

So the day started off badly but got better. Then I had a lovely present arrive in the post from a friend. It made my day completely. It can't get much better from here on in!

Making tracks

Blackbird

Squirrel

Fox - no! Rabbit (thanks Jill)

Husband

After yet another night of it, now I really have had enough of the 'S' word. This is how I'd like to see it - on film - online - and definitely not on my drive.

Wintertime from David Köhlmeier on Vimeo.

A Word on Statistics

The article I posted about yesterday contained lots of disturbing statistics. As is the way with me, I was then reminded about this poem by Wislawa Szymborska entitled 'A Word on Statistics'. Whilst not a prolific poet, or it seems, widely known, she did win the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1996:

Out of every hundred people,

those who always know better:
fifty two.

Unsure of every step:
almost all the rest.

Ready to help,
if it doesn't take long:
forty nine.

Always good,
because they cannot be otherwise:
four, well, maybe five.

Able to admire without envy:
eighteen.

Led to error
by youth (which passes):
sixty, plus or minus.

Those not to be messed with:
four and forty.

Living in constant fear
of someone or something:
seventy seven.

Capable of happiness:
twenty-some-odd at most.

Harmless alone
turning savage in crowds:
more than half, for sure.

Cruel,
when forced by circumstances:
it's better not to know,
not even approximately.

Wise in hindsight:
not many more
than wise in foresight.

Getting nothing out of life except 'things':
thirty
(although I would like to be wrong).

Doubled over in pain
and without a flashlight in the dark:
eighty three,
sooner or later.

Those who are just:
quite a few,
at thirty five.

But if it takes effort to understand:
three.

Worthy of empathy:
ninety-nine.

Mortal:
one hundred out of one hundred-
a figure that has never varied yet.

From the Miracle Fair Collection translated by Joanna Trzeciak

A wing and a prayer

Quite by chance I picked up a copy of the Guardian newspaper this weekend. There was a really thought provoking article in it, written by the novelist Margaret Atwood. It is all about the decline of birds and how we ignore that decline at our peril. It's full of interesting, yet horrifying, statistics but there is a glimmer of hope for the precious albatross - (my own personal crusade) .The report writes how trends can be turned around with ridiculously small amounts of money... 'but it's a matter of time, and extinction is forever. Human beings, it seems, are like little children, who never quite believe that 'all gone' means there isn't any more, at all, ever.' (The whole article can be read here - its says link is broken but just click on google search)

Time flies

I don't want to be accused of wishing my life away but I have begun to wish our snow would come and go this quickly.

One year in 120 seconds from Eirik Solheim on Vimeo.

Feeding the five thousand

Well, of course we're not feeding five thousand birds but it does seem like we're supporting an avian crowd of biblical proportions in these freezing conditions. But it is great entertainment and virtually free so I'm not complaining really. In truth , I love them all. Yesterday I watched a robin peck a squirrel on the backside in order to shoo him off the ground feeder. It worked too, but only for a short while so my husband picked the feeder off the ground and rested it on top of the frozen bird bath. This way, the squirrel could no longer hog the thing as it put it well out of his reach. What did happen though was that it made it easy for me to sit in my chair, camera in hand at eye level and snap away at everything that came down to feed.

Picking up the seed left on the ground was left to a small cohort of the starling flock that inhabits the field next door. I love their plumage in the Spring with all those iridescent green and purple patches but their current markings are very striking too in close up. They are voracious feeders so we couldn't afford to keep them in seed for the winter....

Neither could we keep up with the nuthatch nicking the peanuts. Hmmm, I think there's a clue in the name there my girl.... so now I know why stocks get low.... anyway, this nuthatch kept coming back time and time again no matter what bird was on the table. He was not put off by Mrs Blackbird either despite that look she gave him....

The biggest thrill though was seeing a jay visit the table, a sure sign that times are tough for all our wild birds at the moment. After he came down on it the table wobbled a bit so we put it back to the ground. He then visited again, picking up about a dozen nuts, one after the other and storing them in his crop before flying off. I guess they're either to eat now or keep for later. It was fascinating to watch and cheaper than the TV licence.

My friend Sue has also been snowed in but she's used the time to get on with some work which she's written about here. With her tongue firmly in her cheek (I think... but maybe not..) she's taken a photo which she says could be her Christmas card for next time around! I feel lazy just sitting in the chair taking photographs so Sue, the robin is my Christmas card for 2010, what do you think? Is that cheating?