Happy New Year .....

......One and All, Near and Far

and

hoping especially that it's a very good one with very few curveballs!!

Much Love

xoxoxo

Happy Christmas 2018.......

....and beyond.

I wish you all Peace and Joy this Christmastime 

and

Happiest of New Years to you and all that the new beginning brings.

Have a truffle on me.

Lots of Love

from

Me

xoxoxoxoxo

Never Forget.....

From the Scottish Diaspora Tapestry

Arts and Crafts........

I love art, although I don't know how or when I became a huge fan of anything drawn, painted or made with great skill since I myself can't even draw a tree! It doesn't stop me enjoying other peoples' great work though and many hours have been passed in many,many art galleries and museums worldwide (well, London, Paris and Amsterdam are the furthest I've got as far as the rest of the world's museums and galleries go but never say never - I WILL visit MOMA one fine day).

Anyway, I digress. I've spent the rest of my little mini-break doing nothing more exciting than some gardening, trying to paint my garden fence which is trellis but after 2 hours and one panel later, I gave it up for another day, since painting trellis is no longer my favourite thing in the whole world to be spending my precious time on. Maybe the paint fairies will arrive in the night and the job will be done by morning. I live in hope! I have also been binge-watching 'The Good Fight', clearing out kitchen cupboards (tinned peaches from 2015, seriously??), filling bags with rubbish, earthly and priceless treasures and relocating them from my bulging, neat and tidy cupboards to the nearest charity shop and mostly, trying not to think about going back to work tomorrow, when I will be hitting the ground running and my little mini-break will be relegated to the back of my mind as a dim and distant memory.

Then after all that domestic trivia, it was time for a little R&R so I took myself off to the library to exchange some books and my first port of call whilst there is always the 'craft section'. I get a little confused as to how much time I have/will have/actually have to devote to making anything so have honed my choices to those that I think could be realistically achieved if I really set my mind (and time-management skills) to it. With this in mind, I picked this book up and was immediately charmed by the beautiful projects inside.......

...all achievable, right??(well I don't think it would be any trouble for my friend, Julie who is an ace seamstress. Pop over to hers to see her fabulous creations). We'll see.

The highlight of my week came when my artist friend who is putting on an exhibition at a posh gallery in Edinburgh, invited my sister and me there to give us a grand tour and his paintings are indeed grand (although a bit out of my financial league!). He told us that although some of his paintings had been sold, as indicated by the the red dots on a few of them, people can still change their minds about buying them, in fact so much so that on one occasion, the buyer went to all the trouble of getting the painting home then changing their mind and asking for a refund!! It's a tough old game being an artist, I wager. Anyway, this is a postcard of one of his paintings (signed by the artist, if you please), and it's called 'Pink Sky' and shows Edinburgh (the subject of most of his artwork) in a really beautiful light.

This is my favourite piece of artwork at the moment, made for me by my eldest Granddaughter. That works for me just fine and dandy.

xoxoxoxo

I've been getting a bit 'crafty'  myself and on Saturday which must have been the most miserable, grey and rainy day so far this season, I set to with some tweed and tartan fabric and made a little autumnal wreath.

My contribution to the Arts and Crafts movement!!

x0x0x0x0x0

 See you next time.

x

Out and About....

Not many movies entice me to the cinema these days but when I heard about the release of the remake of the remake of the remake, 'A Star is Born', featuring the delicious Bradley Cooper and his co-star, Lady GaGa, I rather liked the idea of a night at the flicks. So armed with popcorn (sweet and salty, I like the mystery of it!) and one of my sisters (good to have someone to nudge at the good/funny/sad bits of the film!), I left my memories of the Streisand/Kristoffersen version firmly in 1976 because I didn't want to compare the two films (I have a vivid memory of crying into my Kia-Ora juice carton at the end of the earlier version) and wanted to see this new one with a fresh perspective, off we went.

***pic courtesy of Google

Well, you'll all probably know the narrative of the story by now so I won't bore you with the details but I really enjoyed this film. I had no idea that this was Bradley Cooper's directorial debut and what a great job he did, along with his singing prowess! I've never been a fan of GaGa but I have to say that she delivered a powerful performance and boy, can she belt out a tune! She's actually very pretty au naturel. There were nice little vignettes in the film that I liked, especially the parts including GaGa's father and his cronies adding their little touches of good humoured banter. The 'morning-after' scene where the lead characters were having breakfast was straight out of 'Pretty Woman' and of course, that 'I just wanted to have one last look at you' scene was sentimentally sweet. I'm not going to give away any spoilers but you could have heard a pin drop in the cinema at the end!

Go and see it if you can. I loved it and might go see it again, That Cooper man is a wonderful sight in full cinematic mode!

****

Last week, my sister and I took a train trip to Dundee to see the new V&A which has just had it's grand opening. After a bit of a false start with a cancelled train, we were on our merry way and after a pleasant journey which included a trip over the Forth Rail Bridge....

....a girder, with the old Forth Road Bridge and the new Queensferry Crossing Bridge behind it (not easy to capture from a moving train!).

Here we are at our final destination. It's quite a magnificent building designed by a Japanese architect. Might explain why it looks a bit like a Japanese tea house? Or maybe not!(I think it's meant to have more of a 'naval' look).

Every single one of these slats is made of concrete!

Once inside, which is also incredibly beautiful,  

I found a few of my favourite things in the Scottish Designers Centre part of the museum. The tiara was especially made for the Duchess of Roxburgh  (who was a commoner before she 'married up', a fact which I found very interesting!), in the early part of the 20th century. I tell you, those diamonds shone! Apparently, the wings were designed to 'move' when the tiara was being worn. I suppose you had to be a Duchess to find out for sure.

This was a costume designed by a Scottish couturier for a Star Wars princess to wear in the film 'Attack of the Clones'. She was very atmospheric in her glass case. I loved the Paisley pattern aligned down the front of the dress.

This little silk purse is from the 18th century. I'm not sure of its provenance, I had to hide my camera because the security people were hovering!

And this is the 'Discovery' which is permanently berthed at the harbour in Dundee, right next door to the Museum. We didn't do the tour this time. Just to see this piece of Antartic history was enough. The story of Scott's journey there is what adventures are made of but with an incredibly sad ending.



So there we have it, out and about in the crisp Autumnal air and now I have three days off work this week for more adventures. What to do??I shall go and put the kettle on while I ponder.

Until next time.

xoxoxoxoxo

Pinch Punch, First of the Month....

......unbelievably, it's October!

 Knitting Season starts in earnest now......

(actually, I was knitting this cardi the whole of September!). My friend in Australia emailed the pattern to me after I admired the one she made and posted about on her FB page. I finally finished it at the weekend but after hand-washing it carefully, already the yarn has lost it's 'halo' (knitting-speak for 'fluffyness'!). 

I'm hoping that the fibres will recover after flat drying it overnight, otherwise the whole of September will have been a total waste of time, energy and money and the cardi is confined to wearing on 'indoor' days! 

I had a much better result with the little matinee jacket which I knitted for my Niece's new baby due in March. The pattern was a 'top-down'  which means you start at the neck and work your way, well, down! It was very simple and quick. 

 Babies are so much easier to knit for!

Xoxoxo

Now, what to make next.......?

xoxoxo

September.....

...going by in a flash......

 Harvest time at work unearthed these yellow carrots - which don't have much flavour but they look nice!

 A new crop of Beefsteak Tomatoes which do taste very nice. I made a couple of jars of tomato sauce (learned the recipe when I lived and worked in Sicily some decades back, they call it 'Sugo' there).

A couple of weekends ago, I took a rather lengthy bus trip in a rather tinny and bone-shaker of a bus to visit my younger sister. The scenery was pleasant though. I took the train for the return journey, pure luxury compared to the bus!

 We climbed a very big hill to visit the site of a rather large mausoleum which some rich person had built for himself. Unfortunately, we couldn't get inside because there was scaffolding everywhere while some renovation was taking place but we liked the lions guarding the entrance. One had a snooze while the other kept watch.

My sister painted the dresser in her new house. 

 

Here are my sisters. They both have health issues at the moment but always manage to keep smiling through the stress and strain of it all. I'm very grateful for having 'wee' sisters, although someone obviously broke the mould after I was born for I am the old, short, round one!

September also signifies the beginning of the latest series of 'Strictly Come Dancing' and I'm looking forward to watching it with the usual gusto! Who doesn't love a bit of glitz and glam on a Saturday night??

xoxoxoxo

What are you looking forward to as Autumn falls upon us?

xoxoxoxo

Thanks for stopping by.

xoxoxoxo

Plum Tuckered Out.....

Pinch, punch, first of the month. Welcome September - can it really be the 9th month of the  year already? -  and welcome to you if you're reading this.

Plum Jam making time at work.

 A good and chilling out time for me after the frenetic activity of the last couple of weeks (a christening ergo my boss's house filled to the brim with invited relatives!), ergo lots of linen napkins to launder and fold!

Quite a nice view to look out on though, while I'm folding in the dining room!

Phew, the jam set beautifully and tastes divine. It's a hard job but somebody's got to do it!(not for much longer though, I have a retirement date lined up but more about that later).

What are you up to in the coming month?

The One About Fairies and Castles.......

I had the pleasure of the company of my Beautiful Granddaughters for two nights and three whole days last week while I was on my continued hiatus from work and with the weather holding out for us, we ventured forth each day in search of tiny adventures. In this particular area where I live on the East Coast, there is plenty to see and do so we wrote a list on the first night that the girls were here, of things they wanted to do. First on the list was a picnic at a castle. Not hard since there just happen to be a couple of castles on my doorstep (unfortunately, I live in neither of them but it is my honest opinion that everyone has a right to own their own castle!).

 This is Tantallon Castle, former home of the Earl of Douglas (13th century, I think) and built almost on the cliff edge. I have a feeling that with the current rate of coastal erosion, it might very well plonk into the sea one day.This pic was taken by my eldest Granddaughter. I like the artistic use of the grasses in the foreground!!

 Don't look down! The view from one of the many second floor windows (I have a feeling that the former 13th century owners did not install the glass, which could have done with a good clean!).It was a long,long way down.

Then, after a lovely picnic lunch under a clear blue sky we set off for the second item on the wishlist which was a visit to the local Fairy Trail........

We had to leave some seeds for the fairy birds to eat. 

    

 Can you spot the fairy hiding in the tree?

 That ladder doesn't look very substantial for such a long climb up to the house. Imagine if you forgot to buy milk after your shopping trip and had to venture out again!!

A larger fairy queen was hiding amongst the Wishing Tree.

 Some upsized fairies wanted to leave fairy food for all the fairies!!

 There were creepy crawlies everywhere!

Last on the list for the day was joining in with the Jellyfish Mobile Workshop in the nearby coastal town. The children who attended were given bits and pieces of plastic and other stuff supposedly rescued from the sea (to be honest, most of it was shop bought which perhaps warranted the hefty ticket entry pricetag! Remember I'm Scottish, I get to moan about that kind of thing!)to make their version of a jellyfish. Here's what ours looked like.

And then it was home for tea - spaghetti and meatballs as requested - baths and beds for the little people and a comfy chair and a cuppa for Nana who was very tired!Do feel free to pop your comments in the mailbox. I'd love to know that you've passed by and whether you enjoyed our little day out.  

xoxoxoxo