Handcrafted Gifts for 2016!

Here in the Workshop we're thinking of New Year resolutions already!  But this new project needs a lot of preparation... the design team have their heads in dreamy clouds, pencils whittled and at the ready... to conjure up all handcrafted gifts and cards for 2016!

Three thoughts have meandered, roamed and finally joined hands:

Living the Simple Life

                                     The Joy of Giving a Handcrafted Gift
                                                               

                                                                                                 Frugality and Thriftiness

The Workshop team have a confession: yes we have popped out and spent a few nuggets on bought cards, when our crafty stores are brimming over with all the material we could ever need to make our own! So we are pulling our socks up, hauling on the overalls and firing up the stove for an endless supply of hot chocolate... as we abandon the checkout queues and get back to basics!

And first a little practice as Christmas approaches... a few oddments have already been brought home, ready to be wrapped in brown paper and tucked under the tree... but no more!  We have made our pledge to homecrafting gifts and cards and here we will start...

... with Spiced Smiles... the first concoction from the Workshop Kitchens... coming to friends and family this festive season!

The Green Woman

The brand new set of face paints were a little underused at the Workshop birthday party this year.  So one random afternoon not long after, the table was set with mirror, paints and face wipes and the cry went up 'let's face paint today!'  And why not indeed?!

Now some of us down the Workshop have a bit of experience with the old face paints... some of us are rather keen on the amateur dramatics and have been known to paint a whole crew of people up as Toad, Badger, Mole and Ratty!  But today a mystical feeling overtook us and we summoned up...

The Green Woman!

Interesting to note regards Workshop technique, that the sponge applicator that came with the set produced rather poor coverage, whereas one go with the brush and the Workshop was all a-buzz!  True face painting indeed!

The Workshop design team are now meditating on their next creation, over a large slice of homemade lemon meringue pie...

Doodle-a-day

Inspiration hit the Workshop over the summer and attention turned back to a glorious wooden box of blendable colouring pencils... a box with two layers no less that has the power to make spines tingle just at the thought of the rainbow of possibilities!

Yes a new project was afoot.  Heedless of housework, these were busy times in the Workshop, focusing on the new challenge to create a doodle-a-day.

Now comes the confession.  We are not big doodlers here.  We are a wee bit perfectionist about our designs.  A doodle per DAY?!  Clearly unrealistic.

But when the Workshop is enthused, the Workshop gets busy.  So drawing style and design inspiration from stained glass windows and woodcut prints, here are the cheery results!

 So a doodle-a-day was rather optimistic but now Pumpkin Workshop is all fired up again about illustration!

Digging and Dungarees

After many Workshop experiments with windowsill farming, resulting in a bountiful feast of four whole runner beans and a handful of oregano, we have followed our muddy dreams and now have an allotment!

We took over the Pumpkin Plot back in January and what a scrubland lay before us.  Brand new spades at the ready, sparkling in the winter sunshine and crisp, clean dungarees on, the digging began in earnest.

Using a wheel design, invoking thoughts of the Wheel of the Year, a central circle is surrounded by triangular rays of freshly turned soil.

A triumphant moment as the first potatoes were planted...

Now nine months on, some of the first crops have been harvested; courgettes are thriving, broad beans have boldly battled black flies, calendula is in full bloom and one single pumpkin thrives.

With kindly gifts from neighbours (giant marrows, cabbages and apples), Pumpkin Workshop is enjoying the fruits of the Earth!

On your marks, get set....GROW!

This is of course an update on the runner beans!

Well, a poor turn out for the race - twelve bean seeds planted, sweating away in my mini windowsill propagators and only two shoots burst forth!  On further investigation discovered that the remaining ten were mouldering and maggoty beneath the surface!  Grim!

But the two brave sports are pushing on through, moving onwards and upwards:

Next on the starting line are broad beans and an attempt at indoor strawberry growing from seed!  The propagators are humming away again on the sunny south-facing windowsill!

Adventures in Windowsill Farming!

Here at the workshop we dream of self-sufficiency, homesteading and The Good Life.  But the reality is a few windowsills and a front porch!

We have not been deterred!  With a bit of imagination and experimentation, pots, compost and a handful of seeds, we are setting out on the adventure that is windowsill farming!

The first shoot of success is traditional windowsill herb growing, which has resulted in this lovely crop of oregano; a much used herb in the workshop:

And here is a medley of home grown produce:

Cress - (top left) just beginning to shoot up in a saucer, cress is always a very heartening seed to sow, with almost immediate growth and hence cheer!
Sage - (top right) a little straggly, I have a second pot of much stronger plants on a windowsill that receives less direct sunlight
Oregano - (bottom left)
Beans - (bottom right in the mini propagator) of the runner variety, yet to poke their heads out into the world.  More news to follow, just hoping that the age of the seeds won't stall growth too much!

Papercraft Post - Homemade Envelopes

Now I'm often raiding the farthest corners of my craft cupboard, hoping to find a long lost envelope somewhere in Narnia!  But it is so easy to make your own! 

I once had a plastic shop-bought template for making them...that too has been swallowed up in the snowy regions of the cupboard...but who needs shop bought, when by simply deconstructing an existing envelope, you can create your own card template...

...and then the world is your oyster!  Any paper, old magazine pages, old wrapping paper can become the most cheery envelope for that personal postal delivery!

Start with a card template and pages from an old magazine...

...add a little bit of basic origami magic...

...and you have conjured a beautiful array of unique envelopes!

Next to create my own labels to write the address on... 

...oh and careful positioning of the template is vital I discovered; one of my envelopes has a lovely close-up of a tubby bird tummy...while the head has disappeared over the back!

May is Here!

Pinch, punch, first day of the month and no returns, white rabbit!  There, all bases covered as we welcome in the 1st of May!

And what does this new month also mean?  It means I have completed National Poetry Writing Month... yes I have indeed written a poem every day for 30 days... and I didn't miss one!  No really, honest truth!  Yes it was tough going some mornings and yes some are better than others, but I feel a definite sense of achievement.

In fact, I would describe writing a poem a day as the equivalent of a mental jog, starting the day with a more alert brain and the knowledge that writing has already been done and the rest of the day is yet to come!  (Yes, many of the poems were heavily rhyming, it's a habit hard to shake, particularly when you usually prefer to write songs to poetry).

Enough white rabbiting on... these poems will not go to waste, I am making my first ever poetry chapbook, in which I can proudly present my April achievements to any poor friend or family member who will put up with them!

Back to the workshop for me, I think it's time for some crafting!

Day Thirty: 30th April 2014

Play me a tune sweet piper,
In perfect time you keep,
Haunting homespun melody,
Lull me now to sleep.

For I have journeyed piper,
Far across the seas,
So play the old home-fire song,
That called me on the breeze.

The hearthside beckons piper,
Ne'er more to roam,
Come sit and play till break of day,
Sweet ode unto my home.

Day Twenty-Nine: 29th April 2014

Make a house a home,
Line the walls with books,
The sills with pots and plants,
Pans and onions hang from hooks.

And take out the blankets,
Unfurl them in the air,
Dispel the dust and cobwebs,
Hand-sewn and patched with care.

With the whirl of a blanket,
Create a nook and nest,
A child's cosy den,
To hide from all the rest.

And when it comes to bedtime,
The day is at a close,
Snuggle in your blanket,
Pulled right up to your nose.

Day Twenty-Eight: 28th April 2014

Stabled within your close corner stall,
Do you whisper and whinny?
Toss your soft downy white mane,
Blink your long felty lashes,
Flex your slender floral neck.

The day has been harsh to you.
Caught up and cantered in a moment,
Abandoned the next.
Trusty steed.
Ever there to answer your small rider's call.

I once rode you.
You have weathered well.

So twitch your cotton ears,
Dawn approaches
And a slumbering child stirs.

Day Twenty-Seven: 27th April 2014

Hear No Evil
He is at my ear,
Attentive,
Protective,
The guardian of every timbre
That comes to me on a zephyr.
Listen.

See No Evil
Fleeting glimpse of silver,
Flickers through my hair,
He is close at hand,
Watchful,
Vigilant.
See.

Speak No Evil
He whispers in my ear
Words of confidence and wisdom,
Be strong of heart,
Lips part,
A sound is spoke.
Uttered.

Day Twenty-Six: 26th April 2014

What can I give you my own little one?
I give you the world!
Shining upon your small sleeping face,
Lulling you into the land of dreams,
Your own spinning world of
Moon and stars;
Celestial globe.
I gave you the world,
But you have a
Universe.

Day Twenty-Five: 25th April 2014

Where do all the flowers grow?
Ours climb up the wall.
Hand-designed from paper plates,
Miraculously tall.

And what spy I upon these blooms?
Exotic bug or two?
Well they be covered in glitter
And copious amounts of glue.

And what tangled vines do I see,
Cascade and trail and spool?
Why look close and you shall see
Green paper taped to wool!

And how grow these fine flora fair,
Grow so strong and tall?
Ah! Spy the frame of bamboo cane,
Begone you plain magnolia wall!

Day Twenty-Four: 24th April 2014

I dreamt I was Jo
And began to sew,
Craft, create and knit,
I wished I was there in another time,
Living the life that was writ.

Never have felt quite right in this world,
It moves too fast, unravelled, unfurled,
Been told I was born out of time and so
I drifted away and dreamt I was Jo.

I fashioned some slippers, a woollen bonnet,
Placed much meaning and love upon it.
Not at all practical,
Scarcely factual,
I dreamt a world and began to sew,
You were ever so real to me Jo.

(And still are so)

Day Twenty-Three: 23rd April 2014

Quiet and inconspicuous,
You stand resolute by my bed,
Bearing the lamp, numerous books
And yesterday's bedtime milk dregs.

But you have a secret you hold deep within,
A long written story to bear,
Made by a great grandfather's hand,
Crafted with love and care.

And Lo! What secrets you hide,
Within your dark wooden shell,
For you are no bedside table
My Friend,
What you are is a secret
That I
Shall not
Tell.

Day Twenty-Two: 22nd April 2014

I grew a tree in my lounge.

It took root one day

And I didn't stop it.

The branches stretched out in yearning

For the homemade pies

Cooling on the table,

Bending low to inhale the

Scent of cinnamon and spices.

We festooned the tree,

Hung about with a garland of

Popped corn.

The fragrance pervaded the air.

We grew a tree in our lounge.

We kept it.

Day Twenty-One: 21st April 2014

Yarns and
Spun fables,
Fates knit together,
Once full of holes,
Now darned, stitched and whole.

Day Twenty: 20th April 2014

You open the door
And push your small hand through the folds of material,
No hesitation,
All fascination,
With undoubting confidence.

You wait for the snowflakes to fall
Upon your skin.

They do not come.

The warmth of your room
Pervades every corner.
You are still in the
Here and now.

But dress yourself in a
Kaleidoscope of colour,
Pattern and texture,
Create your homemade world,
Let your imagination fly free.

Your life is a storybook.

Day Nineteen: 19th April 2014

The Ink shimmers in the well,
Words jostle with excitement and eagerness,
Pressing to break through the surface tension
And leap unbidden onto the page.
The Nib pauses over the
Exuberant liquid,
Anxious, intrepid, wondering
If it can tame the wayward molecules
And bend their purpose to its will.
The Nib has an idea, a notion
That must be heard.
A word
That has recently joined with another word
And is threatening to make a sentence.
Trembling, it dips low and
With a gulp, plunges into the
Dark waters.
Inky consonants cling like
Barnacles to its tarnished surface.
The Nib wrenches free once more,
Tapping against the side of the well,
Shaking off the less determined droplet.

Have you heard the scratch of a dip pen
As the nib scrawls across the paper?

That is the scratch and screech of
Determination.
Valiant Nib,
Fighting the forces of the Ink.
Lone Nib voice
Against the dark masses.
Hear the Ink protest and moan,
See the Nib press on,
Writing valiantly with its
Steely heart.
Victorious scribe.
Staunching the flow with a
Triumphant
Full stop.