Fairfield Mill

On our second holiday to Sedbergh in Yorkshire, a lovely little village, we stayed just outside in a house called Oakdene. A former B&B the Victorian house originally belonged to a mill owner, presumably the owner of Fairfield Mill which was a 5 minute walk down the road.

Fairfield Mill is now an arts and heritage centre, which includes about 3 floors of some amazing craftwork and hosts loads of working artist studios including people practising traditional weaving techniques. I was of course in my element, there was some really beautiful stuff, it was a real find. Below are a small selection of some of my favourites. I've tried to give credit/link to artists websites where possible. I can't wait to inspire my A-Level students with some of this work.

This was in a display of work by some students at the University of Cumbria. This wool piece, by Elizabeth Birch, really caught my eye. I've experimented with heat forming synthetic fabrics before, but not tried it in wool and now can't wait to give it a try. It gives some really exciting texture, especially with the changing colours.

 One floor played host to lots of different styles of spinning wheels and looms, and artists were in residence working on these. It's something I'd love to have a go at but am pretty sure it involves a lot of patience and precision which isn't my strong point.

 There were quite a few wool and felted pieces due to the mill producing woollen products up until the 1990s. This piece by Abigail's Attic reminded me of clay beads, as well as some felted sushi a friend of mine made at college! A really unique way of using wool to make jewellery!

 This was one of my favourite pieces, I loved how delicate it was and the great way of combining fabric, papers and wire to create 3D structures. The artist had made a whole collection of items including teacups and spoons. This was by Priscilla Jones, whose website you can find here.

 Another favourite - so many things I loved!! I've experimented with silk painting before so I know how difficult and fiddly it is! This was just beautiful, I would love to have this one my wall. My photos don't do any justice to the colours, but the image of a spiderweb was really striking. Can't find a website for her but there is a little further information here.

It took me a long way to drag myself away from these pieces by Mary Taylor. The artist combines various fabrics, layering them up, embroidering into them and burning away to reveal different layers creating beautiful representations of Cumbrian landscapes. Due to the inclusion of synthetic fabrics and metallic threads these pieces catch the light beautifully.

Summertime

Well this summer has certainly been eventful, which might account for it speeding by so quickly! I had 8 weeks off from school and work...and I can't believe that I start my first proper, actual career-related job tomorrow as a Textiles teacher.

I spent a couple of weeks at the beginning of summer at school, one induction week at my new school which I love so far!, and taught a Summer school on Photoshop designed t-shirts at one of the placement schools I was at during my PGCE.

Then we moved into a bigger flat, just down the road but with a lot more room and it feels much less studenty! Still working on getting things just right but pretty happy so far!



 Best part of the summer - for my birthday Jimmy surprised me with 5 nights in Monaco! Amazing, especially as I thought he was taking me to Harry Potter world! We came home on Friday night, then headed to Yorkshire the next morning for a second holiday with Jimmy's family in a big old house in the middle of the country. More on that later when I get hold of some photos,  but for now here's some visual loveliness from Monaco!

We spent one evening after dinner wandering around the harbour looking at all the MASSIVE yachts. Some even had door mats outside, as well as beds and hot tubs on the deck. Pretty amazing.

In Casino square, just behind the fountain is the Grand Casino. At night this filled up with dozens of supercars, and we spent several evenings joining the throngs of people just standing around watching the Ferraris and Bugattis roll up and their owners to step out and throw their keys at the nearest valet!

Monaco was a great experience. It was wonderful to spend 5 days in the sun, getting thoroughly burnt, and a real eye opener as to how much money some people have to throw around. The yachts and supercars were amazing to look at, but I'm pretty happy with our one-bed in London!

Birthday baking

A quick post about a cake I made at the beginning of July for my Dad's birthday. It was one of the few rare hot days we've had this summer, so anything chocolately was out of the question (boo). After rummaging in my parent's cupboards I decided to make a Lemon and Coconut cream cake.

I usually don't follow a recipe for my namesake Victoria Sponge cakes as I've been making them since I was little, but decided to try out Mary Berry's 'Perfect Victoria Sandwich' recipe from the Great British Bake Off book, which by the way is an excellent book that I've made quite a few things from so far. It also has a recipe for the best chocolate chip cookies I have ever made!

So, I just adapted the recipe a little bit by adding lemon extract to the sponge mixture and coconut into the buttercream filling. I finished it by drizzling normal icing on top and a few edible jelly decorations. Delish!

Fabric shopping

A quick picture of the backing fabric I bought yesterday for the quilt (the floral one!). I spent forever in the shop trying to work out what would go with the multitude of colours in the quilt, but finally found this which seems to work by tying in the the pinks and greens. Binding also purchased so when that arrives I can start putting it all together!

Home-making

Jimmy and I have found ourselves an exciting, much bigger new flat to move into! I can't wait to have more space!

I've also finally gotten round to attempting to finish a patchwork quilt I started last year, which is made up of all the pretty little scraps of fabric I have been hoarding since beginning my Costume course at uni.
It's not yet complete, as it needs batting and backing, and I'm planning to bind the edges with something like this.

The white squares are all going to be machine/hand embroidered with something relating to us. This square is, well obviously, a trip to Paris!



Hopefully it will be complete in the next couple of weeks and ready to cosy up our new flat!

Stockholm in pictures

It's actually been so long since we went to Geneva, that we've been on another holiday since! This time Jimmy's parents very kindly took us and his brother to Stockholm. We were there for 5 days, and had rather a rainy time but still found lots to do!

We had an excellent trip to the Vasa museum, which houses the largest and oldest wooden boat from Sweden. It's huge and has some fantastic carvings all over it....but unfortunately sank a mile into its voyage....

My favourite place in Stockholm, this was the highest point on a tiny island a short walk from where we were staying on Gamla Stan. Lovely views over the water and very peaceful.

The long windy journey to the top of City Hall tower which had about 365 steps but fantastic views. 

It was Euro 2012 while we were away and Reginald still found time to watch a bit of football, though was as disappointed with the results as us.

Stockholm is made up of lots of islands surrounded by very clean water, and Jimmy decided he wanted to hunt down the spot on Langholmen which was home to two city beaches, and go for a swim!

Whereas I preferred seeing the bears, among other animals, at Skansen Zoo.


 We're both big fans of stieg Larsson's "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" series, and found the address where the character Mikael Blomkvist apparently lives. No sign of him currently!

On our last night in Stockholm we went to see Dropkick Murphys in a theme park, which was good fun! Jimmy also went on some horrible rides including the massive freefall drop to the left, while I was more interested in what flavour of ice cream I should get!

The owners of the apartment we stayed in had some family connection to Leo Tolstoy, although we never found out quite what it was.

 And I'll end this post with Nyan-Cat in Sweden and a rather unusual flower bed we found!

Geneva in Pictures

This feels like so along ago now, but now that I have 8 weeks off (yessss!) I finally have time to do a little post about our weekend trip to Geneva.

Probably Geneva's biggest tourist attraction, the Jet d'eau pumps out half a tonne of water every second. They actually turn it off when the wind gets so strong, and you can get right up close to it...which we did....





Jimmy walked all the way to the end..but the picture I took of him he looks like a small blurry blob!

We ate some very authentic Swiss cheese fondue, outside with a little gas burner underneath the pot. The weather was amazing the while weekend and you can see we're just starting to get sunburnt.

The famous Flower Clock in the main city.

And finally, Reginald enjoying the view from Saint Peter's Cathedral

Fat Cake Recipe

This cake had so much in it I couldn't think what to name it so I've gone for Fat Cake - which is quite accurate! My challenge for Jimmy's birthday was to try to make him the best cake he had ever eaten - so my first thoughts were how many things can I combine in one cake!? I ended up creating a Chocolate cake, iced with more chocolate, topped with chocolate fingers and filled with Rocky Road style frosting. See recipe below at your peril!

Fat Cake Ingredients

6 oz Butter

4 oz Brown/Muscovado Sugar

2 oz Caster Sugar

3 eggs

6 oz Self Raising Flour

2 tbsp Cocoa Powder

Approx. 2 oz Cooking Chocolate

1 tsp Bicarbonate of Soda

Fat Cake Topping/Filling Ingredients

1 pack Cadburys Chocolate Fingers

Approx. 3oz Cooking Chocolate

2 oz Butter

2 oz Cream Cheese

4 oz Icing Sugar

1 block White Chocolate

1 share size bag of Smarties or any other sweets

1 bag Marshmallows

Recipe
1. Cream the butter and sugar together with a fork or electric whisk.
2. Slowly add the eggs, beating with a wooden spoon.
3. Add the flour, cocoa powder and bicarbonate of soda, folding in with a metal spoon.
4. Line 2 round tins with baking paper and spoon mixture evenly into each tin. Bake at 180 C for 15-20 minutes.

5. While cake is cooking prepare the rocky road filling. Beat the butter, cream cheese and icing sugar together and mix in about 1 oz of the melted chocolate. Cut the marshmallows into small pieces, break the white chocolate up into pieces and mix that in  along with the sweets.
6. Remove cake from oven and leave on wire rack to cool.
7. When cool, sandwich two sponges together with the rocky road filling and try not to eat it all while you do so!
8. Melt the remaining chocolate and spread over the top of the cake. Arrange the chocolate fingers on top and voila, done!

Two things I should point out :
1 - there probably won't be any room for candles ( I balanced one on top!)
2 - I had to move the shelves in my fridge to get this to fit! It does need to be refrigerated because of the butter and cream cheese.

Mad Hatters Afternoon Tea at Suka

We spent a very enjoyable afternoon today consuming some very unusual and very sugary delights at Suka, a restaurant in the Sanderson hotel in Fitzrovia. I had booked a 'Mad Hatter's Afternoon Tea' as a late birthday treat for Jimmy as I know what a fan he is of anything sweet and edible! We had eaten afternoon tea at Harrods before (where they mistakenly told us we could eat as much as we like so I'm not sure we're allowed back..), but this was a completely different experience!

We first ordered a cocktail each which were amazing and rather strong!, before choosing a tea, mine had a flowering Jasmine blossom in the bottom of it, and an assortment of goodies were brought to the table to be eaten in a particular order.

We started with rainbow coloured sandwiches - green, pink, yellow and brown coloured with spinach, beetroot and saffron before an exploding lollipop and one that felt hot and cold on each side. Traditional scones were definitely the best ever tasted, and we then had some beautifully decorated cakes which were incredibly sweet! We finished the tea with a small bottle that instructed 'drink me' through a straw. Three flavours were layered inside - passionfruit, panna cotta and exotic foam (still not quite sure what that means!).

At the end of the meal we were given a key each to try to open a box with a prize inside. Unfortunately we weren't in luck but Jimmy did spot an Oreo cookie cupcake on a after-tea meander that suited him just as nicely (a man giving away mango smoothies lured us in).

Afternoon tea was amazing, it was something really different as well as making our tummies very happy!

Travelling plans

Plans coming up...
April 27th: Geneva, Switzerland
June 23rd: Stockholm, Sweden

Sometime in May: 100km walk from London to Fleet!

Hello there Mr Jims

This is our blog.xx