Hiking in Yellowstone

The last week in August my husband and I spend the most fantastic time hiking. The first three days we hiked on our own in The Grand Tetons. It was absolutely great. We hiked from lake to lake up and down the mountain sides totally enjoying our selves.

Then we drove up to Yellowstone National Park where we joined a group for 4 days of hiking with a guide. When we had started planning our vacation back in the spring, we had talked about doing our own hiking in Yellowstone, but decided against it. Neither of us were familiar with that part of the US, nature and wildlife so we decided to do it the safe way. We had a superb guide who took us of the beaten track and introduced us to stunning areas of Yellowstone. She knew where the great wildlife spotting outlooks were and except for the very elusive bears we saw lots of wildlife. Even saw wolves in spotting scopes which was very exciting. And we were taught about the safety aspect of hiking which was great, as we now would feel very comfortable returning to Yellowstone hiking on our own.

I took loads of pictures especially of the geysers, hot springs and hot pools. Very fascinating areas and so different to anything else that I've seen. The colours and textures were stunning and I'm really pleased how well the photos came out. I've printed some of the in full size for my next body of design work.

My Etsy treasury making debut.

Back in August I decided to get my act together and finally tried making a treasury. Over the last couple of years lots of lovely fellow Etsians have added my items to their beautiful treasuries and I'm deeply grateful for their kindness. I still have a long way to go before I have said thank you to everyone, but at least I've finally made a start. It was a lot of fun spending time looking through wonderful shops. The amount of creativity out there is amazing.
Here are my first two treasuries ever. The first of many more to come :-)

'I love....' by SewDanish

Some of my favorite items :-)

Big Soft Pink Blooms - Photo... SimplyPictures $33.00	Hanging Test Tube Vase PigeonToeCeram... $	Gypsy Cuffs bracelet, Silver... jennyhoople $19.00
cozy/cuff - reusable cup sle... meganauman $	Dots Of Pink Clutch meplusmolly $25.00	Damask 3 - An Original Mixed... paint1chris $7.00
$	linen choker with spots of c... kjoo $140.00	Palm Tree Custom Rubber Addr... foryoo $21.95
$	Quilt Pop Bobby Pin. LemonJitters $4.00	8x8 Morning Pink and Green B... blackbird72 $20.00
White Stripe Porcelain Knotc... JuliesAtelier $20.00	Flowers, original mixed medi... Cesart64 $10.00	fresh picked lemon bracelet Ziporgiabella $25.00

Generated using Treasury HTML code generator by Whale Shark Websites.

'Handmade by The Unique Women In Business (UWIB)' by SewDanish

Please enjoy this selection of superb items from members of the very active and supportive Unique Women In Business Team (UWIB).

Bulky pompon neckwarmer with... Ayca $42.00	Egyptian Beauty Bracelet AudreyGardenLa... $30.00	Earth Rocks Rock Print, 13 x... papersquid $30.00
Word PATIENCE and PATIENT Di... CobwebCorner $9.95	Road Less Traveled Wallet Japip $6.00	Earrings - Sweet Banana Slic... dirtroadsouth $5.00
Enter At Your Own Risk Note ... DawnCorrespond... $14.50	Frosty crochet wildflower...... SuppliesbyAyca $	FREE SHIPPING Little Pixie N... FashionTouch $25.00
Blue Butterfly, Recycled pap... earthexpressio... $	Spa Fusion - Energizing Herb... SoapyPleasure $4.50	Emery Pincushion - Kiwi NAKPUNAR $12.00
Yellow Rose of Texas Ring MommaGoddess $8.00	the Slytherin House scarf. missindie $40.00	SONG tm Perfume Roll On Isl... themefragrance $18.50

Generated using Treasury HTML code generator by Whale Shark Websites.

Tantalizing, Translucent and Manipulated with Pauline Verrinder

I just spend 5 fabulous days doing nothing but sewing and sewing and sewing. It was fantastic! In January I had signed up for a summer school with the yummy heading: 'Tantalizing, Translucent and Manipulated'. And was I in for a treat! The summer school took place at Cottenham Village College, North of Cambridge (GB) Our tutor was Pauline Verrinder a wonderful textile artist, international tutor and author. Did she keep us busy? OH YES!
Over the 5 days we looked at several ways of creating transparent and semi transparent backgrounds for stitch. Amongst others, we worked with cocoon strippings, different types of water soluble fabrics, laminate pouches, silk chiffon, sheers, cotton organdy and much more.


Some of the techniques I had touched base with before, but as always it was great to be reminded. I never ever mind revisiting seemingly familiar techniques. There is always so much to explore with in a technique. 'Been there done that' is not a phrase that for me applies to contemporary, free style machine embroidery. The potential for developing and pushing the boundaries even further, is always there. It is such a freedom to play, and that is probably one of the reasons, why I like this type of embroidery so much.
The amount of work that was produced during these 5 days was totally impressive. So inspirational to see the different and very individual results.

Hiking in Wales.

A couple of weeks ago my husband and I were hiking in Snowdonia, the central and northern part of Wales. We had only been to Wales once before horseback riding, and that was quite some years ago. We had wanted to come back ever since, but never made it. An opportunity came up and we decided to extend the stay exploring Wales and doing a spot of hiking. We stayed in a lovely B&B
Aberconwy House
in Bewtsy Coed which was very centrally located for the areas that we wanted to explore. The B&B had the most amazing scramble eggs with smoked salmon and fried tomatoes on the side as one of their yummy breakfast options. It was delicious :-)



During our three night stay in Wales we covered a lot of ground, by car as well as by foot. Armed with our detailed hiking/walking books we averaged about 9 miles (12km) each day up and down the mountains. Great exercise and a nice change from our relatively flat local area here in Suffolk. There for sure is a big difference between a Suffolk mile and a Welsh mile!
Snowdonia/Wales was just as lovely as I had imagined. Fabulous nature, waterfalls, sheep everywhere, wild flowers coloring the landscape, stunning panoramic views. The stillness was stunning. The ladder stiles climbing over the beautiful typical Welsh stone walls were a lot of fun. I took at lot of wall photos as design inspiration for future works. We had a wonderful stay and we so want to go back.


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Quilt exhibition at The V&A, London

I’m so happy that I made it down to London to see The Quilt Exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum: Quilts of the British Isles 1700 - 2010.
Lots of my friends had recommended it as a fantastic day out, even though only two hours away I just hadn’t found time to go down to London. Luckily my husband with short notice had to go to London for a business meeting and I jumped on the chance to toggle along. While my husband did his thing, I went to the V&A. Since I didn’t have a pre booked ticket, I decided to get to the museum before it opened at 10 am. While waiting in the sunshine a group of the 5-6 year old girls in their school uniforms and very cute straw hats appeared. They were just the sweetest sight! I later saw them inside the museum where they were having a great time.



The quilt exhibition was amazing and made even more special, as I had the two rooms exhibition rooms to myself, for the first half an hour. The impact of the quilts and their story was a very powerful experience. The exhibition has finished now which is a shame. It really deserved to have been enjoyed by many more people.
If you are visiting London. The
Victoria and Albert Museum is a fantastic place to spend hours. I love going there and quite often wish that I was living closer to it.

The Etsy Twitter Team, HeartsAndLaserbeams and VintageDay

I recently joined a new team: The Etsy Twitter Team. And what a blast it has been! A couple of weeks ago The Etsy Twitter Team was briefly accepting new members. I have for a while been considering joining another team, so I took a good look at the team blog etsytwitter and did some other research. I really liked what I saw, so I applied and got in. Yeah!
It has been absolutely great. I'm still in the process of adding team members to my twitter, looking at blogs, etsy shops, facebook pages as well as adding the team tag. It will take a while before I have made the round, but I'll get there :-)The very heartfelt welcomes and embracing have been stunning. Thank you all!! You have made me feel very welcome :-)

Like in most teams there are a few requirements, and one of them is a monthly mandatory sign in. At the same time we were asked to twitter the shop above your own. The shop above me was Vintageday a shop with beautiful vintage jewlery. There are so many beautiful pieces in her shop, that is was difficult to choose.

Shortly after I recieved an email from HeartsAndLaserbeams
heartsandlaserbeams , who had signed in below me. She had a great suggestion to do a bit of cross promotion this week, hence this blogpost. Sandwiched in between two lovely shops, I thought that was really neat idea. HeartsAndLaserbeams, is a fun shop with a combination of lighthearted and humorous items, that puts a smile on your face. You will find a selection of lovely drawings from which is was really hard to choose. They are all lovely and again with a slight light hearted edge. The wonderful 'Apples Rock' badge at the top of this post is just one of many designs, that can be found in her shop

Absolutly not craft related :-)

Victory! I'm so excited! I know this might sound a bit silly, but today for the first time in yoga class, I was able to roll on my toes in transition from 'up dog' to 'down dog'. It has only taken me sort of about 5 years to get to this point :-)
When we moved to the US about 5 years ago I was so furtunate, that in our rather rural area of the Blue Ridge Mountains, there were lots of yoga classes on offer. Prior to that I had only very briefly touched base with yoga, so I jumped on the chance to learn more and I have never looked back. I was totally hooked. One of my first yoga instructors impressed me in many, many ways, but her toe rolling.... well, I had never see any like it before. How on earth could she do that! How ever much I tried to get my (stiff) feet to do anything even remotely, well that just didn't happen.....untill today!
After moving back to England I joined the local yoga center,
The SelfCentre . A superb place with brilliant instructors and lots and lots of yoga classes. On avarege I attend classes three times a week and love every minute of it. Eventhough I'm not a youngster anymore, I'm as flexible as I have ever been. There are still lots that I cannot do, but thats ok, maybe eventually.... :-)