Just recently I went on a ‘Making Winter Creative Retreat’ https://silverpebble.net/product/making-winter-retreat-february-2017 in a tiny little village in Cambridgeshire fens called Reach. I was headed to a creative weekend retreat in a small medieval village at the edge of the Fens to quote Emma’s blog: The aim is to use seasonal creativity, good food, good company and cosiness as an antidote to the grey days of Winter. It will be a two-day dose of British hygge based in a beautifully converted 19th Century barn’ , ‘As well as a wood burning stove to nestle near to in the beautifully converted barn, hearty, delicious food and gin’ .. there would be four creative workshops, a country walk and lots of sitting around, relaxing, and chatting. My mood doesn’t really drop during winter, I enjoy wearing big jumpers, sitting in front of fires, and lighting nightlights and candles. I usually feel quite miserable in the summer as I am allergic to it! However this weekend was in February not July, so, after a wee bit of organisation, I was able to go, so I did! My weekend away started on Thursday leaving home and going to Glasgow, I was staying in a hotel overnight (the lovely ‘Z Hotel’ off George Square – highly recommend! - to avoid a panicky drive across country at silly o’clock in the morning. However, there were a few panicky hours after I discovered I’d managed to leave my train tickets at home. Long story but they were finally delivered just after 11pm. After that inauspicious start, I went to the correct station, found the right platform, and caught the correct train PhEw! I was on my way south. Next stop Ely, (via Edinburgh and Peterborough). I had a couple of hours to kill before meeting my B&B landlady I wanted to go to the Cathedral. Ely Cathedral is vast and very stately. It’s quite breath-taking in places, especially when you stop to consider that it was all built by hand. The Stained-glass museum is also very interesting with some ancient pieces of glass work. Then to my B&B Norfolk House in Cheveley, which was lovely and very comfortable. Early to bed! Tomorrow the Barn. Despite major anxiety attacks all morning, there wasn’t a single monster in the Barn, everyone was lovely. It was a delight to meet Emma aka Silverpebble at last. We worked it out that we started following each other’s blogs nearly nine years ago. After swiftly dividing us in to groups we were off to our first workshops. Mine was silver clay work with Silverpebble herself. After making moulds of natural finds; seashells, seed pods, leaves, etc. we cast them with silver clay, dried our shapes in the oven, and then fired them in a kiln. Then brushed and polished, oxidised and buffed our pendants before hanging on a chain, and wearing with pride for the rest of the weekend! I’m keen to have another go sometime soon. Watch this space! After a delicious lunch in the pub, we went for a walk in the wintery sunshine around a small woodland created 20 years ago by the villagers. Emma, took time to point out the early signs of spring, snowdrops and …. listening to a Robin singing … watching the mating dance of a pair of bluetits … enjoying the acid yellow bright of lichen covered branches … spotting last year’s bird’s nests in the leafless, still life-less, trees. When we returned, it was time for willow weaving with the superb ‘Dotty Cookie’. Val took us through the craft of weaving, and in the space of a seemingly short couple of hours we had produced some very handsome lanterns & birdfeeders. A few gin cocktails were made before a dinner of hot and hearty and (w)holesome stews made by Emma and her husband Andy, followed by perfect puds of Chocolate olive oil cake & Apple Streusel cake, the recipe for which will be in the book Emma’s writing which will be published in October (you can pre-order it here) After much chat and laughter, it was time to return to our various residences and thence to bed. Sunday dawned with a lot of mist and the paddocks at the bottom of the garden, viewed out of my bedroom window the day before, had all but disappeared. I took a short walk around the outside the little flint built village church which was built in 1260 and has very pretty windows. On arriving at the Barn it felt absolutely right to head upstairs, to the rooms tucked in under the roof rafters of the barn. We curled up on sofas and chairs and learned how to crochet, with the warmest, softest, wool from Loop London, a cashmere, silk, merino blend. Jemima was an incredibly patient teacher with four absolute beginners. Casting on with Chains then Double and Treble Crochet stitches. I am so pleased to be able to do this at last. First stop, long straight bookmarks, then maybe the pattern for wrist warmers Emma has written, by the end of the year, or maybe next! Lunch was incredible Middle Eastern Mezze delivered and cooked by the ‘Wandering Yak’ in their van parked up outside the Barn. Pudding, and amazingly indulgent dessert of warm chocolate, orange and almond cake with a hot coconut and vanilla sauce. It looked almost too pretty to eat! http://www.wanderingyak.co.uk/privatehire/ Then the afternoon workshop lead by Emma and Lu summers, who describes herself as a ‘Designer, Printer, Stitcher, Maker’ and has designed fabric ranges for Moda among others. As with all the tutors on this weekend Lu was warm, and friendly, generous with her advice, and inspirational. I knew I was going to find this workshop difficult. I find drawing from ‘real’ things problematic and in ‘class’, uncomfortable. I would rather use the sewing machine to draw with! Although I ended up laughing there were also tears of stress, which were dried up when Emma provided me with a stiff gin cocktail! Then suddenly it was all over and there were goodbyes and promises to keep in touch. What an incredibly inspiring, fun and uplifting weekend it was. You can read more about the weekend and some more lovely photos on Janis Issitt’s blog here and Jeska Hearne, aka Lobster & Swan also blogged here. I'm already cooking up plans to go again next January, although this feel like a veerrrry looong way away it's good to have something to look forward to!
2 Comments
Day 5 of #savouringjanuary2017 with @gabrielletreanor *Gentle *
.. I've had quite a gentle day today. Still on 'holiday' from work. I started with Morning Pages, and a new exercise I've invented for myself, 'Writing Pages'. A single page of fiction from a prompt. The prompt is derived from any book lying around. Use the date eg 5 as the page number and take the first line. Then write whatever comes to mind that follows on from that line. It was fun, so I will definitely do more of that. I’m really enjoying writing. Then, several cups of tea and a piece of Christmas cake in front of the fire, when a friend came to visit. A wonderfully, inspirational chat. Following a short dog walk, I went for a gentle bike ride and took this picture, Crinan (home) is to the left, Duntrune Castle to the right, with Jura straight ahead. Given the amount of weather that can bellow it's way across this stretch, it was a gentle day, cold but quite still. Home then to sit in front of the fire, websites to read, DreamPlanDo book to look at, and an episode of Father Brown to watch. A gentle murder!
This morning and my New Year began with 'Morning Pages' reading about them on a couple of websites and watching this video from Julia Cameron auther of The Artists Way. I hope that it will become a habit, we'll have to see and I'll give it a go. Another habit I would like to cultivte is Artist Dates. That one might be harder to achieve regularly but it is my 'intention', (intentions are less rigid and less scary than Resolutions!) to try. This lovely picture right is on the page to go with the introduction. I thought it was a flight pf pelicans but seemingly it's called 'large crane'. The Artist Date is a once-weekly, festive, solo expedition to explore something that interests you. The Artist Date need not be overtly “artistic” — think mischief more than mastery. Sounds fun don't you think? I plan to build it in to cycling to a destination when I can.
But So much more than just cosy. A way of life for the Danes, who adopted a Norse word for well-being in the 18th Century and have hugged it ever since. Recently it has crossed to our shores and there is a lot about Hygge everywhere, magazines, Pinterest, new books, a whole movement towards the comfort and cuddle for autumn and winter. It's in the squidge of maltloaf, it's in butter on hot toast, cold hands in mittens and a hug under an umbrella in the rain. I love it! I think for some people Hygge (one possible way of pronouncing it is Hue-gaa) comes naturally. For others it needs to be a conscious action. I am one of the natural Hyggers. I eschew white paint (except for ceilings as that helps the lighting in the room but that’s the only reason) preferring rich deep colours. This house is all rich greens (accidentally not actually planned that way) with warm creams and yellows and accents of deep red or soft pink. Despite the 1970’s vibe they can evoke, we have paper lantern style lampshades on pendant lights (I haven’t yet found another shade that disperses light softly), or soft, glass shaded wall lights, and lot of lamps, and of course candles. I even make candles in vintage glass ice cream bowls or jelly moulds, or in teacups and milk jugs (these are great to use during a power cut when you need to walk around the house, they have a very useful handle and don’t drip). However not everything is obviously Hygge. It isn’t just about open fires and woolly socks. It’s a sense of wellbeing, of love, a smell that is hard to describe. As a child I remember hot bowls of semolina and bramble jelly when we came home from swimming lessons. The contrast of the steaming creamy semolina and cold, garnet red jelly, wet hair drying, mixing with the smell of chlorine. The sting of chapped shins from the slap of wet wellies on bare legs when we came in from playing and were briskly rubbed dry by mum or dad, holding on to their heads for balance, shivering with cold and being warmed up with soup or hot chocolate, & long trousers or pyjamas. Of camping holidays, the smell of wet grass, mildew of damp canvas, and gas from the stove. The quivers of excitement, delicious terror, tiredness as we lay listening to storms rage overhead, safe in our tent, or so we thought, not always knowing that mum and dad were hanging on to the tent’s poles to stop us blowing away! Oh the joys of camping on the west coast of Scotland in August. Which I hated aged 16 but now have fond memories in retrospect. I still love being in a storm. Ten years or so ago B & I lived in a caravan for a year whilst we decided whether to build a house or not (not in the end) which I loved, especially during the winter, and he hated, especially during the winter! Such a cosy bedroom with piles of duvets, blankets and cats (we had five at the time). Especially during power cuts! I love power cuts! We are so reliant for power in all aspects of our lives that the opportunity to be switched off for a while is great and I get a great ‘Dunkirk spirit’ sense about it. The best excuse for doing nothing (something I struggle with doing) I can’t do any washing or ironing; after a while there’s no computer; no phone until we plug the analogue one in; once I have finished bustling about setting up the camping cooker, locating torches and candles, getting the fire lit & making sure B is OK & my folks are alright, I can sit and read, unashamedly unable to anything but nothing. It makes me want to smile, to giggle and laugh out loud, there is a delicious bubble inside that I can now name as Hygge. It’s almost one of excitement, it’s about hunkering down, watching weather, fireside dozing, sitting it out. Power cuts, (as long as everyone is safe and not worried) are simply hygge. On one occasion a few years ago B & I went to visit friends during a power cut, because they had an open fire and at the time we didn’t. Four adults and five dogs had The. Best. Day. Ever. Still remembered by all of us with affection and laughter. We played charades for hours, read magazines, dozed, simply talked, around the fire. C & I made a pot luck supper of beef olives casserole, simply some onions, a tin of tomatoes, a tin of baked beans, and a few pinches of I don’t know what, magic perhaps; cooked in an enamel ashet on the side of the fire. I haven’t ever been able to replicate it, and I haven’t ever had better beef olives! Simply, totally, hyggelig. (Yes it’s both a verb and an adjective!) Hygge is the effect that I'm aiming to achieve with how I set up the Barn for classes. There isn’t much light, the two windows are quite small, the barn being designed to house cows and not craft workshops! And although there are, by necessity, fluorescent strip lights they are softened by use of lamps, uplighters, and sometimes candles and fairy lights. There is bunting, piles of fabrics, baskets of yarns, mismatched chairs draped in blankets gathered around the fire. Although it’s an electric stove it looks like a wood burning stove, and an eclectic range of artwork and samples of sewing projects. I bake cakes or biscuits for each class, encourage chat, the sharing of experiences. I have an urge, a desire to make people feel comfortable, and comforted, and hope that students go away having had a good day. I think I’m managing it, as I have been asked to do some sewing projects on a one to one with one of my junior Needlesmiths who has Asperger’s. She’s having difficulties with social interaction at the moment, so that she wants to leave the house to come up to the Barn and spend an hour with me doing something creative is huge, HUGE! She’s a lovely girl and I hope that she’ll benefit from our sessions. I feel that it’s an enormous validation that what I am striving to achieve does work. In the new year once the excitement of Christmas has passed and the cold grey days of January and February are upon us, I am planning to hold some cosy afternoons at the Barn, ‘Sew Hygge’, some small projects or simply the opportunity to meet and sit and chat in front of the fire with friends, hot chocolate, and cake whilst sewing or knitting or just sitting. Now I need to go out in to the wind and weather which is being fairly wild and typically west of Scotland wet autumn, to walk Rosie the dog before getting ready to go out to teach my Sew Upcycled evening class at the Community Centre in Lochgilphead. More anon Kx Recently I've read a couple of books about Hygge:
‘The Little book of Hygge, the Danish way to live well’ by Meik Wiking CEO of the Danish Happiness Research Institute, Copenhagen. Yes there is such a place! This is a super little book. Little only in terms of height & width as it is quite thick. Lovely matt pages, beautiful photographs. Easy to dip in and out of for a quick dose of Hygge. Ideas to increase Hygge throughout the year. Delicious sounding recipes that make you want to start cooking immediately, suggestions for picnics that have you visualising strapping food filled wicker baskets and tin mugs to bikes whatever the weather. The Art of Hygge by Jonny Jackson & Elias Larson. A little light on substance but lots of lovely pictures and some nice recipes for really autumn-y food & drinks. An easy to read for coffee time, it gives you a nice glow, and inspiration to get up and ‘do stuff’ to the house to create more Hygge! Also 'The Cozy Life' by Pia Edberg and 'Hygge The Complete Guide to Embracing the Danish Concept of Cosy and Simple Living' by Oliver Hansen and I’m really looking forward to reading ‘A year of living Danishly’ by Helen Russell a Londoner living in rural Jutland for a year – lucky thing! I’m up in my cabin all day today, I thoroughly enjoy ‘my space’, and I know I am a very lucky girl to have such a great space to play err I mean WORK in! The views from here are great and I have been known to take my sewing machine outside and set up at the picnic table on the deck on the occasions we have hot dry days (not very often!!) My mum and dad live on a hill farm, and some years ago built a small wooden cabin along the lines of a static caravan. It was let out to holiday makers for a couple of years before dad became ill and mum couldn’t manage the turnarounds any longer. About three years ago at Christmas I asked if I could use it to make Christmas presents and cards in as there wasn’t really anywhere suitable at home. And, well, I haven’t really ever moved out! It’s now a formal arrangement and I pay rent, which works for both sets of businesses. So my workshop/studio consists of two bedrooms, sitting room, shower room/loo and galley kitchen! One of the bedrooms is now my sewing room and it’s where I keep all the smaller haberdashery items I use. The sitting room is mostly taken over by boxes and bags of fabric and baskets of wool. You’re more likely to find felt making or painting and printing equipment in the kitchen cabinets than food, and the shower cubicle currently houses the vacuum cleaner, and my wedding dress! (Don’t ask, long story!) The bed which I do occasionally use when I have had late nights or when B (my husb) has been away and Rosie & I retreat to the cabin for a night. Only at the moment it is covered in my vintage blanket collection and there isn’t any room for me, Rosie likes it though! Today I’m getting ready for the next couple of weeks of the Sew Upcycle course at the Community Centre in Lochgilphead. This week we’re making hanging storage pockets from a shirt, a piece of blanket and some sheet, and next week it’ll be slippers from jumpers or blankets. But I can’t help having a wee think about the up coming Christmas course….. Sew Christmassy! It’s all in the name. I LOVE Christmastime, the candles, the lights, the smells, the dark nights, the ‘hygge’ness* of it all, and, in my case, the makings. I make mincemeat, and the Christmas cake, cards & presents, and the contents of four advent calendars for some very special people. This year I’m also making the samples and examples for the sewing course which starts in November. I know that’s a wee while away yet and there is still the lovely autumn-ness of the rest of September & October to get through. Doing a project with felt leaves and making pumpkins with the Junior Needlesmiths; snuggly slippers & a cosy tweed scarf with the adults; & I’m really looking forward to a ‘Sew New’ Saturday learning how to crochet with Jude Hubble. My first visiting tutor to the Barn. Sew, I’d better get on, fabric doesn’t sew it’self!
More anon Kx PS *Hygge' the Danish word for more than cosy. Currently very in vogue but something I naturally do at this time of year, it just has a word now! More on this another time. 'Sew New' is a series of one day creative days. Running from 10am until 4pm it is a full day spent in the Barn in the company of likeminded individuals and friends, working on a project from start to finish. Sometimes it can be frustrating to have to put something to one side because of the interruptions of children, spouse or dog, appointments or ringing phones. So these are days where you can totally immerse yourself in fabric, fibre and fun! We always start the day with coffee, cake and chat. Getting to know each other a bit, talking about the day, discussing methods and fabrics. Then we get down to work. Choosing fabric (or fibre), taking measurements, cutting patterns, starting to piece the process together. Then in no time at all it's lunchtime. We down tools for homemade soup & bread, cheeses and fruit. Then it's back to work until we've finished when it's time for afternoon tea and cake and the opportunity to bask in the pride of your finished item. Just after the Felt making class I ran the first Lampshade cover workshop. Alka & Liz brought along two unloved and unlovely shades that needed a bit of a make-over. The lampshade slip-cover making process I designed to 'upcycle' existing lampshades. It might be that you have a shade that is the right size and shape for the base but the cover has seen better days. Or perhaps you have changed the interior decor and the shade no longer ‘goes’. Maybe you like to swap cushions and curtains depending on the time of the year, now you can swap your lampshade covers too. Alka’s shade belongs to her mother-in-law and she was redoing it as a surprise present. It sits on top of a beautiful silver candlestick lamp base that was presented to Jan many years ago. The square purple pleated taffeta style shade of Liz’s was one of a matching pair from her beside tables. She was delighted to have been able to make two covers so that they continued to match. I think the finished lamps look fabulous, don’t you? If you fancy learning to make slipcovers for your lampshades, either drum shades or a coolie hat style, then I’m running this day again in November.
|
Author - Me!
I am a ‘Creative’ - designer/maker/teacher/writer. Vintage sewing notions accumulator; Textile artist & painted lampshades maker. A reader, writer, dreamer, dog walking tea drinker. Categories
All
Archives
February 2024
|