Kirigami 2016 finale

It seems a little ridiculous still looking back to 2016 when we're almost at the end of January. However, I wanted to round off a couple of the regular posts I did throughout last year.

The first of these is my kirigami-a-day challenge. For those who are new to it, I bought a calendar which had a kirigami project for each day of the year and set out to see if I could complete it. For the first few months I did stick to the schedule and made time each evening to work on a design. After a while though, it ended up being more convenient to do them in a batch at the end of the week.

By the time we came to October/November, well, it all fell apart and I only ended up finishing earlier this month.

By the end, I also ended up only doing the designs which interested me as I'd learned by that point which were enjoyable and which were more of a chore.

The designs varied in quality and complexity. My favorites were probably the simple snowflakes. My least favourite were probably the weaving projects though they also produced some lovely effects.

Some of the Japanese designs, like the pair of cranes here, were particularly stunning.

Overall then, a challenge I really enjoyed and would recommend. More paper folding is definitely on the horizon this year as a friend bought me a doodle origami book for Christmas.

Next time, how did I get on with the Year in Books challenge? x

Kirigami and grebes

It's been ages since I updated you on my kirigami. I confess it's been a bit erratic over the summer and I'm a little behind but hoping to catch up now I'm on leave for two weeks. So, here's a selection from June and July.

I also thought I'd give a quick update on the baby grebes. Both are doing really well and almost as big as their parents. One still seems very dependent but the other has started fishing on its own for short periods. It's been wonderful watching them grow and develop. The sound of my summer will be the sounds of their calling for food - a quite high-pitched peeping!

In other nature news, is it me or has spider season started incredibly early this year? I've had several in my bedroom and we had to evict two which ran across the living room floor last night. I carefully transferred them to the shed and I'm hoping they prefer that love shack to my house!

Tomorrow I'm off to Birmingham to the Festival of Quilts. I'm so looking forward to it as I haven't been for a few years. Will try to take lots of photos for you :) Enjoy the rest of your weekend. x

May kirigami

Well, it's been a while since I've updated you on progress with the kirigami. I'm still going strong though I've settled into a routine of completing the projects at the weekend rather than each day. My favourites continue to be the snowflake-style designs and there have been some real beauties this month. I've photographed all of them for my own records but, to save your sanity, here are just some of the highlights.

 

I'd meant to blog more in May. Maybe June will be better - see you tomorrow. x

Random selection

Well, I was going to show you another of our days out from when I was on leave but decided to show you a random selection of things I've been getting up to instead. Something for everyone, I hope!

So, lately I've been...

Cooking...from the latest book by the Hemsley sisters, Good and Simple. I really needed some healthy and tasty food after the tummy bug and a lot of the recipes appealed to me. This one is their lentil bake and very tasty it was too; even better as leftovers a couple of days later. Also very good was their prawn and carrot stir-fry with a peanut lime sauce. They are part of the coconut oil brigade so some of the ingredients are a bit obscure but it's pretty easy to substitute normal foods. A good addition to my cookery book collection.

Baking...Chocolate and fudge cookies using my favourite cookie recipe. Well, a woman can't live on healthy recipes alone! I made these to use up some packets which had been lurking at the back of the cupboard with all the half-used sprinkles, gel colours and flavourings. I need to develop better willpower in front of the baking section!

Researching...my family history. There was free access to the census records on Ancestry the other day so I looked up some of my ancestors. I can't tell you how exciting it was to find out that one of them, Maria Hatton, was a milliner! Being so into sewing and crafts myself, it was a real thrill to find someone from my past with a creative gene.

Sewing...a new picture to satisfy that creative gene. The pattern is from a past issue of Stitch magazine and is by Stephanie Redfern. I still have all the embellishment and embroidery stitches to do yet and will show you when it's finished.

Gardening...It's been such a glorious day that I decided to tackle the garden. The grass had its first mow of the year and I've generally been tidying and digging. My friend gave me a garden centre voucher for my birthday and I want to use it to buy a couple of new shrubs. Unfortunately that means digging out all the old ones and the endless crocosmia bulbs. Do not ever plant crocosmia as it takes over your garden. It took me twice as long to clear them because I discovered that worms like to hide in the clumps of bulbs and I couldn't throw worms away so I had to carefully pick through every clump.

The most exciting thing in the garden though is the appearance of purple-sprouting broccoli. I mentioned a few weeks ago that the plants had been decimated by caterpillars but I had left them in the ground and hoped for the best. Realistically I wasn't expecting much but, look! Purple bits! It looks like we'll be tasting some after all!

Visiting...John Rylands Library in Manchester to see the Magic, Witches and Devils exhibition. You can see a copy of the booklet on the web site. Lots of fascinating information including a recipe from 1555 for youthful looking skin: water distilled from cinnamon, eggs and donkey's milk!

Buying...a new bird tile by Lee Page Hanson to add to my collection: it's the one on the right. Well, you can't be in Manchester and not look at the shops too. I bought the tile on the left a few years ago. I love how they make a pair with the little and large hearts.

And, last but not least, I've been continuing with the kirigami. As always, a really mixed range of designs and I'm still looking forward to what each day brings.

Well, time to unwind before bed. Next time I'll try to show you one of those days out. Enjoy your week. x

Through the woods

Glorious sunny days two weekends running! What is the British weather coming to? It was too good to miss so we headed out for a walk through the woods. One of my favourite parts of these woods is the sunlight dancing on the brook as it babbles along.

Not much to see yet in the way of plant growth but I was thrilled to find a small patch of scarlet elf cup fungus.

There were lots of lesser celandine too. I'm so looking forward to the return of all the other woodland flowers.

The birds were in full song and fluttering about. We saw lots of nuthatch taking advantage of the seed stations and could hear their distinctive call all through our walk - if you click on the link, you can listen to an audio clip.



Also lots of great tits, coal tits, blue tits and robins. All of them are very common in this area.

Oh, and one not so common but very happy crocodile!

In other news, I thought I'd share the progress of my ripple blanket. It's one of those projects just to pick up now and again so that I always have some crochet to do, so it's slow and steady.  I've completed one row of each of my colours and have just started the repeats.

 

Of course, there's also the weekly kirigami update. Inevitably there was a St Patrick's themed design but my favourite was the one at top left.

Only four working days to Easter but also to having a couple of weeks leave. I can't wait! I have a feeling these four days will drag - fingers crossed they don't! x

Spring at last?

Today it really felt like spring has finally arrived. The temperature gauge in my car this afternoon said it was a balmy 15 degrees! I know better than to trust the fickle British weather but it was nice to enjoy it while it lasts.

I sat outside to eat my breakfast. With my eyes closed, my face turned up towards the sun and the seagulls calling overhead, it could have been mid-summer by the sea*. How my spirits soared! It really is miraculous how much happier and more energised the sun makes you feel.

* we're actually about 30-40 miles from the sea as a seagull flies but they're attracted here by the local lake.

I'm hoping the energy from the sun persuades the purple-sprouting broccoli to put in an appearance. The plants were decimated by caterpillars but it turns out they're pretty resilient. I left them in the ground over the winter and they've started to grow. No sign of edible shoots yet but you never know.

The sun has definitely energised the birds as they were chirping their hearts out and getting frisky. This male sparrow seems to have claimed the nest box on my neighbour's wall and was doing his best to entice the ladies. (Sorry for the rubbish picture but it was right at the edge of my zoom)

In my garden, the magpies are gathering nesting material. They could make life easy for themselves and scoop up any number of twigs littering the ground but, no, they're trying to pull fresh ones directly off the tree.

Overhead, four Canada geese were floating down to land and the vibration of the air through their feathers made it sound like they were on a zip wire.

I was also observing birds in the latest issue of Stitch magazine. I actually bought it for another pattern but this one caught my eye too and there are more gorgeous designs inside. They're by Chloe Redfern and there are other bird patterns on her website.

This weekend we've also been enjoying films. Last night we watched Lady in the Van and really enjoyed it, though anything with Maggie Smith is a pretty sure thing. She was brilliant at playing the eccentric Miss Shepherd.

Today we went to see Allegiant, the latest in the Divergent series. It had been universally panned in the reviews (probably written by people who aren't the target audience) but we thought it was great. Not as good as the previous two films though.

I've also been cooking and made some fava to go with lamb chops. It was one of our favourite recipes during my cookery challenge and was just as tasty this time. I loved the pattern the reflection of the peas made in my metal dish.

And, of course, I've been continuing with the kirigami. I think the flowers and leaves design was my favourite. This week also saw the introduction of the weaving technique, which you can see in the bottom two designs.

I wonder what next week will bring? x