Label launch

I'm very happy to announce FSN and I are going to be selling our wares under the Heavens to Betsy label.

Until now we have sold separately on Etsy, at exhibitions, craft events and made commissions. We want to expand the blog into something much bigger so this is the first step. Look out for our shops arrival, full of things we have made inspired by our adventures.

Pondering puzzles

Whenever I go in charity shops I have a look at the jigsaws, I rarely buy them but I like to see what they are of. They can be of pretty much anything; famous (or not so famous) paintings, historical sites, the Royal family, animals the list goes on and on, sometimes though I stumble upon one which is really unusual.
This jigsaw is of the regional industries of the British Isles.

It was amazing to see what was made where. In a day on age when so much is imported it's nice to see a reminder of what once was. It would be a great project to look at how many of these regions still produce what they are on the map for. I also like the idea of jigsaws being a learning tool, educating children (and adults) about where we live. I wish I'd bought it now.

I'd included this one for pure comedy value.


But having written these words and seeing it now in all it's super sized, intensively produced glory, juxtaposed with the above, it seems very poignant. Highlighting how shifts in culture and values make this a rather sad pair of jigsaws.

Did the Moomins live at number 5?

Last year a pipe leaked behind the wall in our kitchen, when the plumber cut through the plasterboard the hole reveled this strip of amazing wallpaper.

I like it because it reminds me of Tove Janssons illustrations from the Moomin books, I absolutely love her work. Such imaginative stories, in tune with nature, and her illustrations encapsulate the feel of the world she has created.

This wallpaper is perfect for Moomin Mamas kitchen in their beautiful blue house.

Quiffs and Quills.

Walking past a building yesterday, that I must have walked past over a hundred times, I noticed a sign above the door way for the very first time.


I stood there for a moment thinking 'what a strange combination of things, what does it mean? haircuts and pens? haircuts and pens? haircuts and..' then decided it best to turn back and go inside as it was too intriguing not too.
I didn't get as far as the haircuts, they were upstairs, but the hallway to the stairs was lined down one side with glass cabinets packed full of what can only be described as a life's collection of 'penrobelia', a display dedicated to the almost lost art of letter writing.

Here are a selection of different width nibs, for ticket writing purposes only apparently.

A tiny bucket and spade......


...and this wee hat and brolly both conceal travel ink wells and dip pens. Nifty eh?


Everything had a super neat hand written label next to it. Are they her eyebrows? If so I think she is as surprised as I am as to see so much writing on such a small space, it must have been written with the very finest nib.


Very important to keep your nib clean when using a dip pen, so as to avoid any nasty splodges.


This Parker pen sign is a massive bulb! I wish I could have seen it lit up. It would be so nice to see things advertised like this now.


A lovely pink pen to celebrate, the then, Princess Elizabeth's birthday. It has a picture of her on it. In the foreground an 'Excellent Eraser' no less.


These wafers for sealing envelopes and the statement about them shows how even letter writing had it's hazards.

It makes you think 'One day will we stop handwriting letters? Will we eventually stop using pens all together?' All in all it is an amazing display and made all the better by it not featuring amongst the lists of local museums and collections, a real find!

Telephone voice

When talking to strangers on the phone I find it fun to pretend (just to myself) that I am someone else.


I talk to strangers all the time as part of my job and do this at a subconscious level.


I'd never revealed this fact until chatting to FSN today, in true style to the person I imagine I am.....


....who was 'known for her extreme secrecy'

Fastenating

The third and final part of my Great Aunt Margaret's sewing biography is this collection of Newey Fasteners. As with the button collection the packaging dates them all. The older packets have very elaborate design work on them.


These ones show the royal appointment first to Queen Mary and then to the Queen Mother. There wasn't much time for sewing, what with all the people that needed waving at, so I doubt either even knew that their clothes featured Newey products but their seamstresses certainly would.


And best of all, after years of borrowing other peoples, I now finally have my very own pair of Pinkie Pinkrite Pinking Shears. That's a lot of Ps! They are the mini model too, lovely. Thank you Margaret x

Some amazing things...

...this is my friend Karen with the smallest little puppy we've ever seen.

She was a runt Jack Russell pup and really just looks like one of those battery powered dogs that bark, take a few steps and then do a somersault. Here she is playing with her brother, she measured just over 20 centimetres in length. She was really feisty and was chasing the other two pups and growling. Karen said 'you have to be tough when you're the runt'.


Yesterday Mr B was supposed to go into work but the weather was so nice we went and had a wander around Harrogate for the afternoon, we are looking for nice freestanding kitchen units at the moment. So far this probably doesn't sound amazing but wait for it.....whilst walking though M&S we bumped into Sophie, who was a very good friend of mine during the nine months of Art Foundation back in Blackpool. It had been 12 years since we'd seen or heard from each other and nether of us could quite believe it. It was like one of those moments in a film. It put a smile on my face all day.
I don't have a picture of Sophie but here is another picture of the small dogs I saw, this little white fella isn't quite as small as the others.

An amazing button shop had just opened in Harrogate, Duttons for Buttons, what a collection! I treated myself to five pounds worth (sadly not in weight)

Whilst unloading some washing from the machine this morning a massive hot air balloon wooshed over the house and garden! Myrtle barked at it and I quickly grabbed my camera but only managed to snap it as it disappeared into the fields behind (apparently you get £200 from the balloonists if they land in your field) I think I'd like to have a balloon ride one day.


Last night next doors chucks laid two soft eggs. They are the weirdest things and resemble wilted party balloons.

I've looked up online and apparently it's nothing major but can indicate a lack in calcium. Recommends keeping the shells when we've eaten other eggs and then baking them for ten minutes in the oven, crushing up finely and feeding them to the chucks

Blackberry; wireless and yummy

On Sunday we went blackberry picking, it wasn't what we set out to do, Myrtle needed a walk..


..and then we stumbled across a real stash of them growing just down the lane and couldn't resist picking as many as we could reach. Mr B could get up a bit higher than me, which was where all the really bigguns were. Our fingers were stained bright purple by the end.


It was a beautiful warm evening, perhaps the last one this year, the berries had soaked up all the goodness from the sun and tasted super sweet. It was quite hard not to just eat the lot there and then (like Myrtle was doing) but I'm really looking forward to making jam out of them to give us a taste of the beautiful Cumbrian summer throughout the winter months.

Ghostrees

Dead trees are really something special, they could easily have been chopped down but thanks to some thoughtfulness (or forgetfulness) they remain, amidst the greenery, monuments to what once grew on their branches, the birds that have nested and hatched in them, the animals that have lived in them, scratched their backs on them and the lovers that have kissed under them.


I'm starting to photograph them now after years of admiration so will post more up on here when I have some more to show.

...and pink and black!

Further to my post 'It's easy being green' I have to show you who we found living in the garden yesterday!

This fat little Caterpillar was so well camouflaged on this pink and green plant I nearly didn't spot her..


...and this hairy chap was having a rather speedy wander along the flower bed edge while we bagged up the rubbish.