A winters tale.....

How pretty does snow make your garden. I couldn't resist nipping out and taking a few pictures of the garden on a wonderful snowy morning. All the snow drops are growing in the shadow of the copper beech. It will be nice to post a summer comparison even more so once the building work has started and big changes are happening!

Drive through the lakes to bag a bargain!

A little trip through the lakes today, Wow I just love where I live. Fabulous early morning winter sunrise over the fells. A gorgeous crisp frosty Autumn morning, I couldn't resist a quick stop at Thirlmere to snap a few pics of the lake and the fresh dust of snow on the fell behind me. So much space and room to breath, clears the cobwebs and refreshes the brain. I made the trip to Ambleside to call into a hotel there that was closing down and selling up their world. I felt like a bit of a vulture prowling through every room adding my name to various items. All tallied up, car fully loaded and away back home. Just a quick morning round trip, but what an enjoyable one an a day like today.

 What a sight in front of me, fabulous autumn colour on the lakeside at Thirlmere.

 The lake was so calm like glass as the early morning sun crept over.

 Helvellyn behind me dusted in snow.

My Haul, one hotels misfortune to close down, an opportunity for the next one. #circle of life

Finally the exterior decoration is complete!

This is the house finally decorated on the outside, all the render has been taken off, redone and then  exterior decorated, a minor tweak still on going to one badly damaged window sill, which is still being rebuilt. But all of the stucco moldings to the front portico have been repaired or replaced. Massive achievement, still an immense amount of work to be done inside though. We are waiting the progress of planning permission application in order to progress much further, mean time we are carrying on with as much landscaping as possible out side.

Just a reminder, before shot with all the scaffold around and work in progress.

Slow Progress, but the plans are coming together!

Things are moving much slower than we expected, probably because it is difficult working full time and still having the energy to work late every evening and all week ends. We have had a very good run of dry weather recently though, which has enabled us to make a good start out doors with hard landscaping. Progress made on the exterior includes all of the windows now changed and we have new front doors. We have changed the entrance from one single very wide and large front door into two slimmer doors. It looks good and quite fitting, like it was always meant to be this way. We carried that change on into the hall and made the vestibule entrance door also into a pair of slimmer doors. We started on the front entrance steps, taking off three layers of tiles! Shocking they were, including the top layer being indoor bathroom tiles! Finally reaching the original stone steps underneath, but think they would look much smarter with new bull nose capping. We’ve passed a cutting pattern for all the steps to a local stone mason to create these caps in local sandstone, waiting to see what he suggests. Meanwhile indoors we are fighting with years and years of paint, the only way to get through the layers on the woodwork is either hot gun stripping or scrapping. It a very dirty job, requires all windows and doors wide as the fumes are horrible. Planning permission shouldn't be too far away now, plans are drafted and a pre-meeting has been held with the local planning authority to discuss the adventure!

A rather difficult old fire place proved messy to remove. The main body of it was baby brick, but the back of it was filled solid with brick and cement, this made it very difficult to get out. It wasn't long before the hand tools were abandoned and the big boy toys came out. We had to use the large electric breaker to get it out. Clearly one reason being the use of old tradition Whitehaven brick, made locally for many years 1800 - 1900's and renowned for it's strength!

A great shame the original Georgian fireplaces have all been removed.

Things are changing...

New Location for Lakeland Calligraphy!

Can't believe it's been 12 months, it's been a busy old year, but now there is lots of change about to happen.! All exciting stuff. Lakeland Calligraphy is moving, new home, new adventures.
Moving from the coast to the edge of the Lake District National Park. A beautiful venue for all things Arty. I will be running Calligraphy courses and Art courses from this beautiful lakes home. But the best of all, they will be residential!! Not just B&B but beautiful Boutique accommodation. Should you choose to enjoy the lakes while you're here we will be only 4 miles from Loweswater and 6 from Ennerdale.
It won't be over night though, it will be a major renovation project, I have decided to blog the adventure right here. You can follow the progress and watch it all unfold before your eyes. First six months will no doubt be hard and messy pulling the place apart, then the fun bit decorating and bringing to fruition all the fabulous design inside my head! Here we go......wish us luck!!

New trends and seasonal planning.

Nice to see Graph it alcohol markers are coming out with pastel shades, lovely sugar almond colours for crafters, I would like to give them a try. They will certainly go with everyone's enjoyment of Shabby chic look cards and crafts. Woodware are also planning workshops popping up in retailers with Christmas related stamps and designs and demonstrations. These would be fun to attend. In keeping with the vintage shabby chic theme, Fantastic Ribbons have brought out a lovely rang of burlap ribbons natural and colored with lace too, scrumptious card trims!

Design detail.

Having had a request for greater detail on how the vintage invites were assembled, I will put something together. I don't do normally do tutorials (not videos) but I will put up a few photos and show assembly steps to help. I will put this together and post this week.

Wedding held on 1st August

Now the Wedding is held there are more details I can share with you, extra finishing touches to the day. Bird cages table centres were decorated with Luggage tag style table numbers and embossed tags with memorable quotes hand written.

Dresses were hung with a personal touch, individual named coat hangers for the bridesmaids.
Hand painted with name and role, bridesmaid, flower girl etc.

The table setting place names were also on luggage tags, doubled with a lace punched top layer, finished with liquid pearls, hand written in copperplate style.

More bird cage detail. they were filled with flowers, roses and peonies, had led safety tea lights and strung with pearls to keep the vintage theme.

The memorable quote tags were hand written in a copperplate style, simple romantic sentiments.

The table numbers were just a simple number written with a broad nib.

The table plan was backed with hessian and strung with lace to keep the vintage theme.

The font used to print this was replicating an old typewriter, headers were backed with a pearlised lace print paper and buff craft card.

Lace string had pearl trim added to the fixings and the table tags were pinned to this with mini clothes pegs. These were double layered with a lace edge to match the place setting tags.

Decor detail in the corners to complete were paper roses, on a burlap bow with a pearl twist.

The very happy bride and customer had a wonderful day at The Daffodil Hotel, Grasmere. The new Mrs Wedgwood!

Normal service will resume a.s.a.p.

Well I finally got a date for heart surgery at the Center of excellence for heart electronics, Freemans Hospital Newcastle. which I have waited for since last July. I attended Friday 19th and am pleased all has gone well and I am home already. A bit weary and sore here and there, including burns to my chest having been paddled to restart my heart three times with cardio-aversion during the surgery! But I'm here, I made it through everything and I am now hopefully on the mend to a new me. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible, then hopefully greater than normal service as I concentrate on getting my web site up and running. I intend to put many long awaited plans into action and lots of ideas that have sat on the back burner waiting for quality of life and health to change. Look out world I will soon be on full form!!!

Yesterday was a beautiful day, one of the first that would encourage you to venture outside. We are all desperately waiting for our summer to kick in and temperatures to lift. I took advantage and sat in the garden to do a little practice.
I used the chance to have a play with some new pens, looking at some portable options for Calligraphy, when dragging bags of equipment, bottles of ink, dip pens etc might be inconvenient. I had a few nib sizes of the Pilot Parallel pens and a Manuscript cartridge pen set.

I have to say all lovely, but (there's always a but, isn't there!) The pilot pens are good, I tested 4 of the nib sizes and I would say I think more suitable for bolder large scale work. I personally feel the ink flows too fast, in fact floods on the smaller nib size.  The manuscript Pen set came with three nib sizes and I did enjoy a more traditional nib, it gave far greater control of the ink flow and there for more accurate for smaller script sizes and a comfortable balanced pen for prolonged use. Both of course equally portable being cartridge ink.

A simple board tilted from the garden table was just perfect to sit and scribble in the sun.

Had a play the new pens in between cool drinks a relax under my hat, I'm not someone in search of a tan!

Easy to get distracted by the number of feathered visitors I get, some quite tame now as they are used to me and come over to feed very close.

I made a note of the pen type and nib sizes to the left here, all worth a try, but my preference was definitely the manuscript cartridge pen for smaller script size. www.calligraphy.co.uk for manuscript pens.

Just a few photos to show some of the production line behind a big batch of invites like the ones recently completed.

 Invite inserts all printed and drying, this can sometimes take a while on pearlised or coated papers.

 Embellisments assembled and ready to attach to the front of the invites.

 There's a LOT of folding to do, especially when the invites are boxed.

 Here's the production line on the go, assembling invites and adding trims.

 Closer shot of the detail.

FINALLY! 85 invites complete and boxed, with Calligraphy names labels on each ready to go!

Inside each box was the main laser cut invite, with pearlised printed and decorated invitation on craft card. The invite's were tied with twine with a pearl and paper flower wedding date tag embellishment  added. Slipped in the twine was the reply card, post card style printed on the reverse with  a menu selection tick box.

Also a book of tear out tickets for transport confirmation, a copy of the menu's for the day and a 

pre-printed return envelope for replies. 

 All laid in a tissue paper wrap with a silver wedding seal closure within the craft card box. 

Some very special invites to share!!! Now that the Bride has had the chance to deliver all these beautiful boxed Vintage style Invites (with included reply info) to all her guests, I can share some of the detail. Laser cut doily fold invite with flat vintage style buff and pearl card invite inside. Tied with twine and pearls, completed with a hand made flower and wedding date tag. Reply post card and menu selection card, hand decorated and distressed, with a book of transport request tickets, perforated to tear out and reply. All together wrapped in tissue in matching vintage buff box. The boxes were all finished with a Calligraphy name label for each guest.

Stationery show 2015

Exciting times, enjoyed a trip to London for the Stationary show 2015, great venue in the British Design Center, Islington. Been there many time to various events. The show was great, enjoyed viewing many new product launches. Great to meet the lovely people from Manuscript Pen co. the ultimate Calligraphy company people! Also enjoyed a chat with the William Mitchell nib manufacturers.

So chuffed to see the expanded selection from Manuscript and from their new catalogue just how much is now available in Left Oblique!! Even fibre tip Very encouraging!

Wonderful visit to Kew Gardens while down there, this has given me lots of inspiration for some new ideas, variation on a theme to do a whole set Botanical illustrated , Calligraphy Quotes. Will definitely be working with the National Handwriting Association too, lets see if we can make a difference to the level of writing skills given to youngsters these days. At the moment it's shocking how bad it is!

Wedding Venue research for future colaboration

Finally finished the house renovation, studio sorted and getting back into the world of art, craft and calligraphy. Very busy on my own Daughters wedding for 1st August this year, obviously it's a big secret for all the goodies associated with that, but I will enjoy sharing soon as I can.

My 'Underconstruction' page for the forth coming web site should pop up soon, planning on attending a few Wedding Fayre's through the region this coming year to get out and meet some brides. It's a few years since I did the Wedding Fayre's, but I think as I have been off the scene whilst in house move and renovation mode, it will be good to get out there again.

Planning on linking up with a few more lakes hotels this year too, watch out for venue sketches of some of the best lakes Wedding venues. I have been having a tour of a few lately, enjoying being in 'secret shopper' mode, whilst enjoyng the hospitality and discovering those I would like to work with and those I will not!!! Always a few surprises in there when they don't know they are being assessed. Most of all was probably The Samling, sorry folks not impressed. Leading star by far The Gilpin Lodge Hotel, just wonderful, as ever!

All was not lost....

A few weeks after we moved, the most devastating thing happened, in the chaos to compact spare rooms full with boxes of all our kitchen contents and that of many other rooms, which we were not going to need for some time, I lost some vital boxes of studio equipment. As we were packing things safely out of the way as we embarked on some fairly major renovation. I lost track of my water colour brushes, just as we were clearing lots of things away to the refuse tip. A life time collection of brushes, some of which I'd had for over 30 years, also my Art-Kure water colour sketch system brushes and paints, and my ZIG calligraphy pens and artists sketch pens. We were convinced the small boxes they were in had been mixed up with card board and boxes for the tip. I was devastated, many of my brushes were very expensive, life long friends, lots were hand made, but all were precious. How or where to start again was daunting, I was so upset and literally felt my creativity had been thrown on the tip, being very down hearted and glum about the whole thing

That was nearly six months ago, I had a serious amount of work ahead to take my mind off it and got on with the renovation. At one point we had, no bathroom, no kitchen and no staircase!!!

Gradually we have seen the house take shape and achieved a fitted kitchen and bathroom in time for Christmas. Some rooms being slowly unpacked and amid the search for boxes relevant to 'living room' over Christmas, to try and add a homely feel to the place over the holidays I found them!!!

Today was the best day ever, I opened a box and they were there! I swear they weren't  when I was looking 6 months ago, but there they were. I could have cried, the relief ! To anyone not an artist I can only try and explain how that felt. Think of something you have owned, collected, expanded and invested a lot of money in for over 30 years. Which you have used so regular and 'broken in' to be an extension of your own hands. so hand picked, loved and shaped, it would take another 30 years to replace.

Finally, I can start to think of putting my studio together again and organising my arty world. Which without the tools of my trade would have felt pointless and painful, as I moved to this place for the peace and quiet, the views and the garden to paint!

Apologies things are so quiet, studio is still packed and we are still in full on renovating old property mode, plastering, knocking down walls and putting in windows. Watch the space I will be back.......

Plans for the next few weeks....

In a couple of weeks my studio will have to complete packing up for the move and I will be out of Arty action for a little while. But all will return with new vigor, as my new space will be better. Hubby will have his own studio too. In the mean time we have to start work on the coming exhibition work as soon as we unpack, some of which I will use for photography to complete my new exciting web site being built.
Lots and lots going on, some where in between time to breath and take a holiday too!

At last....

It's all happening at once. Finally a buyer so we are on the move, there will be lots to do, which I will share on my blog. I'll show the journey to a better space, and how we develop two new art studios in the new house, one for me and one for Hubby! Very excited can't wait to get to grips with the new place. =)

Exhibition

All firmed up,exhibition dates booked, Friday 11th, Sat 12th and Sunday 13th .
At Florence Arts Centre, Florence mine. Going to be great, got some wonderful Cumbrian talent together!

Web site on the way.

Met with Web designers, it all sounds very positive and what they can provide looks fab.
It's official, Domains, www.lakelandcalligraphy.com and .co.uk are now mine! WOOP WOOP!
First pass at design is also looking good too. Can't wait it's all very exciting!