where the ideas live...

I have a dream year where I don't do anything except try all of the ideas that I keep in this book...it's stuffed with yet to be tried crafts, sewing projects, paintings, furniture building, gardening ideas, recipes and just general STUFF.

 

The first half of the book is my own ideas and treasuries of textures...

...themes, colours...

...a few painting ideas...

Then the back half of the book is chock full of A LOT of fun things that I will try in my dream year...

Of course this dream year will be spent as follows...

6 months in Ireland (where I walk the hills everyday and drink pints of Guiness while the evening rolls around)

and 6 months in the hills of southern Italy (where I will cycle to the local village every day and drink pints of wine while the evening rolls around)

As the group 'Nathan' sings in one of their songs..

." I'm goin' down the highway, with a suitcase full of all my bad ideas, goin' to test them out, see what I have been missing all these years."

Cherry Point and beyond...part 2...

As mentioned in a previous post ,http://farmlass.blogspot.com/2010/02/new-residents-of-swallow-fieldpart-1.html, there was so much fun and flavour and photos that I had to write an additional post to cover it all...

After playing with Sophi and Benita for a while, we took a drive north into the small city of Duncan and had a yummy lunch at Bistro 161...

 

...and dessert of course!!

I think Irma is clapping her hands in glee over this choclatey, lemony, moussie thing!

We were'nt able to see each other to celebrate Christmas and our birthdays, so thats what we did over lunch...I like spreading out holidays like that..

One of Irmas pretty lamps for moi!

Seems like the theme was birds...

Then it was off to a few thrift stores ...

Found this pretty olive oil can for 25 cents which I'll use for a vase...

...and some sweet cotton hankies which I have an idea for brooding in the back of my mind.

On the way home we stopped to admire this flock of swans near Cowichan Bay...

Its such a beautiful valley here...

Back at Swallow Field the dogs had another good romp...

...and we checked in on Red, who is sitting on a clutch...

Hopefully some little yellow ducklings will come out for Easter!

This is where Irma spends a lot of time creating her beautiful lamps...

You can visit her etsy shop here to have a look...

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Geewillowkers

Even though Irma doesn't have a 'studio' per say, it doesn't stop her from being the incredibly creative person she is...look at some of her watercolours...

Here's another member of SwallowField...Cousteau overseeing the production line...

In the warmer months she opens up this little studio to showcase her work along with daughter Jenny's lovely jewelery...you can have a look at her silver creations here...www.BellezzaBijoux.etsy.com 

So thats the adventure for today...hope you all have a fun weekend doing what you love...

cheerio!

Song for Friday...song for many..

I've been reading on a lot of people's blogs of late about change.

Fear of it, embracing it, questioning it.

I once heard someone say.."If you're not changing at some point in your life, you're not living." 

As I look around at the world outside my door I see that nature is in full on change. 

Trees in bud, birds singing their hearts out, sprouts shooting up out of the spring soil, even the frogs have started peeping...

It seems, as humans, that we are the only living things that have such a struggle with change. Maybe it's the time of year and rebirth and how it all comes on so intensely. 

Go outside and plunge yourself into because you know....Change is going to come....

The new residents of Swallow Field....part 1

Yesterday I went up Island to Cherry Point to visit Irma and to meet the newest members of her family. The drive is about an hour from my place, up the roadway they call The Malahat. Its a fairly high pass that can sometimes be treacherous in the winter but on my way up the clouds started to break just as I was reaching one of the veiwpoints. The body of water there is called Finlayson Arm Inlet, which comes from the ocean and ends up flowing into the Goldstream river where the salmon spawn every year.

The house sits up on a hill overlooking the ocean...

And here is Sophie to greet us!

Ever since I've known Irma, she has been talking about moving to the country and getting her own horse. She found her country home a year and a half ago and found her sweet little filly about 2 months ago. Yup, shes only a young thing and just like a kid, in your face and curious about EVERYTHING!

She really wanted a piece of my camera strap so sometimes it was hard to get a picture of her from a distance...

 Its hard to see from these pictures, but she's the most lovely shade of sandy gold with dappled spots all over...

Griffin LOVES horses but wasn't so sure about Sophie's gregarious nature...

Much safer from the other side of the fence he figured!

aahhh...nothing better than a roll in the sun in the mud!

And this lovely fuzzy ear....

...along with this lovely fuzzy face...

...belongs to this lovely fuzzy Miniature donkey.

Her name is Benita and Irma has her on loan as a companion to Sophie...she is so meek and sweet and stands only about 3 1/2 feet tall!

Then of course there are the ducks...Irma's had these girls and boys since last summer and if you want to read some funny tales about them you should go to her daughter Jenny's blog...http://www.theserestlessfingers.blogspot.com/2009/06/more-ducky-business.html

Lolo (who used to be Lola), with his muddy face is quite the character and has had quite the little life..you just have to go and read about it...
We also went for lunch and thrift store shopping, so that will be in another post along with more photos of Irmas work space where she creates.
Until then...

rock walls...

I LOVE rock walls...they remind me of old secret gardens in tiny villages. We have been trying to uncover this one at our place..

 It is not really old...maybe 30 years and not very well constructed, but its a rock wall and I love rock walls.

There has been many years of blackberry brambles growing over, through and around this wall but we are slowly trying to bring it back to life.

We also have a crude rock wall/ stepway that I try to keep trimmed..

Of course it's got nothing on the beautiful rock walls in Ireland...

When I was on the Aran Islands, I couldn't believe the quantity of walls and the diversity in design...

Of course they are functional in their design as well...

...and so lovely to ride a bike through!

...o.k now back to work before the rains come again.