🌱💛🌱Along came March 🌱💛🌱

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It's been such a busy few weeks again... Life takes over some weeks, but today Ive had a good sort out & Spring clean and my whole body and mental health seems to have shifted and been uplifted... I'm always in search of little blooms of colour during these cold, dark Winter months. 🌼💛🌼

Although I do feel I have found some quite moments here and there to concentrate on my art I still feel I'm lacking the creative flow... I start, I stop, I daydream, I over analyse and feel disappointment... I think I have so much on my mind. My daughter has been doing pre G. C. S. Es, mocks and been studying, revising hard & feeling very stressed. Her proper exams start in May.   I take on alot of her worries because I see her deeply anxious. After along thought-out chats over the last 3 months I think she's realising & deciding if a better route for her after her final exams would be an apprenticeship rather than 6th form college... But she's still keeping an open mind on options.  To take our mind off things we've had a few trips here & there and also myself & stevie have enjoyed a few rare Fridays together and treated the trips like date nights... We've enjoyed Totnes Market town, Dartington Hall Estate & woodlands, walks on the hilly moorlands towards Pew Tor (epic views) and a Friday afternoon at Buckland Abbey, National Trust. And a few local canal walks... 🌱💛🌱

It was bitterly cold here and climbing Pew  Tor looks beautifully sunny & blue sky but on your hands and face it was bitter. But worth it for the views... I said to Stevie we need to complete some more walks to Tors during Spring when the weather warms up... .. Dartmoor is so beautiful. 🌱💛🌱

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Its good to cosy up at home during the freezy temps and on days off... So that's what we did mainly this Sunday... Home comforts. 

I so enjoyed the pretty Spring blooms starting to appear over the national Trust estate at Buckland Abbey... Another busy week but I'm starting it feeling a little more brighter... 💛

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🌱💚🌱Half term joys

It's been quite a busy few weeks with one thing and another... But I'd like to share here a few of the little snippets of joy between all the busyness 🌱💚🌱

Like noticing all snowdrops & crocuses, the shoots of daffodils, little teeny buds of blossom & enjoying quality time as a family.

🌱💚🌱🧚‍♂️We spent a wonderful afternoon in Exeter... We all managed to fit in our favourite shops... Love the atmosphere there and RAMM museum... A lovely bit of art, culture and city life. 

🌱💚🌱We also enjoyed a wonderful local Old railway path walk with my mum and sophs and the beautiful snowdrops along the Devon lanes... 

🌱💚🌱🧚‍♂️Beautiful Spring like days during the first few days of half term. 

🌱💚🌱I painted the dresser top just over a week ago... It definitely feels more cosy with the Bramwell green colour, chalk paint. I did three other pieces of furniture including the Shelfling above the fireplace. Makes a nice change. 

🌱💚🌱Crocuses filling our lovely local park

🌱💚🌱Wicker lady in the community church yard in Exeter & a few charity shop & vintage book shop treats from our city trip

🌱💗🌱My beautiful Valentines flowers in full bloom on the dresser cheering my days

🌱💚🌱Valentine inspired pen & ink drawings

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✨🌟Moments of mine ✨⭐

My simple pleasures this January & plans for the future

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✨💛✨I was looking at the dresser top today so full of colour & blooms... Its so uplifting on a dark, grey afternoon.  Worth the £3 spent. I definitely need colour in my day during January... Sometimes after all the sparkle that Christmas brings when you put the decorations away the home can seem kind of lifeless... So what I've done is kept my fairy lights out around the fireplace. I'll put them away come March when the lighter days start to come. Im still using up my festive candles too. My 'figgy pudding' one is burning today its a lovely festive aroma. 

✨🌟💛✨All this brightness & colour makes my heart skip happily with the joys of Spring to come... So I've been busy with a few hours here and there making mixed media and painted my whimsical creatures. Meet my Spring duck. I really like how this has turned out. 

✨🌟💚✨Local, lovely countryside walks on the old railway tracks which look towards Dartmoor... The tracks been replaced for country paths used by bikes & walkers... High up above the trees on the old viaducts & bridges... Rivers flow below and the sounds of the farmer's fields and birds above... So peaceful. We found an abandoned cottage (maybe the railway masters cottage?)... Lots of beautiful views. 

✨🌟💚✨The wind was whistling through the trees - we said it sounded like the train was still in use...  We only met two other people on this walk... It felt like we had it all to ourselves.  We were overjoyed to see our first snowdrops 💚

✨🌟❤️✨We had another walk around my old stomping ground of Plymouth... It was bitterly cold that day, we wrapped up warm but still nippy in the air. But enjoyed hot chocs and harbour views... And the wonderful light house on the hoe looking out to sea... I didn't take many pics my hands were far too cold to take my mittens off. 

✨🏖️💛🌟✨ And last weekend we had a trip to the coast in Cornwall on the Torpoint car ferry... Oh' my it cheered my soul so much... We took a picnic & headed to Kingsand, Cawsand... Its a place I've mentioned in past posts here on my blog.... Its my favourite! And despite its beauty always seems a hidden gem. Summer it's packed with ferry boat day trippers and most of the sweet coastal cottages are holiday let's now... But Winter to Spring and Autumn it's like a ghost town... I do feel sad that this can happen to such beautiful coastal villages... That these wonderful cottages haven't got local families in keeping them alive all year around and not lining the pockets of rich, wealthy city dwellers making money on holiday homes that only get used less than 6 months of the year!... Rant over! But it is a crying shame.

Stevies father grew up playing on cawsand beach and remembers the fishing boats and a hive of activity which sadly is long gone. 

But, one Joy of it being a seasonal village and only about 2,3 shops its not busy at all during winter and its so beautiful & peaceful... We always admire the colours of the cute and quirky little cottages picking out our favourites... I do hope one day we'll move closer to the sea. My childhood was spent on an island on the east coast and I miss it so much ... The fresh sea air... The sound of the rolling waves... Blissfully perfect! 

✨🌟💙✨🌟✨Oh I do like to be beside the sea side... Beside the sea...

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Beach combing, treasure seeking, rock pool hunting, pebble skimming... 💙

✨💛🏖️✨⭐ I adore Dartmoor and the walks and rivers around me here but I think I'm at that time in my life where we are not going to be needing a good school... Sophs now nearing the end of schooling... And the college shes hoping for is a city one so as long as she's on a train, bus route it opens up moving to the coast. And that feels my heart with joy!. I can see a new life by the sea. And I so hope we can... Its a big move so it won't be just yet. Lots to think about, decide on and work out financially... But watch this space. 🤞

✨💛⭐💙✨ The only problem with cornish coastal villages is how expensive they are...especially the ones I long to live in. The market has rocketed. But, its not a rush... I'm happy to wait for something worth waiting for. And I love getting ideas and snippets from magazines and feeling inspired. Im not a fan of change it gives me big anxiety but some how I don't feel like that about moving to the coast, it actually excites me more. My partner has been discussing it for years too now... We want a studio too... So there's been many 'a discussion lately. 

✨💛⭐✨💚✨⭐Back to cosy comforts... I've been wearing all my winter woollies this Winter as the temperatures have been freezing... I even wear a jumper & thick woolly socks to bed... Also being aware of rising gas bills I've really reduced what we use. But we do still use the heat especially evenings... But I never put it on if I'm in the cottage alone. Just another jumper! Thankfully I have plenty of them. And I've been using a water bottle & blankets. Even mittens downstairs... What a sight! Sounds more like wartime Britain and making do! 

✨🌟✨🌟⭐✨Keep warm and cosy. 

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Here we go a wassailing ✨⭐

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(New year's eve, Wassailing in the New year at Cotehele Orchard, National trust) 

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✨⭐2023⭐🥂

A New year's blessing of good health and well being...

I definitely do not believe in new year's resolutions, 

I think it's far better on yourself to just take each day with an open heart and a open mind and enjoy the simple pleasures that come our way... Life has taught me through some quite frankly difficult times in my past that looking at the good things within our daily life however big or small can make even the bleakness of days so much bearable. I've always kept a journal for positive thoughts... I like to look back through the pages, remembering the good bits of year that's passed.  Life can be a roller-coaster of ups and downs...but here, on my blog I prefer to share my happy little snapshots of life. 

Enjoying the festive garland at the Medieval Hall at Cotehele... ✨✨⭐✨ It's absolutely magical and beautiful and made from all the dried flowers grown in the gardens at Cotehele, each year its more and more beautiful... It definitely cheers my soul. 

Lots of turquoise jars showcasing the dried flowers used in the garland... ✨✨✨⭐

Also, a few days before we spent a Magical day at Buckland Abbey, national trust. So many handmade textile decorations to feast your eyes on and the old Monks barn was made into a magical lit up forest of Christmas trees with sounds of nature around in hidden speakers and wildlife decorations hidden within the branches. A huge textile white Swan on a dish in the huge kitchen. 

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New year's New journal... Junk journals, I'm still working in my pin dolly junk journal from last year... Dipping in and out when I feel inspired to... No rush, no deadline. But I've started a New creative junk journal too, filled with ideas and inspirations... Also a sketchbook journal for drawings and scribblings and doodles... 

A New year always seems to bring me lots of new ideas... The excitement of new paintings and crafty creations... I'd especially like to do some more slow stitch style drawings too, brooches and little wall hangings... Even weaving... The winter months do inspire me most... But finding time is my biggest problem... Such a big year this year with my daughter revising for her g. c. s. e's, so I'm putting her needs first this year. We've been to college open evenings and another this week... I still almost pinch myself that I have a sixteen year old. I'm so proud of her and everything she's achieved in her life so far. So it's going to be very busy months a head! But I'll try get some art in too here and there. ✨✨⭐✨✨

... My imagination put down on paper✨✨🌟Also Misty early morning skies over our Market town And a friendly Robin... ⭐

Today its been so dark and mizzly here in Devon... ✨🌟✨🌧️🌦️🌧️

Hyacinths and snowdrops on the window... 

Cheering up a bleak, wet January afternoon. 

Finding joy in simple pleasures. My foxy mask hangs up reminding me of a joyful wassail... I hope your year is filled with wonderful small pleasures that bring you joy✨✨🌟✨

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🌟✨🧚‍♂️ Christmas 22🎅✨🌟

Merry Moments of Christmas

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🌟✨🎄🧚‍♂️The whimsical window tradition in my cottage over the last few years has given me great joy and the neighbours always talk to me about it which makes me smile...Simple paper cut pieces really, but gives me alot of joy!

✨🌟✨🧚‍♂️🎄I had been fighting off a really nasty chesty bug, awful cough and felt quite rotten the weeks leading up to Christmas but luckily by my birthday things were improving and felt a little more like myself. my family had had it too. So we were all a bit run down. 

✨🌟✨🧚‍♂️✨My birthday lands on the Winter Solstice...I had a Yule log chocolate cake from my lovely mum💗

✨🧚‍♂️🌟🎄✨ Festive dresser top...

✨🌟✨🌟✨🎄I like to paint or draw my daughter a little tree gift tag...this year I painted a squirrel in a sweet outfit, but I smudged the writing with my coffee... nevermind she didn't notice 

✨🌟✨🌟🧚‍♂️🦊 Stevie and my daughter picked out this wonderful handmade needle felted foxy for me at a handmade fair in Cornwall. An early birthday gifty... I love with him. It's starting to look like farthing wood around the fireplace tehe😂🦊

✨🌟✨🌟🎄My mum said to me our cottage was made for Christmas...I think she's right. It seems to feel more special at this time of year ... ignoring the fact of the drafty windows in a heating crisis of energy bills rocketing 🥴🥶 More woollies on this Christmas 🎄🌟

✨🌟✨✨Decorated the Christmas cake when I was feeling better...my cakes always turn out a bit wonky ...it tasted good though.

✨🌟✨🌟✨ Beautiful sky over my market town during the frosty temperature 🥶we even had a sprinkling of snow on Dartmoor a few weeks ago.

✨🌟🧚‍♂️🌟✨I was dropping off bags of unwanted items to the charity shop and while there found a large pile (18 magazines) of Mollie Makes, around 2016/17...they are filled with all the wonderful makes of that era of my life , I can even remember buying this magazines first issue...so it was a wonderful trip down memory lane and I can fussy cut all the images to use in my junk journals. I do buy magazines but not as many these last year's, actually I still look back through older magazines I keep them like books and pass on some to friends and family 😊...my favourite magazine has always been Country Living. But I have stopped buying the summer issues and just buy spring and festive ones. I just think the cost is too high, they used to be less than £4! I decided to treat myself this Christmas but for three magazines it was around £15 eeekkk!, Always overjoyed if I see them on sale in the charity shops.

🌟✨💖🌟✨I was so excited on Instagram when I won a competition...I won a Cosy Life Box from Amanda Bloom...it arrived just before my birthday...it was filled with beautiful yarn, sweet festive candle, notelets, crochet needle, almanac book, calendar, card and instructions to crochet a beautiful cardigan , just absolutely beautiful ❤️

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✨🌟✨🌟✨🌟✨🧚‍♂️ A year of being creative....just a small collection of my artwork here, I've actually been so good keeping to regular art and crafts...I love looking back at where My imagination took me. I've just started to finish my little junk journal too.

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Christmas day was busy but really lovely...

But it is alot of driving for Stevie trying to fit in both parents...we always enjoy just relaxing on boxing day and spending time together at home💖

(Not sure why my photos seem a bit odd with black lines at the sides, I think blogger is playing up?)

✨🌟🧚‍♂️🎄✨ After a day of relaxation we headed for a drive and a walk around Totnes, a wonderful castle town set on a hill in Devon....so many quirky shop window displays this Christmas...we walked to the church and had earl grey tea in a cafe nr the church...always a lovely atmosphere there, especially on a market day.

🌟✨🌟✨🌟✨ Wonderful display in fifty5a Shop by an artist (but forgotten the name)

✨🌟✨✨🌟✨We have just been enjoying being together.  Rushing around for work and school life and activities just takes over and quality time is few and far between...so that's what I enjoyed this Christmas 'together time'💖 

✨✨✨🌟✨✨✨🎄🧚‍♂️ The last days of the Christmas tree before we pot it back outdoors...I'll keep the fairy lights around the fireplace ✨🌟✨

✨✨✨🌟🧚‍♂️🌟✨ Enjoying festive candles and favourite cards...these peaceful no-where-to-be days after Christmas when you can't remember what day it is?...I like them most of all.

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See you in the New year dear friends,

Thank you for visiting and thanks for the messages left on my blog 😊❤️

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