Spring

I know that as soon as I utter the words I am about to say, the weather will probably close in and we'll be back to sub-zero temperatures and blizzards, but.....

Spring is arriving!

This makes me very happy indeed.

On my way to the post office this morning I spotted some snowdrops gently nodding in the breeze, so when I returned home I got out my trusty camera (thank you instagram iphone) and had a look in the garden to see what other signs of Spring I could find.  Buds are growing on the cherry and apple trees, green shoots are poking up through the earth, and the great-tits are back to nest in the birdbox by the kitchen window.  And best of all, it's mild enough not to wear a coat!  Hurrah!

Thank you Mother Nature for the promise of Spring and the colour you give us to enjoy with each new stem that grows and blooms.  Spring is truly the most beautiful time of year, and it warms my heart and fills me with hope that longer, warmer days are just around the corner.

Much love, Emmalemonade x x

The Old Fire Station

Last Tuesday, on my way to Summertown to help The Mothership choose a dress for my brother's wedding, I stopped off at The Old Fire Station on George Street in Oxford to have a look at the latest in Blessing Force's art exhibitions, and to check out the shop, which I'd been hearing lots of positive things about.

The Old Fire Station has been undergoing a total revamp since closing down a few years ago, and remaining empty until it was allocated by Oxford City Council and the charity Crisis to be transformed into a performance space, artists studios, cafe, gallery and shop.  Particular emphasis is to be placed on local artists, and helping to provide opportunities for Oxford's homeless.

Blessing Force is an Oxford-based community of artists and musicians who provide each other with help and support in putting on gigs or exhibitions, writing and recording albums, or anything else that they can work together on to minimise costs and maximise the potential of each of them.  The perfect Collective therefore to invite to The Old Fire Station for one of the space's first shows.

I'd already seen a Blessing Force exhibition (over at Modern Art Oxford back in 2011) and was blown away by the diversity and quality of the wall-based art, and the floor-based installations, so knew a little of what to expect.  And this show didn't disappoint.  Despite only having a relatively small space to play with (the MOA show was spread over 3 floors), works by Valeska Hykel, Sebastian Thomas, Amy Honour, Charlotte Freeston and Tinhead all sat easily side by side without the space looking cluttered, and seemed to complement each other too - no mean feat with so many different styles.  New works were displayed as well as some older ones - Charlotte Freeston's video installation featuring a roaring lion inter-dispersed with footage of Meg Ryan pretending to, er, enjoy herself, if you know what I mean (you know the film I'm sure) was both awkward and slightly uncomfortable making and attention-grabbing in equal measure once again - and it was great to see some new work by Tinhead.

Tinhead also had the honour of being asked to draw two murals - one on the wall of the shop space at the OFS, and one on the floor to ceiling window beside the Gloucester Green entrance to the shop.  The one on the window will be removed when the Blessing Force exhibition finishes on 24th February, so you still have a couple more days to see it if you haven't already.  Here is Tinhead at work on the window, courtesy of the Blessing Force website:

And this is Tinhead's work on the wall in the shop, which I believe will be staying there for the foreseeable...

After seeing the exhibition I had a good old browse in the shop, and boy it was good!  There are so many talented people in Oxford, and it seems that a fair few of them are selling their wares here, all under one roof. Hurrah!  I was pretty much in heaven and wanted to buy all of it, but managed to restrain myself enough to just buy a necklace and a brooch:

Acrylic shooting star necklace by Brendan and Ruth of i am acrylic.

Ceramic hand illustrated camera brooch by Alice of Alice Shields.


Here's a taster of some of the wonderful things on sale, and if you're in Oxford at all, be sure to visit this fantastic place; it's a beaut.

Much love, Emmalemonade x x

Snow in the Suburbs

Every branch big with it,

Bent every twig with it;

Every fork like a white web-foot;

Every street and pavement mute:

Some flakes have lost their way, and grope back upward when

Meeting those meandering down they turn and descend again.

The palings are glued together like a wall,

And there is no waft of wind with the fleecy fall.

A sparrow enters the tree,

Whereon immediately

A snow-lump thrice his own slight size 

Descends on him and showers his head and eye 

And overturns him, 

And near inurns him, 

And lights on a nether twig, when its brush 

Starts off a volley of other lodging lumps with a rush. 

The steps are a blanched slope, 

Up which, with feeble hope, 

A black cat comes, wide-eyed and thin; 

And we take him in. 

Thomas Hardy

Just a little selection of photos for you of the snowy things I saw on my way to work this morning.

I love the snow.  I love how it looks and I love how clean it makes everything look.  I love the sound of it under my feet and I love how it makes the world feel so still and silent.  I love that I know there's snow on the ground when I wake up, even before I've got out of bed and looked out of my window, because everything's so much lighter and brighter and there's a great hush over all the land.  I love how the snow makes me feel like a child again and I get this great urge to run outside, coat flapping, scarf flailing behind me, gloves half pulled on in the rush, and gather up the snow in my hands and make it into balls and throw them at people, and make snow angels, and just run about in it, all rosy-cheeked and glowy, my face alive with joy.  Oh!  It makes me giddy, the mere thought of it!

I may have to watch The Chronicles of Narnia tonight, just to get that little extra fix of cold, crisp whiteness!

Thank you all so very much for your comments on yesterday's post - I'm so glad that Ele and Millie have been such a hit!  It has spurred me on to make more crocheted creatures, and I have some nifty little ideas up my sleeves for future projects, so watch this space......

Much love and enjoy your weekends, whatever you are doing.

Emmalemonade x x

Of Mice and Elephants

Well I promised y'all a "ta-da" post didn't I, so here it is!

A few weeks ago, I was at work (I think) when a little tweet came through on my phone: "can you crochet an elephant?" it said.  I thought about it for a minute or two and then tweeted back "I've never crocheted an elephant before but I sure can give it a try!"

My Twitter friend Lisa (@sewsofthandmade) wanted me to crochet a toy elephant for her two-and-a-half year old son Nathan, who is elephant mad at the moment, having just discovered Dumbo.  And as I had never attempted a toy before, let alone an elephant, I was more than happy to accept the challenge and see what I could come up with.

After work, I dashed home (well, it was sort of limited to a bus ride at 30mph but you get the picture) and did a bit of a search for toy elephant crochet patterns and eventually came across three or four which I thought might fit the bill (Lisa had specified "eight to ten inches tall, really soft and cuddly") and emailed the links to the patterns over to Lisa to see what she thought.

Not long later, the repsonse arrived:  this one.

So I set about finding a suitable yarn to use.  Easier said than done when there are so many different types of yarn and even more colours to choose from!  But after a trip to John Lewis in Cardiff (any excuse to visit that store!) and some help from a certain young Scotsman, I decided to use Rowan Cashsoft DK in shade 00534 for the body, and King Cole Merino DK in shades 788, 859 and 854 for the blanket and headdress.

Once work was under way, the elephant's body parts took shape pretty quickly, although sometimes not into quite the shapes I was expecting....

Can you guess which bit is which?!

Here's Ele's body parts laid out in the right places, before stuffing:

And then began the work of stuffing all the parts and sewing everything together.  And here's where I forgot to take any more photos so the next photos are of a finished Ele, just before I packed him up ready for his journey in the post to his new home.

Ta-da!

And by kind permission of Lisa, here is Nathan with his new toy:

Lisa says to tell you he's been feeling pretty under the weather lately and so these photos don't show Nathan at his happy, bubbly best, but I think he looks just the cutest little thing ever, with his shock of blonde curls, don't you agree?


Don't go away just yet - there's something else!

After I'd finished Ele, I got an urge - a sudden flash of I-must-do-this-now-or-I-won't-sleep-tonight kind of thing.  Does anyone else get that?  Anyway, I just *had* to crochet a mouse.  I think it was mostly because I had about half a ball of the grey yarn to use up and knew that a crocheted mouse would fit the bill perfectly.  So I got Google to do it's thing, and almost immediately came across this pattern.  Perfect.  I set to, and after a couple of "lost in translation" mishaps, Millie Mouse was made:

Resting her weary head on a pile of crocheted hearts

She's a bit of a madam, but has wasted no time in making friends with the other creatures that live on my desk:

Millie Mouse with Mollie Monster

Getting annoyed with me for procrastinating:

Trying to eat the beautiful pear pincushion that another Twitter friend Beth (@missmagpiemakes) made me:

Ain't she cute though?!

Sorry for such a photo-heavy post today, I was just excited to show you all what I've been up to these last few weeks and there's nothing like a load of photos to do that!  And besides, these "ta-da" posts don't happen very often, they're quite rare here at Lemon headquarters you know... In fact, this is only my second one EVER!  But you've requested "more crochet", so more crochet is what you'll get!

I'm off to pretend I'm a kid and peak through the curtains to watch the snow fall from the skies and imagine that I'm in Narnia....

Much love,

Emmalemonade x x