Sun Day

The usual response when I tell people that I live/work in Cheshire is 'ooooh, posh!' or 'ooooh, with the footballers?', something along those lines. Just to clarify, I am neither rich nor a WAG. I did, as it happens, spend Saturday afternoon drinking in the sunny garden of an Alderley Edge pub whilst Ferraris and Bentleys drove by, but this is far from typical behaviour. I am just a poor imposter who likes to people watch.

Really, I think that Cheshire has a bit of a bad rep. Sure, there are footballers, mansions, fast cars, people with more money than taste and all that nouveau-riche tossery. But there is also a lot of beautiful, peaceful countryside that surrounds it all.

So yesterday, in search of something better, I went exploring Bosley Cloud (something I've been meaning to do for the last nine months!) It is 1,125ft hill on the borders of Cheshire and Staffordshire and gives 360° views of green fields, lakes and distant towns. Manchester appears just a little geographic anomaly on the horizon and for once I didn't resent feeling a million miles away from the city.

The landscape on this one hill is so varied; from the steep rocky climb up there (aptly called the 'Gritstone trail') through dense, scorched bracken that gave me that feeling of being somewhere foreign - whilst only being 30 minutes from home - and creepy woodland full of dead and disembodied trees, to flowery meadows that bring you right back to where you started out... and through which I was convinced to 'frolic' for photographic opportunities (see below).

All in all a lovely day and a welcome escape from the usual day-to-day grind of work/commute/sleep/repeat. Isn't it funny how everything looks sort of happier in the sun?

Today I have mostly been dressed like a cartoon character...

Yesterday, whilst rooting through piles of vintage tat in Manchester, I came across this awesome red t-shirt/dress/nightie with a pastel pencil embroidery design. It's ace and reminds me of Penny Crayon, she used to draw stuff that came alive and could rub it out to make it go away, which I used to think would be THE best super power.

Continuing my love of bright colours and as two fingers to four days of RAIN - it's spring don't ya know?! - I have been making lovely little felt badges based on my favourite thing (TEA!) and jingly-jangly charm bracelets full of candy coloured buttons.

As my life gets increasingly more stressful (and I approach my quarter century!), I seem to have spent the last few weeks regressing to a sort of childishness where I want to roll around and get my knees dirty, play with felt and buttons, and avoid tidying my bedroom at all costs. Ok, so that latter one may be a permanent fixture, but you get the picture. Where my 8.30 to 5.30pm hours are spent trying to be terribly 'grown up' and 'responsible', I like to fill my 5.30 - 8.30am trying to have fun (and sleeping, of course). So I make things...

There is something so simple and unpretentious about just making things with my own two hands that really appeals to me. I am creative, but I'm not artistic, so I know am never going to be a great artiste. But I was taught by my parents and grandparents to sew, knit, draw, mold, paint and basically just get my hands stuck into anything that would keep me busy, quiet and out of trouble for an afternoon. Twenty odd years on and it still works for me!

More Tea?

Today I made two new necklaces based on two very British obsessions. Tea and rain.

I even discovered that we have our very own Tea Council, whose website - incidentally - features a picture of a woman having a bath in a human-size cup of tea (or maybe she's supposed to be tea-cup sized? who knows!) Is it me, or is that just a bit weird?

Robots Are Our Friends

For Beth, with love. x