Emporiums and Pavillions
Hello 2021 and hello you!
Welcome back, it is super good to see you. Here in the wintry UK, 2021 is starting as strangely as 2020 became, but I am prepared to hunker down in our biscuit bunker. With my batteries recharged over a quiet Christmas, I am full of dreams and ideas of fairy gardens, topiary, new planting schemes, outdoor sculptures, making a secluded picnic space and a woodland glade. The weather may be bad, but the garden planning starts here!
This was my view from the sofa on Christmas day, horizontally incapacitated like Jabba The Hut, following a 4am start (thanks to the littlest), full roast dinner, two glasses of wine and mass Fererro Rocher consumption.
Captain Xmas was very kind this year, and I received a whole array of garden related items to keep me busy -
With new Covid restrictions in place, Mam & I have been digitally swapping pictures of our indoor bulb forcing efforts. Here's mine at Long Mizzle, Penryn -
And mam's at my folk's house, over the hill, on the other side of Falmouth -
As Christmas has been and gone, I can now share one of my 2020 winter sewing makes, made on old Babs (Bernina 1970s sewing machine) - a wall hanging for Mam - which reads 'Mumrah's 50p Emporium'.
Regular Long Mizzle readers will know mam, aka 'Mumrah', is happiest ferreting around in charity shops, jumble sales and carboot sales. This is an ode to her treasure hunting abilities. The big beady eye represents her miraculous ability to spot a bargain from 100 paces away (I personally think she also part sniffs them out). Amazingly, a lot of her finds only ever cost 50p!
Having ransacked my under-the-desk fabric stash, I started by making the eye and stitched it to the centre of a thick sheet green cotton backing. Using a charity shopped scarf (50p, strangely enough!), I sliced off both ends and positioned them above and below the eye, leaving the trim in place so they'd look like eyelashes.
The black and peach pink edging trim (20p for a massive roll, from a chazza) was attached via a zig-zag, green over stitch to give it a folky feel.
The applique letters were cut from scraps of fabric from Mam's old patchwork 'squares', that aren't actually square. Two of the fabrics I recognize from bed sheets from my childhood - even back then they were considered retro (I grew up in the 80s in a house that looked like something from the 1960s/70s).
This is the first stitched wall hanging I have ever made. My eldest daughter inspired and helped - as she has made two at school (her early morning club supervisor is an awesome seamstress). The hanging would be quite a home in a gypsy woman's
fortune telling caravan. Mam is going to put it in her kitchen!
Has anyone tried using metallic thread? I found it so fiddly to use! The foil coating kept on stripping off as it passed through the eye of the sewing machine's needle, resulting in many re-threads. Maybe there is a secret knack? I am glad I persevered though, as the gold catches the light and gives it a certain circus like zing.
Good garden news.... I discovered this week that one of my favourite places, Falmouth's Princess Pavillion / Gyllyngdune Gardens has reopened to the public. They have been closed since the first lockdown in March, as the attached gig and cafe venue were deemed not to be economically viable by the company contracted to run them (GLL).
It was sad
over the summer to peer through the gates and see the overgrown lawn and
bandstand area empty, which is normally a riot of colour and live music. Currently, there's talk of a possible community / council initiative takeover.
The watering hole is a shady oasis on a hot summer's day, but equally tropical looking on a cold winter's one. The gardens looked like they'd received some tender loving care, all freshly weeded, with a thick layer of manure mulch on the rose beds and fresh bark chippings elsewhere. And I've never seen a tidier greenhouse!
The Edwardian verandas house an interesting assortment of succulents. Spot anything amiss? When I want to study the plants properly, I play a game where I hide the kid's dolls... the better I hide them, the more time it buys me.
Here they are hanging out on a Ponytial Palm (Beaucarnea recurvata) (I have one of these as a houseplant and didn't realise how big they grow!) and by the pineapple-like trunk of a Canary Island Date Palm (Phoenix canariensis) -
This is 'Morrigan', the wood carved dragon - a mythic shape shifter is said to haunt the bay. The kids absolutely love the little dragon play park - it really captures their imagination.
The old bandstand, someone throw me a trombone will they!?
As the light started to fade, the moon came out to say hello...
With the majestic Montery Pines silhouetted against the cerulean sea,
we watched the twinkling lights of the ships sheltering out in the bay, turn on one by one. I
wondered what the seafaring folk were up to...drinking rum or listening to jazz maybe.
We call this bit 'Stone Henge hill' - but it probably has a proper name (?)
We sat here for a bit before it got too cold, then we headed back home
for a cup of tea and warm mince pie, with a big dollop of Cornish Clotted
Cream on the side of course!
That's all for today folks. Thank you for popping by.
I hope you are keeping safe and well. Did you have a good tinsel tiding?
Please say hello in the comments section below, I always love a natter.
Lulu xXx
Thank you for visiting!
Most recent posts can be found here -
https://longmizzle.blogspot.com/
I love the photos by the sea! Your quiting/embossing is so very bright and cheery.
ReplyDeleteThank you Sam, hope you’re well. The quilting effect was quite by accident, but it has made me think about making a quilt too! Lulu xXx
Deletehappy new year dear lulu!
ReplyDeletethe wallhanging for your mom looks lovely - well done!! in my industrial machine the lurex thread worked well - but maybe it was the thread i used? a thicker needle with a bigger hole may help.
great success with the hyacinths - if we ever will have fleamarkets again i will look out for the vases and try some bulbs next winter.....
such a pretty park even in winter! especially with this cute pink elves frolicking around :-D
xxxxx
Thank you Beate! Your industrial machine sounds the business. I do need to buy some more needles, so I’ll try make sure to order some different sizes. Oh I’d love a rummage around a flea market right now. The Pavillion is superbly looked after by its gardeners and in normal times there’s an annual flower show, tea festival and lots of music and theatre gigs. Lulu xXx
DeleteHappy new year Lulu! I've loved reading your blog posts this year.
ReplyDeleteLove the sewing creation you made for your mam! So unique and thoughtful. I too have used metallic thread when embroidering and find it very annoying as it constantly gets tangled. X
Thank you Jess, likewise! The thread is very tangly indeed! I thought Mam might put the hanging on the back of the door of her little office, but it is going to take pride of place in the kitchen apparently...keeping a big beady eye on everyone! Lulu xXx
DeleteHappy New Year, Lulu and family!
ReplyDeleteThat wall hanging is an absolute triumph, you are clever! I never had much luck with metallic thread either, I only managed to hand sew with it as constantly trying to rethread my sewing machine drove me nuts!
The bulbs look wonderful and your out and about photos are gorgeous, proper magic! xxx
Hello Vix, thank you so much m' lovely. A lot of these new machines are self-threading aren’t they, not like our vintage ones! I may have to resort to hand sewing, although I don’t know if I have your super patience. It was lovely having a wander about the Pavillion as the light was fading. Lulu xXx
DeleteHappy New Year, Lulu! What a beautiful park and a magical place to take the family! I had to look up "cerulean" (can tell I'm not an artist!!!). I always think the boat lights look like birthday candles in the dark so it's nice to think there's something festive going on there. Well done with your wall hanging. What a thrill for your mam to have a hanging crafted with love and wit. I miss the charity shops and car boot sales SO much. The hyacinths look terrific. I have taken mine out of the cupboard - it's a long way from flowering but watching it grow is half the fun. Great view from your sofa. It would look exotic with the palm/yukka/whatever if there wasn't that wintery sky! We have snow lying here. So nice to be cosy inside. Glad you enjoyed the festive. You're SUPPOSED to get up at an ungodly hour as a child on Christmas morning. It's the rules!!!!
ReplyDeleteHello Catmac, we have missed that little dragon park all year. It is one of the few places I can get my plants fix and the kids their action time. There aren’t nearly as many ships out in the bay at the moment and we didn’t get the usual huge honk-a-thon at New Year, did you? Some previous years, we’ve seen overtly festive Christmas lights out on the ships.
DeleteHow lovely to have some snow. Haha, we did make our littlest go back to bed for a couple of hours, after finding her running up and down the hallway, screaming ‘he’s been, Santa’s been!!!’. I recall doing the very same thing at the same age. Lulu xXx
Disappointingly, Lulu, the ships DIDN'T sound their horns. What a let down! When we went outside for our Thursday claps, the ships joined in and the church rang its bells. New Year, nothing from either. :( At the bells, my granny used to go to the river to listen to the ships on the Clyde as her sons were sailors. I always think of my wee granny when I hear ship horns.
DeleteWhat a reassuring sound that must have been for your Granny Catmac. Oh I loved the Thursday claps too, the whole of Penryn came to life with honks, pot bashing, signing. One thing I have especially missed this year has been the sound of church bells every Wednesday evening and Sunday morning. I swear I’ll cry when they return, as they’ll signal some sort of normality. Lulu xXx
DeleteHappy New Year Lulu. It has been a pleasure to get to know you through blogging and I look forward to following your adventures in 2021. You have inspired me to get a sewing machine. Itsmy birthday in February so I will put it on the list.
ReplyDeleteI am impressed with your hyacinths. I have 3 in the dowstairs loo and they are just shooting through.
XX
Hello Jane, thanks and you too! I haven’t been machine sewing for too long. My first project was making lots of pot towels from an old table cloth. Easy straight lines, therapeutic and super useful. Here’s a great YouTube tutorial channel - Made Everyday with Dana, a bubbly, colourful Texan -
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/user/madeeverydaywithdana
(Dana has an all singing dancing, ‘self-threading’ ‘Babylock’ machine, & my borrowed 1970s Bernina is much simpler in comparison) Lulu xXx