POLKADoT Farm

...nothing better than a breath of fresh air!

The simplest things in life can sometimes give you so much pleasure. Yesterday was a breath of fresh air, as the wind blew strong, and there wasn't a spit of rain in the air...so i was overjoyed to get washing out on the line, after having months of clothes and sheets hanging on airers in the cottage, cluttering up space, and taking days to dry! I can't believe we are in the last week of January, and that Spring is only around the corner! Its lovely to see the days start to lengthen, and the bulbs breaking through the ground! A true sign of Spring for us on the farm is lambing!!! Tomorrow we are scanning just under 400 sheep to see how many lambs they are each having come April!! Fingers crossed they are all mostly in lamb...and we don't have too many triplets!

Thank you

Thank you for all your congratulations for Baby Duncan. He is doing really well, and now the weather is starting to improve we are getting out and about for walks.

I am busy making Thank you cards at the mo, and have been racking my brain for days  on what kind of design to go for. I visited a craft warehouse that is tucked away in an industrial estate in Stirling for some inspiration this week, and came away with a few buys, and a few ideas.

I found this lovely paper with stars, and an alphabet zoo paper too, which are both fun, and baby boyish without being to 'twee'.

 

I also bought some stamps, including the alphabet, which is in the first pic, and a wee baby pea pod, which is very cute,and I just had to have, even though I have no use for it in my card design..but have stamped the back of each card with it just for some added cute-ness! 

  

So after much cutting and sticking, I have created my card design...just got lots to make now..but its very therapeutic. It is so lovely to get back making stuff again between feeds sleeps and nappies!! So hopefully I'll get into Glasgow to my plate suppliers, and get painting my plates again soon!

 

 

An early Christmas present

Just a quick post....We had an unexpected surprise on Christmas Eve... the arrival of our new gorgeous Baby. I was down in Galloway visiting my Mum for Christmas. At 2am my waters broke, so being miles away from Stirling Royal, we hopped in the car to the local hospital, Dumfries....which isn't that local at 60 miles away!!! It must have been one of the coldest, icy-est nights, but we made it there for 4am, and 10 hours later Baby Duncan was born, 3 weeks early! I got out the following day for Christmas with our wee poppet. We can't quite believe it has all happened! Everyone is well, and we're looking forward to this cold snap disappearing, and the snow thawing so we can get out and about!

Sunrise on the Trossachs

This Morning Duncan insisted that I hopped in the land rover, and drove up to the top of the farm to take some photos of the snowy landscape, and wait for the sun to rise over the mountains. He was right, as at 8am this morning, the orange glow was just starting to peek over the top of Ben Lomond and others.

It was the most spectacular sight, that I feel can never be properly captured in a regular 10 mega pixel digital camera...if only I had a film in m SLR....not to worry though. I still managed to capture the gorgeous sunrise, as well as many doggy pics of Bill the sheepdog and Jock playing around in the snow!

Christmas Wreaths

 
This is the wreath I made for my door. I'm really pleased with my new technique. So much simpler, and less time consuming...so fingers crossed the berries last this festive period. I might add some tangerines onto it, to give it a spark of colour.... I also have made 2 heart wreaths for a customer. She wanted pheasant feathers in them too- this is how they turned out....

 

Gorgeous plump berries for my Christmas wreath

I managed to collect lots of gorgeous holly this weekend that was laden with lush berries. Hopefully the berries will not weaken in colour and plumpness by the time I get round to making my wreaths. I watched Kirstys homemade Christmas last week, where she was making wreaths. She made small bouquets of foliage first ,then wired the small bouquets onto the wreath...so i'm going to have a go at her technique, plus I'm going to add a few pheasant feathers for a bit of individuality!!

BBC Christmas Market

Last week,one of my craft fairs was held at BBC Scotland. A photographer was visiting all the stalls getting photos of the crafts for the in house magazine 'Ariel'. It was nice to get my glassware photographed, but rather embarrassing getting myself photographed.... After many awful photographs with my eyes closed, he managed to salvage this one! Thank goodness for digital photography!!!

It has been a busy few weeks selling my wares, but thats all the Christmas markets finished  for 2009! I've just a few orders to complete for customers, as well as 2 shop orders, one from Buchlyvie Pottery, as well as a re-order from the gallery in Drymen 'Ealain'.

I'm currently down at my Mums farm in Galloway for a couple of nights. She has a wonderful Holly tree in one of the fields which is oozing in berries....so i'm off to cut a few branches to make some wreaths now...... 

Cake Plates galore

Its been a busy few weeks with Christmas Markets galore. Threres been good ones, and bad ones, but this weekend is my favourite one. My best seller this year has been my new Cake Plates (above). I have spent this week painting, busily re-stocking my plate stock all ready for tonights Fair at the Green Gallery in Buchlyvie. It is the most beautiful Fair held in the owners house and gallery, and always puts me in a Christmas-y mood. Tonight is 'Ladies night', so fingers x'd its a success! 

Rain rain go away

We have had an awful few weeks of rain, and it doesn't look as if it is going to stop. We are very lucky that our farm is on higher ground, and away from the forth river that runs at the bottom of the 'bottom fields' of the farm. A few days ago we had to move our sheep onto higher ground, as the risk of the forth breaking its banks were pretty high, and luckily we did, or the sheep would have been left with 1 acre of ground to graze and shelter on.

The picture above is a view across the carse of Stirling, and you can see how the forth river has broken its banks, and is starting to flood the surrounding farmland.

 
I took this picture a few days ago, when there was a break of sunshine/(dry hour!) All the hedges rows around us are pretty sparse & skeletal looking, but some are still clinging onto these beautiful bright leaves that add a bit of vitality and sunshine to the brown landscape!

 

First Frost of the season

 
I love waking up on frost bitten mornings. The landscape looks so crisp and untouched, and the rising sun glows a gorgeous yolky orange hue throughout the violet sky. A few mornings ago we had  the most beautiful morning, where the view across the trossachs was breathtaking. We have had lots of work to do on the farm over the last few mornings, including feeding the cattle silage that are still outside, and preparing the sheep for 'tupping'. This is when we split the sheep into groups of roughly 40, and then we put a ram into the field with each group, and hope for lots of lambs in April! 

On frosty mornings I always think that spiderwebs resemble crochet pieces, the way they drape off trees and plants, and cling onto fences & gateposts....I imagine a funny image of a spider busying itself away throughout the night with crochet needles...