Just what the Dr ordered!

They arrived on Christmas day as a treasured gift, a boot shaped box, could it be? Yes it was a pair of the most beautiful red Dr Martens complete with red satin laces, flowery insides and they are heavenly and I love them ! 

Dr Martens have always had cult status and with each new youth culture their allegiance has changed and fitted into that particular way of thinking.

I love that you can wear them with jeans, combats, flowery dresses, pin striped suits or on site with your work gear. There is always the great debate over form verses fashion but here they meet in equal measure, perfectly integrated a modern design classic recognized all over the world.

Some may say who know me well, that my feet are rarely touching the ground but now I have the perfect excuse in my Dr Martens air walkers

Home

This is always the time of year to reflect on the year’s happenings and all I can say it has been full to bursting with family, friends, laughter, inspiration, opportunities, journey’s, people, stories, nonsense, sad bits and without doubt a year full of love. My home is my haven from an ever crazy world, to share, to garden, to clutter, to make, to inspire and most importantly to just be! This is a snapshot of my home over the last year through my images, Salvo Toscano's and Bs. To see my gallery of home. patchworkbutterflys home

silky things

I have just taken delivery of a parcel full of the most beautiful Cambodian raw silk in the most wonderful jewel like colours. The whole process from start to finish is like a wonderful load of magic, and whilst I was out there this year I was lucky enough to be invited to have a go. I am legendary for my granny knots which if in doubt, about the knots security tie another one, so the thought of been in charge of a loom was off the scale. Nevertheless I had a go and wove enough silk to make a belt for a fairy. It was so difficult and your co-ordination needs to be second to none. The Cambodian women were so generous with their time and sharing their skills. I am afraid I will just use the silk at the end of their process which becomes the start of my design process. The making of silk is fascinating and I spent a day working and learning with them form the start to the end. I have long been using Cambodian silk, I love the texture of it, colour and am fascinated by lying textures next to one another, like the silk and wool or with loosely woven tweed, makes my heart skip a beat! Hope you enjoy the images from silk worms munching on mulberry leaves to my finished work using the silk

hatching up a plan

Nothing makes me happier than planning journey's. Well not so much planned but loose arrangements, well this simply means flights there and then see what unfolds. So I am in just under 3 weeks approaching my 40th year of living this life and don't really have the time or inclination for a mid- life crisis. So I am hatching up a plan to do 40 journeys in my 40th year. My hope is to travel to places near and far to photograph, write, sketch, paint and then to maybe do something with my gatherings. I have been thinking about this for a while and these journeys I want to share with family, friends and strangers. So I have bought my world map to put up in my bedroom and red pins to stab into countries I dream of, and let's see what happens.

christmassing

Christmassing has already started at at the butterfly's home !
Christmassing is one of our family words conjured up by my great grandad who at this time of the year started Christmassing I think that meant sherry in real terms !

chairs

I have just finished these grumpy budgie chairs they have both been stripped back to their natural wood after hours of sanding to get off the very very thick dark brown varnish. They have both been re - upholstered using the most beautiful Italian cotton and both come with their hand embroidered budgie cushions with pom pom details. You can find them both in my shop later today. http://www.patchworkbutterfly.co.uk/