Continuing with the Venetian theme in my reading, June from our Book Club lent me ‘Daughters of the Doges’ by Edward Charles. The book begins in England with Mary Tudor on the throne, at a time when there was a great deal of religious and political intrigue. The characters set off on a journey through Europe, which is undergoing the consequences of the Reformation, and set off for Padua which is located near Venice. I eagerly started off reading this book as I am fascinated with the changes in and around Europe at the time of the Renaissance (which was not just confined to Italy) and the Reformation. However, I felt that it was as if the book was written by two people; the first part was full of intrigue and adventure, however, when the characters arrive in the Veneto the pace changes. Characters act almost as if they belong in the twenty-first century, rather than the sixteenth century. Towards the end I felt that this happened more and more and the character plots conveniently fitted together too neatly. I felt that it lacked the feel of the uncertain times they were living in and it ended up to be more of a romantic novel which it hadn’t really started out to be. I do like romance but not necessarily neatly served up on a plate when I am expecting quite a clever intriguing plot.

However, I did enjoy reading about Venice and Padua and the book also contained quite a lot about the artists, Tintoretto and Titian and their artistic practices. It does make me want to visit Padua and Venice again....

Sending

A little while back I agreed to this gocco swap which was organised by Sarah of Cloth, Paper String blog. I was really excited to be taking part in this as I had missed out on previous swaps. I spent the weekend printing my 'Reflecting Winter & Spring' image onto grey card for some notelets. I thought this would be relatively straight forward as I thought it was easy to buy grey card to make cards. Not so - I did not realise how scarce grey card is and it had to be the right shade of grey to match the colours I was using. I wanted to print the icicles in the image in white which is why I decided to use grey as the background. When I finally found some when I cut and creased the grey card it did not crease properly and so I had to start again! Paperchase came to the rescue and I bought some thinner grey card which has seemed to work ok.

After the notelets were printed came more fun in wrapping them up and then sending them on their way to different corners of the globe.

Receiving

Through the post last week I received a beautiful little purse I purchased from Melissa whose lovely blog is called Tiny Happy. Melissa is originally from New Zealand and has been living in Norway for a while and you can definitely see the Norwegian influence in her work.

This little purse is beautifully embroidered with a Lily of the Valley plant and I just love the little extras that she included.

A few days later I also bought this embroidered felt badge and the packaging was just as beautiful - even the stamps matched!

Melissa and her family are now on their way back to New Zealand and I wish them all a safe journey and look forward to the resumption of Melissa's blog posts when she is settled.

Giveaway on Sofia Barao's Blog

I have admired the artwork of Sofia Barao for a while now and she also makes jewellery, necklaces in particular one of which she is offering as a giveaway on her blog. The above photo is taken by Sofia and includes one of my favourite colours. The giveaway can be found here. Sofia also has an etsy shop where she sells her jewellery and another where she sells her beautiful artwork.

May Bank Holiday - Wightwick Manor

The weather was not very good this Monday and I felt like we needed some fresh air so we decided to go to Wightwick Manor, a National Trust property which is about half an hour's drive away. Although it was a little cold we went for a walk around the small but lovely garden:

There were quite a few plants and shrubs in bloom:

and bluebells in the wood made it feel really springlike:

Then we went for the obligatory cup of tea, apple juice and slices of cake in the Tea Room.

Lastly we went for a tour around the house which is full of William Morris wallpapers and fabrics (ideal for design and sewing ideas). There are also Pre-Raphaelite paintings, including one by Edward Burne- Jones. The house is quite big and we only saw the downstairs. Although we wen't there very long (a couple of hours) I felt that we had seen quite a lot, and blown some cobwebs away!

Spring

Visited my friend's last week and she had a thrush's nest in her magnolia tree. When I visited the babies were very fluffy and almost falling out of the nest! Click on the photo to see their little beady eyes. I was surprised how close to the ground they were and hoped that they would survive. Apparently they have all flown the nest now and my friend is hoping that the nest will be used again.

Last year I bought these wood anemones above from a local plant nursery and was really pleased that they came up again this year. The colour is a lovely delicate shade of blue.

Nice suprises

My daughter went to London at the weekend and telephoned me to say that she had bought me a really cool present - so I was quite excited to see what it was - and to see her of course.
It turned out to be a very sweet pincushion from Cath Kidston - unfortunately I am not allowed to keep the bag!


I also sent for a Japanese Sewing Book from Pomadour24 and it arrived in the post. Daughter wants me to help her make some of the patterns up with some Liberty fabric: