The Church Moth ~ textile art by Cobwebs

You can have bright, vivid colour moths, just as you can have rather dull looking butterflies. There are heaps of day moths – that is – moths who like being around and flitting, flying during the daytime hours – in fact there are more day-time moths in the UK than there are butterflies. But there are also Butterflies who like to fly at night.

There’s heaps more I could tell you which you might not know – but instead of me blathering on, I’ll give you a link at the end of this post so that those of you who would like to know more can click and the link will open up for you.

But now … … onto the crafty reason of my post today….

I’d like to introduce you to….

The Church Moth.

Maany moons ago, I got acquainted with a moth which wore glasses. Well, not actual real glasses (or spectacles), but he had a colouring around his front end (face) which made him look like he was wearing glasses. This moth was called a ‘Spectacled Moth’. (Which I didn’t know – I had to research it to find out what the dickens it was.). I’ve found a couple of photographs on the web, so that I could share this moth with you….

The Spectacle Moth. – Photograph by Robert Thompson @ naturepl.com

The memory of that amazing moth obviously stuck with me, for when I came to designing this fabulous moth which I’m sharing with you today, I knew I wanted to make a moth which wore spectacles.

I began by choosing fabrics from my stash, and the beautiful fabric I chose for the main wings instantly gave me the name of the Moth I was going to create. I said it out loud as it came into my head: “The Church Moth!”. It was the perfect fabric pattern for a Church Moth for it had a sort of stained glass window effect to it. It’s a tapestry style, but soft feel fabric which I had a smallish piece of – it was so perfect!

I drew, and made a pattern, cut, and snipped, and pinned and sewed. I inked and stained some of the fabrics. Then I stitched, and hand sewed, attached and applied, then … I stopped and held up the incredible creation which I had in my hand, and looked and then said quietly but out loud, … “Ohhh, bless him! Isn’t he perfect!…..” ~ I loved him from the tips of his antennae to the end of his tail.

Then … I fiddled and made, then made again, and again, until I finally managed to produce a pair of beautiful rose gold glasses. I popped them on his nose to check the fit. I’m absolutely convinceed I heard him exclaim with delight that he would finally be able to see the words in the hymn books! He seemed terribly excited.

Can you see his rose gold spectacles?

Of course … that wasn’t the end of the Spectacled Church Moths creation … I had to finish him off with a bit of flair and fuss ….

He had to have lace on the underside of his wings, as well as the tops – because all the best dressed Men of the Cloth had special robes which had lace on them somewhere – so obviously this Church Moth simply HAD to have lace too! (He also has his Union Flag (aka Union Jack) button, which shows he was born in England!)

The gentle feathering around the edges of his wings, is a nod to the feathering which most moths (and butterflies) have on and around their wings. And …. It seemed right to have the feathers around the edges of his wings, for I felt that he would (naturally) help with the upkeep of the church in which he lived, so he would help with the dusting by fluttering his wings, which would brush away any dust which dared to lay upon any surfaces within his church.

Every church should have a church moth like this one. Don’t you agree?

Here’s a link so that you can go and take a peep at more photo’s of the Spectacled Moth. https://butterfly-conservation.org/moths/spectacle <— Click – it will open in a new tab for you.

AND … here’s the link I promised you at the beginning of this post, so that you can read about the differences (or rather lack of differences) between Butterflies and Moths https://butterfly-conservation.org/news-and-blog/what-is-the-difference-between-butterflies-and-moths <— click – it will open in a new tab for you.

Well that’s me done and dusted…. oh hang on, NO! WAIT!!!

I’m forgetting the . . .

Monday Funday Stuff.…

And finally …..

~~ ❤ ~~

This is a ‘sorry I’m later than I should be’ Monday post, bought to you by a busy inside her head female who no longer knows what day it is because every day is the blinking same as every other flippin’ fluffin’ day!!! grrrr!

I think I need a secretary who will remind me every hour, on the hour, what the date and day it is. [sigh] Applications for the job are now being taken. Please use the comment box as your application and let me know your qualifications. Oh … and tell me what you will bring to the job – such as chocolate and cake.

Thank you so much for coming, and for having a coffee moment with me.  I love seeing you here. 

As always. . .  I love your company and adore chatting with you, so please say a few words or more, in a comment so that I know who I’m chatting to!  Let me know what you think.  Let me know what’s going on in your life. 

I hope you had a magnificent Monday, whatever you did, and that you have a truly blessed, wonderful week.  Sending much love to you along with a huge bunch of squidges.

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New Fairy Dragon Eggs, & meet one of the makers!

A hundred years ago ….  Ok, I might be exaggerating just slightly there. Let’s begin again.

Last month (February) I shared some Fairy Dragon Eggs that Little Cobs (my grandson) and I had made together.  They were a smash hit with him and he loved them.  So much so that I thought that while he was so enchanted with them, perhaps we could make just one or maybe two more, and enclose them so that they were protected, and (more importantly) they wouldn’t get lost or damaged.  So I put my thinking cap on and came up with the perfect idea.

Little Cobs comes for a visit on Tuesdays.  We collect him from School and he comes to Cobweb Towers for a bit of fun and his tea.

So on the previous day,  (Monday),  I made two tiny eggs – one around 2.5cm tall (just under an inch) and another approximately 1.25cm (which is little bit under half an inch), which I made from Hearty air dry clay, as I wanted them to be light in weight, and quick to dry.

Hearty Clay comes in a variety of colours, and they even have a super lightweight clay which would be fabulous for card adornments which have to go through the post.

The following day we went to collect him from school and, once he was safely ensconced in the car, I told him that I had got two tiny Fairy Dragons eggs in the house, and wondered if he would like to make them look amazing, since he was now considered an expert at Fairy Dragon Eggs.  He was all over the idea and didn’t stop talking about it all the way home.

He bounced into the house, hung his coat up, and was waiting at the table before I’d even managed to take my own coat off!

I stupidly didn’t bother taking photo’s of the undecorated eggs, because I thought “everyone knows what a white egg looks like” – but am now wishing that I’d have taken a photo of them,  next to a real [chicken] egg  –  so that you could see the size difference.  They looked exactly like eggs from the smallest chicken in the world!  Even the little chap said over and over how cute they were. Bless him.

I put out all the ‘Fairy Colours’ of Pinflair Buff-It, and told him to choose the ones he wanted to use.  He wanted them all.  (Thankfully I’d left the pots of ‘duller’ colours in the drawer).

I got out a selection of [cheap – pound shop] cosmetic sponges and put one on top of each of the Buff-it colours and he went to town.  He needed no reminder of how to apply the colours, and was so delicate and gentle.  Finally, when every last bit of both eggs was covered in the magical colours, he took a tissue and gently ‘polished’ them and made them shine and glow.

The Magical Eggs shone, and his eyes shone and twinkled as he gazed at them.

I then produced something which caused him to gasp.  A tiny miniature ‘cake’ stand and matching dome.  I told him that we were going to put these eggs inside the dome and then seal the dome so that no one else could ever touch them, and, even better,  they would never get lost!  “They’ll be sealed inside the dome for alllll eternity.  For ever and ever and ever!”  I said. (trying to sell him the idea because I thought he might not ‘see’ my vision).  He saw. He loved the thought that he would be the only person who knew what these eggs felt like in his hand.

By the time we were ready to put the eggs into the dome it was almost time for him to go home, so I said that I could do that bit, he just had to show me where to put the Fairy Dragon Eggs inside the dome so that I got it perfectly right.  He put them on the stand, and then carefully put the dome on top.  He sat at the table and looked . . .   then gave me a whole new set of instructions of exactly how he wanted things done:

“Grammy – they need petals.  Flower petals.  On the bottom, and the eggs on the top of the petals.  Like in a nest.  You put petals on there and then the eggs on the petals”.

He looked deep into my eyes to see if I understood.  I smiled at him and repeated what he’d said, pointing to the cake stand top, to show I knew where he meant the petals to be.  He seemed satisfied that I understood.

Daddy arrived to collect him, and the last thing Little Cobs whispered to me was: “Don’t forget the PETALS, Grammy!”.   Bless his beautiful heart.  He melts me every time I see him.

I did exactly as I was instructed to do.  I didn’t forget the petals:

It was stupidly difficult to photograph the Fairy Eggs when they were sealed inside their dome home, as the light kept bouncing off the curves.  But I did manage one which isn’t great – it’s a bit dull and flat, but it gives a slightly clearer view:

That’s a penny in the picture, for reference

As you can see . . .  I didn’t forget the petals.  😀  lol.

In the end, I loved the look of these so much that I’ve decided that I’m going to make some for myself. They look so impressive in real life that I just HAVE TO!

When he came on the Saturday, he fell in love with his Fairy Dragon Eggs all over again. He took them home at the end of the day, and his mummy (daughter No.2) told me a couple of days later, that the Fairy Eggs had barely left his side since he’d taken them home.  He was carrying them around with him everywhere he played.

I promised, in the title of this post, that you could meet the maker . . .  and you shall…

We’ve had snow here in Dorset in the last few days, and obviously, like all children do – Little Cobs wanted to play in it … and his mummy took photo’s.  She sent me some in a text message … and although I’m extra mega careful of sharing photographs of children on-line,  I asked, for the first time ever, if mummy would mind if I shared one of the photographs on my blog, so that you could see the little chap who I’m totally nuts about … and mummy said yes!

So here, with an enormous amount of pride [which bursts out of me like rays of the brightest sun, shining through every pore on my body], is my fabulous Grandson – Little Cobs…

photograph not for reproduction – altered or otherwise.

…  I’m totally dotty about this child. He’s an incredibly handsome little chap.  The product of a very pretty mommy (daughter No.2) and a very handsome daddy (son-in-law, husband of D.No.2).   But …  he has my eyes – the same colour of Hazel, with the same flashes of gold dotted randomly around the iris, which really show up when he’s happily excited about something.

This isn’t the end of the crafty creations that he and I have made together over the past couple of weeks.  I still have one final thing to share – but that will wait for another day.

Thank you for coming and sharing a coffee with me.  Wishing you a happy rest of your day. 

Love . . . 

 

 

The Friday Post ~ 1st December 2017

Well it’s here.  That day we were thinking was still miles away and we had plenty of time to do our Christmas shopping …. well today is the first day of December and Christmas day is just 25 days away.  Or … since you can’t actually count Christmas day itself,  24 days away.

But … if you discount today (1st December), because, well, it’s maybe not fair to include today since some of you reading right now will perhaps have just come home from a day at work, so let’s discount today too, – that makes it 23 merry Days, in which to buy the perfect presents for all those people you need to buy for,  and get them home, wrapped beautifully and labelled up, ready to give.  There.  23 days.  That’s ok, isn’t it?

So anyhoo … shall we get on with your Edumacation?  I know it’s Christmas soon, but you still need to be educationamalised so that you can come out with interesting facts at the works ‘do’, or just impress the boss with your magnificent intelligence.

On this Day in History

1824 – U.S. presidential election, Since no candidate received a majority of the total electoral college votes in the election, the United States House of Representatives is given the task to decide the winner (as stipulated by the Twelfth Amendment to the United States Constitution).

1913 – The Ford Motor Company introduces the first moving assembly line.
1919 – Lady Astor becomes first female member of the British Parliament to take her seat (she had been elected to that position on November 28).

1952 – The New York Daily News reports the first successful sexual reassignment operation. 

1958 – The Our Lady of the Angels School Fire in Chicago, Illinois kills 92 children and three nuns.

The Our Lady of the Angels School Fire broke out shortly before classes were to be dismissed on December 1, 1958, at the foot of a stairway in the Our Lady of the Angels School in Chicago, Illinois.  The elementary and middle school was operated by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago.  A total of 92 pupils and 3 nuns lost their lives when smoke, heat, and fire cut off their normal means of escape through corridors and stairways.  Many perished while jumping from second-floor windows (which were as high as a third floor would be on level ground).  Another 100 were seriously injured.

The disaster led to major improvements in standards for school design and fire safety codes.

1960 – Paul McCartney and Pete Best arrested then deported from Hamburg, Germany for accusation of attempted arson. Former Beatles drummer Pete Best told Absolute Radio that he and Sir Paul had tried to use the condoms for extra lighting.

“We pinned them on the wall and they spluttered. Let’s get it clear, they weren’t used,”  he said. “We were charged with trying to burn our van down.”

Best said the pair were returned to the UK on suspicion of arson.

1964 – Vietnam War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers meet to discuss plans to bomb North Vietnam.

1969 – Vietnam War: The first draft lottery in the United States is held since World War II. On December 1, 1969, the Selective Service System of the United States held a lottery to determine the order of draft (induction) into the U.S. Army for the Vietnam War.

Method
The days of the year, represented by the numbers from 1 to 366 (including Leap Day), were written on slips of paper and the slips were placed in plastic capsules. The capsules were mixed in a shoebox and then dumped into a deep glass jar. Capsules were drawn from the jar one at a time.

The first day number drawn was 257 (September 14), so all registrants with that birthday were assigned lottery number 1. Men of draft age (those born between 1944 and 1950) whose birthday fell on the corresponding day of the year would all be drafted at the same time. The highest draft number called from the 1969 lottery was number 195 (September 24).

A secondary lottery was also held on the same day, to construct a random permutation of the 26 letters of the alphabet. For men born on a given day, the order of induction was determined by the rank of the first letters of their last, first, and middle names.

The lottery was conducted again in 1970 (for those born in 1951), 1971 (1952) and 1972 (1953), although the 1972 lottery went unused as the draft itself was suspended in 1973.  Lotteries were also conducted in 1973, 1974 and 1975 although the assigned numbers went unused.

1973 – Papua New Guinea gains self-government from Australia.
1974 – TWA Flight 514, a Boeing 727, crashes northwest of Dulles International Airport killing all 92 people on-board.
1974 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 6231, crashes northwest of John F. Kennedy International Airport.

1981 – A Yugoslavian Inex Adria Aviopromet DC-9 crashes in Corsica killing all 180 people on-board.

1982 – At the University of Utah, Barney Clark becomes the first person to receive a permanent artificial heart.

1990 – Channel Tunnel sections started from the United Kingdom and France meet 40 meters beneath the seabed.

2001 – Captain Bill Compton brings Trans World Airlines Flight 220, an MD-83, into St. Louis International Airport bringing to an end 76 years of TWA operations following TWA’s purchase by American Airlines.

🎄  🎄  🎄

Born on this Day

1761 – Marie Tussaud, French creator of wax sculptures (Madame Tussaud’s) (d. 1850)

1913 – Mary Martin, American actor and singer (d. 1990)

1932 – Matt Monro, English singer (d. 1985)

1935 – Woody Allen, American film director, actor, and comedian

1940 – Richard Pryor, American actor, comedian (d. 2005)

1944 – John Densmore, American drummer (The Doors)

1945 – Bette Midler, American actress and singer

1946 – Gilbert O’Sullivan, Irish singer

1958 – Charlene Tilton, American actress

🎄  🎄  🎄

Thought for the Day

Christmas is coming and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.  We know it’s coming because the lights are already lit-up in the shops.  The trees are decorated and the Advent Calendars all have one door open.

The prophets of anxiety (in the newspapers and on TV) are predicting a difficult time for the shoppers and retailers of our over-stretched, debt-ridden lands.

Some of us feel the imminence of Christmas in the sensations of excitement and dread:  of wishing it would never end … and wanting it to be over with now.  Of the need to be at home, with family and friends – and the desire to escape it all and get as far away as possible.

The Grinch, in Dr. Seuss says:  “Christmas!  It’s practically here!”  …  Then he growled with his fingers nervously drumming.  “I must find a way to keep Christmas from coming!”

Advent means the arrival  – or coming  –  of an important person or thing.  But break it down into its compound words:  ‘ad’  and  ‘vent’  and it looks alarmingly like something to do with advertising and windows.  It sounds like a big commercial wind!  Which of course it is, and it has been, and probably always will be.  Which is why Grinch-like, seasonal rants about the commercial aspect of Christmas will do nothing to change it.

Priests asking us not to throw out the baby Jesus with the bath water should save their breath.  If they want us to question anything at Christmas it should be the baby:  Do we need the baby?  Do we want the baby?  What is this baby for?  It’s easy to see that Christmas  “doesn’t come from a store;  easy to guess it means a little bit more” [the Grinch again] .  But the question for all of us is:  What???

Isaiah, a prophet who lived before Christ, framed our need in this way:  “O that you would tear open the heavens and come down”.  There was an ache for a saviour long before one appeared.  As to what this saviour is for – Isaiah put it in these startling terms:  …. “… for those living in darkness, a light has come.”  and later …  “…he will be pierced for our transgressions and by his wounds we are healed”.

For Isaiah it took 600 years and a thousand advent calendar windows before the double doors opened on the baby in the manger he predicted would be  “the Saviour of the World”.  That’s a kind of patience – a kind of expectation and waiting – which is hard to grasp.  In theory, for us,  the waiting is over.  The baby – whether we like it or not, is here.  God is with us.

As the Grinch discovered, we can’t stop Christmas from coming:  “Somehow or other, it came just the same”.  The challenge for us this advent is finding the space to think about why it came at all in the first place.   And that applies to those who believe, and those who don’t.

🎄  🎄  🎄

Well.  I’m all puffed out now and have talked so much that my throat is sore!  I think it must be coffee time, for I need lubrication to the vocal chords.

This last week for me has been another one of crafting up a storm,  but making things I can’t share because I made some things for some lovely people who come and read my blog….  goodness knows why they come and read it. Kindness is the first thing that springs to mind.  lol.

But … I can start on other things now, so can share and will be doing so.  HURRAH!

In the meantime …  I want you to be good.  Don’t eat too many sweets.  Not too much chocolate.  And don’t do that thing which you’re Mother told you would make you blind.  Oh … and don’t stick peas up your nose.

That last one … I should perhaps explain…  Apparently – this was said by an Irish mother many, many moons ago.

She had to go out but had no one to look after her large brood of children, so she gathered them all together and told the three eldest that they were going to be ‘in charge’ for the next half an hour while she was out of the house.  She put her coat and hat on, gathered up her shopping bag and handbag, and put her hand on the door knob …. but paused and looked at them all in a very stern, Irish mother way, saying:  “Be good.  Don’t be getting yourselves into trouble.  Don’t be making too much noise – we don’t want someone calling the police!  And …  DON’T STICK PEAS UP YOUR NOSE!”  …  and with that she left.

20 minutes later she was back in the house to find a row of children all sat upon the work tops in the kitchen, with the three eldest children trying to do something which the one child was crying about.  Upon taking in the scene she saw that one of the eldest had his arms tightly wound around a child, so holding the childs arms down.  The second eldest had the child’s head in her hands and was tipping the childs head backwards.  And the eldest of the children had the mothers tweezers from her dressing table and was attempting to shove them up the little childs nose.

“What the divil are you doing to that child?!!”  She yelled.  “… and why they all on the kitchen tops?”

The three eldest children explained . . .  there had been no trouble until they found out that the youngsters had popped the pea pods on the kitchen table, and pushed peas up their noses and couldn’t get them down again.

“Why the dickens did you do that?”  she demanded to know, looking at them very sternly  …..

“Because you told us not to!” came a crying reply.

Hence I say to you ….  “Be good.  Don’t be getting yourselves into trouble.  Don’t be making too much noise – we don’t want someone calling the police!  And …  DON’T STICK PEAS UP YOUR NOSE!” 

Have a wickedly wonderful Friday, and a truly fabulous weekend.  May the force be with you.

Sending love and squidges ~

 

 

Storing Stickles … it works! It actually works!

I found this idea on Pinterest about … oh, I dunno, …  a gazillion years ago? – maybe.  And although I thought it was a good(ish) idea at the time I found it, I put it into that category folder inside my brain of:  “Good looking Pinterest ideas which probably don’t actually work in reality”.

How wrong was I!!!

It really does actually work!
I can’t believe it!

I already had one of the required perspex/acrylic certificate ‘stands’ so all I needed was some velcro.  Do you think I could find this simple thing anywhere?  It was rarer than Gold dust here where I live.  However, a leaflet left in my mail box came at just the right time.  Lidl were having packets of it in their stores, amongst the crafting specials,  the following week.  I couldn’t believe my luck, neither could I believe how cheap it was when I went in to buy it.  They had white or black, and I could have either sticky backed self adhesive, or the unsticky type.  I decided upon the self adhesive and crossed my fingers that it was the ‘self adhesive’ which actually stuck to things!

I cleaned up the certificate holder so that it was sparkling clean (to make sure that I gave the self adhesive Velcro a fighting chance), and then sat working out where I should stick the Velcro for maximum bottle storage.  I’d noticed that the idea I’d seen on Pinterest had only shown three rows of bottles, but when I measured up, three seemed so very far apart, and had such a waste of space in between the rows, so I inserted a sheet of A4 into the certificate holder, but left just a smidgen of the edge sticking out along one side, so that I could make a little dot at the points as I measured them.

I worked out that on an A4 Certificate holder (which mine is – but check the size of yours or check before you buy one, as there are various sizes) – If you measured one centimetre down from the top of the paper and draw a straight line across the paper, then from that line measure 8cm down and drawn another line, and do it a further two times.  You should then have four lines.

Then … cut four lengths of the hooks side of some of your Velcro, in the WIDTH of the perspex stand.  (I used black but you can use any colour you like).  Insert your piece of paper with the lines on it, back into the stand and lay it on your desk.

• It helps to leave the ‘foot’ of the stand hanging over the front edge of your desk so that the stand lays completely flat.

Using your drawn lines on the paper as the centre marker for the middle of the Velcro tape, stick the hooks side of the Velcro to the perspex certificate holder/stand and press down firmly to make sure that it’s adhered in all the places along its strip.

• I would use the hooks side of the velcro on the stand, –  and the eyes side of the velcro on the bottles.  (The eyes side is much softer to the touch, so it will be more comfortable for your fingers, – so put the soft side of the velcro on the bottles.)

Do that four times, so that you’ve got all your lines ready and waiting for your bottles.

Now … get all your bottles of Stickles out and count them.  Cut that amount of little bits of the ‘eye’ side of the Velcro – roughly about one centimetre wide strips –  and when you’ve got them all ready … lay your ruler down on your desk in a comfortable place that you can lean over and look ‘down’ on the rule.  Then taking one bottle of Stickles, lay it next to your rule, with the bottom of the bottle at the 2.5 centimetre measurement.  Where the beginning of the 1cm measurement sits (not quite half way on the bottle), that’s where you’re going to put the bottom of the little Velcro strip you’ve just cut.  Apply it.  Press it down firmly, then hang it on your new Stickles Storage System!  Repeat for the rest of your bottles!

A slightly blurred, but closer up view.

VOILA!  A Pinterest ‘make’ which actually works!

This works SO well for me, as I’m one of those crafters who, if I put things away in boxes or cupboards, ‘out of sight’ means ‘out of mind’,  and I forget them.

• I know that the detailed instructions I’ve given to make this,  might make it sound complicated.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

This is the most simple thing I’ve ever ‘made’ in my life.  It’s so quick and easy that I really don’t feel I should be ‘pleased’ with myself for doing it.  And, I’m not.  I’m more ‘pleased’ to have found something on Pinterest which actually works, and I also wish I’d have had a go at this a long time ago.

Oh … and if you look closely, you’ll see that there are two bottles of Dovecraft Glitter Glue hanging on the stand too … which shows that even with slightly bigger bottles than the Ranger Stickles, the measurements I’ve given still work.  I think that because the stand (and most of these types of stands)  tilts back slightly, it means that the bottles actually hang just a little proud of the stand at the bottoms of the bottles (yes, the bottoms – not the upside down tops, – if you follow me),  and this means that taking a bottle from the stand is easy to do.

Before I go … 

I know my blog has been rather quiet for a couple of weeks … life just kind of gets in the way sometimes.  But I’ve been crafting and do have a few things to share.  I just have to find the time to load the photos and crop/re-size them.

Thank you so much for coming to share a bit of time with me.  I’m so thrilled that you’re here, and I thank you from the heart of my bottom for coming.  It reall does mean so much to me that you pop by for a visit, so: Thank You. xxx

Wishing you a truly blessed rest of your day!