Planet Ruby Starrs

 oooh and the cardigan - I got very obsessed with knitting  and just finished the cardi in record time - it was meant to take me all winter!! Its a bit of a rip off of one I saw in a famous shop and thought I'll knit that using up stash - I really didn't like the pink block when I had finished it so I added using hand applique the Bowes Chicken I had drawn and printed on some fabric - it really finishes it off  

 I've been very remiss at posting blogs recently - i think its a n inertia brought on by covid restrictions and the fact that while I have been doing quite a lot of projects recently none of them have got quite finished or ar are interesting to any one but me!!!!  I have been framing up a lot of prints which I intended to try and sell before christmas but as usual miss the opportunity!!! still they are there either for me or for next time! I've been selling scarves and have had moderate success in that department but at the end of the day I'm not a salespersons so fortunately I don't have to depend on sales for food on the table!!! My biggest concern this week has been an invasion of whitefly in the conservatory - completely uninvited and consequently repelled hopefully with some organic spray which I hope will work.....  my lovely citrus trees are starting to get sticky and so are the bananas!!!! So the projects.... new curtains for the bedroom - I took a punt on some

I'm very restless at the  moment - I think its the lock down but although I'm feeling quite creative I can't quite settle on any one thing to do.  I started to organise  y studio space and ended up sorting through lots of stuff I had forgotten about and now the space looks worst than ever - it was so bad that yesterday I just shut the door and walked away - 2 hours later there was a huge bang and when I looked everything had fallen over - what a mess!!!!! I have just shut the door again - its a quiet sunday exercise!  So - I have some weaving on the go - very pleased with myself I have managed to warp up my loom pretty much by myself - I'm going to a weaving class in normal times but this has been halted due to lock down but the loom in my own so I was able to bring it home - Under guidance I got the first bit done in class and with further assistance through messages I have managed to finish it!! Its not the first time I've put a warp on but its a complicated proce

AT LAST ........ BIG DRUM ROLL My first 3 scarves are online ready to go to new homes - check out https://www.facebook.com/planetrubystarrs for details .... or leave me a message on here for more information... xx

I had a bit of a family week last week - mainly as we anticipated the coming lockdown restrictions - It was half term so the girls kept themselves isolated as much as they could and then we spent a few days together celebrating little (not so little) legs 5th birthday and with an e number fantastic cake and lots of barbies.... and then a lovely walk round Beamish for some fresh air.    It was a welcome break in the tediousness of covid restrictions and also my daughter managed to sort out quite a lot of my technical issues include new mobile phone that works!!!!! We are now hunkered down for the next few weeks with time on out hands - I will be launching my Facebook page selling my scarves very soon - I' waited anxiously for them to arrive from the printers there was a rather avoidable and silly mistake about my address so they were much delayed... they travelled up and down the country lost in transit but eventually - much to my (and the printers relief) they arrived on my doorste

I'm about to launch some kind of selling site... finally I have got my finger out and have sorted some limited prints of some of my scarf designs.  Its toe in the water kind of thing and I have picked a selection of designs and colours in a fairly arbitrary way a mixture of those I particularly like and those which got most commented on along the way of the design process and final showing.     I have spent quite a lot of time trying to set up a website where I could consolidate my sale page, face book , blog and instagram accounts but its not working for me - I've got quite frustrated from the very beginning and it just got more complicated from then on - Its taking up all of my techie powers to stay focused - I'm sure its very simple really I just need to be a little less impatient... I'm go to leave it be for a day or two and do some research in to other peoples websites to see what appeals.... My other frustration is packaging!!! I can't find the right product -

Finally we can see light at the end of the kitchen refurbishment - still a wee way to go and then of course it has to be lived in to acclimatise and evolve completely into our space - this can take quite a long time but now at least it is at a good starting point. What started as a potential paint job to brighten up the less (to me) interesting cream cupboards rapidly morphed into a complete make over - still very much a on budget but included not only the paint job, but new work tops, new sink - giving me a better food prep space, new shelves, removal of terrible biege tiles and retiling with smart black Metro tile - Dr Fred did a fantastic job there.   Hopefully - covid allowing - we are having a new floor laid in November to finish of a fairly amazing transformation. Before we got our grubby mits on it... Now transformation -  and another ... this was the estate agent photo.. And now ... We used three different tonal shades of frenchic paint for the cupboards plus a grey for the duc

We continue to be in a local lock down situation - To be honest it means nothing much different to what we have been doing since original lock down back in March - back to fewer visitors just as we were being a wee bit more social - we are using the time to crack on with our kitchen makeover.  What started as a brighten up a 'bland' space has turned int a major overhaul.... and while I suspect its driving Dr Fred a bit bonkers its all coming together quite nicely.  We were lucky to get the new replacement work tops sorted just before we all had to practise better social distancing at home and now Dr Fred has been tiling for the first time and its looking sooooo good and I have finished painting all the cream cupboards - they are now several shades of blue and green-  just the fiddley bits and the duck boards to finish.... next up the walls!!! I'm not posting pictures until its finished so the full glory can be revealed but its defo turning into our kind of kitchen and bland

Last week I wrote a ranting against covid post but decided in the end I had got most of the frustration out of my system by just writing it so haven't bothered to bore anyone else with it - this is a tedious business though and I think we need to learn to live with it rather than bury our heads ....... I have no answers so I'll leave it there! My frustration last week was entirely personal and in the scheme of things minor - I have started my weaving class - I went one week and then it looked like I couldn't go again due to local lockdown restrictions and I was greatly saddened.  I did a weaving class a couple of years ago before I went back to uni and really enjoyed it so I was really excited to be back... - from lots of different aspects - the creative side - actually making cloth - the design involved, using glorious colours, and the lovely soft shetland wool.  Then there's the learning a new skill and the camaraderie of a class and also in my fairly hectic life and

 In Between doing all this domestic goddess home improvement stuff I have been exploring my garden by night!!! For my birthday Dr Fred bought me a wildlife camera - a fab pressie (one which has scuppered my christmas present plans for him)!! Some weeks ago we went outside in the vain hope of spotting some Perseid meteors - and found a hedgehog snuffling about on the lawn - I was quite excited - I am so loving the variation of wildlife this garden is giving us.  I looked for him every night when I wandered to look for our frogs Grayson and Phillipa and the newt Isaac - who incidentally are very evident along with a quite a few yet unnamed froglets - but I only glimpsed the hedgehog once more so I started feeding him with scrambled egg and every morning the food was was gone and there was some vague evidence of hedgehog snuffling - but no further sightings... I couldn't be sure what might be eating the food I was putting out - cats - rats - do newts like eggs? ...so I built a hedgeho

While in Lancaster at the fabric shop I didn't have much luck searching for curtain fabric suitable for our bedroom - but this is a very much evolving project - having painted the walls a florescent pink - slightly out of kilter with what I actually wanted - I will redo it at some point but its low on priorities at the moment- the rest of the room is settling into a mish mash or more is more in true 'slamitinrubystarrs' style.  I found some rather bright yellowy orange bedding which didn't go but I loved and then I decided to take the plunge and revamp our perfectly serviceable but bland ikea furniture.    I love the Tigris Flame wallpaper by Emma Shipley but I'm not a fan of wallpaper on walls - its a bit repetitive for me and I'm very fussy about the actual pattern itself -  I see odd wallpapers I fall in love with but its rare so I've been ruminating for a while as to where the tigris would sit in our house.  Its found its home and now adorns our wardrobe

Yesterday I had a birthday so I'm one year nearer my official state pension - then I will be able to spend it all on brandy and summer gloves - I already wear quite a bit of purple and have had a red hat for many years - and have ruined many slippers going out in the rain - anyway I digress - for my birthday city break this year we went to the great metropolis of Lancaster -  and very pleasant it was.  I didnt however take any photos - we had a little explore and a lovely lunch in a off the beaten track cafe and the real reason we went there was so I could investigate the Designer Fabric Outlet shop.  I have been on a quest for curtains for every room ever since we moved into this house but determined not to succumb to any thing unless I really loved it - so we have been making do for over eight months now and I really wanted to at least sort out something for the sitting room out before winter sets in!!  It was an immensely successful expedition - and now we have amazing curtains

 After alot of trawling the internet we finally found a campsite that had room for us for a few days respite and welcome change of scenary - we really wanted to go up to Dumfries and Galloway but  just couldnt find a site open or with room so we extended our search to Wales - no joy and then started on the peak district - nothing - east coast - rammed and finally we resigned ourselves to more garden time and a real staycation in our own house - we even measured for carpets thinking we might just crack on with redecorating the dining room..... and then a random campsite we had contacted on line answered our email and we booked four days at Balloch O Dee, a farm campsite near Newton Stewart in Dumfries and Galloway - so a day wasted chasing the bloomin interweb but a result!!!!!  It was a very nice camping as well - Although it got busy and the pitches were as spacious as the Solway view so it was noisy but still not too big, nice facilities, a bit quirky - lots of hens and quite a large

Peace regained - a hectic week with family visits - but a definite boost to the morale - Dr Freds camping plans scuppered due to resurgence of virus and we are still to a large degree being very careful but I couldn't pass up a chance to see my family especially my son who I haven't seen since christmas... I don't know how those people without internet and skype manage in this terrible time of isolation when friends and family are what you need to keep you sane!!!! As detailed we managed a day out in Beamish - probably the most daring thing we have ventured since lockdown - almost a week on and we are all still well and I haven't had a call from the track and trace people!!!!   We also managed a social distanced trip to the beach and my idiot children and grandchildren stripped off they clothes and abandoned themselves to the sea!  We had a great few days altogether as a family and hopefully any fears Dr fred has about cross infection and contamination will be allayed b

The world feels for a short time to be returning to something resembling 'normal'  - it wont be for long for as much as I try to avoid the news I am keeping an eye on the covid updates and fear the second wave is about to break - so while being very careful we are making the most of not being in lockdown and my family are visiting - Dr Fred has escaped to do some walking a esoteric crag hunting in Wales  - he was very fortunate to find a campsite with suitable private facilities - and my clan are having some down time all together.  Today we went to Beamish - a very fab day out and in some ways better for having limited numbers.  Quite a bit of it wasnt open but there was still more than enough to entertain us and for the most time social distancing was very evident - as were masks and people being careful and responsible.  we didn't feel at risk at all, staff were very courteously reminding visitors about masks and cleaning tables, railings counters - everything that was c

...to the lonely sea and the sky... (John Masefield) I've been pining for the sea for quite a few weeks now - growing up in land locked Leeds I never realised how wonderful living by the sea would be - Then we moved to Northumberland - and lived near the sea- it was a liberating feeling of spaciousness - sometimes of desolation and always of tranquility and peace.  I have found walking on the beach to be one of life's greatest pleasures and when we moved back in land I found I missed it more than I ever could of imagined...  We took a van trip to South Gare Redcar - there were no tall ships just huger tankers -  it was a wee bit grey for a July day but we managed to miss the rain and had a lovely uninterrupted walk on the beach listening to the gulls screech and the waves make chiming sounds as they rushed into the sands.  It was low tide and there were a few people about - not many but that's hardly surprising as it's not a scenic beach - its interesting with the vast

I am unashamelby promoting my Arts Thread page -please take a look and appreciate if you would like to - this profile is my entry to the Next Gen Awards Premier Vision..... https://www.artsthread.com/portfolios/juxtaposition-next-gen/ There are quite a few of my peers on the Art Thread pages who are worth exploring - check out portfolios for the Northern School of Art..  It's a compilation of some of my work form the last year in Uni showing my original drawings - some development and some of my final designs - it was hard to choose what to put in and leave out - it was all so enjoyable but I have tried to put my favourites in an and show how the final designs emerged Trouble is I have lived and breathed this work for the last 9 months and I'm starting to get weary of looking at it as, I suspect, other people are ha ha - and it's hard to have 'fresh' eyes - I'm feeling some new work is beckoning.... Thanks to everyone who has supported me with this work and enco

I'm struggling to be mindful its summer!!!! Our heating is on a timer thermostat thingy and it keeps coming on - that's ridiculous in July!!!  I have managed to disable it but found that one evening last week we lit the fire!!!  Allegedly its good for the garden but means our social contact is still limited as we really only entertain outside still being careful about the world at large. This didn't stop us going down to Leeds last week to deliver a few bits and pieces to my daughter and to meet up with some old friends who we hadn't seen for nearly a year - we ended up camping out in another friends living room eating fish and chips and sitting as far apart as we could - its a funny world we are living in and I find not being able to hug my besties quite difficult!!!  It was very good to catch up and see some different faces. While we were in Leeds we took the opportunity to have a wee reckie at the stuff we have stored down there - unsurprisingly there was a lot of ru