Perle and Sloe Gin...hic!

I began sorting my Perle threads, got this far and realised.....I need more hoops!
But dont they look yummy like this?
Like tresses of multi coloured hair. Ive another bag or two to go yet as well....
I was lucky enough to have been given almost all the self colours here by a colleague who went to a miniatures club I ran a while back.
Its the variegated threads that are my favourites though and you cant have enough of those!

And here are the first few bottles of gin and vodka, liquers in the making!
The one on the left is the rich, dark elderberry and sloe gin mix, which having sipped it, is VERY promising!
Ive added abit more sugar to warm it a little.
The white bottle is vodka with 2 pkts of Werthers Toffees in it.....also an interesting taste and its still early days for that!
The other two are sloes alone in gin and still a little tart, but I have to say, that theyd be okay with tonic even now!

And the Turkish Hazlenuts are drying slowly, the nuts falling out, though these are small so may not hold nuts that worthy of eating. But the spikey surrounds are what I gathered them for anyway.
Once dried, they make interesting shapes to spray paint silver, copper or gold for Christmas wreaths or centre pieces.

The swallows have left our area.......so I guess the cold weather is about here ..... I wish them safe and well, on their long journey home.
They are what I measure our summer and winter by most of all.
They arrive and bring such pleasure in their whirling, squeeling aerobatics. Then the sky seems vacant when they leave us for warmer climates.
But who can blame them for flying away in search of warmth!

Paul Finch Moth and Swallow and sloe gin lol

The two items I bought from Paul Finch off Etsy have arrived and one was supposed to be a gift for Christmas for an old school friend..... but.... well,

as you can see, the swallow has found a place to rest......

beneath the two silly prints I find funny..........

'Happy Dying by Chocolate' just in view there

and 'Fashion The Crowd can Understand'

and the moth, well look at her!

                     How can I give her away.......?
                Im going to have to buy another for the Christmas gift!!

Oh yes, having been tidying up abit in my bedroom and talk of Judes Magic Feathers being in cyberworld of late........... did I mention I like feathers too?

The peacock feathers are from british peacocks that a friend gave us to sell on the cat rescue fund raising stall, each year when her birds moulted. One year I bought several of them, their splendor and colours are wonderful.
The lush black ones are victorian feathers ( about 14" long)I bought from an (antique) stall colleague and there are afew wonderful exotics in there that came off a victorian hat from the same seller, years ago.
The wierd cream-ish ones, front centre, are like fish back bones to feel, very odd those, but they are feathers never the less and also from an old ladies hat.

I went out foraging for sloes last friday and this is the haul I brought home...
sloes that squished nicely in the fingers when preparing them to make sloe gin..............

Brambles and elderberries , most of which were stewed together and eaten with greek natural yoghurt............yummy...though

some of the elderberries have gone in with some of the sloes to see if together, they make a quirkier liquer!
And cob nuts, hazel nuts basically.

Oh yes, and acorns and have saved the acorn cups to use on xmas wreaths. The tree had a blight and many of the nuts had the hard, mishapen fungal growths on them. Ive saved those because Im sure Ive read something about them being used to dye with...........but I may have imagined that bit.
And once the sloes were squished nicely into bottles, with a little brown sugar added...this was the colour first off....the centre one has the elderberry and sloes together in it.

A light discolouration of the gin, thats all here.
But I should show you a piccy of it now!
Already its lush with colour and the berries have ballooned in size.
I havent made sloe gin for afew years, certainly not since moving into this urban area.
But Id forgotten how right it feels to pick and use from the land, although I follow the pick only a little from one place path.
So the wildlife still has food for autumn too.
Mind you the birds dont much like sloes...so you can feel a little less guilty harvesting those !
The hard part is waiting till at least the end of October - ish, before I take a small taste to see if its ready or in need of more sugar adding 
...... did I mention self disclipline isnt my thing? lol

The Hema store, eco bundles reveal and vintage fabrics

http://producten.hema.nl/

Give yourself a break and go to the store site via the link above.
Open it up and just wait a second or two............lol but get ready to turn the sound down!

I unwrapped the bundles of eco stuffs and heres the results.
I used a bolster pillow case that I picked up at a jumble sale I think.
I just tore it into the two strips, front and back.
Alum mordant, simmered in a brew concoction for an hour or so, together in a steel pot. Then left them to cool. Once cooled I unwrapped them, let them hang on the line to dry, washed them through by hand to remove any small bits of debris and here they are drying again later.
The brew was if I recall right, odds and ends of other dye baths with abit of rainwater and had euc bark clippings in it, steeping for weeks and weeks.......abit pungent but once boiled then simmered the smell wafted away.
I bundled rusty nails in with the darker one and the lighter one is mostly an assortment of flowers like delphinium, black eyed suzie, nasturtion etc.
Interesting that the rust and euc bark darkness didnt bleed into the other one, except at the outer wrap area. I may overdye the lighter one to see what happens next.
You can see how they made the Turin Shroud I reckon lol

Spot the arrowhead! Or is it a
moth? Or a jet aircraft!

 Two leaves stuck ont his to the bitter end! See half a wolfs head?

This is wierd! A chalice, wine glass or a bodice? lol

Oh and just put this vintage fabric on Ebay...............anyone know what kind of fabric 'Design Lulworth' is by any chance?
It feels like an old and thin chintz quality. 

Ive another piece thats a similar weight and almost certainly the same maker, but a white background and more cottage floral, but may use that yet myself.
1930s or 1940s maybe?
I have listed several Art Doll Quarterly mags too so if your Uk and interested Im the liniecat seller!
Lots more going to be listed bit by bit too.