POLKADoT Farm

Fiery Reds & Burnt Oranges

I'm currently down in Galloway for a week farm sitting my mums farm while she is in South Africa. On Thursday I packed my car full of glass, paints and relief paint, and trundled down the road from Stirlinghsire with big plans to fill my week with painting.

After a lovely relaxing weekend on the beach with my dog, and a lovely sunday food sampling at a continental food festival at Wigtowns Book Fair, I settled down today, and took over the kitchen with glass, and started painting. My plan this week is to do a different colour each day. So today was the day of fiery reds and burnt oranges. My Mum has an Aga which is great for constant heat, so I have been continuously filling it with t-lights, vases, and my christmas candle lanterns.

These shapes are the inserts for my Christmas candle lanterns that flicker and dance in the candlelight once placed inside the lanterns.

An afternoon for cake

 

This cake has to be one of the easiest recipes, and most deserving tastes. It is delicious and it always looks so appetising. It is hard to believe that the sponge only has 3 ingredients; Eggs, Sugar & Flour!! The recipe is as follows:

3 Eggs

3 oz Caster Sugar

3 oz SR Flour

Preheat oven to 180oc. Whizz together the eggs and Sugar in a mixer till is is light and airy. Fold in sieved flour bit by bit, trying to keep as much air in as possible. Pour into a large cake tin, and bake at 180oc for 25minutes. Once cooled, half the cake and fill it with your choice of filling! I whipped up double cream and oozed it in the middle, then scattered over chopped up strawbs!

 

Beginnings of Autumn

Autumn is my favourite time of year. I love the dramatic oranges and ochre yellows that the trees produce, and how the colours echo through the landscape. I took this photo this afternoon after finding a stray branch lying on the ground. It didn't look anything special, but once I held it up to the crisp blue sky, it brought its colours alive. 

Every year I collect beautifully coloured leaves from many different varieties of trees, and I press them in old chunky books. I never really know what to do with them, until I read this months CL. I was inspired by their feature 'The golden season' It has many great ideas, but the one that stood out to me, was this one below, where they have threaded leaves to make a garland. I'm going to have a go, and see what happens. I'll post a picture once I have perfected one!  

Unfortunately the picture has not scanned well.

Browsing through Country Living can be bad for your wallet....

I'm a lover of Country Living magazine, and I read through the magazine many times throughout the month, finding new articles, pictures and ideas every time I pick it up. This morning, I was looking through the emporium pages at the front, which I always find so inviting and inspirational. In this months issue a print by Bold & Noble caught my eye. I looked up the web address, and found the most wonderful website full of super prints for the home... which I could buy many. One that particularly caught my eye was this Noah'sArc one... and as we're starting to decorate the babies room, I think its a good unisex print that would look gorgeous...but there are so many to choose from...decisions decisions!! also check out her blog!

painting, labeling, photo taking and bubble wrapping....

Its been a few months since I had a stand at the Wee Green Market in Killearn, so today I am busy packing up my new pieces for the market tommorrow. It is so nice to be painting again, and I have really enjoyed adding new pieces to my glassware collection, including these cake plates above. I am also busy taking pictures of everything for my Etsy shop...which is currently empty, as well as my website which desperately needs updated! 

The 'Daisy' Design (above) is one of my new designs. The colours used are more delicate and simple than my usual glassware. It looks crisp, pretty and feminine with a candle flickering inside it, which is the look I am going for with this design!

This is another one of my new designs called seedpod meadow. I love images of cow parsley. I was inspired by cole and sons cow parsley wallpaper which is one of my favourite wall coverings. This design is more in keeping with my usual colour palette. I am hoping to market this item with fairy lights inside it, and sell it as a feature table lamp!