POLKADoT Farm

An early Christmas present

Just a quick post....We had an unexpected surprise on Christmas Eve... the arrival of our new gorgeous Baby. I was down in Galloway visiting my Mum for Christmas. At 2am my waters broke, so being miles away from Stirling Royal, we hopped in the car to the local hospital, Dumfries....which isn't that local at 60 miles away!!! It must have been one of the coldest, icy-est nights, but we made it there for 4am, and 10 hours later Baby Duncan was born, 3 weeks early! I got out the following day for Christmas with our wee poppet. We can't quite believe it has all happened! Everyone is well, and we're looking forward to this cold snap disappearing, and the snow thawing so we can get out and about!

Sunrise on the Trossachs

This Morning Duncan insisted that I hopped in the land rover, and drove up to the top of the farm to take some photos of the snowy landscape, and wait for the sun to rise over the mountains. He was right, as at 8am this morning, the orange glow was just starting to peek over the top of Ben Lomond and others.

It was the most spectacular sight, that I feel can never be properly captured in a regular 10 mega pixel digital camera...if only I had a film in m SLR....not to worry though. I still managed to capture the gorgeous sunrise, as well as many doggy pics of Bill the sheepdog and Jock playing around in the snow!

Christmas Wreaths

 
This is the wreath I made for my door. I'm really pleased with my new technique. So much simpler, and less time consuming...so fingers crossed the berries last this festive period. I might add some tangerines onto it, to give it a spark of colour.... I also have made 2 heart wreaths for a customer. She wanted pheasant feathers in them too- this is how they turned out....

 

Gorgeous plump berries for my Christmas wreath

I managed to collect lots of gorgeous holly this weekend that was laden with lush berries. Hopefully the berries will not weaken in colour and plumpness by the time I get round to making my wreaths. I watched Kirstys homemade Christmas last week, where she was making wreaths. She made small bouquets of foliage first ,then wired the small bouquets onto the wreath...so i'm going to have a go at her technique, plus I'm going to add a few pheasant feathers for a bit of individuality!!

BBC Christmas Market

Last week,one of my craft fairs was held at BBC Scotland. A photographer was visiting all the stalls getting photos of the crafts for the in house magazine 'Ariel'. It was nice to get my glassware photographed, but rather embarrassing getting myself photographed.... After many awful photographs with my eyes closed, he managed to salvage this one! Thank goodness for digital photography!!!

It has been a busy few weeks selling my wares, but thats all the Christmas markets finished  for 2009! I've just a few orders to complete for customers, as well as 2 shop orders, one from Buchlyvie Pottery, as well as a re-order from the gallery in Drymen 'Ealain'.

I'm currently down at my Mums farm in Galloway for a couple of nights. She has a wonderful Holly tree in one of the fields which is oozing in berries....so i'm off to cut a few branches to make some wreaths now...... 

Cake Plates galore

Its been a busy few weeks with Christmas Markets galore. Threres been good ones, and bad ones, but this weekend is my favourite one. My best seller this year has been my new Cake Plates (above). I have spent this week painting, busily re-stocking my plate stock all ready for tonights Fair at the Green Gallery in Buchlyvie. It is the most beautiful Fair held in the owners house and gallery, and always puts me in a Christmas-y mood. Tonight is 'Ladies night', so fingers x'd its a success!