POLKADoT Farm

The frozen Lake of Menteith

At last I've got round to blogging about a once in a life time walk that we experienced last month... walking over the frozen Lake of Menteith across to Inchmahome priory! The lake froze over at the beginning of January when the weather was at its coldest. It is over 30 years since the lake has frozen over so thick, and over 30years since a bonspielhas been held on the lake. Unfortunately the official bonspiel never went ahead because of health and safety, but many curlers still gathered and held unofficial matches!

 
We could see how thick the ice was in places, and even see the water underneath which was a bit scary!!! In the pic above, it looks like a crack, but it's not, these superficial cracks were dotted about the ice, and apparently caused by springs underneath! It was rumoured that an artic could drive over it as it was so thick? Whether that is true, who knows, but literally hundreds of people gathered on the ice over the week to view the spectacular sight.

We bravely walked over to the priory with Jock our Jack Russell, who was having a ball!! The Priory is usually only reachable by a rowing boat in the summer months!!Even so Lake of Menteith is only 6miles from the farm, I had never visited the priory! So it was wonderful to experience the priory in it's magical icy conditions!

Cupcake shop now open!

Its been a busy week of painting cupcakes, but lots of fun, as I really enjoy painting the different shapes and patterns as well as giving them their own quirky, imperfect personality! I am hoping to upload them onto my Etsy site this week, and start selling them, as well as do a wee give away on my blog in the next few days!I have been sorting out my website at long last, so I have all my new plate designs on it. Go and have a look at www.tartanheartglass.co.uk

Commemorative Plates

One of my new little ventures business/product wise this year, is going to be painting special commemorative plates for engagements, weddings & births. Our friends had a little girl in November, so I painted this one for her as a tester to see how it looks, and also to use the picture on my website. For the wedding plate, I have used the same format of name and date around the outside, but for the middle I painted a decorative heart. Most of the commemorative plates on the market are very simple, and don't use the bright colours or bold images I use, so I feel they're a wee bit different. Hopefully they'll be a winner!

 

A month of baby walking

My blog has been rather neglected over the last feew weeks. Baby D seems to be having a growth spurt, so every second hour between hoovering, washing & cleaning, he seems to be latched onto me feeding! We are getting out and about on lots of walks too, along with Jock, our wee Jack Russell..our other baby which is lovely!! It's great to get outside with him, as the fresh air makes him a little sleepy,which means when we get back home he's usually still dreaming, and I have been able to put aside a bit of time to paint a little!

My plates were very popular at Christmas time, so I'm going to concentrate on them over the next few months. The Green Gallery have asked for a selection for their Spring Exhibit which I'm pretty excited about!! So I've got a few more to paint for it before the end of the month. I think I will mainly do pretty cupcakes, as well as a few Easter themed ones of hens & chickens ('polkadotty chooks') !