The Butterfly Lovers Pavilion at RHS Wisley, where else?!

This isn't the post I expected to write today, but as I looked through my photos these were the pictures I was drawn to, so here we are. They're from my day at Woodfest with STIHL last October and are just some of the snaps I took as I wandered around the grounds. I've now visited Wisley twice, and I'm pretty sure I still haven seen everything - but that's ok, as it means I'll have to go back.

The first thing that caught my eye was the greying wood, it's not usually my thing, but here it looked as if it was meant to be and gave the impression the pavilion had been in place much longer than 2005, when it was opened. 

And then I looked up and saw the intricate carvings and detail, and I was sold. I knew then that I'd spend time in the pavilion simply soaking up the views and the detail.  

It's on the edge of the lake, which seems entirely right and the water draws you close. It's only then the full view unfurls in front of you, and the sculptures ahead are framed perfectly providing a zen-like view, or at least a view that made my heart sing.  

To the right was lush, and large, gunnera, with its giant sized leaves and strangely dolphin-like stones.  Please don't say that's just me...

The detail was everything, and everywhere. Just look at the pebble and stone floor, not forgetting the darker border, and the direction of the pebbles.

You can see why it's such a calming and tranquil place can't you. I sat, I watched and finally I moved away and took in the view one last time.

And what a view. 

After the calm and tranquility, my eyes settled on these vibrant clusters of colchicums. The contrast couldn't have been more vivid. Nor could I help but be a little envious, in my own garden if I'm lucky I'll have one or two of these, but a much paler variety. 

But each time I spot one of my delicate blooms from now on, I know I'll be reminded of the butterfly lovers pavilion at Wisley. 

And why Wisley, where else?

Well I saw that the butterflies are back at Wisley until March. These butterflies have much more sense though and instead of visiting this pavilion they'll be in the Glass Houses. It's been a couple of years since I visited, but it was a truly magical experience. Clearly not for anyone that's not keen on butterflies, but if you do and if you want a butterfly to land on you, wear bright colours!

On my noticeboard: December

I realised last month that my noticeboard often reflects my thoughts as well as my projects for the current month, and none more so than last month. There's often things I've picked up along the way and am unsure of what to do with, but things I know that I don't want to lose sight of just yet, so I thought I'd take this post to walk you through it.

There's been some more colouring from Johanna Basford's Christmas book. I decided to try water with some of the Staedtler pencils and was rather pleased with how it's turning out so far. I particularly like the parcel with the red bow.  There's still quite a way to go to complete this one, and maybe it'll be finished by Christmas this year!

There's more hints of Christmas too.  The three die cut trees didn't make it onto my Christmas cards - I didn't get around to sharing a post on my cards this year, but these were some pretty test cuts that I either tore or need some extra cuts to complete. So instead of doing that I pinned them onto my board.

The name tag was was from my evening at the London Graphic Centre and reminded me of a calligraphy poster I did for a flower festival many years ago. I expect I've got that somewhere, so I'll try to remember to dig that out.  The robin to the right of the tag was another from the craft supplies provided for the Christmas stocking I made last month.

I've a couple of postcards too. I'm not sure where the Stick To It one came from but it seemed quite appropriate for me. The other one is one I'd found during a clear out. It's from my favourite Norfolk potter - Phillippa Lee Pottery - I'm amassing quite a collection of pie dishes, flan dishes and noodle bowls from there. And every time we go to Burnham Deepdale I have a look to see what's new. Most of the time though MOH is with me and so spending is slightly restricted, but one day... 

The papercut cards I bought at Makers & Friends, the night I started to make my own neon sign, which I still have some knotting to do on.  In fact more than before as the invisible thread has got itself knotted in the box too, hmmmn..

The grey card - Sew Ho - or Soho is one of the Place in Print cards which again is apt for my craft room.  All of the cards are on the noticeboard because they're in the "pretty and not for sharing" category in my head. The diamante dots are a new purchase, in case I needed them for my Christmas cards. I didn't, and I didn't want to lose them, so they went onto the noticeboard too.

The yellow pouch is a Freitag pouch and is made from recycled tarpaulin. This is on my board because it's bright and cheery and because I haven't worked out what to do with it yet. There will be a use for it I'm sure, I just don't know it yet. I've more to share with you soon about Freitag as on the basis of this little pouch I convinced MOH to buy me a larger bag, which I plan to use as an overnight and short trips bag, for Christmas.  More on that soon.

And finally in the top photo you might have noticed a longish strip of brown and cream striped and zig-zagged material. That's my current sewing project, and one I'm stuck on. I'm making a seat cushion for a garden bench, I think that's part of the problem, I know it won't be used anytime soon so I can't quite find the motivation. But I need to, as I want to get started with other projects and I know that if I move on without completing this the project is doomed. 

The feel good factor for this project though is that I'm recycling some of the material from our old bedroom curtains to make this seat cushion cover. I'm taking the same approach - yes freestyling - that I did for my gorgeous yellow chairs, but it feels so much slower for this larger oblong version. 

Both of those feel good, but I really wish it were done.  If you have any tips on how to get going again on a craft project, please let me know!

448 items short of 2016

Remember back in March last year when I hit on the slightly crazy idea of having a declutter with a difference? The idea was I'd try and replicate the idea I'd read about where a family committed to throw away the same number of items as the year, and they did this for more than one year. I was curious to see how many things we would get rid of, and not starting until March made it a tougher task.

But it started well, by June there was only 1778 items to go and I was pleased with the progress I'd made. But by October I was disappointed with the progress I'd made, as there was still 992 items to get rid of. 

And for the first time I seriously began to wonder if I'd get anywhere close to 2016 items. And I almost gave up.

Almost.

But I didn't. 

In November I had a bit of a pause, a disheartened pause I guess. But realising that wasn't helping get near to the target, I started to throw more things away.

• I cleared out my craft supplies and all the things I thought I might use one day, well I went through those and quite a few that I would probably never use, were recycled or thrown away.
• We replaced some everyday glasses - with these from TK Maxx - but sent more to the charity shop.
• Packaging. Somehow I still had quite a lot of this. Well no more.
• Old bills. No not that kind of old Bill, the paper sort. At a rough guess I shredded almost ninety, with some going back to 2013. Technically I still have the shredded bills, as they're in a sack in the greenhouse, ready to add to the compost with the grass cuttings. But I'm counting these here as they've decluttered the house and are waiting to be put to better use.  I could have recycled these, but then I would potentially have had slimy clumps of grass in the compost; mixing shredded paper in with the grass cuttings as it's added, avoids this. 
• Bras. Old but not knackered ones.  I've sent a small package to Smalls for All, a charity who collect underwear to help women and children in Africa.

So, with those and more I'm still 448 items short of the 2016.  Given where I was in October I'm pleased, but the things I thought were dead certs to get rid of - like the old Dyson, a plethora of pictures, some china and an old coffee machine - we still have. 

That's pretty frustrating, especially that old Dyson. I've tried to get rid of that a few times, but MOH has always said, we've one more project to do where it'll be useful, and so it's stayed. Although today, he said we should get rid of it and it's as much as I could do not to stop myself from wheeling it out to the front of the house and hoping it might find itself a new home. But I resisted, because I'm sure there's a more ethical way of finally getting rid of this.

In ten months I've got rid of 1,568 items, which is quite some going. It's not the 2016 items I'd aimed for, and that's disappointing, but it's not bad going is it?

I do wonder how much closer I'd have got if I'd started in January though...  I thought about carrying on until March, but then it wouldn't be 2016 would it? But don't worry, I've no plans to repeat the process, but it was interesting to see how much we've thrown away.  

I will though carry on clearing things out, as with immaculate timing only yesterday MOH said the dreaded "we have too much stuff, we need to have a clear out..."  Which is where I think this started!  It's clearly a cyclical thing. 

Are you in the process of decluttering? Could you get rid of 2017 items this year?