In Scotland April 2009
I was away in Scotland for about four weeks from mid March to mid April. I celebrated my birthday on the 2nd of April with a lunch at the Newton Dee restaurant with friends Alicia and Jennifer. It was a beautiful day and a lovely atmosphere. Newton Dee is a country idyll on the periphery of town, & with its lovely pond & ducks and geese it helped create a feeling of general contentment. Seeing my two good friends also helped for a few hours not to remind me about turning 44 that day!. I know those of you older than this you will be saying “you are just a young thing!!” but I still find it hard to believe I have got this old? How did it happen? I know its bleedin obvious but geez it is just shocking when you still feel like a young thing….. that is until I look in the mirror.
The Newton Dee café/shop is really one of my favourite places to visit at the moment; it has been designed with masses of light, beautiful wooden fittings and a spacious dining area, which looks out to the pretty grounds of the Rudolf Steiner foundation. The food is simple but yummy; wholesome soups, sandwiches and good cakes. Although the service can sometimes bee a bit funky.
My trip to Scotland consisted of walks on the Learney Estate & surrounding environs, innumerable cups of teas and chats with Catriona, tea shop visits, visits with friends and creating my first electronic blurb book creation for Claudia’s 40th birthday!.
Some weeks previously, whilst in Istanbul I had suggested the idea of creating a birthday book for Claudia who was fast approaching the big 40. If you haven’t heard about blurb books, these are actual books which you create using a computer software package. Check out http://www.blurb.com/ ~ it is a great gift idea and quite a straight forward process and fun thing to do. I notified friends and asked them if they would like to participate. I was delighted and not surprised by the terrific response to participate in the book idea, Claudia being one of these remarkable people, who has the ability to touch people’s lives in a special & unique way.
I managed to get all the photos and texts from about 11 individuals and upload them into my computer before I left Istanbul!. This I have to admit was the most worrying part of the project ‘cos I knew it would just be hell to download the photos in Scotland as I have such slow internet connection at the cottage. I have to say that without the efforts of Emily and Anne-Marie, I might have been more seriously challenged but they assisted in making the whole thing run very smoothly. Thanks ladies.
Before setting off for Scotland, (quite literally a few days before I was due to fly) I thought about a workshop idea, which evolved from the blurb book concept, together with ideas drawn from memory book workshops & projects that I have facilitated over the years. I hoped to run a textile workshop whilst I was over in Scotland and my idea was to show people how to design and make a fabric book for a birth, wedding or anniversary present using digital photos. I have discovered that so many of us have literally hundreds of photos stored & just sitting in folders in their computers. My concept was to demonstrate how to transfer the photos onto fabric, also how to change the photos using simple photo editing software, create text and demonstrate some original ideas of book construction.
I e-mailed the idea to Barbara at the Milton Textile Studio near Banchory, where I have run creative workshops over the years. She no longer runs workshops at her studio but she collaborates with Linzi Upton, a quilter who has workshop facilities at her farm at Crathes.
Anyway to cut a long story short Barbara loved the workshop idea and that day she sent it out to her extensive client base. Within three hours I had two bookings. The workshops were full within a week and all fears of it being too last minute & too close to the Easter holidays quickly diminished.
At the end of March I ran two enjoyable & successful workshops. I really love facilitating these types of creative workshops, sharing my ideas & meeting interesting people. There is always a lot of preparation and lugging of equipment and I am usually exhausted afterwards, but the fun and satisfaction I derive from this work is till now unsurpassed.
Will I ever get back to telling you about our lives in Istanbul.
The Newton Dee café/shop is really one of my favourite places to visit at the moment; it has been designed with masses of light, beautiful wooden fittings and a spacious dining area, which looks out to the pretty grounds of the Rudolf Steiner foundation. The food is simple but yummy; wholesome soups, sandwiches and good cakes. Although the service can sometimes bee a bit funky.
My trip to Scotland consisted of walks on the Learney Estate & surrounding environs, innumerable cups of teas and chats with Catriona, tea shop visits, visits with friends and creating my first electronic blurb book creation for Claudia’s 40th birthday!.
Some weeks previously, whilst in Istanbul I had suggested the idea of creating a birthday book for Claudia who was fast approaching the big 40. If you haven’t heard about blurb books, these are actual books which you create using a computer software package. Check out http://www.blurb.com/ ~ it is a great gift idea and quite a straight forward process and fun thing to do. I notified friends and asked them if they would like to participate. I was delighted and not surprised by the terrific response to participate in the book idea, Claudia being one of these remarkable people, who has the ability to touch people’s lives in a special & unique way.
I managed to get all the photos and texts from about 11 individuals and upload them into my computer before I left Istanbul!. This I have to admit was the most worrying part of the project ‘cos I knew it would just be hell to download the photos in Scotland as I have such slow internet connection at the cottage. I have to say that without the efforts of Emily and Anne-Marie, I might have been more seriously challenged but they assisted in making the whole thing run very smoothly. Thanks ladies.
Before setting off for Scotland, (quite literally a few days before I was due to fly) I thought about a workshop idea, which evolved from the blurb book concept, together with ideas drawn from memory book workshops & projects that I have facilitated over the years. I hoped to run a textile workshop whilst I was over in Scotland and my idea was to show people how to design and make a fabric book for a birth, wedding or anniversary present using digital photos. I have discovered that so many of us have literally hundreds of photos stored & just sitting in folders in their computers. My concept was to demonstrate how to transfer the photos onto fabric, also how to change the photos using simple photo editing software, create text and demonstrate some original ideas of book construction.
I e-mailed the idea to Barbara at the Milton Textile Studio near Banchory, where I have run creative workshops over the years. She no longer runs workshops at her studio but she collaborates with Linzi Upton, a quilter who has workshop facilities at her farm at Crathes.
Anyway to cut a long story short Barbara loved the workshop idea and that day she sent it out to her extensive client base. Within three hours I had two bookings. The workshops were full within a week and all fears of it being too last minute & too close to the Easter holidays quickly diminished.
At the end of March I ran two enjoyable & successful workshops. I really love facilitating these types of creative workshops, sharing my ideas & meeting interesting people. There is always a lot of preparation and lugging of equipment and I am usually exhausted afterwards, but the fun and satisfaction I derive from this work is till now unsurpassed.
Will I ever get back to telling you about our lives in Istanbul.
posted by Annabel Pattullo at
08:20
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