Make your own champagne in 5 easy steps!

Now, I wasn't planning on making champagne this weekend - I didn't even know the possibility was available to me. Yet, I kid you not, I now have a huge vat of champagne brewing in my kitchen,  thanks to a serendipitous chat with a good friend at the school gates on Friday afternoon.

"Come to the woods with us to pick elderflowers" she said. (Lets be clear, by woods, we are talking about a very precious group of 'urban' trees near our home). Just for the fun of the outdoors we went. It was a beautiful, sun-soaked day after all. But, by the end of the morning, the freeganist, nature-loving maker in me was enrolled in the whole escapade.

 

And so it was that my Saturday evening was spent  duly counting out how many heads of elderflowers we had collected so that I could calculate exactly how much champagne I could make (24 litres to be precise) before embarking on the task of brewing. Want to give it a go? Here's champagne making in 5 easy steps:

1. Collect elderflowers (when the flowers are open, not little bobbles - the smell was the giveaway)

2. Put elderflowers, chopped lemon and juice, sugar and white wine vinegar in a bucket with water.

Ok....yes, there's a little more to it and I followed this recipe by the ever-wonderful UK pioneer of self-sufficiency, Hugh Fernley-Whittingstall from River Cottage)

3. Wait a few days for it to ferment.

4. Bottle it (be careful what you use as bottles have been known to explode!) and leave for another week.

5. Drink and be happy.

So, champagne party at mine in 2 weeks..?

Have I introduced you to....

    ...Chloe, our new cat?

She was given to us by one of my lovely mosaic students because their family could not keep her. And what a character she is.

Utterly royal in her composure, I think she has finally accepted that she is in an house that values equality...and is making friends with our two dear rescue kittens!

Here she is sleeping with Isabella, as she does every evening....

...with me in my studio.

 

And yesterday, oh my...she followed Isabella all the way to school (a 10 minute walk!) and despite being returned home, she went back 4 times and decided to sit in the Art Room of all places (my kind of cat).  By the end of the day, half the school knew her name! A character indeed, and a most welcome addition to our family ;)

Arty party party party!

We came, we gathered, we made...

Sally Dunnett from Smart Glass UK teaching us how to make beautiful fused glass creations...

My glass creation (several layer of stacked glass, including gorgeous dichroic) ready to go in the kiln

A few more creations prior to fusing...

Next, in the pub, making jewelry under the tuition of the lovely Louise from Lou Lou Workshop

...and gorgeous vintage fabric brooches taught to us by the wonderful Gillian from Fabric Nation

Claire having fun with needle and thread!

 ...we laughed, we ate, we drank

Lucy showing off her charm bracelet

...we celebrated,  and lastly, we danced!

What better 40th bash could a girl want?

Some of the arty party gang who made in into the picture!

And me...happy at being surrounded by such wonderful girlfriends and of course blokey mates who came in the evening (and those that danced into the night!). I am left  grinning at how many of them said it was the best day they had had in ages...cos they had not used their hands to create for way too long. "Wow...I can't believe I made this" and "Please can you have 40th birthday parties all the time?" being two favourite quotes. I have been wearing my brooch and bracelet all day and am looking forward to seeing my glass creation once it has cooked in the kiln!

Thank you to everyone for making it such a memorable launch into my next decade - I started as I mean to go on, with friendship and creativity at the heart.

World Premiere of new Christmas song...and a ho ho ho to you all!

Warm Christmas greetings to friends, family and blog friends!

For like high rating cuteness, click play and watch this special Christmas message especially recorded by our two sweet bunnies!




With love and blessings for Christmas and beyond.

Concetta xxx

South London Mosaic Workshops & Exhibition...its all happening!

Apart from my dear family, ALL else except my mosaic world is being very neglected in the last few weeks (including writing and reading in blog land, I know I know).

As soon as I get back from dropping the kids off at school, I close the front door, put my head down and walk straight to the studio without looking at all the housework piling up. This is what cheerios look like after a day....!

 

I have taken part in lots of exhibition over the last few years, but never a solo show. I am told that this intensity of working on a solo exhibition is very normal... Here is my grouting production line, ready for me (I love grouting, saving it all up!).

And my work for the next couple of weeks:

 

In the midst of this intense making, its wonderful to have started the next lot of mosaic workshops - they take place every Tuesday evenings in blocks of 7 weeks, in addition to my mosaic-maker drop-ins twice a week.

 

New students, new ideas, possibilities unfolding. Love it! I have also taken part in a whole day of demonstrating mosaics at the wonderful Artyard, encouraging adults to re-discover their creative selves.  A truly great place.

This Thursday also sees the culmination of several weeks of working alongside the volunteers, young people and parents of the Klevis Kola Foundation (which supports refugees). 25 mosaics have been completed and we are going to get messy on Thursday, grouting them all before I mount it into a giant patchwork mosaic which will feature at my forthcoming exhibition.

I will post full details of the exhibition in the next couple of days...hope to meet some of you lovely blog readers. Promise to be back in the middle of the week...and here's a question for you to ponder between now and then. What smell evokes in you happy childhood memories of making stuff with your hands?

PS. Talking of childhood memories... I have been searching for a childhood game for years. Today, my dear husband packed me off for 2 hours away from the house in order to 'switch of' (ha ha!) and I was mooching in the local shops and I FOUND IT! I almost cried and kissed the shop assistant! I have such happy memories of playing this game with my mum and brothers when we lived in Italy... Anyone else used to play Jack Straws? And as Christmas is coming, any ideas of really good family games?

A creative space...near you?

 

I was contacted a few weeks ago by a lovely lady, Debra, who runs a place nearby in East Sheen, called the Artyard, asking if I was interested in running some mosaic workshops. I clicked on the Artyard website and immediately started doing internal skips and hops of excitement! One real time visit yesterday with my little Toby and I am now hooked.

Artyard is a space that every community should have. It is a creativity zone for children, for children and their families and for adults. The physical environment is evidence of the much fun that has clearly been had over the years, as well as a testament to clever design and the spirit of re-purposing and upcycling. The programme of creative work offered, from Family Making sessions (popcorn provided!), box art workshops, print making and seasonal events to mother and tots craft sessions and "Cocktail and Canvases" on Friday evenings (mmmm....make mine a mojito!).

 

Artyard is going way beyond 'Paint Your Own Pottery' cafe's for children. It is combining the community spirit of Stitch and Bitch with creative classes in a fantastic, centre of town setting. Do you have anything like this in your community? Please do share...

Imagine if every community had a  creative space like this - where using your hands and your heart  where a normal way of spending your free time, socialising,  developing as a person and dealing with the ups and downs of life. Think arty parties for grown ups (not just for children!), a place to help to you celebrate and mark big events (with a special creation to take away at the end). Think self-help for individuals and groups. Think soothing of the soul during tough times. An alternative to the TV, the bottle, the anti-depressant - all those things we as a society use to numb our souls instead of making them come alive and sing.

Yes, I think the Artyard and other places like it are more than just a bit of fun (well, a lot of fun by the looks of it!). I think they can be the kind of places that create community, well-being and a whole bunch of humans that are fully alive, skilled-up and developing.

If you are in London or in the Southern home counties, why not consider Artyard as a place to go, not just with children, but for yourself - for some 'me time'. Artyard is having an Open Day between 11am- 8pm on Thursday 4th November. Check it out and if you are a London blogger - please do spread the word.

Things that make you go ahhhhhh....!

Thank you to Amelia for prompting me to think of a list of things that make me happy. Inspired by reading Amelia's list,  hubby and I took turns to make our own, whilst sitting in the garden one warm summer evening last week. What a great shot of contentment it generated - must remember to do this more intentionally when I need some happy juice to counteract life's stress and blagh! Hubby came up with the most hilarious thing for his list... "That feeling you get when you fall asleep with your arm above your head, then go to move your arm and its all numb and flops onto your lap". Ha ha! Love it!

So, in no particular order, here's my list:

1. Looking intently at the moon and the stars, the wonder of the bigness of it all

2. Sitting round a fire with friends, whisky, guitar and song

3. The feeling of cool sand under your feet on the beach on a hot, hot summer night

4. My children's laughter

5. Watching my children sleep

6. Falling asleep on my husband's chest

7. That intense, eyeball to eyeball look of a baby taking in your face for the first time

8. The smell of tomato and geranium leaves (ahh...beautiful Italy...)

9. Huge, soft, fresh figs melting in your mouth

10. Total silence and stillness, (preferably at the top of a mountain).

11. The spicy smell of woodlands

12. A good foot and head massage

13. Running into the wind

14. Jumping into waves

15. Kids jumping into bed with us in the morning (not too early!)

16. Getting engrossed in creating something and losing time

17. Smell of salty, sea air

18. Making my own bread by hand

19. Walking bare foot and feeling the earth under your feet, particularly soil and grass

20. Sewing by hand, quietly....

....ahhhhh. What about you? Share you happy things in the comments or do your own blog list and link back so we can see and get more happy juice!

Looking forward to some tee hee hee's

My beloved and I try out different ways of doing Christmas presents to each other and about 5 years ago we bought a years worth of experiences for each other to fit categories we'd chosen: "funny", "creative", "inspiring" etc... I wrote about it in one of my early blog posts here.

Well, its true that good things come to those who wait. One of Neil's promises was to take me to see Glaswegian funny man, Billy Connolly. I'm not sure what happened but with one thing and another (aka a child or two) we never quite made it for my promised evening of belly laughs. Then, aha! The seats are suddenly booked and we will be occupying them (second row, no less) tomorrow evening at the Hammersmith Apollo. Wee hee! If you have never heard of Billy Connolly, he is tall, 67 years old, with a broad Scottish accent, a mass of curly hair, a raw sense of what is right, just and human and a mouth full of funny (and at times rather rude) words. I particularly admire him for writing openly in his biography about being a survivor of child abuse. To quote "Your duty is to leave the world less beige than you found it".