Nine Ladies, Stanton Moor

You'll be pleased no doubt to know that they're still there;0)  I needed to do some thinking and pondering on Friday and to get out of the house, so I thought a think and a ponder in a beautiful place would be best.  Love it when you get there and it's all peaceful, quiet and empty, though I do enjoy it when we celebrate up there as well of course.  Anyway after quite a bit of cogitating and ruminating I headed back down for coffee and chocolate enjoying looking at the flowering heathers and hills on the way.

Derbyshire Pagans Lammas Camp 2011

Elderflower Wine

I've started wine making!  Got to wait months though to find out if it's any good, and drink it, it's quite exciting, sad I know.  Hoping it might be ok to take to camp though it says several months in the book and Lammas Camp is only two month away.

As the Elderflowers are now out and smelling good I thought I would start with Elderflower wine as I remember my Grandma making it and Elderflower Champagne, and it tasted good and cooling on a summers day and at christmas time it reminded you of summer, mind you the corks exploding occasionally in the cellar gave you a bit of a shock.

James and I picked some of the flowers on the way back from the allotment yesterday.  When I got back I left them in the bag as I read that if you leave them 24 hours and then give them a good shake the flowers fall of the stalks, but this didn't happen and I didn't want to leave them any longer in case they started to go brown so ran a fork through them and combed them which does work pretty well.  We picked more than enough, only needed a pints worth, so I might make some cordial as well.

So now they are soaking in 8 pints of boiling water with 8oz of chopped raisins and the zest of a lemon, this has to stand for 4 days and be stirred occasionally.  I've sort of combined two recipes together as I was getting confused with all the different ideas for Elderflower wine out there, the rasins apparently give it body.

So Thursday it will need straining and then 3lbs of sugar and the juice of the lemon and the yeast need adding.

Hasfest 2011

Had a brill time at Hasfest, Labyrinth, Burning Man, workshops the lot.  Wish I'd made more Chalices and Smoking Incense Bottles though and things with hares on, I love hares as well don't know why I didn't do more! Knees are a bit achey from too much dancing round the fire though.

Now looking forward to Derbyshire Pagans Lammas Camp.

Wedding Favor Glasses

I was asked to engrave some glasses as Wedding Gifts for six Bridesmaids and the Best Man recently by the Bride To Be, with name, date and choice of animal on, and thank you for being my bridesmaid/bestman. They were all very happy with the glasses and I got lots of 'thank yous' and brilliants, the Bride sent me a message to say 'I cannot actually say how fantastic everything is' which made me feel great, it's lovely when you get compliments about your work even if it makes you blush a bit. If you would like something similar please contact me either by a comment on here or via my web site www.morningstarcraft.co.uk contact-me

She also asked me to make an Ivy and Oak Headress, alice band style, similar to the one I did for a Handfasting, she was carrying a bouquet with lots of ivy in it and they both went together really well.

The cake they had was fab, it had lots of flowers, toadstools and Mr & Mrs Owl on the top, Mr Owl had a beard to match the Groom's.  The cake was nothing to do with me I just thought it looked great.

Shamanism, Paganism, Rock and Roll or in other words Hasfest 2011

Well it's very close to that time of year again when we drum, dance, shake our stuff and make merry.  Hasfest this year looks to be even better, we've had two years practice now;0)  The first year was a bit ad hoc with 'shall we, yes why not?' thrown together quite quickly and was thoroughly enjoyed.  This year there has more time to worry, no I'm sure it will be great fun, there will be the burning man, fire, drumming, workshops and of course things to buy.  I'll be having a stall there and there promises to be lots of others there too, so if you want things a bit more unusual come down.  Entry is free so why not come and see (see a bit of rhyming). If you want some more info please visit http://chesterfieldpagans.org/events/hasfest/ or searching for hasfest on facebook should bring it up too I think.  It takes place at the New Inn, Mansfield Road, Hasland, Chesterfield S41 0JJ mainly on Saturday 14th May, but there is to be some drumming and such like the evening before.

This is some of us a few weeks ago having a tie dye party, getting fabric ready to hang in the marque to make it look less white and boring! It was a fantastic day and my first time at tie dying anything, who'd have thought it, being as how I am and at my age too :0P

Heart Jewellery

 

 As it's nearly Mothering Sunday thought I would do some heart shaped jewellery.  The one above is a copper pendant with a sterling silver heart set at an angle and finished with a sterling silver bail.

 For more of a spring/summer feel these are glass hearts on pink thong with silver colour beads and finished with a toggle fastener.

More copper and sterling silver hearts -

These aren't loaded on to my web site yet but they are on the MorningStarCraft  facebook page.