A Foggy Walk in Brecon

So we woke up to a lovely foggy Sunday morning here in Wales!

Only in Wales could a foggy morning be classed as lovely :)

We decided to take a drive up to Brecon and go for a walk with the kids! we took some lovely photo's so thought i'd share them with you

We went for a walk and found this lovely stream 

And it even had a waterfall :)

The girls enjoyed throwing stones in it!

The Fog

Rosy cheeks  :)

Another little stream or "fairy fall" as the kids named it :) 

Lastly my two beautiful girls :) 

Camping

My family have been camping in the same field for over 40 years now
we always go for the August bank holiday
I have such fond memories of going there as a child :)
we used to play in the river all day, collect fire wood, go for walks or go apple/plum picking
then in the night we'd all sit around a huge campfire, toast marshmallows and sing, mostly Welsh rugby songs :)
It is a tradition that I am so pleased to be able to share with my daughters :)

So every August bank holiday you will find us in a little village called Hoarwithy near Ross on Wye


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Now above you may have noticed i said field not campsite that is because this is proper camping :) Just a field with a tap at the top, you have to bring everything!
This fills most people with horror until I say that no toilets/showers means no roads so i know my kids are safe :)

Here is the field, Beautiful :)

The drip that I am lol means i forgot to take a picture of the tent!! i know!!
(I will take one when we go for the bank holiday in a few weeks!)

But i did take one of our "Tardis" Toilet tent :)

Anyway back to my favourite field :)

Here is the river where we swim, fish or canoe :)

From the field across the river is one of my favourite views ever, the church at Hoarwithy

when the sun starts to go down the fire is lit :)

My girls cwtching by the fire

Beautiful sunset

Great fire! where's the marshmallows?

Here they are!!!

What more could you want? :)

Hunting for Fairies

So it's the school holidays and the kids are getting restless! 

It was such a lovely day so we went for a walk to look for fairies

I live in Cwmcarn which has the wonderful Forest Drive with miles of walks over a beautiful mountain

The view up the valley :)

This Tree and ferns looked so pretty! 

We didn't find any fairies :( 

But Looking at these you could almost believe they were there hiding :)

The kids certainly believed they were there.............somewhere :)

They had lots of fun looking!

We did find some fariytale looking mushrooms

Lots of fun! and it didn't cost a thing :)

Our Easter Tree

When I was little we used to have an Easter tree, Mum would take us for a walk in the woods and we'd get some thin tree branches which she would put in a vase and hang little things off, it was lovely and always looked so pretty :)

This year I decided I'd do the same with my girls :)

So here is ours 

I thought we'd start small :)

we had a lovely craft day and made the little ceramic hanging eggs :)

I rolled out the clay and let the kids loose with the stamps :)
they loved it! and then we used our little egg cutter to cut them out

I should have got more organised and made some for my shop :( 

definitely next year!

I also found some pretty little decorations from etsy 

These sweet little flowers were crocheted by the talented Twinkknits 

These cute little paper birds are all the way from America from Up the attic stairs

The children are thrilled with the tree

I've told them the Easter Bunny will be really happy with it and leave them special eggs :)

Next year we'll go a bit bigger :)

But maybe not this big :)

This beautiful tree is from Germany where the tradition originated, find out more about this tree and the tradition in this lovely blog

Pottery! My process :)

Lots of people ask me how I make my magnets, buttons or hearts so I thought i'd take some pictures & write up the process, this is how i make a magnet :) it is the same for a button, i just add holes

First I roll out the clay

I use a place mat either side to make sure the clay is the same width 

Then I choose a stamp to use, these amazing stamps and lots of my others :) are from skull and crossbuns

After pressing in the stamp, I use a cutter to cut out the magnet 

They are then left overnight to dry out

When dry, they are cleaned up with a damp sponge to make all the edges smooth 

Then they are added to the kiln, This is done carefully as they are very brittle, I normally break one or a few :(

This is the first shelf

And the 2nd :)

They are then fired up to 1060°C, A very slow temperature rise is critical. 

During the beginning of the bisque firing, the last of the atmospheric water is driven out of the clay. 

If heated too quickly, the water will turn into steam while inside the clay body, causing the clay to burst. 

Once the kiln reaches this temperature it switches off and begins to cool, The cooling is also slow to avoid the pots breaking due to stress from the temperature changes. 

the whole process takes about 12 hours, so I usually do it overnight :)

when a piece has had it's first firing it is called bisque ware

Three bisque ware cupcake magnets ready for some glaze :)

The glaze is painted on

then it is wiped off using a damp sponge, this leaves the glaze just in the stamped indent 

Three glazed magnets, the glazes looks really pale but will get brighter when fired :)

The magnets need to be clear glazed, this gives them their shiny finish and will protect them

Three clear glazed magnets, it's kind of like dipping a sausage in batter :) the glaze dries to a power like coating

They then go back in the kiln for another 12hour firing this time to a temperature of 1015°C

glazed ware is not allowed to touch during this firing as the glazes melt they and will stick together so it's a fine balancing act to pack the kiln :)

In the morning opening the kiln is always a surprise as you never really know how things will turn out :)

Here are three finished magnets :)

you can find them and others in my shop Cariad Clay :)

well I hope I've not bored you too much :) x