Romanian Retreat with Taking A Moment In Time

First things first, why a 'retreat' and not just go somewhere on holiday, well a lot of reasons actually.  Sometimes my other half asks just this question. The main and most important thing, is to find the right organiser as this will make all the difference, so don't assume that all 'retreats' are the same just because they call themselves that.

So, how did I come to choose this one? 

I first went to a day of yarn crafts locally to me organised by Natasha from the account 'Taking A Moment In Time' as it was one of the few things that I didn't have to travel too far to go to.  I soon realised that this lady gives terrific value for money and her attention to detail is incredible.

our home for the week

After trying a weekend retreat in Rye with her, I knew that this trip to Romania would be a once in a lifetime opportunity. Not only that, but I wouldn't have to worry about airport transfers, food, days out, accommodation etc etc and hence this is where 'retreat' kicks in as the difference to a weekend holiday. You can switch your brain off and just ... enjoy.

In this blog post I'm going to talk mainly about the retreat and as there is so much to say and show, I will follow up with a few other posts addressing what I thought of the country too, and the crafts we learnt.

our own knitting advisor to hand

the hills are alive with the sound of me eating cheese

We flew to Cluj airport from Luton and from there our house was about a four hour drive north, up towards the Ukraine border in the mountains.  The journey was a great eye opener to seeing the different style of houses and get the feel for the lifestyle in this part of the country.  It soon occurs to you that the locals like to have chickens and a vine in the back garden, and you straight away see horses and carts on the road, little old ladies in headscarves sitting on benches.  The old ways are still in evidence here which is very pretty to look at but not so great to actually live,  so luckily for us, our home for the week was a top notch, state of the art eco-house set in a pretty valley.  

On our arrival at the house we were greeted with lovely gifts awaiting us on our beds, the rooms were spotless, we had our own private bathroom and a balcony, and everything you would expect from a five star hotel, phew, I wasn't wrong in trusting Natasha to pick something out of this world. I can rough it for the odd day but I'm a Leo, I love luxury.

our beautiful home from home

Bio Valeputna is the name of the house set in Valea Putnei, on the edge of a national park which covers mountains and scenes of tremendous beauty.  Our cook for the week was Romanian so we had a chance to sample local food, and of course, this way the vegetarians in the group could be safe in the knowledge that they wouldn't go hungry.  I can see that it could be tricky for non meat eaters if you were solo travellers here where the diet is heavily meat based with polenta accompaniment.  The house was decorated with a lovely mixture of old and new, some lovely antiques and rustic arts and some reclaimed materials too.

Our days were filled with so many projects and trips out, none of which would also have been so easy to do if I had travelled on my own.  We visited local weavers, who also spin their own yarn, tanners who treat the hides of just about every animal known to man (it was a bit overwhelming to see bear, badger, deer hides piled up).  There were trips out to antique shops, and to the tops of mountains where we ate at a shepherds hut, the food prepared on an open fire and a view that looked like a painted backdrop from the sound of music.

In the evenings and between trips we learnt to spin wool with a drop spindle, knit a project, make a delicate wall hanging and play with yarn to our hearts content. I will do a separate blog post about the crafts as I think they deserve more attention.

Every day we were treated to tasty treats at meal times with the most delicious cakes in-between.  I think we all could feel our waistbands tighten during the week! 

It was Christmas come early, with goodie bags at every meal and a picture perfect view surrounded by christmas trees and smoke from chimneys.

My fellow retreaters were a fabulous mixed bunch of travellers and craft fans, we had such fun and laughter every day, every moment was thoroughly enjoyable for me, being surrounded by like minded people and chatting about our different lives.  We also seemed to be the Canon camera appreciation society as everyone of us  loves photography and this was also something we talked about and had help with.

I expect I will be writing more about retreats with Natasha as she moves into her own farm this week and work has commenced on the building of guest rooms, social areas and craft rooms. Her UK farm is called Hill View, so keep a look out for details of events when they start here.  

On our last day we had a late flight so a few of us decided to explore the mountains north of our house before taking the main road to the airport.  The autumnal colours were set to vibrant, as we found the most breathtaking views.  Hills covered in every hue, populated by cows with bells and old shepherds with their flocks, little streams running along side the road and even the odd black squirrel.  My eyes were on stalks trying to take it all in.

In my next post I will be talking more about the country and people of Romania from my week of observations, but this post is an attempt to give some tips on what to look for when booking a retreat.

I would say that some organisers may over gloss the look of what you are likely to get, perhaps trading too highly on their name.  Make sure you are going to be fed enough, it's pretty hard to scrutinise this as people have very different ideas about portion size!  If in doubt pack lots of snack foods in your suitcase! Think about your own personal habits and make sure you compensate, if your host isn't a big coffee drinker they may not supply you with enough caffeine to get through the day, so pop some sachets or tea bags in your case just in case. Luckily for us there were more than enough variations on tea and coffee to suit, including proper english tea bags (us Brits do not like the wishy washy european stuff), and that's my thing, so don't expect your host to be a mind reader and don't be shy about telling them your special needs before you go.

Not all countries are good at feeding vegetarians and may have a funny interpretation on what this involves. Natasha is an excellent cook and so is her assistant and translator so our veggies had good negotiators in providing them with variety.  I discovered myself that sampling every single different cheese all in one day may cause nightmares !!

I have heard that on some retreats the host stays in the beautiful house and the guests stay somewhere else, I personally would not be happy about this, so check where you will actually be staying and don't assume it's the beautiful apartments that feature in the photos! Personally I like a home from home to be at least as nice as my own home, if not better. All I can say is that Natasha will always check out a place before hand so there are no worries with her and no nasty surprises.

Last tip, remember you are the person paying, don't be afraid to speak up for yourself and take some control over your experience, it is a very British thing to suffer in silence (unless you have met me, haha !!) Fortunately on this occasion it wasn't necessary, I could not fault a single aspect.  Check the group size as well, a large group may mean that you don't get the personal attention you deserve, it is a retreat after all, and not a school trip!  I found our group of a dozen to be perfect. 

don't let yourself be treated like a sheep!

I hope I have given you some things to consider if you are booking a retreat and that my recommendations here are helpful.  I can one hundred percent, with hand on heart recommend Taking A Moment In Time retreats, and hope to see you on one in the future, as I will most definitely be joining them again.

Next time let's look at travelling to this part of the world and what that entails. See you next week, Janice.

For more places to visit in Romania please do check out the following ;  https://www.thecrazytourist.com/15-best-places-visit-romania/



  

Weaving Navajo Style

You may remember a while back I tried my hand at weaving. It's something I tried way way back in the mist of time (cough, whisper, sshhh it was the 1970's).  That and macrame, both of which I never thought I would see a recurrence of appreciation for. But like everything, things come back in fashion. 

I must admit, I never thought I would see G-Plan furniture coming back in style but saying that publicly just makes me look like a right old codger haha.  There are so many schools of thought on decorating, it's as personal as your clothes. I'm all in favour of revivals in styles, so whether you were born before the 70's or way after, you can either re-live your youth or play with ideas from the past. 

So with the return of retro, teak sideboards, Trechikoff paintings, browns, teals and mustards, comes the macrame plant pot holder and the woven wall hanging, and I love it.

But you don't have to go the whole hog with the look, replicating every element, if you are clever with colour you can mix it in with pieces from other time periods.  Placement is also key, and because weaving is a textural thing it can work as a way to soften a more minimal harder surrounding.

The first few little weavings I did were just to get my hand in, with anything crafty one does need to practice the technique a bit to get the tension right and also to the design that appeals to you most. 

I started with some freeform lines, seeing how different thicknesses of yarn would sit together and while its much neater to use the same size yarn all the way through you can create a more three dimensional piece with fringes and variations in weft.

So what to use as a frame, well if you look on pinterest you can see that almost anything can be adapted as a frame, old picture frames, branches etc.  Here's where my adaptation for a frame comes in, I bought a tapestry stretcher frame on ebay with the idea that such a thing might come in handy one day (oh the hoarding mentality). 

This large tapestry frame has given me the chance to make a larger piece although it is really tricky trying to keep the warp threads at an equal distance.  As my intentions were to use up some of the yarn stash it seemed a bit counter productive to buy an expensive purpose made weaving loom, and I can just imagine the reaction from the other half at spending loads of money on four bits of wood with notches in. I think if he was better at d.i.y. I would have asked if he could make a loom, perhaps you will have better luck with your spouses abilities in the wood working department, (probably not if he or she is a musician though)! I think that when this piece is finished I will decide if I like the 'handmade' look or whether to get a professional frame for a neater look.

Now I've looked at designs a bit more I'm gravitating towards the American Native Indian style of geometric, you can see these on my pinterest boards too. This week I am definitely channeling my inner Navajo.  

Textile artist Maryanne Moodie does fantastic things with fringes, I wish I could go to one of her classes as I'm not getting on well with the fringe aspect, I can't get it to sit smoothly, so for now Im giving it a miss. 

So that's my progress so far and I will show you the finished results fairly soon.  I'm also weaving beads on a small bead loom but that will have to wait until this is finished, one thing at a time. 

Urban Jungle Bloggers and Woven Wall Hangings

Im really quite excited at the moment by two elements of interior styling and the use of colour. One of these elements is the re-discovery of house plants through the network of Urban Jungle Bloggers and the other is woven wall hangings.

If you are wondering what Urban Jungle Bloggers is all about then let me give you an idea here.  Set up by two lovely souls, Igor and Judith, they have brought an online community together of people who love house plants.  At first I thought it was for people living in the city but now I've met Igor and Judith I realise its for everyone who likes plants in their home and who like to style with them. 

As I've mentioned before, I attended a blogging conference a few weeks ago, primarily to meet in person the people behind some of the most inspiring things on the internet.  Bloggers are people who often are working in complete isolation and this can become far too inward looking if you're not careful. So when you meet the creators of a cool online community and they are really nice with a great philosophy and attitude, its a bonus for sure.

Having travelled extensively when I was in the music business, to over 42 countries around the globe, you find that some nations have very cool attitudes to life and I think that this is exuded by Igor and Judith in bucket loads. Their 'no rules' approach and philosophy is so rare these days, the idea to facilitate the meeting (virtually) of like minded people for no financial reason is a Karma which will return to them Im sure. This is also something I would love to emulate in my #paintpassion community.

Setting a theme monthly to their house plant stylings Im delighted to say that in my first month they have chosen my area - colour - to be the topic, giving it the hashtag #plantcolorpop (and don't forget its the American spelling of color not the English spelling - Colour.

Since working with Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint(tm)for Painters In Residence, Ive continued to explore this paints properties and abilities. Becoming more and more free with my approach I've been developing a technique of working with a wet brush and just dipping the same brush into different colours, then working it with water and so on, to blend and wash.  Ive chosen to do this on some back boards as a way to practice but Im intending to expand onto canvases too.

The backboards give me the possibilities to try out colour combinations and see how they work with different objects on and around them.  So to my third element here, the woven wall hanging.

I studied textile and embroidery for A level in the late 1970's, so the revival of the this type of wall hanging has amused me enormously. Its been a right trip (in the hippy sense of the word) to pick it up again and be able to play around with it for interior styling. 

Last weekend I went to Yarnspiration2015, a day of workshops and socialising for people who love their yarns, like alcoholics anonymous for wool hoarders - where do you keep your hidden stash?, did you secretly spend the housekeeping on cashmere and silk yarn, oh the confessions.  Hello my name is Janice and Im a yarnoholic.

It's Fibre East at the end of July, a big yarn related show which I shall be popping along to and reporting back on.  Its my nearest big wool show, in Ampthill. 

Anyway, back to the wall hangings, Ive tried two on the small basic hand loom and one utilising a tapestry frame.  I don't want to give a tutorial here yet until I feel Ive tried out a few things and can tell you the do's and don't from first hand experience. Like anything, practice makes perfect so I shall practice a bit more and let you know.  

You can find Urban Jungle Bloggers here and I'd put money on it that after looking you will be rushing off to the garden centre.

Im back off to do some more weaving and paint sploshing now, please tag me and #paintpassion so I can see what you have been up to.