Oh dear goodness. It looks like my blogging life has been reduced to four times a year!!!  Usually  in and around equinoxes, and now the summer solstice!  Phew. Turns out that’s what moving house, having a new baby, trying to run your business and a billion other things means when you try to do them all at once.

I did so much want to come back with declarations of new lovely sciorta for you all. But alas, I am just not getting there at the moment. Sometime soon I’ll get back in my groove. But for the moment, I need patience with myself as we negotiate new pastures and paths, that are exciting, but that mean that my sciorta designing is limping along sadly behind. However, rather than whinge about what I can’t get done, I’m choosing to look at what I have been able to get done.

- spending time with our delightful baby who is now 6 months!!!

-  spending more time with my 2 other children after what was a long and rather anxious pregnancy which meant I couldn’t run about with them, play tag, or kick a football. We have been doing a lot of that!

- learning to feel comfortable in our new home.

- looking dreamily at new fabrics (usually cos I’m up feeding in the middle of the night)

So hurrah for 6 months. And when the time is right, I’ll be back designing.

jx

So today is the 21st March – the equinox – the mid-way point between the shortest day in December and the longest day in June. On this day we get more or less equal doses of night and day.   I do love it when the nights are getting longer and I wake up and it’s light. hurrah! Every year it kind of takes me by surprise.

And then several things happen: I feel the need to clear away all the fire stuff and open the windows to let Spring in; I look at our garden and think loftily about all the lovely seeds we could plant (and then make a cuppa and don’t plant anything); I look at the clutter in our house and mutter about tidying it up.   And I start looking for some of my more springlike clothes. But then I remember that although we get more daylight each day, it’s not necessarily warmer. In fact, when the wind is blowing, I think  it often feels colder than November – usually because of poor clothing choices by me.   So I still have my woolly tights and boots on, but I’m thinking about shedding the winter coat, and pulling out something more fitting for the season.  I did this last year and then it snowed in Donegal when we went for a couple of days for a break, and I FROZE! So caution is definitely required, I’m not planning on ditching the tights until at least the end of April!

Oh and that’s a fairly random picture of my stripey clock which hangs in my sciorta room, which appears to have stopped at 9.45. I probably took the batteries out because I have a weird thing about ticking clocks and can hear them a mile off…..

This little number was released in October. But we only made a mere 4 skirts – I really wasn’t sure if people would love the pink as much as I did. Turns out you loved them! So because it’s my birthday month, (and you’re allowed to do things you said you wouldn’t on your birthday) we’ve made another 10.

I’ve said before that I’ve always thought that mulled punch is a perfectly acceptable warming drink. And here in Ireland, in these chilly windy days of February, I think a little warming punch could cheer us all up!

mulled punch: the detail

outer: fine bright pink baby cord

lining: polycotton

hem: 100% cotton

machine washable @ 30

concealed side zip

flattering a-line shape

length finishes at knee (23″ long)

sits on hips

Click here to buy mulled punch in the happy skirt shop.

This, my sciorta friends, is the very cuddly Aithin Luke, and he was 6 weeks this week. Before he arrived I made a small entirely negotiable and get-outtable-of deal with myself that I would write something, even if it was just a few words by the time we got to 6 weeks. AND so here we are. And it’s almost 7 weeks. : )

There has, I can safely say, been absolutely no skirt making or designing in the last 6 weeks. There has been lots of Christmas, snow, sledging (but not by me), c-sections and sore bellies, a turkey or two,  but absolutely nothing to do with a-line skirts. (well ok a few middle of the night feed-inspired drowsy designs flirting around my head : ) )

So, to celebrate the arrival of Aithin Luke, (and the fact that I managed to write something before the 6th week deadline was up)   we are having a sciorta sale! All our winter skirts are reduced from £89 to £59.

Go – check them out!

http://www.sciorta.com

‘hygge’ (pronounced hougge – think  the ‘oo’ in zoo) is a Danish word meaning cosy or something like cosy  -  cosy is as close a translation as we can get in English – but it’s oh so much more than a word – think concept, think candles, fire, warmth,   delicious wine, hot chocolate, friends.   The best description I’ve read of it is this: ‘a state of comfort, peace and warmth while in the company of loved ones’  from a blog called  speakdanish.dk blog .  ‘Hygge’ was a word I first learnt when I was working in Armenia. It was 1995, and often we only had electricity for a few hours each day, mostly at 3am – yeah – useful.  In the summer months this wasn’t so bad, there was light, it was warm. In the winter however with temperatures dipping as low as -20C, it took some getting used to.

As I worked for a Danish organisation at the time, there was a tonne of chatter about how to make things ‘hygge’  – the former Soviet Union was not known for its cosy, warm atmosphere so we had to create it. Candles, lighting fires and drinking some precious hot chocolate helped.

Over these winter months when the light is so dim here,  I light candles every day. Starting out at breakfast time, it just somehow gently eases us in to the dark mornings. We also light a fire most evenings, and read ALOT of stories. We try and make our home a ‘hygge’ place.  What else could I do to make life a bit more ‘hygge’ these wintery days?

Photo: Alesa Dam

December is all about sparkle. Twinkling lights, candles, glittery cards, torch lit walks and usually clear, starry but rather freezing nights.  This is what this sciorta is all about.  Deep black baby cord with a chunky dotty hem.   No actual glitter on this a-line skirt, but I’m quite sure you can add your own. : )

Looks completely gorgeous with black polo neck, black boots and glass of something fizzy in hand.

december sparkle: the detail

outer: blackest of black baby cord (the fine fine stuff), with dotty cotton trim

lining: polycotton

hem: cotton

machine washable @ 30

concealed side zip

flattering a-line shape

length finishes at knee (23″ long)

sits on hips

click here to buy december sparkle in the happy skirt shop

This little number is fantastically red. Red red red, with a big chunky hem of green, red, cream, and an ever so slight hint of pink, giving you oh-so-many options of what to wear with it.

This is a perfect ‘advent’ sciorta. It reminds me of the build up to Christmas, the waiting, the expectation, the planning.   The lighting of advent candles and the gradual decoration of our homes with greenery and berries.

Which brings me to the name of this sciorta. Flor di Navidad or Poinsietta in English – you know,  that red Christmas flower – sometimes it can seem a bit outdated- are you with me? Apparently the poinsietta is a native of Mexico. When I was growing up, this was always the first Christmassy thing that was allowed in our house in the run up to Christmas – and it didn’t arrive on the hall table much before December 1st. We usually bought several: one for our house, one each for the grannies and a few more for good luck.   This sciorta just reminded me so much of this flower.

I’d wear this one with a simple polo neck, or with a tank top over a beautifully made white shirt. And of course with your usual tights and boots.

flor di navidad: the detail

outer: deep red baby cord (the fine fine stuff)

lining: polycotton

hem: cotton

machine washable @ 30

concealed side zip

flattering a-line shape

length finishes at knee (23″ long)

sits on hips

click here to buy this sciorta in the happy skirt shop

I worked with a very brilliant guy when I lived in Armenia a while back (I was an Aid Worker in a previous life) and he used to talk about spinning plates with regard to managing projects. I loved the analogy of the plates spinning round and how every now and then at the right moment you need to give each plate a small push, a tweak as it were, in order to keep it spinning. Otherwise one by one, each plate would fall down. Messy.

My life feels a bit like the spinning plates right now. Again and again the interesting question of  can we have it all comes up with many women I meet – all of whom are mid 30’s, have risen in their careers or have started doing their own thing, some have children and some don’t.   The question is can you keep all the plates of your life going?   Career, children, business, balanced home life   – and all that that entails?  Honestly? I don’t know that we can.   And I wonder sometimes if I feel we’ve been sold a bogey in making us believe that we could have it all. (whatever that actually means).   Which therefore can lead to tremendous disappointment in some aspect of our lives where we fall short of our own expectations.

Whether you feel like you’ve been a rubbish parent today, or this week, or you just haven’t managed to move something on as much as you feel you should have. Whether you feel your house looks like a tip, or your children are behaving horrendously in public; whether you haven’t had enough sleep, or whether you just feel plain overwhelmed by the whole adventure of life;  I wanted to encourage all of us (me included) to step back for a moment and cherish the good things we have in our lives. Whether that be your health or the peace of sitting in stillness for five minutes with a cuppa. Lighting a candle and watching the shadows bounce off the wall. Or just going outside your home for five minutes in the dark to look at the sky.

It’s half term week here so the children are off school and my work is piling up merrily.   I have a to do list the length of Ireland.  And none of it is getting done. But I’m also pregnant and for the first time ever have got to 30 weeks without drama involving long hospital stays or the delivery of a very preterm babe. For that, today, I am so very thankful. Next week, I will start spinning plates again.

(And yes,  I do find it quite funny that the main plate spinner in the picture is a bloke – helped along by his glamorous assistant – it was the 1950s…….)

Photo: tpaddock

A lot of people have asked me who did the sciorta photography, because it TOTALLY rocks.  There were 2 main photographers on our shoot. My very fine and talented husband Kenny who has been shooting since his was 16 and goes all geeky about lights, boom lifts and nice glass and Chris Nelson a great friend whom we have got to know through the photography world and whose beautiful work you can see on his website. If you need a pro photographer – BOOK HIM!

Lots of people have asked what gear we use, and while we do have good gear, here’s the thing, great photography is NOT about the gear. I repeat, great photography is NOT about the gear. If you are a naturally techy person and love getting all hyped up about techy specifications and geeky gear, then great. Go, enjoy.  But I am definitely not all about the gear – it took me ages to remember that I was shooting on a Canon 5D and not a Canon D5. Yeah, tragic I know.   Here’s the thing, great photography is all about the light.  You could shoot the most gorgeous picture of your child/partner/iPad using an iPhone (or a small simple point and shoot) and some amazing natural light. As long as you understand light you will get great results.

Sometimes we were lucky enough to get beautiful natural light, like this one which Chris got.

There was a pool of light (see it?) and we put Joanna (our model) in the middle of it.  Other times we had to get our light unnaturally. i.e. we faked it by reaching in the bag and grabbing those lights. Like this one – that Kenny shot.

And this one.

I am lucky enough that Kenny delights in understanding how to create great fake light. Both of these images would have looked flat and rubbish had we not controlled the light.

We were based in a small village called Strangford.  In this fab house. It was just idyllic and perfect for our shoot.  And we liked it so much we are off there again for this weekend for some resting and hanging out with pals. Yay!

Alyson runs The Belfast Fashion Souk which is on every second Sunday afternoon in the Ulster Hall. Excellent vintage clothing, quirky jewellery, hand knits, and some of the most amazing shoes I’ve seen in a while. It’s quite a find. If you are in Belfast, go see!

We had a great chat about the where the idea for sciorta came from, all about how they are made (and why we do short runs)  and the opportunities and challenges of having a family and running a business. I totally loved doing it (even if I find it weird to listen to myself) -  hope you enjoy it too.