Wordless Wednesday 24/07/13

Happy Spring

Happy Spring people!

Let's do our best to ignore the snow (both fallen and forecast) and focus instead on the vivid flashes of colour poking through, reminding us that warmer days really are just around the corner.

Honestly...

Folksy Friday :: Mums for Mum

Next Sunday (March 10th) is Mothers Day so I thought I'd show a little selection of lovely chrysanthemum inspired gifts - Mums for Mum!

1. Chrysanthemum Cushion, RibbonReal  2. Mosaic Birdbath, JoSara

3. Oxidised Silver Chrysanthemum Studs, Alison Moore Design  4.Greetings card, Linen Prints

5. Chrysanthemum Clutch Bag w/silk lining, Emma England  6. Floral cabochon necklace, Josephines

Fancy sewing your mum a little gift yourself? This gorgeous fabric called 'Garden Memories' from the Tilda WinterGarden range is available from my Folksy shop. Tilda fabrics are beautifully soft, 100% cotton and this one is bursting with chrysanthemum blooms and cabbage roses in pink and red on a pale teal blue background.  Excellent value at only £4.99 for an extra wide half metre and free postage and packing too!






I hope you enjoyed my selection today. If you would like to see more why not hop over to my 'Mums for Mum' pinboard on Pinterest.

Wordless Wednesday 27/02/13

#SilentSunday 01/07/12

It's the Little Things...

A couple of weeks back someone left an anonymous comment on this blog. For some reason they felt the need to point out that my blog was filled with little things. Anonymous went on to say that I am (obviously) seeking to fill some unamed void in my life with 'stuff'; that there is something BIG missing from my life and so I am seeking to convince the world and myself that I am happy by wittering on about unimportant little things...

How is your garden growing?

So after the brief respite the shitty weather is back again. And (sorry to be the bearer of bad tidings) it's not looking like things are gonna improve much in the next couple of weeks.

The garden has taken a bit of a battering again this weekend - the marsh mallow has fallen over and I really must stake the raspberry canes and the tomatoes before they follow suite!

Our little veggie patch isn't doing too badly. The slugs/snails had a go at a couple of the pea shoots and something (birds? cat? LM looking for treasure?) has been scrabbling about dislodging some of the carrot and lettuce seedlings, but for the most part it's looking good. . .

Garden rescue...

The weather for the past six weeks has been horrendous hasn't it? Seems like we had March winds, April showers and a heavy dose of November rain thrown in for good measure too. My poor garden has been suffering and the cold and wet have not encouraged me out to put things right...

We came back off holiday on Saturday to warm sunshine so I got out there to assess the damage. It wasn't pretty!

#SilentSunday 26/02/12

A hint of Spring...

Hard to believe that only two weeks ago I was posting pictures of our ice-encrusted Winter Wonderland. The weather has taken a (brief?) turn for the better this week, reminding us that the dark time is nearly over and very soon Spring will be here...

Crocuses

Mini Daffodils - I love these so much more than their  full-size cousins

Pink!

Ron enjoys the sunshine

Getting stuck in...

Ladybird takes a pollen bath!

The garden is just revving up and getting going now. Before long we will actually have sunshine in the back again and then I will really feel like Winter is finally over!

#SilentSunday 04/12/11

Just because...

You know how sometimes you do something, say something, create something that you makes you feel incredibly pleased with yourself and, hopefully without coming across as too big headed (it's just not British...), you want to share it with everyone and their dog?

Well, the other day I posted a picture on Twitter. I was going to save it for Silent Sunday but I loved it so much and was so proud of it I just wanted to share! Lots of you loved it and I thank you for your comments :)

The subject is Rudbeckia - so I'm told. Mum gave me a small plant in with some others she'd grown. I'm sure she probably told me at the time what it was but it was obviously classified as 'it's not really life or death is it?' and dropped into the bottom drawer of the last filing cabinet that is my memory bank.

All I know is that it has got much bigger than I expected and the dark red flowers are just stunning!

So here is the picture again, along with a couple of others.

Just because...

 

Crochet... I'm hooked!

I know, I know - I am probably one of the last to jump on this particular bandwagon but a week or so ago I picked up a crochet hook and learned how to crochet. It's something I have been meaning to do for a while. I mean I have been knitting for years (well decades actually...) and I have had a go at pretty much everything - cabling, fancy stitches, colour, patterns, jumpers, jackets, socks, baby clothes...quite a lot of baby clothes come to think of it, more socks, bags etc etc. But for some reason the lure of the crochet hook has never attracted me that much.

Until now.

I blame this...

This - if you haven't seen it before - is a brand new magazine dedicated to handmade living. It's chocca full of wonderful ideas, inspiration, interviews, makes and general handmade loveliness. It is right up my alley and so refreshingly gorgeous it surely must be almost illegal.... (I am assured it isn't)

So, yes, I am absolutely in love with Mollie Makes. I dream that one day me or one of my makes might feature within it's beautiful matt paper covers. In the meantime I lust after dinky felties and crocheted flowers, scrummy interiors and to-die-for studio spaces (imagine a space totally dedicated to crafting...no toys, no teetering piles of bike magazines, no spending half an hour tidying up before I can get anything out and then having to put it all away again so the Little Man can do Play Doh... oh, a girl can dream),

You see it was the flowers that did it.My Other Half suffers really badly from hay fever so real flowers in the house are pretty much a no-no (I do manage to slip some in when he's not paying attention on very rare occasions...) I'm really not a fan of chintzy, floral fabrics, preferring more stylised designs. But when I saw that gorgeous cover and knew that I could have a house full of flowers I loved without making his nose twitch!

So I had to learn how to crochet!  With the help of this tutorial I got the basics together fairly quickly (although I feed the yarn like I knit, with my right hand not my left. I'm sure I will work it out eventually!) and this was my first flower attempt...

Not bad but far from perfect. So I kept at it. Last night I felt confident enough to try an ACTUAL PROJECT. Coincidentally (not that I believe in coincidence mind you!) one of my fave reads the Angel Eden blog posted a tutorial a few days ago that was absolutely perfect - a Crochet Jar Cover - I could make something pretty with my new found skill and find another use for an old jam jar!

Wanna see? Of course you do...

Now it's pretty safe to say I am hooked - I love it! The simplicity. The speed at which projects grow. Most of all I love the way crochet lends itself to itty bitty projects so much more than knitting! It is much easier to pick up and put down when the Little Man demands attention and SOOOO much easier to pick up the single stitch if the hook falls out. If you have ever tried picking up an entire row of knitting when the needle gets pulled out you'll know what I mean...

So thank you Mollie Makes for inspiring me where all others have failed, and Abi at Angel Eden for the great tutorial :)