Celebrate!

It's been nearly two weeks since I came off on holiday for Easter. Where has the time gone? I haven't really done much; I've just lazed around, crafted a bit, went out for lunch a few times with my mum or Paul.  Oh! And I also celebrated my birthday on Good Friday. We (Paul and I) thought my gifts should be practical this year; bits for the garden and as I'm in the process of re-organising my craft room, some pieces for that too. Paul bought me one of the cool frogs in a half tree yoga pose. I've had my eye on one of these for a long time, the one in the photo is the biggest one. I think there's two other poses in the range.  Paul also found some cool wicker baskets to go on my new shelves; they are a good size, sturdy and deep, so I think they will be great for storing fabric or wool. I also received a quirky little gift, a Tina Belcher keyring (Bob's Burgers) and some tasty Lindt Orange Chocolates; I've been craving another box of these since Christmas time (I think it really shows willpower that I've held out until April). Lol!

New subscription came this month in the form of a medium sewing box kit by Sew Hayley Jane . The theme for this month was France. I have to say I'm very impressed by the goodies; it includes: 2.5 metres of dressmaking fabric a floral georgette,  4 fat quarters and a selection of haberdashery items and sewing gifts. I also received new sewing machine needles size 70/100, 4 covered buttons, 1 metre of spaghetti cord by Frou Frou, a matching reel of Gutermann thread and two lollipops. Not quite sure what I'm going to make with the georgette, I may leave the box until my summer holidays (only 10 weeks away, not that I'm counting down or anything). That way I'm not rushing into things and I've got plenty of time to find a pattern. The fat quarters, I may use one for a crochet hook case and save the others for another project.

All in all it's been a good month. I've finally caught up with my Scheepjes Hygge Cal shawls,  after crushing my fingers in my garden door and I've made a respectable start on my little garden too.

Until next time, take care and be good to yourself.

xoxoxo

How I Made Easter Special

Usually, my perfectionist's head kicks in, and I find myself planning special holidays like Christmas and Easter down to a fine line.  This year for Easter there was no rushing about, no organising (well, other than the food shop for Sunday Easter lunch) I just relaxed, I didn't make any plans and I went with the flow.  It felt odd, but when you organise and work with little one's every day in an education setting sometimes it's okay to take a step back and breath...right?

So, where did this take me?  Well, I woke up at the crack of dawn (so much for a long lie, my body clock had other ideas) on Friday morning did a bit of cleaning and tidying and then I declared to my other half that I wanted my portapuzzle case brought down from the loft. Don't ask me why I suddenly wanted this, I was into jigsaws in a big way about four years ago, but this request just came out of the blue. I then went out to potter about in the garden while Paul took to the loft.  This is really the first time I've been out in my garden this year and boy, it's been hit very hard by the lousy weather; high winds and thrashing rain, the garden wall has no rough casting left as most of it is lying on the ground, and quite a few of the plants are gone (died off) or are in need of some serious TLC, sigh!  Four hours later my garden started to look a little more respectable; no rough casting on the ground, plants pruned, fed and watered and wall assessed for repair. I then headed back into the house and found Paul had located my puzzle case from the loft but there was no jigsaw box. On opening the case I found 450 pieces (I counted them) of a 1000 piece puzzle. Yip! You guessed it the other 550 pieces are still in the loft and Paul won't go back up for them.

By Saturday, I had forgotten all about the jigsaw and spent a wonderful day with my mum. We went for lunch and I presented her with an Easter pamper gift and then we had a wander round the shops. We got caught being silly by two male members of staff in our local craft shop (I'm sitting chuckling to myself as I write this post). My mum and I were caught making faces at each other through a large crafting magnifying glass, you know, big eyes and lips (easily amused) We were so embarrassed that we slunk down an aisle sniggering and nudging each other like little school girls, with my mum declaring that I'm a bad influence. Eh! What! You're the adult, I'm the kid, it had nothing to do with me. All joking aside, I think my mum was quite impressed that I didn't buy anything from Hobbycraft , I usually come away with a piece of stationary, a sewing or knitting item. In fact, looking back I didn't spend any money that day as I bought my makeup treats through my Boots points card and Paul's Easter Egg using a voucher (I was very thrifty).

I'm sad to say my thriftiness didn't last, though, as yesterday (Easter Sunday) I decided to have a browse on Amazon (always lethal) whilst watching King of Kings and eating an Easter Egg.  I ended up buying not one but three books.  I've been having withdrawal symptoms after finishing all my Mark Haddon novels and I've been eager to find an author with a similar writing style. I found the Alan Bradley series of books through Good Reads.  I must have been destined to buy the authors books as on picking up the first novel and turning the pages to read, I was faced with this:

 My Christian name printed on the second page.  Now I know this read is going to be awesome.

Happy Easter holidays everyone

xoxoxo

(This post is dedicated to my beautiful orange boy 'Cheivo' who we lost on this day two years ago)

Forever in my heart

little man xx

Me a Gardener.....no!

  

 

Back in April of this year (during the Easter Holidays to be precise)  I decided to start a blouse pattern, and as I explained I normally just cut straight from the pattern, but in this case I thought lets trace it because in the near future I'm hoping to shed some weight, and this pattern was at the top end of the pricing range, so I thought lets just keep it in all its splendour.   Well during my summer holidays I decided to go to the next level and actually cut out the pattern and then the material.  Well, when I say the material, (the ditsy flower stuff) what I actually mean is I took a bit of a wobble at cutting the fabric for the blouse  and decided to make a toile,  but I didn't  have any muslin to hand so I racked and racked my stash until I came upon the idea that I could just use a new cheap lemon bedsheet.  So I did!  Although I did get quite carried away.  You see, this was only meant to be a test garment to help me iron out any mistakes or quirks of the material, but as you can see by the picture I have attached a peter pan collar, bias binding and ruffle sleeves.  I showed a couple of friends and family the final product and they thought it was stunning. they were also pretty gobsmacked when I told them it was made from a bedsheet.  Yip!  My bedsheet blouse is so lovely, that I might just have to wear it with jeans and flats.

During my summer holidays I also had a surf around on Amazon, which is always a bit of a mistake because inevitably I always end up making a purchase that I don't really need.  Although, I was quite good I only purchased one book, and no, it wasn't a craft book ( it only took me 4 hours to re-organise my book shelves). I did really need the Audrey Hepburn book.  Why? Just because, was my answer to Paul.

As well as sewing and reading, my garden received some love and attention.  My Primroses went to seed after flowering (this was intentional) as I wanted to harvest the seeds so that I could replant them to produce new plants. It's the first time I have ever harvested seeds of any kind and I wasn't quite sure what I was doing and if I was doing it right.  Yet I have little brown things collected in a tub so I will keep you informed as and when I plant them.  My summer holidays had some warm days here and there so I decided to purchase some new plants online, and I was rewarded with free plug plants. Although, I am a bit miffed at the condition of the Geranium plug plants (last picture).  I know that I have come a long way in my gardening skills, but I think they are pushing it by sending plants that are half dead with twig stems. Nevertheless, they are repotted, watered and fed so we will have to see what happens.  And the rose plant that I received for my birthday in April, well I thought I had killed it, the buds where dead, it was covered in greenfly and had dead leaves and twigs everywhere.  So I shoved it outside, sprayed it and then cut all the deadness off, and do you know what? It's super healthy, new leaves and buds sprouting everywhere. This is one plant up to now that I have never been able to keep. So I'm feeling quite proud and smirky right now.  I wonder if I can now call myself a gardener?

xoxoxoxo

Spring time is here

I do love this time of year, after months of cold and darkness everything feels new and bright again. Lambs are jumping in the fields and calves are taking their first wobbly steps outdoors.
The weather here in Scotland has been quite warm and a refreshing change from the rain and snow we were experiencing at the end of last week.  It seems with the sun making an appearance that my little garden has started to bloom too. Most of the plants in bloom have either regenerated from last year or have grown from bulbs that I planted in Autumn. Most of this good gardening work has come from watching and taking advice from Monty Don on Gardeners World. A programme that I watched religiously last year and one that I need to catch up on over the Easter holidays. I can see a few visits to my local garden centre coming up soon.

HaPpY eAsTeR!

Happy Easter

Everyone

I hope you all have a lovely day

xxx