100th Follower Giveaway and Other News....

In fact as of just now I notice I have 117 followers!! I saw I had nearly 100 a week or so ago and started to think about a giveaway and in the meantime the figure has gone well past!! 


May I take this opportunity to thank you all for reading - in the beginning I was ambivalent about blogging as it felt like I was talking to myself a little, but I soon gathered a little band of followers and regular commenters and I really started to enjoy myself.


Blogging has made me stop and take a little time to enjoy the everyday things in life, take more photos and just enjoy "being". 


The lovely Cuckoo hits the nail on the head when she says "Isn't it lovely how the worst part of that day is now the best because it has become a funny story. That's one of the things I love about blogging. Lately when something is totally going wrong and frustration levels rise I think to myself "Oh this will make a funny blog story" and then things feel less difficult."


So a giveaway is in order!! I have a copy of "Home Sweet Sewn" by Alice Butcher & Gillian Farquhar up for grabs:

As well as the lovely tea & egg cosy set there are some lovely things inside to make - look at this apron:

Machine embroidery of your house (I really want to do this one):

Cute heirloom doll:

And lots more!! To enter:

• You must be/become a follower
• Leave a comment below
• A mention of the giveaway on your blog gains another entry

Name out of the hat on Friday wins, simples!!

Before I go and fetch H from school I must show you the cake we (W and I) made yesterday. Mr G and I fancied a plain old-fashioned Victoria sandwich with strawberry jam and whipped cream:

Mr G helpfully pointed out that it wasn't going to win any WI prizes!! 

This is what happens when you underwhip the cream because you hate it too stiff and your husband is too impatient to let the cakes cool properly and persuades you to assemble them forthwith - when your back is turned the top layer slides gracefully off and lands on the table (well, it nearly did we caught it in time and re-positioned it so I could take a pic to show you!!)

It did taste yummy though, despite appearances:

Yummy!!

Hope you have a good weekend....

hugs,

S x

Another WiP, a Pretty Posy & Naughty Pusses....

Hello, my lovelies - (I have not been loving my usual font so thought I would give Georgia a whirl), hope your weekends are not to wet so far? The sun has come out in our part of Hampshire but I doubt it'll last long.


I've been to the wool shop today and picked up some yarn for a new blanket - I fancy making a hexagon blanket, not sure what type yet, but I have chosen traditional CK colours (so much so that when I showed Mr G he said "Very Cath Kidston":

I also want to show you this little posy I made:

Most unhelpfully I can't find the tutorial I used to make the fabric flowers, but you just tear strips of fabric about 6cm wide x 45cm long, roll into a sausage lengthways securing with the odd stitch and then roll into a rose, twisting the "sausage" and securing with stitches underneath. 

To make the posy ball I rolled newspaper into a ball and taped it (you could use an oasis/polysterene ball but newspaper is cheaper and what I had to hand!!) and then I pinned each flower into place and then my sister who was over for dinner added a few stitches to hide any gaps. I think it's pretty sweet and have hung it on the lounge curtain pole.

I also must tell you about our horrid cat Jasper:

Butter wouldn't melt would it? He has been very naughty this week. I was in bed with my cup of tea as is my custom after sorting the kids out for school (Mr G does the actual school run and I go back to bed for an hour or so as I am nocturnal & rarely go to sleep before 1.30am). 

So, there I was reclining in my lovely, crisp, white, feather bedlinen chatting to Mr G while he dressed and Jasper jumps onto the bed - we often have morning cuddles. However, this morning I feel a drop of something wet and notice him shaking his leg oddly.

The little monster has only gone and wee'd on the bed - with me still in it!!!!!

He was well and truly reprimanded and the quilt stripped before it could soak into the feather mattress topper beneath (which costs £26 to have cleaned). Fortunately, the summer duvet fits in the washing machine.

Jasper & Bear are house cats and so it was clear from this dirty protest that the litter trays must Not Be To Specification. Mr G also reckons Jasper did it to punish me for not giving him breakfast as soon as I got up as we were out of cat food.

What a horror!! Coupled with that, Bears addiction to dragging my yarn around the house the moment my back is turned and the shreds that are what is left of the stair carpet they'll be making a trip to the dogs home if they're not careful!!

Pop back next week as I am having another giveaway - 100 followers!!

S x

WOYWW - My Desk....

Gosh it's a mess this week!! I've been repainting my dressing table mirror and I hope to paint some shabby chic roses on it when I've practiced (you can see a couple of my daubs behind the sewing machine).


I've also been painting the photo frames that are usually on the stairs - they were a mismatch of dated frames, so I have painted them in ice-cream colours to go back up when we've painted the stairs and landing white (not looking forward to that one!!)


Pop over to the Stamping Ground to see what other people have on their desks (I do love a nosey!!)


S x

First Dahlias - But Where Are My Sweet Peas?

This year for the first time I planted four dahlia bulbs (are they bulbs or tubers?) anyway, I started them off on the conservatory windowsill and when all chance of frost had passed they were planted out. This week we were rewarded with the first of the flowers:

With some buddleia (sp?) - looks a bit like a jesters hat!!

One of the plants has THOUSANDS of tiny black bugs on it (you can see a couple of the bugs in the pic above) as well as ants coming and going and eating the bugs!! What are they? Do we need to do anything with them?

I planted the dahlias particularly to cut as I understand the more flowers you cut, the more will grow - like sweet peas.

Which brings me on to ask WHERE ARE MY SWEET PEAS? I planted 36 plants in  May and I still don't have flowers. They are are 3' tall and look happy enough but no flowers.

Last year (my first year of growing them) we had just three plants which were planted later and we had flowers from the first week of July. Does this mean that this years ones are duff? I do hope not - I love sweet peas.

Hope you've had a lovely weekend....

hugs,

S x

Vintage Gorgeousness!!

A few weeks ago I was perusing HenHouse, one of my favourite blogs when I saw a picture of the most gorgeous kidney shaped dressing table (here, fifth photo down).


Well, the lust began and so I scoured eBay for something similar and yesterday took delivery of this little baby (pics from the eBay listing as camera flat yet again!!):

Isn't it just gorgeous? Apparently it was purchased in Harrods in the late '50's/early '60's so is probably the poshest item of furniture in the whole house even though it cost me just £61.

And look at all this storage:

 

It's now in pride of place in our bedroom. I do intend to recover it, Cath fabric would be lovely but not at £18 per metre (I'll need 8m!!) so I have found this alternative at Fabricland:

At £3.29 per metre it's a bit more reasonable!!

I hope to remove the braid and reupholster the top and drawer fronts (which on inspection look as they have already been redone at some point) and then use the existing skirts as lining for the cotton above (to give them enough poufiness!!)

May I just say before I go, thank you so much for all your kind and supportive words regarding the post about my dream - you ladies really are fabulous and mean a whole lot to me!!

hugs,

S x

Recurring Dreams....

Ever since my Dad died two years ago I have had a recurring dream. The main "story" of the dream is always different but intertwined within there is the fact that "they" got it wrong and my Dad is not dead. He is back with us, but is still ill and is going to die again.


In the dream I wonder how "they" could have got something so wrong, and how it was discovered that Dad is not dead. The overwhelming emotions are relief that he is back and great sadness that I have to watch him die again.


I wonder what this dream means? I think that it might be because I feel that there were unresolved, unsaid things between us - more specifically from him to me.


A month or so before Dad died he was taken to hospital and I took that opportunity to give him a letter in which I told him what a wonderful childhood I had had, shared some memories with him and told him how much I loved him. I know he read this letter as my Stepmum told me, but he never mentioned it. Apart from saying to my sister and I "You are good girls" he never opened his heart to us before he went.


I hoped maybe he would leave us a letter but he didn't and I think this is the reason that I have this upsetting dream.


Apologies for being so solemn, I did think twice about sharing this but I want this blog to be *me* - completely not the edited version.


I do have something lighter to share with you though - another homemade bag:

OMG, it was a PIG to make!! I broke 12 needles as some of the layers were so thick and although my machine is pretty sturdy it did not want to play!!

I really like it now though, I just love the Cath Kidston print (and another CK tea towel label to make it look authentic!!)

S x

Another Busy Weekend - Painting & Papering....

Hello, my lovelies!! I hope you have all had a nice weekend?

We've had another weekend of DIY - well, I have Mr G was out all day yesterday RC car racing so he only had a few hours of it.

We went to a car boot on Saturday and I got a lovely large ceramic lamp base (which I have forgotton to photograph for you) for a £1 and Mr G got a couple of bits so he is rapidly becoming a fan of the old car boot sales.

Then in the afternoon while Mr G was out playing with his motorbike I made a start on painting the lounge white - it was a pale biscuit colour and I ummed and ahhed over various creams until I decided that plain old white was the way forward due to so many of the gorgeous shabby chic interiors having a white base and the colour added with soft furnishings and a splash of wallpaper.

Now, please remind me if I ever consider buying cheap paint again that IT'S NOT WORTH THE SAVING - I foolishly fell for the Wickes ad that says that professional decorators reckon their paint is super. It is not. It is thin and patchy and going from pale biscuit to white took several coats. Had I stuck to my gut feeling and bought Dulux or Crown it would have been a one coat job.

Before:

After:

Do you think it looks better? I'm much happier with it.

The cupboard we made over is fitting right in - I forgot to tell you that when we got the cupboard home I realised what I was that it reminded me of - The Marvellous Mechanical Mouseorgan off Bagpuss!!:

See?!! It just needs a set of pipes on the top!!

I have been having trouble sleeping lately and that is when I come up with all kinds of ideas, some of which are still good ideas in the morning, the majority of which are not but it was Saturday evening I thought of doing the old patchwork wallpaper routine in the porch which until now has been dull, dull, dull:

Now I love, love, love it!! You may remember I have done a similar effect over the bath  - this time I chose different papers. The beauty of this method of papering is it is free - I just waltz into B&Q bold as brass and take 3' "samples" of all the papers I like!! Does that make me a bit naughty?

S x

Edited to add: The wallpaper I took was from the rolls that are already open to enable you to take a sample, I wasn't just opening random rolls and helping myself!!