More cushions

 I bought the above cushion in the M&S online sale (they also did a matching throw - sadly, both are now out of stock). I loved it so much that I ordered it without checking the size. It was intended for the garden furniture but it is 50cm square and kind of swamps the chairs. I was going to return it as I couldn't find anywhere else in the house where it would go, but in the end I just couldn't as I love it so much. So I plonked it on top of the pile of floor cushions in the corner of the lounge and there it has stayed (still with the price tag on - must snip that off). I am quite happy with it there as it really goes well with the recycled newspaper woven baskets which hole the Wii/DS games. I am sure the kids will find it useful for lolloping on the floor whilst playing.

I also got this cushion from ebay. It is vintage bark cloth (I have a serious soft spot for bark cloth) and it's beautifully made. This one is definitely going on the garden furniture. Looking forward to some sunny weather, glass of white wine and some crochet time out on the decking. Just need the temperature to raise by about 10 degrees - not too much to ask?!

First gardening of the year

Yep, those are my wellies, plain green and muddy - I don't go in for these brightly coloured flowery ones! I made the most of the glorious weather last Tuesday and started digging up the garden. This little area is where the tortoise enclosure is going. Tortoises aren't keen on grass as it is boring - they like mud to dig in and things to walk around like rocks and plants. I have some rocks earmarked for this area but they are too heavy for me to carry, but I have planted some dandelions for the tortoises to eat. Not quite sure how long these plants will last once the tortoises move in. I will also be planting other stuff that they won't be interested in eating. They will need a basking rock aswell so that they can sunbathe. I wonder how much sunshine we will actually get this year. You couldn't really have said we had a summer last year.

 It did seem rather strange, lovingly planting weeds rather than pulling them out. Look how neatly I have lined them up! This area will need some wooden sides which will be set into the ground (to stop the tortoises tunneling out), a little glass topped house where they will sleep at night and some mesh over the entire area to stop crows and magpies from stealing my little ones. They are still quite tiny so a crow could easily lift one off the ground.

 I found this bird skull whilst digging. Never seen one before - I wonder if it was a bird that just died of old age or whether it was left by a cat.

I also had some lunch out in the sunshine and did a bit of crochet. It was a gorgeous day all round, although I did ache for a couple of days after because of all the digging. I really must do more exercise.

My eldest's birthday went well. She had a lovely time. It is her sleepover party this weekend so lots to do in preparation over the next few days. She is so excited I think she may pop! x

Using up leftovers

Well the weather has been strange this week - warm (10 degrees) and sunny one moment and windy, cold and rainy the next. The school run this morning was grey and rainy but an hour later it is glorious sunshine. Just as well as I need to hoover out the car - the glamour of my life! Anyway, I thought I would pop by to show you the results from using up the rest of the Stylecraft yarn. Actually, I thought I would pop by on Wednesday, but there were slight problems with uploading photos (I got quite annoyed after failing to upload them after four attempts so thought I would leave it for another day.)

Above is a photo of me sewing on some vintage buttons to the cushion I made - look, it's a granny stripe cushion to match youngest daughter's granny stripe blanket - it looks beautiful on the end of her bed.

But on the reverse, it is a large granny square cushion to match her granny square blanket. Two cushions for the price of one! My new chair is coming in handy for staging lots of photos. I am sure I will be sad to see it go into the garden. Still trying to sort out seat cushions for it - I had an idea of recycling an old single duvet so I cut out two cushion shapes and zigzagged round the edges and sat on them to see how comfy they were but unfortunately the polyester filling is very slippery to sit on - who would have thought it? - so I bought a cushion pad from John Lewis but this also seems to have the same problem. I don't want to get a feather cushion pad as I am worried about it getting wet, even though I am planning to waterproof the cushion covers. What do you think? I always prefer feather cushions as I find them more comfortable.  

I have another mini crochet project on the go at the moment. I am hoping to finish it this weekend. My daughter goes to a music lesson on Friday after school with her friends and it is my turn to take them, which means I will have just over an hour to sit and crochet whilst listening to 7-10 year olds playing their violins. Luckily for my ears, they are surprisingly good, considering most of them have only played since September last year. Once that little project is finished, I will be planning my next blanket. I have already bought the yarn but I just need to finalise the design.

This weekend will see us going to a 40th birthday party. It is also kind of a leaving party too as the birthday girl and her husband and son are moving to Australia in a couple of months. It is also my eldest daughter's birthday this weekend so I will be making a cake on Saturday and we will be in full celebration mode on Sunday. She is so excited about being 10. We are all going to be shattered by Sunday night! Have a great weekend, whatever you are doing. x

Unexpected trip = unexpected finds

 I got an unexpected call this morning from my friend Alison, asking if I fancied a trip into a local village which is mainly made up of gift/interior design shops filled to the brim with beautiful things. Of course I said yes (who wouldn't?) and off we tootled, looking forward to browsing the shops, mooching around the one and only newly opened charity shop (which was great - very good quality stuff, but priced accordingly) and having a cup of tea and scone at the cafe. We looked at some gorgeous things (mostly out of my price range - boo) and had a great time, deciding to pop into one last shop before heading back to the car. It was full of painted and distressed furniture and so so soft cashmere throws. It turns out that they run furniture painting courses and they use Annie Sloan paint, which I have been meaning to buy online since I read about it on a blog before Xmas. We have an ugly 1980s kitchen which needs ripping out, but whilst we are saving the money for a new kitchen, I am going to paint the cupboard doors to freshen it up. This paint is special as you don't need to prep the surface, apart from making sure it is clean. Sounds like my kind of paint. I will let you know how I get on. If it doesn't go well, it's likely I will never mention it again.

Once I got back I decided that I needed to go to Habitat to get some pots for my ever growing collection of herbs - I got the Jamie Oliver 30 minute meals book and have been buying herbs in pots to make some of the meals. Unfortunately I am not very good at keeping these herbs alive, they are looking a bit sad, even if they are in nice new pots. Must remember to water them more regularly.  Luckily the pots were half price so happy days.

Anyway, whilst I was in Habitat I had a quick look around as they have their new range in and found the perfect cushion for one of the garden chairs. It is called Exmouth and is very reminiscent of the old Railway posters that have come back into fashion. How much do you want to be sat in the sunshine on that beach right now? This cushion was a bargain and will just fit in nicely with the ideas I have for the chairs/sofa. I only wish they did it in another design so I could have two. I am so tempted to buy some wool and crochet a stripey throw in these colours to wrap round us on chilly summer evenings. I feel another project coming on...

Hope you have been finding some unexpected bargains too. x

Speedy blanket

 Hello, wow I have been away for a while. The weather has been dire so I haven't really had a chance to take any photos. Also I have been rather busy crocheting this blanket. It only took just over 2 weeks to complete - that must be a record - well it is for me anyway. After finishing the granny stripe blanket I realised I had quite a lot of yarn left over. I optimistically thought that I might be able to make another two blankets from the leftovers so I decided to just start on a quick large granny square blanket, changing the colour every two rounds (cos I'm lazy and hate changing colours too often) and started joining the squares once I had 12.

 I joined them using the turquoise wool, which I needed to buy extra for this purpose. Here is me sewing in the ends - this took the good part of one afternoon (whilst drinking tea and chatting to the lovely Alison from Gingercat) and one evening. I was quite honoured that the infamous ginger cat actually decided to sit on the blanket on my lap while I continued to sew in ends! She's such a cutie.

 And here is the finished blanket in full use. It is getting lots of snuggly cuddly times whilst my youngest watches her new favourite film - How to train your dragon. I am not entirely sure this blanket will last very long - it has been slept with, dragged around, tugged, rubbed, screwed up, jumped on. At least it's getting some use anyway! I have a small amount of Stylecraft wool left over and am just using it up - will let you know what it is once it is finished.

Another little thing I have not mentioned on here is some new furniture for the garden. I have been searching ebay for some time, looking for the perfect comfy seating to go on the decking. I was really hoping for a sofa and armchair set so we could really use the decking as another room. Well I was very lucky to find just what I needed - a cane sofa and two matching chairs for less than £10. My wonderfully kind husband offered to drive the just over 2 hour round trip to collect them. Luckily they fit in the boot of the car quite nicely so he didn't need to drive back in the rain with the sofa on the roof! Here is a photo of one of the chairs - the other chair and sofa are in the garage until I can treat them with tung oil or something else that will waterproof them - any ideas/suggestions?

I already have a plan for cushions - will take photos and post once I have made them. Hope you all have a fantastic weekend. Hopefully I will be posting a bit more regularly from now on. And as if by magic, as soon as I buy garden furniture we get hit by another cold spell - temperature is going to be just above freezing for the next few days - super! xxx

Storage solution

 As I type this, the sun is shining - long may it last, but I think there are some more clouds heading our way. I will make the most of the sunshine while it's here. Anyway, hope you all had a lovely weekend and thwe weather is as sunny where you are. Ours was full of the usual jobs - eldest to guitar lesson, youngest to swimming lesson, homework, cups of tea, Sunday roast (which stank the house out - it was roast pork which is just too fatty and smelly. I won't be doing that again in a hurry). My husband has been working abroad a lot recently so he has been very aware of jobs needing doing around the house when he is back home at weekends. He asked about my five foot high pile of sewing stuff, which was dumped in the corner of our bedroom and very difficult to get to/find anything. Before we knew it, we were in the garage shifting the above cupboard into the house. This cupboard (good old Ikea) used to live in the conservatory in our old house and was the home for toys and arts and crafts stuff. When we moved, we didn't know what to do with this cupboard as we don't have a family room/conservatory. It sat unloved in the garage for just over a year as I was waiting to decorate the hall before putting it in there.Unfortunately, we decided that it just wouldn't fit in the hall and we would have to squeeze it into our bedroom if I were to store any on my sewing stuff in there.

 And here is the cupboard squeezed into the corner of our room, with all my sewing bits and bobs squeezed inside. I have used every last inch of this piece of furniture and I am amazed at how much it has managed to hold. The cupboard doesn't match our bedroom furniture but it is fine for the time being, in fact, a lot better than a five foot high pile! Just look at the beautiful 1970s purple shagpile. It really is a thing to behold! It is absolutely threadbare and I can't wait to get rid of it.

Just to remind us all that not everything is perfect in blogland, here is a photo of my fabric stash, which currently resides in one half of the airing cupboard. I very luckily have a double width airing cupboard so there is more than enough room in there to jam in lots of fabric. As you can see, it has been jammed in rather carelessly and it could do with a sort out. One day.

 Hello, I haven't posted for a while - I was busy making things and here are the results. As you know, I got a dressmakers dummy for Xmas and I have been trying it out with a top which I started making at the end of last summer. I used a Prima pattern (nothing like a free pattern donated from my Mother in law's magazine) which was simple and quick to complete. Although as you know, I tend to have an issue with finishing things so the cut out fabric pieces sat in a carrier bag all through autumn and over Xmas. I thought this would be a good project to start with on the dummy. The fabric was from my Mum's fabric stash - she let me have a rummage a while ago - and it was so lovely to work with. It is quite a light jersey, very stretchy and doesn't fray once cut. A dream fabric to use when sewing in armholes.

 I really enjoyed making this and I am looking forward to wearing it when the weather starts to improve. Roll on spring.

 Here's a close up of the pleats at the front.

 I also made another bag as you can never have too many bags. This one is to hold a crochet project on the go and my other bag is being used for shopping trips. You can just see the tablecloth in the background - another Ikea fabric which was cut into a square and edges neatened. I also made a dust cover for the dressmakers dummy (no photo - not very exciting to look at) so the sewing machine has definitely seen some action recently.

 I used some vintage fabric to line this bag too. Next time I make one, I think I am going to add an inner pocket for keys/mobile phone.

 This is another ongoing project that has sat neglected for possibly 3 years (I know, I told you I had issues with finishing things). My Mum bought this footstool from a charity shop for me over ten years ago when I was pregnant with my eldest. It was originally bottle green velour and it stayed that way until I finally got round to recovering it three years ago. I bought some wadding to cover the lid and stapled the new fabric on but I wasn't happy with the finish on the lid so I put it to one side. And it was left to one side until we moved and we found a new one side to leave it on! I was on a mission to try to complete projects yesterday as I couldn't justify starting anything else without finishing a few first. So after spending half an hour setting in sleeves and hemming the top, I dragged the footstool out and set to action. What can I say? It's grey. I love grey, I can't help it. I think this footstool will house my crochet bits and pieces - books, hooks, spare balls of wool.

One small confession - it's not completely finished. The lid is still not attached to the base. But it will be this weekend, I promise...

So that's the end of my makes for now. I currently have another small project on the go and I am hoping to make another item of clothing soon although I haven't decided what yet. A trip to a fabric shop in London has been planned with my Mum. I don't know who is looking forward to it more. I had a big sort through of my sewing stuff yesterday and discovered I don't have any other forgotten projects (other than the coat, ahem) however I do have a few little crochet things that need finishing off.

So that's what I have been up to lately. I have also been getting very fed up with the weather. I have absolutely had enough of the cold now, even though we will probably get another two months of it. Winter seems to have lasted an eternity this year. If it were just a little bit warmer (and dry) I could get out in the garden and do some serious destruction  weeding. Hope you all have a great week. x