change of plans...

Mmmm so... the idea was to have my little Etsy shop up and running from tomorrow...but I'm still waiting for labels to go inside my pouches and some photo prints! No matter, instead of opening tomorrow I'll now open the following Monday on June the 8th! Some things are worth waiting for (lol!).



The good news, is that there's still time to leave a comment on this post to be entered into a giveaway for some handmade goodies, as instead of drawing a name tomorrow I'll do it the next Monday.

Hope you're all enjoying the sun, wherever you are! (I can't believe it's still hot here - hooray!!)

secret gardens and boats shaped like swans...

We had a lovely few days away visiting relatives down South. The sun shone, which made a nice change! My sister in law has a gorgeous garden which is really large but my favourite part reminds me of a secret garden, as you have to go through a lovely iron gate with an old fashioned bell at the side to get in.


The garden itself is so lovely, (my photo doesn't do it justice) with trees and flowers, all surrounded by an old brick wall. (My photo only shows the path down the middle of the garden but there is a path each side also.) At the very bottom it opens up into an arboretum. It's such a lovely place to wander around especially in the sun, almost like being in a story book, miles away from the real world!



Yesterday I was back home again and so went to see my sister and my lovely nieces who are 13rs and nearly 15years. Our day involved a walk in the park, a trip on a boating lake, (in a boat that was shaped like a swan!) followed by an ice cream. Then back home to theirs to play on this . Ok I confess I must be the only person in the world who hadn't played on this until yesterday - but seriously how much fun?!! Obviously helped by the fact that I managed to increase my fitness age by twenty years in the space of an hour, so I felt like i'd achieved something,(not to mention the indignity of starting with a fitness level 8 years older than I am!!) and I managed to top the leader board in a couple of things!!


I had such a lovely day full of laughter and fun and the best bit, is that I came away with these books, (thanks to my lovely niece, who has promised to give me the 4th one also!). I hear they are a little bit addictive...

this week...

There's been lots going on. Sparky went back to the vet and all is well. The vet thinks the problem with his knee joint must have come from trauma, rather than an infection. It's possible that when he was romping through the heather he ran into a rock and as he is so hardy he probably wouldn't have yelped much. So good news. He still has to go easy for the next couple of weeks when walking but he's a happy dog!



The other thing that happened this week, is that we had a viewer come to look at our house on Thursday evening, so cue lots of tidying up! It's not that we're super untidy just that we have lots of things - books, notebooks, pens, sewing stuff etc just all the things I'm using at any one time which all needed putting away!



We still haven't heard the outcome yet(and as it's a bank holiday weekend we'll probably not hear anything until next week)but on the plus side, everything is nice and tidy!

It's also rained a lot this week and one day we even had hailstones but the good side is that all the rain is good for the garden! I got some lovely lilacs from a place not far from where I live which at one time would have been a little house with a tiny garden but is now just a wild patch with no sign anyone even had a dwelling there. Funny how the reminders of the past are there in the planting...


Hope you're all having a lovely weekend, we're off to see relatives for a couple of days tomorrow. No internet access sadly but I'm taking my embroidery and my camera and apparently it's 25 celcius down there, (only 15 C here!)so I'm looking forward to some sun!!

a greeny, rainy weekend...

Hello there! This weekend was a greeny, rainy type of weekend. I really love the greeness that's around at this time of year, so new and raw in it's loveliness. No matter how many times it happens, I still can't get over the excitement when the seedlings start to shoot. ( I mean really, all this from a seed - how fantastic!). So, even though it was raining part of the time, there was planting and sowing and weeding and clearing in our little garden, (and sadly, no the peach was not from the garden but was lovely all the same!).



Somewhere along the line, I also managed to fit in... making more of this granola, seeing friends, attending a birthday party, making a vegetable curry, finishing this wonderful book, cutting material for my Etsy goodies,(shop opening 1st June!) and just generally catching up with all the things that you end up doing on a weekend...

so this is what I've been making and an announcement...

So back from being away with work and I promised I'd show you what I'd been up to on the crafty front... I'm pleased to say that everyone I sent a pay it forward gift to, has now received it - yay! and so I can show you what I sent out.


the little butterflies are from my packaging

I've been making little pouches to use for money, ipod, lipstick or whatever, (Martina says her camera fits in perfectly the one I sent her).



I then did freehand embroidery on each of them, (remember these) and all I can say is how much fun I had! Each person got a little pouch and a small photo print from me.



So... because I've enjoying making these so much, (and also because I have become obsessed with pouch making,and embroidery in particular and you can only use so many pouches or give them as gifts!) I have decide that as of the 1st June there will be an Etsy shop!


I am super excited, as it means I can carry on playing - hooray! I'm thinking of making two sizes, the small ones and a bigger size to use as a make up bag. If anyone has any thoughts on this, regarding useful sizes or just a comment in general, leave a comment in this post and I'll pick one at random by the 1st June and do a giveaway of some handmade lovliness! (oh and did I say I'm also thinking of doing photo prints as well!).

packing...

Just a quick hello tonight as I'm busy packing to go away on a conference with work tomorrow. Unfortunately it's held on the other side of the country, so I have to fly as it only takes an hour, instead of about 7 hours. My flight leaves at 7.30am, which means I have to be at the airport at 6.30am, which means I have to leave the house at 5.40am at the very latest, which means I have to get up at...no I'm gonna stop there as it's too depressing especially as my conference doesn't start until 12.30pm, yep and I'm gonna be there at about 9am because there isn't a later flight, grrrrrrr!



The other bad thing is that I'm only away for a night so am just taking cabin luggage, so there's no space for my beloved camera to fit - double ggggrrrrr!



Check out my crazy wash bag though, I was searching like mad for a new one, (as my old one is just about dead and falling apart)and couldn't find anything that was just a plain washbag shape big enough to fit in everything. Later after coming up with zilch I went to Borders Books where they have a Paperchase and I came across this crazy bag! I guess I won't manage to leave it behind in some hotel room! Quite why they were selling wash bags is anyone's business but the size is right!

Hope you've all had a nice Monday, I'm off to bed soon lol - see you all when I get back!

so we didn't go away...

We were meant to be going to stay with relatives this weekend but Sparky (our dog) has had a sore knee joint and ended up having to go for an x-ray on Friday.



By the time we got him back from the vet it was late afternoon and so wasn't worth doing a 4 and a half hour drive to get there, especially as Sparky is on short rations, as far as walks are concerned. Try telling that to a Collie - especially as he isn't bothered in the least by his leg! He also has to take medication for the next 10 days to try and settle things, as the vet doesn't know the cause of the problem. It happened after he had been on a 4 hour walk in the woods, so hopefully it's down to injury or an infection in the joint, though the vet said there is a slim possibility it could be some kind of tumour, although this is the least likely cause.

So, no long walks this weekend which was a shame as there were blue skies amongst the clouds.



Instead it was a catching up kind of weekend. Making bread, doing washing, (getting the benefit of those blue skies!) and getting nice mail. Some fat quarters arrived which I've been waiting for from Etsy and also some skincare from Korres. The smell of their stuff is gorgeous and also good for your skin as they use a lot of organic and natural ingredients. I try mostly to buy skincare that is natural and I also needed a new cleanser so thought I would try a brand called 'Yes To Carrots' which has organic carrot juice and pumpkin, sweet potato and Dead Sea Minerals in it. M was rather confused as he thought it was a brand especially for redheads and that's why I had bought it!



I hope you've all had a lovely weekend whatever you've been up to...

nerdy thursday...

Ok, call me a nerd but I have big style love for my new Ram. Who knew that 2 little chips could be so life changing. In fact I feel as if I should be on one of those commercials...ladies want to change your life? Then look no further...



Basically my laptop which I've had for about a year and a half had got sooooooooo slow. Now I confess this could be something to do with a. having Vista and b. the fact that I have about a zillion photos on there and don't back them up onto my external drive often enough but hey... So I finally upgraded my Ram from a 1GB to 4GB. It arrived today and I installed it and whoa! my laptop is like a new machine; everything works so quickly, my photos pop up onto the screen super fast and ladies I confess I have laptop love again. I want to trawl through the photos I've taken this year, (there are about 8 thousand of them lol!) and play again...

Apart from this I'm just enjoying May. M came back from dogwalking the other night and brought me a little posy of wildflowers from the bottom of our lane. So pretty and I love forget-me-nots, especially the way they glow in the evening.





I'm off to stay with some relatives tomorrow for the weekend, so I'm taking my camera and my (super fast lol!) laptop and going to have play. I also had a nice email from Rachel today to say she received her 'pay it forward' gift so I'll update the photos of what I've been up to on the crafty front next week sometime. Have a lovely weekend everyone whatever you're up to...

may day...

Seriously, I really don't know how this happened, one minute it was Christmas and the next we're in May! Yikes!



It was a bank holiday this weekend which was lovely, (no work yesterday) but typically, although the sun put in a small appearance it was still cold. Still, we visited a garden centre, cleaned our car, (only for it to promptly rain), ate some chard from the garden and some spinach. Ate strawberries and cream and pretended it was summer, watched this film, made some scones, read some books and I did a little making...and here we are and it's already the 5th...

p.s. I got a lovely email from Martina today to say her 'pay it forward' gift had arrived. I'll reveal what I sent later in the week, when I know everyone has received their gifts...

a bit of friday happiness...

Yay! It's Friday again and here in the UK it's the beginning of a bank holiday weekend which means no work Monday. Typically though it's raining here which is usual for a bank holiday but still, I'm sending out positive vibes so the sun might at least make an appearance, even if it doesn't stay long...

I've also managed to 'finally' get to the post office today and so all you lovely ladies who joined in with me for my 'pay it forward' give away - your gifts are in the post! Hopefully good mail might bring a little sunshine your way soon...