headless chooks, creativity, seeds & kittens !!!

Good afternoon dear friends & readers

The phone conversation last week, went something like this . . .

 "yes of course Joss, you would be most welcome to bring your garden group ... when would you like to come??" 

. . .  inside my head a little voice was saying over & over repeatedly . . . 

"please say next spring, please say next spring!!!"

Joss's reply came back ... "Oh Monday week would suit us"

Good Grief!!!

a quick glance outside ... Oh yes, the garden really does look perfectly disgusting!!!

and so the rest of the week I ran around like a headless chook trying to get myself organised for the group . . .

and - of course - the gardening ladies were just lovely, plus because it was such an icy cold day & I had the heater on full, they spent most of their time inside the Cottage & barely looked at the rather messy garden :-)

(note to self .... never have garden groups in future after April)

Prior to their arrival I knew I was completely out of golly teatowels so one rainy afternoon I appliqued another five -

plus I noticed the doiley pincushions were down to one lonely soul left, so I ran some more of these up using some of my doiley stash

Also on the creative front ... I remembered that Nola had ordered a teacup teddy quite some time ago
"a plain bear but with touches of red" ... were her instructions 
(I seemed to recall she had a red china cup to sit it in)

This little treasure was fashioned from some mohair scraps . . . 

. . .  and I got to "practise" with my own red dotty cup  :-) 

One of my purchases while down at Carolyn's was this gorgeous wool felt pincushion pattern - a design from Anni Downs of  Hatched and Patched

I already had the wool felt colours so once I had cut it all out,  it was just so enjoyable to sit & hand stitch a little each night beside the fire

After shelling a large batch of walnuts I tried crushing the shells in my ( very ancient) blender, 
as the pattern required crushed walnut shells for stuffing

I was SO pleased with my "Alice Angel Pincushion" & now I think I would like to make another one, fill it with dried lavender, add a little string from the top & hang it on a doorknob  . . . 

Last week (while running around like a headless chook) I received a lovely package in the mail
Catherine & I originally met through our blogs - although we have met up once - due to geographical reasons (living on opposite sides of the island), we are more blogging friends & exchange emails & comments via our blogs 
Catherine had promised me some seeds last year & she sent me the most wonderful parcel including the seeds 
& along with a book to read that she had blogged about here

 

Catherine wrote in her message that "perhaps Friendship Bread might need to become a Pay It Forward book" ... & so I thought about the idea of reading it & then sending it on along with some seeds from my garden ... to someone else who might like to do the same . . . ??? what do you think ???

If you would like to receive the book when I have read it (+ seeds) then do let me know & I will send it on 
Perhaps we should just keep this within New Zealand due to all the strict rules & regulations for posting seeds overseas ???

Thanks SO much to Catherine for her generosity - the parcel simply made my whole week!!!

... and the kittens ...

The kittens are settling in well even though their mother takes them away frequently

this greeted me the other day when I had left the door slightly ajar - even Bob had ventured inside

And even though The Mr tells me every single day
(at least twice!!!)
we are NOT keeping those kittens ... 
I did notice that it was indeed him who had named two of them
this one he has named "little sickie" (yes I know!!!)

"Little sickie" likes the heater in the mornings & the fire in the evenings thanks very much ...  
"Oh & if you could keep putting the wood on without disturbing me too much, that would be great too!!)

this one is called "little socksie" due to his white sock feet.
Little Socksie is veery cute & also veery naughty - I just wish he would stop practising his star jumps into my potted flowers each evening!!! (Oh & now I see he is teaching the others how to as well!!!)

as you can see, they are all growing like little mushrooms . . .

Hurry up with the food in there can you . . .

Okay. . . no more kitten photos I promise :-)

It feels like we are in for a doozy of a frost tonight so best go fill the wood basket - thanks so very much for stopping by today - your visits are always appreciated
with much love & friendship to you all
Julie x0x0x