The Owl & the Pussycat

Wintery Greetings dear friends & readers,

I am in the midst of a major Cottage revamp

The photos below show the current shambles "displays" in my Cottage

. . . rather creative & arty don't you think ???

So consequently ... I am closed for the remainder of the month of June

Winter is always a good time for me to tackle this task ... everything gets a good clean & a "spit-n-polish" & every single piece of furniture gets shifted (at least once)

Last week I managed to stitch up some Owl doorstops 

 I had none left in stock so out came my blanket stash once more.

Sometimes customers prefer the darker colours to the pastel ones ... they do spend their life on the floor after all

After an "unfortunate incident" with the wheat I used to weight them with, I now pop a bag of fine gravel in their "bottoms" - this makes them nice & heavy & solid.

After making the pussycat rattle for my new grandson back here I decided to make some for the Cottage

I stitched a small wadding bag & popped in their tummies with a couple of small bells inside ... thinking perhaps customers won't actually realise they are rattles, I attached a small label to them

note to self ... add a label to these ones Julie!!!

I simply had to add this footnote to my post .... my dear blogging friend Willie sent me this video after reading my post last night ... I smiled all the way through it ... I hope you enjoy it too

(Have just realised it is missing the story .... Fum the cat & Gebra the Owl met when they were both one month old & formed a unique friendship.  They spend lots of their days playing together)
Thanks so much dear Willie - it brightened an otherwise rainy day  :-)

I have been drying lots of homegrown oddments lately ...

This bowl of rosehips took ages to dry - they start off fat, red & juicy but eventually shrivel & dry - much like the chillis below picked from my vege garden ...

It was exciting to pick the first crop of mandarins off my young tree just this week

The bundles below are Japanese Millet which The Mr grows as a feed crop for the cows at the farm. 

 I wait until it sets seed (late summer) & then pick the seed heads & dry in bunches on my deck

These were all cut up yesterday - ready for potpourri making when spring comes

Thank You ALL so much for your very kind comments last post on the birth of my new grandson 

 Dear little Alec currently has jaundice, so he gets to spend his days lying in the sunshine 

Willie please note  ....  leg in the air just for you  :-)

Little Pippi & fat Black do not currently have jaundice .... yet they still get to spend their days lying in the sunshine 

(with a truck taking down a power pole out front, we have had no internet or phone for two days - hence the computer chair soon got taken over)

Thank you all for stopping by to visit me here today 
Next post I hope to be able to show you some photos of some "much more tasteful" displays in my Cottage  :-)
I hope the rest of the week treats you kindly folks,
with much love & friendship,
Julie, Blackie & Pippi x0x0x