Spare Bedrooms & Baby Showers

Greetings dear friends & readers & Good Friday Afternoon to you all !!

In early December, while cleaning the spare bedroom ready for Mums arrival, I decided to wash the blind that hung at the small top window

In hindsight, I should've left well alone .... as the blind fabric completely disintegrated in the wash, being so thin & rotten.

This called for a new blind !!!

I had long admired this gorgeous fabric at MyStyle called Bird Trail Grey.

As they had a reduction on their fabrics prior to Christmas I ordered the new blind to be made & it arrived just in time for Mums visit.

I was most delighted with my new blind but somehow Mum didn't seem to share my joy & enthusiasm & informed me "its just a blind Julie"

Recently MyStyle discounted their fabrics again, so I purchased another 1.5 metres of the same bird trail grey.

We have this old bookcase-kind-of-thingy in the spare bedroom ... truth be told, this was rescued (by yours truly) from one of the cowsheds we used to milk in !!!!

Upon rescuing it, I only ever scrubbed & oiled it, & it has lived in many rooms of our houses over the past 20 odd years - I find it perfect for storing craft magazines & my candle making supplies.

It is rather an ugly thing so I thought a curtain might help to pretty it up a bit .  .  .  .

.  .  .  . which I think I did achieve ??

As I had a length of leftover fabric, I decided to make a runner for the other dressing table in this room

Just the perfect length too.

I had finished this runner about a week ago & was doing my "walking past it for a day or two thing that I do"

I felt it needed an embellishment on the ends ... so off I trot to my local Patchwork shop, who luckily had the perfect pink bobble trim.

Upon decluttering the drawers in this dresser, I came across a lovely teatowel, a birthday gift from last year I seem to recall.

This teatowel was from Mystyle & was the exact same bird fabric ... so I fashioned my teatowel into a small plump cushion for the bed ...

And Yes - I added some pink bobble trim to the edges .  .  .
.  .  .  after all, it was far too pretty to dry dishes with !!!

I am pleased to report that Blackie has moved on from sleeping on my sewing room cutting board

Unfortunately I am NOT so pleased to report he has taken up residence on the ironing board !!!

Here he is two days ago, keeping my new in-progress tablerunner warm for me !!!

One of the things I love about blogging is that I look back on old posts & see I do the same sort of things throughout the different seasons .......

At the moment it is rose petal gathering & drying time again

I have large cane trays strewn with rose petals drying in my sleepout

I really enjoy making up batches of my cottage garden potpourri - some to send to friends & some to sell.
I purchased a new oil "rose geranium" & the scent is just gorgeous .... I filled a glass dish with some to fragrant my spare room & the smell wafts all through the house

My daughter in law's Mum & I are putting on a surprise Baby Shower for her this weekend
Nicole & Kaynes baby (son) is due late March.
Nicole's Mum (also called Julie) is organising the games for the baby shower so I offered to do up some prizes.
I packaged up soaps, candles, notebooks & facewashers from the Cottage & made up some matching labels

I also stitched up some handmade baby gifts to give to Nicole.
These little rattles are a pattern from Amy Sinibaldi's book Sweetly Stitched Handmades  
 ( one for Nicole, one for the Cottage )

Nicole mentioned she didn't have any winter cot sheets so I bought some soft flannelette & stitched some up .  .  .

.  .  . along with some flannel baby shoes made from the remnants of my buzzy bee fabric

My elderly friend Margaret lives in a retirement Village, & likes to buy items from me that she can keep in her cupboard in case she needs a gift in a hurry

These 10 lavender coathangers were an order for Margaret that I completed yesterday.
It was Margaret that ordered the 12 kitchen handtowels from me last Christmas in this post here

Last Tuesday was Valentines Day so I decided to make Apple Crumble - the Mr's favourite.
Unfortunately the stewed apples I took out of the freezer, turned out to be feijoa's when thawed  !!!

So I made feijoa & coconut cake instead & sprinkled icing sugar over a heart paper doiley 
The Mr informed me (as I knew he would !!!) that he would far rather have apple crumble than feijoa cake anyday !!!

As I rounded the corner at the end of my garden last weekend the lillies coming into bloom caught my eye

We have been lucky enough to have had some good rain this summer & they have lapped up the extra moisture

They smell gorgeous but I just cannot bare to cut them & bring them inside
It is raining again here today dear friends - I had a Resthome ring to cancel their visit & I was most relieved

So it has been a day for sitting at the table & stitching some projects while Miss Pippi tries her best to look cute & innocent.
(but we are not fooled by her & her antics!!!)
Wishing you a wonderful weekend dearest readers,
with much love & friendship to you all,
Julie & the furry ones x0x0x0