Away (Again) ............... & Back Again

Greetings lovely friends & readers

I see I have some new followers to my blog ...... A Very Warm Welcome to you All !!

 I have had to do another trip down to my Mum's this past week so I have missed catching up on your posts. But before I went away to Mum's Alec asked if he could come & stay again before the school year resumes.

I took both my grandsons, Alec & Sid to The Space Centre which is just up the road from me & although I have driven past it a thousand times, I'd never been inside.  The boys loved it - especially Alec who is a bit older & very in to astronautical things.

Alec wanted to craft again so out came all the sparkly bits & bobs from my craft drawers.  He wanted to make 

A Christmas Tree this time so I cut a shape out from felt & he was happy just to work out his placement & glue things on ... no sewing required 😉

(I also have lots of apple cucumbers which I forgot to include in the photograph)

I have an abundance of courgettes, cucumbers & green peppers in my veggie garden at present so I picked alot to take to Mums & give to other friends also. 

As I planned to call on my dear friend Carolyn en-route, I baked a Chocolate Fudge slice & a batch of Gingernut Bites - gave half to her & took the other half to Mum's.

Remember the old aluminium pots I revamped in my last Post ... well here is the smaller one which I wanted to gift to my friend Carolyn.  She loves Yellow so I painted it the same Pumice Chalk Paint as the larger one & then added a Sunflower 🌻 Iron Orchid Transfer to it.

I purchased a lovely sunny looking Calla lily that sat perfectly in the pot. I've left it up to Carolyn whether she plants it or uses the pot for something else.

My brother had organised for Mums kitchen, dining & lounge ceilings to be plastered & painted while I was down there.  "You can take Mum out while the tradesmen are here" he told me. 

 I thought this would be simple enough but what I hadn't  envisioned was that I would be the one to empty the rooms, take Mum out, & then put everything back again once finished, whilst also cleaning Every Single Thing.   I felt like I had run a marathon when I finally got home again.

On the 2nd day we had 4 hours to fill in so I took Mum up to the Garden of Remembrance at the Crematorium where my Dad's ashes are buried.  We took silk flowers & managed to find the plaque we had put there several years ago along with other silk flowers from previous visits.  Mum always feels better when she has visited Dad she says.

On the way back I stopped in 2 Op-Shops in Stratford.  I found the treasures above at the Salvation Army Op-Shop.  The silk framed pictures were dirty & covered in fly spots but I was able to gentle wash them & dry in the sunshine.  At $2 for the pair I could not leave them behind ... Yes one is very faded but I still love it & have hung them on my bedroom wall.

At the Hospice I found the two trays above right - $6 & $4 respectively.  I hope to paint/revamp them both.  

My daughter in law's Mum Julie, is turning 60 & I wanted to make her something to gift.  I stitched another of the Books & Roses bookmarks that Jenny of elefantz designs is so generously sharing with us this year.

As I don't really know Julie's colors I made this one to match the book that I had purchased for her in the Boxing Day sales. 

Stitchery worked in Cottage Garden Threads "Running Postman"

I used a scrap of Tilda floral from the Old Rose Collection & then I added a soft blue velvet ribbon to the top as I had no tassels left in my stash.

Jenny has released a new bookmark pattern while I was away ...  go * Here * to access it - it is beautiful & is 

next-on-my-list-to-stitch 😉😊

Thank You all so very much for your visits here today,

I hope the week ahead is filled with many happy moments dear friends,

Remember to be kind to yourselves & to each other,

With much love & friendship to you all,

Julie & the furry ones x0x0x