Revamped Thrifted Finds ....... & Doiley Buntings

Greetings lovely friends & readers

I noticed I have a couple of new followers ...... A Warm Welcome to You!!

 

On my recent return from Mum's I was delighted to notice my Moth Orchid flowering away quite happily, despite my neglect.

I have had this for about 3 years now & it was a Mother's Day gift from eldest son & family 💗

Early in June my dear friend Sandy dropped in one day & presented me with this beautiful potted plant ...

 a String of Turtles

Right away I decided it needed its own special plant stand ... so I unearthed this old wooden stool in my woodshed that I had once painted in Resene Hot Chilli & used outdoors.  I cut an inch off each leg & then painted the whole thing in Chalk Paint - Vintage White.

It sat like this for over a month until I came across this beautiful transfer online from * Here *.  I loved the individual flowers & vines on it so I cut out various ones & added them to my stool plant-stand.

 

                  I love the way the vines look as though they are growing up the legs of the plant-stand . . . . .

. . . . . .  & it looks perfect with my new plant sitting on top.  Thank You So much Sandy for your kindness 💕

When Mum was in New Plymouth City Hospital I visited the Spotlight Store there to buy more dishcloth cotton.  Right next door is the Salvation Army Op Shop & of course it would've been rude of me Not to pop in 😉.   I definately do not need another mirror but I could not leave this one behind so at $5 it came home with me.

It had obviously been dropped at some stage & the frame had 2 cracks in it ... but nothing that a bit of polyfiller & sanding couldn't fix.  I cleaned it thoroughly, fixed the cracks & then painted it with two coats of Chalk Paint in the colour Pumice.  

Upon rummaging through my offcuts of transfers I found this floral design & some wording so I decided to add the transfers to the mirror part & make it into a decor piece.   I absolutely love how this looks.

I even painted the back as it was very tatty.  Some light distressing afterwards & it was complete. 

I have sat it on top of my vintage Radiogram with a couple of other pieces in the same colourway.

 

When I made the doiley bunting for my friend Jane in * this post * I showed it on Instagram & Ingrid contacted me to ask if I could make her two in cream/ecru shades & post them over to Australia.  I finally got around to completing this Order & then the package took a month to reach Ingrid.

She was delighted with her two buntings & sent me the loveliest message to thank me.

I thought you might enjoy this photo of Miss Pippi doing her morning meditation yesterday.  She is lucky I love her so much as she has been particularly naughty trying lately 😉

Thank you all So much for popping by today dear friends,

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend (it's a rainy🌧Friday here)

Remember to be kind to yourselves & to each other,

With much Love & Friendship to you all,

Julie & the furry ones x0x0x

A Tilda Swap ........ Across " the ditch "

Greetings lovely friends & readers

At the start of this year Christine emailed me to ask whether I would be interested in doing a Tilda Swap with her as we are both dedicated Tilda lovers. I thought this was a wonderful idea & we both agreed to make very "loose rules" in that it would be a winter swap using Tilda fabrics but not necessarily a Tilda pattern. 

We both began working on our swap gifts in early Autumn & decided we would mail them to each other on the same day.  Christine is in Victoria, Australia & I am in Waikato, New Zealand so the Tasman Sea that seperates our two countries is often referred to as "the ditch".  We were curious to see whose reached its destination first.  Interestingly mine reached Christine in just over a week yet hers took 3 (long) weeks to get to me.

During our waiting time Christine suggested we do a facetime call to each other & open our parcels at the same time.  We have never met & only became "friends" through this wonderful medium called Blogging.

I had mine all laid out on a tray to begin opening them at our designated calling time ... it was So exciting & I even remembered to brush my hair that day (!!!) 😉 

The first package I opened was these delectable treats from Australia ... Choccy Caramello Koala's, Rocky Road Cookie Bites & a box of Australian Afternoon Tea.  Christine had popped the Caramello Koala's in for the grandchildren but I must confess Not every single one reached the littlies 😯 (!!!)

What was inside the other packages quite took my breath away  ... I must've mentioned once how I just adore the Tilda "Old Rose range" & Christine had remembered this ... this stunning project bag made from Old Rose fabrics & filled with all manner of stitching delights  💕 including a gorgeous variegated Cottage Garden Thread.

The sweetest needle-case & matching pincushion 💕

(The pattern Christine has used is a Gail Pan design)

This darling little thread catcher that winds up & down magically, & a pair of scissors with a strawberry scissor-keep attached  💕

You can read Christine's post about what she made me * Here * ... her photo's are much clearer than mine.

I was honestly just SO delighted with my swap gifts & at the end of our phone call I realised we had both chatted for an hour!! It was simply wonderful.

When we initially agreed on the swap the first idea that popped into my head was to make a doll for Christine.  She had mentioned she has pinks, greens, reds in her home so I pulled some fabrics in these colours from my stash & decided to make her the Rosalie Quinlan doll "Ruby"

This doll has a tag hanging from it's hand that reads "Dear Mummy We love you" - so I decided to stitch "I 💗 Tilda" on my tag.

The dress fabric is a piece from the Sweetheart Tilda range which is now a Very vintage Tilda (2015)

The doll is made to hang from a loop on her other hand but I feel she is equally as nice just sitting. 

I had some treasured vintage linens in my stash & I used this gorgeous crinoline lady one for my doll's pinny.  Instead of French knots for hair as the pattern states, I gave her some pretty hair using hand dyed mohair.

I painted her shoes using some pale pink chalk paint as I didn't have any fabric paint in this colour.

Christine has named her doll "Tilly" 💗

The face scrubbies & soap pouch are purchased from a gorgeous Handcraft Shop in Mum's town

I had gathered together some bits & pieces to include so I decided to stitch a little gathered pouch to hold them.  The soap is from this Lavender Farm which is 2 minutes up the road from where I live.  The pouch is also a Rosalie Quinlan design from her book Gift.

When I saw this wee china jug in an Op Shop the flowers reminded me of Tilda so I made a soy candle in the jug & included this, along with a N.Z magazine & N.Z choccy.

The hanging doiley Angels are from the book Tilda's Winter Delights .. you cut them out & then add a paper doiley skirt - just so sweet tied onto parcels. 

And for Christine's post about what I made for her ... go * Here *     We both agreed this was just such an enjoyable swap & were both so VeRy happy with our packages.

Quite by accident Sid & I have discovered that our local Library has Lego Club each Tuesday after school so we went along this week & had a wonderful hour building Lego with other children.  I think this might become a regular fixture in our Tuesday after-school activities.  

Thank you all so much for staying with me through this lengthy post dear friends,  

With much love & friendship to you all,

Julie & the furry ones x0x0x

Hello (& Goodbye !!) to July .......... & Welcome to August

 Greetings (at long last) lovely friends & readers

I did not mean to be gone for so long (2 months in fact) !!

Some early spring flowers - picked from my garden just this morning 💛

Just after I hit Publish on my last post, my dear 93 year old Mum became most unwell ...  3 ambulance trips in 10 days from the Resthome - Mum had Influenza A, a U.T.I. as well suffering a T.I.A.  My eldest son & I drove down arriving just after midnight to the nearest City Hospital.  I ended up staying for nearly 3 weeks until Mum was transferred back to the Resthome & became stable.  It was a scary & anxious time & not one I would want to repeat.  Upon my return our computer crashed & although I could read blogs on my phone,  I couldn't comment.  So I feel I have missed out on so much here in blogland & am happy to be able to post again.

About 10 minutes drive from Mums home is Ohawe Beach - I went out there frequently for walks along the wild west coast & loved it.  I am over an hour from here to a beach so it was wonderful to be able to be so close to the sea. 

I confess to being a bit obsessed with taking photos of stunning Mount Taranaki - he was proudly wearing his white winter coat while I was there. 

The top left hand photo is just up the road from Mums, on one of my walks & the top right one is actually taken from my bedroom window at Mums - you can just see it peeking between the rooftops. I grew up with this mountain out my bedroom window & took it SO much for granted.  It never fails to take my breath away when I return.

While I was away I celebrated another birthday - 62 years around the sun!! My friend Lynley popped in with a Red Velvet cupcake & candle so I happily blew it out for her.  Unfortunately just after our little morning tea Mum was rushed off in the ambulance yet again so my birthday involved 7 hours at A & E ... not exactly how I would recommend celebrating your birthday.

Luckily just before my son & I headed off late into the night I remembered to toss my bag of knitting cotton oddments into the car & I was able to knit lots of dishcloths to fill in the many hours spent sitting in hospitals or Resthomes.  I use * this free pattern * & I have knitted so many I can now remember it off by heart.

I miss these two so very much when I am away ... the ginger girl frets & doesn't eat properly until I return, then she sulks with me for a couple of days & then goes back to normal 😉😸 (well normal for her)

While I've been away we have been getting a nice new wooden fence built.  This is very exciting for me ... we have always just had a wire fence between our section & the farm & it was falling down, to put it mildly.  Every time I would peg out my washing I would be trying to straighten posts that the cows had knocked over.  This new post-&-rail fence goes right around the outer perimeter of our section (260 metres) including the depot yard at the end which we rent out.

(Click on the photo to enlarge it for a better view)

The Mr bought one of the farm tractors home to remove the old posts & the furry two found it so incredibly fascinating climbing all over it & checking out the different smells of all the barn cats that live at the farm.  

Inevitably there have been some Op Shop visits on my recent trips.  The St Vincent de Paul Op Shop in Mum's town had a large stack of plates for only $2 each.  Of course I need more china plates like I need a hole in the head, but however ............. these ones came home with me.  The two on the far right were only $1 each & the others were all $2 - how could I resist ???!!! 😯

There were other op shop purchases but I think I will show these as I repurpose/upcycle them.  

My daughter-in-law Sarah would send me lovely photos of my Grandson while I was away to brighten my days - I absolutely adore this one of Alec, sound asleep with the cat on the bed.

Long time readers of my blog may remember the post I wrote about her finding this feral kitten that was so unwell - you can see how dear Bruno has well & truly landed on his feet paws !! 💙 

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend dear friends,

I shall be back soon as I have much to share with you,

Thank you for your ever-welcome visits here today,

With much love & friendship to you all,

Julie & the furry ones x0x0x