Moments of March . . . . . . .

Greetings lovely friends & readers

Welcome to March & the touch of Autumn you have bought with you - I am more than happy to wave Goodbye to the heat of summer.

 

Using up the last of the Christmas money I was gifted, I treated myself to this gorgeous candle.  It is a new-to-me fragrance ... Rose Jasmine & Oud & the description reads  "A charmingly complex & elegant woody floral blend".    It is filling the house with the softest rose tinted fragrance & is just so soothing & lovely 💗

The poor garden has well & truly flopped (rather like the Gardener to be honest) but I still managed to pick a bunch of roses & some veggies this morning.  I have pulled out a lot of my veggies that are bolting to seed but the hothouse tomatoes are still producing steadily.  

From left to right ...... Sue, myself & Jenny

Last Thursday I got up early, pulled on My Big Girls Panties, & drove all the way up to Auckland for a special meet-up with my friend Sue from the blog Kiwikids.  Sue was over (from Australia) looking after her friend Jenny who has had a hip replacement Op & when her message came through asking if I'd like to drive up, I could feel my heart palpitations.  

However thanks to Google maps it's not hard to get to destinations nowadays.  We met at The Hidden Cafe in Paerata & had a lovely few hours before I made the journey home again.  I took along some homegown veggies & made a gluten free Brownie as I remembered Sue was gluten intolerant.  It was such a lovely day that just filled my heart with Joy & so wonderful to finally meet Jenny too. 

Thank you all so much for your very kind comments about my sewing room revamp in my last post.  I haven't been able to spend much time in there but I did manage to complete a couple of orders last week for two dear friends.

Sandy sent me this gorgeous Toy Story fabric & requested I make a pillowcase for her Grandson who is turning 5.  I use this tutorial *here* which I really like.  It requires a metre of fabric but you are always left with a decent strip down one side from cutting out the narrower piece for the pillowcase.

I suggested to Sandy I make up a simple drawstring bag from the remnant as I've done this for my Grandsons in the past.  I've posted the order back to Sandy & she was delighted with both items.

I completed 4 lace coathangers for my dear friend Shirley this week - these are going to Australia so cannot have the dried lavender in them as I usually do.  I offered to fill the lace circle with wadding & scent it with lavender oil which will get through customs no trouble at all.  Shirley was thrilled with this idea. 

When I cleaned out the large double wardrobe in my sewing room a couple of items got put into a separate pile as I wanted to revamp them.  This noticeboard was one of them, a thrifted find from years ago quite some time ago. You can write on the whiteboard part & attach notes to the lower string part.   I removed the string, masked & painted the entire piece apart from the wire mesh insert.  

Then I added a simple Easter style transfer to it, a new string & some pegs.  When I unpack my Easter decor I am certain I have some vintage Easter postcards that I can attach to my noticeboard.  

Likewise I found this sweet box, a gift from my dear friend Leeanne ... to do with as I pleased.  The box is lined with black felt & the inside was in perfect condition.  

I chose only to paint the top as I liked the white distressed sides - I masked it out & then painted it Pale duck egg & added some more Easter transfers.  I am not sure what to use this for as yet but it may make a good hiding place for my choccy eggs (!!!) 😋

The large box of playdough in my sewing wardrobe had gone hard so it all went in the bin.   I gave Sid my big jar of cutters & his mum sent me this pic on the weekend - he'd had lots of fun making gingerbread men & dinosaur cookies using the cutters I'd given him.  How precious 🤎

Monday was our first craft group meeting for the year & I made a No-bake Apricot Slice with cream cheese icing.  We met at Gails & worked out our programme for the year ahead.

I met up with a friend & we went to the new Bridget Jone's movie in town.  We both laughed & cried & very much enjoyed the movie.

 

March's arrival has bought chilly nights & mornings & the furry two have taken up residence on my bed - Yes I do recall ranting saying No cats are allowed on the bed when I made my new cushions (!!)  It seems they didn't get the memo .............

Thank you all so much dear friends, for taking the time to visit here today,

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend - remember to be kind to yourselves & to each other,

With much love & friendship to you all,

A Sewing Room Finish . . . . . . (Sort of)

Greetings lovely friends & readers

I see I have a couple of new followers - the warmest   Welcome to you all  💗

 

Despite the dry here, the roses have decided to have a second flush ...  I picked some buds yesterday & even managed a small vase of Seafoam roses as well.

My sewing room is finished dear friends & I thought I would share it with you.  I only have a few things left to hang up but the rest is all done & the large mess in the lounge room is all sorted now - lots went to the Op-shop & I still have another load to go.  

As with most projects I undertake, I seriously underestimated what was involved.  But that's okay - I can tick it off my list & hopefully enjoy it now it's all clean & tidy & less cluttered.

I emptied every single thing out of the room apart from this heavy chest of drawers which I went through & purged.  The Mr painted the ceiling for me but I did all the rest.  It is not a large sized room, it used to be my eldest sons room ... but sometimes we just have to be thankful for what we have & indeed remind myself that I used to sew in a VeRy tiny corner of our bedroom.

I started putting things back in a week ago, sorting through every single item that went back in & cleaning along the way.  

Because this room is just off the dining area - which is where our fire is, I find it gets incredibly dusty.

I don't have any before pics unfortunately.  Standing in the doorway, here is the new layout of the room - it doesn't look a lot different to the before but it is more spacious & I have changed my sewing machine table to the other side as I was concerned about it getting too much sun on the left hand side. (the room gets lots of late afternoon sun)

My main intention with the room was to remove the cat sleeping shelf 😉  fabric shelf that I had on one wall - an old shelf that I upcycled in * this post * way back in 2013.  

I don't use so much fabric now that I sew less so I went through ruthlessly & managed to get the 3 shelves (7 baskets) down to just 2 large draws full instead.  The cat sleeping shelf teddy bear shelf is going to the op-shop when they bring their truck out to collect it.

Thrifted mini quilts covering my sewing machine & overlocker

I have my sewing desk in the room, along with a large trestle table that I upcycled in * this post*. This had become cluttered up with baskets & boxes & there was no space for cutting out etc so I was ending up doing this on the dining room table.  I now have a nice clear space for my cutting mat etc that I Promise Myself Not to clutter up again (!!)

I still have pictures & my clock to hang up yet.  I made sure I hung the gorgeous vintage Holly Hobbie Prints, a gift from my dear friend Sally & one of my favorite things 💗

As the room is not large I am lucky to have wardrobe organisers along 3/4's of one wall.  These are wonderful for holding boxes & baskets of things.

  I long ago chose to have my patterns in boxes as I find they get too dusty sitting in baskets, even though baskets are aesthetically more pleasing to the eye. I bought new boxes from Paper Plus & made some bright cheery Cath Kidston labels for them.  I also condensed 14 boxes down to 10. 

The room does have a large double wardrobe with shelves & a hanging rail.  I painted the doors & also the door into the room & hung my project bags from this hook which I already had in my stash.

I've had my scissors & paint brushes in these tin containers for years now but I repainted them as they were black & white with large bees on them.  I've stuck with a soft duck egg colour in the room as I already had this paint in my stash (leftover decor transfers applied)

The wooden trug was upcycled in * this post *,  the cream drawers in * this post *.    These little containers hold 

all sorts of things so that when I write "I already had this in my stash" ....... you know I am not lying!!

This decoupaged drawer was revamped in * this post *, & Emily, my sewing doll came to life in * this post * back in 2020.

I created this beaded lightshade for my sewing room way back in 2018 in * this post * & I don't think it had been cleaned since (!!) 😑

I took it down & gently washed all those teeny tiny beads & it sparkled again. 

In the last school holidays Sid & I popped into the Salvation Army Op-shop (Sid adores op shopping just like his Granny does).  While he came out with a $1 soft toy, I spotted this mini ironing board.  I had been meaning to make an ironing station for my sewing room & this came home & promptly got tossed in the sleepout. As you can see it was $5 & in very good condition.

Two days ago I removed the cover & drew around it to make a pattern,  I had this lovely piece of vintage curtain fabric in my stash so I used it for this as it was the perfect size. I also padded the underneath with 2 extra layers as I like my ironing board to be well padded. It fits on top of these drawers just perfectly & the hot point is just below for my iron.  

My sewing room has only one big window but good light comes in & looks out on to the garden which is pleasant.  I sent my Roman Blind away to be professionally cleaned & it arrived back just yesterday.  The Mr & I hung it at lunchtime today & I am thrilled with it.  Now all I need to do dear friends, is find some time to actually sew in there!

Thank you all so very much if you've stayed through this lengthy post.  We are having many computer issues again & have a new one on the way.  My son who is organising it for us tells me "2 weeks".  He has been saying this since New Year 😉so we wait patiently.  Today, oddly enough, it decided to work, so I grabbed the chance to do a blog post.  I am not sure when I will get to post again.

Wishing you a Happy Tuesday & a wonderful rest-of-the-week dear friends,

With much love & friendship to you all,

February Days . . . . . . . . . .

Greetings lovely friends & readers  💗

I hope these February days find you well ??

 

I picked the last of the sweet peas this morning - all that are left are seed pods which I will let dry & save some.  With the heat & the drought that we are experiencing, many things are bolting to seed early.

Some of you have asked how my little hothouse is doing ... the tomatoes are now right up to the roof & trying to push through. I trimmed them after I took this photo as I would prefer they put their energy into producing lower down.  I pick as soon as they show some red & then put them on my deck railing where they quickly ripen in the sun.  

This is todays pickings, although the cucumbers are growing in the veggie garden, everything else is from the hothouse.

I tipped out my potted petunias last week as they'd gone leggy.  I scrubbed the table & gave it a nice new length of hessian from Spotlight.  I attempted a simple display with some butterfly Impatiens I had purchased & planted in my old urn.  A friend commented it looked "a bit Valentines-ish" though this wasn't my aim at all.

This concrete Lady Urn belonged to Mum.  I found it in my garden & the head had broken off, so I glued it back on using concrete glue where the blue arrow is.  I then gave it my usual Rust FX treatment & was delighted with how it came up - all rusty & antique looking.  The artificial vine is a thrifted find, I pulled it out of the polystyrene pot that it was in & poked it in the urn.  

I needed a coloured taper candle to put in the rusty candlestick that I revamped in * this post *..  I only had a white candle so I painted it with mod-podge & then carefully wrapped part of a paper serviette around it.  Once dry I sealed it again with mod-podge.  

Using up the remnants of French General fabrics after the cushions I made in my last post, I made a hexie hot-water bottle cover using a pattern by Sew Sweet Violet.  Although it feels like a very long time before I will be needing to use this, I was really happy with how it looks sitting on my bed on Mums pink Mohair throw.

Jooles (sew sweet violet) used linen on the back of hers but I decided to use up this gorgeous piece of raspberry coloured chenille that I found in my stash - so soft & cuddly.  The cover has a nice soft wadding inside & is also fully lined.  

Many of you commented in my last post "no cat on the bed??".    Well this is what I find most nights when I go to get into bed ... Little One top left.   And I thought I'd share this photo of Blackie's latest sleeping place.  He has taken up residence in the big old water pump that sits in my garden, planted with tiny viola's - but rather flattened ones (!!!) 

Dear friends - this is currently what my Lounge room looks like !!  Last week, in a total moment of madness, I decided to empty out my sewing room, wash the walls down, paint the ceiling & then hopefully only put three quarters of it all back again  😉

I am at that stage of seriously thinking I might be just a teeny bit insane !!!  I have washed the walls down & am slowly sorting through every single drawer & container, while I wait for The Mr to paint the ceiling ... we may be a while dear friends  😉  Wish me luck as I have a bit of a sinking feeling I am going to need it (!!)

Thank you as always dear friends, for your welcome visits here today,

Sending much love & friendship to you all,

An End-of-January Round Up

 Greetings lovely friends & readers

Apologies in advance - photo heavy post & apologies to Willie, no cat pictures sorry (!!)

It's been all about the Sweet-peas this week as they gradually come to an end ... & the hydrangeas are drying on the bushes as it's so HOT here  💜

January was a super busy month filled with many different things.  It's summer school holidays here in New Zealand - the children get over 6 weeks off school so there was lots of time spent with my Grandsons.

I travelled down to Kinloch & spent some time with Alec - he wanted to go to the Lake & snorkel.  Lake Taupo was so crystal clear & stunning, very cold though.  

We spent the whole morning at the Lake, then had a pizza lunch as we found a wood-fired pizza store right on the Lake front.  

I had Sid a lot more while his parents worked - we baked Banana Bread & went to the local movie theater to see Sonic the hedgehog.  We also crafted lots, but this Granny forgot to take any photos.  

When I packed all my christmas decor away I left out the Flat Angel that I made in * this post *.  I was not very happy with her & did not know why ... it felt like she needed something extra ??  

After looking at her for a few days I realised she needed something to frame her.  I found this old blackboard in my sleep-out & thought this might fit her perfectly size-wise.

I painted it with Linen chalk paint & the frame in Raspberry Beret.  Then I added some offcuts of leftover transfers to 2 corners. I attached my Angel to the board & was just delighted with how it turned out - I even think she is smiling brighter now 😊

I managed to complete the Euro Cushion Cover that I began working on in my last post.   I had wanted to use up the extra cross-stitch that my friend Jane gifted to me for my birthday last year.  

I had no idea what I was doing but had it in my head to make a sort of slow stitched piece incorporating more of the French General fabrics that my friend Shirley had gifted me.  This Antoinette range is especially beautiful.  I made the x-stitch the focal & then added bits of fabric around it, making it up as I went along.

I embellished with some yo yo hearts, pearl buttons,  & also lots of kantha stitches to give the fabric some texture, rather than machine quilting it.

I added in some vintage lace oddments from my stash .  .  .  .

A patchwork section to use up the French General fabrics, some braids & crochet lace & a gorgeous piece of linen handpainted with flowers - I think this was a blouse once-upon-a-time.

I made a simple button closure for the calico back, did not have any buttons big enough but found a button covering kit in my drawer so covered 2 buttons to use instead of going out & buying some.

I also made a Roundie cushion using a pattern from my Granny Chic Book & stuffing from an old pillow.  

Here are the 2 new cushions displayed on my bed.  I just love how it has turned out & look at that dear friends - 

not a cat in sight !!! 

My dear friend Jennifer from elefantz designs is encouraging us to pull out books & magazines we already have in our bookshelves, to give us inspiration.   I was leafing through my pile of Simply Vintage magazines & came across this Ladybird Pincushion pattern, then remembered I had a wee stash of these vintage jelly molds in my cupboard.  I chose the largest sized mold & made up the pincushion in an afternoon using felt scraps from my stash  🖤

Our small craft group is meeting next week to discuss the years program & I thought this might be a simple achievable project for the girls to do some time in the year ahead.

(The pattern is from Simply Vintage Volume 23, Summer 2017)

If you've made it this far then well done & Thank You !!

Wishing you all a wonderful weekend - it's going to be another Hot one here so maybe some time indoors doing more creative projects?

Sending much love & friendship to you all,