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,

A Bed Headboard, A Lampshade & A Tree Church

Greetings lovely friends & readers

When I repainted my bedroom almost a year ago now, one of the things I'd always planned to do was to somehow raise my bed headboard.  

You can see from the photo above left, that when I stacked all my cushions on my bed, you could not see the headboard at all .. only the end spindles poking out at the sides (right hand pic).  Our headboard was purchased second hand from Trademe & tho' I liked the style,  I'd never especially liked the orange tinge that the oak wood had.  

 I asked The Mr to cut some blocks of wood to affix to the base of the headboard - he asked me "what length ?". 

This is how I measure things dear friends!   Because I am a visual person I needed to stack old red bricks under the headboard in order to get a rough idea of how long I wanted my pieces of wood to be ... a tape measure was of no use as I could not stand back & look at it & get a visual feel for it.  The Mr thought I'd gone quite insane by this point!

I was working on it down the end of my Lounge where there is good lighting

I think it was late spring before I actually got the blocks of wood cut to size.  I simply pushed them under a table & there they stayed until after Christmas when I found the time to tackle this project.  Now my thoughts were that I would attach the wood, paint the headboard & it would be back in my room in 3 days maximum!!!  Famous last words 😉  In the end it took nearly a month to finish this project!  

Although I bought strong wood glue for the legs The Mr still insisted upon drilling holes & adding dowel to each piece before gluing on the new lengths.  Then leaving it for 24 hours to dry.  I washed the headboard down with sugar soap & then wanted to attach these decals that I'd had for this project for several months. 

I measured out the 3 sections & didn't just eyeball where they went as I am prone to do  😉

I wanted to paint it in the same Linen colour that I'd used on this mirror,   Mum's Glory box & Bedside Cabinet.  I gave it an undercoat of white to tone down the orange wood first.  After I'd given it 2 coats I ran out of Linen paint 😖 ... No sorry, we're not making that brand any more!   I ended up having to buy Linen in another brand which turned out lighter but thankfully I had enough to finish the front & just use the lighter shade on the back.  Also the new paint took 8 days to arrive from Auckland, a journey of less than 2 hours away !!

Finally, yesterday I was able to put it back in position in my bedroom.  I used white wax on the decals & clear wax on the rest of it - I love how the white wax makes the decals really pop.  

Despite the hiccups along the way, I am thrilled with how it turned out & love that it is now visible above my bed cushions.  The plain Euro Cushion in the middle is my next little project as I am making a cover for it using more of the French General fabrics.  And the little cat on the left hand side is most certainly not meant to be there (!!)

While I was waiting for the new paint to arrive (8 long days!) I decided to revamp this old lamp which I used to use in my craft cottage.  It's not showing up well here but the shade was discoloured & fly-spot marked.  I washed it gently in warm soapy water & dried well in the sun.  I wanted to make a pleated shade for it & used this tutorial * here * as I'd seen this technique on YouTube.

The fiddliest part was cutting & ironing all the lengths of fabric.  My dear friend Shirley had given me some fat quarters of this gorgeous French General range called "Antoinette" & I thought this blue tiny floral one was perfect.  Instead of hot glue as the tutorial suggests, I preferred to use my craft glue as I find it less messy.

My shade ended up taking 42 lengths including the top & bottom one.  I had thought to add a fringe to the bottom but decided I liked it plain & simple.  💙

My original intention was to paint the base a pale duck egg shade but I thought it looked just fine left as the white ceramic base & I rather liked the slightly retro look of it.  

It is now 3 years since I first visited The Tree Church with my friend Sue.       You can read about that visit in             this post * here *    

Sue & I decided we were long overdue another outing there so we met up last Sunday, on the most gorgeous blue sky day.   Although I took many photos I thought I'd try & share these videos, taken by Sue -  the first one approaching the church & the second one inside.  I hope they come out okay dear friends as I've not shared a video on here before.   

Click the small square bottom right to enlarge & turn your sound volume right up  😊

Sue calls these topiary cloud trees "Dr Seuss Trees"

I baked an Oaty Caramel Slice & took a thermos of boiling water so we could drink tea & sit & enjoy the surroundings.  It was just a wonderful morning, the birds were singing loudly & it felt so peaceful, serene & relaxing.

                                                  Plus it was wonderful to catch up with Sue again  🤍

We are getting light rain here today friends - the kind of rain you could stand in & barely get wet.    Yesterday I got out my lace box to look for vintage lace trims for the Euro cushion cover I am making ... it didn't take long for Madam Pip to find it & curl herself away 😕 - luckily I quickly tossed a pillowslip under her first.

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

Wishing you a wonderful rest-of-the-week ... remember to be kind to yourselves & to each other,

With much love & friendship to you all,

Happy New Year Snippets

Greetings lovely friends & readers & 

Welcome to a bright shiny New Year -  2025 💚

I hope the year ahead is good & kind to us all & if the very best thing that you did last year was simply to survive it ...... then well done !!

Yesterday I picked pink alstromeria & 2 jugs of sweetpeas ... I can always hear Mum in my mind when I'm picking sweetpeas - telling me to keep on picking them in order to keep them flowering. 

I sat a teapot full on my kitchen bench where I can enjoy their perfume more.   If I can have a small bunch of flowers on my bench it makes me very happy ... lifes simple pleasures 💗

We had a real cold snap at the weekend where I found myself back in winter clothes!!!  These two tucked up together on the dining room couch so I knew it must be chilly!

Since Christmas I have managed 3 craft completions.  This delightful kitset was a gift from my friend Gail ... "Alices Tapemeasure".  It came with everything required so I sat over a few evenings & stitched the beads onto the felt.  I especially loved the Alice in Wonderland charm that you attached at the end. 

Another small kitset - this one was purchased at the Quilt Show in * this post *.  It's called a Miniature Japanese House Pincushion ... it made up so tiny measuring just under 2 inches in height.  

I've shown it next to a frixion pen to give you an idea how tiny it is. The base is a button which it sits upon.  Everything was included except the crushed walnut stuffing that I filled it tightly with.  I purchased it from Annie's Country Quilt Store who had a stall at the Quilt Show.

And then just last night I finished stitching the binding to this wall hanging which was another kitset given to me, I think 3 Chistmas's ago now.  This is a pattern by Gail Pan designs & I plan to attach a wire hanger to the top, ready for hanging next Christmas.

This kitset was all done in Tilda fabrics.  I'm not sure why my photos are appearing yellow-ish today. 

It took me 8 days to display all my Christmas decor & One entire day to pack it all away.  Usually it takes me 2 days but this year I just kept plugging away.  Once it was done I tried to do a couple of fresh new displays as the house often looks quite bare after Christmas.   I felt my coffee table needed something fresh & lighter as we are in mid summer here so I used plants & white vintage linens that I already had on hand.  

The only new item is the diffuser which was a gift from my daughter in law.  Everything else I already had & most of it are thrifted items.

And of course .  .  .  I did remember to leave a space for Madam Pip to sit & do her meditation  😉 

Sid came for 2 days while his parents worked & we crafted quite a lot of the time.  We had a large black dinosaur join us on the craft table which Sid found amusing (!!)

And later that day when Sid & I watered the veggie gardens we had visitors of a different kind ... jersey cows are such gentle, inquisitive creatures.

Well dear friends, I am off to try & mow some lawns now the heat has subsided a bit,

Thank you as always, for your ever welcome visits here today,

With much love & friendship to you all,