These Busy October Days

Greetings lovely friends & readers

On my bench today - a pretty bunch of manuka flowers.  I wish I could get these to dry & still retain their flower petals but have not yet figured out the secret.

 October is proving to be a very busy month with lots of things happening.  I would love to do some spring cleaning but as we are still having fires each night, it seems pointless to begin this, though I did wash all my enamel ware yesterday.

My friend Gail is opening her home & garden for this years Altrusa Garden Ramble on November 2nd.  As I've been in this twice before, Gail has asked me to help her, which I'm happy to do.  She has a small studio at the back of her property & is going to be selling some of her sewing so has asked me to put some craft items for sale also.

I made up 10 sets of wool blanket seedling pots & tied them up in bundles of 4 per set.  I planted some seeds in one (top left pic) & thankfully they have poked through already as I just know that people will say "what do you do with these".  😉

I've made 16 herbal moth repellant sachets as Gail especially asked for these.  You can find the recipe for these at the bottom of * this post *.

As this is very much about using-up-what-I-have-on-hand, I made up 6 vintage teacup birdfeeders.  I sell these with a small bag of wild bird seed popped inside.  

I also plan to sell the concrete mushrooms that I showed in * this post *.  Yes, I am trying to think of garden related items that might interest the Ramble visitors.

I found 6 vintage china jugs & cups waiting to be made up in to candles but as I have no soy wax at present (& don't wish to purchase any) I planted these out with cuttings from my babies tears plants & they have grown really well in the hospital corner of my lounge.

This is currently the mess state of my lounge floor as I sit & bag up my citrus potpourri.   Many paper bags of things I have gathered & dried over winter.   I hand place the things in the bags so I can pack it in well & ensure the orange slices are showing & not hidden.  This is time consuming as you can imagine.  Generally there is a ginger cat helping me 😖!!

40 bags all waiting for the bay leaves & oils to be added, then tied with a voile ribbon.  Phew I am glad that part is done.  

A lady has opened a vintage pop-up store about half an hour away & my friend Sue & I decided to go visit it.  If you follow Linen and Stone on Instagram or Facebook, you will have seen lots of posts about her Christmas Brocante.  It's set in an old church & was just wonderful - Yes I would've liked one of everything thanks!  Jo, the lady who has opened it, takes many trips to France & brings back container loads so both Sue & I knew there would be a wonderland of treasures. 

Right beside the store is another old church, used for weddings.  Sue & I went inside & checked out the stunning stained glass windows.  We enjoyed coffee & cake at Punnet Cafe together - it was a wonderful outing & just what I needed.  

A couple of purchases came home with me.  I loved this gold corner shelf but did not notice in the store, that it had a large chunk missing from one corner.  

I decided I thought I could fix it so I spent some time each day, over the following week, applying polyfiller to the corner, slowly building it up & then shaping it into a curve to match the other corner.  Once I was happy with it I rubbed Vintage Gold Rub-n-buff over it & lightly sanded with a very fine paper.

Here it is hanging in my bathroom beside the gold mirror that I thrifted in * this post *.  I am very happy with it & so pleased I added that bit to the corner. 

My other purchase was this vintage tapestry Santa cushion & a bundle of French Pear candles.  I've actually put the cushion away for now, til I bring out my Christmas decor (very soon!).  I bought a box home from the supermarket so I could start clearing & packing away some of my junk treasures in order to make space for my christmas decor.  You can see below how far I got with that venture!

Not Very far at all !!  😕

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

Wishing you a wonderful rest-of-the-week,

With much love & friendship to you all,

School Holidays & (two) Finished Things ..........................

Greetings lovely friends & readers

Welcome to October  🤎

School has gone back for another term & like a lot of Grandparents, I breathed a sigh of relief.  I absolutely love spending time with my Grandsons but it's also full on & tiring.    The Dinosaur Extravaganza came to my little town so I bought tickets & took Sid along.

The last time we did this was back in * this post * in early 2021 & Sid was not quite 4.  He was much less scared this visit. 

We dug for fossils again & managed to unearth some bones 😉

It was a beautiful spring day & there was a wonderful turn out of parents & children.  Sid very much enjoyed everything, though I did notice the event was a lot smaller than last time - I'd say less than half the size now.  

During the second week I drove down to Kinloch to spend some time with my older Grandson Alec.  We went into Taupo & walked along the Lake front for a bit.  

It was another beautiful blue-sky spring day but a cool wind coming off the Lake.  We decided to go to Mini Putt Golf.  Granny had not played before but very much enjoyed herself, even though she lost.  She thinks perhaps the score keeper may have "adjusted" the scores a bit 😉

A lady walking her dog on the lake front laughed at us both trying (& failing) to take a selfie & kindly offered to take a photo for us. 

After Mini Putt, we went to Baked With Love Cafe for some lunch.  Alec is such a joy to take to these places now.  

However - he is Not a joy to take Op Shopping!  He very much dislikes Op-shops. 

 My son, Alec's Dad, tells me he doesn't like the Lost Property Box at school so there's not much chance of him liking Op Shops.  As we entered the door he said "Oh Granny it's just full of old Junk".  Wash your mouth out my dear child!!!  Granny only managed a quick look but did find this sweet little plate for $5 - a Holly Hobbie plate.  

I've hung it in my Sewing Room beside the Holly Hobbie mug I bought off Trade me, also for $5.  I adored Holly Hobbie when I was younger & have never outgrown this  💙

I whipped up these Reindeer candy cane holders.  I am always looking for novelty things to add to the Grandkids advent calendars & these appealed to me.  It's a free pattern available from The Sewing Loft.  The Warehouse sell bags of Candy Canes, 8 for $1 so that's what these cost me as I used felt & eyes already in my stash.  

My 2nd completion is this Christmas Pixie, another free pattern from Shabby Art Boutique - go * here * for the pattern & instructions.

I cut this out last christmas but got no further with it.  I was originally going to make a group of 3 Pixies, as Kerryanne has done in her instructions ... but No, there will only be one elf as I found it tricky & was not sure for quite sometime if I even liked him/her? 

I stitched bells to his shoes & to his hat   .  .  .  .  

I dressed my Pixie in some of the new Tilda Christmas fabric that I used for the Angels in my last post.  I also gave mine some hair as I felt he needed something tucked under his pixie hat.  Sitting on a shelf in my sewing room - he is growing on me slowly  .  .  .  .

 I've been weeding around the Pond this week, as the weather allows.  I've had a constant "helper" as I work away down there - Little One is fascinated with the fish who have multiplied their numbers.  Our bridge is old railway sleepers & there's a small hole in one, just big enough for a furry paw to fit through !!!  I thought you might enjoy these pics Ellie seeing as you have such a soft spot for the littlest rascal. 

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

I am finding it difficult to find time to blog more regularly of late, so my posts are quite long as I try to fit everything in,

Thank you for always bearing with me - sending much love & friendship to you all,