Doily plate and crochet.. :o)

Hello Lovely people :o)

I hope this post finds you all fine and dandy this sunny Saturday.

So, did you or didn't you ....watch the Royal wedding yesterday?  Didn't she/they look fantastic? I thought her wedding gown was gorgeous, and was itching to get my hands on all that lace LOL.

I think they're a lovely couple, and it was lovely to see how much they adore each other :o)

Anyway, enough of that :o)

*****

~CRAFTY BITS ~

Well, I've been a busy bee this week with my lil' ole' hook.

I had a humungous coffee jar that has taken months for us to get through, (I'm the only one who drinks it sometimes :o)and I just thought I would re-cycle it into a colourful new vase.

Treble crochet all the way up, changing colours after every round, and keep trying it on for size. Increasing and decreasing as you go. I just love these vases, they're just so pretty and cozy :o)

I have real trouble doing 'still' photographs..I always have. Nature.. I'm fine, but 'still' sends me under the duvet.  Hence my slowness at listing items on Etsy. I have them all ready, but the photo's really phase me out.

So, I thought I would try and get a few pretty little props to help me along.

Here is an old plate I bought from a charity shop. It actually came with a little whicker stand that I wanted to 'do up' (photo's will follow when it's finished) for either using in the utility, putting some of my yarn collection in, or/and using at fairs on my table.

Well anyway, i loved the flowers and colours on this little plate, and by the style of them i think it's from around the seventies..

I gave it a good scrub..

Sewed some pale lemon blanket stitches around the edge...

Then added some 60's turquoise rayon yarn scalloped edging..

And voila!

Here we have my own little doily plate ready for using in some of my etsy shots.

The pink flower has faded a tad, but otherwise, i love it's colourful kitschyness:o)

See..

I've already used it in my phot oshoot for some more needlecases that I shall be listing on etsy this weekend :)

I'm in the middle of a Teapot cozy at the moment which I'll hopefully show you in the week.

~FLOWERS~

I can't remember what these little pink sweeties are called, but aren't they pretty? I've popped them in my new little rock garden bit I've made...

I'll show you more when it's up and growing.

And today I even spied some tomato flowers starting on my toms! :o) (And it's still April)

Just wanted to show you the little fingernail moon that followed me the other morning when I was up early for a walk.  It looked so bright in the early morning sky, but the pic's not too bright is it?

And this is the beautiful tree that is covered in Wisteria in the New Forest.

It's absolutely glorious :o)  And it seems to have grown so high up!

It grows like this every year, and just gets bigger and better :)

I'll leave you with a sleepy picture of Honey one of my daughters dwarf hamsters.

They are so cute, and their favourite place to sleep (even though they have a lovely fluffy house!) is in the old kitchen roll holders! 

But by showing you this picture, you can get a sense of how tiny they are :)

Enjoy the rest of the weekend everyone.

Take care,

Love Donna xx



Risky business....

Well, I've done it.

I couldn't resist any longer.

I've planted out our runner beans lol.

They are squashed into the tiniest plot imaginable that we made up for them, so it will be interesting to see how they do, or even if they survive. 'Specially having been planted out in April which is a first for us :o)

Please ignore next doors falling down fence which (until we just popped that ugly piece of batten against it) just kept falling everywhere when a breeze took it :) 

At least the beans will cover up the fence...hopefully:o)

These are right outside the kitchen window, so I will remember to water them every morning before the sun's too high... (if you water at night it brings all the slitheries out ...)

And before I'd finished I already had a little gardening friend come and join me :)

Well, two actually..

I just had to show you this pansy. It's beautiful petals are all velvety if you look close, it's just so pretty.

I haven't been doing much crafting during the school holidays.

Although I did manage to make some more bunting, and I've listed it on etsy.

I listed this ballerina one, some cottage garden flowers bunting, and some liqourice allsorts bunting.

Unfortunately blogger won't let me load any more photos, so you'll have to have a quick peek in my etsy shop if you would like to have a look at them:o)

Ooooo, guess what else happened. I was so chuffed about this you would have thought I'd made it myself!  LOL

Take a look here

A good few weeks back, (you may remeber I blogged about the like new vintage retro style sheet set I'd got) this lovely 'Brit Abroad' bought the vintage sheet set from my etsy shop, and these are the results.

Fantastic eh?

***

Well that's it today. Back to the normal routine for two days, then another four day holiday :o)

Lets hope this glorious sunshine stays with us for the weekend.

Take care all of you.

Love Donna xxx



Have you ever cut an apple in half? :o)

Well, Hello lovely people!

How are you this fine evening?  Hmmm?

I've been a bit busy this past week. The children broke up from school a week ago Friday, so I've been playing taxis.  We've been tidying up the garden, and popping plants in here and there.

The weather's been teasing us a bit hasn't it? I've been bursting to get my runner beans planted up in the little plot they've been allocated, but I daren't in case old jack frost pays us a visit and I lose 'em.

And look at the little beauties! They're even bigger than this now, cos' this was taken a few days ago.

In front are the french beans...equally scrummy :o)

We had some help in the garden this week as the Easter holidays are upon us. It made us laugh because in every photo I took, for some reason, it was the time when our eldest was 'supervising' ....she did do some weeding and digging herself...honest ;o)

Look at their pale legs...I can't wait for more sunshine now.

Look at the gorgeous blossom that's bursting out all over our drastically pruned apple tree..

Isn't it gorgeous?

Now, I want you to look at this photo of blossom, and tell me..

Have you ever cut an apple in half.....horizontally?

You know, not in apple 'segments', but the other way?

Well, here's a useless/interesting fact for you.

The apple inside is split up into five segments, and it mimics the shape of the blossom...

See?  Look at the blossom above, then look at the photo of the apple cut 'in half' below and see the stars/segments?

Full of interesting/useless facts this week I am! LOL

By the way I know the apple is old and wrinkly, I wasn't going to feed it to the children it was being cut for the birds ;O)

I got up early this morning to 'do' another craft fair.

It was in the most lovely setting...an old farm with a 'medieval' hall. Luckily I wasn't in the hall, (it was a bit cold in there)  but outside in a marquee just by the door.

This is my stall before I set up...

And this is it after it was set up.

In the afternoon, the sun came right round and shone on me, it was like being on holiday:o)

At least we had more visitors than last time at the other fair.  I sold a few bits this time, and had a good day...very relaxing.

I've been beavering away making bunting all week, but I didn't sell any lol, so that will go in my little etsy shop this week.

~~~

I've been wanting to show you this gorgeous little B&B up the road from me for a while, but I keep forgetting to stop the car (well it's about 5 miles up the road actually) and take a picture...

It has the most magnificent Camelia growing next to it which looks glorious in the morning sunshine.

The day I stopped it wasn't sunny (or the mornig)  :o)  LOL

But I wanted to show you it's quaintness anyway :o)

Have a lovely week everyone, and I hope it's sunny for you wherever you are.

Take care,

Love Donna xxx



A commission Ta..daah.. :o)

Goodness me, it seems aaggeess since I did a blog post, and I've been so busy over the past week, the time just keeps running away again....

Anyway, how are you this warm and bright spring evening?  I hope this post finds you all fine and dandy :o)

What have I been upto?  Well, I finished my first Etsy commission :o)  Yay!

I was so chuffed to get this commission, then I was a bit scared when I did (well quite a bit actually lol) but I've finished it now, and it's on it's way across the lil' ole' pond.  

D'you want to have a look?

Here it is....

This was an action photo ( :D ) finishing off my last rounds..

See 'em?   I had to make four 17" x 13"  (!!) placemats with white and blue running through them..

I learnt a lot by doing this commission.

One of the things was as soon as you finish the job, post it off!

That's because I was going to post it this morning when I got back from the school run, but as I was packaging them (today was the day that I gave for posting them off),the school phoned to say they had to phone for an ambulance for my eldest daughter as she was having a really bad seizure.

So I had to rush to school, administer her emergency meds, then bring her home early and sort her out ...bless her. (She is fine, and this is a usual procedure :(  just in case you're worried)

She had a really bad one yesterday as well, which is why I didn't do it yesterday. But, I got them posted off in the end today, so alls well that ends well.

Second thing I learned was not to underestimate your postage weight (eh Jennie :o) )

BUT, I really, really enjoyed doing them, and I have learnt by my mistakes (no, really lol).

I've also been doing a small amount of patchwork. I used to do quite abit when I was younger, and I'd really like to do a bit more.  Not necessarily quilting, but I just like pretty, cosy patches.

I just used a thrifted piece of fabric, and crocheted around the edge, cos' I've found out that I adore crochet and patchwork together !

And when I finally get my childrens clothes (from when they were little) down from the loft, i'm going to patch and crochet a blanket :o)

I'd like to do squares with crochet joinings.

I've also got three of these on the go to pop in my Etsy shop..

They're lovely, lacy scarves. I have one sitting by my computer to do while I'm waiting for my photos to appear, one in the car, and another one by my bed (sometimes the one in the car gets transferred to my handbag to finish off while I'm in the post office queue LOL.

So if you see anyone crocheting in traffic jams (NOT when I'm driving I hasten to add) or in a queue, it's probably me  =)

We've been out inthe garden too this week. And here's our little tomato plants and beans and asters...getting bigger every day..

See these beans in a saucepan? well, that's my big old one, not one we use for cooking :0)

When the bottom kinda come away from the top, I couldn't bear to part with it, so made up a really good (not) excuse to my hubby that I desperately needed it to pop the runner bean seeds in. (not sure how I got away with that one, cos' I'm a terrible hoarder and it drives him nuts! LOL)

I have loads more to tell you, but i need some sleep now, so I'll try and pop back on Friday with the rest of my news.

Take it easy and enjoy the sunshine while we can =)

Love Donna xxxx

Happy Mothers Day ! :o)

Hello Lovely bloggy friends :o)

Just a quick post this morning to wish you all

A  HAPPY MOTHERS DAY !

Whether you're a mum or not, I hope you all have a lovely day today, and I hope the sun shines where you are :o)

I've been very busy this week, and I have had horrendous (to me lol) computer problems, so if I haven't said 'hello' to you on your blog in a while, it's because I couldn't.

But hopefully now (fingers crossed) everything is back to normal, and 'speeded up' a bit lol.

I've also been working on my first Etsy commission which I'll show you in a couple of days.

So have a lovely day, and I'll speak to you soon.

The flowers below are for you :o)

Take care,

Love Donna xx

Have a Great Day  :o)  xx