Well hello lovely bloggers :o)

Hope this post finds you all fine and dandy this cold Friday evening ?

Apologies for not getting out and around to you all the past couple of weeks, but things a been a bit down here at Little Tiny Towers.

Hopefully things will pick up a bit now a few problems have been sorted out, but next wednesday is a BIG DAY for us as we go back up to Kings college London to get the results of all my eldest daughters tests from last October! Remember?

But I'm hoping it won't bring on more stress! So keep your fingers crossed for us my dears won't you?

Anyway, I'm here now, so I shall make the most of it:o)

Guess what?

Go on guess!

Okay, I'll tell you...

We had SNOW last night !!!  WOOOHOOOO!

I got seriously over-excited when it started snowing, and when I was up at 3am this morning, I wanted to go out in it!!

This was our garden at about midnight....

This was 7.30 ish this morning...seee it's going already!

I always love the way that the snow or frost stay on this little tree, it always makes me think of a mountain :o)   (See how many real-life mountains I've seen? lol)

Well, that was my most exciting piece of news!

***~~~***

We had an un-expected visitor to the garden this week too..

No, not Mr Blackbird, he was one of the unfortunate casualties from our visitors visit..

We've recently been having a Kestrel come and visit us :o(

Whilst he is a most handsome bird, it does make me sad to see all the little (and big!) birds flying everywhere in panic.

Mr Kestrel sits on our fence, and picks off the little birds from over next doors garden as they eat from their feeders :o(

Mr Blackbird ended up a casualty as in his panic, he flew straight into out conservatory window. A load of feathers came out of his head which means in this weather he's going to have rather a cold head, as well as a massive headache from the bang he got.

He sat there on the window ledge recovering for about half an hour bless him.....

Alas peoples, Mr Kestrel was a bit too quick to take a picture for you......But I have my eye on him.....

***~~***

I really haven't been up to much you know, other than stressing!  I have several wips...I have lots of thrifted bits still waiting to shine on my Etsy shop shelves, and I have a couple of presents to send out, which I'm sure are going to sprout their own legs if they have to wait any longer!!

***~~~***

But I have got one thrity find from a good few weeks back now.

Whilst visiting one of my local charity shops a while back, I came across this little paperback type book..

Called 'Flower Festivals'....

It's the most charming little work of art I've seen in a while, and I think what's so nice about it, is it's just *so* English and 'olde fashionde'.

It was originally a handmade book from a lady to her friend who was celebrating an anniversary. 

The page above reads :

This book was created for me by my friend Meriel Hodgetts for a special anniversary present.

It is too beautiful to keep to myself, so together we offer it to a wider circle.

May it bring much pleasure to many people is the wish of Marion Cadbury.

I just think is is so delightful and beautiful..

With the most detailed drawings.

There are twelve pages in all, one for each month of the year with the flaura, fauna and little celebratory festival for that month.

What a thoughtful and precious present it must have been to receive!

Have you ever found any books that you think are just so special?

Well, that's it from me this week my dears.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Be you having a mini holiday, (:o)  or snuggling up out of the cold, take care now won't you?

Love Donna xx

Books and thrifting

Well, Happy New Year Bloggy friends!

Hope it's been a good one for you all so far :o)

We've had quite a stressful week, so I've just taken an hour out -me time- to catch up on my post writing, and do a bit of sewing.

I'm still on track for new makes and a re-vamp of my Etsy shop, it just might take me a bit longer than I planned, but that can't be helped :o)

We went for a lovely walk yesterday in that bit of sunshine we had.

We followed a path that used to be an old railway line. Theres a few of these around our area.

Goodness knows why that let them get into disrepair, and then get rid of them. Public transport isn't too hot around here, and a few trains would be a Godsend!

This was some poor persons garden with a tree down in it from the storms last week!

Here's a picture of the river Stour. Totally swollen from the storms till, and raging along..

And below is Ringwood, and old market town which I have to say looked really pretty over Christmas this year. But alas, everytime we visited in the evening, my camera was safe at home...

I found a few thrifty bits over Christmas.

Heres are some very pretty candle holders. Ilove having candles on, and these were just so bright and pretty I couldn't resist them for £2.

And I found this little old (well tiny) sewing machine. It has no markings on it what-so-ever. I thought it might be one of those 'Vulcan' sewing machines, but it isn't.

And I couldn't find one like it, so any ideas would be greatly received :o)

I've also been looking through this gorgeous new book I got for a New Years present..

It really is one of the best making books I've seen...

the colours in it are divine...

And I would never of thought of knitting (not that my knitting is too hot!) or crocheting an apron, but I bet with the right yarn, it's gorgouse!

It has crochet in it too...  I've seen throws like this in blogland already, so people must have got this book quite a bit before me :o)

And socks . Ms Brocket knits the most divine socks!

I love this simple pattern style on these cushions..

And these cute little vintage style flowers are so pretty..

I'm definitely going to try and make some of these little beauties for my new brooches...

Lovely colour everywhere..

All in all, a very good book. Not just beautiful to look at, but really lovely patterns, and totally stress free things to make.  :o)

I've been card making again too...

And this was the sight that faced me when the Mister picked up the Christmas tree to take it outside!

How comes there were that many needles on it left to fall ?   LOL

Well, that's it for today folks. Hope you all have a splendid week dearies.

Take care now, and wrap up warm.

Love Donna xx

The photos below are especially for Vicki and Georgia.

They are from my sewing book from 1946.

The ladies in the book always look so glamourous! Even though they're just drawn.

They just have such style :o)

Have a good week all :o)  xx



" Bring me sunshine....." 'Morecombe and Wise' -remember?

Hello lovely bloggy people :o)

I do hope you're all fine and dandy this extremely-hot-nearly-the-end-of-September-(what-on-earths-going-on)-day!

My little cars thermometre read 32 degrees today!!!

I'm not that happy about it I can tell you (miserable woman I know :o))

Well for one, me and Mr LTS both have the lurking end bit of the lurgy. So being a hot day has just made our temperatures soar.

Two, where was the blooming sun when we needed/wanted it in the school holidays? Hmm?

And last but not least, our big car that fits all of us in is at the garage for the next few days, so we can't go jolly-ing about in the sunshine for any fossil hunting :o(

(I hasten to add that it is only in the garage after losing the blooming key and thinking we would have to fork out £200!! (yes, extortionate I know) to get a replacement key/card from Renault in France!

I found said car key yesterday sitting neatly on a bike seat in the garage. -this was after searching the whole house and garage for days and NOT finding said car key!)

So now the car is in the throes of being re-paired from his other problems later than he was due to, hence he's not here to drive!

Anyway, enough of that.

I would just like to mention that me and Blogger are in the middle of a falling out too.

I keep leaving comments on blogs, and as soon as I press the 'post comment' button, they keep just disappearing off the screen into blogosphere!

So to all the lovely people whom I usually visit, I have been visiting you, and commenting, but I don't think you've been getting my comments unless they are invisible to me and not to you!

I will have words with Mr Blogger at the end of this post, and see what is going on :o)

OOOooo, I just thought, if he's got the right sulks, I won't even be able to post either will I?

Oh well, if you're not reading this, I can't do any posts either :o)

Now, I was going to post this post on Monday, under the title 'Monday Makes'. Original huh?

But alas I didn't get round to it, and I couldn't think of a 'making' type of title begining with T, so I thought I'd just mention the sunshine :o) Well, I mean I could have called it 'Monday Makes on a Thursday', but that wouldn't have really sat right would it?

Well, this is what I made anyway..

I made this Alsation/German Shepherd quilted stitchery. (I love the word Stitchery. Jennie mentioned it on her blog the other day, and i just fell in love with it. I mean I've heard it before, but it just kinda sounded good to me, right there and then :o)

D'you like it? (The stitchery I mean, not Jennies word)

I'm still a bit unsure about it. I mean, I'm no expert sewist, but I just SO LOVE scraps of fabric. And I always just want them to be sewn together.

 I have a few quilt panels sitting around doing nothing, so I thought I'd just stitch 'em up and see.

But i would like some un-biased thoughts on the subject if you wouldn't mind.

I've put this up for sale in my Etsy store just to see if there's any interest, as I would like to make some more.

So let me know what you think now ok?

Be honest ya hear?

Otherwise I can see me and my loved ones drowning in a pile of my little stitcherys :o)

Goodness, I could be yacking for England tonight couldn't I?  LOL.

I think it must be cos' of that dodgy Mr Lurgy doing his lurking business and stopping me from yacking to everyone around me.

So now I've got all this business off my chest, I'm going to get an early night with my current crochet project/love so's I get up all happy and beaming tomorrow to get up the school, and fight a battle for my eldest :o)  (tell you next time ;o)

Take care now, enjoy the sun (don't forget your lotion and sun brolley) if you live in England, and I hope you get some sun if you live elsewhere :o)

Have a great weekend,

Love Donna xx