Garden update - part 2

The garden is definitely coming on, now that the chickens have been moved into their new permanent residence, even though they are still moaning about it. There was even an attempt of a break out this morning, but I won and they remained enclosed - just!

The pea shoots are nearly ready for eating and have done so much better than the proper packet peas that are down at the allotment, unfortunately these are suffering from bean weevil attack. 

The strawberries are in flower

And I've now also got more spares from the allotment in hanging baskets

The beds are generally coming along. We've planted some cabbages, rhubarb (swapped a crown for half a dozen eggs with a fellow allotmentee), chard and have bean poles at the ready. The roses are in bud and if you look very carefully you can see some bits of green in the dirt that was once a lawn.

But the star of the show over the last week or so has been my lilac and I love it - its flowers and its smell.

Now I know that its not the garden of Eden and it never will be but it has really come on in the few weeks from this....

And in a few more weeks it will look better still.

Sold? I hope so.

Guess what, I've sold some tote bags, well I don't actually have any money for them but they will be sold, or so I'm told.

I have today passed on six bags that have kind of been pre ordered - hooray. Mind you I've gone through a lot of fabric, so maybe I will not go out just yet and spend, spend, spend.

I'm really pleased with them though, I even made little lavender sachets and put one inside each bag, together with homemade labels. Hopefully the added touches will be appreciated and I should find out on Thursday how they go down. 

By the way, there are six, not five as in the photograph, one is a duplicate.

On Friday I'm picking up a work table. I've no idea what it looks like but its free and will run along one wall of my craft area, otherwise known as my very small conservatory. My moaning the other day has definitely paid off as I now also have some storage for my fabrics.

For a long time I've had a painted chest of drawers in storage that needed stripping. Unfortunately, once the gloss layers had been removed it became apparent that the pine underneath had been stained. A bit of a blow, as its a real pain and a lot of work to get back to the original wood once someone has done this to a piece of furniture. So Roy worked really hard on the top to get it right back to the good wood and between us we decided to leave the rest of it part stripped and waxed the lot. Definitely shabby chic, or a mess, whichever way you look at it, but I really like it just how the way it is.

Can you see my attic24 birdie decoration I made last week? Rhiannon said the eyes on mine look like dead fish eyes, due to the white buttons and she is right.

I've also designed a new headband.

The daisy headband

A new house please!!

I thought that once I had left work my house would look like a shiny new pin. But no, it actually it looks worse than ever, a bit like a university art classroom. There are ongoing projects all over the place, bits of wool and cotton that have got caught on peoples feet and walked through each room, bits of paper that I've been making templates with, paint brushes in jars, books in piles and fabric in no order at all. And don't get me started on the dog, Labrador hair is just awful, it drifts across the floor like the weed in a western, no matter how much you brush him or sweep up after him. 

I need more room, or at least a room dedicated for my use only. My very own hobby room, or even better the dream house that I keep going on about with an outdoor garden room just for me. I can see it now, a pretty day bed, a kettle, lots of shelves for my books, an old cupboard for storing my fabric and a proper sewing table. I'd have roses and lavender growing outside and maybe a little porch with a rocking chair. Dream on I hear you say, we all want that. But I am determined that one day it will be mine and hopefully before I am too old to enjoy it too.  

Anyway enough of the moaning and daydreaming, today I managed to get some photos of my finished cardigan with my great niece wearing it, thank you Mia.

But I think my favourite has to be this one.

And now at least there is something new in my shop.

Craft Juice

I've been having a bit of a confidence crisis lately when it comes to my crafting ideas, Folksy and blogging. It's not that I don't enjoy doing any of it, I really do, its just that sometimes you wonder if there is in fact anybody out there!

So today I started getting to grips with doing a bit if networking, well I was pushed into it actually and joined a site called Craft Juice. 

I added the picture of my hat that is for sale on Folksy

and low and behold so far I have received the most amount of votes for the day. Now that is a confidence boost.

My hippy headbands

Over the last week I have been making headbands. 

I started with a pattern but moved on and decided to do some with my own designs. I'm really happy with how they have come out.

A wide band from Loop Vintage Crochet. The problem with this one is that I didn't use the wool recommended and it is probably a bit wider than it should have been, but hey I learnt how to do spike stitch.

The following are my own designs which I am hoping to be able to sell in my Folksy shop. The pink one has already been taken by Rhiannon though and very pretty it looks too.

I also wanted to see if I could make a fabric one and made this one reversible. I'm very happy with this one.

I'm definitely going to be making more of these, but will first need to buy myself a thimble for the fabric ones, as my fingers are still aching.

The third hottest London Marathon!!

Today is supposed to be one of the three hottest London Marathons ever! 

It looks like the weather men have got it wrong again though as I've got up this morning and its raining, the first rain in two weeks actually.  I'm sure the cooler weather will make things easier for the runners but we had plans today based on the sunshine we were promised and running was definitely not one of the things on my agenda. 

First thing this morning we are going to a car boot sale, if I can get Jourdan out of bed to come with me that is. I'm looking for fabric and china. The fabric can come from any garment really, as after a wash I want to have a go at making a rag rug. The china I want to break up and mosaic a table for the garden. I've figured that its all very well having plants and flowers again, but why not have pretty furniture out there as well, I might even go as far as making some cushions for the bench, one day. 

We've also been invited to Rhiannon's for a barbecue this afternoon. Maybe it will be an indoor one again, just Mark standing outside in the rain, lonely and cold, cooking with the rest of us watching him through the patio window, cheering him on, enjoying a glass of wine and keeping dry. Or maybe it will brighten up over the next few hours and be glorious, yeah right!

Can I have a pea please?

I can't tell you how much I am enjoying life not being at work. I get up every morning and can't wait to see whats sprouting each day, or how much each seedling has grown. Its quite sad really especially when I shout in from the garden "Look Roy, come and see! we've got a pea shoot". The first one popped up on Monday and now each day they are getting bigger and better. A couple of weeks and we will have pea shoots for our salads. Not bad from a £0.24 box of dried peas from Tesco.

We've been working on the allotment and have dug up most of the remaining parsnips, I don't know how many kilo's we have but a lot are now in the freezer and some I have made into a pie. A parsnip, cabbage and apple pie, which sounds weird even to me, but the smell of the mixture is lovely. I'll update on the taste when we've eaten it and if any good I'll add the recipe. We still have a whole bucket load of parsnips to deal with over the next couple of days and I can feel a soup coming on as well as some parsnip and sage bread. 

Whats also been great this week is that I have hardly had to shop at all, I needed an apple for the pie but everything else was here. I made bread when we ran out of the shop bought and a feta and pea frittata from the eggs that are supplied fresh each day. I'm going to try my hand at home made yoghurt soon to go with the granola I also made this week. We've been eating sprouted pulses each day, which I love and generally we are getting a much healthier diet now that there is more time to think about cooking.

I've been doing some crocheting and made a little cardigan for my shop, but first I need to borrow a small child to model it, just as well I know one as I had no intention of stealing one.

I've also started a headband for Rhiannon, in the colours requested.

On the downside there are bills to pay and one of the big expenses is the car. We had to buy four and yes I do mean four new tyres this morning to get it ready for the MOT. But looking on the bright side I got to walk around the pond in the industrial estate while we waited.

I have to say I never realised how noisy geese were, maybe they will be taken of my list of future animals I want once I get my land.