Tin Garden Lady

It was my birthday last Tuesday, I had a lovely day with Chris and Rebecca.  Lunch in the mountains, super presents and wonderful company.  Chris gave me a little fun pressie a tin garden lady who dances in the breeze. Scented candles, super earrings, essential oil difuser, beautiful necklace and the cutest hefferlumps aww, there is a story behind the hefferlumps but I shall save that for another day, to list a few, really spoilt.

I have been working on the samples for the charity craft day and I am quite pleased with the results, few more to do and more kits to make up.  I even took photos along the way for the fabric flowers and with Chris's help turned it into a tutorial sheet.

Rebecca and I are counting down the days until we are off on our adventure.  Just 6 days to go.  We are flying to the UK to visit Daniel and Shine, can't wait to collect the hugs and cuddles, spending some girlie time shopping together before Rebecca continues on to visit her oldest and best friends.  

Seems lots still to do and organise as I want to order some supplies so I can bring them back with me.

Better get on with it then!!

take care  

A little history

I have been thinking about a post for today for a while now and I was even more inspired by  Jo's post of yesterday which was the delight of researching family history and photographs.

Eighty seven years ago, the 17th April (1927) fell on Easter Sunday.  This was the day my maternal grandparents had chosen for their wedding day.

The story was covered in the national newspapers as this was to be the last time weddings would be carried out on Easter Sunday.  In addition there were a total of 6 couples tying the knot at the same time in the church of St George the Martyr in Southwark.

Beck (24 years old) and Sam (22) were fourth in line and there were two vicars conducting the ceremonies 

They certainly had their fair share of events, with a mixture of good and not so good, they had two children  5 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren, and they celebrated their Diamond wedding anniversary (60 years) in 1987.  We organised a surprise party for them to celebrate with family and friends and they were thrilled to receive a telegram from the Queen.

I made them a two tier cake making cameos of their initials and their wedding photo, decorating it with flowers and little cupids made from royal icing. 

Grandad helped out on the Courage brewery drays when he was a young teenager, often taking the reins when the driver had enjoyed a nip too much, apparently the way to get the liquor from the barrels was by sucking on the pipe then quickly inserting the pipe into the pub barrels, if you weren't quick enough you got a mouthful and I'm sure they didn't spit it out! lol,  Grandad had such a way with horses, (just as Rebecca does) and he continued working with them nearly all his working life in one capacity or another.  It was this theme that I wanted to portray and I set about making a pair of horses with a carriage, if I remember rightly I ended up making about 12 wheels as they were rather fragile just to make sure we had 4 good ones.  It was all made from royal icing using 0 and 00 nozzels with the horses being 3D using relief flooding.

The joy on their faces was so lovely and made me really glad I had made the effort for them as they had always done for me.

So I hope you haven't minded me sharing a little family history as we enter into the Easter weekend, hope everyone has a lovely time

take care

A simple pleasure

Sometimes it's the simplist things that give lots of pleasure - Do you know what I have just had for breakfast? no of course not, well it was a beautiful soft boiled egg with soldiers.........perhaps nothing out of the ordinary, but for me it was such a delight that I haven't been able to have for years.  You see I have been intolerant of eggs for years and just recently started to try them again, very slowly and fingers crossed as long as I don't over do them, it seems to be ok.

Yesterday I was very good and wrote a post, including photos and just when I was nearing the end, you've guessed the computer crashed ggrrrrr...........

I was helping out at the Cancer Care boutique again, date culling and sorting out the craft supplies to give me some ideas for the craft taster afternoon.  I also spotted two new pairs of sandals, a nice long floaty skirt and a fancy cardi and just had to bring them home with me............Having gone through the materials I thought of doing fragrant shoe stuffers, fabric flowers for either hair or brooches, sashico mug rugs, perhaps a simple hardanger, then the creative juices slipped so I shall have to think of perhaps one more, hopefully these could all be done within the two hour time frame.  

Last week I took in one of my little knitted rabbits and yesterday one of the ladies asked me for the pattern as she had felt inspired to pick up her needles again.  Isn't that great! so lovely to keep all these crafts alive.

Several years ago I planted a few sage plants and I know that they should have been thinned but when they produce a wonderful display of flowers like this, I really don't want to disturb them

the photo doesn't do the  flowers justice, they are much darker, a very vibrant purple

The Valerian is a bit of a pain as it grows in any nook, cranny and crack and is so hard to get rid of, but it does give a pretty splash of pink

We have revamped an overgrown bed where the roses had gone to briar, the geranium has certainly taken advantage by spreading its roots

This pretty little rose is rather out of sight being where the washing line and the satalite dish are, so I don't mind cutting some of its blooms to bring inside where we can enjoy them

I also wanted to thank everyone for your get well wishes for Rebecca - she is feeling better, it just takes her longer to recovery these days.

Off to play in the craft room..........

take care 

Busy busy

Been a busy day but for different reasons than scheduled.  I was supposed to accompany Rebecca to another hospital appointment, but overnight she had succumbed to a tummy sickness bug so the last thing she needed was to be poked and prodded so we cancelled.  Poor love, lets hope its one of those 24 hour things.

Anyway, I have a 'man that does' for the garden, we only have about an acre, but what with my fibro and Chris's hand it can soon run away from us. It was his day today and despite all ways of trying, the strimmer just would not work, but that meant he could help me with the tubs etc. so he did all the heavy lifting and pot moving whilst I had the fun of planting up the tubs.

Some of my seedlings fell by the way side, what with the wind and sand and a little help from the furries, but I transplanted 3 tubs of sweet peas, seedlings of marigold, french and african, along with nasturtiams, I love using them in salads as it gives a nice peppery taste and the flowers are so colourful, and some very pretty flowers Chris had brought home, lobelia, gerbera, a sweet miniature rose.

My french beans seemed to have been hit quite hard as their leaves have the appearance of being scorched. Oh and a snail has had quite a nice dinner off some plants. In Devon the enemy was the dreaded slug, here its the snails.  The pumpkins are showing through and the peas need to be transplanted into the ground, which the gardener had prepared today, bashing the clods into submission to make a finer tilth.

Kieran really doesn't mind what jobs I find for him, be it gardening or general, he came over with us when we moved here 7 years ago but that is another story! anyway I knew we had lost some roof tiles on the Casita, but as we were wandering around we noticed the Naya roof had been badly damaged by the winds along with the Ria Rue.  Kieran gamely climbed up the Casita roof to fix the tiles but it seems the wasps had got there first and were extremely angry that an interloper dared to come any where near their nests.  So that is going to be another days job armed with the necessary spray to keep him safe.

Oh and Beccie Boo and I are off on an adventure...............flights booked, countdown begins..........

take care xx 

Been fighting the fibro................hate it!! Right that's out the system..............

Here are some photos of the recent dust storm, such a mess, all the plants are still caked in the stuff.  We have a white tiled floor in the kitchen, you can imagine the state of it with 8 furries wandering in and out.

I have put down quite a few different seeds and made some cloches from the 6L water bottles, unfortunately the wind just picked them up and hurled them around the courtyard taking some of the pots too, we did manage to scoop up some of the seeded soil, but will have to start again with others.

Some of them are now ready to be moved on and need pricking out, but we shall have a nice colourful display, including sweet peas, marigolds and impatiens

Last week I submitted my first assignment for the Diet and Nutrition ecourse, after a few nail biting days I received my results, gosh how many years since I had been in that position? I was really chuffed to see I had passed comfortably and be ready to move to the second one.  We are still in the A & P stage but having bought some of the further reading material |I can see this being really interesting.  I am also finding I had already established a considerable amount of the recommendations in our daily menus, especially being in the Med, some with knowledge and some just because it felt right.  Key word moderation

The only thing I have completed on the craft front is another little rabbit, this time with a dress and jacket, for the baby box.

For the last couple of Tuesdays I have been helping out in the Cancer Care boutique and just happened to mention in passing that I liked to craft, now they want me to organise a taster afternoon for people to visit and try something new along with a cuppa and cake. Got a few weeks to think of some kits to make, but wasn't quite expecting that.  

Right must go and bring in the washing, take care