Jolly Days & Cosy Nights

Our tent

I started this post just after we got back from our lovely camping weekend at Jolly Days, but as always, other things need to be done first, and my blogging took a bit of a back seat.

We did some walking......

Some balancing......

some dam building (dam removed afterwards btw).

We built big dens......

.....and little dens.

We hunted for fungi......

gazed up at magnificent trees.....

and bathed in the last few golden rays of the year.

T52MMMC week 4

Well it seems that I have somewhat trailed behind in the 52 MMM Challenge but I have not been completely idle in the creative sense.

During the summer hols I decided that at the beginning of the new term I wanted to start an after school club; making stuff using affordable materials e.g. secondhand, recycled or just plain cheap (the local pound shop has proved useful for curby grips and hair bands so far!)

But before I even started the club I needed to design a poster. I used this opportunity to have a crack at Photoshop. I don't have the full creative suite, it's out of my budget at the moment, but I did get Photoshop Elements 4.0 free when I bought a Bamboo drawing pad on ebay.

Since I installed it at the beginning of the year it has remained unused, until now that is. Now, I am not one for sitting and reading through tutorials for computer programmes, I just like to fiddle about with it and then perhaps get some useful little tips after I've mastered the basics.

At first it was slow going, it took at a least a couple of hours to work out how to add a image to a layer; it wouldn't let me copy and paste or open and insert, but I eventually discovered that the option "Place..." under the "File" tab was what I was looking for, and after that it was rather easy.

Anyway this is what I came up with, and I was really pleased with the finished article.

Most of the images I have used on it were free downloads from the lovely blog, Pugly Pixel, which I stumbled over a while back, and I am so glad I have finally been able to use them for something. The lace was a download from the Martha Stewart Weddings website.

So the poster is my week 4, and since then I have hosted three weeks of my little Craft Club; in which we have made the bow hair grips from here, the pom-poms from here, and we made a start today on a cute fabric corsage from here (the first blog I ever read). So I think that brings me up to week 7 which isn't as bad I originally thought (Although I need to photograph and blog them to make them count.

On a completely different note; tomorrow, Danny, Ella and I are going away for a long weekend with friends which I'm pretty excited about (it will be my first holiday this year). We are going glamping here. It's 20 mins from York, it's in a forest and has a woodburning stove, real beds, and our own real toilet and shower. To top it all off it looks like that the sun is making and appearance in England this weekend, whoo hoo!

photos from the Jollydays facebook page

Looks lovely doesn't it! It is also Ella's 7th birthday on saturday so hopefully it will be a memorable one for her. I can't wait to get there and see if it is really as lovely as it looks in the photos.

I'll let you all know when we get back.

x

T52MMMC week 3

I did make this last week, honest, I just didn't get round to posting until today as I spent most of last week in the beautiful city of Bath, doing lots of shopping. Luckily while I was in Bath the weather was beautiful which is more than what I can say for the weather in Essex recently, we are feeling a bit soggy here at the mo, which is a bit ironic since last weeks make was a garden sunshade!

These pictures where taken in a bit of a hurry in-between rain showers, so aren't the best.

I bought this lovely heavyweight cotton fabric last year in a slightly odd, but pleasing fabric/coffee shop in Maldon (the smell of coffee wafting up your nose while you fondle fabric was quite soothing).

At the time I thought it would be lovely to use it in garden somewhere, either as a giant outdoor floor cushion like this, or some sort of sun shady thing. But it spent over a year taking up precious space on my fabric shelves until now.

The sunshade has garden canes threaded through the back and front to help keep it's shape and is held up with a combination of cup hooks, eyelet screws and some washing line, so it quite easy to take down and roll up when the weather is yucky.

I don't know about you, but all the flowers in garden are starting to look a bit worst for wear now, but these newbies look gorgeous in my french stacking crates I got for the boot sale the other week £10 for 3!

This is one of a pair of deck chairs I got two years ago, I managed to make a new sling for this one last year, but still haven't finished of the other one, so that's another job for the list.

Please pray for a non-rainy morning for me tomorrow, as it car boot day in Marks Tey and I missed it last week while I was in Bath!

T52MMMC week 2

Yesterday, whilst washing up my latest car boot haul from the Marvellous Marks Tey Car Boot (no, seriously, thats what it's called), I decided that my new-to-me mini jelly mould would make a lovely votive for a candle. Then I thought I'd go one better than that since I'm on 'the make' at the mo and make it into a candle.

Now, I don't have any candle making equipment as such, but in typical me style I just had to make it NOW.

So after locating my stash of Ikea candles, I quickly got down to snapping and chopping them into bits, removing the wick to use for later, and melted all the bits 'bain marie style' directly in the mould over a gentle heat. Once the bits had melted fully, I gingerly removed the mould from it's hot bath and balanced a skewer with the wick tied to it until it all solidified 'et voila!' one candle.

I can see candlemakers around the world covering their face in horror. I've probably used the wrong type of wax, the wrong type of wick and completely the wrong method, but it looks ok to me, and it was fun to do on a whim and I think that's what the 52MMM challenge is all about.

I'm going to visit my Mum & Dad on monday morning for a few days. Ella and I are going by train to Bath where my parents have recently bought an apartment. It's in Sydney Place, which is but a stones throw from the Cath Kidston shop, not to mention a whole host of other lovely places. How exciting!

Cath Kidston fame!

Well not for me..............

But my lovely sister-in-law who, back in June, was sent a load of fabric by a lady at CK HQ and asked to turn it into lampshades. Fast forward to the beginning of this week and imagine her joy when she discovered they had been used in the new catalogue/magazine and on the website

Unfortunately these babies aren't available to buy from Cath Kidston, but lucky for you, you can snap one up over at The Old Lamp Shed. Just don't forget to mention me when you make your order (I have to earn some brownie points to convert into lampshade credits!)

Alternatively you could snap up one of these vintage style pretties or choose the bespoke service of recovering a old favourite lamp shade in a fabric of your choice.

The 52MMM Challenge week 1

That stands for 52 marvellous makes madness challenge.

The challenge is to make one thing a week for the next 52 weeks, and that doesn't include dinner!

O.K, so I was a bit slow on making a start, but this week I made my first thing. A cute little blind for the spare room/sewing room. made from a vintage embroidered tablecloth and a bit of lace from my stash.

Very simple, it's unlined, without any rods, and just pinned to the window frame, but I sewed on some rings and threaded it with cord so it goes up and down easily. I'm really pleased with it!

Looking at the photos now, I probably should have given it a bit of an iron, but hey, I'm not known for my ironing skills!

While I was fiddling about I decided that the ikea lamp above the bed need prettifying too, so I tied a ribbon in a bow and clipped on a old china rose earring I had in my box of trinkets.

Kitchen Makeover

This year the possibility of re-doing our little kitchen has arisen. We inherited the old one from the previous owners when we moved in nearly 5 years ago now and although it had been done fairly recently, it was and still isn't to my taste. It has dark wood cupboards with multi coloured tiles in terracotta, dark green, blue, beige and brown.

When we moved in we had to replace the cooker as they had removed the old one (freestanding) and we also replaced the worktop to a solid oak one from Ikea so we could install a built-in cooker. That was the only thing we changed as we just didn't have the money to do anything else.

My plan was to paint the cupboards ivory and change the tiles but that never happened. It looks even worse now as I have a hole in the plaster and a lots of copper piping snaking it's way round the wall when the old boiler was removed and a new one installed on the over side of the wall last year (that still hasn't been re-plastered and boxed in.)

Anyway, this year Danny announced that he was fed up with the freezer being in the outhouse and the tiny built-in under the counter fridge in the kitchen and he wanted a big fridge freezer (which would mean removing the cupboard we keep the saucepans and losing a precious section of worktop space). So I said that if he wanted to do that then we had to move the washing machine to the outhouse and get in plumbed in so we could free up some space (the tumble dryer is in the outhouse so I think that would make sense, creating a separate utility area out there).

So with all this moving about it makes sense to replace the cupboards rather than repaint them. I would like off-white colour cupboards, we will keep the oak worktop and just add ice-cream coloured china and enamelware. Sort of like this........

(www.countyliving.co.uk)

So when I received an email from Voucher Codes telling me they have just launched a lovely new money-saving lifestyle blog (Most Wanted), and wanted me to suggest 10 gorgeous items under £50, to inject some new life into a room in the house that was looking a bit tired, I knew that I should choose the kitchen.

So here is my top ten.....

1.

Nantes Pendant Light

£40

Garden Trading

I have been lusting after this french style pendant light for at least two years and it is definitely top of my list.

2.

Vintage Rose Dinner Service

£4-6 per item

Graham & Green

I love collecting floral vintage china from junk shops and boot sales, but this dinner service is so pretty and it's a very reasonable price too!

3.

Cream Metro Wall Tiles

£21.50 per Sq Metre

Topps Tiles

I love the simplicity of these brick style tiles. They are very fashionable at the moment, on the Fired Earth website they cost over £60 a square metre, but these are a third of the price! I can easily re-tile my kitchen splash backs for under £50 with these.

4.

'Eat Your Greens' Hand Pulled Screen Print

£18

Keep Calm Gallery

I discovered the Keep Calm Gallery website when I first started blogging and love their collection of quirky screen prints from a talented selection of artists, designers and print-makers. Most of the prints are from limited print runs, so you can easily afford to own a piece of limited edition artwork. This one, by Hayley and Lucas, the sites founders would look perfect in a Kitchen.

5.

Grooved Bone Door Knob

£2.95

Graham & Green

These carved bone door knobs would give a bespoke look to bog standard kitchen cupboards.

6.

American Milk Glass Pitcher

£30

RE

RE is one of my favourite websites, I first discovered the company about 6 years ago when I was sent one of their mail order catalogues, and I've been a fan ever since. I love milk glass, and I love jugs, so this pitcher would fit in a treat in my kitchen on a old painted shelf amongst some pretty china.

7.

Dualit 72402 Kettle in Cream

£50

John Lewis

I need a new kettle, my old one is covered in limescale (we live in a very hard water area) and this one would look lovely in my new kitchen. This was the cheapest I could find it. Good old John Lewis!

8.

Etched Glass Sweet Jar

£24

Graham & Green

I love glass jars, and have them filled with things, like shells ribbons and buttons around my home, but they also look good filled with sweet treats like sugared almonds, bon-bons, meringues, and vanilla or cinnamon sugar.

9.

Enamel Ladles

From £7.50

Chandlers

A selection of pastel coloured utensils hung above the hob would add splash of colour as well as being in a useful spot.

10.

Zinc Storage Box

£14.95

Rockett St.George

Here this lovely rustic wire storage basket has been used to store magazines. But I can just imagine a group of three hung on a wall in the kitchen to store pots of herbs or glass jars filled with rice, pasta, cous cous and other dry ingredients.

Liberty Print

Wow, I'm so proud.

My little sister Liberty has won the Clothkits Vintage at Goodwood Competition!

and here is her entry, inspired by all the festivals (aviation, motorsport and horseracing) that Goodwood host throughout the year with a fifties twist.

Her fabric design will be printed and turned into a dress that will be shown on the catwalk during the Vintage at Goodwood Festival.

Hipstamatic love

tardy

2 months......2 months!

Don't get me wrong, there has been many a time when I have had something that I've wanted to blog about:

My birthday (which, indecently, was the day after my last post back in April), Thrifty finds galore, garden love, Hipstamatic appreciation, bargain floral high street finds and my lambswool CK Fair Isle Blanket to name a just a few.

But possibly the most exciting is my new chickadees. Bought with some of my birthday money, I finally took the plunge and they came to live with us exactly one month ago.

Meet the girls................

(from left to right) Bluebell- a Bluebelle, Primrose - a Heritage Skyline , Violet - a Maran Cou Cou and Snowdrop a - Bovans Silver.

They came from the lovely Kirsty at Hens 4 Homes and were only 16 weeks old when we got them, so I knew we might be in for a bit of a wait before we collected our first eggs.

So imagine my joy when I discovered this small but perfectly formed and gorgeous coloured egg two weeks after they arrived.

Laid by my favourite, Primrose (Skylines are a Cream Legbar cross and can lay either blue, green or pink eggs depending on the hen) I'm so pleased she is a greeny-blue egg layer! She is laying an egg a day now.....

.....and Violet laid her first little speckled egg yesterday and another today, so we are finally starting reap the rewards of all that feeding and fence building.

I have to say that I'm in love with them, I have managed to waste a good hour a day just watching them scratch about after I've let them out of the run when Ella and I get back from school. Ella loves them too, and she has scooping them up for a cuddle down to a fine art!

I shall leave you with some photos of my little patch of cottage garden, the Peony blooms (Sarah Bernhardt) have fully opened since I took this photo and I've had so many this year that I've cut some to enjoy indoors. I so love their raspberry ripple pom-pomness.