Productive

Although the battle against the weeds is never ending, I am starting to reap what I've sown.

Cornflower and Love-in-the-mist

Sweet Pea Matucana

Spinach and Chard, Mangetout Shiraz, Raspberries, Strawberries and Blackcurrants.

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.

Blooming gorgeous

I'm enjoying the sunshine here in Essex, and so are these beauties.

R is for..............

....Ranunculus.






You don't get much for 39p now-a-days, but whilst in Tescos last monday - shopping for a few essentials (milk, bread and Battenberg cake) for my elderly grandparents, I spied these beauties, reduced from £5. There was a couple of broken stems, but I could see their potential

......and Rob Ryan



My lovely limited edition laser-cut (my blurry photo doesn't do it justice) . Rob designed these especially for valentines day, and I managed to get my hands on one before they all sold out. My sister Libby introduced me to Rob Ryan's work a couple of years ago, and last year started doing some work experience with him. Since then she has started working for him a couple of days a week, and loves it, lucky girl!

thrifty thursday

Since wednesday is a car boot day for me I have decided to do a weekly 'thrifty finds' post (mmm.....I wonder how long I will keep it up?) 

pretty mop buttons, some more embroidered tray cloths, and china posy earrings without their clips

a new rose enamel bowl

and my favourite, a vintage rose deckchair, not my usual colours, but I love, love, love it.

It wasn't for sale, the man was just using it to sit on, but a persuaded him to let me have it for a fiver.

nothing to do with thrifting, but I thought I'd share some photos I took a couple of weeks ago of my rapidly multiplying potted flowers. It such a nice change from this view.

Reasons to be cheerful No.2

spring flowers


my first attempt at crochet


now I just need to go shopping for yarn !

Floral beauties

Finally some decent light as arrived in my neck of the woods, so I thought I show off some of my newest pretties.

newly arrived carved rose cabochons from here

gorgeous Christmas presents from my family......

a lovely nest of tins from my brother

a beautiful CK box file from my sister

and the prettiest floral oil painting from my parents

two of my favourite recent thrifty finds......

this white linen embroidered table cloth with wide cotton lace edging in lovely condition for £2.50. 

and this dinky little souvenir jug "A Present from Brighton" for 50p

and last but not least, my new favourite mug, dainty design, but large enough for a decent dose of tea.

Library Love

I have recently discovered a new way to curb my online shopping habit, and since I know a lot of you are trying to cut back, I thought I might share it with you, although I'm probably one of the last to catch on.

I don't know if anyone else does the same, I window shop online. I go on to Cath Kidston, Cox & Cox, or Amazon just to name a few, and add everything I would like into the shopping basket, only to never check it out, or delete most of it till I'm left with a bill a lot more affordable.

So it was on one of these imaginary shopping trips on Amazon, and with a rather long list of wishes, that I suddenly thought, why don't see if have any at the library, so I phoned.
My first request - did they have anything by Cath Kidston? The answer - no not here, but there is one due back soon at another library, and apparently could order it to arrive at my local library when it was available, for the cost of £1 per item, or, and this was the best bit - I could do it online for free! Yipee!

Previously, although I've been a member of the library since I was a child, and later renewed an interested when Ella was born, I have struggled with them. I used to go in and just browse, and although I generally came out with something, it usually wasn't what I was looking for, mainly because someone else had checked it out already or it wasn't where it should be, so my trips to the library were normally time consuming, and involved late fees too as I was pretty crap at remembering to take things back in time.

But all this has changed, I log into my county council's ELAN catalogue online using my card number and password, and I can search for a book, dvd, or cd that I'm after, and in one click I can reserve it, even if they don't have a copy at my own library, and have it sent to the library of my choice, and then they send me a text message (or phone call or email - so you need to let them know your number or address) when it's available for me to collect, I go in, and it is sitting on the reserved shelf with my name wrapped round it, and that's it. quick, simple, easy. I can also renew them online, review my reservations, and see when they are due back.

So now I have this lovely lot for three weeks, I have been adding to my iTunes library for £1 an album, and for another £1.50 I can keep dvd for a week, much better than one night from the video shop (which, incidently, I haven't used for a year due to a £7 late charge because I forgot to take two dvd's back the next day). Ok, I know you can't get the lastest releases as quick as the shops, but I managed to reserve the first copy of Sex And The City, the movie last month before it arrived at the library, so I was the first to get it.

I'm sure there are plenty of you that have been using the library online for years, so forgive me if I'm recounting old news, but I'm sure that there are still some of you, like me, that had forgotten to use this resource, and the excitement of recieving a text to say something has arrived for me is just as good as a new parcel from posty.


Yesterday morning in the garden, I couldn't resist getting the camera for this blue sky


the back door


newly planted window boxes to colour my winter months

Oh what a beautiful day...

Frilly tulips...


Pretty forget-me-nots


This striking little fellow


does anyone know what it's called?


one of my car boot treasures, 20p unfortunately it has a hairline crack, and no saucer, but it is so beautifully delicate and hand-painted too, if you look carefully you can see the tiny brushstrokes.


The perfect lunch on a warm sunny day


I made this simple pasta sauce from a tin of sainsburys taste the difference cherry tomatoes (49p a tin) that I discovered the over day, a little bit more expensive than your bog standard tinned tomatoes, but definately worth the extra.
I made it with what I had left over in the fridge and what I had in the garden so very cheap and low effort.

1. simmer the tin of tomatoes on the hob with a few sprigs of thyme (or basil, parsley, oregano what ever you have in the garden) and a 1 or 2 crushed garlic cloves for about 10 mins, stirring occasionally, and squashing some the tomatoes with the back of the spoon if you want.

2. stir in about a tablespoon of low fat creme fraiche (if you have it) to thicken the sauce a little (although the sauce in the tin is quite thick already) season to taste, and heat through for a further 5 mins.

3. tip the sauce into the pan of cooked and drained pasta and stir through coating the pasta, letting it sit for a minute or two allowing it to soak up some of the sauce.

4. serve in a bowl crumbling over some feta or goats cheese (or grated Parmesan, what ever you have in the fridge really) sprinkle with a few fresh thyme leaves (or other fresh herb), bit of black pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil if your feeling a bit like Jamie.

5. Crack open a bottle of chilled white wine!

I would say this would do two generous bowls of pasta, but for more, just double the quantity.

Sometimes it snows in april

But it's nice to be cosy indoors with a cup of tea....



This week I'll be busy uploading this lot onto the website....



lots of pretty floral china, waiting patiently to grace someones dresser



I also wanted to show you some books.....



the one on the right I bought from Ella's nursery, because last year my mother gave me the one on the left. It was my great grandmothers, and she owned it in 1916



The new version is very funny, and makes me giggle out loud when I read it, so if you come across it (I got it from The Book People for £4) I would definitely recommend it.
I just wanted to show the the preface from the book on the left, published in 1914.....

"If this book had been written many years ago it would have contained more pages about needlework and fewer about out-of-door exercises. Each year, however, shows how fallacious are those no more conventional notions concerning the limitations of women, for men are being eclipsed from time to time, not only in the examination room, but even in the field, upon what they had considered hitherto to be their own ground.

How gracefully and well does a woman ride a bicycle usually; how hump-backed and ungainly do most men appear upon the same machine! Moreover, girls do not throw away the good they have won on the hockey field, and in the swimming bath, by imbibing whiskey and other absurd concoctions, crowding into hot billiard rooms and bar parlours. Thus it is easy to see even now as we walk along the streets how girls and women are surpassing boys and men in carriage, health and intellect.

It has not been possible in this book to exhaust all the subjects that have beeen mentioned, but intelligent girls, having selected their hobbies, will find means to purse them beyond the limit which space has imposed upon us in these pages."

I don't know about you, but I was surprised how forward thinking it was!



I have recently received a couple of lovely packages that I wanted to show off.
I won this gorgeous little needlecase in a giveaway over at Florence Hope, thank you very much Ladies!



and this morning postie brought me this lovely package from Beata at Rosehip, I'm so chuffed I managed to get this one from her Etsy shop, as they where selling like hot cakes, and each one was bought up as soon as she listed them! I was determined to get one made with this pretty floral fabric - just by chance, does anyone know where I can buy this fabric from, or what it's name is?

Finally I thought I'd let you know that I am going to be at the East London Craft Guerrilla Craft Fair in Walthamstow Village on 26th April so if your about, come on down.