Planting And Pottering

I hope that everyone has had a lovely Easter weekend.

We all went to my parents yesterday for dinner and had one of my sisters yummy turkeys but as the weather has been brilliant here, we have spent most of our time in the garden, planting and just pottering about. I did try to remove some of our dreaded weeds at the beginning of the weekend and the backs of my legs are still complaining about it now ( that's how used to gardening I am ). I'm not that keen on doing things that need to be done in the garden such as cutting grass and hedges and weed control, just the nice things like planting.

I took some cutting from this Clematis for my dad as he wants another climbing plant to cover their pergola. I also sowed some basil, celery and pepper seeds. The peppers are mainly for my in - laws as I had grown this variety ( Sweet Orange Baby ) a few years ago and gave them some plants. They loved the peppers from them and have tried to find this type in supermarkets but haven't found anything like it. I was pleased to see that the strawberry plants we had last year have survived and the raspberries are thriving ( I do need to move those though ).Also the plant pots we have at the front of the house were looking extremely bare so they were planting up with some petunias. Little L sowed some sunflower seeds and cress.

Some wildlife new to Lydie was spotted like this nest of baby spiders, which she wasn't overly impressed with and a centipede, which she loved. At the moment she has a baby frog in a bucket and is a bit concerned that its mummy isn't about so I had better go and join the hunt for mummy frog.

Skull Book Marks

I made these quick book marks yesterday using scraps of felt and ribbons

Using one skull shape, I sewed on the eyes ,nose and teeth using small straight stitches. I then sewed the two skull pieces together, inserting the bone shapes as I went along until I reached the chin part of the skull where I inserted a length of ribbon then sewed shut.

When I cut my ribbon off to the length that I wanted I dabbed on a tiny bit of clear nail varnish to prevent it from fraying.

I think this skull would also be suitable for making into a nice brooch or hairclip.

Its Finally Caught Up With Me

.... the horrible lurgy which has already taken hold of the rest of the family. I did think that the nasty germs had forgotten about me but they have decided to start their attack today so now I'm blocked up with a terrible feeling head. The good thing is that everyone else is on the road to recovery.

These funny looking characters are what I've been making over the past few days for my boys. Both patterns are from The Knitted Odd Bod Bunch book. Being aged 12 and 13 they usually consider themselves too old for any sort of soft toy but they both like the funny looking creatures from this book.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and stays lurgy free.

Meow

Today I finished off these two kitties. The pattern was a free one found on the Wee Wonderfuls  site. Both are made using recycled/ upcycled fabric. One started of as a pillowcase and the other from a curtain.

While I had the printer going I also printed off the paperdoll download from the same site. It was the first time Little L had played with a paperdoll and she was getting a little frustrated when she couldn't get the clothes to stay on so found her stickers and used those to help the clothes to stay put.

A Splash of Colour

We have had glorious weather here again today. Great for drying my washing. While I was in the garden yesterday with Little L, I noticed my plants are slowly coming to life ( along with a fair few weeds ) and took some snaps.

These purple primulas are one of the first to appear in Spring. I love these because they only cost me about £1 when we moved here nearly 8 years ago and even I haven't managed to kill them off yet.

The first splash of colour

A bud emerging

The first frog that me and Little L have seen this year which was very nearly a dead one as Little L didn't see it and nearly squished.

I hope the good weather is here to stay for a while, its been lovely.



A New Creative Outlet ..

for my school friend Stewart.
He amazes with the things he can do with Photoshop and Cinema 4d. Maybe its because Photoshop just doesn't sink in with me. I go on it in short bursts and forget anything I have learnt so the best I can do on there is a bit of digital scrapbooking. These are just a couple of pics that he has come up with.

His new creative outlet is photography. Some of his work can be seen here on Photobox. I especially like some of the photos in the Manchester collection and the pic of the carousel in the Ireland set. Stewart has also just started up a blog, OUTLAW ALIEN DIGITAL WORLD. ( He has been very busy for the past few days )

Stew has been told by many of his friends , including myself, how talented he is so I'm glad to see that he is now putting his work 'out there' for everyone to see and I wish him all the best with his new venture.

A Weekend Of Celebrations

It has been a weekend of celebrations here. Firstly my lovely niece turned 16 on Saturday. It only seems like yesterday when she was born and I was visiting my sister in hospital for my first peek at her. The years have just flown by.

Here's a photo of her aged about 3 months.

She spent her birthday at Manley Mere on the Adventure Trail with some of her friends where they all happily got caked in mud.Which they washed off by jumping in the lake before they went home.

As yesterday was Mother's Day, I was woken by with a card and some toast for me to eat in bed (which I did, mainly over my husbands side) and received some lovely pressies which Little L kindly opened for me. The white object in the photo is a dressing gown. Thank you boys and Little L. I hope everyone else had a lovely Mother's Day and was spoilt rotten.

I couldn't have a day of lounging about though as it was also my parents 40th Wedding Anniversary.My parent's on their wedding day with both of my grans, my mums twin brother and one of my cousins.

Me and Jay had decided to do a buffet and have us all together at my house. (My house as its the closest to my parents and we can't get to my sisters as neither me nor Anders drives). So after my toast it was to the kitchen to start on food. We had discussed on the phone as to who was making what food. Jay made all the cakes and considering she had never made a big celebration cake before she made an excellent job of the anniversary cake.

These are the chocolate cakes that Jay made. They were gorgeous, Little L couldn't get enough of them even if she was just eating the roses and licking the butter cream off before asking for another one. I think we did get bit carried away with the amount of food that we made though as Jay took some home with her and we have a fridge full here. It was the first time we have made a buffet between us though so we know for next time - its only for our family, not the whole street. Everyone had a great day and I think I'll still be hoovering up the odd piece confetti here for a few weeks yet.