Butterflies in the garden ...

Firstly I must apologise for not blogging for a while...

I have just been so busy...up to my eyebrows.

I had to take some time off with the Easter holidays to spend with my son. I had some orders to finish and my parents were due to visit which meant a massive tidy up. My parents live in France and mum had to re do her passport...it was sent back as in the photos she was too close to the camera. By the time they had the photos re done, sent them back and waited for the return of the passport Easter was long gone.

My parents arrived on Saturday and needless to say I had to down tools and spend time with them as they were very much missed. 

You may remember this photo a few posts ago....

And this one....

Well...I finally finished it...

I decided to put it in the garden ...mainly as I could find no where suitable in the house.

I gave it a couple of coats of varnish....





and hung it on the side of my shed.

I had quite a problem working out how exactly to attach it and sorting through my tools I came across some white 'things' with nails in that are used to attach cable to walls...I think!

Anyway...they did the job. I did however manage to bash a lump of paint off when I missed the nail and hit the side of it by accident... 



To the left of the butterflies is a clematis that I am going to train across it..

and I planted some white Nemesia in the window box below it..

This may have taken me ages to finish .... but I love it !



This is just a little peep at a cupboard I have nearly finished...another on going job.

This is one of those things you think about for ages...mulling over exactly how to go about it...putting it off as you know it will be time consuming....and then starting it and sort of wishing you hadn't.



x

Hippie camper van ....

He he he ....I did this some time ago and thought you might like to see it...

This is my old car...

I have a parking space at the front of my house and when I wash up I can see my car thought my kitchen window....

When I open the front door.....

This is what I see.....

A terrifying monster staring back at me.

I know it's just a car...

And I can drive quite well....

But it has an evil ghoulish face....

A creature straight from hell....!!

A camper van is what I'd like...

With flowers painted on it.

I don't care what little power...

Lurks beneath it's bonnet.

I'd like to go for long weekends....

And trundle down the highway.....

I do not care what people say...

I'd like to do it my way....!

I wish ... x

Flooded garden ...

I have just realised that in April I will have lived in my house for nine years....

Previously I had  a three bedroom Victorian terraced house with very large rooms and I had a lot of furniture.

My son and his friend helped me move in and put the beds together so that at least we had somewhere to sleep. Charlie has the biggest room and at the time I had two single beds, so I slept in with him for the first few nights until he got used to it.

 That evening I sat on my back door step and viewed the garden with such dismay....it sloped down to the house with a path of large cement slabs down the middle...there were no plants...the grass was a muddy mess and the fence was just awful...a low chicken wire fence with grey cement posts. My furniture was stacked all in the wrong places and I knew I would have to part with many things in order to fit into this tiny two up, two down.

I sat and sobbed...

 

That first summer my father dug up the entire garden...he levelled it into two parts...dug me a border at the top, edged it all in bricks and re turfed it for me...it was really lovely.

Three years later it looked like the photo above.

It kept flooding so I dug up the grass on the lower level...raised the whole level by a foot and put down crazy paving on sand...it still flooded killing off many of my plants...we dug a soak away filled with a ton of pebbles...we put in a pond and my dad made the seat with trellis for me. I dug down about fifteen inches in the left hand border removing sack fulls of clay and re filled them with compost... and I built them up about ten inches.

 

I fenced the garden last year but bad weather stopped us from putting up the last panel. During the winter the fence started to lean backwards as I do not think we used enough cement.

On Saturday we dug out around the posts and added more cement pulling the fence upright and put up the last panel....I am so pleased... you can not imagine how much...at last it is private. 

There are buds on the apple tree...This is royal gala grown by Charlie from a pip..

 

 

I have raised flower beds at the top of the garden....they are made from an old wardrobe.

This is my washing line post which really bugs me...

 

 

I cut some plastic covered wire trellis and wrapped it around the post.. I planted some ivy to grow up the fence...

 

 

And....I bought this wonderful...evergreen clematis armandii.

 

It says...it grows six meters up and across....with scented white flowers in March...April and May....

This is when I wish my mum was here as she knows what she is doing....I very carefully planted it and unwound the leaves that had wrapped around each other and the supporting cane....I only broke two!

This should grow up the trellis and hide the pole....then along the cane trellis I made that adds height to the fence to obscure the view.

 

I have three other clematis growing up the back fence...also a honey suckle and Jasmin....They are climbing up bamboo canes that form part of a trellis I lashed together last summer.

I have my work cut out today.....I am designing a flyer to hand out and to post to my eBay customers. I don't think eBay will be very happy if I message them through eBay.....so I have to write and slip a flyer in with each letter.

I have been selling on eBay for over five years so I have picked out my regular customers ....and that is a lot of letters...a lot of stamps!

I nipped around to see my post office ladies ...bought the stamps ...got stuck chatting ..now I am behind as normal.

.................

I have a face book page for my customers...lovely ladies who are now my friends. Caroline, who I call my mermaid lady had sent me a message reminding me that she would like yet another mermaid. She has two gorgeous daughters and has been buying my mermaids for them and herself ever since I began making them. Caroline asked me to make her a mermaid similar to one which is on my old blog...a more grown up design...more of a decoration...

This is one of my little mermaids...the way I make them now....

This is the new design for my big mermaids .....

I made and sold several of these a few years back....I printed them .....

sorry the photo is not very good...

This is the mermaid Caroline would like, I sewed on sequins and embroidered the tail...she has a more realistic bust..a quilted tail and has a string of pearls. You can see the date on the photo... 2007... Sorry the photo is awful...I had a cheap, rubbish camera. I still have the pattern I designed, so I shall make some more, but I really do not like her face.  A few adjustments here and there are needed..... 

 This is another old photo that I found on my old blog. A mermaid clock I made from mdf...I went through a wood working phase. I love to paint wooden things but it takes me to long cutting out the wood.  I nearly sliced off my thumb right through the nail using a band saw. That was enough to put me off....shame....

If I ever come back to this world....I hope I shall be a hunky... fit... carpenter....



Thrifting ... A little house ...

I do so wish I could pick up my little house and turn it around...

My house faces South...the kitchen is at the front and the sun streams in through the window....Charlie's bedroom is the largest and is at the front...both rooms are lovely and warm. The front garden is in the sun most of the day...and although it is tiny, I can plant mostly what I choose.

Because the back garden faces North, the sun starts and the bottom and creeps up during the day, but never reaches the house itself. My living room is cold all year, only on the hottest days can I open the sliding doors which lead into the sun room.

The other problem with this is watering the garden. There is no outside tap and I hope this year to get some water butts and guttering up on the shed and sun room. The back garden is only about 40ft long but I have squeezed a huge amount in and grow my own veg.... I have tried a hose pipe through the house to the kitchen sink...but all I get is a flooded kitchen as no attachment seems to fit on the mixer tap... 

So the long and short of it all is that I have to use a watering can...the back garden needing 15-20 watering cans full every day.....hard work!

I worked from 8am this morning...chilly with a hoody over my tea shirt...fidgety as I felt cold. I could see the lovely sun up the top of the garden and longed to be outside.

I had my tea out there first thing and a couple of coffees....but I just had to get out...

I popped over to the charity shop....I walked slowly to prolong the experience of the warm sun on me.

And I bought this metal house hook, it was only £1....

My blog header ..

It took me a long time to work out how to do my blog header. I knew what I wanted, something that would me me, represent my style of work and look as real as possible. By real, I wanted the stitches to show up and I knew that a photograph would make it look dead.

The only way I could think of doing it was to scan it in.

I cut a piece of very thick interfacing the length of my scanner and half the width. I chose my main fabric and cut it large enough to wrap over the sides. The main problem was how to applique on the letters as they had to be thin in order to fit on.... I knew that if I cut them to size I would have a real problem in that they would move and could fray and even fall apart. Deciding how to go about this went round and round in my head for days.... Thinking through all the options I suddenly hit upon the answer...

I cut some paper the same size as the interfacing and drew on the letters. I wrapped the fabric over the interfacing and stuck it down with masking tape. Next I chose and cut the fabrics for each letter into oblongs and squares a little larger that my design and laid them in place, then I pinned the design over the top. 

I have a new sewing machine and had to look up how to lower the feed teeth and altered the tension to loosen it slightly. The rest was simple...I used free machine sewing to sew over the outline of each letter through all the layers. 

Free machine embroidery is when the machine just stitches and you move the material in the direction you wish...you can go in any direction...it is like drawing with a sewing machine... There are many videos on you tube that explain how to do this.

After outlining each letter I tore away the paper and did more embroidery around each letter with sparkly silver lurex thread... when I had the effect I desired I cut the surplus fabric away from around each letter.

I am very pleased with my header. I did not want to waste all that hard work so I have made it into a picture. I sewed some strips of pretty fabrics around my design and stretched it over a canvas.

The only problem being...every time I look at it ...I am reminded that I should be working !



Hampden Park Eastbourne

Yesterday was such a lovely day, that after working hard all morning I could resist no longer,I had to get out of the house and walk in the sun.

The reason I chose to move out of the town centre to this little village is because of the park. It takes me about eight minutes to get to one of the entrances, I think there are about four.

The whole park is surrounded by woodland with little paths that you can explore. The squirrels are not at all shy and will come right up to you if you feed them. There is a path that go's around the lake and various different gardens. The park has tennis courts, bowling greens, a play park, football pitches and a cafe.

 This was our first walk of the year and everything looks a little bare. They have put temporary fences around to protect the newly built up banks and nesting areas. Last year we saw Herons in their nests. There are ducks, swans, geese and sadly too many Seagulls who fight for the bread thrown in.

Between the trees you can see the cafe.

We bought ice creams and sat on one of the many benches watching children feeding the ducks.

The trees are still fairly bare, but as we looked up we could see nests.

 I found the trees fascinating .



Embroidery ...buttons ... thrifting and my cat ...

What a lovely spring day...I must admit I could easily have spent the day in the garden.

However tempting.....I had to work. First things first... my car had to go in for it's mot.

 Whilst waiting with fingers crossed that nothing was wrong with it, I went on a continued search for some pea green material. I make owls....I make pussycats...and have been planning in my mind to make some pea green boats........ I have hunted every shop that sells fabric with no luck at all....I have green material, but not pea green...I wonder do they make such a colour....

I did buy some new embroidery threads....I wanted pink, black and white, but found it was actually cheaper to buy an assorted pack. I wonder how long they will stay all neat and tidy...how long before they join the tangled mess with my other threads....

I also bought these cute wooden heart buttons .....

And....after a quick look around the charity shop....I found this....

Well I never....another cat...very similar to the one I bought Charlie. So I bought him for Charlie as well, even though he is not keen on the first one...I like him. He was only 45p !

After a wash and brush up...here is my new stripy cat. Charlie thinks the new one is worse than the first.....I think they are fab.

And here is Bloopy having a snooze on what was my bed throw. He likes how squishy it is...you know..when cats do that pawing thing before they lie down...he purrs so loudly whist pawing it for ages that Charlie and I end up in hysterics. ....

Oh...and my car passed its mot..it just needed new wiper blades.....so all is well...

Handmade gift fabric Easter chickens and chicks ....

I sold a lot of these chickens last year, so I have made a few more....They were great fun to make...I thought of speckled red hens and found just the right fabric for their heads. After a sort through my fabric stash I chose the material for their bodies ...curtain weight cotton with a print that looks like feathers.I sewed a pocket on the front and popped a little chick in....All four are just about the same...

Cute little felt chick.....

You can see the chickens are quite large...I made this one for Echo...I put a few tiny eggs in the pocket with the chick...

Handmade fabric bird decorations ....

Today started off with a broken glass...not the thing you need before your morning cuppa.

Having told Charlie many many times ...not...to take water to bed in one of one of the tall ,thin glasses...I was somewhat annoyed that it lay smashed beside his bed.... Accidents happen...I have broken many glasses. I did not care about the glass, but I do care about cut feet...especially as Charlie is allergic to antibiotics.... Luckily he had not cut himself. I cleared it all up and sat in the sun to drink my tea.

I drink my tea in the garden every morning of the year, unless it is actually raining or snowing. When it snowed I put on my wellies...tucked in my pj's and put a coat over my dressing gown. I cleared the snow from my seat and sat on a newspaper....

I like the fresh air and space...because my house is small I feel shut in...

I finished my fabric birds so now I can put them on my shop...

I have tried many ways to do birds eyes but I am happiest with using these little iridescent sequin flowers and tiny black beads....I have to use a very very thin needle as the holes in the beads are really tiny.....

I also did a bit more work on my butterfly wall art thingy....I don't know what to call it !

This is work in progress as I am not quite sure what to do to it....or what to do with it ...

Today has wizzed by......

Handmade fabric bird ....

I was woken this morning by Charlie holding a lovely cup of tea and a mothers day card.......he made a fuss of me today. William, my middle son sent a card and phoned me...Peter my oldest son sent a text...he came to see me yesterday...Along with the sunshine, that was all I needed to make my day  special.

Charlie was doing his own thing...so I made the most of the sun and walked to B&Q in search of a roll of wallpaper to pretty up a cupboard I wish I had never bought... There was nothing I liked but I enjoyed the walk.

My parents moved to France about five years ago...I missed my mum today. I sat in the sun at the top of the garden and phoned her from there....we chatted until my phone battery died...

I hung out the washing and gave my bracket another coat of paint....It took about three coats of quick drying satin paint to cover the black...you can see how it looked before in the previous post.....

This was after the first coat of paint.........

Whist I had the paint out .... I painted this butterfly thingy. I bought this in the sales after Christmas for £1.25...It is metal and I thought it had  potential......By the time I had done this I noticed it was raining and my washing was soaking wet ....

I struggled a bit screwing the bracket to the side of the shelves.....There is never a man around when you need one ! How come men can do this sort of thing in five minutes...where as it look me ages...mind you it is on straight, more than I can say for the last thing a man put up for me.... 

I had intended to finish off all my birds today.... but it was one of those days ...I spent too long chatting on the phone..and too long chatting on line.... never mind...I had a good day and at last my bird cage is hanging up complete with a pretty little bird....

Happy !....