Pretty Things

Summer is here and it's time to take it easy and do a little bit of pretty hand sewing.....using some wonderful (but in parts damaged) old embroidered linens and making sweet lavender hearts.....with added vintage buttons...

 .....i love to see what there is in my button box that i can add to a new project.....sometimes i find just the kind i want, like this ivory coloured flower button.......

....my love of buttons is well known in cross stitch circles :) I have been adding them to my work for many years and  love to collect them, both vintage and new, including handmade decorative ones and bright colourful ones...

.....i bought this beautiful necklace from emma at silverpebble recently...i couldn't resist the sweet vintage mother of pearl buttons interspersed with tiny found objects like glass flower beads, a carved bone bead, and pressed glass button....such tiny treasures ...... emma is having a giveaway at the moment so you could win one of her delightful necklaces too if you pop over here...........

 ....when i received my parcel i was so thrilled to find that emma had also included this delightful little piece of vintage petit point embroidery and some beautiful cream cotton lace...how kind and thoughtful, thankyou so much emma......

 .....pretty flowers picked this weekend from my newly planted cutting patch....everything is growing happily now that the sun is shining again and the first roses are beginning to open on the climbers so i'll be snipping some of those later to enjoy indoors too................

 ......if you have been a reader of this blog for a while you will have heard me mention janet bell before.....i love her paintings and visit her gallery in beaumaris on the isle of anglesey every summer when my hb sails in the regatta there.....janet is one of the few bloggers i have actually met.... i have so much of her work in my house i could almost open my own shop :)..... this picture of beaumaris hangs in the bedroom usually but i moved it to a brighter place for a photo.....on the right you can see the new tea towels janet sent me featuring her sweet seaside print....i will show you more of these later as i am going to make something patchworky with them....
....the reason i am mentioning this today is that janet has just come back to blogging again after a long break....she had a new baby and painting break and we missed her very much....janet's was one of the first blogs i read regularly and she is a lovely lady and very talented ...i know she would love it if you visited her here............

 

...........this weekend has been amazingly hot here...we go from one extreme to the other......so i am going to spend the rest of the day outdoors, reading old letters in the shade and sipping tea..........

.........and sewing some more buttons onto my little handmade heart.........i hope you are having a lovely weekend too....and that you have a happy week ahead.....(i will be busy baking the jubilee cakes this week and hanging up the red white and blue bunting)........thank you so much for visiting me here............back soon xxxxxxxxxxxxx