Easter Time

 Spring time...easter time....flowers, blossom, sunshine, speckled eggs, pretty coloured easter decorations....no wonder it's one of my favourite times of the year.....i do love to get out the box of easter treasures and arrange them each year, and maybe add a new one or two......

 ....this time i have been a bit late getting the house decorated....but gradually the eggs are appearing....

 ....and some chicks and bunnies have hopped into place too.....as i mentioned before, i have been busy painting and drawing book illustrations,  and though i can't show them until they are published, i can show you this little watercolour i did of two of my favourite bunnies, flora and little maisie..........

 ............we often get together with family over easter and this year my sister ruby is having a  party on easter day   :-).........we also love to garden of course and have already had a visit to a beautiful garden centre today and bought some new plants...........i picked a few flowers for this tin in the potting shed......

 ....just need the weather to warm up and the sun to peek out a bit more and we'll be happily planting seeds...

 ....below are some of my beautiful new blocks from fee at chipper nelly....i really love these birds' egg ones, and they decorate my studio so well especially combined with lots of things i've collected, like the tiny hen in the chipped flower pot nest i've had for years....these blocks are so pretty i love finding different ways of displaying them......

 .....the sweet gingham ribbon has arrived for my easter hearts and i have almost finished making them now...

              ..........sewing on the last buttons before wrapping them up in coloured tissue paper..........

....last view of the flowery, speckled egg wreath on the potting shed door......before i go i just want to say a big thank you to everyone who contacted me about my little broken bottle with suggestions of where i could buy a replacement....i'll keep you posted...it's looking good so far ;-)
........i'm looking forward to the weekend to come and i hope you are too....thank you for popping in here to see me, i love your visits.......wishing you a wonderful weekend and a very Happy Easter.....back soon xxxxxxxxxx

Flower Patch

The flower patch quilt is steadily coming along, stitch by stitch.......there are just four applique flowers in the centre.....the rest of the white squares i've left plain to show off the flowery fabric patches....though i have dotted a little butterfly here and there....................

 ..........after a day working on the computer or on drawing and painting, it's nice to pick up a needle and thread and do some of my quilt in the evening...........very soothing and a bit addictive......just one more patch.......

                       .....as you can see there are lots of butterflies fluttering over this flower patch...........

                                                                              ....one more.....

.........here's a view of the flower patch quilt spread out on my desk......with a big bright chicken bringing a seasonal feel to the picture.....(it's a very useful chicken money box, that i'm putting all our loose change into)...

 ...........besides finding things to decorate the house with for easter i've made some more little hearts as gifts...

 ...........they're not finished yet, i was waiting for some gingham ribbon to arrive and now it has, so i'll be sewing it on and adding a few buttons too..........hope the girlies they are for are not reading this ;-)

 .......here is a picture of a real flower patch......a bit of my garden that i am filling with flowery plants....i have got all sorts of things planned to go in here, some grown from seed, some ordered from a special nursery, some from our local greengrocer's and some from a car boot sale....i love to pick up plants anywhere and everywhere....

...........these are a few snippets from the flower patch, in one of the little bottles from my tiny crate of six....except that it is no longer a crate of six as one little bottle got BrOkEn last week :-( ...........if anyone knows where you can buy just one of those little bottles from do please let me know...my email address is on the sidebar :-).........
Thank you for calling in to see me today, it's always a delight to have your visits....wishing you a happy spring week......we are looking forward to the easter break and have already cracked open the first mini eggs.........i hope to be back here before easter though so see you soon   xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Happy Days

The sun  is shining, we have bright spring flowers, there are blackbirds singing outside my studio window.....happy spring days are here.....and before i tell you more about the last few crafty days i would like to announce the winner of my springtime giveaway........a big thank you to everyone who took part i wish you could all be winners but there is only one today, and that is......birdie blue.......a sweet blog that i love to visit! congratulations to you molly...i will be in touch x...........  i've been thinking up more giveaway ideas so will be having another one soon............. so good luck everyone in the next one...............

 .......recently i mentioned that i was making some granny squares with the yarn left over from my spring flowers granny stripe blanket.....i crocheted them together with spring green yarn and then i added.....some flowers...

                                            ............so it became the primrose patch pillow..........

 .............i love making crochet flowers....and on mother's day i was delighted to discover i wasn't the only one in our family making them..........my daughter sarah learnt to crochet a few weeks ago, and i knew she was busy making a gorgeous stripy blanket.....but i didn't know that she was also looking on the internet and learning to make flowers to make me a sweet mother's day brooch...!

 ........happy days....seeing my dearies....having sweet gifts like these......wonderful pip studio jug picked specially for me by rosie ...eton fudge shop deliciousness......pretty cards and flowers........

 ....a delightful mother's day block which my daughter secretly ordered from fee..........and CaKe of course (not made by me).......yummy lemon drizzle cake with vanilla sugar lemon topping.....and there were scrumptious chocolate buns too but i didn't manage to take a picture of those..........the children were very keen on munching those up and daisy loved the squishiness of them and the exciting potential for chocolate-y decorating on everyone and everything ;-)

 .....you can tell it's spring because a little chick flew into my studio last week....master willow is cheeping happily here thanks to jooles.....i missed out on the little robins that jooles made at christmas so i got my order in quickly this time for a spring chick........i was a bit spoilt for choice as there were so many cute little chicks to choose from.....

....this week i am sorting out seeds to plant.....i am planning to have my usual sweet pea wigwam and next to it the beans wigwam, and then a few salad vegetables.......and a little bit of spare ground is going to be a cutting patch (i hope!)....so maybe this year will be the floweriest year ever in our garden...?  
Thank you for visiting me here in my little flower patch of blogland....i love your visits and it's been fun reading your comments on my giveaway and meeting so many lovely new (to me) bloggers....wishing you all sunshine and happy days..........back soon xxxxxxxxxx

Patchwork and Pottering

 Two of my favourite things...patchwork and pottering in the garden....and i did some of both last weekend.....

 ...we were able to garden properly for the first time this season....i weeded and mulched one of the borders (mulching sounds quite professional don't you think?) and Mr P did lots of his favourite kind of gardening... that is, pruning things ;-).....we were both very contented and it was lovely to sit outside and have a cup of tea again in a sheltered bit of the garden, with the sun shining and the birds singing (and some homemade tea bread from the Mary Berry Baking Book).........

....and then a bit of pottering in the potting shed for me....with some new spring plants to either pot on and enjoy indoors or to decide where to plant outside......

 ....weekend breakfasts.... i just love that leisurely feel to a weekend morning....are you noticing  lot of CK things appearing here?......there is a reason for it which i will show you in a moment.....

 ...........a quilt i made a while ago, inspired by CK fabrics, especially the gorgeous blue strawberry one, my regular breakfast cereal bowl...... and a cute little CK badge on a gift that arrived this week.......

....lady luck has smiled on me again this week and i won the Cath Kidston Patch book  in the giveaway at the gorgeous Mary Jane's Tearoom....so exciting...(here it is being pictured with my Strawberry Hearts quilt..)

 ...a big huge thank you to Susan for this wonderful giveaway ...Mary Jane's Tearoom is one of my favourite blogs....not only do i love all the delicious colours and pictures, but i love to see Susan's original designs for her knitted mice and bunnies, they are so delightful....if you don't already know this blog do go and visit, you're in for a real treat.....

 ....it was lovely to be back in the potting shed again, i have swept it all out, tidied it up and found my gardening things again....it really feels like spring is here once i start to garden once more.....

 .....a bit more patchwork....this is a peek at a new quilt i've been slowly working on over the last few months...it will have more applique and some colourful quilting....i will be back with another update on it soon i hope, as well as another farmer's wife block......yesterday i taught my elder daughter how to begin to crochet a granny stripe blanket...i think she's hooked.... she rang up today to say she's now on to the third stripe :-).....

......i love my crafty things, they make me sooo happy....and it's always wonderful to hear that it makes others happy too.....thanks for popping in to visit me here today, it's a pleasure to see you.....enjoy your week, i hope you find lots of happy crafty moments, and the sun shines for you too......back soon xxxxx

Here, There and Everywhere...

 The title of my post today refers to the contents of my studio, which are now spread here, there and everywhere round the middle floor of our house as the new flooring will be put down on Monday....

 ...so I decided, when the afternoon brightened up and the sun began to shine with that special autumn brightness that it would be a good idea to pop down to the potting shed....

 ....gathering a few windfall apples on the way as I don't like to see them being wasted, however marked and misshapen they may be....

 ....some of the tiny geraniums I bought in Ambleside in the spring, and a little slate sign for messages given to me by a dear friend (the fact she bought it from the shop at Kew Gardens for me makes it even more special)...do you find your writing goes funny when you use chalk on a blackboard or is it just me?....

 ...sunshiney apples...these are lovely cookers maybe I'll use them for an apple cake this time.....

 ...red berries against the blue sky, something I always love to see, the same way I love blossom in spring....

...a little peek at some studio odds and ends scattered about, some recently discovered....jars and boxes of buttons, (open up a little drawer in a little box and what do you find....some thread, some lace, a starfish and a shell)...a LoT of sorting is required before things go back into the studio again...some old artwork from a folio, shells and feathers was the theme in those days....and containers stuffed with threads, adhesives, and a whole host of bits and bobs.....oh well, after Monday we can begin to make everything orderly again...not long now....

I hope you're having a wonderful weekend and enjoying whatever you are up to....thanks so much for dropping by to my little space, hello to my lovely new followers and to everyone who comments or visits...back soon xxxxxx

Sweet September

 September is a special month for me for lots of reasons...it's the month when my twin baby sisters were born, and it's the month when my own first daughter was born too ...on the day after my sisters' birthday though many years apart ;) ...and although it means the end of summer there are often still warm and sunny days to be had in September...lots of plans to make as schools and colleges go back and we look to settling down to  new projects again after the summer holidays...I feel the most nostalgia in September for schooldays and starting college terms...I picked the sweetpeas above this week, we still have plenty flowering but I know they won't be around much longer, especially as the wigwam of canes almost blew over in the blustery rainstorm one day this week....

 ...this is a sweetpea scented candle in a vintage cup, bought from a lovely lady at a craft fair in Devon...I put the candle in my studio but at first the scent was so overpowering it made me sneeze and I had to move it out until it diminished a bit...it's fine now, and I'll look forward to lighting it a little later in the season when the real sweetpeas are over....

 ...sweet treats...the chocolate vintage buttons from Hotel Chocolat I got for my birthday, shared with special friends and made to last...almost too pretty to be eaten really which is why they've lasted so long...

 ...a little last taste of summer...lavender cakes...I just make my usual simple all in one sponge recipe by Delia, but add some lavender flowers to the icing...put them in a tin overnight and the cakes are infused with the lavender oil next day...they smell and taste delicious....

 ...still flowering and bright....the pots outside the back door....this year I mean to bring the geraniums inside to protect them for next year...sometimes I forget to do this until the first frost and then it's too late....

 ...we have been picking loads of beans which we luckily love to eat...I like finding them amongst the leaves...simple pleasures...and picking some of the mass of herbs to dry or freeze for winter use....

 ...crafty wise I found some sweet fabric to use for the binding of my quilt...this green flower sugar is a new one...yes, another flower sugar fabric I've just discovered...here it is on the ironing board about to be ironed and cut into binding strips...the quilt is almost finished and I hope to bind it over the weekend...

 ...and although I haven't mentioned my new crochet love for a post or two I have still been doing some hooky playing around and when my quilt is finished it will be a big hooky project next...

Thank you for dropping by, I love your visits...wishing you a wonderful weekend of peaceful, happy, sunny, cosy, crafty times....back soon xxxxx