My Sewing Room

I'm a VERY lucky lady.  My hubby has made me a sewing room for the bottom of the garden.  This idea has been in the making for 2 years, ever since he made a summerhouse for a customer and has some materials left over.  I kinda joked that he could make me on ...... and so two years later he did!

He pre-made all of the panels in his workshop and this weekend we erected it.  It's in the veg patch at the bottom of the garden, a perfect peaceful place. 

 

 

Isn't it lovely? 

 

List of jobs still to do:

• Re-paint doors and windows
• clad the inside
• stain inside cladding
• choose and lay flooring
• choose and fit electrics
• move in furniture

I can't wait!!

 

Three Counties Show, Malvern

Last weekend we took ourselves off to the Three Counties Show at Malvern and it was a really good day.  We saw lots ....


I was VERY interested in the honey as I'm starting a beekeeping course this winter, in time for me to have my own hive next spring.  How exciting is that!!!  I'll do another post all about this and show you some pictures from an open evening I went to.  Anyway, back to the show ..... can you believe that honey can come in so many different colours.

They had a farrier competition and boy, did they work hard! 

I couldn't resist taking a photo of this guy. 

Now, how cute is this fellow.  So curly and soft and cute, cute cute. 

This little man was so friendly.  His coat was soooo thick and dense, I couldn't stop feeling it. 

I wonder how nervous these guys were, stood waiting for the results. 

I thought these two looked lovey together.

So pretty! 

Baby cow, mummy cow and daddy cow ..... now, where is Goldilocks?? 

This man was such a handsome chap.  Really, really picture perfect and deserved all of his prizes you can see pinned up. 

I felt so sorry for this young lady.  The pig rang circles around her .... literally!  She had no control over her and spent the whole time running around the enclosure trying to keep up.  It raised many a giggle and thankfully she was laughing too. 

Isn't he just a perfect looking judge? 

I can not tell you how noisy these little girls were, my god they made such a racket! 

It was such a great day, with load to see and do.  We can home really tired after walking around for five hours, but it was worth it.  We're hoping to go to another show over the summer and see some more lovely animals, because they really are my favourite part. 

Meet Miss Merryweather

Get ready for cute kitten pictures!

 



 



Isn't she gorgeous?  I was so surprised that we got her, I'm still pinching myself now .... hubby wasn't too keen on cats you see.  We used to have a cat called Misty and we got her before we had the kids and.  She was 13 when we had to have her put to sleep and she wasn't the friendlist of cats, not a lap cat by any imagination.  That was around 10 years ago and the kids and I have been asking for one since. 

We were thinking about getting another Hector ......

 



.... we found a breeder but as they were a working kennel they dock all the tails and wouldn't be able to give us a puppy with a tail on, so it was a no go!  For me, it wasn't meant to be and I kind of flung a throw away comment about getting a kitten instead and think how much easier it a kitten would be and how much cheaper a kitten would be (£840!!) and how it will catch the rats that we always get when the farmer cuts the fields etc etc.  Surprisingly he said yes!! 

 

Then we had to find one, not as easy as you think as it had to fit in with us being away for a weekend and the kittens being ready to come from their mother.  But, we got there in the end and I am sooooooo happy with her.  Even hubby likes her and I often find him watching her with a smile on his face.  She is super cute though, so it's not hard.

 

I can't tell you how nice it is to have a cat in the house again and it makes it just a bit more homely.  Especially when I go upstairs and she is curled up on my bed.  #heartmelts

 

If you're wondering about her name, one of the fairies in Sleeping Beauty is called Merryweather and when ever I've gone on asked about a kitten, she was always Miss Merryweather, just the same as Hector was always going to be Hector. 

 

The kids have shortened it to just Merryweather, but that's fine.

 

Anyway, got to go as I need to help hubby build my sewing room .......................... eeeeekkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk!!!!!



 

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Cards On Show

I love collecting cards and find it really hard to walk past a Paperchase shop with going in and browsing for a while.  If I see a card I like, I'll buy it but then I find it really hard to give away.  The trouble is, the cards are put away in a drawer and not seen. S'not good!

In February we visited Conor in Falmouth and I went into my favourite shop there, Willow and Stone.  It is a fab shop and I have bought several things from there, including this wrapping paper which I'm going to get Irwin to frame for me.  I think it's too nice to wrap a present up in for it then to be thrown away.  They have lots of cards, postcards and posters and I saw a really good way of displaying my cards that I have at home and I recreated it at home.

I chose this area in the living room to display the cards.

This method is quite easy and only involves some string and fancy paperclips!

Pin the string up, hang the cards up with the fancy paperclips ......

and then you have your cards out on display and you can then admire them.  It's also easy to change them when you can't resist that other card in the shop!


*  I have nothing whatsoever to do with either Paperchase or Willow and Stone, I just have great taste! 

Maggie the rabbit

Very recently I have stumbled across Alicia Paulson's blog Posie Gets Cozy and since then life has stopped!  I have read every single one of her posts, these go back to September 2005 and I'm up to December 2010, so you can see I'm slightly obsessed!  Luckily I work in a school and have the holidays off, so I've had plenty of time to indulge.

She has me laughing, crying and most importantly inspired.  What a woman, full of great designs and can write a line or two.  Sometimes I think I'm boardering web stalking, if there is such a thing, but I know that I just admire her and she makes me laugh and I love reading about her life and her adorable daughter (I cried buckets when she came into their lives!!!). 

Her most recent designs is a rabbit called Maggie ........ she is just gorgeous.  Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to buy a kit from her before they sold out and I couldn't wait for her to re-stock, so I bought a down-loadable pattern and bought the materials myself.

Here is my first Maggie ......

Body sewn together

All ready for her dress and cape

All finished.  I LOVE her!

When I ordered the materials, I bought LOADS, so I've been making more, 4 more, all at the same time.  I've been seeing rabbits in my sleep!

Bodies made, arms and legs stuffed, ears sewn, booties cut and yarn ready.

On another note, I really need to sort out my sewing space as it's driving me mad.  I sit here on the sofa during the day as I have the daylight coming through the window and the side table is great for keeping everything on.  But in the evening it's too dark and I can't see anything.

I then move over to this corner were the light is.  The chair is really uncomfortable as the seat support broke and Irwin cut a square of wood to replace it.  It's HARD!  The chest of draws is where I keep all my supplies (we bought this a couple of weeks ago as we didn't really have a lot of storage in the living room and I have hijacked it!). 

The draws are slowly getting filled up with fabric.  I just need to move all the other supplies that are in another chest of draws up in my bedroom downstairs so they are all in one place.  What I need to do is to get Irwin to put a shelf in the bottom draw, one that slides across I can still get the things underneath.  "Irwin ........... ".

Anyway, back to the bunnies

On Saturday afternoon I started cutting all the pattern pieces for my bunnies.  One was for my daughter Em, two presents for friends and one special present for a little girl who was coming to see me this week. I'm friends with her mum and last week they had to go through the heartbreaking experience of having their 5 year old dog Honey put to sleep as she had cancer, soooo sad :-(   I thought that I would make one for her daughter so that she would have something else to cuddle and hoping that it would cheer her up a little. 

I had my first Maggie sat up on my mantelpiece so I could see her and admire her and lover her.  I underestimated how long it would take me to make them all and I knew that hers would not be finished in time for her visit on the Tuesday. 

I gave her my Maggie, her needs were greater than mine and I will keep one of the new ones.  She loved her!

I knew that Alicia would approve.

Love Marge x

 

Checking out Swansea

My one and only daughter is deserting me, leaving me  going to university in September.  As you can tell, I am handling this very well and really looking forward to the event!  So on Friday we went to Swansea where the uni is to have a good look around and see what the area was like.  Irwin took Em down for her interview and only saw the central shopping area and he didn't go much on it. So, off to put my mind at rest.

I love going across the toll bridge.  I wish I could stop the traffic and take some really good pics of this bridge.

 Isn't it great, all those lines and angles.  It would look GREAT at night!

 

Welcome to Wales!

 

 



 This is the outside of the Swansea Met Uni Art, Design & Media building.  Very modern ......

With a lovely old part on the back. 

 

It used to be a Girls' School ...... I think!

We then had a drive to Mumbles to the west of Swansea.  What a view.

We parked up and had a walk along the sea front and went to find somewhere to have lunch.  Nice picture of the plant Irwin! 

There could be worse places to go to uni I think.

 

 

And then we went home.  I really liked the place and Em will have a great time.  I happened to find a really nice quilting fabric shop in Mumbles as well, result.

This isn't the first time one of mine will be going off to uni, Conor went last year and I surprised myself on how well I handled it.  It was definitely a case of the lead up being worse than the actual event.  The week leading up to taking him saw me breaking down on several occasions at work, home and anywhere else.  Conor had visions of me crying all the way on our four hour drive down to Cornwall but I didn't.  I nearly broke down when we pulled up on the campus ready to sign him in, I nearly broke down in Asda when we went to get his shopping but I did have a very short 20 second breakdown as we got in the car and drove away from him but Irwin needed me to give him directions and that distracted me ...... and that was it, no more tears!!  It did help that he was in a gorgeous place in the country and we knew that he would be really happy there.  What more could you ask for.

Something tells me it's not going to be the same when we take Em.  1) She's my only girl and we get on really well, like the same things, kind off/sometimes. 2) I will be left in a house of boys (Irwin, Tom, Bob & Hector the dogs).  3)  I will only have one child left at home who will be 14 and who really won't need his mum much and I will be out of a job *sobs*. 

And that my dears, is the problem.  I've had them for 20 years needing me and looking after them and I won't need to do this so much anymore. 

Ah well, more time for me and sewing.