Black clouds and travelling sheds

Once again it has been a while since I put fingers to keyboard and caught up on my blogging. Things have been a bit gloomy in my little world the past few weeks and I have been existing within my own little black cloud. Not wishing to bring anyone else down, my usual tactics when feelings like this take over is to retreat and do my best to shut the rest of the world away. Thing is, when I feel so crappy (unable to think of a better description!) I just don't find it possible to find anything even remotely upbeat or interesting about any day, even though I know that is an untruth.

As it is, I think this particular black cloud has now evaporated and we can get back to 'normal'. Well at least something which constitutes normal in my world! Which would be moving sheds, of course!!

This is our red shed, in it's original position when we bought our house, alongside the lovely old brown shed which amazingly managed to move also without falling apart!

Then here both sheds stayed for some time, behind the gum tree whilst the workshop was being built.

The brown shed did eventually have to be taken down as it was in danger of falling down due to much rotten wood in the important bits that keep a shed upright!

The red shed has just begun it's journey here as it is making it's way over the top of the redwood, dogwood bush/plant which I don't actually know what it is called but it grows really well every year and we like it!

Once over the only bit of garden that has actually been gardened it is now making the turn in the middle of the lawn.

George just keeping an eye on the proceedings.

Now it is facing the right way, just got to back up to the fence.

Narrowly scraping past my apple tree, not sure if I shall have apples there next year either now!

And finally, it may be dark but the shed is now in it's new home. Just got to get the underneath a little more stable so we can actually go in the shed without falling through the floor and then it will be out with the paint for a spruce up!

The reason for the shed moving? Hopefully there will be another workshop appearing in the space it has now left so I can move out of the spare room and have my own space where I can 'go' to work!

So I hope to be back again soon, it's Hitchin market tomorrow although rain is forecast, we shall have to see how that goes as my stock doesn't like the wet!

Take care all

Sarahx

Things I've learnt

1. Betty the chicken looks like a part oven ready chook.

2. Betty the chicken is miserable when she is moulting.

3. I have some very patient and lovely friends - thank you Sonj and Roobie for a great afternoon and all the tuition, and soup, and chocolate!!!!

4. The aforementioned chicken likes a bit of warm porridge of a morning!

5. Stand well back when chickens are eating porridge as they shake their heads a lot to get it off their beaks and you can end up wearing rather a lot of it, as can the other chooks nearby!

6. Chickens can lick a bowl of porridge completely clean in seconds!

7. Chickens may or may not have tongues in order to lick the bowl clean, well I think they do have tongues but dont think they use them to lick anything. OK so I Googled it and got some conflicting answers and am really none the wiser other than that from watching my own girls!

So what did you learn today folks?
Take care all
Sarah xx

As neat as a new pin(cushion)

Woohoo! I managed to tidy up my workroom before I went to bed last night so all I had to do today was mess it up again!

A tidy-ish table with plenty of space to work on. Last night you could not see the green cutting mats for the amount of stuff that I was creating on top of them! I did not take a before shot as it was so shamefully untidy!

Boxes of stock piling up and filling up too ready for the next enslaught of markets. Feels like I have not been to market for ages but it has only been one weekend off.

And now we have work in the workroom!

Look at these lovely goodies from Ruth at Ruth Designs a needle case and pin cushion. If you look closely you can just see my old pincushion which is a nearly finished knitted battenburg cake! With some tuition from my very talented Mother in law, who can knit anything, I made my first knitted creation. Unfortunately my patience with the knitting did not last long enough to make the marzipan to go around the edge! Never mind - my real pieces of battenburg always look like that too as the marzipan is the best bit!!

Also rather obvious is the distinct lack of pins in my lovely new pincushion - well it is far too lovely to be putting holes in it!

Off to hunt and gather some dinner now, it is a much more sensible time to do so tonight.

Take care all, til tomorrow

Sarah xx

Weary posting

I am determined to blog every day this week! Unfortunately I don't feel as if I have anything to tell you all out there which may be even vaguely of any interest to you. This does rather imply that I usually do think that what I have to say will interest you! Hmmm, who knows about that? Well you do I guess!

So here I am at nearly 8 o'clock and I am hungry and not got any plans for dinner, a bit chilly and I've not got downstairs to set a fire yet and rather tired and weary. Now I really don't have any reason to be weary! I have had a lovely day catching up with friends today and have not expelled even a modicome of effort on anything!

My workroom is in a right royal pickle yet again. Always the way when I have been busy with one task and then I've stopped to do something else and more and more stuff just keeps on coming out of the cupboards! Unfortunately I am someone who has to have a completely clear room before I can start work again!

So my plan is to go and get some dinner on the go, light the fire and then maybe, just maybe, tidy up my workroom ready for the morning so I can just get on with things!

I do hope you have all had a lovely day, til tomorrow
Sarah x

The Wooden Spoon

Hope you all had a great weekend.
We managed to provide the evidence as to why we do not enter many quizes. That evidence being that we don't know the answers to any questions! We came last, bottom of the table, nil points! Well not quite nil but certainly not enough to improve our standing at all!

However, we did have a great evening and each couple in our team won something from the raffle! So in actual fact we probably did the best out of everyone as we returned home with (well that isn't true as we consumed our winnings there and then, which may explain why the scores didnt improve!) anyway, we gained an extra box of chocolates, biscuits and a bottle of wine! Not to forget the mini bags of malteasers we got as our wooden spoon prize! So in actual fact we did rather well really and although we may not have got the bragging rights and silver platter for winning we did enjoy the wine and chocs!

Take care all
Til tomorrow
Sarah x

Fields and berries

Just having a warming cuppa after returning from walking with George. Could have done with a hat as well as gloves today!

Its not just the Virginia Creeper in the back garden thats changing, the hedgerows look amazing too.

This particular stretch of the path is always multicoloured with plenty of different blossoms in the springtime too.

At first glance the fields seem quite bare but this one has some good leafy crops starting to come through, the others have been tilled and raked, not sure about the real terminology but the tractors have been trailing up and down for a long time, and now have the first signs of grasslike shoots appearing.

Here is my tree of treasure! Sloes which are ready in my kitchen to be added to the gin!

Now I am currently going through a pink and green phase

Being drawn to fabrics and ribbons in these colours

and here was this bush with the most beautiful coloured berries, I have not changed the picture at all, it really is this pink!

Just as we were nearing home, next to the cow field we found these. I can only assume that they are spiders webs but they look just like cotton wool.

They may be part of the Fairyland that Karon from Dream Country Chat found the other day!

Now I've finished tea, off to work....

Take care, til tomorrow

Sarah x

Charity shop shopping

I found treasure!

This fabulous old suitcase was spotted by my friend in the local charity shop and as I had been admiring her old suitcase she let me know this one was for sale. I managed to get it by the skin of my teeth, one minute later and it would have been bought by someone else! Apparently it had been in the shop for weeks with no interest so they started to use it to hold other stock in and then all of a sudden there is me and another customer both after it at the same time. I am so pleased that I asked about it when I did, I so nearly stopped to look at the books first! How frustrating would that have been?

So what other treasure is in my Del Boy suitcase then?

I picked up an edition of Trivial Pursuits, this one is the junior version as Hubby and I end up playing an epic game of the adult version because we don't know much, this way I thought we would be able to finish the game the same day as we start it!

Plus another game like Balderdash but with pictures, where you have to guess the real identity of the picture and figure out the bluffs.

More wooden brain teaser puzzles. The one with the coloured dots has to be matched so that you only have same coloured spots touching.

And some pretty table cloths which I found on Sunday at the Mill. One corner has blue and purple flowers

and the other has yellow and orange ones. I liked the colours, no idea where it is going to go yet, but now that I have it I am sure the right place will present itself!

And just to finish off the 'staying in infront of the fire' evenings I found a nice wintertime jigsaw puzzle. So now I can turn off the telly (unless it is Strictly) and get stuck into some brain training entertainment!

Hope you are all keeping ok, til tomorrow

Sarah x

Do chickens play tennis?

Errr, no, not as far as I know!

They play swingball!

Feigning disinterest

Ok then, just one go

Its better with two playing

To me

To you, and duck for the rebound

Thats it, the whole team playing

Team Chickadee

I've been neglecting the blog again this week, just not enough hours in the day to do all I want. This is the Mill we were at on sunday, it is over at Barton-le-clay and the actual mill that is pictured here houses the antiques centre which looks like a treasure trove of goodies and I am planning a trip back there when I can go and have a look at leisure.

In the mill pond someone spotted a collection of these little critters, you can just see him or her to the right of the fallen leaves in the water, it was thought they were crayfish but I am no expert on pond life!

Our garden is looking fantastic at present, totally not due to any effort on my part! This is the Virginia Creeper which comes from next door!

The colours are just beautiful and they change throughout the day with the sunshine, or lack of it!

Off to bake and sew today and to swat up on my general knowledge ready for the annual village quiz on Saturday.

Take care all

Sarah x

Things to do

Just been out to get some pictures of my most popular hot pot mat which I have just realised has not yet made it onto the website!

Here it is, a bright colourful collection of chooks that don't need cleaning out, wont leave your garden looking like the aftermath of a cat fight with feathers littered everywhere and most definately wont dig up the plants! Having said that, it wont lay any eggs either!

But it does smell rather lovely as it is filled with crushed cloves and cinnamon.

And here is my ongoing job of painting up the boards. As if taking over the spare room wasn't enough I have now engulfed the dining room table too.

All undercoated and first coated, ready for the final paint before being made into these

Or maybe one of these

Who knows? I never do until I sit down to make them!

Anyhoo, got to go and do this making now before I go delivering orders.

Take care all, til tomorrow

Sarah xx

Beautiful Glass

Just incase you don't get to read enough of my ramblings here, I am also featured on the Handmade Cambridge blog too!

I want to show off one of my very talented friends today. Linda Boy works with glass, fused glass, stained glass and dichroic, and those are just the processes I can remember. Now she doesn't have a website as most of her pieces are one off designs and to be honest they are so popular they probably would not be for sale long enough to go through the process of photographing, uploading, writing descriptions etc!

Just a small selection of the platters, jewellery, panels and freestanding designs.

This is fabulous - a rainbow of glass

Feeling patriotic? How about a glass coaster of your country's flag?

The patterns in these glass coasters are just fantastic.

This was taken in brilliant sunshine so the colours are not as intense and they actually are.

One of my favourites! Squashed bottles, can be used as spoon rests, tea bag catchers or mini cheese boards. I like to feel that I help by drinking anything in a pretty bottle so I can pass the empty on to Linda for her work!

Shining stars in the sunshine. In the background you can just see an example of the glass tiles that Linda makes.

This picture was taken when we were up at Dunstable Downs (before the rains came!). The windows of the marquee showed off Linda's work beautifully.

You can see Linda in Bedford on the second Saturday of each month, Biggleswade Farmers Market on the 3rd Wednesday and Barton le Clay on the first Sunday. As a member of the Bedforshire Area Crafts group she will be at various events throughout the year including Bedford's Victorian Market in December.

I have a mountain of signs to go and paint now, whilst finishing off the Christmas Card making inbetween drying times!

Take care all, til tomorrow

sarah x