Lovely Day

What a lovely day I have had, catching up with great friends and drinking plenty of this:

You can't beat a good cuppa and a natter over a pile of deliciousness like this:

Which, with a little bit of playing, turns into this:

Where was I? Over at Maggies and you can get your hands on these parcels of delightfulness at Sunflower Fabrics.

But this isn't meant to be a promotional blog post, it is just that I have had such a lovely day, and I even have time to get myself down to the workshop to write about it too!  And I personally do love this range of fabrics, it is the same range I used to make my little lavender hearts.

So so lovely!

Here is Maggie, deep in conversation but absolutely flying with the needle and thread making a delightful cupcake hanging.  I'll have to show you that properly another day.

And peeking out from behind the Liberty print is Ruth!  Well, if you have great friends, you should share them shouldn't you!

Thank you Maggie and Ruth for a lovely day,yummy lunch, lots of laughs and conversation and plenty of tea.  By the way, I am still pinging around due to the caffine overload ( I usually drink decaff but forgot my teabags today yet still drank just as many cups full as normal) - oops!

Now you could be mistaken, thinking my hand has shrunk but I have actually bought humoussive jars of all the essentials!  Went to the cash and carry today - I think the carry part of the name is supposed to mean that you carry the goods away not get carried away with the size of the goods!!  Never mind, we should be alright for sauce for the next year or so now.

Must go in and find something to make with the above ingredients, hmmm marie rose sauce anyone?

Take care all

Sarah xx

Still working

Last night Hubby and I went off to the pictures to see Inception.

It was really good!  By the end of it I had no idea how long we had been sat there, could have been days for all I knew.  I wont say too much more as I don't want to be a spoiler but I can recommend the film if  you like films like The Matrix (and no, I still don't undersatand the Matrix, didn't when I was watching it and still don't even after Hubby has tried to explain it to me!).

Must go and seek out some dinner for us and shut up the workshop as someone is having a bonfire!

Take care all
Sarah x

An English Country Garden

What do you do on a Sunday afternoon in July?

Especially when the sun is shining and you have what feels like a rare moment of time when you don't have to be doing anything else!  Well you do, but you can postpone that bit!

Go to the National Garden Scheme (otherwise known as the Nosey Garden Scheme) open garden in the village.

Across the fields the sky was big!

The cows were all sheltering from the sun, slightly disgruntled as they had been confined to just half of their normal paddock.

The current house was built on the site of an old cottage and although it is only about 20 years old it seems to be part of the landscape as if it has always been there.

Beautiful flowers with visiting bees

Hidden creatures around the pond

Trees that have grown so tall and straight

Here's some they grew earlier!  Gav checking out the log pile and planning how he might get to own some woodland himself so he can aspire to a log pile like this one

Polos in the shrubbery!

And a giant urn, should have got someone in the picture to give you the idea of it's size.

Mr McGreggor's vegetable garden, if you look closely you might just be able to see Peter Rabbit.

Another hidden creature under the tree

And this is by far, in my opinion, the best use of a tennis court - trestle tables and chairs to sit and eat.......

A mahussive slab of the nicest chocolate cake!  Accompanied by a good cuppa.

A cuppa, now there's a good idea, I'm off to go and get one of those now!

Take care all, til the next time

Sarah x

Smells like.......

I do wish you could smell what I could smell as I came down to my workshop this evening.

Actually, those of you in Australia probably can!

The gum tree at the bottom of the garden which my workshop sits under smells wonderful after the cloud burst this afternoon.

Well, cloud burst maybe a little poetic for the quantity of rain that actually fell in a very short space of time!  I needed to catch a ferry to get to the door of my car when I left work.

But now as dusk is falling the scent of fresh rain is becoming stronger and in the half light the colours of the flowers seem all that more intense.

These are some of the very few flowers that we have in our garden this year.  Around the workshop I am planting evergreen shrubs so that there is different colour all year round.  The yellow in the background is a bush that came with the house which we have managed to tame and trim so we get a good show each year and the pink ones in the foreground came from my auntie's house a few years ago, along with quite a few others in this part of the garden and they have all survived very well with very little help from me!

This is the non chook proof fence that works so long as I am here in the workshop so I can open the window and remind the girls that they are not supposed to be in this part of the garden, at least not until the newly planted plants have had a chance to get a hold on the ground!  They might not be able to remember how to get into their own enclosure some times but they do know that this is a no-chook area now, just that they like to push the boundries when they can.

I'm off to finish a tea cosy now, take care all, will be back just as soon as I can be!

Sarah x

It's all very different

This week is far from the norm.  I am off to work for 9am every day, which I know is not unusual for many many people but it is for me!

I have no problem with getting up in the mornings, which I know some who have known me for a long time will double check I just said that, but it really isn't a problem!  I am doing some temping work locally for a few months or however long I feel like it for the time being.

This is just very different for me as I have been used to working here at home or out on the markets and craft fairs for quite some time.  Even before I started all that I was working a shift pattern so a Monday to Friday week is a thing of ancient history in my life!

There are a lovely lot of things in my workshop to be getting along with, some orders and some creations to finish playing with, but right now it is time for food!  Sitting at a computer all day in an office is hungry work!  I didn't realise quite how much I talk to myself when working though - very aware of it now I am in an office with other people!

Must go - hungry.
Take care
Sarah x

Flower Festival

Not much writing today, mostly pictures!  These are from the flower festival held in our village church last weekend.

The welcoming porch in dappled sunlight.

With it's basket of flowers.

Just inside you can see how wonky the walls are!

The church has just finished being refurbished, the pews have been removed (two of which reside in our garden now) and the floor restored.  At the same time heating, toilet and kitchen were renovated too and now it is very bright, light and welcoming with it's new comfy chairs that can be moved to accommodate many more village activities and groups.

This is the History Society's arrangement, not the best photo as the sun was bright through the window.

There are even wild animals at the watering hole!

The flowers for the pre school arrangement have all been made by the children, great colours.

And finally this trio of jugs of the most striking blue filled with delightful cottage garden flowers were just lovely.

The whole church smelt wonderful with the scent from all the flowers, I have not managed to get photographs of all of the arrangements as I was distracted by Olive's shortbread - anyone who lives in our village will know that Olive's shortbread is heavenly so church is the right place to eat it!

I think that might just be the weekend caught up on now, not bad seems as it's Thursday already!

Got to get things ready for market on Saturday

Take care all, til tomorrow

Sarah x