All boxed up

Very exciting news today.  My treasure boxes have been selected to be in the We Make London Summer Boutique Pop Up Shop next month in Hampstead.

The shop is going to be held in Oak Studios which is a well established shop and gallery which regularly hosts workshops.

Throughout the week we are there, there will be more workshops available and late night shopping.  It is promising to be a great week for shopping in Hampstead!  And I am so thrilled that my humble treasure boxes will be there too.

This is a treasure box I was commissioned to make a few weeks ago.  It has the blue dotty fabric lid and has been whitewashed and varnished.

And then inside I have made a lift out tray to maximise the amount of 'stuff' that can be kept in there!

This was made specifically to be a sewing box to hold a lot of cotton reels

I am very very pleased with how it has turned out, quite proud of myself to be honest!  Nothing like singing your own praises is there!

Well I must go and make lots more boxes now and maybe try out a few new ideas I have.

Take care all, til tomorrow

Sarah x

That was the weekend

I had a good old busy weekend this week, just putting things back to where they should be, tidying up and getting ready for the next week now.

Last Friday I went over to an exhibition being held at St Neots Museum in Cambridgshire.  It is an exhibition of Textile and Mixed media Art by my friend Sharon.  More of her work can be seen on her website

Sharon's work is so full of colour and I am really pleased for her that the private viewing evening went so very well and wish her all the best for the rest of the month, the exhibition is on until Saturday 16th July.

Linda who I went along with arrived in style - she travelled by boat!  Ok so it was tipping it down and my little car nearly floated there instead of driving but she was on a proper boat.  How lovely to be able to moor up and be right in the town centre with the swans swimming right past your window, sorry porthole!

Also exhibiting was Elizabeth Bruning with her stained glass work.

Saturday morning dawned, not so nice and bright and I was off to Welwyn for the Craft and Farmers market.  Yes that big grey cloud above us did soak us too!

Here is Land Cuckoo all set up for the wet weather, ie, huddled in the middle/back of the gazebo with everything clamped down - just look at the table cloth blowing in the wind!  Welwyn is a windy market anyway but on days like this we all stand on the weights and hug the gazebo legs just to help keep them on the ground!

We still had a full compliment of stalls even with the inclement weather.  Karin from Kus Design was there with her pretty flower arrangements in antique china.  One of those printers trays has found it's way home with me, oops!!

And Roz and Rachel were there with their lovely furniture, this bench was so comfy - I had to use my chair to keep things off the ground after the rains so had no space for me to park myself, so I demonstrated the furniture for them!  This table and benches is from a range that they make themselves.

This picture is one I just took this morning on my way down to the workshop of one of the blue tit chicks basking in the sunshine in its aviary.  The two that have been outside for the weekend have been doing very very well and are eating enough mealworms for a small army!  Sadly Fidgit died yesterday, Hubby was there at the end and held him so he was not on his own.  Fidgit was such a pluckly little bird and I am actually very very sad even though we never expected him to pull through the first 24 hours but clearly there was too much wrong with him and he was not developing like the others.  I did what I could and he had the best little life that he could have had.

So now I have a bird free house as this morning I put the last little one out in the aviary.  Three surviving chicks from five is not at all bad and they all seem to be happy in their new home.  So once again I am off to chop up some worms although I don't think I'll be needing to do this for much longer either as they are all getting so good at fetching their own, but got to make sure they keep their strength up!!

I hope you all had lovely weekends

Take care, til tomorrow

Sarah xx

House move

We now have a little bird house

Inside a big bird house!

I converted the back of the hen enclosure so that it was safe for the blue tit chicks to go in.  It is kitted out with a little bird house (not that I think they'll use it but it may show them where they can nest when they're older!) a few branches and a couple of plants, seed and nut feeders and their bowls of worms and water.

One of the chicks found his way onto the pot plant

Shortly joined by it's mate. 

Sadly there are only two chicks that have gone into the aviary, Fidgit and one other are still indoors as they are not flying at present.  I don't know why, not sure if they have injured themselves or if it is more permanent, we'll have to see what happens over the next few days.

Hopefully the two that are in the aviary will take to it well and I'll take down the netting at the side so they can get out and about properly but I shall leave it so they can still get in!

Well I am off to market once again tomorrow, Welwyn Garden Craft market and I have a few orders just to package up ready for collection.  Then I might get onto making some new stock!  Never thought how much of my time these birds were going to take up!

Have a lovely weekend everyone

Sarah x

A hec of a weekend

The past few days have been rather testing.  Every time I have tried to do something, it has taken more than one attempt to get the job done, sometimes not achieving anything at all.  Swimming in treacle is how someone put it and they are quite right.

Sadly one of the Blue Tit chicks died at the weekend, no idea why or how but it was fine first thing in the morning when I went off to market, but by the time Hubby came to feed them next, it was already dead.  Not sure what happened on Saturday at all but the other 4 chicks managed to have a mad half hour the result of which is now that one has a poorly leg which means it has to modify the way it moves about and dear Fidgit has lost the ability to fly and is confined to the floor of the cage.

So all in all this weekend was pretty pants, market ok but yesterday's event was very cold and wet and not profitable although still enjoyable because of the lovely people there. 

Took these pictures at the end of last week when we had the first rain for months.  It greened everything up so quickly.  The cows are back in the cow field and this time they all have calves with them, so definately not venturing in there with the dog!

Well I am off to see if I can build this aviary for the remaining 3 flying chicks, Fidgit will have to stay in the kitchen until he has regained the use of his wings and can get out of the way of danger.

Take care all

Sarah x

No comment

I was going to post a non-chick post yesterday but have been having problems with my computer so wasn't able to do anything!!

Also on the subject of computer problems, I have been unable to leave comments on some blogs.  Think I may be having the same issues as Gill (That British Woman) was having a while ago.  Gill - by the way, I have changed things so hope that has helped!  Sue (Our New Life in the Country) yours is another blog that I have been chatting away in the comments box to no avail, just going back and forth to the sign in page!  I hope that what I have done this end on my computer may have fixed the problems but if not I just wanted tolet you know I am still reading and seeing what is going on, you'll just have to imagine what I am saying! 

The chicks are doing well.  This is one of them taking a dip in the bath.  They have all figured that one out, have had to position the cage so they don't soak everything in sight.

Four out of the five chicks are happy to help themselves to the mealworms now.  I have managed to move them onto the new bowls, this took a few days for them to get used to the new colour, shape and size of bowl, but it had to be done as this is what I plan on using to feed them when they are outside in the yet to be built aviary (plus the mealworms can't climb out of this one!!).

Fidgit (on the right) has not yet got him/herself down the the ground floor to feed, still prefering to have the food delivered!  All the birds are still taking food from me, which is what they would be doing in the 'wild'.  My plan is to get them into the aviary and once they get to the point where they are not coming to me for any food then that is the cue for them to be going. 

Well I was going to add a couple of non-chick photos, but don't seem to be able to get back to upload any more, so I promise you a bird free post tomorrow!!

Take care all

Sarah x

New home

These are a few of the new personalised products I've been working on here in Land Cuckoo.

This is something I have been meaning to do for ages but as happens so often, there is always something else that needs doing first and so new plans and ideas get put to one side.  However, the best thing happened when a customer asked for a specific name on a treasure box so it focused the plan for me and now I have products made up.

These were so much fun to make with different fabrics to my normal collection and the boxes look so different with the whitewashed paint and varnish.

Now I am making up personalised name blocks too.

Must make some up for myself, I like doing these!

Sorry if you thought this was going to be a chick free posting!  They are getting much much bigger now and are in full flight which makes taking photos a lot harder!

It's not often they sit still to pose and when they do they seem to have a cheeky look of one that has just done something they shouldn't have!

I have moved them into a new cage, an old parrot cage with extra netting around the outside as the bars are big enough for these little ones to fit through!  It does give them room to fly and stretch their wings as well as learning how to hang onto things upside down as Blue Tits are often seen doing!

The last part of the growing up process for these guys will be to be able to feed themselves.  Presently I am still having to feed them, although one or two of them are learning that they can help themselves and I am doing my best to encourage this.  Once they are competent at getting their own food then my plan is to move them into an enclosure within the chicken's enclosure to aclimitise to outdoors (I don't have an aviary so this is my equivilent) and then I'll take some of the netting down so they can get out but also back in again incase they need to!!

Righto, back to the sewing machine, not been out in the workshop so much lately with all the feeding going on!  Plenty of sewing to be catchin up on now......

Take care all

Sarah x