Purses and projects

Time for another 'Ta Da' moment! Last week I invested in some teeny tiny purse frames in order to make some little coin purses. Some sewing friends came over on Wednesday evening and we all sat down and began to have a go at making our own purses. Lots of tea, chocolate brownies and chatter were enjoyed and we didnt do too badly at all. I couldnt resist finishing mine off on Thursday morning, and here it is.......Ta Da!!! It's very small, enough to put change for car parking in, but I think it's also very sweet. The little metal loop on the edge of the frame is an added bonus and I'm going to buy some little metal clips so the purse can be secured inside a bag etc.

Here is a picture of the little purse with matching pocket tissue holder!

Now, onto my next project........I'm still waiting for my cotton yarn to arrive so I can't start the granny square crochet blanket I have all raring to go in my mind ready for our holiday in the camper in the summer. After looking at the great pictures on Snail trail, little P and I have decided we are going to 'pimp the van'!! However, it looks like that project is going to have to wait a little bit.

For now, I asked little P to have a look through the mini boden catalogue and cut out pictures of any clothes she likes. She did better than that......little P came up trumps and made me a collage! Then yesterday I pottered down to my local sewing shop and bought a dress pattern that I thought would make a good 'bodenesque' dress. So hopefully this is going to keep me out of mischief for a couple of days!

Have a good bank holiday, Amanda x

Spring has finally sprung!

Wow, what a beautiful weekend we've just had! After the incredibly cold and seemingly prolonged winter, it's like someone just flicked a switch and pumped up the temperature! The plants have finally woken up and are beginning to put on some really good growth. The sudden dry spell has demanded a dedication to regular watering so we spent yesterday afternoon tending the little seedlings down at the allotment. and talking of little seedlings.....here is little P being a very well behaved young lady, happily focussed on eating her apple in the shade while mummy and daddy get on with planting and watering.

What a lot of planting has been going on too. The seedlings are fairing really well under our mega netting cloches we constructed last week and as you can see from the photo below, I've added some more little plants to my newly dug cutting patch. It's now sporting giant sunflowers, dwarf sunflowers, cosmos, calendula and nasturtiums. I'm hoping the greedy slugs dont manage to discover the patch until these little plants have had a bit of time to establish themselves.

And here is one of the triangle beds, it was supposed to be filled with dwarf french beans. I planted about 6 bean plants here last week but I had some luttuce in the greenhouse clearly aching to go outside so they're now sharing this bed until my next batch of dwarf beans have germinated under glass.

I'm hoping to show you some very exciting craft projects very soon.....they're ideas floating around in my head at the moment but the aim is to at least start one project by the end of the week. Until then, enjoy the sunshine!!

Relaxing at the allotment

Our little family has been having a bit of a tough time over the last few days, so I was really delighted when Mr B surprised me with a 'day at home' today. We took little p to school, she was very excited as it was a 'Daddy taker' day, and then we nipped down to the garden centre to buy some netting followed by a blissful couple of hours down at the allotment....... I really love working on our little patch, especially in the weekdays when it's very quiet. When the sun's shining it's a really beautiful place to be and it really makes your heart sing to be pottering about in the fresh air with the warm sunshine raising your spirits. As I feared we have a few casulties from the recent frosts, namely the courgettes, dwarf and climbing beans and the potatoes. Luckily I had a few extra plants in the cold frame as insurance for exactly these eventualities, so I got to work replacing my damaged plants. Mr B was very busy today constructing my netting supports with blue plastic water piping- the idea was to make a sort of 'mega cloche' to try to deter the crows from pulling out the seedlings and young plants. I think you'll agree from the pictures he did a great job and they look very impressive!

As if that wasn't enough, my handsome partner in crime then set about creating my cut flower patch which has been planned for ages but up until today had yet to be executed. And here it is, just in front of the bed with the three blue hoops in the picture, my first cutting patch (there's going to be a symmetrical one on the right) and it's difficult to see in the photo but I've already planted a row of giant sunflower seedlings with a row of dwarf sunflower seedlings just in front. At home in the cold frame I've also got cosmos and larkspur waiting to go out........

Our final job for the morning was to plant a little memorial rose bush towards to back of our plot, I think you can just make it out in the top and second photographs in the middle rear planting bed. We're really looking forward to seeing the beautiful pink blooms and smelling it's rosey fragrance in the summer.........

Busy times

Aah, my poor neglected blog! I cannot believe it is just over four weeks since I last posted. Where has the time gone? Well, I can safely say that I have infact been very busy indeed. My first project over the last few weeks has been to make some baby booties for friends. The two pairs below are a 0-3 months size, made as a gift for a friend's friends. I really like the use of the teddy fabric as I'm hoping they'll suit both boys and girls. My next task was to try and upsize my bootie pattern and customise it for a 6-12 months size for a friend's little girl who had grown out of her previous pair. Sizing up was quite tricky as the heel part needed to be long enough and tall enough to match the larger front section of the shoe. I think they worked okay though and I was surprised how using the same fabric for both heel and front of the shoe looked just as nice as using contrasting ones.

My other big project has been our allotment. Despite the cold and often windy weather, we have been religiously maintaining and adding to our new allotment. I've mostly grown the seedlings on in our greenhouse and then planted them out when they're small plants in the hope they'll stand a fighting chance against the large crow visitors that constantly frequent the site when there are no humans around! We have put some seeds straight into the soil, and at the time of writing our plot is proudly sporting little carrot, parsnip and beetroot seedlings! This is a notable achievement for me as I have never been able to get my parsnip seedlings to germinate before- there must be something about really bad condition heavy clay soil that parsnips love! So here's a picture of our plot at the beginning of May:-

We currently have carrots, parsnips, beetroot, strawberries, raspberries, broad beans, climbing french beans, peas, dwarf french beans, cauliflower, potatoes onions, garlic, lettuce and sweetcorn all growing at the site. I am a little worried however about the state of them today as we've just experienced two nights of a quite heavy ground frost, which is very unusual in these parts for the time of year. Watch this space and I'll keep you updated as to which plants have survived the frosts (hopefully some will have done).

And now- in this extra long posting, here is a little project that has kept me very busy over the past couple of days................... In the hope that I can singlehandedly entice the sun to come out, I have made little P a new summer skirt and matching reversible hat! What do you think? I am very, very pleased with how it's turned out, and although the hat was quite fiddly to sew I think it really does finish off the outfit!

And just to show you that the hat really is reversible.......here it is around the other way!

Inspired by my hat success I've decided to make a blue gingham reversible one for little p to wear at school. Ah, the projects never seem to end................fantastic!