Elderflowers, the garden and chickens - update

Hi everyone,

I hope you are all well.  As usual things have been busy here and I have separated my posts so you can "cherry pick" the items you want to read about.

Its a bank holiday here this weekend, so thankfully no work tomorrow, however I have 101 jobs I need/want to do.

Well the long wait (well 21 days or so) is over and we are now the proud owners of little bundles of joy.  If you want to read more, click here











Elderflowers are now blooming where we live and this was the perfect opportunity to pick some and make wine and cordial and you can read about that and my tweak to my sourdough recipe here.










I have been working hard in the garden (hence not much sewing) and I am starting to pick and use the fruits of my labour.  If you want to read about the trials and tribulations of my gardening click here








Catch you all later...........

Can't believe its a year since our wedding.

Hi Readers

This time last year I was waking up to my wedding day.  I had managed to finish 8 bridesmaid dresses (which included 2 babies not in this picture) and mine and was having breakfast before our wedding.

So much has happened in the time since then and now.

Catch you all later..............

Lilly-Grace 1st birthday - quilt finished

Well readers I finally finished Lilly's quilt ready for her 1st birthday party which I hosted at my home on Saturday for Lilly and 50 of her close friends.

The weather started off raining cats and dogs and blowing a gale, but fortunately the sun came out for around 2 hours and allowed the children to play on the bouncy castle.

Below are a couple of pictures of Lilly in her birthday frock and the finished quilt.

Her bedroom is decorated in lemon and pink and I tried to incorporate these into the quilt.

Being still considered a novice at quilt making, this was one of the more complicated (for me) quilts to make, and the topstitching seemed to take for ever, but I am really pleased with the result.

I have backed it in a lovely soft brushed cotton, ideal for those days when you need a quilt to cuddle up with.

I hope you are all sewing up a storm, until next time, catch you later.............................

Oxtail Soup and Sourdough Bread Experiment.

Hi all

I am on my 4th day of painting.  I am painting my chicken shed and run in a nice black, however my fingers and hand are now seriously cramping up - how painters and decorators do this for a living, goodness knows - I hate painting!!!

Between painting and washing black paint off a white duck (she insisted on poking her head through  the fence and getting paint on her head, thankfully it washed off ok) I was making my sourdough experiment and my oxtail soup.

If you are interested in either you can find all the details on this page

Oxtail Soup

Its a Bank Holiday here in the UK tomorrow, so at least I have another day off work, but I am not painting tomorrow.

Catch you later........

New blog layout

Hi everyone

I am still busy with my garden, chickens and now some ducks too but I have managed to do a little sewing by finishing off the quilt for Lilly who will be 1 year old on Tuesday - my how time flies.

I have made a couple of changes to my blog by adding some new pages in the toolbar at the top.  One for my chicken/duck adventures (see latest post about Edna ) and another page for my kitchen garden and the third page is on my baking which will include subjects such as preserves and wine making etc.

Our new home has encouraged me to take up lots of hobbies, that I used to love in my past life, but work and life in general got in the way - a reduction in work travel means that I can now resurrect these lost but not forgotten hobbies.

For the true sewing hardcore, this will be my usual place to find out what I have been sewing.

I hope for the like-minded of you out there, you will venture into my other pages too, and I'll put a brief intro into them here so you know I have posted.

I have a couple of small embroideries to complete on the quilt and I will post that later this weekend.  In the meantime - I have dwarf runner beans and courgettes to plant out and I need to go shopping for mealworm treats for the girls.

Catch you later..............

p/s the new image at the top of the screen is the view from our beautiful new home.........