Garden of delights

Despite the rather poor spring weather work has been progressing well on hard landscaping the garden here at the patch.

We've re-laid the patio putting down a weed membrane to avoid the intensive dandelion cultivation we had going on before ...



The patio sits at the sunniest corner of our garden and we've designed it to wrap around a Bramley apple tree .. fingers crossed the bees have been busy doing their pollination so we get a wee crop of apples later this year. In years to come I envisage the apple tree providing a little bit of shade to sit under on warm sunny days .. sigh!



We've also got the veggie beds underway. Thanks to the recycling potential of flogging some old possessions via ebay we've pulled together sufficient cash to purchase some gorgeous chunky railway sleepers to make some raised beds. The beds go in ...





Add some wigwams sourced from our local woods - these provide the structure for the peas. You can't have a peapod patch without some peas  ...



And add the odd bus stop of course ...



The wigwam in this shot contains this years attempt at my all time favourite sweet peas, fingers crossed for a bumper crop.

My garden inspiration at the moment is entirely coming from this lady ...



The book was a birthday gift last month. Here is one of my first Raven inspired bouquets adorning the windowsill ...




Toodle pip
J
x

Cupboard of love

During the month of May we have mostly been enjoying making a nice kitchen cupboard.

The grubby shell ...

 

The shelves go in ...

They get painted white ...

 

The walls go a lovely dark green ...




Spotty shelf mats are added courtesy of the Laura Ashley 30% off sale on bank holiday weekend (joy!)...



The mats are so lovely you get to see them twice ...



The cupboard becomes our temporary pantry ...



While we start all over again with renovating the old pantry ...



Toodle pip
J
x

Like buses ...

Good start there eh? I commit to re-starting this thing and then bingo the weeks fly by again and I still haven't committed fingers to keyboard. But I have been plotting posts, oh yes indeedy, and after a good long wait like buses they come all at once! Hop aboard :)

First up I'm going to sneaky peak a work in progress. Now, during my blogging break my next to youngest sister Netti tied the knot with her lovely boyfriend Chris. My wedding gift to them didn't quite materialise in time (ha, ha materialise geddit!) and I admit it ok they were going to need a very long engagement for me to get my gift in order - but my intention was there from the off.

I blogged a good while back about my signature style of scrap quilting. Netti has always absolutely loved the bed quilt I made and for ages she has been dropping quite a few hints that I would have to make her one someday. So when the right occasion came along it was a no brainer.

So I'm making them a crazy squares bed quilt as a wedding gift. There was no way I could get a complete quilt together even with the twelve months notice, small babies and quilting don't mix easily. So here was the very small sample square that I parcelled up as their gift on the wedding day ...




The colour scheme doesn't come across great in these photos, but there is a lime green/brown/blue/purple bonkersness going on there. I explained away doing only a small bit of the finished article in part because I wanted their involvement in choosing fabrics to go into the quilt. I wanted it to tie in with their colour schemes etc. I needn't have worried as this one has gone so crazy it will tone/clash great with any scheme they choose and the craziness emerging suits my sister's personality down to a T.

I need an astounding 900 or so 10cm squares of fabric to complete this beasty. The fabric shopping stage has added an extra bonus to my favourite part of quilting. By letting this one just take the time it needs to come together Netti and I have managed a couple of girly trips out to play at buying nice fabric prints to add into the mix. Tea and cake along the way compulsory of course.

Here is some more work in progress totting up how far we'd got with the squares. About halfway there now ...














A couple more shopping trips and we should be at the laying out stage, we might need to hire a church hall for that one. Watch this space.
Toodle pip
J
x