April...

...is here already. What happened to March? Where did it go?

 It was a time for sun-bathing cats...

 Beautiful spring flowers in my bedroom...

 Beautiful quilts on the bed (but only when the cats aren't about)...

And tired cats who can sleep anywhere...

April is a time for Vintage and Handmade Fairs , a time for the end of one course before the next one starts on May 1st, and a time for crocheting blankets.....

See you Saturday? x

Quick update...

Just to let you know that I have heard from the lady in Japan, and she says that she, her family and her friends are all safe.

Japan

Today I received my copy of the fabulous crochet accessories book from Pomadour on Ebay and Etsy, posted from Japan on the 3rd of March and arriving at my home today. Given where she is based I have been watching the news of the last 24 hours and can't imagine what she may be going through.
I have googled mapped her address and although about level with Sendai she appears to live on the opposite coast.
I can't begin to imagine how people are coping there, the news brings more awful updates every hour, the film and  photos are showing unbelievable scenes, it looks like a very expensive Hollywood blockbuster filmset. As I sit here with my lovely little house, surrounded by my family and cats, enjoying a cup of tea I can't believe how lucky I am, living in a country where natural disasters are luckily very rare.
Technology brings us all so close together, but when things like this happen it is a reminder that not only are we ruled by nature, but also that we are all so far apart.

The Bedroom.....

A VERY picture heavy post......

A new room isn't a new room without the help of some very nice swedish people....DH isn't swedish, the flatpack is......

He's gonna get this thing built, and doesn't require any help!!

He is very serious about this and tackles it from the inside!

My lovely curtains, courtesy of Mr John Lewis. They are called Magic Trees which I think is lovely, they are very serene and the calming colours are perfect (especially as they were purchased over t'internets).

My fab, gorgeous wardrobes!!! Love 'em...absolutely perfect, couldn't have asked for better! I can finally open my doors wide and peruse what I would like to wear from my clothers, I have never been able to do that before.

My lovely chest of drawers purchased unseen from Ebay. The seller is local, and delivered them for free and better yet, he stored them for 3 weeks until the carpet went down. His 3 yr old son helped deliver them and we talked about how much chocolate he could eat before he popped whilst his dad and DH carried my purchase upstairs. It wasn't supposed to go in the window, but my measurements were slightly out, though I think it is perfect where it now lives. The mirror is original and is bevelled, and Nick painted it, "stressed" it and waxed it and sold it for a ridiculously good price. I will definitely be going back to him in the future.

Our old bed and bedside drawers polished up with some briwax and looking fab, with bedding from Ikea YYs cat bed is back in place, and she is very happy to be resettled.

The finised article as built by DH, somewhere to house his "collection" including his crows which he has owned for about 12 years, but have been packed away waiting for a home. The baskets are to hide his crap in...keys, wallets etc.....

My lovely curtains.....again!

Once again, the drawers!!

The curtains in their full glory.

YYs bed again.

Crows and Topseys bed.

My beautiful light fitting which was about the 5th one to come home, but it is perfect, worth the search.

And finally, ready for catching up with everyones news.....

This was 14 years in the waiting (as I said previously, a very long story) but absolutely worth the wait....now I am planning the rest of the house.

If anyone needs a builder and painter and decorator I can highly recommend one from Burnley.

If anyone needs fab furniture, I can highly recommend a local guy.

Dh and I are both delighted with the results.

x

So excited...

...the carpet fitter is in! So in about 1 hours time we will be able to move back into our beautiful new bedroom. This has taken 14 years to get to (long story, I won't bore you - lol).
I have curtains to put up, new bed linen to go on, pine to wax, ikea bookcases to build and some chest of drawers to be delivered - what an exciting day!!
Photos will follow x

I have started a small collection...

These are from our local antique barn.

This picture so reminds me of primary school. I had a picture of a duck above my peg.

This picture takes me right back, it is so evocative I can feel the carpet on my legs.

I had to include this one as it made me laugh!! DD is having none of it, so DH will not be lucky enough to receive one of these on Father's Day.

And this picture......bloomin' chickens are the same whether real of fictional!!

Egg count today: 2

Audrey: 1

Amelie: 1

Egg sandwiches for lunch tomorrow and frittata for dinner!

Wet Sunday...

egg count: 2.

Amelie - 1, Audrey - 1.

Good Girls x

Another day....

.....more crocheting.

Please meet The Crochet Cat - Topsy.

She likes nothing more than sitting on my lap when I am knitting/crocheting. She loves being wrapped in whatever is being made, and she likes to be hot. In fact, she is known to sweat a little - EW!

Crochet Cat Heaven.

She is also happy to have yarn all over her. She doesn't eat it, chew it, or even bother with it, so there is none of that acky pulling it from the back of her throat.

Unlike this one. The Tail-less Wonder...P McGee (Pumpkin). I love this photo, taken yesterday as she was trying to hide from the painter.

This is a quick shot of the one surviving flower from Valentines Day. DH came home last night and asked who the rose was from...doh!

And finally, to those of you who still want chickens, look at my garden and think again. The bottom photo is a bad shot (through glass otherwise you get chased as they try and rush into the house). But can you see where my bluebells are? My bleeding hearts? My cowslips? No?? Thought not! The girls have eaten them!!

And to add insult to injury....egg count today is 0.

The bright green bowl in the first shot is Audrey's porridge bowl, Amelie prefers apples.

The garden hasn't photographed too badly, it really is a LOT muddier than it looks.

Back to work tomorrow. Assignment is done, I will give it a spell-check and tidy up on Sunday night before I hit the dreaded "Send" key, but it is done.

But now, back to some more of this

and a cup of tea

x

The sun is shining......

....it is like Spring, and the girls have been laying!

It really is hit and miss. They started relaying on January 1st, and then stopped again. Had a slight spurt at the beginning of February, and then stopped, and then this morning Amelie laid an egg. 

and with the sun out, it seemed like the ideal time to show you my latest treat....

Isn't he lovely? I am so happy with him. He has lived at the local antiques barn for some time, and has been there for our last few visits, so I decided he had to come and live with us. I knew I would be so upset if on my next visit he wasn't there. But there is a problem.....he doesn't hold water that well. I filled him full of water and daffodils on Saturday afternoon, and discovered on Sunday that the water seems to leak out of the base, and has marked my mantlepiece. I am not worried about the mantlepiece, but would welcome any ideas that anyone might have on how to make him water tight. he has a glaze and there appear to be no cracks or holes, but he is a leaker! But with a face like that, I can forgive him anything.

And finally I wanted to photo my blanket in the sunshine, thank you so much Attic 24 for your inspiration, I would never have tackled this. I would still say that I don't crochet, but I do follow her wonderful instructions. I started this for DD to take to Uni in September. I wanted it to be something to give her hug in the evenings, something from home and made with lots of love.

She immediately informed me that she doesn't like crochet, it makes her feel "icky".

Great!!

But since I have perservered I have caught her looking at it sideways......she has since told me that she will make a judgement when it is finished.....which I have taken to mean that actually it isn't that bad.

Must dash, I really must get this assignment done x

Didn't we have a lovely time.....

...the weekend we went to Hay-on-Wye.

What a fabulous place: beautiful countryside, extremely friendly people, delicious food, fantastic accomodation, no chain stores, and 100s of book shops, and only an hour or so from home.

We discovered Gooseberry Crumble and custard.

 We discovered a bookshop whose interior is the inside of a transylvanian church.

I stood in the sunshine waiting for DH whilst admiring the cottages.

And we discovered our favourite bookshop, not only does it have a fabulous cafe where I ate 3 different types of toasted bread with blackberry and apple jam accompanied by a proper hot chocolate made with melted dark chocolate, they also have resident cats, sofas, rocking chairs.....oh and a fab selection of books.

What more could we want.......we are going back soon x

No photos today...

my battery needs charging, and I should be studying, so off I am going to study :-(
never mind, keep thinking of the end result :-)

I did manage to score some "seconds" Liberty fabric today for £6 a metre, and the 3.9m I bought (it was all they had left) has got nothing wrong with it. It will back my quilt, so look forward to getting to that stage soon. Piccies will follow.
x

What a busy day!

My first weekend day off since about the middle of December, so we were up and out early. We dropped DD off at work, and DH went to get his back done, so with half an hour to myself, I wandered into town for a coffee and a read of the newspaper....how civilised. I wandered past Shakespeare's Birthplace - look! No tourists!!!!! I said it was early, I certainly couldn't have got this photo half an hour later.

 Opposite the Birthplace is the Christmas Shop, it looks so pretty so worthy of a photo.
As you can see, the weather continues to go crap, horrible light, very chilly and a light layer of mist but not enough to see if you get what I mean, it was just grey and miserable.

 So, with that in mind I had to buy Daddy Aardvaak, mummy and baby still have their christmas ribbons on, but perhaps it was in celebration of becoming a family of three. Anyway, these are DHs aardvaaks, he is very happy to have the full collection. They are a warmer orange than this, but again it is the crappy light.

 I got a cat bowl at my local CS for a fab 79p, and they are all very happy with it, and I got this bowl (below) for the Featheries.

 They seem to like it but couldn't see their grapes, and I got a look as if question my absolute stupidity at giving them an empty bowl, but then suddenly they saw the grapes - happy Chooks!

 I went and rescued my fabulous tin. I first saw this before Christmas, and mentioned it to DH. He decided just before Christmas to go get it for me....on the day it started to snow. A journey that normally takes about 10 mins took him one and half hours, and when he got there, it was closed!! So we popped back today, and I thought it had gone, but it was hiding in a corner. It is now sitting very proudly in the kitchen with this in it - see below!

 A portuguese Bolo Rei! Mum sent me one on 9th of December and it arrived on 12th of January and was flatter than an envelope, so she very kindly me sent me another. This was posted on the 19th of January!! Amazing! I shall enjoy some of this tonight :-)

 Such a lovely day, and thoroughly spoiled! Dh bought me 2 more trolly things for my bracelet. The red one is for Valentine's Day, and the silver one is for getting a distinction for my last course. It is called Love Lies Within, because the bumpy bits you can just see on the inside are hearts. It can be engraved, but we couldn't think what to put on it, so for now it is plain.

And finally, the epitome of a harmonious day! Archie and Topsey are sharing the cat blanket in front of the fire. Archie (ginger) is 19, blind and deaf but copes very well, and Topsey is one of our rescue cats, she doesn't normally tolerate anyone, but I guess today she was desperate for the heat - she can normally be found lie full length against a radiator....sweating!!! She is lovely, but has a few disgusting habits!
Anyway, off to enjoy a glass of wine, some cheese and bread and a quiet evening in front of the telly. Back to work tomorrow.
x