Weekend Trifling

Remember these?  Well to finish off that package I made some wide bias binding out of the blue spot Cath Kidston fabric and edged a bath mat.

I impressed myself with that.  Finally the big reveal, my daughters made over bathroom....

I think she's done a pretty good job.

My husband and I spent the weekend catching up with odd jobs that needed  doing and then planting up a whole load of seeds.  The end result seed trays everywhere, at one point they even overtook my dining room.

There isn't a window sill that hasn't got a seed tray or pots on it.  This to me is the signal of spring, of the promise of what is to come.  Not long and we will have a glimpse of them, pushing through the soil.  It certainly is one of God's miracles giving us food from a small seed.

 

Finally I thought I would share this:

Not just any old trifle....

A trifle topped with Colman's mustard chocolate, a feast for the eyes and for the taste buds.  A surprising little kick to the sweetness of all that cream.  A very nice Sunday afternoon tea treat, made all the nicer because the chocolate was a gift from our eldest daughter who actually lives in Norwich where the Colman's mustard is made. 

 

 

Have a great week.

Plodding Along...

I am plodding along at what seems like a snails pace with the arran throw started last week.  But it is coming along nicely considering I only pick it up on an evening whilst watching TV.  There is no urgency when you are doing something for yourself, so I am just plodding along!  The colours are quite striking and I am loving the feel of the natural arran wool, it certainly is a pleasure to crochet with.  I am quite disappointed, in that the fairies have still not been around to sew in those pesky ends.  Any suggestions, apart from the obvious sewing them in as you go?

Have you ever had that feeling that you've done this before? Then all of a sudden it came to me it is the same colours and wool as my Grandson's throw. It is also the same image as the throw in my Mamas Mercantile logo.

 I thought this might be the right time to let you have a peep into the finished bedroom.

I am linking with chrissiecrafts.blogspot.co.uk. I am looking forward to seeing the projects others are engaged in.

Wedding showcase

 I am showcasing a  vintage crochet pattern today for a wedding dress and bridesmaid dresses, as weddings seem to be uppermost in my mind these days.  A delightful pattern sourced from a car boot sale at a cost of 20p (original price 7 and a half pence).  The lady I bought it off had actually used the pattern to crochet a shorter version of the short bridesmaid dress as a top for over leggings for her daughter, what a wonderful idea.

The projects I am working on for my own daughters wedding are coming along well but slowly.  At the entrance to the wedding venue there is to be a vintage bike (this was sourced from ebay) with a crate on the front.  Drum roll please........

It is yet to be decided what will go in the crate we are playing around with ideas at the moment.

Another wonderful find from a car boot sale was this book:



 

 

 









ROMANTIC KEEPSAKES full of exquisite heirlooms to create, give and treasure.  I intend to make a pair of decorative scented shoe trees for my daughters wedding shoes.

 

 

 

 

 

I bought this wonderful pair of shoe trees to use as the base.  They were purchased from a lovely lady called Kay at Renningers Mount Dora Florida.  She has a booth in a covered area behind the street of shops.

A truly lovely lady who was very generous because they were for wedding shoes.  I am quite excited to get to work on them.  In the meantime I have been crocheting flowers, collecting vintage lace and pearl buttons and turning them into this, drum roll please......

 

 















 





 



Flower girl posy and hair comb, page boy button holes complete and packed in tissue paper along with the wedding party dress hangers.  All the real flowers, bouquets and arrangements have been ordered from a florist and are all to be finished off with natural twine.  The children's crochet things have been finished off with the same twine to bring everything together.

 

 

Still a long way to go, but quite a good start I feel.













Garden Planning

 I have been busy with making notice boards.  This one is a reminder board most suitable for a kitchen, using a vintage harvest fabric and butterflies and buttons on wooden pegs.  It  would be great to clip shopping lists and appointment cards.

This board was made with photographs in mind for a bedroom, using vintage style boots and cameos



 for the pegs.  I love the vibrant colour of the gingham.

The garden has been uppermost in our minds.  My husband and I have spent many an hour planning and researching what to plant this year.  Tomatoes are a definite we were really successful with them last year both in grow bags and tumbling toms in hanging baskets on the back fence.  We did have a lot of tomatoes that didn't ripen so they were picked and made into cucumber and green tomato relish.  A huge success with the family for cold cuts.  We grew beetroot in an old dustbin and pots, which again were a great success so beetroot is on the definite list.  We are going to do marigolds to put in with the tomatoes to use as a deterrent for bugs.  We are not bothering with the potato barrels this year as we found they were not cost effective.  Cabbage was a struggle because of the slugs and we really are against using slug pellets.  Broad beans and runner beans we are going to try in one of the raised beds along with some Royal Chantenay carrots.  We are definitely having a bed of mixed lettuce green leaves and rocket, it was so useful last year just been able to go out of the back door and pick a selection of lettuce and herbs.  I am still using herbs that I dried out from last year.  Shallots were good and we did manage to pickle some, but for some reason the onions were a disaster.  We have got some of the seeds already as they were free with my husbands grow your own magazine.  A subscription gift from our eldest daughter, we call it the gift that keeps giving.  We are getting there, we now just need to consolidate our plans and make a list of when to start sowing seeds and then get on with it.

Have you started to plan your gardens/veggie plots yet?

Does it get any better?



 A weekend spent with my 3 daughters and their families, introducing my 4 beautiful grandchildren:

A rare treat for us all to be together.  The children just loved spending time together, I think we may have some budding chefs in the family.  Alternatively it could just be that they all love cake just like there Grandad.  It was a wonderful weekend spent storing memories to treasure forever, does it get any better?

New Crochet Project

I have started a new crochet project to give me a break from the thousands of flowers I have been crocheting for my daughters wedding.  It is a simple throw using arran from my stash.  No pattern to follow, so I can take it anywhere.  It is 2 rows of treble in the main colour and then using oddments 1 row of double, I row of single another double and back to the main colour.  I thought it would make a nice throw for one of our chairs, or to use as a blanket when one of the grandchildren fall asleep on the sofa.  That's what I love about this type of throw, they are so versatile.

 As you can see it really is a work in progress, I have only just started it but already I am loving the colours and the wool is a dream to crochet with.  I am linking with chrissiecrafts.blogspot.co.uk.  I really should sew in the ends as I go.....I could do with a magic wand or a little fairy that did all the finishing off jobs I don't want to do.







Rain, Rain and More Rain!

Rain, more rain and then more rain seem to be the order of the day, so I have had a stew on the stove all morning, slowly cooking away and bread in a bread maker.  It certainly makes for a beautiful warming lunch on a horrible wet day like today.

 The stew was made with stewing steak, onions, leeks, carrots, parsnips, swede and potatoes.

We dream of the day when we have enough land to grow all our own vegetables and maybe have a chicken or two.  We do have a small vegetable patch at the moment, which we have had some success with.  We are looking to do some in pots and small containers this year but are still doing the research.  Our herb containers have been amazing, I have even had some success drying them out.  We had a lot of lavender plants free with something so I have even dried out the lavender.  I intend to make some lavender bags/pillows with it.

Back to the pile of books and plans for the garden this year.