So we went to an auction the other day....

.....and bought a new house :) Well I say house but it's actually a church that is partially renovated!

Yes that's it!

Yes it's all of it and yes there are some gravestones that will be in our garden (the rest of the graveyard doesn't belong to us) There are two bedrooms, a kitchen/diner, bathroom all to one side and a snug to the other side that are all finished so that we can live in it while we do the rest of it up. The liveable bits also have doors so that the unfinished bits/dust/dirt can be closed off :) It's about 20 minutes from where we live at the moment and is back in Yorkshire (just!)

We get the keys at the end of August and are beyond excited!!

Questions welcome - I'm adding them into here :)

Louisa - yes we will be keeping most of the nave as full height but the sides will have two floors as well as there being a gallery at one end. We have access to the tower but that will be the last thing we do - the plans have a floor up there with double staircases going up to it!

Say It - it's partially renovated at the moment so we have their plans to go from so not as scary as it seems and yes, I will have a much bigger workroom than the one I have at the moment!

Garden tales

So the good weather has been here for a few days now and the garden is springing into action like mad (those bloody weeds!)

This is the view out of our front door down the steps to the gate - there are lots of plants packed into that space!

These are on the left as you come out of the front door - beans, many carrots and tomatoes.

And these are on the right - peas galore, more tomatoes and some beetroot too.

The front windowsill/floor/bench - millions of radishes, garlic, onions (I have just pulled some and they are drying in the sun right now!) spinach and chard.

The raspberries are looking better and new growth is coming on the ones I thought had died! I have high hopes for these in years to come!

The courgette seems to like it's pot and is growing well although the pumpkins that I planted out ready to grow up the trellis have been eaten by slugs :(

And the strawberries are doing well - the ones I bought from the garden centre that is. The wild ones I'm growing from seed finally have some small green shoots so they may be planted out later in the year depending on how they look.

How is your garden growing?

Hexipuffing away!

My hexipuff quilt hasn't grown much since the last time I shared it's progress (you can see the start of it's story here) but I am making more of the hexipuffs themselves.

When we were away at Camperjam last weekend the girls really wanted to help so I gave them the task of stuffing the hexis. They thoroughly loved that and Anya even sewed one up on her own which she was mightily pleased with (hey, it might grow quicker if I have a helper!)

And here are a selection waiting to be sewn onto the quilt itself. That '10 years until it's done' prediction isn't looking as silly now!

This time of year

There must be something in the air at this time of year re blogging and feeling crappy/tired/distracted by internet and having no motivation. I wrote my brain vomit post at this time of year last year and others have also mentioned motivation/distraction issues too. I think the correct term for it is end-of-term-itis! So to cheer everyone up here is a picture of old man Harry dog in a very cute tweed hat :)

Isn't he cute? He doesn't like wearing it though so it will only be for photographs!

Life blah blah

I'm not going to apologise for not blogging much at the moment but I will say I want to come back to regular blogging soon. But my excuses are;

Life

End of school term soon

Garden

Wholesale orders

Wasting time on the internet Oooops I mean research :)

Panicking about how much stock I have to make for Country Living but not actually making any of it!

A very messy craft room which means I can only just about get to my sewing machine.

Anyway, here are some pretty pictures to cheer up this post - oh yes I'm still pinning (see 'research' excuse above!)

52 books, 52 weeks - part 6

Hey, look at this - it's the first of the month and I'm already up to date with my book list :) Go Lynsey!

This is the second time I have read The Scarlet Letter and I must admit it dragged a bit on second reading. I'm assuming it's because I knew what happened and I was just waiting for it to get to that point. I first came across this book when a customer in the pub I worked in in my home town (I was 18/19) was reading it at the bar one day and he encouraged me to have a read!

I got about 6 chapters into this book and realised I'd read it recently (maybe late last year) but I carried on reading anyway. I love one of the main characters in this book and the other I dislike immensely and she doesn't come across much better second time round! Good book though and very readable.

Another thriller and this one was a bit meh. There were likeable characters but it seemed to drag on quite a bit without revealing anything of interest and then suddenly bam, all the information came at once. I have a couple of other books by Tami Hoag so I will see how I go with those.

I got this out of the library (and it's actually a bit late back as I forgot to take it back with the others!) and it's a very good read. I was drawn to it because of my recent obsession with vegetable gardening and for a factual book it was very easy to read. There are quite a few numbers in there but it shows how  well war time efforts to grow your own food worked.

32/52

I hoard books but something snapped this weekend and we sorted out 120 books to go to the charity shop without really thinking about it/sorting properly. Oh and that's only off a few shelves in the study. Imagine what would happen if I went through each book, one by one! Maybe I should stop going to the library as much and read the books I've got!

Mmmmmmm :)

A little treat for you for the weekend :)

Thank me later :) And yes, I am a Buffy geek!

This picture is taken from my Pinterest board gorgeous people in case you need to see more images like this!

The second skirt :)

So I have been putting my new found skirt skills to the test and made my second skirt yesterday. As soon as I saw the fabric in an antiques shop in Skipton with Chrissie on Wednesday I knew it was destined to become a member of my wardrobe. Want to see?

It's a Rupert Bear skirt!!!!!!!!!!! It was a curtain (I've only used half a curtain and there is another one) and it also came with a duvet cover and pillowcase that the girls have already claimed!

Ta Da!!! I realise it's not to everyone's taste (and I don't think Matt will be coming out with me when I'm wearing it) but it fits quite well into my wardrobe. Now I need to search for some Postman Pat and Star Wars curtains :)

Motivation, shmotivation

You may have noticed that nothing really crafty is going on around these parts at the moment. Nothing major but I do have a case of the CBA's :) I know I have to get stock ready for Country Living in Harrogate in the run up to Christmas and I also have another order which has to be in Sheffield in October but I can't summon up the energy to do anything.

I did sort out these record covers (found in the dining room) and got them out to turn into envelopes but that was at 1.30 and at 4.00 they are still sitting there. Maybe they will go back into the dining room.... Actually no as I have tidied that this morning ready for Tara's craft party next week. Go me being all organised!

I may give up on the envelopes and go into the garden to read instead :)  Hope you are all motivated where you are?

Seed Happy

So after a couple of weeks evaluating the greenhouse disaster (which I don't seem to have blogged about but it is on Twitter, Instagram and probably Facebook!) we decided to ditch it as it didn't fit the space properly (despite measuring correctly twice and it being checked by Matt) We instead went for these cheap as chips growhouses instead which will do the job just as well and actually fit the space properly!

Not the prettiest things but our neighbours clambering rose has fallen onto the big one so I may leave it trailing over it :)

Inside - most of it is still there apart from the peas and tomatoes which were planted out today.

Another addition to the back garden is this hanging basket full of peas from B and M Bargains, £5.99. They also had lots of strawberry ones too. You can see the parts to the greenhouse of shame just underneath.

New in the front garden are these pumpkins which I'm hoping will grow up the trellis (the trellis is on the ground nearest to us and it goes diagonally up onto the fence) These were given as seeds to the girls by one of our lovely neighbours so fingers crossed they grow!

And these are three raspberry canes given to me by another lovely friend Ruth. I had to dig up the plant that was there to fit them in but to be honest it wasn't fabulous and raspberries are fabulous!

And here is my canine helper. He was actually yawning at this point but lots of people said it looks like he is laughing. Probably at the amount of stuff I still have to plant out! I went a bit seed happy :)

Happy gardening!