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!

Skirt Stitchery

At the weekend I went on a fabulous course run by Rachelle from Ted and Agnes called Skirt Stitchery where she teaches you (very well I may add) to make an A-line skirt.

Photo taken by Ted and Agnes

There I am on the right, stitching away!

My first ever machine sewed zip :)

Skirt with no lining and not hemmed but it looks like a skirt!

Photo by Ted and Agnes

Eating the delicious lunch provided by Rachelle - it really was yummy and now I have her to blame for a new addiction to Appledore with cinnamon!

And the skirt out and about in action yesterday :) I already have the fabric for my next skirt ironed :)

New stockist - The Imaginarium Gallery

I got a few wholesale orders from being at BCTF and I was thrilled when one of them was from The Imaginarium Gallery in Haworth. I dropped some stock off there last week and it is an absolutely gorgeous shop.

This is the outside and inside is beautiful with a newly opened back room for more goodies!

If you look very carefully you can see a pair of chickens in the window :)

So if you are ever in Haworth then pop by - you might just see some chickens!

First eats from the garden!!

We have our first things to eat from the garden!!!!!! Only two radishes but hey, it's a start! Tara helped me plant them as she adores radishes so my mini gardener was thrilled to be able to pull two up for her lunch. Here's to success with the rest of the garden :)

52 books 52 weeks - part five

Wow, I did well this month :) Six books read and I nearly finished a seventh but not quite! Here are last months books.

I wasn't sure whether to include this book or not because it is non fiction but I did and yes, I did read it all! I'm not normally a fan of Kirstie's books but I was sufficiently intrigued by this to borrow it from the library. It was ok but I'm glad I got it from the library rather than buying it!

A fabulous book where most of the action takes place over the period of one day and you know that something dreadful happens (due to flash forwards) but you have no idea what it might be right until the moment it happens. It is a very slow paced book and I can see why some readers have given up on it but if you read it in large enough chunks it shouldn't be too tiresome. I enjoyed it :)

As I live within view of Pendle Hill I have a desire to read lots about the Pendle witches as I know nothing about them apart from the small snippets on the local 'witch buses' that go from Colne, through Burnley and on to Manchester! This is a childs book and focuses on Jennet Device who gave evidence at the witch trials against her own family. Again I borrowed this from the library and will be searching out more books on this subject!

This is another library book (yay for libraries!) I loved the female character but didn't like the storyline of this book.

This is yet another library book and the first book I have read by this author. Needless to say I grabbed two more books from the charity shops while we away on holiday!

I've been meaning to read this book for years but I just didn't get round to it. It was genuinely scary in places and now I want to watch the film version.

28/52

Taken on a sunny day

Can anyone else see a goat in Harry's shadow? Or is it just me :)

Giveaway results!

Sorry for my tardiness in being late in delivering the giveaway results! They are here now and Mr Random number generator decrees that the winner is number 5!

See I even included the date and time at the bottom :) So congratulations to Dropstitch. I will be in touch soon!

Bank holiday fun

We went to Saltaire today to visit while the Arts Trail was on (it's the first time in about 3 years I haven't had a stall) and it was nice to wander around and see lots of people! 

This was the view from our bedroom this morning with blue sky so we decided to take a picnic along although by the time we sat down to eat it was cold!

We bumped into Bec from Do You Punctuate and her son E had built this den - the girls decided to play in it with him and add more decoration with the bunting!

Tara decided to print this cool spaceman and she was really concentrating on getting the colours just right.

She also screenprinted this robot (the other print was letterpress)

Lots of fun was had by all including Harry although he didn't like the bicarb rockets!

P.S. I haven't forgotten the giveaway (although I did at the weekend - sorry) so it will be drawn tomorrow at 12 noon(ish)

Don't forget my giveaway post!

The original post is here - please leave a message on that post not this one!

You can win these gift tags!

You can also customise your own chicken pincushion/paperweight. Just tell me which fabrics you like and we can go from there. It includes Liberty and my Nana chickens but just be aware that I may not be able to replicate a particular chicken due to the upcycled nature of my materials. There will also be some other paper goodies on offer but I haven't decided what quite yet!

So go and enter and you can win some cool goodies :)