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!

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