Fabric, Fabulous Fabric

Is it too early to be getting excited about Christmas???

  I went to explore an alley in a little town nearby and found some100% cotton Christmas fabrics.

  They were selling them for next to nothing.  How could I pass up a bargain like that? 

I cannot help myself if I see pretty fabric I feel a bit dizzy and a bit frenzied and have to buy some, NOW!   

 I clearly did not think things through either, because I only bought a quarter metre of each.    

As I was retuning home my mind was working overtime, plans were forming.

  I needed a bit more fabric, a bit more of a variety

 I ended up driving to Lewes, a good 20 minute drive away, to visit the

 Patchwork Dog & Basket. 

This is really the quaintest shop I have ever seen, it is situated in an old factory building and is full, to the brim with quilting ‘stuff’.  

I  bought a few more quarter meters of some really beautiful Christmas material

I had to ask  the  poor long suffering man  to  take  my ‘quilting box’ out the loft for the  300^th
this month time

   I had a few pieces of fabric in my stash that will go wonderfully with what I have bought.  

 

 

Now all I need is some time to cut and sew.......

Have a great day

Pumpkins and things ....

Gardening is so rewarding, but I do not have a lot of knowledge of seed collecting or cuttings or such like.  When I was doing my own garden, I usually bought seedlings from the nursery and garden centres to plant.  

 About 6 months ago I was given a courgette and a ‘mini pumpkin’ seedling, tiny little things.  I had no grand visions of them actually growing, but I planted them watered them and checked now and again. 

The Courgette plant was eaten by snails almost within the first week. 

 The mini pumpkin plant grew – against all odds. 

 I had planted it in the open space under the washing line; the soil did not look good at all and the space is full of stones, so I was surprised it actually survived.

It has grown into a monster plant, bearing some beautiful pumpkins,

with a few more flowers which may, with some luck become pumpkins too. 

 What a delight it has been watching this plant grow.

I also planted two tomatoe seedlings one cherry and one plum tomato plant that I stuck in between the geraniums without much thought. 

This morning I was taking pictures of my pumpkins and saw there are baby tomatoes!!! 

 Now all I have to do is try and get these veggies before the insects and birds do.  I have popped the pumpkins on some empty pots to  hinder insects from getting them first

and the tomatoes... well it is a toss up  as to who gets them first me or the birds?

Isn't it  exciting?  Sooo cool!

Hope you all have a great day!

The winners are......

I involved the dear lady that I take care of in the drawing of the winner’s names.  We cut papers, wrote all the names on each piece of paper, folded each one carefully and with great pomp and ceremony she drew three names.   So it is with her love and good wishes to the winners ....

Vicki at Rusty Rooster Vintage

Dayle at A Collection of This and That

And

Karie at Karie’s Chic Creations 

Congratulations, I will contact you for your postal addresses and get your
packages off as soon as possible! 

 Thank you to all of you who took part

This was such fun I will have to do it again, soon!

Good night

Cheryl

Mini Giveaway ... ending soon!

Five days left, then I will be doing the draw of my  very first little giveaway.
 I have a little extra suprise in store now for the winners , have something to add to the package . 
Sooo very excited now to do the draw and send  the gift!
If you would like a chance to have a 

 Lavender sachet to pop in a drawer... and a little suprise too,  

there are  three chances to win ~ 

Comment on this post for one chance

Become a follower for  two chances (or let me know if you are already a follower)

And

Mention and link to my giveaway on your blog for three chances

On the 7th September I will draw three names randomly.

Hello Autumn

Welcome back autumn, so good to see you again! You are already bringing us cooler crisper mornings.   

 Autumn is such an exciting prelude to winter, wonderful cold, winter.

  Isn’t time is in such a hurry? This year has flown by; even my two week break just felt sooo short.

We had the best time again, visiting our children and grandchildren. Had such fun in Portsmouth with Jamie and Nathan.  

 Discussed wedding with my Son and his fiancé Jenny – I get to be making the invites –can’t wait to start!!
Took a ferry trip and as usual Genedad’s knees were well used. I love that they all love their Genedad so much.

We all visited at Neil and Tammy’s house and Jamie got to give Alex a bottle. 

She was thrilled and immediately after made an entry in her little Journal so she could tell Alex when he is ‘big’ that she fed him. Precious children, so much to be grateful for.  
I as usual just sat and rocked and loved holding all my grand babies so much! 

 

Jenny was a dab hand at getting Matthew to sleep too.

My son made us a traditional Melk Tert (I think Custard Tart is the closest thing to a Melk Tert) it was delicious – bye bye diet!

 We spent time with my parents and we visited some dear friends in Salisbury. Their son turned 30 – where did 30 years go? We had a good old fashioned South African braai (barbecue) of lamb on a spit, cooked by an ex South African, it was wonderful to be with such good old friends, so much a niceness.

Look I finished my crocheted cushion while driving the 1000 miles we drove to visit everybody and I think it turned out to be seriously cute.

  I found the pattern here it was very easy to follow with loads of pictures and really great directions.  I loved making it.  Every where I went I was given scraps of purple wool so I will be making a few more I think!  

 I must say it has been great posting again on my blog, I did miss you all!  Isn’t life full of things to be grateful for, every minute of the day!

The local Alfriston Summer Horticultural show was held this weekend. 

 We have a little Village Hall,
The Memorial Hall. 
It is such a beautiful old building with beams and is tiny, but surprisingly a number of tables can fit in and quiet a lot of people can be fitted into this tiny Village Hall.  

Most of the main events during the year are held in the Hall. 
 Money raising fetes and fairs, the annual Christmas Pantomime, wedding receptions and of course the all important Horticultural shows.   

Most of the Villages participate and let me tell you the competition is fierce.  Potatoes have to be the same size, same shape and have to be placed neatly on a plate. 

Leek and onion leaves have to be tied down correctly and prize tomatoes are placed on slices of  the inner tube from a tin foil roll,  so that they  are all in an upright  position and precise.  

While I was there examining the produce and flowers and exclaiming my amazement, I noticed some Villages rushing in to see what they had been awarded, a first, or a second.... and the discussions on why so and so won and why so and so had only received a Highly Commended .....

My Lady’s daughter submitted a beautiful arrangement called ‘Sunset’  and won 1^st prize.

I  bought a raffle ticket, you know to support the Horticulturalist and on Sunday morning at  9am my  prize was delivered to the house half a dozen newly laid eggs

Ahh it is tooo sweet  for words and makes me smile, the joys of living in a little English Village!

On another note ......

I am supposed to be packing up to leave tomorrow morning at 9, but instead I was visiting blogs.

  I found a delightful crocheted cushion on  Karie’s Chic Creations

 I am so excited to have found this cushion

An hour earlier I had taken all my scraps of wool put them into a bag for a charity shop

I think I will keep all these scraps now and make one while driving around the country side visiting the family – so excited!

 

 

If you haven’t seen my giveaway for the 'Lavender Sachets', please click on the right hand button
I hope you will enter!

Have a fantastic day!

Lavender Giveaway

I have one week of work left and then I go on my next break.  
Can you believe how time has flown by, five weeks nearly gone, five weeks since we all took part in 'Where Blogger's Create 2011'

I had an extra afternoon off on Monday so decided to start sorting out my stuff and packing up again.  I took out that box of Lavender I bought; it makes me laugh every time I see it! 
So much Lavender.   I was sitting on the floor putting spoonfuls of Lavender  in  zip lock bags  to keep it  fresh when my crafty brain went  into  overdrive.  

I abandoned my packing and made some pretty little organza drawer 'smellies' . 

Then I thought ...  why not share a few sachets with you.

So here it is my first Giveaway!

For three chances to win some little Organza Lavender Sachet : -

Comment on this post for one chance

Become a follower for a two chances (or let me know if you are already a follower)

And

Mention and link to my giveaway on your blog for three chances.

On the 7th September I will draw three names randomly.

 Have a stunning day.

If you have visited me over the last two days, I apologise if there has been nothing, but 'alien type' - I have really struggled to post and then my computer crashed, but luckily it was small problem and my dear husband fixed it - so good to go now!

Wahooo the tickets are booked!

We have done it!  We are going ‘home’

Well it is so not home any more, but we are going back to South Africa for the first time in 7 years.

Hubby hasn’t seen his sisters and brother in 7years so it is seriously overdue and very necessary.
We are going ot have a  huge family reunion for Christmas.

So much of excitement and a little bit of trepidation too.

Trepidation, because I now have two really tough challenges ahead of me the next 4 months.

Challenge One ~ Loose Weight

My family have not seen me this large, ever

Yucky how did I let myself get this way ?

I know what it is I am such an emotional eater.

I eat when I am unhappy to make me feel better.

I eat when I  am happy, just as a treat

It is a problem that  has got a lot worse over the last five years with all our upheaval and moving three countries in less than three years.

But I have been on a mission for the last four weeks and have lost 9lbs.

I seem to be loosing a little more than a pound a week, not a lot, but I look at it as weighing one  less than last week.

I am so motivated to do this and while I am motivated I should just get on with it.

Challenge Two ~ Save

Save.  Save. Save.

This is a little easier to achieve than challenge one, but still quiet hard for me who loves nothing more than going shopping for ribbon and lace that I don’t need.

London is burning!

 I feel a serious need to rant and rave....

What a  mess!

 Do these people know how much impact their vandalism and criminality is going to have on the people who have their lives, homes, their memories, their livelihood destroyed in a night of craziness, how this is going to impact them, the perpetrators, in the long run? 

This behaviour is sickening and disgusting never mind the sadness of it. 

 Building's 100’s of years old destroyed by fire.  I cannot tell you how sad that makes me.  My daughter lives very near Tottenham where all this started and it has left us all feeling anxious and afraid. 

 The police don’t stand a chance, they are not allowed to use force, they are seriously out numbered – there have been cuts to our police force????  

 The criminals, some as young as seven, seven, know this they didn’t even run when looting the shops,  the news shows one  individual with a trolley full of stolen goods, waiting  for the traffic light  to turn green before he crossed the road, I ask you, why??  

 Such carnage.

 We are just recovering from such a devastating credit crunch – what impact will this have?  

Why. Why. Why ??? 

Oh dear I feel so silly

 I wanted some loose Lavender, just a small amount to fill a few little bags for a gift.  I looked on the web, found a bag of Lavender, presented in a nicely labelled cellophane bag, for £10,  searched a  bit more and found loose Yorkshire Lavender for  £5.  I was so happy that I had found a bargain , so I ordered the loose Lavender.

  The package arrived this morning – well it was a large box, not a package.  About 10" deep and 13" long and 10" wide. 

I could smell the Lavender as the Post Lady handed the box to me.  

 The size of the box that they had packed the Lavender in for posting surprised me.   

I opened it  ....... the box was filled, corner to corner with a large plastic bag, full, full of English Yorkshire Lavender.

What I didn’t realise  was how much Lavender I was ordering for £5.

 I had ordered 1 kg of dried Lavender!

  Do you know how much Lavender makes up 1 kg???   

Hahaha I have sooo much Lavender now. 

 My room smells of Lavender, the smell is wafting through the entire house.   It is truly the most delightfully comforting smell I know and I am so happy to have it, but I do feel silly ordering sooo much.

 Oh well I will have to find some ways of using it all up.