A Little Make

I made these cute little lavander sachets for Mothers Day and was very impressed with my minimal skills. They smell so wonderful, and the scent always reminds me of my Granny who always had delicate little hankercheifs scented this way. I already keep bars of soap in with my laundry piles and every so often shake out some bedding only to find a bar being flung across the room. I think it’s a good cheap way to have a fresh clean house-and I’m all for that!

I’ve been making some more to hang up in the wardrobe or to keep with piles of summer clothes that only seem to come out for a two week period each year. It’s also got me thinking about (…don’t get cross at me) Christmas-as I never seem to get organised enough to make things for people. So I will make up some little baggies and keep them with all of the ribbons and flowers so that in the month of December I only need to buy the seeds. I’m hoping it could also be a canny way to save money too.

I’m so proud of these little beauties and almost feel sad that they should be kept hidden away in a drawer or cupboard.

Spring in my Step

I have a confession; I have my ‘Easter head’ on. My mind is on Spring, and Easter celebrations and the idea that I will come home from work one day and it will still be bright and sunny. We are lighting the fire less and less, although the heaters are still on. I do have to say that part of that is because the house was so wet and cold when we first moved it, but now it’s becoming nice to have the windows and doors thrown open wide, so I imagine we will need less heating as we really get into March.


After Christmas I always feel like I should be dropped straight into Spring or at least allowed to hibernate, so I have slowly been biding my time and I can feel now-after the stress of pre-Christmas moving-that this house will be good to us.

I am longing for pastel shades and daffodils, leaping lambs and gardening. Spring, to me at least, is about having energy. This is a season for being busy and hardworking. It must be about digging and planting. It must be about cleaning and brightening the place up, and I can not wait to get started.

All work and no play.....

Its grey, dark and gloomy outside, but I’m off again tomorrow so it can’t bother me. TH is very ill with the flu (its not even pretend this time!) so I have been getting lifts into work, which has been a godsend. Unfortunately (or possibly luckily) this means I get into work at 6.30 and don’t arrive home for another 12 hours. I have quickly ‘banked’ enough hours for a day off, and I think I’d really rather take it while TH is poorly and needs a bit of looking after, rather than saving it for later.


It means I can catch up on a Mothers Day make and get the house nice and tidy as it’s obviously really slipped with poor TH being in bed all night and day. I hate it when the house doesn’t look welcoming or cosy. I would never ever want to be the sort of person that couldn’t have people round because the house isn’t nice. It has to be either tidy ‘enough’ with good friends and too much tea and cake so they don’t notice or just pile it all in another room if the only options are mess or friends. I am house proud to the extent that things are clean, but I don’t spend all day scrubbing. I would rather spend my time re-arranging some flowers or organising a book shelf. Sometimes I can spend ages organising guest soaps in a room and utterly overlook bed linen needing to be put back on a stripped bed. So tomorrow I will take care of The Husband, I will have time to make the cookies for my Mum and decorate the little lavender sachets for Mothers Day, I will get the house back into order and I will do this all in my own time. Never has a prospect been more exciting.

Welcome November

November time again and I find myself wondering where the year went. The jumpers have been brought out and freshened up from their exile on top of the wardrobe. There are so many pretty cosy things in the shops right now that it’s easy to stay warm and stylish in this weather. I find the prettiest clothes are always found in shops in the colder months, but then again if I could get off with cropped t-shirts and mini skirts I might think differently.
November is a busy time at home normally as the imagination has to be put into overdrive attempting to think up meals with the odd things found in the second freezer we’re trying to empty for Christmas food making an appearance. It’s busy as I never make enough gifts to give out and need to buy-and so this is the last month to realistically do shopping too.

November this year is quite different as we are moving. We need to be in the new place by the time our first advent calendar door is opening up and this means that our Christmas time stress has just been squared!

I hope you are all having a much better time pottering around and getting your lovely crafts sorted.

Soon to be Makes and a CK Fan!

When a new shop opens it always nice to go in and have a little look around, but when the new shop that opens is a Cath Kidston shop it really is quite a different thing for a girl like me.

I love the vintage, the floral and the pastel coloured look. I love the table linen, and pretty dresses. I love almost everything in that shop-and given half a chance (and lots of pennies) I’d carry bundles home with me after every visit.

When the new Autumn magazine dropped through the front door, I did what any normal girl would do. I made a big pot of tea and found a thick marker to circle things with. When I spotted that they are running sessions on making your own lampshade I lamented over the fact that these things never come this far North-oh but look, what joy! They do travel to Aberdeen! They travel all the way up to my local store! So with that information I marked in my big pink diary that I was to phone at 9am sharp to retain some tickets.

True to my word I was ringing at ten to, five to, on the hour…annoying the poor operator on the other end of the line….until….I got the tickets!

On the 19th I’ll be standing there with my besty Holly and with all the skill I can muster I will form my own lampshade only to carry home that little prized possession to show The Husband. Like a small child I will stand in the middle of the room-holding aloft my newest creation….oh and we get 15% discount on the night too (but those bags will be sneaked into the house).

Inspiration

Inspiration....

little ideas to keep me more than busy...

Some simple, and some a little more difficult (well, for my skills and attention span!)

Up at the top of my list of things to do is making proper Christmas cookies

However, its also just lovely to look at the ideas....and buy the products in shops and add special little touches myself.

Do you think edible place cards would ruin our appitite?

YUM!

x

Do you see what i see?

I've been so absent...minded, but absent from blogging too for a teeny wee while but i want to show off some of our decorations.  This is the decoration i made and started to show off here.  I love it up above my first fireplace!! We had a window over our last one!!

Some twinkly twinkles!! Its much too fuzzy to see properly but quite frankly i dropped the camera and its been saved on the same setting for a while now! 

My gingery bread men!! Kept close together with a scrap of ribbon!  I love these little men!

Ahhh there you are. a stocking for The Husband, a stocking for me, some gingery bread men, candles and a garland!  Heaven! 

I do love Yankee candles and all of their lovely scents, a beautiful little tart burner taking pride of place...especially brought out for Christmas. 

And a little Bertie Rouge...for good measure!

Some more little makes!

Another little make!  Some gingerbread men, stockings and a tree or two and a little candy cane!

A smidgen of blanket stitch and some felt!  Voila..Christmas decorations.

Just need to grab some ribbon and we're off!

Believe

Oooh a little make!

Ive seen bucket loads of decorations that say Believe, and decided to make one up myself.  I'm really new to sewing, and this is honestly one of the first things I've done.  Ive been meaning to show off some little decorations I've made for a while now, and they're the first things I've ever made!

All i need to do is string them up with some wool!

I have a confession…

I have a slight confession to make. Of late I have been so caught up in something. It has taken over every aspect of my life. I have changed my life. I have not acted the way I normally do, and I have not been ‘kind’ to myself.

Although everything I have done is aimed at a goal, we have so very little control over it, and so we are taking a very big gamble.

I have been thinking for a little while about this. I keep wondering what sort of person I will be after this part of the journey, what will be left of me, or indeed the old me?

In an attempt to regain my sanity and rid my self of periodic despondence I have decided to try to fill my life with lots of new skills and try to fulfil all of those New Years Day promises I make.

So this is my new promise, the one that I will be exceptionally accountable for. I will try to get back to the skills I used to have, and I shall foster some new ones.

I have a couple of things I’ve wanted to make for a while, and I have just put it off. Part of it is because it’s so connected with the ‘thing we have been so caught up in’. Hopefully I will be able to start showing the progress…and believe me, it will be slow! But I am proud and enthusiastic about my new route, and my new way to look at life.
Thankfully for me, so much of my thinking gets done while walking, and with a little Pup I walk a lot. I am hoping this new found clarity will stay and possibly permeate the blog…but that may be asking too much at this point in time!!