Winding down ready for work, everything in its place .................

Button heaven, these are my most recent finds waiting to be put in their button tins and jars.

Pattern boxes and magazine files.

Thread boxes and fat quarters.

Button tins and jars, stuffing and crimble fabric.

A sense of harmony has been restored to my work area, I have managed to shred 2 black bags of incriminating paperwork which is now suitable for the bottom of Alvin's [my pet indoor rabbit] cage. I have also recycled  a selection of boxes and 'odd' magazines where I only required articles and not the 'whole', plus of course all the non incriminating paperwork, where does it all come from?, I have very few paper bills these days , unyet I seen to have more paperwork with my personal details on in the post than I ever used to get.

Evil twin '2' in production.

Opal sock wool.

Tidy shelves =tidy mind?

3 Empty chairs.

Having a good tidy up and clear out, gives you an oppertunity to see and remind yorself what forgotten treasures you have have hidden away in paper bags and at the bottom of old boxes, it also is a good reminder of things that are not quite finished, but should be .

So now I have a new to do list, the Opal sock wool was a treat when I was away a couple of weeks ago, I have never used 'sock wool' before, so will be very intrested to seehow much better it will wash and wear , rather than using 4ply etc. Have several patterns to choose from, but think as the wool itself  is rather colourful I may go with a plain pattern.

The Floral cross stitch is the 'evil' twin to one I completed a couple of months ago and needs  rinsing, pressing and making up into a cushion cover ready for the 'new' lounge.

Evil twin '1'.

And next is to make up my lists of whom is getting a homemade present this christmas, but before I get carried away with these I must finish adding all the buttons to my completed baby knits . The main problem I can see with this christmas's production is the fact that I will be unable to share the finished items with you , as the receiver may be taking a sneaky peak here to have a look !. And of course there is the christmas card production to consider, I dont make my own cards during the year as have so much on  on a day to day basis , but I do like to make as many of my christmas cards as I physically can, I think it makes them more personal, plus it eases the lack of personally made gift, as would have to dedicate my entire year to Christmas if I was going to make everyone a present .

So I guess thats me organised for a few weeks at least, have cleared some chairs so I can of course have some company whilst stitching, stitch and bitch [a small local sewing group I hold at my house when my shift pattern allows] can begin again from next week, I have buttons to sew, crochet blanket to finish, cushion cover to make up , socks to experiment with and crimble production to start..............of course and life to fit in ........family , work ,pets etc etc ...........

Getting out the hammer and beating tacks to distract myself...............

Sometimes as saintly as ones friends are , you do feel that your grief is so large that it is blocking the sun, and that they must be bored of hearing how much your heart aches, how deep your grief is and how as hard as you try nothing seems to make it less so.

I guess that those who are not grieving for a child mean well when they say 'it will get easier', personally I dont think it gets easier, I think you adapt yourself so that the constant pain does not overwhelm you, that you try harder to see happiness, and to enjoy as much of life as you possibly can, as who knows what tomorrow may hold, and I guess ultimately we are all thankful for the blessings we do have in our lives.


Yesterday was GCSE results day, children up and down the Country were finding out their grades, as these will influence the next stage in their life, yet another milestone to be passed, it seems unreal that my youngest would have been one of them..........yet she never had great plans, and sometimes I do feel she was alittle like Beth in Little women, she always spoke of being at home,she had no great plans to travel the world or take a high powered job, she was kind, gentle, loving and could be very excited, noisy and funny, I miss all these aspects of who she was.......but she will always continue to be a huge part of who I am.

Hammered thumb!

My favorite tools , never under estimate the uses for a staple gun and hammer.

Butterfly fabric in Daisy's honour.

So especially on these days I need to get busy and do something positive to distract myself, not having quite finished reorganising all the 'craft' that has been taking over my diningroom, I decided to find my trusty staple gun and hammer and have abit of hammer therapy, which attractive results ..bar my thumb, which I forgot to move, just the once .

And now as the weather would seem to have changed, I will  think about sanding down my newly acquired pine drawers ready for painting, they will make excellent pattern storage and are a perfect fit for my bookcase, so I best get to it ..........

Creative out pourings without a stitch........

It would seem my holiday time is running out at a pace, for sometime I have had a selection of frames stacked on my dining room table,all waiting to be painted, decorated or just used . In preperation for the 'big move' next year, I had been rearranging all my photos of friends and family, putting them all into similar frames , all in shades of white and cream, I call the pictures my rogues gallery.

I also decided to take a cross stitch in hand, originally I had framed it in an old goldy coloured frame an ex-employer had given me in a clear out, it was too small and so I had to fold part of the cross stitch to fit it in, but now it is fully stretched and looks so much better, I am very pleased with the result.

Latest updates.

Friends and family.

Daisy.

Since the last time I updated the rogues gallery, my first grandchild has been born and my neice has got married, my youngest daughter missed her prom, but her best friend let me have a photo so I could still share in the experience, another neice has had a photo shoot, etc etc so all these pictures have been downloaded to disc and printed, ready for the 'new frames', I will let you guess which ones I have done myself and which ones are 'as seen' shop bought.

Now that the table is clear I have been  able to move onto my shelves, they have been collecting items ready for a very creative Winter, but before I can start any of these projects its essential for me to organise all my finds and buys so I can access them easily as required. I am particulary pleased with the two sets of pine drawers I found a neighbor throwing out, they will be my next paint job.

This morning I also managed to fit in a quick tour of a few of the local 'Harrods' shops in Bristol , starting at  Clifton Downs and working across to Henleaze. Quite a few sale items about , as the shops are getting ready to put in their Winter stock, so managed to pick up several well priced deals, plus of course my usual selection of buttons , which are too small to see in the picture, but are grey mother of  pearl and a larger card of cream ones .Am loving the pink bag with butterflies...have no idea what I am going to use it for , but at less than £2 it was far too pretty to leave in the charity shop, and so now I am off to find my next projects and get ready to start......

Winchcombe, Broadway tower.......and drum roll please.....the teacosy is finished...

The last few days seemed to have passed in abit of a blur, as we have toured around the only thing we could rely on was the fact the weather was completely unreliable, although I must confess we did not have any snow or hail.Luckily we could time our visits according to the weather, so on a rather wet and windy afternoon we boarded the steam train at Winchcombe and puffed our way to Cheltenham and back.It was a very leisurely way to spend an afternoon, so much effort, time and enthusiasm is put in by the volunteers, and the stations are as much to be enjoyed with their new tea shops as the trains themselves, well nearly anyway .

Broadway Tower.

Next sunny afternoon we climbed  Beacon hill, the secound highest point in the Cotswolds,rising to 1024ft [312m],then not feeling tired enough we then climbed the stairs to the roof of Broadway Tower, which on a clear day like we were lucky enough to have, a view of some 50miles in all directions. The tower was not built just  as a folly as such, infact the last residents only moved out in 1972,there have of course been many owners/occupiers since it was built for George William sixth Earl of Coventry in 1799.

On a clear day ,you can see forever.

Waiting for someone to run me a bath.

One of two staircases.

One of the most notable to me was William Morris,designer,craftsman,poet,socialist and champion of old buildings and fine workmanship. He along with several of his artist friends of the Pre Raphaelite period would come and stay at the tower, Morris bringing his family with him, his daughter Mary is quoted as saying of the tower 'The most inconvienient and most delightful place ever seen-to simple folks like ourselves, who could do without almost everything with great cheerfulness. The tower was certainly absurd- the men had to bathe on the roof, when the wind didnt blow the soap away and there was water enough ......but how clean the aromatic wind blew the aches out of tired bodies, and how good it all was ', I envy them their bathtime .



And finally , all parts of my 'garden teacosy' are now complete. The assembly nearly took as long as the knitting and crochet, and of course I added extras!.

Mainbody in basket stitch, with rib liner and knitted tray to add flowers to.

The main body of the cosy is knitted in 2 threads of double knitting and then it also has a ribbed liner, which has to make this one of the most thermally insulated cosies I have ever produced, but teapots do loose their heat very quickly when used out doors.

Several items made for the kitchen, no knitting this time,including a rose printed teacosy,with frilly lace !.

 Once completed it did occur to me that this teacosy is infact very similar to my Christmas  teapot cosy which I made a couple of winters ago.

Modeled by my sister  Jules by another mother !

As worn by the christmas teapot.

Doc Martins surgery, Pencarrow gardens and finally finishing a book.

Doc Martins surgery.

Pencarrow peacocks.

Grounds map.

Cottage garden flower bed.

 Cornwall was a delight, shame the sun seemed to have tired it self out before we arrived , but he did manage to put his hat on a few times and smiled down on us. We were staying on the North Cornish coast near Camelford, so we travelled up and down the  coast locally , calling in at Port Isaac, Boscastle, Tingagel, Padstow, Bodmin, Camelford it self and a lovelly stroll around Pencarrow gardens.

 I actually managed to finally read a whole book while in Cornwall, it was Katie FForde, the wedding season, it was light summer holiday reading and perfect just for that .

The flowers are now completed for my teacosy, but cant promise not to change my mind with regards to colours before completion, and now am off to Winchcombe to see steam trains , apple trees , and more vegetables .