Look what arrived with the weekend's paper...

My lovely neighbour, B, always pops the weekend's Yorkshire Post through our letter box when she has finished with it so that we can take a look and then I can use it to cover tables when I'm running children's art and craft workshops. This morning it arrived with this lovely bundle - a large piece of pretty, floral cotton tana lawn fabric and some bright, flowery, silky remnants!

Quite often the paper arrives with little extras, and it's not unusual for me to come home to find that B has left goodies by the front door! It really is a treat! I have had some lovely fabrics, vouchers for schools, cat food, fresh fruit and veg...and if I'm collecting bits and pieces, like jars and plastic milk bottle tops to use at workshops, I only have to mention it to B and it is sorted!

Thank you, B, for being such a lovely neighbour...not to mention putting up with naughty cat no.1, who just pops next door whenever he feels like it to eat, sleep and make a nuisance of himself! Thankfully, B adores cats!

Back soon,

Rebecca x

Buttons and Flowers

When I'm busy making and creating I do tend to make rather a mess and spread myself far and wide all over the house!! So this week, as we're taking it easy, I've started sorting out my work space - no room of one's own here, I'm afraid, just an area of the dining room!!

My son says that his bedroom and the bathroom are the only rooms without any of "mum's stuff" in them! The sewing machine and badge making machine are set up and ready for action on the kitchen table, there are knitting needles, crochet hooks and baskets of wool in the lounge (well, I can't have idle hands when my legs stop moving, can I?), boxes of stock and materials are stored in our bedroom, lots of bits and bobs are stored in the top cupboards in my daughter's bedroom (well, she wouldn't have been able to reach them when I started using them!), I keep all my materials for children's craft workshops in the cellar, and...I can't even begin to say what I might have stashed away in the loft over the years!! So, hang on...that means the hall and the upstairs landing are free from my "stuff" too!

I'd love to hear where you work at home? Messy or tidy?

When I was tidying my boxes and tins, I came across...

these pretty terracotta buttons (with flowers on!) that I bought from the V&A Museum shop on a trip to London with my daughter just before Christmas! These are"for me" buttons, not to be used on bits and pieces to sell! Now I just need to think how I shall use them. I've decided that, during the summer holidays, I am going to try to do a bit of making and creating for just for me and for my home, which is something that I hardly ever get around to doing, always being too busy preparing for workshops, fairs, and making for other people and my little online shops.

I am working on a small wall hanging piece (a flower) using rag rugging techniques, which will be used to promote a rag rugging workshop that I'm doing later in the year. I'd not done any rag rugging for a while and had forgotten how much fabric it uses - this small piece, which measures 6" x 6" has used almost two t-shirts!! I put it down by this month's Country Living magazine...the colours are perfect!

Today is wet and miserable...quite cool too!... but I took this yesterday...

The gorgeous white buddleia with its enormous flower spikes is attracting all kinds of insects and quite a few butterflies - unfortunately, they always seem to flutter off before I've managed to capture them on camera!
Buttons and flowers...see...I just can't get away from them! And that's just how I like it!

Bye for now,

Rebecca
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It's official...

it's the holidays! Although the soggy school uniforms were kicked off with joy on Friday afternoon, the first Monday of the holidays is when the holidays really begin here!! The weekend feels just like any other...then on Sunday evening that holiday feeling begins - no shirts to iron ready for the morning, no packed lunches to make, no last minute homework panics!! By the time Monday morning arrives, it's official - the holidays have begun!

A lovely 7 week break from ironing 15 of these each week!!

So this morning, we are quite at our leisure! We should have been going out to the dentist and then for a browse around Sheffield, but my son has come down with a sore throat and is feeling a little out of sorts so we thought we had better cancel the appointment. I shall be keeping a watchful eye on him as there have been a couple of cases of swine flu at his school! He's still in his dressing gown and has just gone back to bed with his book! My daughter and her friend are yet to emerge!! It is a lazy start to the holidays but they deserve it - they've worked really hard at school this year and we are so proud of them!

Here's my absolute favourite from the lovely old craft books I found at the charity shop last week - it's a Family Circle book from 1967 promising "Toys your children will adore...Exciting home ideas to copy...and Gay Accessories for you and the family"!

There are lots of these black and white "arty shots" - this one made me smile!


So did this one...especially as, when I first flicked through the book, I thought it said "Mr and Mrs Numpty Greenfinger"!!!

Well, time for a cup of coffee...back soon!

Rebecca
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Memories

My 'Peace' rose (a wonderful, thoughtful gift from hubby a few years ago following a bit of a tiff!) has come into flower this week and I managed to photograph it in between the very heavy downpours of rain we've been having. Its yellowy, pinky tones always remind me of the little fruit salad chewy sweets I used to buy from the village shop as a child!!

Isn't it funny how different things bring back our memories...smells, sights, sounds!! The smell of Guerlain's Samsara perfume always reminds me of being in labour...a midwife that came and went during the long and protracted time I had with my son was rather heavily doused in the stuff!! I also find that music stirs so many memories, which is one of the reasons I'm sad that Playlist.com is no longer available - it's so quiet in blogland too!!

Talking of memories, there's something about these:

Apparently, they are also available in a dark chocolate, blue and gold wrapped, version, but I've not seen those around here!!

Yesterday, I took a trip to my favourite charity shop...wow, a new manager...and boy is she making changes, although she assures me that she will not be increasing the prices!! Quite often, I breeze in... and then out again, just as quickly...but yesterday it was hard to drag myself away...lots of vintage craft books and balls of wool...!!!

I love these from "The Soft Toy Book" from the 70s!!!

The charity shop manager said her main aim was to clear out all the "stuff" from the upstairs storage room...keep on bringing it out into the shop I say, especially after yesterday's fabulous finds!! I'll share some more pictures in another post as this has turned into a longer one than I expected!!

Back soon,

Rebecca x

Nancy's Hankies

I came across this little bag a couple of months ago and fell in love with it straight away...

I say 'little' - it's about 8" square! It's falling apart a bit at the seams and the embroidery is not the neatest I've ever seen but I love it! I love its little handmade button, the traces of blue embroidery transfer that can be seen between the flowers and that there can be no doubt of its purpose: "Nancy's Hankies". Inside there is a small, white embroidered name tape that confirms Nancy's surname - it is here that my imagination runs away with itself...did Nancy go to boarding school, I wonder? Were Nancy's hankies as pretty as the little bag in which she kept them? I could never part with it!

Well...I guess I need to head back to the kitchen now to tidy up a bit more, make a bit of lunch and then mop the floor!! Boring stuff...but it has to be done! Anyway, I have a nice day to look forward to tomorrow as I shall be teaching one of my workshops, where we shall be making some of these:

and having a natter over tea and cake! Oh, yes...I always take pretty tea cups, saucers and homemade cake!!

Have a lovely weekend!

Rebecca
x

Pretty Onion

Of all the red onions we have growing in our garden this one...just this one...has been putting on a little display over the last couple of weeks:

I've been watching it .....nearly there....

until

we have a pretty little onion flower towering above all the other onions, whose tops have started to wither a little!

Fabulous! Onions - a pretty and practical addition to the garden!!

Bye for now,

Rebecca

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Flowers everywhere...

Here are some of the flower brooches, earrings and corsages I took to the village fete on Sunday.

This morning I've been busy taking flowery photos - some potted flower brooches, like this one, for my Folksy shop,

and these cheery little summer flower brooches too!

I'm all flowered out now...time for a cup of coffee!

Back soon,

Rebecca x

Blue skies...

I was awake bright and early on Saturday morning with lists of things to do whizzing around in my head! It was such a gorgeous morning!

Glorious blue skies at 5.30am while everybody else was sleeping !!

So, I took full advantage - I hung out the washing and then sat on the garden bench to look, listen and enjoy for a while! Just me, the birds and naughty cat no.2 licking the heavy dew from the grass!

For a while, there were only patches of blue in the sky at the village fete on Sunday morning...

...from the stall covering and our umbrella! Here's my daughter, still smiling despite being very wet and regretting the decision to wear her canvas pumps! Yes, the sky darkened, the wind got up and the rain bucketed down, causing quite a few problems for stallholders!! Lots of us got soaked through trying to re-secure tarpaulins, keeping stock dry and removing the water that was pooling fast on the stall coverings above us! Fortunately, it only lasted about 30 minutes or so and the weather turned out really nice for the rest of the day!

Once the sun returned, so did the visitors and a good time was had by all!

Bye for now,

Rebecca x

It's so dark...

Yes... summer could well be over here in Yorkshire! It's raining, about 10 degrees cooler than at this time yesterday and it's so dark that I need the light on to see my sewing this morning!!

Here's a little taster of some of things I've been making for the village fete I'm attending on Sunday:

A range of sewing accessories - with a bit of a patriotic theme!

Flower brooches...lots of them...all different!!

I had hoped to take some more photos today... hopefully, it will brighten up later!

For Sunday, I'm not asking much...just that it is DRY, please! Last year, the fete was ruined by heavy rain and the year before it was cancelled completely because of the floods.

Well...must go now to finish making, labelling, organising, as well as squeezing in a bit of baking (empty tins again!!) and general tidying before everyone comes home this afternoon!

Have a lovely weekend!

Rebecca
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