Nonnie

Anyone for tea?

I've been meaning to show you all this for ages. Infact, I've been meaning to display it in the flat for ages. It's the cutest little tea cosy that I won on ebay a few months ago. Don't you think it's gorgeous? I just love the fantastic clashing colours of the embroidery.Each side is different. I think I like the side with more pinks best. Not sure though? What do you think?

Only thing is it is rather big for my little little cornish ware tea pot. I think I could almost get two pots underneath! Anyone for a nice cup of tea?

Sunny Weekend

After weeks of being very busy on creating, I had a lovely relaxing time this weekend. Unfortunately my car was out of action which meant I was unable to visit Cherry at the Fair which was disappointing but did force me to totally relax and do nothing. I spent Saturday pottering around the flat starting to get in back in order again after the whirlwind of activity. I love my little flat and it was good to lavish a little attention on it and just to be there being cosy and warm.

On Sunday it was so beautiful I just had to get outside and enjoy the colours around Kew. The trees on Kew Green were particularly beautiful and I loved the way the oranges and reds looked against the blue sky. I walked all around the green and down this little lane to the river bank.

The leaves looked so lovely on the pavement I just had to take a picture of them.

I often walk around Kew and I really love it, but it's amazing how differently I started looking at things when I had my camera with me. I've never noticed just how lovely the arch through the bridge looks and although I've always loved the little pathway, it suddenly looked even more inviting.


I can't tell you how much that walk in the sunshine revived me. I don't mind winter, but I do need a bit of sunshine to cheer me through it. After all the hard work of the last few weeks it was lovely to enjoy a bit of 'me' time.

Talking of the hard work, have a look over at Cherry's Site to see how lovely her stand at the Fair looks. I think it looks very inviting. Sadly for me, my products didn't do too great, but I'm not at all dis-heartened. They obviously just weren't what the people at that particular fair were looking for. Everything is still available in Cherry's Shop and Cherry is taking them to another smaller Fair in London in a couple of weeks. Hopefully they'll do better there. I'm already thinking about new things to add to my range in the New Year, but for now I'm going to concentrate on some Christmas creativity for me and I've also a very special 60th Birthday Dinner to help organise with my Sister, Brother-in-law and Dad, for my Mum. It's a real team effort but with only two and a half weeks to go we're going to be busy. Back to the sewing machine!

'Bonkers Angel'

I came accross this Angel when looking on Decorative Country Living's website the other day at all their lovely Christmas stuff. I just love her, and I particularly love the name, 'Bonkers Angel'. I think the expression on the face is fantastic. It kind of reminded me of how I've been feeling and looking these last few days! I've finally finished all my things for the fair though and I'm delivering them to Cherry this evening so hopefully I can start feeling a little less bonkers.

I've got the day off work tomorrow and I'm going with my Sister to visit a couple of old friends of ours for the day. Can't wait. So nice to have a day of girly chat and catch up. Mind you, I might feel slightly bonkers again by the end of the day as there will be four children under two with us! What fun!

A quick break from Christmas!

It's another of those dull grey days again here in London so I was just cheering myself up by looking back over some photos I took while staying with Mum and Dad in the summer. It's made me feel so much better looking at the lovely summery garden so I thought I'd share them with you. And much as I'm loving thinking about all things Christmassy, it's nice to day dream a little about warm summer days again. The picture above is the lovely little summer house which is perfect on a hot day for having afternoon tea in.


And this is the lovely ornamental vegetable patch which has stunning views accross the fields, like the one below

If you turn around the other way you get this lovely view of the house which is the old stable block for the pub next door.

And here are 'the boys'. Well three of them anyway! Actually, one of them is a girl, but somehow 'the boys' is the general description of the four strays who have taken up permanent residence in the garden. From front to back, Fatboy, Scrappy and Olive.

You might be thinking that 'Fatboy' is a bit of a mean name. I think Dad christened him that and it does suit him. He is the biggest, fattest cat I have ever seen. Obviously well looked after in a previous life but we can only assume now that he has been left behind by previous owners and now he just wants to live with Mum and Dad. He is also the most affectionate cat I've ever known. They would all really love to live in the house but unfortunately the house belongs to this one below - Smokey.

He tolerates the others but if they ever dare to try sneaking in the house they're in trouble! Their home is the summer house and they'd better remember that!

Hope my pictures of an English Garden in summer have cheered away the grey skys for all of you too. I'm now wanting to pay a visit there myself although obviously the garden won't be looking like that right now. But it will still be beautiful in it's wintery way, and all the boys will be waiting outside the door for love and cuddles. Unfortunately a visit may have to wait as they are fully booked with paying guests at the moment. Mum and Dad run a B&B in their lovely home (blatent plug- see link "The Old Coach House" in side bar!) so I don't get to stay there as often as I would like. But I'm looking forward to a cosy Christmas there, and already dreaming of next summer in the garden.

Typepad Nightmares!

I am having a nightmare trying to set up a Typelist Link to Cherry's Shop. I seem to have got part of it right in that the title 'Buy my creations here' is in the side bar, and the link itself is working, but I am having such trouble with the picture. As you will see at the bottom left of my side bar, the picture is absolutely huge and I can't understand why. It's supposed to be a picture of some of my polka dot hangers but as you'll see it's so big you can only see a part of the picture. I've tried making the size of the image really small before uploading it onto my site, but that doesn't seem to make any difference. Anyone got any tips for sorting this out? It's driving me crazy!

Candle Light and Cushions

This was the scene in my flat on Saturday night. Lots of candle light and peace. A friend of mine sent me an email about a campaign to basically get people to think about how much electricity they waste. The idea was to turn off as many electrical items between 4.30 and 7.30 on Saturday evening. I think the hope was that if enough people did it there would actually be a drop in demand on the National Grid. I'm not sure how successful it was but I gave it a go and it was the most lovely 3 hours. I'd been working like crazy all day so this gave me an opportunity to just stop and do nothing for a while. The sewing machine had to be turned off! So I lit lots of candles in my living room and curled up on the sofa with my knitting as I decided this was the only thing I could manage in the dim light, and I listened to the silence of my flat. It was incredibly peaceful and very relaxing. I have to admit, I'm not very good at taking time off to relax. I always have to be doing something. Even if I sit down to watch TV I have to be making something at the same time. It really did me good, as well as, I hope adding to the campaign.

And this is the scene from my sofa when I turned the lights back on! Some of my cushions and cards for the fair piled up ready to go. It is the most satisfying feeling seeing the piles grow and thinking how much I love them all. I can't wait for them all to be done and ready to go to the fair. It's all very exciting.

Last night I was working on hangers and more cards and this was the scene of destruction that greeted me this morning. I may sometimes get fed up about being single but there are definitely advantages to living on my own. I've basically turned the entire flat into my studio!

The only downside to all this creativity is that I do feel I'm turning into a bit of a hermit! I'm not sure a thirty something single girl should be spending so much of her time with her sewing machine. I definitely need to work at getting the balance a bit better. Time for creating(which I love) and time for going out. So I took some time out last night to make a few phone calls and texts to friends to arrange to see them after next week when all this is delivered.

Have a lovely day everyone. x

Busy

I am so busy at the moment making my stock for Cherry to take to the Fair that my poor blog is being rather neglected. So I thought I'd quickly show you this tray I painted a couple of weeks ago. It's just an MDF blank which I've pained in a Laura Ashley paint and added a little gingham bow, but I think it looks quite cute now.

Actually, it was originally possibly destined for Cherry's Site with a little more decoration added to it, but I just wasn't that happy with it and I wanted the things I'm selling with her to have a more 'created by me' feel to them that this just doesn't have somehow. I must admit that I do have a lot of trouble assessing my own work and wondering if it's good enough. It's like when I sent my samples to Cherry before they went on her site. I felt as nervous as I did doing exams or going for an interview. I was so pleased when she emailed me to say she was happy with them. I suppose at the end of the day we just have to have confidence in ourselves and the things we make and hope that people will like them as much as we do. But it's something that's never come very easy to me. I think my lack of confidence in myself actually effects quite a lot of things in my life.

So its busy busy with the sewing, sticking and painting for now and I will try to squeeze in the odd post between now and the time I deliver all my Fair goodies to Cherry. I really am enjoying all this productivity though, and I do get slightly frustrated that I can't get on with it during the day when I'm doing the boring day job! But never mind, I have a whole weekend of making ahead of me.

I am going to break off on Sunday afternoon though to drive over to my Sisters to enjoy Bonfire Night. They have a really lovely event in her village which involves a bonfire and no fireworks. The bonfire is up on the common and every person takes a lighted torch (not as dangerous as it sounds!) and forms a procession to it accross the common. It is a lovely site to watch from the lane the little line of bobbing lights making their way through the dark. I'll try to take some pictures if I can.

I know it's only Thursday but I'm going to be early in wishing everyone a happy(and for those in the UK) and safe Bonfire Night.