Nonnie

New Designs.

Introducing two new cushion designs that are about to appear in Cherry's gorgeous shop.

There's the floral and gingham which measures 40cm x 40cm and is filled with a lovely soft feather pad.

Then there's the green gingham with the applique floral heart. This one is rectangular and measures 40cm x 30cm and also comes with a feather pad. Both have a pocket opening at the pack and a little 'Nonnie' label.

I hope you like them both. I believe they'll be in the shop today or tomorrow so please go take a look.

More Flowers, Work in progress and an update on George(the bear)!

I came tripping into the flat rather late on Friday evening and just a little bit worse for ware. One too many glasses of wine. Ooops! I walked into the bedroom and sitting on my bed on top of the pillows was my lovely old bear 'Ted H', holding a bunch of pretty yellow tulips in his stubby little paws. "Oh ted" I said, "how lovely. You are clever to have gone down to the shops for flowers. It must have taken you all day to walk down there on your fat little legs". He laughed at me of course and explained that they weren't from him but from George. Of course. They look lovely don't they. He knew I was planning on buying some flowers at the weekend so thought he'd get some for my first.

So as I already had tulips from George I thought I'd treat myself to some hyacinths instead. Well, I'd already planned on spending flower money! I found a lovely basket of three while I was shopping in Chiswick.

They haven't come out yet so I'll take a better picture when they do. The green gingham in front is something I've been working on over the weekend. More on that later in the week.

Thinking of my little wander around Chiswick, I wasn't very successful in finding treasures but I did find one little set that will soon be available here.
I'll be keeping you updated on this little project which is just a temporary home until the website is up and running which I hope will happen before Easter.

Here are some other little things that I was working on over the weekend which will soon be in the temporary shop.

I feel like I had a bit of a creative block lifted this weekend. I've had all these ideas for both my own project, and Cherry's site, and it's been a bit of a struggle to get on with them but I made huge inroads this weekend. Not only do I have a small stash of things for my own site, but I produced two new designs for Cherry. Her shop is open again today with some gorgeous new things for sale. You'll see my designs available there including some children's cushions and cute polka dot coat hangers as well as stationary and collages and hopefully if she's happy with my new designs, there will be a couple of new cushion designs available later in the week. I'll keep you posted.

One last thing before I leave you for the day. I thought I should show you all what George the Bear has been up to over the weekend. He went for his first little potter in the boat. I hasten to add that he didn't go alone. George and I were with him and we didn't go too far. But as you can see, he is very good at navigating. He sat with the chart and told us where we needed to go. He's a very clever bear. You might note that he doesn't have a life jacket on. Don't worry, I'm going to do something about that. We didn't let him get too close to the edge yesterday so he was quite safe!

Have a lovely Monday. xx
(By the way, the tartan seat covers will soon be replaced with something a little more nautical. Not that we have anything against tartan, but I just don't think it goes too well on a boat.)

Friday flowers

I haven't had chance to buy fresh ones yet this week so until tomorrow when I plan on buying a big bunch of tulips, this little posy of flowers is cheering the dull winter day. They used to be my Grandma's and I think they're so cute. I love the colour combination. Makes me think of spring and it reminds me of the little bunches of flowers my Sister and I used to pick on the way home from School to give to Mum.

I'm going to have a girly weekend to myself as George is away playing rugby and meeting up with an old school mate tonight. I plan lots and lots of sewing, a little treasure hunting trip in Chiswick, a night out with some girlfriends this evening and a very early night tomorrow. Finally cooking a lovely roast dinner for my love when he returns on Sunday.

Have a lovely weekend everyone. xXx

It snowed!!

When we looked out of the window this morning this is what we saw

I know it seems silly for a 35 year old to be so delighted by a bit of snow but it hardly ever snows here in London so it is a bit of a novelty. I love the way it looked this morning. Really white and unspoilt. Of course the novelty soon wore off once I started my journey to work! It took me about half an hour longer than normal to travel in and here in Chelsea it all looks grey and dirty and as if it's hardly snowed at all.

I'll definitely be looking forward to a little glass of something I finished making last night. I picked sloes in the autumn from my Sisters village and they've been happily soaking away in a big jar of gin and sugar for the last 3 months. Last night I decanted the finished sloe gin back into the bottle. I was surprised that the sloes had obviously given out quite a lot of juice as I couldn't fit all the gin back into the bottle it came out of. There's quite a bit more so that has stayed in the jar for now and I'll top up the bottle as I get through it. Judging by the little try I had last night that will be fairly quickly!

George has told me that I need to give you more explaination about George the Bear and why he is on the boat. A couple of weeks ago George went to the London Boat Show and decided to become a member of 'RNLI Offshore'. The Royal National Lifeboat Institution is a voluntary organisation so as a boat owner George wanted to become a member in order to support them because you just never know when you might need their help. Anyway, George the bear was a gift with the membership and had already been Christened George by the RNLI. George wanted me to explain that incase you all thought we were very strange and a little unimaginative in calling the bear after him. Apparently he has a number of Brothers and Sisters who can be purchased on their site. One even comes with a Sowester to keep him really snug. I might have to get a little companion for George as I'm worrying he might get lonely on the boat when we're not there. It's also been suggested that he should have a lifejacket so I'll be working on that one.

Well I'm off now to make another hot chocolate to warm me up. This snowy weather definitely calls for lots of hot chocolate. Have a lovely day. x

Introducing George!

A short and silly post today to introduce you to George. No, not my George, but George the Captain of our little boat. He spent his first week on the boat last week and did a very good job of looking after it. As a treat he came up on deck on Saturday for a little photo shoot. It was quite chilly though so he needed his hood up to keep warm. Isn't he cute?

I'm tagged!

I was tagged yesterday by Charlotte

. Here are my instructions - The Rules: Each player of this game starts with "6 weird things about you". Each person who gets tagged needs to write a blog post of their own 6 weird things as well as clearly state this rule. After you state your 6 weird things, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you're tagged" in their comments and tell them to read your blog for information as to what it means. So here are my six weird things.

1. I have to check all the electrical items in my flat are safely switched off at least twice before leaving the flat. I'm a worrier! I wonder why I ever use hair straighteners for the concern they sometimes give me. Have a swiched them off?!!

2. I hate bridges and will go to any lengths to avoid driving over them, even if it means taking a 20 mile detour!

3.I am facinated by airoplanes. (although I am terrified of flying)

4.I can't do french knots no matter who many times I've tried.

5. I doodle constantly. Especially in boring meetings!

6. I love cheese and could probably eat cheese and biscuits for at least one meal of the day, every day.I use to share a house with 3 guys who nick named me 'the cheese ranger' because I always used to have a selection on my shelf of the fridge when they would just have a dried up lump of cheddar.

Gosh that was hard. So who to tag?

Cherry, Jane, Lisa, Gemma, Joanna and Lynn your turn!

Look what the postman brought!

A fat white envelope popped through my letter box yesterday and look what was inside it. A cute little tissue parcel tied up with beautiful red wool and decorated with stickers that look like buttons. This is what was inside!

A Cornishware apron! How cool is that? It was sent to me by lovely Lynn of Gigibird. Thank you so so much Lynn. I love it so much. I am on the look out for a little treasure to send back to you. It looks lovely hanging in my kitchen and pretty good on my too I think! (excuse the blurry photo, I must have moved as George clicked!) I have a feeling it will be used for decoration more than for practical purposes as I love it too much to get it splattered with food!

Salisbury(and the South Coast) - part 2

So I guess you're wanting to see what I bought on my trip to Salisbury? Sorry not to have shown you yesterday. I now feel like it's going to be a bit of a let down to those of you who have expressed feelings of excitement at seeing the Salisbury shops and what I bought! Unfortunately, beautiful City though it is, it doesn't really live up to expections with regards to shopping. But talking of shops, I must first say a big big thank you to Emma and Kelly who both took the time to email me with suggestions of places to visit. I think I went to most of the places they suggested.

So where was I? Ah yes, shopping. I was really hoping for some good vintage shops to explore but unless I missed something, I came across just one Antique shop(well more of a centre really) and a few charity(thrift) shops. The Antique Centre was very nice and lovely for a wander round, but it didn't throw up anything exciting for me unfortunately.

But I'm pleased to say that I did find some fabric and buttons all of which were at bargain prices. In particular I found a couple of lovely Cath Kidston napkins in a beautiful soft green which are going to be turned into cushion fronts. They were supposed to be £2 each which I think was already more than half price, but when I got to the till, I was charged only £2 altogether! I like bargains like that.

I also found some cute little buttons in my favourite colours. Not vintage unfortunately, just from a great fabric shop, but useful none the less. I already have plans for them.

And some lovely large scale red gingham. I can't resist gingham and am now wishing I bought more as it was a lot more reasonably priced than I've ever seen it here in London.

Finally, I found lovely felt in moss green, fusia pink and soft baby blue. The picture above really doesn't do justice to the colours I'm afraid. Actually, none of the pictures are great because I had to take them at about 9 o'clock last night. It was either that or wait for daylight next weekend to take them and that's just silly. (Can't wait for light evenings again!) I've got a few potential ideas for the felt. Just need time to sit down and try them out.

After we finished in Salisbury, we drove down to the coast to stay with George's Brother and his girlfriend again as we were doing boat work with them again on Sunday. Sam is as enthusiastic about the boat as George is. I just hope that Becky is not getting fed up of us or spending her Sundays hanging around our little boat? Hopefully not! We really had a fun time with them going to their local pub on Saturday night where there's always live music on. We did a lot of dancing which I love. Don't get to do it so often these days. I even managed to drag Geoge on to the dance floor for a slow dance! Poor thing! I think he secretly enjoyed it.

We got the mast up on the boat on Sunday so George was pleased. It's now looking like a proper boat. An apology to those of you not at all interested in boats, but here's a little pic. I thought it was about time I showed you where I go to most weekends lately! She is rather cute don't you think. She's going in the water this week so then the fun can really start, although I won't be sailing until I know George is totally confident with everything.(and the weather warms up a bit!)

So that was my weekend. Yet another busy one. This week I really do need to set time aside for creating as very little was done at the weekend other than buying materials. I'll post pictures as soon as I have some things done.

Salisbury - part 1

I have so many lovely pictures to show of my weekend that I thought I'd split it into two posts so more tomorrow. What a lovely weekend we had! Saturday's weather didn't start off with much promise and I feared I would be walking around Salisbury in the rain, and that I would have an extremely muddy boyfriend by the end of the afternoon spent on a soggy rugby pitch. But the rain did hold off and I had a lovely time wandering around the streets and shops of such a lovely town.

Above are a couple of shots of a particularly lovely street that was within the Cathedral grounds. I walked down here on my way to look around the Cathedral and when I got to the end of the street, I came across this lovely view.

And in the oppersite direction, this one.

I also saw the Cathedral properly for the first time, having caught site of the spire numerous times while driving into the City. Unfortunately there is some scaffolding around a bit of it at the moment but it's still stunning. I really loved the stonework details, especially some of the funny gargoyles.

The Cloisters are particularly beautiful at Salisbury.

So with all this site seeing you're probably wondering if I managed to find any shops. Of course I did! More tomorrow.
x

It's started!

Well I finally got down to some lovely creative work and wow, do I feel much better for it! Maybe it was the bit of sun that finally showed itself for a while on Wednesday, or maybe it was all the comments I received from all you lovely ladies? Thank you so much. I got some really good suggestions for organising my week so that I can fit in working on my own little business at the same time as working full time. I'll definitely be trying these ideas next week.

So now I have one design almost finished. Hopefully this is for Cherry's site if she likes it!? I've also got started on a couple of bits and pieces that will eventually go on my own website. So all in all I feel like I've made some good steps this week. I'll hopefully get chance to do more tomorrow as Sunday is another boat day. We're stepping the mast which is boat speak for putting the mast up. Sounds a bit complicated but I'm sure it will be fine. I just hope the wind eases a bit by then!

Is it just me or has this week absolutely flown by? I can't believe it's the weekend again. But I'm glad it is! I hope you all have a very lovely, fun and relaxing weekend.

Nonnie x

*** Brief update and I'm looking for advise. George has just been asked to play rugby tomorrow on a friends team in Salisbury. I've decided to go along with him so we can then go straight from there to the coast tomorrow evening and hopefully stay with his brother so we can go quickly to the boat on Sunday morning. Now my reason for going with him is not so I can spend the afternoon watching rugby but so I can go on a treasure hunt! Do any of you know Salisbury or the surrounding area and whether there are any good antique centres around? Or any other good shops to visit? I reckon I'll have 4-5 hours to myself so I don't need to stay in Salisbury itself. Any suggestions by the end of today greatly appreciated. x