Nonnie

Flowery Inspiration

I thought it was about time I showed you something by my extremely talented Sister. This is the front cover of a beautiful note book she gave me a few years ago for my Birthday. The note book was made by an American stationary company I think, but the design on the front is based on a design Catherine did. I think they've tweaked it just a little bit and it is machine embroidered rather than the hand embroidery of her original design, but basically it's her work. If you're reading this Catherine, I hope I've got the details right!

Anyway, this gorgeous note book has been sitting on my bookshelf for the longest time as it just seemed too lovely to use as an every day kind of notebook. I kept thinking it had to have something really special inside to compliment my Sister's beautiful design. But I looked at it the other day and thought how silly it was that I wasn't using it. I want to look at it every day because it's just so gorgeous.

So I've decided it's going to become a special inspiration book. I'm going to fill it with my most favourite magazine cuttings and decorate the pages and write inspiring quotes or ideas amongst the pictures. I really want to create something to look at and inspire me every day. I'll show you the results as I get started on it.

It really is a lovely thing to have pieces of art and creation at home that are produced by family members. I'm lucky enough to have a number of pieces that Catherine has produced which I'll show you another time and also, a few paintings and sketches by my Uncle who is an artist, including a gorgeous chalk portrait of my late Grandfather which I will always treasure. I'd really like to commission Catherine to produce another piece for me when I've saved up a bit. She is a trained textile designer with a first class degree who now creates the most exquisite pieces of work between being a full time fantastic Mum and child minder. I suppose the only way I can describe them without showing them to you is as gorgeous little works of art. Some are painted, some are embroidered and appliqued, and all are absolutely gorgeous. That probably doesn't really describe them at all as they deserve. She is quite honestly the most talented designer/artist I know. No offence to all you other highly talented ladies out there!

Here's anther little bit of flowery inspiration. We walked past this cute flower shop in Emsworth last weekend when we went for our breakfast. I couldn't resist getting the camera out. I love the stripey awning and the plants and flowers lined up outside. Like the whole of Emsworth I thought it had a slightly old-fashioned feel about it that I really loved.

I'm looking forward to a fairly relaxing weekend at home. Pottering in the flat and hopefully sitting in the sun if the weather forecast is to be believed. But given that it's supposed to be sunny and warm right now, but it's infact grey and chilly, I'm not sure I do believe the forecast.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend. See you on Monday. xxxx

Grandma's Chair

Just a quick post today to show you all that I have been a little bit creative lately and not just spending all my time on the water!

Sadly, about four and a half years ago, my two remaining Grandparents died within a month of each other. I miss them both very much, especially as George and I now spend so much time down on Chichester Harbour which is where they used to live, but I am lucky enough to have some lovely reminders of them in my home. One of the items I was lucky enough to have from their house was a sweet little nursing chair. Unfortunately though it wasn't covered in the most attractive of fabrics and it was looking a little tired and unloved.

I'm rather embarrassed to say that it has sat in this state for quite some time with just a piece of fabric over it to make it look a little better. For quite some time now I've been trying to decide what to do with it and finally the other week I managed to get hold of a large piece of free remnant fabric from work in a lovely soft green. Now green isn't really a colour I use a lot of. The flat is fairly neutral as it's rented and I've used lots of red and blue in all the rooms because I had my cornishware and red enamel collection, and in such a small space I feel it's better to keep the same theme throughout. But in the hall where the chair lives, there was no blue, just the red and white rug. So I decided to introduce the green to the hall by making a slip cover for the chair.

I'm pretty pleased with how it's turned out. This is only the second loose cover I've ever made so it's not perfect. I'm definitely not going to show you a close up of the corner joins! But it's not so bad. I already had the lovely checked and floral cushion from Louise Loves and I think it finishes it off nicely. It's a lovely spot to sit while chatting on the phone.

Saturday

Inspired by Tracey's post I thought I'd share with you the perfect Saturday night we had over the weekend.

Standing on the bank of the Harbour looking out over glistening water towards the setting sun. Watching two hot air balloons peacefully take off into the sunset and knowing that shortly you're going to head to a cosy pub for dinner, followed by snuggling into your new sleeping bag to fall asleep peering out through the open hatch towards to a huge sky full of stars. Getting back into work today is very difficult!

Sharing

As I stupidly forgot to take the photographs I meant to take last night, I thought I have a sharing post today. I realised that I have so many blogs that I now read daily that I haven't managed to add to my list on the sidebar. So I thought I make a quick link to some of them today. I still get totally amazed by just how many gorgeous blogs there are out there. I just wish I had more hours in the day to catch up with them all. Here are just a few. Go visit if you haven't been before.

Lucy Locket
Nicol Sayre
Sally Gardens
Enjoying my Journey
Holly Doodle
The Vintage Magpie
My Cozy Home
Flea Market Studio
Little Pink Studio
Flibberty Gibbet
French Knots
Dollie Daydream
Knot Garden
Alecias Attic
From under the maple
Angel Jem
Ramblings from an English Garden
The Cosy Corner
Sew Recycled

I'm sure I've probably forgotten a few! I will get around to putting them all into my sidebar at some point. Seem to be short of time at the moment!

Something else very quick to share. A couple of lovelies from one of my favourite shops, Decorative Country Living

Cute little candle holders

And I think these are possibly the cutest little vegetables I've ever seen.

Have a wonderful weekend. xx

Our first adventure(but hopefully not too much of an adventure!)

The collar bone is pretty much fixed so we're going on our first expedition at the weekend! I think George is slightly amused with me that I am likening it to Swallows and Amazons. I told him last night that really I want to find a little island and set up a tent between two trees and light a fire and have adventures, rather than stay in the marina we've booked. Actually though in reality, I don't think there are any tiny islands in Chichester Harbour and to be honest the idea of a marina with toilets and shower is probably more appealing!

So we're all organised. The route is planned. Actually it's not far at all. We're just going further up the harbour to a place called Emsworth, staying there the night, then leaving with the tide at the crack of dawn to hopefully see the sunrise over the harbour on Sunday morning, then back to our mooring mid afternoon, after a morning of pottering and bird watching. Provisions have been partly purchased and George has just been shopping for new sleeping bags, torches, a wind up radio so we can listen to the shipping forcast while tucked up in bed, and a set of plastic plates, bowls and glasses. He's even purchased plastic champagne flutes so we can be really extravagant and sit sipping champagne in our little boat.

I've been out to buy a new note book so I can create a kind of diary of our trips. I plan on doing a bit of sketching and also using it to stick in photos of the trip and make notes on what we've seen. Hopefully this will develop as the season goes on.

So with all this adventuring at the weekend I'm not going to get a whole lot of crafting done. I'm going to have to get started again soon though as I've signed up to a craft fair in the Cotswolds in May and potentially another near Bath in July. I have quite a bit of stock to sell but I need a little more variety so I need to get busy again. I did make a couple of things last week while I was off which I will try to photograph tonight to show you all tomorrow.

With all this talk of Swallows and Amazons and sailing, this blog is in danger of turning into something other than a crafty/homemaking blog and that will never do. Having said that, I'm off now to make a cup of chai and daydream about a perfect sunny weekend onboard a little yellow boat but I can tell you that while I'm on that little yellow boat I will be daydreaming about summer sewing projects and getting homemaking inspirations from the nautical surroundings. x

Hello!

Hello. It's been a while hasn't it? What with holidays in Cornwall, and a week spent starting the major spring clean and clearout at home, it's been a busy couple of weeks but I'm back feeling refreshed and ready to go again. So today I'm not going to say much but give you some images of our few days break in lovely Cornwall. We stayed in Penzance with George's parents then Looe with his Sister. We were very lucky to have the most gorgeous sunny and hot weather and we both totally relaxed.

Thank you to everyone for all the comments on my last post. I'm sorry that I've been incredibly bad at replying lately. I will attempt to catch up on the backlog, but if I don't quite manage it, please accept this as a group thank you! xxxxx

Well the sun is shining very brightly here again in London and I hope it is wherever you are. Have a lovely Monday. xx

A Happy Easter!

What a gorgeous day we had on Saturday. This is the view of St Pauls as you walk up Ludgate Hill. All the better when the sun is shining as brightly as it was. The Christening itself was in the Crypt which conjures up images of a rather dark place, but the Crypt at St Pauls is lovely. Walking through from the entrance to the area where the Christening was to take place we passed some rather impressive tombs, one of which was that of Lord Nelson. Never mind the Christening, I think this was what made George's day more than anything!

So the dear little girl who was being Christened was very good indeed. Just a little cry when the Vicar poured the water on her. Who could blame her?! It was really lovely to catch up with some friends I haven't seen for a while, and friends of friends I hadn't seen for even longer. We also got to see my Sister and Brother-in-law and dear little Hamish which is always a joy. He is getting so grown up! Really walking well and interested in everything. He was extremely well behaved through the service although I think that might have had something to do with the fact he munched his way through it. He loves raisins and spent much of his time shaking some out of one of those tiny boxes they often come in then popping them quickly in his mouth incase any of the rest of us tried to take them first. So funny and so cute. He's a little love.

Tomorrow night we're off down to Cornwall for the long weekend and I just can't wait! I love Cornwall. Obviously my gorgeous Cornish Man loves it even more so he is particularly excited. We're setting off straight after work tomorrow and have booked a hotel in Somerset. Normally we do it all in one go which is a lot but we share the driving so it's not so bad. But as poor George is still unable to drive it would be far too much for me to do in one go after a day at work. So we'll stop in Dorset tomorrow evening then straight down to Penzance first thing Friday morning. I've probably mentioned before that George's parents live there and own a lovely wine shop in the town. They have a beautiful Regency terraced house over looking Mounts Bay which they've been doing a lot of work on so I'm very excited to see how it looks.

So I'm looking forward to a lazy weekend. We usually have plans to go places but more often than not stay around the town taking it easy. I think that's just what we need right now. Views of the sea, the sounds of seagulls, someone else cooking dinner..... What could be more perfect.

We're stopping the night on Sunday at George's Sisters in Looe in south east Cornwall. They've only just moved there so it will be lovely to see where they live and will break up the journey home a bit.

Next week I have the week off work so I definitely hope to get back to normal service around here. I plan on doing some sewing and carrying on with the spring clean/de-clutter that started last weekend. We have a lovely new bookcase being delivered on Tuesday so I'm going to have fun re-arranging!

I hope you all have the loveliest of Easter weekends. What ever you're doing, relax and have fun. Oh, and don't eat too many easter eggs!

xxxxx