Nonnie

More of those Autumnal scenes

I hope you won't all be too bored with more autumnal images from the Cotswolds! I escaped to Mum and Dads again this weekend and couldn't resist going into their beautiful garden with my camera again yesterday afternoon, even though the weather was a little overcast. Not exactly ideal photo taking weather. But I just can't resist capturing Autumn. The colours are beautiful at the moment and I even found a few roses still blooming.

Mum had put one of these in a small vase next to my bed but there were still a few outside. I love the faded colour.

I know I'm copying Jane here, who has already posted images of her wood pile but I couldn't resist a photo of this satisfying looking pile. I can't wait for visits in the coming months when the sitting room will be snug with the heat from the wood burner and there will be the fantastic smell of woodsmoke in the air. There's something so cosy and comforting about that smell.

Don't Mum's newly replanted pots look lovely? I think pansies are so cheerful in the autumn and winter months. Like little smiley faces bobbing in the breeze. They look really cute sitting around this lovely lady.

I love some of the views that are created by objects in the garden. These are two of my favourites.

Work on the fair items is going well. Hopefully I'll have some pictures to show you by the end of the week. I took a little break from it this weekend in terms of making but the ideas were still flowing and being noted down.

I'll leave you with a little splash of summery colour in this autumnal garden. x

Oh, I nearly forgot. I've added a link on the right to my sloe gin instructions. Give it a go, it's really easy and totally delicious.

Getting Busy

The creative urge has finally come back and I have been busy getting on with items for my Christmas Craft Fairs. Above is a little peep at work in progress, some Christmas bunting. I'm a little embarrassed to admit that I'm feeling excited about getting in the Christmas mood. I know! It's only the middle of September! But my first fair is only two and a half weeks away. Actually I'm wondering if the people of Chipping Norton will be ready to go Christmas shopping the first weekend of October! So with that in mind, I will be taking a mixture of Christmas items and general home accessories which can be purchased as Christmas gifts or not.

If any of you are interested in coming to any of the fairs, here's a list of dates and venues -

Saturday 6th October - Chipping Norton Town Hall, Market Place, Chipping Norton, Oxfordshire - 10am - 4.30pm

Saturday 20th October - St Edwards Hall, Market Place, Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire - 10am - 4pm

Saturday 1st December - The Crypt, St Michaels Church, Broad Street, Bath - 9am - 5.30

Saturday 15th December - St Margarets Hall, Bradford-on-Avon - 10am - 4pm

I'd love to see you!

The weekend was filled not just with the sewing, but also a trip to my Sisters on Sunday for a delicious dinner of roast chicken cooked by my Brother-in-law, and pavlova made by my Sis. Yummy. My Sister and I went for a walk on the common with my dear little nephew and found lots of sloes to pick so what with the ones I picked at Mum and Dads a couple of weeks ago, I know have hopefully enough for a few bottles of sloe gin. Another job for this week! I'm also hoping to make some chutney and bought some lovely jars yesterday for it to go in. I love making things in the autumn to squirrel away for the depressing winter months!

I'll leave you of a couple of views from Sunday as we walked up the lane on our quest for sloes. See you later in the week. xx

It's in the air

I know that there are probably many of you who are mourning the loss of summer(what we had of it!) but I have to admit I am more than excited that there is a touch of autumn in the air. I think it must be something to do with being born in September that has made me always love Autumn. I love that back to School feeling and have more of an urge for renewing, refreshing and generally organising, at this time of year than ever I do in the New Year. Infact, I think for me making an Autumn resolution would be a better idea than making a new year resolution. I love the colours and the cosiness of Autumn, the idea of gathering and making supplies for the winter, and thinking ahead to Christmas.

While I was at Mum and Dads last week we had some lovely weather but there was definitely Autumn in the air. Something happened to the light and there was a certain smell and stillness in the air. So I thought today I would share with you some autumnal Cotswold images. I hope you can just imagine by looking at them that lovely Autumn feeling that surrounded me as I took the pictures.

My Mum's sweet vegetable patch with views accross the fields.

Some late colour in the garden

Just waiting to be made into bottles of delicious sloe gin!(more on that next week)

I've always loved the look of these little round haystacks.

Dad's lovely bean supports looking a little bare now.

In celebration of Autumn I've given the blog a little autumnal make over. Hope you like it! x

I am still here!

Just a very quick post to say I am still here and I'm ok. So many of you have been just so wonderful and supportive to me over the last few weeks so I just wanted to let you know I'm doing ok but not really in the right frame of mind for proper blogging just yet. Things have been a little manic around here. I've been working the longest hours ever in the day job coming in between 9 and 10 at night and just colapsing into bed. Luckily I had a few days booked off last week so escaped up to the heaven that is my Mum and Dads gorgeous place in the Cotswolds, for some very much needed rest and spoiling. But things are still very much in limbo for me. George hasn't managed to find a new place yet and so is still living here. We are totally amicable, but as you can imagine it's not really making either of us terribly happy and I feel as though I'm in a kind of half way land. I'm feeling very positive about the future and have so much I want to get on with, but until the break is complete it's kind of difficult to do anything but the basic day to day activities.

I promise that I will be back very soon. If I don't always reply to messages, comments and emails that you lovely ladies send me, it's not that I don't appreciate them, I really really do,it's just that I kind of feel I'm swimming through treackle right now. Normal service will hopefully be resumed soon and this will return to being the crafty, homey, creative blog I love. xx