Sunday snippets

 

It's been a lovely week of bright, bright sunshine interspersed with great big plops of rain.  That's what makes Britain Britain! 

Sunday snippets

~ I'm loving the longer, warmer evenings and enjoying a quick half pint in a pub beer garden after work every now and then

~ The first bike ride of the year - it felt good to blow away some cobwebs

~ The annual ritual of making elderflower cordial has begun!  It was a bumper crop this year which should see us through the year

~ THIS cake!  I made it for my Sister's birthday from a recipe on Pinterest.  A hazelnut cake with a nutella filling to die for!  

~ An early morning dog walk by the river

Personalised papercuts

Remember my Liberty fabric backed papercuts I posted about a few weeks ago?  Well I was contacted a little while ago by a lovely lady that is getting married this summer and wanted to commission me to make some personalised papercuts for her to gift to her three bridesmaids.  What a lovely idea eh?!  

It's got my mind whirring with new ideas... bride and groom names, children's names to hang in a nursery... watch this space!  I love working on commissions and knowing that my papercuts are a little part of someone's special day!

Jo

Little signs

Sadly, we lost my lovely Nana two weeks ago and said our final goodbyes to her on Thursday last week. 
She lived a very full life of 95 years, was a remarkably strong and loving woman and I loved her dearly.  
One of the things I will always remember about her was her love of roses.  Her garden was always full of them and during summer visits to her we would always leave with a bunch of beautifully scented homegrown blooms to take home with us.  

She would have loved her send off on Thursday.  Plenty of sunshine, a room full of those she loved most, our memories of her being discussed with smiles on our faces and warmth in our hearts.

When we arrived home late afternoon, I took a stroll round our little garden and noticed that the first bud on our climbing rose had bloomed that day!  It's the little signs that remind us our loved ones are forever in our hearts. 

Sunday snippets

A little snapshot of my week

 

 

~ Planting up some free Wahaca chilli seeds.  Grow little ones! 

~ Pretty beach huts on a windswept day

~ Carnations still going strong after three weeks.  They are so under rated and I love that for a few pounds you can fill several vases for many weeks! 

~ Literally can't stop eating these at the moment!  I guess there are worse addictions...

~ A lovely commission for a special little boy's christening

Books lately

I don't think you could find three more different books than my most recent three reads!

Do the birds still sing in hell is the remarkable true story of Horace Greasley who escaped a Polish prisoner of war camp during World War 2 over two hundred times to see his sweetheart.  Very rude and crass in places, so not for the easily offended, but an amazing story of triumph over adversity in the most horrific of times. 

Apple tree yard had me gripped throughout.  I loved the way little seeds of information were planted in every chapter, keeping you guessing throughout.  It wasn't until after I finished the book that I realised I didn't particularly like any of the characters but it didn't really seem to matter! 

Paper towns was my first young adult read in a long time.  It's the first of John Green's books that I have read but it won't be the last.  I have just picked up The fault in our stars to read very soon.  Read this if you want to remember what it's like to be an awkward teenager and I defy you not to fall just a little bit in love with Quentin, Radar and Ben!  

What have you been reading lately?  I always love a recommendation....

Hexagon patchwork

A few photos of my latest stitchy project.  

This started as a way to use up a few scraps of fabric.  I merrily stitched away with no real purpose, just enjoying the little lovelies taking shape.  

Then the idea formed for them to become a picnic blanket.  They could easily have become a bag or a cushion but no, a picnic blanket they will be!  
I have worked out that I will need 1200 of these little 1 inch hexagons to make a decent sized blanket so this is very much a long term project!  

 I love the way they mount up when you have a few spare moments to stitch away....

However it may be summer 2015 before they resemble a blanket!  

A small break and some new Liberty print papercuts

Well hello there.... 
Deary me, it's been a while!  If you follow me on Instagram, you will see me pop up regularly on there but this little corner of the internet has been sadly neglected of late. 

Here is a little snapshot of what I have been up to and I promise I will be back blogging here more regularly in the future!  I've missed you and it feels nice to be back!  


New postcard sized papercuts that are backed with delicious Liberty Lawn cotton. 
These are available in my Etsy shop.

My crochet has taken a back seat this year and has given way to a new hexagonal patchwork project.  More on that in my next post....

Ripple ta-dah!

Do you remember the miserable cold dark days of February, when it felt like winter was going to last forever and I started a mammoth ripple blanket to keep us warm on winter nights...?  
Well, it's been a while since those days and the weather couldn't have been more different lately! 
I rippled away during the last days of winter and merrily into spring and then when the sunny days arrived, I put my blanket to one side for fear of overheating under the weight of the thing!  
Well, it's been a little bit cooler of an evening lately, enough for me to pick up my blanket once more, finish off the last few stripes and weave in all those ends and now it is finally finished!  

It's a bit colourful to say the least but my main intention was to use up lots of odds and ends.  I usually stick to a much smaller, more neutral colour palette so actually it's been lovely to go with the flow and use colours I wouldn't usually choose together!

Hopefully it will be a while before we will need it to keep us warm at nights but it's tucked away by the side of the bed ready to pull on when it does get chilly! 

Love is in the air

Lately, I've been working on some lovely wedding papercuts.  It's definitely wedding season and who doesn't love a good wedding?!  

Never one to need an excuse to celebrate all things romantic, I was inspired to design a new papercut that I hope you all like.  Each letter is made up of little tendrils of foliage, each leaf measuring about 2mm so it's quite a delicate piece. 
I'm thinking the design would translate well with lots of different song lyrics and sweet words.

Weddings, weddings, weddings!

Just checking in to tell you about a lovely blog I have recently discovered - BeckaBonce

Each week Rebecca features a themed collection of lovely handmade items around the webosphere.

This week the theme is 'Weddings' and you may just spot a little something from yours truly in the collection....

Previous weeks have included foxes, tea and stripey items and there's always bound to be something included that gives you a bad case of the havetohaves!

x

Save the bees!

All future orders will include a little something extra... for our little buzzy friends! 

Adventures in cordial making

The elderflowers are on the trees for such a short time, about three weeks in total, and as a lovely friend of mine has an Elder tree at the bottom of her garden, we decided to take advantage and try our hands at making elderflower cordial.  

The process is as easy as pie and so satisfying; we're already talking of it becoming an annual tradition!  If you fancy having a go (and I thoroughly recommend you do!), here's how we did it....

Firstly, using slightly wonky scaffolding, we picked around seventy heads of flowers.  They had a good wash to remove any bugs or debris and placed into a very large pan.  

We added the zest of eight lemons and then chopped the lemons into thick slices and this all went in the pot with the elderflowers.  

In a separate pan, we disolved two kilos of sugar (yes, poor teeth!) to three litres of boiling water and poured it over the elderflower / lemon mix along with 100g citric acid (available from lots of online shops), covered it with a lid and left it overnight.  The smell when the hot water hits the elderflower and lemons is wonderful!  

I forgot to take any photos the next day but it was very simply a case of removing all of the lemon pieces and large elderflower stalks from the water, then straining the remaining mix through muslin into a large jug to be poured into sterilised bottles.  
It will keep in the fridge for a couple of months and can be frozen if you want to keep it for longer. 

 

It is really tasty mixed with just still or sparkling water but is utterly delicious when mixed with gin and soda water!  

Cheers!  

 

Sunday snippets

It's been a while since I wrote a 'Sunday Snippets' post so here we are with a few excerpts from my life over the last week or so... 

Visiting one of my favourite coastal places and these wonderful pastel beach huts

A sweet little commission I've been working on.  This papercut was personalised with their names and wedding date and then mounted onto the front of their wedding guest book.  It was stuck down using double sided tape, a sheet of acetate was placed on top to protect it when it was being passed round the wedding guests to sign and a border of fabric washi tape was added.  I think I held my breath the whole time I was doing it but was so pleased with the way it turned out.   

A little purchase of fabrics from Fabric Rehab for a few little projects I have in mind... 

Beautiful ranunculus from lovely friends that came to dinner last weekend 

It's been such a perfect week weather-wise up until today.  Today is a day for snuggling up with hot chocolate and a good book!  What Sundays were invented for!