Blooming Marvelous

Hello Lovelies,
It's a very floral post today. Firstly I'm so happy with this fabric that I just had to share it with you......

Such lovely pink flowers on a delicate blue background

It's blooming marvelous bargain bedding from Morrisons .....

It's called vintage floral and I'm pretty sure it cost £14 for the set!

Sooooo pretty . The reverse is just lovely "candy stripes" so I'll be able to have a change when I tire of the flowers ,though that is hard to imagine right now :0)

Next I have some blooming gorgeous Dahlias.

Sadly these are not mine , but as they are looking stunning in a neighbours front garden right now I took some close ups to share with you......

Isn't that  stunning.

These have got to be my favourites. Smaller than the others but such a pretty pink and the globe shaped heads are such a satisfying shape.......

They remind me of those paper decorations that come flat and you open them out into a circle or a bell shape
.
Lastly today we have Blooming beautiful crochet.

 I've been wanting to have a go at Lucy's Blooming flower cushion since I first saw it. Such a clever pattern .I've had to wait till I had time to sit in front of the computer with my hook so it has had to wait a while. But I'm pleased to say this weekend I finally managed to start my cushion........

Lucy's tutorial is just great ,so clear as always . The pattern is a little tricky to begin with. Especially the working in the front and back loops . That's where a photo tutorial is a huuuuge help :0)

Now, I just love this pattern . I'm really enjoying creating these pretty petals ........

In fact, looking at these pictures I need to go and add another round right now !
Back soon with progress shots :0)
Jacquie x

A week at home

Hello Lovelies,
this week I've been off work and had the luxury of a week at home with the boys. I say luxury because we have had such a great time . No work or school to worry about, no definite plans ,just days to enjoy doing whatever we fancy.

This week we have been enjoying lots of simple outings and the weather has been kind. It's been great to get out and about enjoying the late summer sun . As we leave home and return each day my hanging basket by the front door always makes me smile. This years , just Ivy leaved trailing Geranium, has taken a long time to get to it's best .Right now,despite a bit of neglect when we were away , it's looking stunning......

We have been climbing hills with the cousins..........to a favourite place of mine..Here you can feel almost as high as the clouds and drink in the far reaching views .The short but steep walk makes you feel like you have earned the pleasure.......

And on the way back down we gather wild blackberries, note the purple smudges,and find Acorns to bring home and try growing an Oak tree ( slow project that one !).......

Everywhere there are signs that the seasons are beginning to change. This  wonderful planet is continuing it's yearly journey and our bit is not basking in the suns rays as much as it was.

I love all the bright red berries on the Whitebeam. There seems to be a bumper crop of berries this year, the Rowan trees are loaded down with them too.......

the little people also gathered Poppy seed heads to sprinkle in the garden...........much quicker project :0)....

I love that the boys have been outdoors a lot this week....they were still in the garden at eight thirty the other evening and called me outside to see this fabulous sunset.......

That night it actually rained a lot whilst we slept and in the morning I enjoyed wandering around the drippy garden in my PJ's.......

We've been swimming twice and have enjoyed three days at the park with various friends and I even braved some "crochet in public". My friends were a little puzzled but quite polite about it .
Then ,when I took this photo , without thinking it might look a strange thing to do, my friend was amazed " what are you taking a picture of THAT for ?" she said in a high pitched voice.

Taking pictures of unfinished crochet or any crochet....that would be WEIRD wouldn't it !!!  So I quickly said "oh ,I was just checking my camera worked " .Phew ..I may be getting brave enough to crochet in public some days but I'm certainly not brave enough to own up to blogging about it :0)...

It was great to catch up with friends I don't see often and our children had a great time hanging out together...scooters and skate boards were the craze this week......

Wandering through the park I loved this mass of Wild Carrot........

This plant is also known a Queen Ann's lace and the flower heads are just so pretty and delicate close up. Many were all white but quite a few also had this lone pink flower at the center....how strange.......

Once they have finished flowering the seed heads sort of curl up ...I love these too....

I finally treated myself to an issue of this much loved magazine and have been enjoying a relaxing read when we have been at home.......

I've also had time to take pictures (in private) of my Kaleidoscope blanket progress....I love the way this second round of the hexagons makes them look like flowers.....

There are 66 flowers here . Soon I'll be able to start adding the third round.......

Today the weather is wet and we have been into town buying school shoes. Thankfully that is the last of the uniform shopping and as we dashed through the raindrops this floral arrangement made me smile....

Thank you all so much for the lovely comments on my bag makeover.Hope you all have a great weekend.
Jacquie x

Bag re-makeover

Hello Lovelies ,
 As some of you may recall ,one of my small projects earlier this year , before the blanket bug bit me again, was to makeover a simple thrifted denim shoulder bag. I added felt owl and used some floral fabric to line the flap(as I had to remove the original lining to attach the owl). I also added some pompoms for a bit of fun. You can read about it here. But here is what the finished project looked like back in March.....

Oh , how I love this bag .It's just the right size for all my stuff. Not so big you end up carrying around loads of junk and it's easy to find things.I'm a big fan of across the body bags, great to keep your hands free.
This little bag has been so well used it was starting to look a bit shabby. My owl was made of acrylic felt which did not wear well....

Not terrible but this was the main problem......

The magnetic clasp I bought is so magnetic you really have to pull hard to separate the two parts and this was not good for the relatively lightweight lining fabric.Some repair work was needed .
While I was generally happy with my first makeover I always felt the lining fabric was too nice just to have inside so I decided to cover the out side of the flap in the same fabric.
It was relatively simple to do. I started by removing the torn lining fabric then   and unpicking the owl ,sorry owl .I drew around the flap to make a paper template . Using this template I cut out some iron on interfacing ....

The interfacing stiffens up the drapy fabric to make it suitable for this project. Here it is ironed onto the fabric..

Next I cut out the fabric adding  a generous seam allowance,placed this over the outside of the flap and pinned in place( that's the inside of the denim ,not the interfacing you can see...you can also see the remnant of the original blue lining and you will notice I haven't neatened the edge of the fabric as it will be covered by the lining).......

I then hand sewed this to the flap through the seam allowance and denim only, so no stitches were visible from the outside.
Next I removed the clasp from the original lining fabric and attached a denim patch for extra strength. ,before hand sewing the lining back in place.....

The denim could really have done with being darker but I couldn't find any at the time and wanted to get my bag back in use ASAP.Can you see why I wanted this fabric on the outside too...it's just so pretty and as I've had it in my stash since the 80's it's practically vintage .

The one day I had to use a subsitue I really missed it's practical ways :0)
So here is my humble bag with added floral goodness.....

That's better , but maybe more flowers would look even prettier? What about a little crochet and some buttons ? ....

YES ....I love  how it's turned out .
Last time I added pompoms to dangle on the side but they eventually got pulled off...so this time I'm trying beads.....

These beads are also thrifted ...from necklaces and bracelets I've picked up for pennies to build up a stash.

As you can see from the back ,the flap is the only floral part , but I love the combination of the fabrics ......

Here I'm modeling it in the garden , I'm so glad my favourite bag was salvageable .

It goes well with my cut off jeans , which are on their last legs but I'm doing my best to keep them going too :0).....

So what do you think to my no spend makeover?
The boys preferred the owl but like the beads. I like both but I think I prefer the prettiness of this version over the cuteness of the owl .


Hope you all have a great day. I'm off work this week and it's great being at home with the boys. We have bought uniform but still have school shoes to get...not today though....going to the park to meet up with my Anti natal mums...don't see them often and it will be great to catch up , though they don't get my crafty ways like you lovelies do :0)
Jacquie x

P.S. thank you to all of you who have commented to my crochet toadstool...I'm hoping to publish the pattern when I get the time ...but it may be a few weeks.
I'm the mean while do check out Anaboos fab version ...with pattern and inhabitants ...love it:0)

August Nature Notes...seaside special

Hello Lovelies,
By now I expect most of you are familiar with these posts.This is the eighth monthly post I have written and I'm still loving them. I have noticed and learned so much about our wild flowers and creatures like butterflies this year ,it's becoming a real interest of mine and made me appieciate nature even more.

As usual I will start with the book that inspired me........

Written in 1905 ,here are the Edith's illustrations for August.....

There are not many this month but they are lovely and here are the books interesting facts and folk law ( you can click on any image to enlarge) ...

My own images of nature this month were taken on our holidays. We took the long journey to Cornwall and were very fortunate to end up staying very close to this beach . To say this is a gorgeous spot would be an understatement. I know there are many lovely beaches in this part of north Cornwall but this is the best one we have discovered.

On this particular day we were enjoying a beachy day, British style. ...wind breaks rather than parasols...lots of layers that can go on and off as the weather changes ( me) body boards and wet suits (Mr BM and the boys )
After lunch, while the boys were playing in the sand I made an excuse of popping to the toilet and headed alone for the grassy area you walk through to get to the beach. I had noticed how pretty it was and wanted a closer look.

Like most of the beaches in this hilly area there is a stream draining into the sea and many families with smaller children were enjoying this area at the back of the beach.....this water is actually colder than the sea but lovely and clear........

I leave the beach and head into the grassy area behind it.This is a National Trust beach and though I can find very little on their web site about it, it's obvious this area in particular supports a lot of wild life ......

There are many flowers I'm familiar with like Knapweed.This gorgeous Crocosmia ,a favourite from my own garden ,was growing as a wild flower ......

We saw lots of these lovely flowers growing along the roadside in Cornwall...great swathes of orange that really looked stunning.....

I wander around listening to the sounds of children playing, the roar of the sea in the background and at my feet the crickets (or grasshoppers ) are making that noise that always reminds me of hot Mediterranean days. I did see a couple of these little fellas but they were too quick for me to photograph so I've included a close up of Edith's illustration of a green grasshopper ......

I loved the sunlight reflected in the little stream.....

And I did manage to snap this pretty Gatekeeper Butterfly which had landed on the lovely plant with yellow flowers ...Common Fleabane....

I also loved these pretty Daisy like flowers which some research tells me are Corn Chamomile......

As you can see I was having fun playing around with low angle shots I love the effect of the blurry background and the flowers generally look even better from a bunnies eye view. Speaking of bunnies ,there were loads of rabbit holes in this area too.

It really felt like high summer but there were some signs that autumn is just around the corner. Fruit ripening on the brambles.....

And ferns ( photographed from below) going brown at their tips .....

After visiting the little girls room and buying Mr BM a new body board as he had just managed to snap his old one I headed back to the beach.
 At the foot of some pretty impressive sand dunes I was particularly taken with this structural plant....

which I've since learnt is Fennel. It looks stunning close up ....

and the stems were covered in snails !....

Another creature I spotted at the foot of the dunes was this ....

Sorry it's a bit blurry but it moved pretty fast . I haven't seen one of these before and it's very striking .Apparently it's not uncommon ...it's a six spot burnet moth.

I decided to climb over the dunes and was rewarded with this view of the area I had just been exploring...no sign of all the lovely flowers from this distance but it gives a good impression of the landscape ...lots of little hillocks as far as the eye can see.......

As I near the top of the dune I love this glimpse of the turquoise sea and the blue sky with a few fluffy clouds....

A little further you can see the waves ( which were perfect for boarding that day apparently) and some brave people who have climbed the rock at the waters edge ( you might need to enlarge this to see them ).......

Tearing my eyes away from this stunning view and looking down at my feet I was rewarded with spotting Sea Holly.......

And the much maligned Ragwort ...

I know this is very common and poisonous to livestock so generally disliked but I'm sure it has it's place in the eco system supporting many insects . I love this description of Ragwort in my thrifted "Observers book of wild flowers"..........

In this picture you can see just how popular this beach is on a sunny day in the school holidays :0)

Our little camp is amongst this lot so I guess I better go and deliver that body board...maybe I should use it as a sledge and slide down...or maybe not !!

It was definatly a day to remember and I'm glad I've had the chance to record it here .

Jacquie x

Edited to add  ::  Look what hopped into our conservatory litterally an hour after I published this post.


A stunning grasshopper.I thought seeing this chap was an amazing coincidence after I just posted about failing to get a picture of these creatures.I have never seen a grasshopper in our garden before .

Here it is out side after Mr BM released it ........

Apparently the difference between Grasshoppers and Crickets are crickets can't fly and are nocturnal,grasshoppers can fly and are about both day and night...I saw this one fly so I'm sure as I can be that it's a grasshopper :0)