Winners, Flowers and Spring Shelves

Hello lovelies,

Thank you so much for all your comments and entries to my give-away.

The lucky winners are Marjbrit and Clare

 congratulations !  I've already sent you a message via e. mail :0)

When I walked into the kitchen on Saturday morning the Daffodils I picked up as tightly closed buds on Thursday were looking at their peak of perfection.........they took my breath away..........

The sun was shining so I took some pictures of my spring shelves for you lovelies.

Ta-dah...........

It was Thursday morning that I decided that they must be done at once.
 I removed all the dusty ornaments and polished the shelves before unwrapping the thrifted plates and bits and bobs I've been collecting for this display throughout the winter.

It was this sweet blossom plate that planted the seed of this idea and I tried to hunt out nice things with these pink, green and creamy yellow colours................


I really like the idea of changing the things on my dresser shelves to suit the seasons.
 Otherwise after a while I simply stop noticing it at all.

And it's been such great fun to plan and make things too. My crochet primroses look right at home with the mixture of old things I've  recently thrifted  and old things I've had since childhood...............

As do my crochet Snowdrops.............

I had a lot of fun playing around arranging and rearranging stuff till I was really happy with how it all looked.
I was going to stick with the pink/green/cream colours, but in the end I felt it needed a pop or two of red as well..............

The cute pink tea pot was something Mum spotted in the charity shop and I love it.

The  precious blue and white china is now stored in the basket you can see on top of my dresser and you can just about see my new  pink doily under the fruit bowl........

The pattern for the crochet triangles  used to make the bunting is HERE and I used good old Stylecraft Special Acrylic yarn.

It was a charity shop find on Saturday morning , I love this pattern............

 I  am pleased with how my Welsh dresser looks. It's so me, if you know what I mean.
 It's crochet, flowers, nature illustrations and cute creatures..........I LOVE it and I'm feeling inspired to do something similar for Summer :0)

Later on Saturday we had a little outing to a magnificent country house.....but that deserves it's own post....

I hope you lovelies have had a good weekend. And those of you that are in the U.K. have enjoyed the exceptionally mild and sunny weather today.........it's been such a wonderful treat.

Jacquie x

Images from my Week

Hello Lovelies, 

once again I seen to have a lot of photos from this past week that I've been  meaning to share with you. So here is a little round up of things I captured on my camera over the last seven days.

Last Sunday afternoon I was walking with my eldest. We braved the footpaths but forgot to wear wellies. I was a bit sad because I know how much my boy loves wading through puddles and we soon had to turn back because of all the mud..........

When we got home I sat quietly in the garden for a few moments , listening to the birdsong and watching Tom Tit pecking at the peanuts in my feeder............

On Monday we woke to frost and this was the view on my Journey to work......

It made me smile because it was so lovely and also because to was so blue ........on Blue Monday.

Another frosty morning on Tuesday but this time the early morning view from my car was pink......

With all the cold weather I've been making warming stews, chopping carrots two at a time , as I always do, and admiring their gorgeous colour.........

Again there has been plenty of sunshine, mixed in with heavy showers. On my way to the shops a bright spell tempted me to stop the car by a familiar gateway..........

A dash up this footpath a little way..........

To capture the wintry view towards the Church..........

In town I was looking up and noticing the view across the rooftops..........

Then popping into the charity shop and finding a sweet plate for my Spring display........

Regular readers may know of my love of  "The country Diary of an Edwardian Lady" books which this plate is based on.

I brought my bargain find home, carefully wrapped in newspaper and stored it in my basket of thrifted "spring things" on top of my dresser. In another month or so I'll get them all out and enjoy arranging them on the shelves of my Welsh Dresser.........

Yes, those granny squares are still patiently waiting to be sewn together.

On Thursday I headed out in my wellies, to go for a walk up the same path Eldest and I attempted on Sunday........

Ha, puddles don't scare me now :0)

But I didn't foresee the impending rain storm...........

It suddenly got very windy and sleety rain was blowing in my face as I walked across this field.........

at least my feet were dry!......



I squelched through the mud.......

And along the wooded path that is so pretty in spring........

I suppose if the world was leafy and sunny all the time we would not appreciate those days so much .

More comfort food seemed in order on Friday. A pan full of vegetables and some left-over potatoes......

mixed with eggs and cheese, made a hearty omelette........yuuuummmmmmm......

On the creative front, there has been a little crochet occurring......more on this soon.......

And I've been noticing a heart I made ( last year....I think )

It inspired me to do the first drawing in my new sketchbook.......

Want to see ?

here we are.......

f

This was such a fun little drawing to do after work on Friday evening, and the perfect way to unwind.






Hope you have a good week lovelies, thank you from both Mum and I  for all your lovely comments on my previous post.
Jacquie x

Also This Week........

Hello Lovelies, 

this week, the one that I'd been dreading, actually turned out to be pretty darn good. I seemed to fit in a lot of blog posts and I found loads to photograph. LOADS.

So, despite already doing four posts this week I find I still have more images from the last few days that I wanted to share here.

Here is a mixed bag of what else was on my camera this week.

After a busy day at work I love it when I finally get chance to sit down and do something creative.

These little crochet circles......

Turned into ears for cute mice.......

Now the boys are back at school I'm enjoying a bit of quiet time at home alone on my days off in the week. At this time of year the low afternoon  sun shines on my rainbow maker and the room is filled with glittery colour........

on Thursday they were particularly stunning, the colours were intense and you could clearly see the whole spectrum........

Thursday was also a brilliant day for cloudscapes. I was wowed by the ever changing display of  dramatic winter beauty.

 Morning

 Afternoon

and Evening (well 4.15 pm )

Yes we still have a lot of dark hours. These pictures were taken at six pm on Tuesday. It was windy and there were beautiful colours scudding across the moon. I set up my camera on a tripod to try and get a decent shot.

I didn't capture the clouds but I still love this image, with it's halo of light.........

And you can even make out some craters, I was so happy to manage to take a reasonable picture of our lovely Moon...........

Back to daylight now and a picture of my Welsh Dresser ( remember when I first got it HERE).

 How I love this (rather orange pine) piece of furniture. It's so much fun playing about changing the displays.

And it's a great place to keep your latest crochet makes..........

 I actually made the mouse in the middle of the bottom row a couple of years ago and I've always loved it, so this week I decided to add a few more to my collection.
 The dark brown one was first, he turned out huge. Then I realised I should be using a 3.5mm hook with my  double knitting yarn to get a smaller, denser result.

The pattern is free and found  HERE if any of you lovelies fancy making them.

 And finally from this week we have a little more calendar love :0)

Despite already having three calendars for this year I couldn't resist adding a fourth when I spotted this in the charity shop for 75pence!..........

It even matches my blanket

It's a wonderful photographic calendar of New Zealand. I wonder how it ended up there? It's new and I can only think it's been sent across the world as a gift or brought back as a souvenir . Why would anyone not want it?

Of course it's got summery pictures for January and Autumnal scenes for March but I quite like that. I certainly like looking at summer images on lovely blogs from the southern hemisphere when it's cold and wintry here.

This is the calendar's photo for January....New Chums beach, it looks like a stunning place......with great name :0)

Oh, I'm thinking about seaside holidays now.

Before I go I'd just like to thank you all for the cowl love.....so many comments, I'm so pleased you like it....and ♥ thank you ♥ for taking time out of your busy days to tell me so.

Jacquie x

♥52 Weeks of Happy♥ 37/52

Hello Lovelies, 

The weather is turning cooler here now and we have quite a bit of rain. There is still a LOT I am thankful for.Big things and little .

1. As the temperatures drop my crochet blankets come into their own once more. THIS blanket is in daily use for warming up on cool mornings ( I haven't put the heating on yet ) . Squares I started back HERE have gained another round. This blanket was supposed to be a picnic blanket but that didn't happen so now I'm thinking it would make a nice cosy winter blanket. 

I decided to add a calm colour as a border for each square as I worried all the bright colours I had used would be a little too busy.  I pondered for quite a while what colour to use...in the end I chose stylecraft Denim..........

I'll keep you posted on it's progress.

2. Sunflowers. This year they are HUGE. We even measured them the other day...12 feet...they look gorgeous growing up the side of the shed but their height means I can't really pick a few to enjoy in the house as I usually do............

 But with gale force winds forecast for tomorrow I may go and chop a couple down today and display the flowers indoors. I'm not sure they will withstand a storm .

3. Thrifted crockery. I bought  two of the pretty plates with a sweet blossom design ages ago . I loved the creamy yellow , pink and soft green colour combination. This week I found a cute hunny pot and two more plates in similar colours. I'm hoping to gradually make a " spring" collection for my WELSH DRESSER. I love the blue , red and white colour scheme it has got at the moment, but it's always nice to have a change occasionally.........

 And I really enjoy hunting out inexpensive secondhand bits and bobs. I like the way you have to be patient , some weeks there will be nothing, but another week  the charity shop will hold lots of "Treasure" :0)

 4. The late summer landscape. This is a picture taken on my early morning journey to work. I love the golden light and the golden fields of stubble.............

And I LOVE this painting by the mega talented Haidee-Jo. It captures this special time of year perfectly.

Hope your week was a good one.
 Jacquie x

Running update. Things are going well ( touch wood ) with my half marathon training. I've run 19 miles in total this week including a 14k ( 8 and 3/4 mile ) long run............ Yay me :0)