Crochet cushion Ta Dah!

Hi all on the gorgeous bank holiday Monday,

The sun is shining here and we have

a BBQ planned for tea time

(so pleeeze stay Mr sun).

Now the weather is better out came my

outdoor sofa and i wanted to make a crochet cushion

to match the cushions i made last year out of some

gorgeous Clarke and Clarke material i had stashed.

I had a bit of a change and made a ruffle trim 

around the cushion.

I bought some vintage buttons, they are all the same size

but different, i love them.

All the yarn came from my stash, bits of wool left over

from other projects.

The cream is Drops Lima the same wool as my recent pink 

cushion it's so nice to used and a very reasonable price.

Although i think it's looking a bit lonely LoL, so yes

number 2 in under way.

This sofa is the best thing we bought for outside, it's so

comfy, it's like having another room.

I spent a lot of time on it last year and also this year.

Morning brew, lunch, afternoon brew, crocheting.

It,s shaded in the morning and then gets the 

afternoon, evening sun.

I love it!!

Here are a couple of garden pic's the 

Lapins were full of bees, so i went to get my

camera to take some pic's and there was only one left when i got back.

I love these white foxgloves they are one of my

favourite flowers.

I don't seed them myself i let nature take its course 

and i have a lovely display every year.

Thanks for stopping by today,

I'm off to have my Lunch outside.

XXXXX

R.I.P. Old faithful

After 22 years of faithful service, on nearly every day especially since the kiddies have been around

I have to announce the retirement of my washing machine. Boo Hoo.  

Our Zanussi has served us well but had started to show its age, like I had to kick the door to get it going, also all the writing had faded off so I had to put them back on with a marker pen. It also started to make a funny sound when draining.

So hubby took me out washing machine shopping,
after doing a bit of surfing on the internet for the best price.
Isn't the internet great you don't have to trawl around all the shops any more
then end up back at the first place because they were the best. 

So farewell old girl

And hello sexy

It's nearly double the drum size and has a 15 min wash, ooh how can you get so excited over a washing machine.

Can't wait to take it for a spin. Ha! Ha!

Xxxxxxx

Spectrum Noir Pencils

Happy Friday all

What could be better, It's Friday, the sun is shinning

and i have just  received my complete set of 

Spectrum Noir pencils from C&C.

I love blendable pencils, i have the Polychromos ones

as you will probably know already.

But after seeing the fab pencils from Spectrum Noir on 

TV last week i had to give in and order them.

Well they were a very good price.

 You can download a colour chart from the 

website here

I did the A4 blank colour chart so i could colour

it in myself, then i would have a true colour copy for matching.

I did have one little problem i discovered that i had

two of the same colour in my essentials tin. That meant i was

missing one colour so i emailed  Crafters Companion and they said

they would mail me the missing pencil.

It hasn't arrived yet, but they couldn't have been more helpful.

Watch this space.

The first thing i wanted to do was to colour on Kraft card

they had some samples on kraft which looked great

so i wanted to give it a go.

Here's the result of a bit of playing last night.

Wow

I'm impressed

The colour goes on and blends beautifully.

I do feel i need a bit more practise on the 

skin to make it stand out more, but no I'm 

really happy with the results.

I used Crafters Companion Kraft card

and inked it up with vintage photo distress ink.

Handmade Coffee filter paper flowers. 

( I so need to make more).

Leaves are from a Crealies die.

Stamp i have used is Tilda with cherries in basket

 it's an older stamp but I'm going to make a point of using them more,

I keep buying new ones and the old ones seem to get forgotten about.

I can't tell you where the papers are from, i found this in my bits draw

and thought i would go perfectly.

Tim Holtz sentiment tag.

Lace from stash.

Well would you believe it the postie has just been

and my missing pencil has arrived.

You can't beat that for good customer service.

Thanks for stopping by and have a fab

weekend 

I'm off for another play with my pencils.

xxxxx

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I've had a little play

 The Postie also brought this little
beauty.
xxx

Tilda stamp storage technique

Hi all hope you are well,

I've been a bit poorly with 

Man Flu!!!!!

I couldn't actually take to my bed to recover

until this weekend you know how it is when your

a busy mum.

I have done absolutely nothing this weekend and

boy do i feel better for it.

Anyhow passing my craft desk i noticed i

still hadn't got round to laminating my new Tilda's

that arrived last week.

Which got me thinking, i don't think i have ever shared

how i store my stamps.

 (forgive me if i have my minds still a bit flu foggy.)

But here goes anyway.

I stamp the images onto spare paper

and write the name of the stamp

next to it and colour them in.

Then i roughly cut them out.

Then place them along with the card that came with the 

stamp into a laminating pouch.

 With the laminating machine warmed up

i put the piece to be laminated in the paper folder

then through the machine

There you have it

and the stamp clings to the back

I keep them in 3 draws, i love these plastic draws

you can keep adding to them as your stash grows

i could probably get one more set before i hit the ceiling lol.

As all my stamps have a picture on them i

find it a lot easier to flick through and find the one i want.

As you can see i have a few Tilda's,

i bet it's not as many as some of you out there.

She can be a bit addictive!

 

I hope you enjoyed looking at how i store my stamps.

Thanks for stopping by 

xxxxxx

In the garden

 Hi all here are a few snaps i took in the garden 

yesterday

 I love this time of year

 All the flowers are making an appearance

 But they are not to over grown

 A sea of Forget-me-nots

 The smell of Apple Blossom

 The wild life fighting to survive

(I think this was a wood pigeon)

 Favourite nesting material

(they weren't to keen on the wool ends i put out last year)

 Wild flower patch coming to life

 Sweet peas in can't wait!

 Time for tea

And some hooky fun

(yes i know, yet another cushion on the go.

What can i say, watch this space).

xxxxx

Vintage flower crochet cushion Ta-Dah.

Hi all long time no see, i know it's been a few

weeks since i last dropped by but the garden beckons.

I so needed to get it sorted,  my 

Potatoes wouldn't wait any longer

and the veggi patch was in need of a serious

weeding.

Anyway it's all done and planted 

phew!!

When i haven't been gardening i pushed on with my

Vintage flower cushion and here it is

Ta-Dah!!

I just love it.

The pattern is lovely, i did try it with

different colours as well but i do think it

looks best all in one colour.

If you fancy having a go you can find the tutorial

here.

The buttons are some 10mm mother of pearl

i bought off eBay i just manage to scrape

these seven together. I didn't have 

enough pink ones (need to buy more) but i like the 

variations in the colours they all work.

Right i'm off into the garden again while it's

sunny, going by the weather report 

this morning it looks like rain here for the rest of this week.

My potatoes will love it anyway.

xxxxxxx