Oh what a beautiful morning ....... oh what a beautiful day

Fingers crossed that Spring has sprung ..... what a glorious day, most of it spent outside with the central heating turned off and the doors wide open.

Loads of this done

the last of my daughter's belongings retrieved from the rental house ... most of which were the children's outide toys so they have been charging around the patio having re-discovered their bikes,  scooters and footballs.

A quick visit to the car boot this morning which was packed with sellers and a few bargains to be had by Ellie and me (yes I indulged with the words of my daughter ringing in my ears .... not more crap mum)

Ellie got a brand new with tags Tatty Puppy to add to her collection and yet another Jacqueline Wilson book.  Both items had shop price tags of £12.99 and we paid just £5 for both ..... as we walked around I was explaining to her how much we had saved and we did a little mental arithmetic to work it all out.

I found a sweet little Lloyd Loom type child's chair .... I have just the fabric for a new seat cushion and hopefully this will accompany me to the Northampton Vintage & Handmade Fair in 2 weeks

and then I found a box of Hornsea Fauna figures .... the lady was selling an old collection which were filthy dirty and had been living in her garage for years.  I debated about buying a few and then thought to hell with it and made an offer for the whole box.  There are thirty in all with only six that have slight damage. 

I am such a saddo and love gently washing things like this ..... here they all are waiting to be sorted into keeps and ones to sell.

Now I am gearing myself up to a busy weekend next week ... my first born is 30 on Sunday and I have no idea how that happened .... how can I possibly be the mother of a 30 year old when in my head sometimes I am still 20 myself (although the old bones would say differently).  He travels down from Glasgow on Friday and we are planning a day out in London and a family meal out on Sunday

This is one of my favourite photos of my two boys ..... my sister was getting married at the time and the eldest seemed to have a penchant for being a bridesmaid ..... he even went to the nursery picnic in the park dressed like it.  No adverse effects from this forray into cross dressing which does make me wonder what today's parents are thinking of by encouraging their offspring to switch gender.  He'll kill me for getting this one out and then stamp on me completely when he sees the one I have found for his birthday card ....... I knew they would come in handy one day ;-)

Hope you have all had a glorious weekend too x

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That .......

I've been for a country drive this morning.  We needed some supplies for the animals so I headed off to Wheathampstead via the cross country route which I always find quicker and a much more pleasant drive.  I'm not a very confident driver and hate motorways but give me a country lane and I'm off!!   My family reckon I would make a good rally driver ! I had to stop at an old friend's on the way back and this is the view from his garden .... I could sit and stare at that all day long.

Last weekend we went off to Flitwick to a new vintage & craft fair .... I was on a reccie really with a view to booking a table at the next one because it is only a 20 minute drive away and I am so pleased that there is another local one to add to the calendar.  I had a lovely chat with Linda of TabbyRoo who I will be seeing again at the Northampton Fair on 19th March and there was lots of lovely handmade items on sale and vintage bits of course.

I've been buzzing away at the sewing machine for a couple of weeks now to build up stock for the forthcoming Northampton fair and another that I am doing on 12th March in Potten End in Hertfordshire.



Some peg bags using pre-loved fabrics & trims mixed with some contemporary ginghams

A patchwork lingerie bag

The starburst quilt is coming on nicely too ... I just have to decide what border and binding to use and it will be finished

I always have a little basket of something to fiddle with in front of the goggle box in the evenings and my hexi collection is coming on nicely and using up lots of remnants too.

On the way home on Saturday we stopped in Hexton at a little craft co-operative that is in the old Village Hall .... Country Matters is an Aladdin's Cave with a good mix of vintage and hand crafted items. I am going down there again in the morning to sign up so that I can place some of my work in there ... more on that later.    I spied this little bunny on the way out and with a price tag of just £3 he had to come home with me ....

Now I just have to keep myself away from the choc egg counter till a little closer to Easter ;-)

I bought this Amarylis in our local greengrocers a couple of weeks ago .... it now has four enormous blooms on the top and the little second sprout is now as tall as this one and about to burst open.

Another sign of Spring ..... the rhubarb is sprouting ..... better start planning this year's planting ..... why aren't there enough hours in a day ????