Only my girls....

..... could combine swinging on the swings with book reading :)

We truly love books that much! Of course, I was sat reading mine as they were swinging/reading/playing :)

Giveaway time :)

I haven't had a giveaway on the blog for a long time so here is one to cheer up May (it's miserable, cold and wet here in the UK, not like Spring at all!) I will be offering a custom pincushion/paperweight*, and some gift tags sets including these lovely Lego ones.

I will probably throw in some other bits and bobs too so well worth an entry! I'm not going to make you jump through hoops and 'like me' on Facebook etc (although by all means feel free to!) so just leave a comment on this post saying hello, telling me a joke or just imparting a bit of knowledge :) Anything really! Just make sure I have some way of contacting you to let you know that you have won. I'll end this next Saturday (the 25th) so you have plenty of time to think up jokes! International people can enter too so tell your overseas friends!

Good luck!

*By custom chicken I mean that you can choose the type of fabric you want - colour, type, design - and I will email you photographs of the fabrics I have and we will go from there. Nana and Liberty chickens are included so fill your boots :) But do bear in mind that I may not have the exact fabric style you want so a bit of give and take will be needed.

More garden stuff

I'm sure that this used to be a craft blog but the gardening is taking over at the moment (I'm sure I am more excited about this than I should be!) Some of the seedlings I have grown over the past few weeks on my front room table have grown much bigger so have been planted outside.

First up the spinach went to live on the windowsill outside - it looks a bit flat as I watered them a bit too vigorously with a large holed watering can!

The peas also went to live outside - do you like my DIY effort for them to climb up? Only time will tell if they work :) These are just as you come out of my front door - I am determined to make use of all the space in my small garden!

And this little beauty came to live with us a couple of weeks ago. What is it you ask? It's a wormery!!!!!  Our garden is very small and we can't really have a normal composting bin so I've been looking at wormerys. And this one was a bargain - £3 at a car boot a couple of weeks ago :) And I ordered the worms to go it (in with a starter kit from Wiggly Wigglers) last night and I can't wait to get them and get the wormery set up!!!

I'm very excited about this gardening malarkey - why did no one tell me it's so addictive?

A couple of things

It seems that Harry approves of my messy desk! I didn't look at his face while taking this so I didn't see if it was disgust or joy at my messy desk. Or maybe indifference, he is a dog after all!

I also did some mending. This dress has had a stain on the boob for a while that was really obvious (I think the previous owner dripped tomato soup down herself!) and while I wore it a couple of times, it was glaringly obvious. The pocket came from an old apron that had a hole in it (the rest has been used for chickens which you will see soon) and while it doesn't match at all, it looks quite good. It doesn't jar quite so much in real life :) I'm probably going to wear it today so I'll try and grab a photo.

That's my two things - do you have anything nondescript and not that exciting going on in your life at the moment?

Mini Betty and Joyce :)

Remember the last post about Betty and Joyce? Well the doorstop versions still haven't been made (I'm hoping to do that today!) but mini Betty and Joyce have been made.

Here's our Betty.

And here's our Joyce :) I can imagine them living in a small Northern town gossiping over the back fence about 'her over there who thinks she's fancy' Or am I taking it a bit too far? :D

They are both available in the usual places!

Betty and Joyce

Here are two new chickens although they aren't quite ready for sale yet!

These two distinguished ladies Joyce (on the left) and Betty flew off to their new home yesterday and I forgot to get photographs out of the packaging. So I will have to wait to list them until I make some more :) Baby paperweights will also be made!

Nearly Wordless Wednesday

A box of chicken paperweights off to their new home in a shop in Harrogate :) There are some doorstops hiding underneath too but they were shy and didn't want their photo taken!

Libraries :)

I haven't visited my local library for such a long time which seems silly when you consider it's only a 10 minute walk through the park to get there! I picked up my 20 World Book Night books from there and the girls came with me and got some books out. I returned today to take their books back, get them replacement cards and I had just enough time to pick out some books for me! We don't go to the library as our local Post Office sells books for charity and at 25p for kids paperbacks, 50p for kids hardbacks/adults paperbacks and £1 for adult hardbacks so can't really go wrong! However, we do have a lot of books in our house (into the thousands) so we could do with reigning in the number of books that come into the house (and no, I can't believe I've just typed that!) Here are the books I've borrowed.

Kirsties Handmade Home - I'm not a fan of Kirstie Allsop at all and haven't watched the TV programme but while the books are free to borrow I thought I may as well to see what all the fuss was about!

All Sewn Up by Chloe Owens - just a pretty looking book which deals mainly with applique.

Creative Walls by Geraldine James - it's a book about displaying your treasures and we have a lot of treasures to display so it might be a worthwhile read!

Seedbombs by Josie Jeffery - a book all about seedbombing which intrigues me to be honest! I might also take it to show my sister when we see her soon as I think it is something she would like!

Malkin Child by Livi Michael - a book about the Pendle Witches which I shamefully (living very near to Pendle Hill) know little about. Hopefully this book will help.

And the top two aren't for me but for the girls. To tide them over until we get a free timeslot to go back so they can choose their own books with their new cards!

Do you use your local library? Is it far from where you live?

52 books in 52 weeks - part four

I only managed 3 books in April but I was busy with BCTF :) Here they are!

I picked this up from a charity shop and while I liked it I found the plot a little annoying. Basically Laura wants to start a creative company and it all works out in the end with spectacular results and not much effort from Laura! It's already gone to the charity shop :)

Matt and I found this in Sainsbury's while shopping for food for me for BCTF (I was in the campervan for the duration) If you get chance to read it then you should - it's a brilliant book! It weaves back and forth through recent history but this only adds to the tension rather than being annoying. I didn't see the ending coming at all and it stayed with me for a good few days afterwards - a sign of a good book! Go read it.

This was the book I gave out for World Book Night but I cheated and hadn't read it first - shhhhh don't tell! It was very twisty turny and I didn't expect the ending although I had some suspicions along the way. 

22/52 - not bad :)

A wish for warm weather!

I don't want much do I :) This post is all about gardening or specifically veggie gardening. We (well me really as Matt doesn't garden) have decided that this is the year we start veggie gardening properly. We've had half hearted attempts with herbs, tomatoes and potatoes before and they mainly worked out but this year I decided to have a big push on veggies. Our gardens (front and back) aren't big but with the use of pots/hanging baskets/various found containers I think we could get a good yield if the weather co-operates!

We are mainly growing in pots this year as we may have to dig up our front garden to add a new overflow pipe from the cellar but that's only if the companies we have contacted to do the work actually get back to us *end rant* Garlic and onions are doing well so far.

We do have some things in the ground though including a brand new rhubarb plant, a gooseberry bush that looks more like a dead twig and a tayberry bush which is looking good so far. And it's only when I look at these pictures that I realise how stony my front garden really is!

Tara and I decided to plant some seeds straight outside and see what happened - these are beetroot and radish. Tara is especially excited about the radishes as she eats them for England!

I also potted a load of seeds that I hope will sprout inside and then they can be transferred to pots etc outside. Notice the recycled pots (I've been saving them for months!) We do have a greenhouse but because of the awful weather, we have managed to put the sides together but haven't yet put it up. We need it dry and warm enough for the concrete to set so I'm sure it will be up and ready for next year :) The things  we are growing here include runner beans, basil, celery, strawberries, leeks, courgette, carrots, spinach and pea!

Do you garden? What works well where you live? Any tips for a novice gardener?