show and tell

Did you ever notice how a theme/colour/pattern creeps into your house completely subconsciously and before you know it you are living in the gingerbread house or Graceland!

Its a colour in my case, be it aqua, turquoise, eau de nil, duck egg, cyan, teal.. I'm drawn to it and everything that goes with it!
This is evident in my recent bargain curtain purchase, can you guess where I got them?
Laura Ashley maybe? John Lewis??









Strange how we gravitate towards a colour, although I've just realised that my Mums favourite colour is green and my Grandmas was blue, so mix them together and what do you get??

In case you are still wondering I got my curtains from B&Q!! and a bargain £26!!

Im off now to do some more snuggling as I have a cold (probably due to mass socialization at the weekend). Plus blogger keeps making everything come out bold type and I'm too bunged up to go on!

ps. I have finished my van quilt at least. Watch this space for pics...

losing my head!

Let me start this overwhelmed post with thankyous to Yvonne at Country Bliss who you may remember was my campervan swap buddy and thankyou to a new blog friend Jan Cinnamon Cottage who have both awarded me the The Marie Antoinette Award- a real person award. I am very chuffed if not a little unsure of the reasoning why Marie Antoinette would be a good role model. what with her sticky end. I like to think that had she lived in this day and age she would have been a prolific blogger with an abundant excess of fabrics!

Its a gorgeous picture however, with a beautiful dress in my favourite colour? I'll get back to you on that!

Here are the Rules for the Award:
1. Please put the logo on your blog
2. Place a link to the person from whom you received the award
3. Nominate at least 7 or more blogs
4. Put the links of those blogs on your blog
5. Leave a message on their blogs to tell them.

So here we go. Some of my favourite blog people. Do go and visit.

The flour loft

This is my patch

Ethel and Ednas tea room

Ragged Roses

Linden Grove

Marmalade Kiss

Country Cottage Chic

Pass on the love!


Fraser Island~ Australia

Do you ever get over~ awed with this whole blogging thing?
Don't get me wrong I love it. Its just some times when I'm following a never ending chain of blogs I get completely lost in blogland and I do feel like my head will explode especially when I find a new totally talented blogger. I feel manic with the searching and all the creativity.

Sometimes I feel totally in adequate but mainly I feel inspired.
Can you remember the time before you discovered blogging? (shudders)



So this brings me on to my reason for being here. Its all because of an amazingly talented lady in Australia whos blog you will find here applehead.
I stumbled on her blog when I was searching for fabrics and was so mesmerised by the loveliness I knew I had to start blogging.

My point is: she is moving to the UK just before Christmas!! Tres excitement! Please take a visit to her blog its most awesome and I am most definitely not worthy!
I must warn you that you will fall in love with applehead.

this clean and pleasant land??

I have always been a litter picker upper, this could be down to growing up in the countryside or as of late just irritated by the actions of others. This feeling has been reaffirmed as I now live within the New Forest so I can see first hand the rubbish that is dropped daily.

Whilst travelling through New Zealand, (and yes it is every bit as beautiful as the tv ads) and (I would love to live there one day) you can feel the respect everyone has for their country, I didn't see a scrap of litter any where and you wouldn't even dream of chucking a banana skin.

So why in a country where the people have unlimited access to the outdoors do they manage to keep it clean and new, whereas we with our limited outdoor pursuits do manage to choke it with plastic bottles and the like?

I've made a resolution, call it a 'new years resolution' if you want, I've already put it into action however; my vow is to carry a plastic bag with me and collect any rubbish I see. On one such outing I came home with 7 bottles and 2 cans! I might even keep a running total of items collected!! Lets keep Britain tidy!


Any excuse to post a picture from NZ!

what no country living?

I cannot be alone in this plea for the Country Living Christmas issue, I'm going nuts here!!
I shall have to make do with 2006 and 2007 issues for now.


Last years had a great way of recycling Christmas cards, so if you missed it or recycled your magazine (surely not the latter!!) here is the article.


I made 3 last year and saved all the Christmas cards to make more this year.
Is it too early to get the Christmas box out of the loft?
I'm also itching to put up some fairy lights in the kitchen, so that's a good excuse!


I'm off to the shop again with my binoculars to see if I cant spy the lesser spotted country living Christmas edition!!

past, present, future

My first attempt at patchwork. Pretty ambitious wasn't I!! I cant believe it myself, that I had the patience to hand stitch the entire quilt including all the binding too! As usual I didn't follow a set design or use paper templates, I just winged it. I finally completed it in 2006, it took me 2 years!


It is kingsize which is awesome, however we do battle with it during the night and it generally ends up on the floor, due to over heating, and its too big if its just me that wants it (me being of a cold blooded nature). So ah ha she thinks, another quilt is needed!



Not until I complete the camper van quilt I've been working on this year! So I've finally got some wadding!




The basting of a quilt seems quite a complicated affair, which soon sorts itself out, though not before giving me extra work which I would normally skip due to laziness. When I laid the quilt out I realised you could see the seam allowance on the lighter fabrics.



So I had to double up the fabric under those hexagons, which I'm really glad I did, as you can see below. I also learnt a new skill of how to mitre the the corners of the binding. Gold star to me!




So once the quilt was basted I got down to the quilting, phew, I can see I shall be couching it for a few more weeks yet! You can picture my weekend now which mainly consisted of stitching accompanied by movies sweet charity and from here to eternity and much to my Husbands delight (not) strictly come dancing which I don't normally watch. I think I'm channelling my Grandmas spirit, as dancing was her life and strictly her favourite. Actually my whole family are dance orientated I think it probably goes hand in hand with the dress making, as my Gran used to make ball room dresses and my Mum and Aunt still make costumes, and still dance.




I already have an idea of my next project, it will be a single quilt to go at the end of our bed or to be used by me when I'm cold and the old mans not!



I found this patchwork in an old country living magazine, I love the vintage feel of the colours.



I've managed to find one fabric on ebay and have some left over taffeta from the bedroom curtains.



I also love these quilts from my country quilts book.



So for the next month I shall be feverishly quilting and scouring charity shops/ebay for fabrics.

awesome

magazine life

Has everybody got one of these? Its a magazine stash, well one of them.











The problem is I am a self confessed hoarder. I have pretty much my whole life in boxes from a childhood hankie to my tight black '51 states' grunge jeans! And of course all my childhood toys (well not all, that would be crazy) , and by the way I am gutted that I didn't take more care of my first Sindy.

So now I'm reminiscing back through my life in magazines!!
I'd like to add that these are not all my magazines though I wish I'd kept one or two! They are not all from the correct era, but you get the idea.

I guess it started with the Beano I think, its a long time ago...




Gotta love Desperate Dan



Then there was Bunty, again its a bit of a fuzzy memory.


So now I'm 11 and getting into music!!



Many a day was spent swooning over Morten Harket!!


I used to read Mizz too but I cant quite recollect where it fits, but probably somewhere here.



I still remember cycling home with my first just 17 hidden on the back of my bike, probably because I was only 14 and was a bit too racy for me!


I always thought it was strange how I never read magazines that were my aimed at my age. by the time I was 17 I was reading 19.



Now I'm at college studying art and buying mainly elle and vogue generally for the couture pictures and for inspiration.



Its at this stage I discover heavy metal and clubbing!!



Remember the melody maker...


So now I'm living in London, working and trying to be a lady!! Marie Claire was a staple magazine for quite some time, with all its cultural do gooding!!



By this stage I've been dumped, moved home, met and moved in with my husband, so interior magazines became more of an interest. I even had a subscription to living etc. I really did love this one!


There was a tiny garden with that house, so you know whats next! I cant believe how you grow out of magazines, I haven't bought gw all year. Mainly because they repeat a lot over the years but also because I keep them all for reference.



I don't actually buy amateur gardener often, because I read it for free in the library!



I started buying country living whilst I still lived in the town, I guess I was secretly yearning to escape. You cant take the country out of the girl.

So now I live in the country I don't need the escapism so much, I do still love this magazine but I'm getting itchy feet. I wonder where my magazine choice will take me next??