Hexie Love

Thank you for all your lovely comments on my recent swap makes, I sometimes forget to take photos in my rush to send them off so it was great to be able to share them with you. It's also nice to know that the simple things in life, like den building under the table, will always be the best way to spend a rainy day!

Today I decided that a bit of charity shop shopping was in order to see if I could find any bits and pieces for my up coming swaps. I always like to look at the curtains and fabrics as you never know what you might find, some days you are lucky and others there isn't much to see.

Today was one of those lucky days as I found this fabulous hexie quilt. 

I love hexie's and I would love to make a quilt one day, but in the mean time I can admire and enjoy the love, time and patience that went into to making this one. 

Wouldn't you love to know it's history? 

The thought that someone somewhere sat and took all those different fabrics from curtains, bed linens and clothes paper pieced them into hexagons and then hand stitched them all together with teeny tiny stitches is incredible.

I"m not sure of it's age but it has two diamond jubilee badges sewn onto the centre hexie of a lilac pretty flower.

The fabrics are varied in colour and type 

and have that wonderful aged appearance that you  wouldn't get with new fabrics. 

Although it needs a little repair here and there I think it's amazing!

I love the randomness of it, 

which is unusual for me because I love a bit of order and symmetry to most things!

It's a lightweight quilt and has been backed onto what looks like an old bed sheet with a little wadding inside

It will need a wash first and I would have like to have taken some photos outside but it's just too, too wet and soggy outside so this masterpiece will be packed away until the weather improves and then it will be mended and used, which is the only thing that you should do with something so beautiful, I just wish I could say it was all my own work. Maybe one day I will.  

So how much did I pay for this stunning piece of hand crafted work....

the princely sum of £7.99

A bargain right????

Rainy Days

There is only one thing to do on a rainy Sunday and that's build a den under the table and colour in pictures. Oh and stay in your pyjamas all day.


I love the fact that he isn't the least bit bothered by the very flowery den cover!!


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A Swap Makes Update….

I was looking through my photos and reflecting on my makes over the past couple of months I thought I would share some of my swap makes now that they have been received, but first I must apologise to Joy from Daisy Row for not only was I really really late getting her swap parcel to her but I didn't even post about what she sent me in the first place!!!

Ages and ages ago Kimberley from Creative Chaos organised a kitchen swap and I was partnered with Joy from Daisy Row and this is what she sent me…

can you see the chubby fingers of Tomas who couldn't wait to eat his Kit Kat??

This oven glove certainly isn't as clean now but has definitely come in handy!!!

a lovely friends magnet

a lovely bright red the cosy

Thanks Joy for being such so patient and for the lovely swap gifts. 

Okay so here are some of my swap makes, I signed up for the dish cloth swap over at Leonie's blog Kiwi at Heart and my secret partner was Cat at Catalina's Cottage, I stalked read Cat's blog and found out she liked Cath Kidston amongst other things and I found a fabulous pattern on the internet and here are the two dishcloth's that I made.

The tiny centre roses were rather fiddly but I got there in the end

Cat has a son and daughter and I remembered that I had some Cath Kidston floral fabric  and some of her rodeo cowboy fabric so I made a hanging heart and a hanging star

I also found a piece of floral and check Cath inspired fabric in my stash so I wrapped a ribbon around it and popped it in the parcel.

Here are all my swap goodies for Cat 

not sure if I went a bit overboard of the Cath Kidston theme!!!

Next up was the Cracker swap just before Christmas I was partnered with Belinda from Frugal Workshop who told me she liked the colour orange, lighthouses and books so I made a book bag from some lighthouse fabric that I had in my stash.

It wouldn't fit inside the kitchen roll so I wrapped it around the outside.

I also made a little lighthouse tag.

I found a beautiful piece of orange fabric in my local fabric shop and teamed it with bright blue ribbon for the cracker.

My other swap partner in the Cracker Swap was Debi over at Busy Little Chicken

who lives near Happisburgh lighthouse so keeping with the lighthouse theme I found this painting on the internet of the lighthouse 

and turned it into this mini quilt picture

This is the first time I have made anything like this and it was hard to get the dimensions and the depth right but I was pleased with how it turned out.

Initially I thought it would be easier  to hand stitch the edges but it was quite fiddly and I decided to use the sewing machine.

I think that is me up to date on my swap makes for the time being and I am now busy working on my next swap makes as I have three swaps on the go at the moment and I've been pinning like mad for inspiration!!!

Send a Little Love Swap Partners

Grrr! Just wrote this whole post and when I went to add the links it had disappeared. Second time lucky, what I tried to say was.......
Sorry that this post is a day late but Rachel has been busy revising on our main computer and by the time she is finished I'm just ready to sit down (okay I've actually been sitting down for a while!) and watch Celebrity Big Brother and when that's over it's time to go to bed. Tonight was going in the same vein and although its a lot easier writing linked posts on the computer I am now safely ensconced on the sofa in front of CBB with the iPad. I also knew you would all be wanting to know your swap partners and get busy creating your swap parcels.
So without further ado here are the partners

PJ and Crafty in the Med

Leeanne and DosieRosie

Melanie and Ellie

Lizzy and Graham's Landing

Kimberley and Busy Little Chicken

Cat and Gilly

Elaina and Lisa

Kiwi at Heart and Tracy

Joy and Simply Vintage

Helen and Karen

Jille and LindyLaine

Pene and Sandies's Patch

Phew!! I resorted back to the main computer as the iPad just wasn't happy with all that copying and pasting, hopefully all the links are fine but if there are problems just shout.

Once you know who your swap partner is pop over and say hello and start getting to know each other and let's get creating to send a little love around the world xx

P.S talking of swaps, kimberley over at Creative Chaos is organising a Share Your Country Swap so pop over to her blog and find out more...

Family Tree

Just before Christmas Chris over at Chrissys4Cards posted about her expensive mistake of buying the wrong tree die during a bit of online shopping.

I really liked the tree die cut and asked Chris if she would make me a family tree picture as a present for Paul for Christmas.

I had seen a lovely quote about a family tree on Pinterest (I think) and thought it could be incorporated somehow along with our names and this is what Chris came up with.

I love it and so did Paul, it now sits beautifully on the windowsill in our orangery.

Thanks Chris xx

Pinterest Makes

I've started a new board on Pinterest called 2014 where I am pinning things I would like to make this year, as it seems I am very good at pinning but not so good at the making bit.

My first make is a food pin, as most of you know I don't do a lot of cooking, since Paul retired he has taken over this role and does a much better job than me! I'm also a rather messy cook, I like to use as many pans as possible and there is always quite a bit of tidying up to do. I do like to cook but I have just got out of the habit as Paul is very organised and plans ahead and gets his veg ready in the morning but today we decided to try this new recipe as it was supposed to be chilli con carne on the menu and that's not everyone's favourite!!

The recipe I tried was for chicken and spinach bake and I have to say it was really delicious. Here is the photo of the dish on Pinterest

And here is my attempt

This is the first time I have used spinach in a recipe and I definitely think this is one meal we will try again as all the plates were clean by the end and the good thing was I could just take out the tomatoes for Tomas as he just isn't too keen on them.

I'm not sure what my next make will be but I'm sure Pinterest will send me some inspiration.

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Swap Time

Thank you to everyone that has signed up so far to the 

Send a Little love Swap

There is still time to join in if you missed my swap post

as the closing date is this Friday 10th January. 

please feel free to spread the word and add the above photo to your blog.

I have also signed up for another swap organised by the lovely Leonie over at Catalina's Cottage and this swap sounds delicious!

Pop over and take a look if your interested.

EDITED : that should say Cat from Catalina's Cottage - sorry Cat and Leonie!!!

A trip to the library…….

We use our local library quite a bit, borrowing, reserving books online and making use of the facilities.

This morning we had to go and collect some reserved books and I found these whilst I was browsing the shelves.

The first one I hope will have some handy tips to keep the clutter of 5 people at bay.

The yoga book, (there was a pilates book too but that seems to have ended up in the pile for the rest of the family and wasn't photographed) to help with feeling good.

The food books to help eat the right foods at the right time, no more late night snacks for me!

And finally a couple of crafting books, the quilting in no time one is an all time favourite which I can't resist if it is on the shelves and a crochet accessories book full of small projects.

They should keep me busy for a little while, although I do have to remember to add alert to my phone for the renewal date otherwise it can end up costing the price of a book to return them!! 

Photography

Thank you all for your kind words regarding my migraine which seems to have gone as quickly as it came, it's the lingering bit in the middle I could do without!!!

This is just a quick post to tell you that I have started blogging again on my photography blog

Depth of Field

I've joined some exciting new photo challenges this year and have also signed up for an 8 week on line course which starts next week.

I will also be continuing with my Facebook group and the monthly scavenger hunt.

Pop over if you fancy a peek……...

Simplify

I've been suffering the beginnings of a migraine for the past few days and this morning when I woke it was at its worst, pain and nausea are not a great combination to have on new year's day. 

I did the only thing I could and went back to bed to sleep it off. 

A few hours later and I am feeling more human!

Thankfully we had nothing planned for today and with the weather being as awful as it is it will be another lazy pyjama day for me.

Over this "Twixmas" period (fab word - thanks to Amanda over at Graham's Landing) I have been catching up on my blog reading, marking some very old posts as "read" and unfollowing some blogs that have stopped blogging or changed their course from the things I like to read. 

I wanted to start the new year without the huge number of unread blog posts that flash at me every time I open my bloglovin app on my phone. 

It was lovely to see just your new year posts and as I was reading them it seems that many of you 

are not talking about making resolutions, which have a tendency to make us feel like a failure

 if they are broken or not completed, 

but you are seeking words to guide you through this coming year.

I really like the word that Claire from Thriftwood has chosen 

And it seems that I have already started

1 : by simplifying my blog reading

2 : by uploading all my old CD's to an external hard drive and recycling the discs and boxes, 

this has also seen the huge box they were in emptied and reused and the area where the box was stored dumped tidier.

So after a bit of a sluggish start to the new year I do feel that I have already simplified my life a little.

Finally I thought I would share another quote with you that I found on the internet

“A simple life is not seeing how little we can get by with—that’s poverty—

but how efficiently we can put first things first. . . . 

When you’re clear about your purpose and your priorities, 

you can painlessly discard whatever does not support these, 

whether it’s clutter in your cabinets or commitments on your calendar. ” 

― Victoria Moran, Lit From Within: Tending Your Soul For Lifelong Beauty

Welcome to 2014

Another fresh new year is here . . .
Another year to live!
To banish worry, doubt, and fear,
To love and laugh and give!

This bright new year is given me
To live each day with zest . . .
To daily grow and try to be
My highest and my best!

I have the opportunity
Once more to right some wrongs,
To pray for peace, to plant a tree,
And sing more joyful songs!

Courtesy of William Arthur Ward

Wishing you all the very best for 2014



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