Season of Changes

March and April are always a time for change. As the new season comes in, I'm wanting to get on and make changes to the garden, the house, the decor, to whatever I'm doing. So it's been a frustrating week for me as I finally succumbed to the many germs that have been around for the last few months, and so spent much of my time stuck indoors snuggled under blankets on the sofa or curled up in the chair, dozing and reading. 

No energy or will to plan or put into action any of the improvements on my list.

And I missed the Country Living Spring Fair sadly, and had really been looking forward to that.

The only upside to that was being able to progress my cross stitch sampler, after a few days of not wanting to do anything other than sleep, and to finish off one or two projects that had been hanging around.

I added a spring bunny amongst some grass........

..........and another bunny with some tulips

I stitched away at filling in half of the house.........

and finished the first stylised tree (house and tree both inspired by 19th century samplers)

I also crocheted the second little flower for the pink crochet baby slippers I made a few weeks back.

Despite a gardening free week, the garden carries on quite happily without me. The camellia is in full bloom now, but the odd morning frost has caused many blooms to go brown.

The rosemary is flowering, sweet little blue flowers.

This time last year I bought a few new spring plants and summer perennials including a tray of lupins. The muscari and daffodils are all doing well but sadly I lost most of the lupins to the rabbits before they could get established, despite my rigging up a twiggy defence.

Also this time last year we still had black paintwork which I was glad to see go...it is now white and makes the house look much lighter and more contemporary.

We also had a new picket fence put in along the front between the driveways this time of year, a couple of years ago now.

And last year it was this corner of the back garden that got revamped with my new raised vegetable beds.

This years spring improvements include more fencing to the side of the property and hopefully the removal of an old concrete bin shelter at the back, and in its place a new terrace to join up with the existing terrace. 

Also I have a new border to plant up where we had new fencing erected to the side of the front garden in the autumn last year. Apart from a couple of established azaleas, a small hawthorn tree, and a couple of newish roses, the rest is a blank canvas. I need to get my gardening books out, make a plan and visit the nursery!

So lots of plans in the garden. All I need now is the energy to get things moving!

Do you have changes planned for your garden or home this year? 

Do you find it a time when you want to make lots of changes too?

Thanks for your comments on my last post, and for taking the time to visit me here, I do appreciate it and love to read your comments!

Marches Past

It's a glorious, if somewhat chilly, early Spring day today and as usual at this time of year all I can think about is the garden. Working and tidying in the garden, planning the garden, tidying the greenhouse, sowing seeds, putting in plants and looking forward to the odd hour relaxing in the sun once the weather warms up properly.

I managed the first grass cut of the year on Sunday, so at last the lawn is looking neater and shows off the few border edges that I tidied recently. Still lots to do though and once I've posted this I'll be out in the chilly sunshine cutting back, weeding and generally tidying.

My daughter will be 21 in April this year, and I'm not even going to think about where the time has gone, but instead I've designed a cross stitch sampler to celebrate her Birthday. I never got round to stitching a birth sampler when she was a baby, so this is a more grown up version! Inspired initially by a beautiful 19th century sampler, and in keeping with other cross stitch designs that I have done along American folk art /British traditional lines which I love, I have started to stitch. And plenty of time with each stitch to think back over the last 22 years, which have been the best and happiest of my life, and to be hugely grateful and thankful for my beautiful daughter.

I'm finding that I'm changing things as I go as fresh ideas come to me, but I'm trying hard to stick to my original design. 

Just a few tweaks in the first row that I've stitched....I added Logan our Toy Poodle as one of the dogs, and for good measure threw in a couple of ginger and white cats to remember our lovely Bessie.

This was typical of Bessie and Logan, Bessie exploring and Logan following and watching! I suspect there was a frog or a mouse behind the barrels!

I have also finished and framed the simple blue and white lighthouses I was stitching over the last few weeks and am quite pleased how its turned out.

Sewing and embroidering outside is one of the simple pleasures I love on a sunny day, so am hoping for lots of warm and calm days soon - too much wind is bad news when sewing al fresco!

Whilst looking for photos for this post I came across projects I'd worked on in March last year and the year before, and it seems I was on a crochet roll. 

A couple of years ago I finished my first crochet blanket, a baby blanket for a friends granddaughter, made up of pink popcorn flower squares.

I'd also been making lots of cotton crochet wash cloths.

And I came across this photo of a beautiful vintage dresden plate quilt that I bought at this time of year a couple of years ago.

Coincidentally it's actually on my bed at the moment as it's such a fresh and pretty spring-like quilt!

Thanks for all your comments on my last post and for visiting me here, I hope you all had a good weekend.

I'm off up to London this week to the Country Living Spring Fair with my lovely and BFF Jane from flowerhouse blog, as I was the lucky recipient of a pair of complimentary tickets! We usually go to either the Spring or Christmas Fairs most years but didn't manage either last year, so we're both really looking forward to our visit to see ( and buy!) the wonderful and inspiring goodies! I already have  a modest shopping list Jane..... ;)

Here's wishing you a happy early Spring week full of sunshine!

Almost Here

Spring that is.

Just around the corner now, and I know that for sure as I've had a couple of springlike gardening sessions this week. Despite cold and frosty starts, both days I was out in the back garden by 10am wearing two fleeces and a scarf, and by coffee time I had peeled off to my long sleeved t-shirt.

I savour these early season garden tidying sessions as you can see and sense everything starting to come to life again, you can feel real warmth in the sun, and it's so good to get things tidied and ship shape ready for another year. Such a good feeling of well-being working in the sun and fresh air, cutting back old and dead stalks, pruning the roses, sweeping up leaves, weeding, tidying, raking and clearing away the dead leaves in the borders to find hidden treasure beneath such as fresh green growth and a crocus flower.

Last year I badly neglected the garden as I was too busy setting up shop at my space in The Loft Room, and was on a roll making cushions, bags, aprons, hearts etc. Nearly a year on, and with a well stocked space which I just top up with some new vintage treasures or a new make most weeks, the pressure is off and I'm finding more time to keep up with the other important things I mentioned in my post last week. 

So this week I was able to re-plant the rhubarb that had been taken out of the old vegetable patch to put in the new raised beds that were made last year, and found so many crowns that I've divided them so will hopefully have a good crop of rhubarb this year. 

I've also taken stock of what I want to grow in them this year. I am ambitiously planning globe artichokes, leeks, beetroot, courgettes, purple sprouting broccoli, peas, runners, and both dwarf and climbing french beans. As usual I will grow a few tomatoes too.

After last weeks completed cross stitch designs I have become a little obsessed with cross stitch again, and so have unearthed all my cross stitch books and have been planning a few new projects.

First some simple navy and white designs from a great book called Made in France by various authors. Am stitching a series of three different lighthouses with a New England feel about them. I'm not sure yet whether I'll frame then individually or in one of those triple aperture frames.

Once those are finished I've got various ideas swirling around in my head for my own designs. Other good books I'm using for ideas and inspiration are the invaluable Jane Greenoff's Cross Stitchers Bible, and the super Embroidery Companion by Alicia Paulson of Posie Gets Cozy.

I discovered Alicia's blog nearly 5 years ago when I first started blogging, and then bought her book. I still love to visit her blog for a good dose of stitching and crochet inspiration, and its full of lots of beautiful home and family life photos.

I have actually made a few cushions this year......

And have added a few more to my Etsy Shop

 vintage French ticking

 linen and vintage buttons

So that about rounds off the week. I am feeling a bit sorry for myself today as my bout of cross stitch yesterday evening resulted in a painful wrist and so after looking forward to a quiet weekend of long dog walks and cross stitch,  all my stitching plans for the weekend are on hold. 

 If I can't stitch or crochet then I can at least get some inspiration and eye candy from Pinterest and  catch up on my backlog of blog reading where I know I'll find even more creative inspiration!

Have a Happy Weekend!