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!

Spring Gardening

Despite the frosty starts and sharp winds during the past week, I have spent every moment I can in the garden. Once the frost has cleared there has been real warmth in the sun drawing me outside once again.

These miniature daffodils that were only in bud last week are now fully out with all the early spring sunshine we've had.

It's so satisfying clearing away the winter mess and getting things looking neat and ship shape again, and although I still have much to do I feel I've made a good start. 

Thank you for all your comments on my last couple of posts, its good to be back! But I am sad to find that many of the original blogs I followed from when I first started blogging, over 5 years ago, have now come to an end. At the same time though there are many of my favourite bloggers still going strong and it is great to catch up with them!

The crocuses are finally coming out fully now that I've cleared away some of the dead oak leaves.

This week I tidied more borders and got the rest of the rhubarb in the raised bed, cut back more dead stuff and cleared away yet more dead leaves..... shaped straggly evergreen perennials and pulled out weeds.........pruned and tied in a climbing rose over the new arch put in last year....and made inroads into clearing the patio. It doesn't sound much but the difference it has made visually, together with  my aching back, proves testament to my labours.

tidier patio!

muscari in full bloom

A quick trip to the garden centre at the weekend with husband in a rare, and unnaturally generous mood ( he's usually dead mean at the garden centre!) meant that I came away with some beautiful hollyhock plants in scarlet, pink and primrose yellow, a snakeshead fritillary, a pretty creamy white hellebore with purple markings, some snowdrops, and more vegetable seeds.

New hellebore 'Conny'

I do have a few lone snakeshead fritillaries that come up each spring, but there seem to be less each year and so I'm hoping that planting a good clump like this will give a better display.

snakeshead fritillary

 raised beds ready for direct sowing

Apart from gardening. I repainted this wooden standard lamp in Annie Sloan 'Original' - it was painted in 'Provence' before, which looked gorgeous but when I moved the lamp from family room into sitting room it didn't look right. 

I've also got a prettily shaped table to paint this week if we have a wet day, bought at a local charity shop and just waiting to be transformed, and a vintage wooden fire screen with a beautiful floral tapestry.

I haven't picked up a hook all week but am hoping to move this crochet project forward as its not too far off being finished. It'll be a cushion as the squares are too tiny for me to have the patience to grow it into a blanket!

It won't be long 'til the blue bells are out! This photo is from last year, taken in a nearby wood. It is always full of them and the sight and scent is amazing.

Hope all is well out there in Blogland, have a good week my friends and thanks for visiting!

in the woods last summer

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!