Handmade accents

So I'm sure you've probably got the gist that I am mostly going to be kitting out my new home with second hand bits and pieces. This is a conscious choice as I think it's great to recycle and give unwanted things a new home, and the added bonus is it helps a lot when you are trying to do things on a budget.

But of course I'm as passionate about handmade as I am recycled, so when I have a few spare pennies or I feel like a treat I will be splashing out on some handmade pieces here and there. So I thought I might share the few things that I've bought in recent weeks.

First off this lovely handmade ceramic salt pig for my kitchen.

Every Sunday there is a farmers market at the Swindon Outlet Village.  A few weeks ago I was stood admiring the wares of a local potter and fell in love with the cute little salt pigs he had on display.  I didn't like the colours of the ones he had but I liked another range in lovely blue shades, and he offered to make me exactly what I wanted.  Fast forward a couple of weeks and voila the lovely piece above now sits pride of place on my kitchen work top.

Next up a beautiful stitched wall hanging that I fell in love with over at Terri's page

I've know Terri via blogging pretty much since I started blogging which is many moons ago now.  Her work is always so lovely, and I just knew this little bird had to fly over the pond and come live on my bedroom wall.  My photo does not do this piece justice as I took it at night so the light was crummy, but I'm sure if you have a look around Terri's blog you'll find a better picture.

Finally another piece of wall art.  Unfortunately I have no idea who the maker is, this was one of my thrifting finds.

This gorgeous needlepoint piece is huge.  It's been well framed in this gorgeous heavy wood frame.  I couldn't believe it when I came across this in a charity shop for just £5 what an amazing bargain for all that hand stitched loveliness.  Trees and the colour orange are two of my favourite things so there was no way I was leaving the shop without it.

How about you?  Have you bought anything handmade recently, what was it and what made you fall in love with it?  :)

Wiltshire Downs

What's it like in your part of the world today? Here it's cold and grey and seems to have been for many, many days. I'm starting to crave the warmth of the sun. With rain forecast for the next few days it seems unlikely that I'll get my wish any time soon. So the closest thing I can get is looking at a few photos taken on a wonderful wander through the Wiltshire Downs last year.

Not the sunniest of days I'll grant you but it was really warm.

Just looking at these transports me back .... oh to be out wandering coatless through the countryside again.

Lets hope that some warm spring days make an appearance soon.

A little bit of happy.

I've had truely the most awful couple of weeks at work ever. Nothing I do seems to be right at the moment, no matter how many hours I put in or what it is that I do somehow it just doesn't seem enough for my employer right now. I do count myself lucky to have a job in this tough economic climate and I try not to be too ungrateful but it has really been dragging me down the last couple of weeks.

Lucky for me I have lots of good friends and family to see me through. And also I have my fabulous blogging friends some of who have really brought me little pieces of happy over the last few days.

Over the weekend I was busy catching up on a little bit of blog reading (as usual I'd fallen a bit behind) I hopped on over to Celia's place and was really delighted to spy in the picture of her workspace a little cross stitch that I made and sent last year.  I love making for other people and it made me silly happy to think of my little piece on display in Celia's home on the other side of the planet.  Thanks for bringing me a smile, Celia.

Shortly after my visit to Celia's place I went for a little wander over to Wildwood.  Imagine my delight when I read that I had inspired Janice to pick up crochet hook, what a thrill to know that the gorgeous pink granny squares that are being made over in wildwood came out of some of the nonsense I like to post here.  Thank you for making me jump up off the sofa and do a little joyful jig Janice.

And last but by no means least a huge thank you to the lovely Kate who sent me not one but two new cross stitch charts to keep me busy.  I don't have a picture right now as I've left my camera at home (I'm blogging from James' at the moment as I don't have an Internet connection at the new place yet), but I will starting one of the charts in the next couple of days so pictures to follow soon.  How fabulous to get home from work to find such a lovely gift in the mail, thanks for making my Friday afternoon wonderful, Kate.

And just because I don't like to post without a picture.  Here are a couple of other things that have been bringing me a little bit of happy.  Beautiful spring daffodils, bringing a little bit of sunshine indoors

And the knitting needles have been dusted off for a fun little Easter project which will hopefully take no time at all to complete.

I hope your week too is full of little bits of happy.

A hint of handmade luxury

A couple of years ago I was lucky enough to meet up with my good blogging friend Vicki.  If you haven't visited Vicki's blog you really should, she makes the most beautiful dyed fabrics, and posts about quilting and other crafts.

On her visit Vicki gifted me with a couple of her lovely hand made soaps, and I have to confess a new love affair began.  Ever since I have been treating myself to handmade when it comes time to replace the soap bar.  Granted mass produced soaps are a whole lot cheaper but the variety of fabulous fragrances and colours that handmade soap makers come up with is just wonderful.

Every other Sunday there is a little market held just round the corner from my home.  There are only a few stalls and I wouldn't say that the market is worth a special trip but as it's only a minutes walk from my front door I usually end up there and more often than not come away with something, usually one of these lovely apricot danishes

At the last market there was a lovely lady selling some of her handmade soap so I just had to indulge.  She had some really cute little bags full of some of the end cuts of her bars, which I thought would be a great way of sampling a range without having to spend a small fortune :)

Here they are nestled in a lovely bowl that was another thrifting find.  Don't these little yummies look good enough to eat?

A room with a view and next on the hook

One of the things that made me fall in love with my flat when I was looking round for somewhere to live was that it had two lovely big windows in the main living room.

As I'm on the second floor I get to sit on my sofa and look out over the roofs of the lovely old building across the street.  The pictures above and below show the views from the two windows

One of the first jobs I did was put up some curtains.  It's not as though I'm especially over looked but as the evenings are still mainly dark and I need lights on when I'm at home I didn't really want people to be able to look up and see me wandering round the place :)

I've gone for curtains with a bit of green in as when I get the money together to decorate I want to stay mainly neutral with a hint of green in this room.  As you can see at the moment I've gone for floor to ceiling curtains but I might eventually take the curtains up as I have an idea of getting some small units made to fit in the space under the windows to house some of my books.

Why am I telling you about my windows you may well be asking?  Well a couple of weeks ago I picked up this cone of yarn for the fabulous price of £2 while I was out thrift shopping. 

At the time I didn't have anything in mind for it, but when I put the curtains up I had the idea of making some crochet tiebacks to keep them gathered and out the way in the day.  It occurred to me that this yarn might be the perfect match as it has some green running through it.

I'll need to do a bit of experimenting to see what works but hopefully I'll end up coming up with something useful.  Coincidentally since i had the idea two magazines have come out both featuring tieback projects so I might incorporate some of the ideas from those.  I'm sure I'll share some of the results from my hooky playtime here soon, so watch this space I guess.

London

A few snaps from my day out in London a couple of weeks ago.

We crammed in lots of stuff but the highlight of the day was by far and away our visit to The Shard.

It really is an impressive, imposing building.  Standing outside and looking up it just seems to go on forever, up into the sky.

The viewing platforms are on floors 69 and 72.  There is a timed entry system which is really good as it means there aren't hundreds and hundreds of people crammed in.

Our tickets were for 5:30pm, which turned out to be a great time to go at this time of year.  The sun was just about ready to go down so we got to see the views out across and around London in the last fading light of day, and after dark too.

The views were just breath taking.

The viewing floors go all around the building.

There are so many iconic London buildings to see in this 360 degree view.

The best view of all for me .... James with a huge smile :)

We had a brilliant day, it was just the sort of fun I needed away from the madness of moving which had been all consuming over the previous couple of months.

The only small annoyance on the day was the closure of the Circle line on the underground for 'essential maintenance' a common occurrence on the underground system at the weekends.

But finding alternate routes around the capital took us to stations that we wouldn't have otherwise gone to.  Including Baker Street.  Loved these Sherlock Holmes tiles.

Our day ended with cocktails and dinner at a lovely little brasserie near Paddington station before we had to get on the train for the journey home.

We had a brilliant day and I can't wait to go back at the end of May. We've got an overnight stay booked as we're going to see an orchestra at the Barbican ..... exciting.

Ta Da! Snuggly Squares is done

The baby blanket is finished. And I have to admit that I'm really pleased with how it's turned out.

It's on its way to its new home but I am rather sorry to see it go.

It's kept me company for many many hours over the last couple of months.

But as the saying goes, all good things come to an end

I had to include one shot of the back of the blanket as I think I like it almost as much as the front, lol

On the bright side I now have the excitement of thinking about and choosing something new to work on ...... so many projects that I want to work on and so little time, it might take me a while to choose which one next :)

What are you working on right now?

Who doesn't love a good bargain?

In recent months I've become ever so addicted to second hand shopping. Thrifting, I think our lovely American cousins like to call it and I think that is a pretty cute term for it. It's actually becoming a bit of an obsession, so I'm sure there will be more thrifting posts to come.

Of a weekend you can mostly find me out hunting around the second hand and charity shops in the local area. I've been finding some real treasures recently which is helping as I try and kit my new flat out on a very small budget. It's amazing what you can find and a lot of things are brand spanking new. It's nice to pick up a few treats here and there and know you're not breaking the bank

I thought I'd share with you a little snapshot of last weekend's haul.

A bag, a cute little vintage crochet book, a brand new chopping board for the kitchen labels still on, a set of good quality salad servers, from Habitat originally again brand new and with the label on, a suede effect photo frame originally from Next (I've been collecting quite a few photo frames recently so I might just do a little post dedicate to those soon) and a cute little wooden organiser/display box.

All of these lovely things cost me the princely sum of £10. Amazing! They make me and my bank balance very happy :)

Have you found any bargains recently?

YOTA time

Well it's the first Saturday of the month so it's time to join in the YOTA fun hosted at Pull the other Thread.

I've been beavering away on the 'take time' cross stitch.  This is what it looked like at the start of February.

And this is the now.......

I was hoping to have it finished and I'm oh so tantalisingly close.  The border is complete and I'm a good way through the final teacup but it just wasn't meant to be.

With the move and feeling ill for the last couple of weeks I just ran out of time.  But another couple of evenings work and I'm sure it will be done.  It won't be this weekend though as I need to try and get the rest of the crochet baby blanket done.

Whatever you're up to I hope you have a smashing weekend X

PS Thanks to everyone who commented on the last post with more crafty fiction suggestions, I will be making a list and keeping my eyes out for the books, but if anyone has anymore keep them coming :)

Stitchy reads

This week seems to be passing by in a blur. Work is so busy I don't really have any energy or enthusiasm for much when I get home, which is a shame when there is so much unpacking and decorating still to do!! 

Mostly I've been reading.  I go through phases with my reading, one minute I'm a total book worm and then all of a sudden it can be months between reads.  I'll read just about anything but my preference is for Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror and Historical.  Every now and then though I pick something off the shelf 'just because'.

The book below was one of those choices.  I picked it up in a local charity shop for the bargain price of 30p.  With the tag line 'when life unravels ..... start stitching' I couldn't resist.

I'm not quite finished the book yet, but it's quite an entertaining read.  Nothing too deep or taxing on the brain, but something that's good enough to pick up and distract you for a while when you're too tired to do much else.  But it has got me thinking ..... Do any of you out there know of any other reads that have stitch or craft woven in to the storyline?  I'd love to read some more.

As well as reading I've been enjoying these lovely flowers and lots of cards from my wonderful family and friends wishing me well in my new home.  Totally feeling the love.  I'm grateful everyday to have so many thoughtful and caring people in my life.  It's not hard to make sure that you show people you care about that they are valued and appreciated and not taken for granted.  We should all really do more of it  :)

Weekend Snapshot

Phew, I'm pretty exhausted it's been a full on weekend. I'm still full of cold and feeling very tired, but also very, very content. Life is made for weekends like this......

Big smiles, and goofy photos

Time with my fabulous family

Cocktails and candles

Visits to tall buildings

And a little bit of stitching.

I'll be back soon to share some more pictures and detail, but for now this is my weekend in snapshots.  Whatever you've been up to I hope you've had a good one xx

Slow and steady wins the race....

... at least that's what I keep telling myself. Most things have ground to a halt round here at the moment as I have picked up a really nasty cold virus. Aching head, running nose, scratchy throat the works. I think it happens sometimes when you've been on the go for a while and you suddenly take time to breath deep, its at that moment that all the nasty germs attack, lol.

So not much of anything is really going on round here. There are still boxes being unpacked and furniture being put together.

 My gorgeous geek guy has been helping me with the furniture, though when I say he doesn't have the patience of a saint when it comes to flat pack furniture and the air was blue that is an understatement!!  I must tell you more about him one day soon, I'm totally besotted.

I've probably mentioned before that I've decided to try and kit out my place with a combination of second hand and hand made with the exception of a few bits here and there.  I've only bought one piece of flat pack and that was the TV cabinet, and even that I bought from the British Heart Foundation shop so even though it's new it's made from stripped back pine recycled from other unwanted furniture.

In other news, slow and steady is also the motto for the baby blanket.  I have two thirds of it joined and so it looks like this right now.

Sorry just noticed I didn't do a great job of laying it out for the photo, lots of curly edges ... I'm going to blame my germ addled head for that one.  Anyhow I'm really please with how this is coming along and am aiming to get it done by the end of the month.  Though with a busy weekend ahead that might be a bit ambitious.  I'm off to London for the day on Saturday and my baby brother is coming over on Sunday to see my new place and help me put up some shelves .... what a darling he is :)

Small pleasures

Thank you all for the lovely comments of support on my last post they really meant a lot.  Did you all have a nice weekend? For the most part mine looked like this..

... a whole jumble of boxes and bags waiting to be sorted and unpacked.

The room underneath all this mess is my bedroom!! At one stage you could barely get in the room but as the weekend went on I managed to clear a path through it all and there is now some room to move.

It's been a pretty stressful weekend and there are still boxes everywhere and a million and one jobs to do, and my thoughts on how to use the space I have keep changing by the minute but things are feeling a lot more manageable now.

Amidst the chaos I managed to carve out a few moments of calm.  A few small pleasures here and there are what got me through. Like this ... the very first cup of tea at my new home

What's not to enjoy about a nice cuppa and a danish? Do you like my lovely retro floral plate? I found them at a charity shop a couple of weeks ago and fell in love. They only had four but at 25p each they were a bargain that I couldn't pass up, as soon as I saw them I knew they'd be the perfect thing for those cup of tea and a slice of cake moments.

Moving in

Guess what? I finally got the keys to my new place yesterday, after almost 5 months of waiting, yippee. I can't tell you how excited I am.

This means that the hard work begins now, decorating, unpacking and getting my new home exactly how I want it. 

I'm immensely proud of myself for achieving all this on my own, it's not easy to convince the bank managers these days to give you a mortgage! But now that it's here I've been feeling a little overwhelmed by it all these last couple of days.

I think it's yet to really sink in that I have a place I can decorate and live in exactly how I want.  I think the overwhelming things is that although I'm 37 this year this will be the first time I've owned something that is entirely mine.  I don't have anyone else's opinions or tastes to take in to consideration and I'm not entirely sure I know what my own style is. Does that make any sense? I guess I'm still figuring out who I am in a way, which is a great adventure all in itself. 

Even though it's only a small apartment I think it will take me a while to get things straight, I don't have a huge amount of furniture and I don't have lots of money to buy things either so I think it'll be a few months before I can even afford to get all the basics.  But I'll get there and I'm sure I'm going to have plenty of fun over the coming months making my home, it may not turn out to be the most stylish or glamorous of places, but it will be all me.

Whatever you are up to, hope you have a happy and fun filled weekend. X

And so to the joining ......

I hope you're not getting too bored with these updates on my blanket progress. While all my things are still in storage I don't have a variety of different things on the go which is my usual habit.

The good news is I get the keys to my new place on Friday so hopefully it won't be long before I'm settled in and can start decorating, unpacking and making the place my own. I'm sure there will be a picture or two of that on here once I'm in the swing.

But for now it's just more blanket progress I'm afraid. All my little squares have been hooked. 96 squares in all in 6 different colour combinations, you can see them all in the picture below. After all my moaning about it in the last crafty post I've actually managed to get all the ends sewn in without too much boredom too.

Next comes the joining.

The little squares are joined together to make bigger squares, then those are joined together in to even bigger squares and before you know it, voila the blanket is done ..... or at least that's how I hope it goes :) I'm thinking my next few weekends will be busy what with the moving .... and I have a day trip to London coming up too so I'll have to remind myself to get busy with this in the evenings instead, which might make a nice change from just coming home from work and flopping on the sofa!!