Natures Splendour.

Where I've been and what I've seen this month.

love it, love it, love it!

Buttonhole, Buns and Barbie.

Hello my lovelies.

Gosh I feel like I've been away from the blogging world for ages. I know that I 'blog without obligation' but I still feel I should apologise for being away for so long. I just seem to have been so busy at work and at home. Consequently I have a camera full of random photos that I some how have to put into order. (sorry life's too short, I've just noticed there are 115 photo in my camera, you'll just have to have them as they come!)

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Deep breath, where shall I start?

Well I've had quite a lot of these beauties to launder of late.

Aren't they gorgeous tablecloths? I think they would make the most beautiful and unique boudoir curtains if cut up the middle. Yes I can hear you shrieking from here! Honestly it's better to give them a new life as curtains where they'll be seen and admired every day, rather than them being folded up in a drawer for months on end never seeing the light of day.

As you can see from the contents of this basket, I've been cupcaking and still need to make many more.


I've made a little seat pad to fit a child's rocking chair.


We've also been out and about as you can't possibly waste this fantastic weather that we've been having lately. For many years I worked weekends so now Wonderful Man and I like to spend our Saturdays and Sundays out and about together as much as possible. Especially since our 'escape to the country'.


But more about that another time, I think I'll try and keep this post to homey, domestic, sewy things or I shall get terribly confused and flummoxed. I don't know about you but I find it really hard to get back into blogging if I leave it too long between posts. I suppose as with most things little and often is best. (Gosh! I sound like someones granny!)

Here is Barbie awaiting her make-over into glamorous trapeze artist (it's a long story, trust me you don't need to hear it.)

TADAA! One glamorous trapeze artist created! (Please note here, that if you ever have to make Barbie a tight waist cinching costume... her bum is waaay big compared to her waist, which makes it nigh on impossible to pull said tight waist cinching costume up over said big bum. Be warned!)

Ah. Here we have some prototype pin cushions bobbing about in my basket. These were inspired by Karen at Contemporary Embroidery. I've been dying to have a go at this peek-a-boo button hole stitch thingy for a while now. I love button hole stitch, I made teeny tiny buttonhole flowers on these miniture teddies, yonks ago. Mine are made from vintage linen though, not quite as luxurious as Karens work which is in silk. They also have a fabric covered hard base so that they stand up properly. I'll take some more photos another time when they have evolved a bit more.

I love this picture. It's part of my stash of old embroidered linens. Hmmmm! All that pretty, lineny scrummyness! But what are you going to do with them all I hear you cry!

Well I've been doing a little bit of this with them.

Chopping them up so I can put them back together again.

Every scrap of embroidery used. (I even keep all the off cuts just incase I think of something to do with them one day.)

See! It's not always bad to cut up beautiful old tablecloths! Hopefully this one will now grace someones bed or sofa and be gazed upon every day. (I say 'hopefully' as this cushion is now for sale in the most lovely little gift shop just opened in our village. As soon as there is a web site I'll pop you a link up.)

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Ah well, thats 16 photos down, 99 to go!

(Only joking! Ha ha!)

I won't leave it as long next time. Promise X

Wild Garlic

Hello. There's not much time today, are you ready for a quick walk? Gosh Sneaky Dog is already way in front. We're on the hunt for some wild garlic.

Well actually we won't have to hunt very far as there is some wild garlic just there! There! In the bottom left hand corner of the picture! See it? Mmm... it smells gorgeous.

This is an unusual sight around here, it's usually sheep!

Can you see the waterfall through the trees?

That's better, I'm stood on a little bridge to view the waterfall properly.

Follow the dog up the steps

along side the stream.

Sharp right and up a steep bank where we are rewarded with this view.

Can you spot Sneaky Dog? 10 more minutes and we'll be home.

Don't you just LOVE England.

And here is our garlic. We shall have some of the flower heads in our salad and chop some up and mix them into some cream cheese. Hmmmm! Delicious! Mustn't forget to pop a couple of the leaves into a bottle of olive oil too.

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That's it! Sorry about the rush but child #2 want to borrow MY laptop!

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See you soon

Love Fi x

Flowers for Dinner and Bunny for Lynnie.

Hello again!

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I don't quite know where to start today. I seem to have so many odds and ends in my camera to show you... I know, I'll start where we left off last time.

Gosh! Isn't this just SCRUMMY!

This beautiful wool yarn was given (yes GIVEN!) to me by my new friend Anne. Anne is the lady who volunteered with me to teach our local primary school children how to knit.

Now Anne is very clever and has spun this wool herself. I wouldn't know where to start, it all sounds very complicated with wraps per inch and twists clockwise and anti clockwise.

Yep! That label says 'home dyed', too. Very clever lady!

Anne wondered if I'd like to give them a little test run?

Well I didn't take twice asking.

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I've been a bit busy at work this week. I don't really like to talk about mundane work related things on my blog as we all have plenty of that going on in our lives, but I did have to bring some of my work home with me on Friday. (I cook in a pub kitchen just incase you were wondering, it's all glamour for me you know!)

What do you think? I was rather pleased with my little floral displays. We needed one to go in the centre of each dining table for an important annual dinner event we were catering for. I must admit, I thought they looked rather nice on my kitchen table... I didn't want to take them to work!

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Changing the subject. Lynnie at Keeping up with the Jones will be glad to hear that I have made time to crack on with her little bunny.

He looks a little worried in this picture. Maybe it's the thought of travelling all those miles to Australia.

I do hope you are happy with him Lynnie?

I thoroughly enjoyed embroidering him for you. Maybe it had something to do with sitting in the garden in the sunshine while I sewed.

Love Fi x

P.S. We might have to go for a walk next time, as I have at least two sets of photos waiting to show you. One is a walk in search of wild garlic and takes in a pretty local waterfall and the other is a steady climb with fantastic views over Wensleydale.

My Sunday

This is Richmond in North Yorkshire.  We were here to visit about 20 open gardens and what a glorious afternoon we had. The weather couldn't have been better, hot and sunny all day. We love open gardens and visit as many as we possibly can.

I love the colour this summer house is painted. Such a gentle restful green. I must say out of the 20 gardens we saw I think this one was the best, consequently I didn't take any photos in the other gardens.
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A bit of crafting to show you...
Not much, a few cupcakes and
five hand embroidered linen rabbits.Our route home took us over the tops of the fells. We had to stop the car to let some other traffic pass as the road if you can call it that, it's only a single track. I find this route a bit hairy at the best of times, it's the spectacular views that seduce me.

Look we're on top of the world! (that's how it feels anyway) This is where we got stuck in snow earlier on this year. Very frightening, there is no mobile phone reception here and I thought we were going to have to wait until our teenagers missed us (probably teatime) and call out the Mountain Rescue! How embarrassing would that have been! Luckily for us another motorist came along behind us and helped us push the car backwards in the snow and ice until we could both turn around and head back the way we came. Can you imagine this scene covered in 10 inches of snow?



Sunday traffic! It's hellish here!!!! Teehee!

Oops! Spoke too soon! Slow moving traffic!

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What a lovely day.

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I'll leave you with a sneaky peek of something scrummy I was given to play with this afternoon. I'll fill you in next time : )
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I'm off to try and catch up with all your weekends now. love Fi x