Painting Pots

Yesterday was a busy day in the garden, so today I had a quite time relaxing and painting terracotta pots. A friend and myself are going to do a plant boot sale in a couple of weeks time and I suggested we paint pots to sell as well. So out came all my stencil brushes and paints from years ago when I did an interior design course at our local college. I am so glad I kept all my arty stuff. I even found some of my own hand cut and designed stencils.

Here are some of the pots, I have lots more to do yet and I have to finish stencilling them or even freehand painting on some perhaps.  It was a relaxing afternoon in the garden with my friend.

This stencil is actually upside down (on purpose) it is a bow with little hearts hanging from it, but I decided to use it like a flower. I might do it the right way up on another pot.

It was starting to get a bit dark when I decided to take these photo's so I will take some more when I finish stencilling and will take the next photo's during the daylight.

We have been planning the sale since last year as I have grown so many herbs and also divided all the ones I already had, so my garden looks like a garden centre at the moment.  I wont be sorry to see the back of them ! I also have a lot of self seeded garden plants and Frances divided her day lillies and we potted them up last year and they are amazing now, large and healthy plants in big pots. I think we have about 25 of the

day lillies. We are both plant fanatics and love growing all sorts of things.

I usually give away all my extra tomatoes,chillies, cucumber and courgette plants, but this year I grew more to sell, so the greenhouse on the allotment is full. Again it will be good when they are sold as I need the room for my own plants.

Hasn't the weather been amazing ?? although I have to confess it's far too hot for me, today was unbearable in my garden which is south facing, so I painted the pot beneath the umbrella.

Enjoy the sunshine

M x

Still making cushions

I made another cushion from some lovely bright fabric remnants bought for £4. That's a bargain as it's a big cushion and I love the colour. I also bought two candles from my visit to the Range in orange and Lime green of course, so the room is beginning to look a bit more colourful.

My little 'Frister Rossmann' sewing machine is 38 years old and has never let me down yet ( Sssshhhh, fingers crossed, touch wood !!)  admittedly it's not used daily and sometimes not for long spells, but it was certainly money well spent. It has a hard carry case which is useful too.

If only I could afford to get my sofa's recovered that would make such a difference. I have thought of throws but they get messy after one sitting so I can't be bothered with that.  ah well ! we can't have everything I guess !

I don't know about you but I am so fed up with April showers now ! I don't mind the rain and goodness knows we needed it, but everything was coming on well in the greenhouse and garden, and then the rain and cold damp weather has slowed it all down and the soil is too wet to plant anything out.
Moan over !!
M x

Looking for home accessories to compliment my cushions.

After making my cushions ( previous post)  I have been on the lookout for items that will add some more splashes of colour to my living room. I went through a very 'cream' phase a couple of years ago and the although I still like neutral colours on the walls and floors, I have definitely gone off the cream curtains! it all looks a little too bland. I am toying with the idea of having a contrast colour on the chimney breast wall as well.  It takes me ages to make a decision.

I find I swing between liking the Scandinavian look IE: everything white and neutral and the bright and zingy colours of the 'designers guild' what I really need is two homes and then I could have both looks !!!! Yes I know dream on ! although I do happen to know someone who has that luxury.

I love looking around in Habitat and John Lewis, they have some lovely things for the home, but I always visit our local branch of the 'Range' are you familiar with this store ? They have some very affordable and lovely Home Accessories. I also buy lot's of my craft supplies from there as well. So that's were I will be heading to see what they have in store and I'll also take a look at their online web as well.  I know they do some very nice candles, so I think some lime green and maybe some orange ones would look good.

If I find anything I will post a photo.

Busy making cushion covers.

I have been busy making cushion covers for my living room today. I bought the fabric yesterday in Salisbury, so that's the quickest I have made something after buying the fabric in a long time. It only cost me £8.50 as two pieces were remnants and then I bought half a metre of a contrasting dotty fabric.  It made three cushion covers, so that is very good value.  I just needed a bit of colour in my room. I made them easy with no zips ( I hate putting in zips)

I have to buy some different fabric to make three more cushion covers now.  I am desperate to have my 'Wesley Barrell' sofa's re-covered but it will cost almost £3,000 to cover both of them. We have had them 24 years and they are still looking good, but I am so fed up with looking at the fabric that's on them.  Trouble is Wesley Barrell wont just make new covers, they take the sofas back to the workshop and completely overhaul them so they come back like new sofas, complete with new cushions . I can dream on as we just can't afford that amount of money  at the moment.  So i will be content to just jazz the room up with some zingy colours.

Street Art

It's been a while since my last posting and I haven't any new craft projects to write about. I do have a soup recipe to share that I made up ' Roasted pumpkin and Lentil soup' but not in this post (sorry) I have taken photo's and will write it all down and post for next time. I have made it three times now and it's delicious.

However this post is about some amazing street art that I took photo's of in and around Brick Lane, London, we were in London this week-end staying with my son who lives in Crouch End, and he kindly took us to Brick Lane and Spitalfield Market which had a vintage fair on Saturday. We went a bit late so I didn't really have time to browse the amazing goods for sale, next time !!!!!

Anyway here is a collection of photo's which I thought were pretty special and brighten up the whole area. It's wonderful that the local council leave them all alone and don't view them as graffiti.
Seeing as this blog is (or should be) about crafts I thought I would show this photo first -

Amazing !! a whole buggy done in crochet, what a lucky baby and so unique.

This one is a genuine 'Banksy' and is behind glass to protect it. I had to put my camera through some locked gates and point and hope for the best. It actually came out OK. It was behind locked gates and up an alley that I couldn't get to without going all the way around to another street.

And here are the rest I took.

Bag finished and Handle on - At Last !!!

Well at last this bag is finished, thank goodness for that as it's taken so long to get around to deciding what to do about the handles. I decided that a long handle would make a nice change, and  as as I rather like to wear my bags across my body so as to have my hands free I thought I would give this a go.

It actually worked out rather expensive as I had to knit it double and bought 2 balls of wool which cost almost £6 each ball. That left me enough to make a double inside pocket for my mobile phone and keys and the little tags for the button fastening.  So all in all an expensive bag, but at least it's unique and a one off and I do like to be different !!

The handles ( I knitted two) didn't shrink as much as I anticipated so I was left with two rather long handles that didn't look right, so I thought long and hard for a couple of days and come up with a pleasing solution.  I twisted both handles together and stitched them as one handle  from side to side of the bag.  This made it very strong and comfortable to carry, so I am pleased with the end result.  I intended to sell this one, but like it so much it is now part of my bag collection.

Here's the finished bag

 Back detail of a couple of needle felted flowers worked directly onto the bag

Double inside pocket for mobile phone and keys, with button down safety so the phone doesn't slip out when the bag is set down.

It's a good size and carries quite a big. I need to invest in some professional base to add strength to the bottom as I don't like the way it sags when it has items inside. other than that it's great.

A new Felted bag and good news on the Orla Kiely mugs

This is a bag I have been working on for many months. I lost interest in it and then suddenly got going and it's almost done. I just have to make the handles and an inside pocket.

This is before felting in the washing machine

Front view

I needle felted some small flowers onto the back, just to give it a different detail to the front.

I bought some felting wool in a colour that is quite close to the deep aqua to make the handles with. You can see a little chain of it I tried out next to the needle felted flower.   I should have it finished in the New Year.

Orla Kiely mugs update

I am delighted to report that my mugs have been replaced (see my allotment blog for full details)  and that apparently the company that make the mugs for Orla Kiely had a batch that weren't glazed properly, so I guess mine were from that batch.  That makes sense of the fact that the latest one bought from John Lewis recently hasn't stained at all, but the ones bought earlier in the year elsewhere had. The mug company were so generous as I got more than I already had replaced.  Fantastic customer service ! I am so pleased.

HAVE A WONDERFUL CHRISTMAS AND A HEALTHY AND HAPPY NEW YEAR

M XX