Hever Castle

After a week of most of our household having colds (I am still managing to escape, fingers crossed) we decided to have a family day out at Hever Castle in Kent, which was the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, one of Henry viii’s wives. We managed to dodge most of the showers and although parts of the grounds were quite squelchy we had a great time exploring. My favourite picture below is the one of Holly running round the tree! : ) Did anyone else have problem with blogger yesterday? I spent a good hour trying to upload these pictures before giving up, which is why my poor post has been delayed!

coughing

Everyone in my house except me has got a horrible cough/cold. I feel a certain enivitability that it will head my way, but so far I have escaped it. I've been busy sewing away and this is the latest result, a little kraft fabric purse with two compartments inside. : )

the big bean

Things are starting to grow around here, not least this huge bean! I bought it for Stuart as a silly valentine present, which for ages didn't do anything, then just as we had given up this huge bean popped out, and it really does have 'I love you' written on it! I've also been pottering in the garden for a bit today as the sun was shining and these primulas had been waiting to be planted for a couple of weeks now. And I've been trying to take advantage of the sunshine to take some new product shots, I've just downloaded them and there seem to be over 80... I'm off to see if there are any good ones. : )

rush rush

I’m usually tired on Thursday evenings, and this week is no exception. But it's a good achey sort of tired, brought on by lots of exercise and rushing about! Wednesday is our busiest day of the week, with the usual work and school, followed by dancing lessons (Holly), running and body combat class (me). It is lovely to be able to run through the local county park again now that the evenings are getting lighter and I am certainly looking forward to the clocks changing soon. I’m hoping for an evening spent mostly on the sofa, but I have managed to list this new box before I step away from the computer. : )

mothers day

Yesterday was Mother's Day and I was a very lucky mum! I had breakfast made for me (and a little girl even helped me eat it) and I got some lovely presents, including the best book ever. It is a doodle book for children to colour in and give to their mummy, which is full of cute things like 'I love you tucking me in'. This page is one of my favourite's, Holly spent a good two weeks completing this for me and I love it. One of my homes for pins is also in a treasury at the moment, thanks to rlucia : )

kraft fabric?

Here is an example of my foray into using a new material - kraft paper fabric! It is quite thick and sturdy, and gets softer over time with use, a little bit like leather I suppose as it gets these 'lived in' sort of creases. You can sew through it by hand, but I do admit I wouldn't want to spend all day doing it! This little purse has two compartments inside and is the perfect size for credit/business cards, stamps and all the small bits and bobs that fall to the bottom of your bag! What do you think? : )

blue sky

Today was the first day that we have really been able to get out in the garden and try to get it ready for Spring. The sky was lovely and blue, the sun was out, and we were wrapped up warm against the cold wind. I was happy as I got to cut the grass and make a start on tidying the flower beds, and Holly was happy as we emptied her playhouse and cleaned it out ready for lots of playing as the weather hopefully gets warmer. I found two beautiful discs of ice on the top of a couple of big buckets, and Holly had great fun breaking them up. I was amazed at some of the colours captured in this shot of the ice. And can you see the ice flower that Holly made? : )

Spring at last?

The last couple of days have actually felt like spring might be on its way at last. We have had some lovely sunshine and it has started to be lighter in the mornings which makes getting out of bed just a little bit easier!

I am impatiently waiting for a couple of exciting parcels to arrive which of course never do when you are watching the door, so in the meantime I have been cutting out lots of fabric ready to sew. These new ‘shelter’ keyrings have made it into the shop, as has the pink box (shown above) that I showed you a peek of in my last post. Still no sign of any parcels… : )