My wonderful swap presents

Wow, these are my wonderful swap presents from Claire, she has put so much hard work into it, she has sent me so many presents. I had so much fun opening all the presents. She has sent me a lovely stocking to hang up, something i hadn't got. I love candles and smelly candles, and also chocolates, all three of which i got in the swap. You'd think Claire knows me well as i love to bake and i can't wait to use the lovely cookie cutters and these cute little bun cases. I have a wonderful bag that she sent me, it is beautiful, with the wonderful flowery material. I am overwhelmed by Claire's generosity.

Below are some pictures of what i sent to Claire;






Sorry, i haven't been blogging for quite some time but life has been rather hectic at the moment and i hope to resume shortly and get back into the swing of things, i will explain more in a future post.

Car booting and crafting

Hope you have all had a good week ladies,l love the night,s drawing in and the weather becoming quite Autumnal l have been sitting in my concervatory most evenings doing my crochet with a blanket on my lap as it has been a bit nippy of a nightime. Just thought l would share a bit of sewing and car boot finds the bird were made out of the Sew Sunny homestyle book they are very easy to make. I bought this bird cage from the CB for £3.00 and l forgot to take the before pictures as l was so excited yes l know l am sad, l gave it a fresh coat of paint as it was a dirty blue and at some point it had had a live bird in it as was obviouse from the floor of the bird cage, also this very sweet little lamp which cost me 70p can you believe,it was quite dirty but l gave it a clean and washed the lamp shade and it now looks as good as new and they now both live on my kitchen windowsill.I would like some more of these little lamps as they are quite small only 13 inches high and l can think of loads of places to put them but l don't suppose l will find any more at that price. well thats all for now have a fabulouse weekend ladies hugs Pat

That time already

Hi just a quickie l have joined Kims xmas swap at Heart in the country there is a link on my side bar take a look its a good one and my first. Update on Henrys training,it went quite well except all the other puppies where female and Henry rather disgraced himself a proper male l think next week some bromide in his water. Have a good evening hugs Pat

BIRTHDAYS

Hello all hope you are all well,sorry to have been away so long but l have been busy with a birthday? mine well it was on the 15 September and we had a bar b Que on Saturday the 12 and the garden was all lit up l also made my self a cake and Dawn my DIL iced it for me as l was,nt allowed to, what l did'nt know was that Lauren had arranged a surprise visit from my brother and his wife and my 71 year old aunt and my cousin which was very special l had all my children and grandchildren and my sister all together it was very special and we had a lovely time.It was also Maisy's birthday on the 15 of September too she is now one year old l was there when she was born a very magical time being with my daughter on my birthday when she gave birth to her and it has been a special year for us both happy birthday Maisy. Henry is keeping me very busy he is very mischievous and on the go constantly, we start dog training tonight which l am looking forward to very much so we will not have much time for tea so , l have been baking today and made a quiche for tea and a fruit cake followed by some strawberries so if you feel like joining us just pull up a chair and enjoy, if Henry passes this training we can go on to bronze silver and gold the trainer asked us what kind of dog he is and when we said an Airedale terrier she said we will be lucky if we get to take him home as she adores this breed so if he embarrasses me may be l can leave him there LOL. I have been watching u tube videos and learnt how to make these lovely flowers they are very easy ,l can see myself making many more . Jessica has been dressing up for me so l thought l would share these photos with you, have a great evening hugs PAT

Good Friends & Crafting.

Hi my dear friends l would like to say a big thank you for all your kind words they are very much appreciated, a lot has been happening since my last post first there was our holidays that now seem a distant memory we had a lovely time and would like to do it again we then had Tabbethas christening, we had a wonderful time she was a little star and so well behaved considering she is 2 1/2 she kept us amused with her little antics. This is her dressit had to have her name and the date on it

l forgot to take a picture of it before she wore it and l also made her cake ,l tried to do a tutorial on smocking but it didn't turn out too well but l will try, firstly l chose a pattern that l liked ,not easy really as l have so many smocking books the choice is very hard,this is the picture in the book my DD wanted it in pink ,it has a brought collar so l decided to omit the collar, to start smocking you take the material and roll it on a rod l use a bit of sellotape to hold it in place,
once it is rolled on l then place it through the machine and start to turn the handle


as you turn the handle it goes through the rollers and onto the needles and pleating begins

once you have got to the end you pull threads about 3 inches and cut the thread these are the needles in the machine


then l traced the pattern and cut it out


l then do my smocking stitches and block the fabric to match the smocking guide and pull out the threads that the machine put in,after that you mark the armholes and now the scary bit


you cut armhole and then secure by sewing around armhole


then attach piping after that sew on bodice top and finish as you would any other dress

I won a give away on a blog this wonderful little chicken she is so cute and sits on my table while i sew this was my first giveaway l have won and l was so pleased to receive this wonderful present thank you so much to Kim at Heart in the country so sorry it has taken so long to blog about it. I needed a new pin cushion and l saw this at a car boot for 50p and thought it could be quite useful as it is quite heavy and that is what l needed something that would stay stillnd not move as l pulled the pin,s out so l rubbed it down and painted it in my favourite colour l made a cushion and glued it in place added some Ric rac and a bee hive button and voila, l think its great as it,s quite big l can get an assortment of needles in and not get all knotted up as there is plenty of space for each type needle. I have started to make a few presents we have some birthdays coming up and also i thought i would make an early start on Xmas presents as it always has a habit of creeping up on me very quickly,what promoted me was last week me and my sister went to the quilt exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham and l bought this new book it has some wonderful things in and l would love to make them all? maybe one day l can,t show these yet as my DD does read my blog. I am also making Maisey this smocked dress for her birthday next month and hopefully a cardigan too go with it hope to show you when it is finished. Now l would like to introduce Jolliver Monkey Puzzle, Henry for short our new Airedale terrier puppy he is 3 months old We have had him for 12 day,s now and he is settling in very nicely, he and the cat get on quite nicely teasing each other ,there is only a few weeks in their ages and he is a little scamp he keeps me very busy and with all the running around after him when he gets himself into mischief l will soon be down to a size 10 LOL ( l wish ). And finally l have received this wonderful award from Tracy over at Tracy's crafty scraps thank you so much for thinking of me , you are a true friend .


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This award is bestowed on to blogs that are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated. Please give more attention to these writers. deliver this award to six bloggers who must choose six more and include this cleverly-written text into the body of their award. I will pass this award to some of my bloggy friends that I find exceedingly charming…

I'd like to award it to:
Kim at heart in the country
Isabella at Suzys vintage attic
Alex at pink paradise
Josie at Sykesilly site
Rosa at surfer Rosa
Julie at gingerbread

Sad heart

It is with a very sad heart that l have to tell you that we had Digger put to sleep this morning, he was having difficulty breathing and was drinking a lot of water which my DIL said it meant his kidneys where failing and if we left him any longer then other organs would start to fail l have always said that l would not let him suffer so we took the final decission this morning and he went very peacfully with me holding him. I would like to say a big thank you for all your concern and kind messages regarding Digger it has meant a lot to me.When l feel ready l will show you some holiday pics , so untill then take care my dear freinds and have a good weekend big hugs Pat

My Dilemma

Hi all my lovely lady blogger friends thank you for all your kind messages about Digger on my previous post which has now been deleted as it upset me too much every time l logged in,the vet phoned me up on Tuesday to tell me the results of the biopsy and she said it was not good news the cancer was of a very invasive nature and it would be wise to have him put to sleep sooner rather than later ,after much soul searching and crying l phoned a pet crematorium and arranged it for Friday as long as l could get an appointment at the vets so l got my son to phone the vets and discuss it and we where then told he has got 100 to 300 days depending on how well he is coping before doing anything further so with this happy reprieve we took him on Friday to have his stitches out and then they said to bring him back in a month to discuss further treatment and he doesn't need painkillers just yet well l don't know whether l am on my head or my feet l don't know what else to do or say it is such a dilemma we may have to change our vets so that is my update on Digger. Well trying change the the subject and to be on a happier note we went Scarborurgh again yesterday with two of my sons and their family,s we had a wonderful time the weather was great a bit blowy but the sun was warm these are some of photos of Jessica's birthday last week the weather was very hot we had a picnic on the beach we built sandcastles went on a pirate ship Jessica had a donkey ride then we had a fish and chip supper before going home ,a great day was had by all and some of yesterdays photos. I do not know who had the most fun the adults building sandcastles or grandad writing love messages in the sand. There was a horse and buggy and these lovely coloured beach huts.JOSHUA Two proud dads enjoying a moment with their little onesTwo little ones playing. We are off on our holidays next week to Suffolk and boy l cant wait to have a break from the norm, so l have started to pack cleaned the inside of the car as it was in a bit of a state hubby doesn't do the inside very well and as l used to work valeting cars he knows l will do a better job than him? hmmm a method in his madness l hear you say oh yes quite right. I have not done much sewing this week but l will show you some car boot finds soon That's all for now as l wasn't going to blog because its not very good news but l thought the longer l leave it the harder it will be and l feel better now l have spoken about it sorry if its a bit mish mash but that's how l am feeling at the moment so on that note l hope every one has a wonderful week lots of hugs Pat