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"If you can dream it, you can do it."
I love this one with Mr goose bringing the message.
Santa's face is wonderful, this is a cut-out card.
This little sweeper looks so lost and cold, you want to take her home to a warm fire.
I love chickens, there is just something so fascinating about their simple habits.
We always had chickens of some sort around us, right from my childhood days to the days when our children were growing up.
Now I surround myself with chickens of a different sort, from trays to jugs and ornaments. These new items have just arrived in Granny's Cottage Shoppe. Now i need to finish my hand applique dish cloths -with chickens of course.
Some of the many new items added to Granny's Cottage Shoppe -Hand Knitted spring tea cosies in a lovely turquoise shade with roses in dusty pink, light pink, cream and added leaves in moss and lime green.
The large tea cosy will fit an eight-cup teapot and the smaller two fit a two-cup teapot.
The tea cup is from the Maxwell Williams floral range. I have a set of these tea-cups in all the different florals and my club ladies get to choose their cup at tea-time.
Another range in my new additions are the delicious Hillcrest Berry Farm Jams and Preserves.
From Strawberry, Blackcurrant and Raspberry, Marmalade with Whiskey, Morella Cherry, and Cape Fig, all delicious -no preservatives or additives, its hard to choose which one is my favourite.
I wanted to make something different this year and came up with my Christmas Pudding teacosy. Knitted in double ply brown wool, which has a lovely fleck in it, topped with cream and decorated with pinecones, berries and leaves, it looks good enough to eat.I had four of these in two sizes to fit six cup and two cup tea pots, and am now down to this one two-cup cosy, so I had better get knitting again.
Yesterday we celebrated our 11th year reunion of our club,Hugbeary Den.
I had started Hugbeary Den as a teddy bear club and after about four years or more of teaching members "how to make a bear", from designing a bear to full assembling of bear, we branched out to include crafts of all kinds.
We have learnt about needle felting, wet felting, embroidering, decoupage, tatting, lace making, quilting and patchwork, cross stitch, spinning, clay sculpting, knitting, scrap booking, beading, cloisonne work, and so much more. Most members have been with me from the start and yesterday was a wonderful day spent with these special friends,where we enjoyed a luncheon, photographic session for our 2009 calender, workshop and shopping.
A group photo.
"And in green Underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins"
The garden is bursting with colour, azaleas are blooming, Petra is a-buzz with bees and flowers, hanging baskets are a picture; its a wonderful time of the year to see how nature has coped with our dry winter.
" I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods,
Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook"
Ralph Waldo Emerson 1803-1882
A useful way to use your flowers for potpourri. Today I picked some spring/summer flowers from the garden. I placed these in a vase without water and there they will remain until the flowers and leaves are dry to make a new batch of potpourri. Some flowers will dry beautifully this way, without tying in a bunch and hanging upside down. I now have an arrangement of fresh flowers for quite a while and at the same time adding to my dries for potpourri.
In this batch I picked bougainvillea, green foliage which has a tiny flower and sprigs of rosemary to add a lovely scent.
Mixing your oils for Potpourri.
Your flowers/leaves are now ready. You can break the flowers/leaves up if you have not already done so, leave some buds whole as they add to the look. Lavender stems should be broken up small, again leave some small lavender sprays to add to the look.
Place your flowers/leaves into a large bowl, I love to use my large old enamel bowls for this. You will also need a wooden spoon to mix, but hands do best.
Choose your oils depending on the scents you want. Remember if you have essential oils, it is concentrated so you will need about 2 drops per cup of dried flowers.
If you use fragrance oils, it is not as concentrated so you will need more drops of oils per cup, about double. When choosing your oil, try and match the flowers natural scents as far as possible. The oils will enhance the flowers natural scents.
You need a fixative, that is something you can use to add the oils to so that it disperses better amongst the flowers. Orris root is probably the best fixative, but if I make a spicy potpourri, I have used ground citrus peels.
Mix your chosen oil into the orris root.
Gradually add the oil mix to your flowers/leaves, mixing well in between each addition. You can add drops of oil straight onto flowers/leaves but this needs to be mixed very well between each drop.
Once your flowers/leaves/oils have been well blended, place all inside an airtight container and leave to "mature" for a about six weeks. I like to open my container every few days and toss mixture around so its all well blended.
Mature potpourri displayed in an open bowl or bowl with some opening, gives a room a wonderful natural scent.
How/where to use your Potpourri.- part 3 to follow soon.
Some of last years dries.
There are probably many ways to make Potpourri, but thought I would share with you how I make mine.
The first thing you need are dried flowers, petals and even the leaves,stems (lavender) are suitable.I like to do my dries during our winter as we hardly get a drop of rain and air is very drying.
If you are going to dry your flowers yourself, the best time to pick them is in the morning when the flowers are dry. If you don't have flowers in your garden but would like to dry your own, buy a bunch or two from the flower market. As soon as you get them home, tie into a bunch with some raffia or string and hang upside down in a cool, dry, airy spot. If you have flowers without stems, break the petals up,or leave buds whole (I like to add rose buds), place on a sieve of some sort, preferably a large flat one, spread your petals out and leave to dry in a suitable spot. Toss them around occasionally to make sure the petals dry out all over.
The most suitable flowers for potpourri are roses and lavender, but you can experiment with all types of flowers. Just a tip here is keep the different flowers apart while drying. Once you can see which ones will dry suitable for potpourri, then you can mix them up. I like to keep my different flowers apart until I make my potpourri, that way I can mix the colours together for whatever potpourri I am making.
Here is a picture of my autumn potpourri I made last year, where I used petals and berries of autumn shades.
Your flowers will be ready to make into potpourri when the petals are crisp to the touch.
Part 2- mixing the potpourri oils to follow soon.
Today I made my first batch of Spring/Summer Potpourri, a mixture of rose, rose geranium and lavender. The room is filled with the beautiful scent but it will take a few more days before its ready. This past winters dries were the best as we had a long dry winter and not too cold.
Well not quite hung yet, but getting ready for my three day Christmas event this weekend. These burgundy and cream stripe stockings are hand knitted and each one has a winter gathering tag. I wanted to have something different this year for stockings and thought the old fashioned idea of a hand knitted stocking would just be what I was looking for. I am cuffed how they have turned out..now to make some longer ones.
Here is another gift I have enjoyed wrapping for a friend's birthday. This firend enjoys gardening so I chose a garden theme in lovely autumn colours. I use gold, orange and dark green paper tear ribbon to make the bow, added a bow in a lovely tulle with gold spots, and made a tag from the same wrapping paper used to wrap the gift, accented it with a hand drawn bug and 3D ladybird.
Last spring, our family of Cape Robin-Chats made their nest in a watering-can hanging up on my log cabin shop. This spring they have chosen the wreath that hangs by our front door. I made this wreath about two years ago and it has sat by the front alcove to welcome in our visitors. The robins have built their nest right in the middle, its a lovely deep nest and unless you step right up and look right down on it, you cannot see the mother with her two eggs.
Here are two pictures, one a close-up. We are so lucky to be able to once again enjoy their activies at such close quarters.
Looking back through photos of things I created, I found one of my favourites. Its not one item in particular but something about how these few items came together, that my heart skips a beat whenever I come across this picture. I sooo.. soo enjoyed making these little characters, born out of inspiration from my first discovery of all things prim.
As a tribute to one of my favourite times of year, a sort of fairwell to this years' autumn season, I have put together a collage of pictures of items I made. Inspired by the wonderful rich colours of the season, the warmth and earthiness of nature, its always been a great time for me to create.
Here are more things in Granny's Cottage Shoppe.
Mum had this crystal dressing set as far back as I can remember.
The roses are this years dries.
Some new, some old. The old steamer at the back is really old but still in great condition.
I love enamelware and wire things. I also love collecting moulds.
