Pink & Blue

will never do,
all the boys will wink at you!
How often we chanted this little verse as children and one can see why these two colours catch the eye.
Part of my valentine theme for open house is pink and blue, the other part is "Roses are Red". I just love my little one cup tea cosy in candy stripe pink with bouquet of roses a-top. The little soft pink and blue apron is a vintage, the pink organza is so delicate. The lovely rose bowl and plate are amongst my favourite crockery pieces. now to get the rest of the sewing done.

I've been tagged!

by Sue of Rabbit Hollow Prims
I now have to tell you 5 things about myself -ok,mmmmmmmm
1. I still bite my nails, mainly when watching a movie.
2. I'm an early riser, around 3am. Its the time I do most of my crafting.
3. I love a walk in the garden with my two doggies as the sun comes up.
4. I really can't decide whether i prefer primitive to victoriana, so enjoy both mmmmmmmmmmm like the french look too, country as well -aaah well why not all of it!!
5. Never use a pattern in my crafting, prefer to add lib and see how things turn out.

Now to tag five folk
Sue of collector of Crafts -you need to get that blog going
Jennifer of The old painted cottage -I have only discovered your blog and i love it!
Lisa of Crafty Ladye Creations - hope this helps you towards your 100th!
Trudy of Bits of Wool -good to see ou are posting again.
Niki of nostalgia at the Stone House -another newly discovered and wonderful blog.

Bag Chicks

Aren't these just so cute and clever, chicks made from plastic bags, what a great way to recycle these. A lovely surprise gift from my son and DIL from their trip to Cape Town. I love chicks, sheep and ducks and am thrilled to add to my small collection of such.

Queen of Hearts

Just finished my Valentine whimsical doll for 2008, well almost done except for a bunch of hearts for her to hold. I have about three weeks left before my Valentine open house and am working flat out to get all done that I wanted to do. Why do I leave it so late? I really needed to start work on this last year but there just never seems to be time to catch up!!
Queen of Hearts was made without a pattern, i love to create ad-lib, just winging it along. Her dress is a lovely old deep red wool fabric, its ever so soft and fall beautifully. Her trims are vintage lace and real feathers, her crown i made from a broken real pearl necklace i have had for many many years. Her head is painted muslin
and sprinkled with mica

New blogger

my dear friend Sue, has finally entered the world of blogging. Take a look here,her grand-daughter Abby is just tooo cute.

Sylvia Anderson has a 100th post Give-Away, visit her blog here.
With our recent rains, our garden surprises us with unusual mushrooms. I love the ones that pop up on our trees too, almost like rungs of a step-ladder. Here are my mushrooms that I painted one year.

Heart pincushion

Just finished a heart pincushion for Valentine. As well as a pincushion, its a scissor keeper and needle book. My theme for my Valentine open house on 9th February is "roses are red" and it will be more along the lines of vintage/victoriana/country/prim. I have so many ideas buzzing around my head but am finding it hard to get down to work after the holidays.

Wooden smokers

I love these wooden smokers, I would love to collect them! These two were given to me by my son and his wife from one of their trips to a German Christmas market.
The wooden smkoers ake a little incense burner in their tummy and once lit, the smoke comes out through the mouth so it looks like they are smoking their pipe.
Another item i would love to collect, only have two as well are Babushkas, those little nesting doll shaped boxes. I was told that a true Babushkas has a different item on each doll. The one i have that is a real treasure has a granny doll holding a duck, and each time you open the next doll, she holds something diffent to to with cooking the duck. Will get a photo up of that too.

Farm Life

I always think back to my life as a child on our family farm, particularly at the start of a new year. It was the most wonderful childhood anyone could wish for, endless days of excitement, fun and freedom. My dear English grandfather and two uncles ran the farm and it was through their love of life that we too could enrich ours. Thoughts, memories and visions, as if it were yesterday, come flooding back, moments of reliving it in today, tastes, sounds and smells are all there, its still so much a part of me and yet many, many years have past.
This year, 2008 I have made my goal to gather as many photos of this wonderful time as I can and put them together in a book of "Memories of a Farm." Here are a few above to share with you.