Summer Time

It sure is summer here -birds are singing, flowers are blooming, butterflies are fluttering, and I am getting ready for Easter. Easter falls in our early Autumn but Easter display colours tend to be summery or spring-like, pastel eggs and bunnies hopping everywhere, green grass and fluffy chicks. So I have decided to make things for my Easter Open House (date still to be finalised) in both gentle colours and others in more earthy shades.
Above is a lovely summery-spring basket, decoupaged in colourful pansies and decorated with 3D pansies, butterflies and bows, a perfect small basket to gather those easter eggs.

Eggstra Surprise!

What's it all about! Well follow my blog and find out more on 1st March!

Eggs are hatching!

Sue, my very talented friend, who is a constant inspiration to me has just made these beautiful eggs. Soft gentle colours in lovely wool, appliqued and embellished, who can resist.

Waste not, Want not...............

The old saying, "Waste not, want not," couldn't be more true in making this pincushion heart.

I had been saving all my scraps of fabric from my recent sewing activities, I just can't bear to throw any away and knew I would come up with an idea to use them up. Well here is my 'waste not, want not' pincushion heart, made entirely from scraps of fabric, a combination of wool, cotton and ticking, sewn together in a crazy patchwork style and stuffed with more scraps of fabric. Two buttons and a bit of ribbon finishes it off.It was fun to make, oh so easy and I love the weight the fabric stuffing gives to the heart.

Isn't it great!

Sue, my friend, created this gorgeous vintage-look tea cosy from fabric we bought the other day. Isn't it great and what a neat idea with the outside pockets to hold serviettes/spoons/or other bitty pieces. This tea cosy will be for sale at Granny's Cottage Shoppe Valentine open house on Thursday 12th.

No, no, no she cried..........

You can't possibly want more fabric. Well that's what I told myself on my recent "just looking" trip with my friend, Sue. What happened?? I couldn't resist and came home with a bagfull of fabric, wonderul textures and colours that conjured up all sorts of things to make. Of course it didn't stop there, i had to add meters of ribbon and it was just as well we ran out of time, (or was it money LOL) otherwise who knows what would have been next.

I love these trips with my friends, who are so wickedly inspirational, it makes for a most satisfying day.

February -a month of love

Yes its February already and yes the air is filled with love. February being Valentine month, certainly puts the world into the mood - adverts a-plenty, movies, shop displays and so on.

One can't help but feel that love is in the air.

I am busy preparing for my Valentine open house on Thursday 12th Feb. and Saturday 14th.

It will be the first open house at Granny's Cottage Shoppe and there is still much preparation to do with rooms for bedroom, bathroom, lounge, dinning and kitchen displays and the outside garden to sort out. I can see it all taking shape, even though its slow progress but am happy and sure my mum would have been too. This was mum's home, hence the name Granny's Cottage Shoppe. I hope to get lots of pictures up soon but for now if you haven't already visited my Granny's Cottage shoppe blog, just click on the link to take you there.

Valentine give-away -Love bug ............

Love Bug Needle Keeper.

Everyone's a winner in my valentive give-away.

Would you like the pattern and instructions on how to make my love bug needle keeper?

All you have to do is leave a comment to this post together with your email and I will email you back the full pattern and instructions. This is an easy pattern but makes a great gift for your loved ones who enjoy sewing or someone who just needs a place to keep those extra needles.

This Valentine give-away will run until Saturday 14th February.

Myrtle tree

I love the Australian myrtle tree, the fruit and flowers are so attractive. These trees grow to a fair size but can be kept as a hedge or topiary as I have done here in the picture. I have two of these in lovely old large pots. The fruit is slightly bitter to taste but can be made into a lovely jam. The pompom flowers are great for displaying in a large vase.

Do you ever..............

get the feeling that you just need to create a particular piece -- you know that feeling that won't go away until you do it! Well while working on my valentine theme, "Love is filled with summer sweetness", a theme of hearts and summer ripened strawberries, I just got the urge to create a cushion, using mixed media. I had a basic idea of what I wanted to create, but not the final vision until I was paging through a magazine and saw this strawberry cheesecake. I knew straight away that it had to be in my cushion and so "Pleasure in Progress" was created. I had such fun putting this together.