Great excitement at LKH HQ

I love gardening and there is nothing better than growing your own.  Sadly I had to give up our allotment last year, when it became obvious that there was not enough hours in the day for growing veg, sewing and being mum.  We did however transfer as many of our fruit plants (strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrant and blackberries) to our small back garden.  We also grow all our salad and tomato crops throughout the summer.

Blackcurrants ripening last summer

My love of gardening was inspired by the television programme Gardeners World.  Last year I visited the late Geoff Hamiltons wonderful Barnsdale gardens, they are truely amazing and if ever you are in Rutland, well worth a visit.

Blossom at Barnsdale Gardens

   But my favourite presenter ever has to be Alan Titchmarsh.  So how happy was I when asked on Sunday night by the lovely Sally from Dorothy and Theodore if I could provide some Jubilee themed bunting for his TV programme 'The Alan Titchmarsh show'.   So here he is with my Tea Party bunting on Wednesday's show, (excuse the photo taken of the tv!)

and here's a close up of the pretty 'kitch' bunting. 

oh and here's another patriotic version of this bunting made for last years Royal Wedding which would be perfect for Jubilee celebrations or the Olympics maybe, what do you think?

Have a lovely weekend!

Busy busy busy

We woke up this morning to a lovely sunny day, a perfect washing day! As I waved good bye to the children as they left for school, (Andy was on school run) I realised that the front garden is about to burst into glorious colour. The front garden is my garden and unlike the back garden that is now full of fruit and veg ( more of that later this week) slides and footballs is full of of my favourite flowers and plants

Ladies Mantle, zesty lime, and the leaves catch rain drops and make them sparkle like diamonds

Allium Christophii, in a couple of days this will be a stunning sphere of star like petals

Rosa Fairy, teeny tiny roses, but masses and masses of them, stunning!

Lavender, oh the scent, what more can you say

Hardy Geraniums, so tolerant and hard working, yet so beautiful

I would like to say there was a planting plan, but I'm afraid other than there being a vague blue, pink and white colour scheme, it is just full of pretty flowers, which are left to self seed as you can see in the photo above. The Lavenders in the wall of the house are all self sewn and there are loads of tiny seedling in the cracks on the paving which I can not bring myself to pull up.

Now to a WIP, totally Andy by coincident had this week booked as leave to decorate our kitchen/family room, which as you all know is not Andy's favourite activity. It has although been lovely to be at home together before he leaves.

So to give you a sneeky peek, the walls are painted, I've hung new wallpaper and we've painted the kitchen cupboards

In between, I've been finishing bunting, answering emails and yes for you eagled eyed readers, reading the fabulous new magazine Mollie Makes, which dropped through my post box this morning. It's a fab read and has the most gorgeous crochet apple jackets tutorial , oh I SO want to learn to crochet, a great feature on Dottie Angel, who's blog I follow and ..........

a feature on bobble trims and just look who's photo is included.

I hope you're having a lovely day!

'till next time

Looked what arrived today

Ok, I shall try and stay very cool and calm........EEEEK no chance!! Look what arrived this morning through my door

Creating Vintage Charm magazine.......

and look who is featured

Yes it's me.... I was approached a little while ago and asked if I would like to be featured, I thought about it for a while, well a millisecond and said yes. I hoped for maybe a few photo's to be included but LOOK a full 3 pages! YAY!!

In this issue you'll find:

~Plan your Spring Garden Party with beautiful picks from several talented artists and designers ~Featured Artist Cindy Adkins ~Interview with Designer Christina Strutt ~Home tour with Happy Harris ~Tutorials and How to’s you DO NOT want to miss by Karla Nathan, Elyse Major, Mandy Strunk ~In every Issue- Featured Art Gallery, Events Calendar, Free Cut out Images for your creations. ~New- Featured Crafter’s Show

The magazine is only available to buy online and is the work of Sonia Croze.

Please purchase a copy, it is absolutely lovely!

'till next time

Wedding Guide

A little while back, UK Handmade asked for contributors to apply to be in the UK Handmade Wedding guide for 2010. I applied and out of many applicants, my 'Mr and Mrs' Bunting was chosen, YAY!

Take a peek, it's gorgeous and within it's covers ( well on page 25 to be exact!) you'll find me

Featured

I had a lovely email yesterday from http://marices-world.blogspot.com to say that Marice had featured my British Cream Tea bunting in her Folksy Friday blog

Read the full article here

http://marices-world.blogspot.com/2010/07/folksy-friday.html

also take a look at her blog, which is a great read. Thank you for featuring me

Time flies when you're having fun

Gosh I'm not really sure where time has gone. Things have been busy at home. We're in the run up to the end of term and in the last 10 days, we've had Sports Day, Summer Fayre, World Cup Day and next week we've got Beach day and Bastille Day, phew!

We're also busy planning for our summer garden party next month, more of that soon, but needless to say, I've been making invites, bunting, planning the food etc etc etc

Very exciting news this morning, I've been featured in an article on http://www.ohmyhandmade.com/

Written by fellow Etsian http://www.bumpkin.etsy.com/ it's all about Handmade Tea Parties. My British Cream Tea bunting sits amongst some gorgeous items. See the full article here:

http://www.ohmyhandmade.com/2010/contributors/handmade-parties-tea-party-time/

Thank you for including me

Meanwhile, I've also been busy making some bunting orders

and these collages to showcase some of the appliques that can be added to my bunting

I love the cupcake (and eating the real thing!)

The original appliques, simple but beautiful

But then I also love creating something new, this bunting was inspired by a families love of sailing

I've also been making some new Ready to Ship items for my Etsy shop, check them out here

http://www.littlekittenhomemade.etsy.com/

oh well that's it for now, back soon, really, honestly I will be!

HIGHS

How excited was I when last night I got a convo on Etsy from fellow Etsian Jessica from http://www.inkblotcafe.etsy.com/ to say that she had featured me in her blog.

http://jmaeinthehouseonhancock.blogspot.com/2010/01/bunting-not-baseball.html

It's a really lovely article and was quite out of the blue, thank you Jessica.

Sarah x