A little photo shoot

I wanted to capture the spring flowers, before the huge gusts of wind and heavy burst of rain, wash them away

(Don't you just love the stripy straw!)

The same photo 4 different effects

Natural


Orton

Black & White

Vintage

Do you have a favourite?

Hope you've had a lovely weekend, only 21 days till Andy gets home!

The paint is dry......

After what feels like 6 days of camping with all my plates and essentials on our table in the conservatory, this morning, I decided that the paint on the kitchen cupboards MUST be dry. So having had an extremely early wake up call from the children (5am..... yes I did say 5am!) after making breakfast, checked my shops, showering and dressing (and yes..... it was still only 7am) I set to putting the kitchen back together again.

I keep alot of my essentials (pasta, rice flour, sugar etc) and everyday china on open shelves, great for easy access and because our kitchen is not the largest, I can cook and unload the dishwasher within 3 paces. The downside is that everything gets a tad dusty, so before I could put everything away a big clean up was required. Not my favourite past time, however it did make me realise what lovely things I have, here are some of my favourites


from top left

Gorgeous Pink Ramekins (great for after school snacks), EXTRA Large Tea Bag Canisters (can there be anything else!), Pressed Glass Cake Stand (one of many), Carlton ware Apple Sauce Pot (just gorgeous), Indies China (love it had it for over 20 years), Heart Ramekin (just because), Kitchen Aid (LOVE LOVE LOVE!), Yellow Polka Dot Toast Rack (a car boot find), Pressed Glass Cake Stand (another one of many), Hand Painted Hand Print Plates (I would grab these in a fire), Cornish ware Egg Cups (drool worthy), My new wallpaper (CK Boats)

Now all I need to do is make new curtains, blinds, cushions......

update 26th May - thank you for leaving comments, I've tried to add one but blogger won't let me, uumm not sure why???? but Oh Jenny you are SO right, I felt very pleased when it was done. Catherine they arrived today and they are as gorgeous as ever. Thank you for your lovely comments! Sarah xo

Front Page!!

Hooray, I was included on the Front Page of Etsy today, in a gorgeous Treasury called "If you love Anthropologie..." you can see it in it's full glory here. Thank you so much Lucy.

I LOVE Anthropologie do you?

What is even more exciting is the gorgeous photo's I was kindly sent to me by Whitney only yesterday. Just take a look at these, they include my Tutti Fruity Vintage Fabric Bunting I long to be able to take photo's that look like this!

Thank you SO much Whitney, you're a star!!

This made my day, which has been a long one, Andy leaves tonight at midnight. I've had a stinking headache all day and it broke my heart when he said goodnight to the children. But on the brightside, when we all wake up tomorrow, we're on countdown to him coming home and this little trip is a short one.... 31 days and counting!

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

May the force be with you

I can honestly say I am shattered! I am normally bounding with energy and will sew, be mum, keep the shop updated and sew a little more, from first thing in the morning until I go to bed at night. But tonight I am collapsed in a heap on the sofa.

I've had a marvelous weekend, baking, cake decorating, icing personalised star ship cookies, packing party bags, clock watching (giving an hourly countdown from 6am 'till 6pm party time!) shopping, walking around gardens, having a birthday lunch out with Uncle Mal and Auntie Tina, lots of chatting, laughing and general excitement.

Both children are in bed exhausted and with any luck sleeping later than the usual 5.30am, which they still managed this morning despite an extremely late night last night. I have a glass of wine and I'm snuggled up with Andy making the most of our last few evenings together before he goes away on Friday.

So I'm going to love and leave you and will be back bounding with energy in the morning!

Here's some pictures of the cake (and call me mad, but I'm going to make it all over again in 2 weeks on Jamie's actual birthday!)

Jamie loved the twinkly stars, hooray for edible glitter!

'till next time

A new look

On Tuesday I went on a product photography workshop run by Lyndsey, it was a great day, I learnt lots (and I mean lots). It was fabby to spend time with other like minded ladies, all of whom had fabulous products!

We did lots of theory (phew) go on ask me a question about Exposure or Apertures or Depth of Field (only kidding, please don't!)

I came back and spent a sleepless night thinking about bunting and photo's, here's the result

To show the scale and the gap between each flag, I'm now going to photograph each and everyone of my buntings, like this, on a gorgeous polka dot background with this lovely willow heart

I have decided however, that whilst I love the green, I'm going to stick with red and blue, to match my shop logo and pink, which is probably my best selling colour scheme. (The green will however come into its own come Christmas time when I switch to my winter graphics! )

I've also been re shooting my close up pictures, using different Aperture and Shutter speeds (hope you're impressed with the terminology)

Darla in Pink and Yellow


Appliqued Owls

Sunshine

Stars and Stripes

and Rainbow

So what do you think?

I've got a HUGE task ahead of me which is clearly going to take some time, but I'll get there.................eventually.

I've got a busy few days ahead, we're celebrating Jamie's birthday early due to his Daddy going away next week for a whole month (groan!!) I know it's part of forces life, but it doesn't get any easier! I can not believe it's a year since I was making these

This year, we've booked a laser party and I think this will be the last 'big' party. Jamie has requested a Star Wars cake, huumm could be interesting. I'll show the results next week. Hopefully by then I will have convinced Poppy that it is not her party and that Jamie really does not want a butterfly cake.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

(May the force be with me)

'till next time

I LOVE Union Jacks

the original LKH Union Jack

military brass

pretty flowers

totally tropical


retro revisited

and a Rubber Duck!



'till next time

A little colour to brighten your day....

Having woken up to showers this morning, I thought I would show you a picture of the latest bunting about to hit the shop. I have to say the grass is looking greener, the strawberries are fattening up and the tomato plants are reaching for the sky. (Promise I'll take some pictures this week)

Hope you are having a lovely weekend!

'till next time