Halloween

B O O ! Here's my Halloween bunting!




Great for anyone having a Halloween party!

...down in the garden I have been harvesting my squash. These are so easy to grow and great if you have children as they grow so quickly they won't get bored with them! You can buy many different varieties of squash seed, but I just saved seeds from some organic squash we had bought to eat and then sowed them in pots in April/May.
Once they were sturdy enough we planted them out and they just took over! They scramble quite far, but if space is limited I think you could probably train them up some trellis. In fact I might try that next year. Although you have to protect them form slugs and snails when they are small plants, once established as strong healthy plants, they didn't really have any problems.
We have eaten them roasted with just butter and a few spices; cumin, cinnamon and chilli powder. They also make delicious soup. A real taste of Autumn!

Autumn in the Garden

We went for a lovely walk around a local Country Park on Saturday and the sun was out all the time, very warm and bright. When we came home, I had a look around the garden to see what is still growing. The Borlotti Beans I grew this year are getting a bit straggly now, although it still looks pretty when you see a bean in amongst the leaves...



My olive tree has a few olives...




Down in the Greenhouse, there are Green Peppers and tiny Aubergines. These should have been sown a lot earlier as they won't have enough warmth and sun to grow now. But they do look so cute!

Hobby Horsing Around!

We have two little visitors this week........




My Little Girl has been invited to a Birthday Party on Saturday and it is fancy dress, so I have been busy making a costume this week. I decided on a Cowgirl theme, thinking that there are going to be dozens of fairies and princesses there. So I set to work on the outfit and suddenly had a brainwave, what about a Hobby Horse! I sketched out a pattern and just kind of made it up as I went along, adding buttons, ribbons and felt flowers.


The first was a traditonal brown horse colour with a bit of red and pink, then I thought what a great present it would make for the little girl who's party it is! So I just went a bit wild with the colours on that one........pink, green and turquoise!

Almost Autumn

Hi folks! Sorry it has been such a long time since I have posted. The main reason is that I have been up to my eyes in bunting orders of all shapes, colours and sizes. Also had a nasty cold that has been going around and my little girl has started Playgroup and dance classes (she absolutely loves both!) So it's been a bit crazy here lately.

I had to make two more Betsy Bunnies.......




.......and some gorgeous little Heart Doorhangers to clients own design which I think look great!





Just went out to take a look at the garden, there are so many wonderful colours at this time of year. I love it when all the leaves start to fall and you get those amazing shades of reds, browns and orange. We have had some lovely sunny days but I think wet and windy weather is forecast, so it will soon really feel like Autumn.

Crochet Beanies

Hi! I've been become addicted to crochet again and have made some more cute beanies! They look so cheerful and bright.
They are now listed in my Folksy shop.



Not much happening in the garden as it has been so wet and windy.

But the sun has come out today and I found these little baby carrots that I grew in a container. I'm not sure whether they will grow much bigger so I'm going to eat them before the pests do!

Play Doh Inspired Crochet

My daughter loves Play Doh. It's one of her favourite toys. When I bought some new colours for her the other day, I thought how gorgeous they would be for some bright and cheerful crochet! So I found as similar colours in wool as I could get and I've been busy with my crochet hook making these little flowers which will become corsages




and be used to decorate little beanie hats! I have made my own crochet beanie pattern, so as soon as I have made all the sizes I can, I will start listing them in my Etsy and Folksy shops.



Then I saw this gorgeous wool.
It's so lovely, it made me think of Autumn and the colder weather on it's way. I made a couple of flowers and I'm going to put wooden buttons on the brown one and Mother of Pearl on the natural colour flower.

PYO and Jam

Hope you all had a good bank holiday weekend. We went to a PYO farm on Saturday. Resulting in huge bag of apples, damsons and plums; one bruised face from falling bramley and one large bite from flying insect! Still, it was great fun!
Got up early yesterday and made the damsons into some jam, delicious!



Last week I had to start picking my tomatoes. The warm and humid weather this summer has meant they have succumbed to blight. It was quite depressing pulling up all the plants; remembering how exciting it was planting them all out as little seedlings. But I will salvage what I can, I've put them on the window sill with a couple of bananas (it's supposed to help ripen them) and I'll use the rest for chutney. Yes another batch of Green Tomato Chutney! Seems the last three years have proved very difficult for my tomatoes.


My Mum has some glass Kilner jars and we bought some new lids for them from ebay so I'm going to have a go at bottling some of the red tomatoes and some fuits. Have to read up on it first but will post soon on how I get on.