gosh doesn't time fly

Heavens its been an age....

moved my blog here rather impressed with blogger these days

the girls arrived in Aug and are groing well

the shop has kept me rather busy

and

we are hoping to move house....



sun shines...bees fly

Its been so fab here that i have spent every minute i can outside before it starts to rain again....

I've mostly been preparing, watching & sorting these little pickles....

I have wanted to have bees for years but never knew where to start or have the spare cash to fund them but luckily i have through some great people in my village who are slowly working to a more sustainable lifestyle for those living here I am now the custodian of this wonderful little hive of activity....i could watch them for hours.....

next project chickens arrive.....watch this space rx

hopefully its worth the wait...

 
I have finally launched my little shop selling my vinatge whatnot & handmade wares

 
 We would love you to drop by & have a browse......rx

finally...at last

its live.....the home of ted and agnes is on view to the world & already there are treasures winging there way off around the world....

beatty

edith

dulcie

and finally vera have all taken residence in the shop and are waiting to find new loving homes....Next stage is to get going with my vinatge section but I am finding it a little hard to let go of my stash.. choosing who gets to move along is proving much harder than I thought it would be but it must & shall be done.

beekeeping & all that...

We had a line fault which resulted in a our loss of internet access for sometime...i was bereft. No on-line chitchat, no reading my blogs or other such wonders it has made me realise how much being on-line plays a part in my everyday life....not sure that's a good thing or not!

Anyway onto the bees....what a weekend. It was fantastic and I will be writing a much fuller account here if you fancy a read.

I am completely hooked which is not surprising as its been something i've wanted to do for years but never knew where or how to start & with young children you life seems to always be wandering off to other things.

So my first job was to give some second hand hives a makeover....restoration I here you cry, right up my street that one. But alas no paint, not good for the bees you see so it had to be the trusty bottle of linseed oil.

After a suitable amount of elbow grease & some dangerous wielding of a blow torch, some smart new felt for the roof & the hive is ready & waiting for the bees...

I was quite taken with the old copper smoker & gave it a good scrub with some salt & lemon juice, cleaned up the leather & fired the old chap up....smoked beautifully so hopefully calm bees!

Just got this one to tackle now & i think that it could take a while longer & all my special restoration skills!!

My other obsession has been trying to get a perfect shot of these little fellas...My heart truly lies with the furriest of creatures and now I now what I am looking for & trying to spot the various species, my head turns every time i heard that familiar buzz.

So if you would like to do your bit for these wee stripy ones, leave your garden a bit messy so they have somewhere to nest, plant some comfrey which they seem to adore, sit back & watch them on their merry way.

The rest of my time has been spent getting my apiary site ready, i knew those bits of old wood had a use & the rotten old table gets a new lease of life as a hive stand (well after a bit of chopping & sawing). I have also started to plant a new willow hedge but will have to wait later in the year to really get going on that one. 

So all is well & normal service resumed, looking forward to catching up on some posts .
  

a little something for the bees

after a fab weekend learning about beekeeping (more on that soon) a few flowers for those lovely little bumble bees....

 
 

Confession

I have bought myself a replacement cup.....I broke my fav CK cup.....(on the bloody shed veranda!) the one I drink my 1st cup of tea from every morning & before I drift off to sleep...

CK doesn't even make that design anymore, heartbroken I checked on amazon....and to my delight there it was 2 left in stock & although I was tempted 1 made its way into my basket on is on its way as we speak.

Now its not like this house doesn't have an abundance of 'cups' but you know what its like when you get attached to one in particular..so thankyou for hearing my confession!

VOTE VOTE VOTE....please

Shed of the Year voting lines are OPEN for the next month I shall be shamelessly campaigning for my lovely little shed to recieve as many votes as possible.....

So I would be absolutely delighted if you would trundle over here 'SHED OF THE YEAR' and click on the button..thats it pure & simple..So lets show the world that women & sheds are here to stay....thankyou kindly x

One of the great things about working a few hours at the library each week is that I can get hold of all sorts of fabby books. This week this little pile was waiting for me when I arrived to open up...

After a quick flick through all of them last night i was particularly taken with the Sanderson Story & as it contained some of my favourite prints it was easily always going to best, the most interesting.

I often wish that I had gotten that light bulb moment when first going to study art at college and making decisions about what courses to take. It seemed way back then to work with fabric it was 'Textiles' or 'Fashion'....Wish I had opted for the former, ended up foolishly taking the latter which all ended in a big disaster & I ran away with a solider!

Now if I had thought carefully instead of the 18 yr old strong willed barge arse that I was & maybe had some gentle guidance from a parent who thought that a career in something other than the 'medical' profession was worthy I may have stumbled across wallpaper design. (although in those days probably meant I may of had to tangle with the graphic designers & that was a big NO WAY).

But hey ho I didn't but no regrets I suppose & now I get to ogle at fabulous paper & stash away a few rolls of my own vintage.....in the cellar

off on their merry way

to the other side of the world.....my pincushion swaps are on their way & stupidly forgot to take any photos before I wrapped them up...(then I had to erase the addresses so why the photo loks a bit wonky do)

so my lovelies

Alex, Jo, Vic & Danielle hopefully they shouldn't take too long to arrive & i hope you enjoy the little surprise.....
 

shed in all its glory....

there's been huffing, puffing, waiting, various swearing, the shed was up.....then every afternoon whilst miss V slept I have been sawing, hammering, painting & shuffling

the plants are waking up...

a lovely bench my dad made me out of scaffold boards many moons ago & a very rare occurence...
 

bunting, jugs & sandpit for miss v...

sorting out stuff.......

my fabulous re-vamped cutting table with its lovely liberty legs

shelves of lovely stuff....

My perfect little hide-away where i shall be able to sew to my hearts content without having to pack everything away in time for tea...

 

it's the little things...

that bring you that little eek of joy...

found 2 of these little gems abandoned where I had hung them in the outside loo 4 years ago, then they were new and shiney....but with a gulg of parasene & a long match they fired up beautifully.

I have light...all is good

i have just about reached....

my mess tolerance limit....

 I can no longer stand it & now I have run out of cladding so there won't be much more progress on shed until Wednesday...

Now its all very well this thrifty, obessive collecting of stuff but its storing the lovlies that is the problem. My new venture is coming along but I really don't want to launch the shop until everything is sorted and my head is in the right place....

the tale of the disheartened

For a fair few weeks now my visits to various charity treasure troves have been tailing off due to the lack of delightful misfits needing a new home...the serious tidying of the messy warehouse & a 101 things one my to do list.

Even my 'box out the back' of my favourite shop has been a bit lacking...

So imagine my joy as a quick sweep of the shop with #1 son chirping in my ear about plastic guns & whatnot, my eyes glanced, looked away & then darted back...oh the joy.

I had been wishing for more suitcases to fill with the ever climbing fabric mountain...it even had 2 keys taped inside, now who ever manages not to lose their suitcase keys!!

& some fabric to fill it with....

 

& my 'little box out the back' came up with the goods as well...cherry b welcome home.

 

So no longer am I disheartened I am just back on the mission remembering that sometimes you just have to wait for the right finds....

For more of these delightful tales pop over to Sophie's & maybe play along

nearly almost just about there...

as you know sunday came & went no shed....waiting patiently (or not) til thursday I tinkered about hoping for a bright day....No chance rain , grey, rain but this was not going to put me off although there were mutterings from himself but after the weekends performance moaning & wriggling out of the task at hand was not going to wash....he even tried to bribe me with cake...

So we started, it looked like there weren't going to be shed disasters or epic rows

the panels wouldn't fit together as said in black & white on the instructions...i did my usual hammer & bash it til it fits method

we stopped for tea & cake to sustain us...

it rained so the roof felt had to wait for the next day...

So today the roof has been felted with the help of a considerably lighter young man clambering to the unreachable places, windows glazed, facings fitted and we are ready to start on the inside.

I have waited rather a long time for this shed so its fab now its here & I have been raiding various rooms in the house for the interior fittings...so I shall post later next week with an update

getting there...shed heaven

After an age of waiting, the new shed has arrived...the end pieces were to big to come through the garden gate so with a hand from a few lovely chaps it made its way over the rather high wall...

there were the supervisors...

who checked out every nook & cranny....sniffing each piece to make sure all was well

It was going to be erected on Sunday but due to a rather mean person it is still waiting patiently but hopefully Thursday is shed day....whoop

photo # 6

So as requested by the lovely Melissa over here this is the 6th photo I ever posted on my blog...a sweet little lap blanket that although at the time it didn't know it was to become Miss V's cot blanket when she was very small...

It was my first dally with double crocheting a blanket, i had had encounters with granny squares but not crocheting straight lines which turned out to be quite meditative in the end. i even managed to complete a little in the car which due to himself swinging round the bendy lanes round & about these parts usually has me sticking my head out the window like a foolish spaniel...

If you would like to play along please do & get posting those No 6's....

 

i want one.....

now being gadget master extraordinary himself has an iphone whilst I have a lowly htc android...(which I think is fab btw) anyway I happened to mention the hipstamatic application that everyone had been chattering about and of course he went and bought it straight away but then said I couldn't use his phone...

Pah!

Until recently I had been quite content to use the wonderful pic nik to add those little touches to my snaps but my eyes have been opened to the world of holga, lomo, diana & other such camera & photography delights....Obviously although big hints had been dropped my challenge has meant that I couldn't rush out & purchase one...

BUT

I now have a natty little application on my phone & I am happy

how things change.....

Not long ago i was very small, now all of a sudden I have my own ideas about stuff, what I like & what a certainly definitely don't...i like to wear my wellies but on the wrong feet, drape fabric round my shoulders because I am indeed a princess....life is peachy right now & the world is good!
 

well now its busy busy busy

I have been up to allsorts......

Most excitingly getting ready for the new summerhouse/room/studio.....new shed hoorah. I did briefly post about it earlier this year....my don't things whip past quickly...

 

This weekend I have spent preping the space spending hours levelling, re laying the slate paths, clearing out all the precious junk I had stored for a rainy day & dealing with shelob the spiders...

 

Stanley joined me for a cup of tea & was a general nuisance...himself did an excellent job of removing the old ramshackle shed (much to his immense displeasure)...hands that do computers and are soft as your face aren't for grubbiness in the garden so I am informed!

more soon.....rx