Needles and Thread

 She is good, very, very good. I have realised of late that I am no longer as good at embroidery as I used to be because my eyes are not so sharp. My ten year old however is a demon stitcher. Look at this beauty.

Her first attempt was actually this unicorn on a rainbow but as my youngest goes against the grain of most fashion imagery, she shows a contempt for unicorns that would never ever be necessary in her future life. She was adamant - it was a horse on a rainbow because unicorns aren't real! You go for it girl.

She has persevered with french knots and now has that safely under her belt along with splitting off strands from the main thread which she found tricky at first. She also learnt the hard way about cutting the tail off too short when she got to the end of her thread.

She is off again with a new design featuring a hedgehog.

My eldest daughter, who is thirteen, has taken her stitching to a different place. I returned from work last week to find she had covered a snag on her jeans with some freestyle embroidery. How cool is that? She says it isn't finished yet but I was most impressed.

She returned to them another day to enhance the pockets. 

I have ANOTHER hole in my jeans. This week I decided to use a ready made patch I bought in Italy on holiday last year along with a little homemade applique. The lace covers the long rip repair and the owls strengthen the repair vertically.

Thanks for popping in, I am off to make an appointment at the opticians. Can I do that yet I wonder? These girls have made my eyes feel old and worn out!

Jo xxx

Just in Time Stevie

 This Stevie dress, which I have made over the weekend in little half hour slots, has arrived in my wardrobe just in time for some late summer sunshine.

I have made this pattern twice before but this time I made a few changes. 

The first one was very good and I have worn it a great deal but I was so excited when the pattern arrived through the letter box that I made it in a hurry. I didn't overlock the seams, I just used pinking shears and sewed it up. In all honesty I thought it would just be a pattern trial. It is sods law that it was one of my favourite dresses which I have worn loads so the seams have all frayed and I have repaired holes which appeared under the arms. The fabric is fading a little too on my first one but it has seen me through three summers. The second one was in some fabric I didn't really like very much in the end so it went to the charity shop.

I would have worn the first one more to work but it was a bit short. This time I made it longer.

I always wished I had bothered to put pockets in my first one therefore I added some this time.

On my first one the sleeve cuffs didn't hold in place very well so I did a small line of stitching on the upper and under arms to keep it turned up. 

I made the back neck tie version on the first one. The linen mix fabric was too heavy when it was tied in a bow at the back which pulled the front neck line across my throat. It also gave me a strange lump at the back of my neck when I wore a cardigan. Sorted. This time I made a hand stitched loop and added a button.

The one thing I did keep the same was the feel of a linen mix fabric. This one is a floral extravaganza which reminds me of some 1970's bark cloth curtains... but in a good way. I can't remember where I got it from unfortunately :( but it makes a great dress. 

Thank you for stopping by. Jo xxx

September...ing

 Loving - this bunch of Lisianthus given to us as a new house welcome.

Eating - waste free dinners. I consider it a personal triumph that my children will eat courgette soup. The courgettes were given to me and the croutons were the dry ends of our bread.

Listening - to one of my favourite comedy programs on radio 4. Listening to Tom Wrigglesworth is one of the best antidotes to world news.

Buying - a clock (last month) from the antique centre with a timer on. 

Repairing - my jeans again. A hole is appearing every month at the moment but I am enjoying adding to the 'artwork'.

Picking - damsons from a tree in the field. This is Andy's response to the question, "Show us your plums!" I made jam and he made three gallons of wine.

Mastering - the art of making a waffle.

Enjoying - the appearance of a rainbow. I saw it as a sign because the building inspector came two hours later and passed off our new house for building regulations.

Making -  a cushion for Beano to have in his cosy corner in the utility.

Hosting - a Sunday dinner for our friends and going all out on the table decor.

Selecting - flowers from my friend who is in her first year of growing and selling cut flowers in the UK. 

Preserving - apples as chutney. 

Having - my first day on my own without the children since March. I was a little concerned that being out in the middle of no where in our new house on my own would feel lonely but it was fabulous. 

Finishing - a pair of stash busting socks using three different bits of sock yarn leftovers (all drops fabel) but still managing to achieve pattern matching. Win win.

Feeling - happy. In fact I told the dog on our walk this morning. He was happy too. 

Thanks for popping in. Jo xxxx

Current Best Bits

I am not sure where to start but let's start with 'Welcome to our new home'. For those new to this space, we have been building our own house for four years. This month we have moved in even though it is not quite finished because we unexpectedly sold our old house. That kind of sums up my last month.

I thought I would show you a few of the rooms which are taking shape nicely. This is the lounge. It originally had a white wall around the window but every time a tractor went past the dog jumped up at the window and the wall was one big brown smear so I plumped for the brave choice of a navy blue wall and I am thrilled with the warmth it provides. Everyone who visits says, "That is a great colour!"

The girls are getting used to having separate bedrooms which they have never had before. While I lifted heavy boxes of house contents, they packed up the tiny contents of their dolls houses.

Our old furniture fitted well into our new home. Our Kitchen table however was sticky and out of colour with the legs, it had been for years. My dad had rescued it from his Great Aunts farm yard in the late 1950's then sanded it down. Unfortunately he had used linseed oil as the final finish and it always had a tacky feel and a slightly green tinge. Yak!

Andy and I took turns to sand it back then give it a couple of coats of beeswax; it now looks and feels superb.

Other favourite parts include: the light fitting Andy made for the Kitchen from a piece of girder we found in the shed and the island my friend kindly made for us using recycled apple crates with the last of the oak worktop.

The best bits continue with our bathroom window which I absolutely love. Again, it was all white until I plucked up the courage to use fern green around the window. This little display is only really appreciated when you actually stand there and look at the freshness of the green. I enjoyed learning how to make macrame plant hangers then surrounded the window with all the white and navy enamel ware I found in the old sheds outside.

Finally and most importantly the best thing about our new house are the views. Of course there are worst bits but hey let's just concentrate on the best bits shall we?!

Thank you for popping by my new space. It is soooo good to have the internet back.

Jo xxxxxx

Food First

We are living internet free at the moment. It means that all we think about is food for some reason, what else can we do? I have popped back to our old house to do some cleaning and take full advantage of the internet connection we have in the house we no longer live in!

The fruit and vegetables are still forthcoming from the neighbour's gardens I have been caring for, this week we plundered plums. In all  honesty, I could have done without them during a house moving week but the girls begged me to stop them falling off the trees to the ground.

My big girl learnt how to make jam.

Selecting new places to put kitchen utensils, bowls and tins has been very enjoyable. Megan has set herself up a rather efficient baking zone with the mixer, cookbook stand and useful items in the drawers below.

Today she made white chocolate and cranberry biscuits.

We have been eating mostly homegrown veg over the last month or so; the courgettes are of course overwhelming. It was time for my favourite cake recipe...

Nigella Lawson's courgette cake with lemon curd. It is from her book 'The Domestic Goddess' if you have it or follow the link. She uses pistachio nuts to decorate it but I used toasted flaked almonds. 

I am looking forward to giving you a new house up date soon when the engineer has been and connected our internet. So for now, this is a slightly one sided post because I can not hop over to your blogs for a read but I will do very soon.

Happy Eating. Jo xxxx

What would you pack first?

We are in the very lucky position of being able to move into our new house while our current house is continuing to go through the contract sale stage. It does mean that I am constantly questioning what I can live with or without as I move things to one house while living in another. 

I took all of my baking tins vowing not to make another cake until we moved, then needed some to make my daughters birthday cake.

I took all of my cook books, then needed one to make beetroot chutney.

I carefully packed up all of my best dinner service and put it in the dresser with only one wine glass breakage.

I have taken all of my wool, patterns and knitting regalia and just kept my basket with a sweater and socks to work on in the evenings.

I have kept my sewing machine and some basics with me in case I need to do some school uniform alterations before school starts again but I have packed up all of my fab fabric, vintage patterns, lingerie sewing notions and Ottobre magazines.

The girls have sorted out their huge book collections and have sold surplus to a second hand book shop. Charity shops are mostly not open by us yet so getting rid of stuff is trickier than normal. I have an exciting pre-arranged drop off slot tomorrow at my favourite one.

We are trying to eat down one freezer so we can move it which feels risky if there is another lockdown and shops struggle to supply again but that is the way it is.

We shared steak and chips with our friends as our first official invitation meal in our new house, they are helping us move on Sunday. All of our friends who have trailers and pick ups are entering their busy harvest time so we are grateful to have lured asked them to help us before potato harvesting gets busy.

We were treated to a pastel skyline on Wednesday before we left, then watched the rain pour down with hours of lighting shows when we got back to our current house.

I will spare you the photo of neatly packed matching boxes because it really is not like that here, it is absolute chaos!

But all in all I know we will be just fine, I'm living the moment of moving day by day and enjoying putting our things into our newly built home.

What would you pack first?

Keep you posted. Jo xxxx