A walk, some books and treasures.

It was a gorgeous day yesterday as it is again today!

Percy and I went to the park for our walk.  The sun was reflecting through the trees and although it was cold, 4 degrees Celsius when we started our walk, it had warmed up to 11 degrees an hour and a half later.

Some fungi

There is a medieval moat in this park and it was interesting reading about it.  I have been meaning to find it for ages and yesterday we finally did.

Just love the way the sun was shining through here and reflecting on the water.

A rather nibbled Fly Algaric toadstool.

Staghorn fungi - you can really see why they are called this.

Beautiful colours of Autumn

Recently I have picked up a couple of interesting looking books from the local charity shops and will be looking forward to reading them.

Lovely linen handkerchiefs.  

Not sure if I will keep these as they are or use them to make something with.

Love the detail.

Beak the Kiwi followed me home.

This Lundby 1/16th car in excellent condition also came home with me.  I might keep it, or I might sell it on, haven't decided yet.

I was surprised to see this vintage teddy with a growler in amongst the other cheap teddies...he told me his name was Elfrid and could he also come home...well how could I refuse him.

Lastly I have dug out this to get some Christmas Crafting inspiration.

I don't think I have looked through it for a couple of years, so should be a bit of fun.

Still trying to work out how to archive all my posts so they are not lost...

The Teddy Bears' Picnic

Well over a year ago, possibly even two, I used to take part in a 'Teddy Bears Picnic' over at Melody's blog 'The House of the Side of the Hill'  It seems she no longer runs it and I can't find one anywhere else, but fancied doing this again so have decided to do my own.  If anyone else wants to join in, please feel free to and let me know and I will see if I can work out how to do the linky doo dah business!  

So once a month I will showcase one of my teddy bears.  It will either be the 8th of each month, or the second Thursday of each month - I haven't decided yet.

Teddy Bears, Pandas and Softies all included!

My Teddy Bear to feature this month is Lucille.  She is a little Hermann Teddy Bear with a signed tag that was given to me at the recent 2013 Sasha Festival I went to in the USA.  

She has settled in really well with the large group of bears that live here and was very excited to be chosen as the first teddy bear to feature in this new series.

She is inspecting the apples to see if they are ready for the picnic, but sadly they aren't and as such she looks a little disappointed.

But don't worry there will be lots of other goodies to enjoy!

Teddy Bears Picnic

Today is the day for the Teddy Bears Picnic, hosted by Melody over at The House on the Side of the Hill.

It is rather too cold and damp to have a picnic outside today, so I thought I would show you some little teddies that keep my clarinets company. Very trusted bears they are indeed. Although has to be said not looking especially happy as they haven't heard any music being played for a very long time it has to be said. :-(

Violet and Opus

Symphony

It is a good thing I 'rescued' these teddies today as my husband 'thoughtfully' moved all my instruments to behind my dressing table against the dampest wall of the house, not a good idea at all! So out they will all come today especially as it is getting colder and damper now.

A few meagre pickings from the garden yesterday, still very tasty though.

Carrots & beans.

Teddy Bear's Picnic

Yesterday it was too wet to have a picnic outside, and of course I was busy with quilting, but this little sweet bear was just sitting and waiting in order to join in sometime... so joining Melody and others in the Teddy Bear's Picnic, here we have...

I'm not sure of his origins, he is not old, but I think he was my husband's grandmother's bear - she had quite a few. I think he looks quite at home perched on the book shelf.

The Adventures of Lolly & Lala

Once upon a time there were two lovely ladies who went by the names Lolly and Lala. Now these two ladies loved to shop for ta…I mean quality second hand, vintage and antique goodies. They could be spotted by their ever so recognizable flower power trolleys!

Now the things that could be stuffed…I mean carefully placed in these trolleys was a sight to behold. One fine day they set out for a perusal of the goods at a friendly flea market in the lovely historical town of Hitchin… Oh the sights they saw and the bargains they saw! Now ditching anything remotely like quality they went completely for character this fine day. Scruff and Tatty just had to be had and without any fuss made their way home with these two fine ladies. Lolly re-homing Scruff and Lala taking Tatty.

Everyone knows what Lolly’s weakness is…well one of them anyway, she has far too many to mention here. Yes a rather heavy but very beautiful Singer Sewing Machine also made its way home with her. Beautifully clean and ornate dating to 1935, this shuttle bobbin, hand crank machine has obviously been well looked after…well how could Lolly walk by? Oh indeed she did try, but when she discovered the lid was locked, well what else could she do, but use the key to unlock the lid to see what was hidden inside. Thus the fate of the Singer and Lolly were sealed.

A little further on Lolly spied some little observer books holding up the legs of a table. Oh dear what a travesty, these poor books deserve a better fate than that, especially as they were about music, so without further ado, she whipped them out from under the table legs, and lo and behold was given one of the books by the stall holder, who said she couldn’t sell them without their dust jacket. She did have one complete with jacket for £2.00 but well the freebie one had far more character!

Now these two lovely ladies also like to lunch, and what better to have than cream teas with the most scrumptious scones, jam, clotted cream, fresh strawberries and blueberries, served on china plates, with china tea pots and tea cups. Really what more could two lovely ladies want?

Now this delightful place is where Lala sells some of her lovely goodies and is a treasure trove of new, old and interesting, handmade and a little bit of tat thrown in for good measure. Lolly being the big softie she is spied a little rabbit languishing on a shelf, and decided at £1 it would be the perfect gift for Sasha who was patiently waiting at home…

Sadly all good things have to come to an end and it was time for Lolly and Lala to make their way home…

To be continued….

Tuesday's Chat

I sometimes forget that the photos you upload first are the bottom of the post and the photos you upload last are up the top, so now this post reads in the wrong order...never mind.

Pain scale for today and yesterday: 4 to 5 I guess.

I found it rather difficult at Yoga yesterday, however for the first time ever I must have achieved total relaxation at the end as I believe I fell asleep for a few moments!

A little bit of sewing was done yesterday

What is Sasha looking at I wonder?

A little bit of fun making these items of clothing...whoops I am using my precious patch-working fabrics....

Teddy looks slightly startled, or is it grumpy?

Now for the spoils of my Antique Fairing in Pain...

I saw a vintage single eiderdown/quilt in pink paisley ...it was a good price too, but did I get it? No, instead I spent nearly twice the amount on a soft toy! I really must be insane... but he just looked at me with those eyes and cute nose and wonderful smile ....I even walked away and left him and got part the way home, before turning back and getting him!

Just look at Humpty's smile, (and colour of course) and it really is enough to cheer you up on a bad day.

Now after finding that pretty little clock the other day when I saw this one, a little bit different but interesting... with an actual tick, tock, rather than just a tick, tick, tick...

Well, it is now sitting in my studio. It is Made in France, no idea how old it is, not pretty like my other clock, but delightful all the same.

After reorganising my dresser shelves the other day I decided that I would only collect Blue and White China...

So how did this come home with me? No will power at all! It really is a lovely purple colour.

Next up is a cute tin...

I've got cards just the right size to fit in here so I am going to write out some of my most used and favourite recipes and put this to good use in the kitchen.

I just love what is written inside.

If only we could get children out of doors like this now, but sadly most of them are glued to computers and playstations, etc... regardless of the weather.

So there you go the spoils of Sunday.

Now for the flowers in my garden...

Have a lovely day, it is another gorgeous one. Got to go and pack DS2's bag now and have some breakfast.

A busy Friday in May

This morning I glanced out of the patio doors and saw a bird on the matting that my husband had removed from his shed to clean. What on earth is it doing I thought?

Zooming in closer...

I discovered the Great Tit was gathering material for it's nest.

Look at his beak!

Using up the old bananas that no one likes to eat I made these two banana cakes.

Needless to say only a quarter of the large one is left! I think it met the approval of my family. The smaller one is currently in hiding ;-)

While the cakes were cooking...Why do they always take almost 3 times as long to cook than what the recipe states? I decided it was time to do some dusting and polishing of some of the furniture and have a little bit of a change round of the displays.

Mozart keeping guard in the hallway.

A little display especially for May...

A gathering of the teddies on the bottom shelf on the tea trolley.

Some of my blue & white plate collection.

Some more on the little dresser on the other side.

Now a few weeks ago I picked up these three tiny German rubber dolls from a car boot sale. They were sitting amongst a pile of 'stuff' in the bottom of a box, needless to say I rescued them, not even really giving a thought to what I would do with them.

Before they had their bath...they are a lot cleaner now!

I realised that they were dolls for a dolls house. Something I have wanted for a long time. In fact Mark and I looked at some at Christmas time, but I didn't see anything that was quite right.

A collection of dolls house clothes, blankets etc...

A lovely miniature fabric unit.

Look at the cute little cotton reels.

So what is this all leading to?

Well you guessed it - while browsing Evilbay yesterday I saw a gorgeous Dolls House, only five miles away from where I live and before I could saw boo, how do you do, I had pressed the BIN button! Oh the excitement, along with a bit of guilt, although that went when I got it home - yes I went and collected it immediately - Mark thought it was lovely. Phew! Even the boys when they got home were given the 'Grand Tour'.

So do you want to see my Dolls House?

You do?

Okay, well let me introduce to you 'Rose Cottage'

I always knew I would get my 'Cottage in the Country'

Isn't it just lovely?

Not quite sure where I am going to put it yet. I want it to be where it is easily accessible so I can 'play' with it when I want it.

It even has lights that work inside!

At the moment it is still decorated for Christmas, so I am going to have fun making different summer time settings in each room.

It's even got an Aga!

Yes, the boys rolled their eyes, although I'm sure they were secretly jealous.

Yet another excuse not to do any housework! Oh did I tell you I'm excited? I will have to 'reward' myself after doing the housework with doing some in the Cottage! LOL I AM mad!

This afternoon I gave up waiting for some books that were sent recorded delivery on Tuesday! They seem to have gone awol. Instead I worked on yet another pinafore. I haven't been happy with the versions made so far. I didn't like the seam up the middle of the one I made the other day, another didn't sit quite right, so back to the drawing board.

This time I think I got there, much happier with the way this fits and looks.

Now I am happy with the pattern, I will make a few with appliqué on them.

The post arrived at about 5pm this afternoon, still no books, but there was a little surprise for me.

Two beautiful 'pansy' hexie flowers all the way from Leslie in Canada.

Thank you so much they are beautiful!