Snow Fairy Melt, with Lemon & Ginger tea for me today…

Happy Monday everyone…so the weather has turned a little more wet, so just as well Mark installed the pellet stove into my sewing room last week, as I feel it will soon be needed, but still holding off using it at the moment!

I was researching some projects for gifts as it’s coming into that time of year again… ok I will not use the word yet as we still have October Rose, Halloween and Bonfire Night to get through first, but anyone who creates gifts knows that you have to plan ahead for these things and having 10 Grandchildren I definitely need to plan well in advance, especially if I am making things for all of them! Girls are easy to make for, but boys take a little more thought, especially teenage boys, so if you have any ideas, please let me know, as I am a little stumped for sure.

This weekend I did make a little fold up shopping back out of an old duvet cover, and I have lots more material so I can make many more of those, but as I like to make everything I create different, I may have to find a way to funk them up and make them more individual.

Last week my hoover broke, yes it is a hoover not a vacuum cleaner, well it is a vacuum cleaner but it is a hoover brand, not a Dyson or Shark, the reason I am clarifying that is, I used to work with someone who always corrected me when I mentioned hoovering, I should of said vacuuming but it just doesn’t sound right to me? But yes technically he was correct, he did used to work in Health and Safety, and Quality, so maybe he was protecting the other vacuum manufactures reputation, I have to say Hoover did a pretty good job on us in the marketing of their products for us to say I have hoovered, when I guess we should have said Dysoned or Sharked… Um I’m not sure either of those are going to catch on like hoovering? Or maybe it is just me that hoovers and you vacuum? Again let me know… Oh I forgot what I was going to tell you then, so my hoover broke last week and as I purchased from that lovely online shop that is also a rain forest, I contacted them to see what they could do, and they are good, don’t you think? You do have a certain amount of worry free shopping when you buy with them, you know you can send it back free of charge and get your money back, and this hoover is over a year old but they have just said send it back we will refund your money, and that is worth a lot in my opinion, I do know other people have other views, and that’s also good, it wouldn’t do for us all to be the same it would make for a very dull world, anyway I digress the dilemma I have is do I buy the same make again, this is the second one that has broken in 2 years, but the fact that I know it and I can have it replaced when it breaks again… is it better to have the devil you know? Or have a change? Well I will let you know what I decide as I need to do a bit of looking around to find a good one… I do have a Dyson which is my upstairs vacuum (I had to change that as I wrote hoover) but they are so expensive, but they last! So you get what you pay for, it’s just the initial upfront cost, anyway, I will let you know next time what I went for and how it worked out for me…

Below is a photo on one of the hottest day’s of the year, when Mark was testing the new pellet stove… It’s going to be toasty in my lovely room.

Have a lovely day whatever you are doing.

Invictus melt and liquorice & Peppermint tea for me…

Things happen for a reason, I’m not sure what the reason was yesterday, but today for me was obvious, the sunrise… isn’t nature wonderful! If you’re in any doubt see my photo below, it’s not the best but you can see what I mean,

So after I had written my blog yesterday and decided I needed to get a wiggle on, Mark was just on his way out the door and I thought I had better check what time my sewing machine needed to be with the service centre tomorrow… oh wow all of a sudden I had a very different agenda as Jerrie the Janome was due a check-up at 10am that morning, as you can imagine I was running around like a Tasmanian devil, after having to box up Jerrie and find her documents, get myself showed and dressed, sort Arty, I was in a right flap, anyway I made it in time and left Jerrie in the capable hands of the service centre, with them promising to call when she was ready, but on the way out, just sitting there was a beautiful new Jerrie on steroids… A Skyline 3, of course the lady was quick to ask if I needed any help, to which I replied oh she is magnificent, she then proceeded to tell me that it was not worth upgrading to that one as it only had the same functionality as Jerrie, but look at this one! she said this is the best option for you! Of course it was, at additional few hundred euros… well by now she had me hook, line and sinker, so I sat down with her and thought what’s the harm in having a little demonstration, I will tell you what the harm is, €1,469.00 is the harm, but she proceeded to show me just what I would be getting for that money, well you will be pleased to no and so will Mark and my bank manager, that I thanked her kindly for showing me the possibilities and I left saying I would return for my Jerrie later that afternoon, that is not quite the end of the story, as when I returned home it’s didn’t stop me from looking on line to see if I could get the said machine for a better deal or even a second hand one, as you all know most of our home has been refurbished with preloved goods, and my whole sewing ethos is reuse and repurpose… I have still not purchased even a second hand one but who knows in the future maybe.

On to today and the reason things happen, well at 5:30 I woke and remembered that we had not put the bins out for collection, well 5:30 was a tad early to wake Mark up with me trundling the bins down the drive, so I waited will 6:45 and the beautiful view as the sun was coming up with the moon still high in the sky was breathtaking, I’m not good at taking photos as I’m sure you can tell by now, but that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate the picture and give it a go, so I thought I would share the view over our pool, this was definitely the reason for not putting the bins out, and I’m very pleased I didn’t…

I hope you find something to smile about today…

Invictus melt today, and Ginger & Lemon Tea for me…

Smells are funny, aren’t they? Some people go through life and just take smells for granted, but I do love a smell, obviously I prefer nice ones’ but sometimes you don’t get a choice do you, anyway, recently I have been obsessed with Fabulosa No.1.  I have it in floor cleaner, hand soap, fabric softener, and even toilet cleaner, I’m beginning to think I need therapy for it, I go shopping with a lovely friend and she just laughs at me as I unscrew the top of bottles so I can smell before I buy, but to me a smell will inspire me, relax me and even challenge me when I can’t quite place what it is,  the melt I am burning today, Invictus, I believe is an aftershave which my talented friend Jayne, has turned into a lovely melt, it’s very masculine with a warm and welcoming vibe, I guess that is a good thing to have in an aftershave…

So this weekend has been a wonderful social time spent with lovely friends, but I did manage to make a gorgeous mustard cord banana sling bag for my granddaughter Tiggy, I actually have a couple for sale in the adult size but I made this one for Tiggy in a smaller size, will put the two together so you can see the difference, I might make a couple more as little girls do love a bag don’t they?

Yesterday I made a start on preparing our lounge to be redecorated, when we moved into our home nearly 8 years ago the only thing that we did to the lounge was repainted it from yellow to Elephants breath…. Umm how do they come up with these colour names and how are you supposed to know what colour elephants breath is? Well I can tell you it is sort of a beige colour like a very milky latte… just as well they don’t ask me to choose colour names, so today I am doing more of the same I think preparing the room to be painted, what colour I hear you say well that is the big question, I have already put a dado rail, (I think they still call it that) around the room and would like to do the bottom a different colour to the top but what colour is the 50million dollar question, well I love the colour I have in my sewing room which is Studio Green, thought it was appropriate as it was going to be my studio, but will that be to dark in the lounge is my only concern, as many of you know I do love black and my furniture is painted black but hey let’s see how it turns out, what’s the worst that can happen I will be repainting it again…

I do also have a new project to start which I am looking forward to and that is to make an Apron the only stipulation is the more like Julia Childs the better!  Well, if you don’t know who she is I will leave that to you to research but I have a wonderful cookbook by her, so that might help.

I had better go now or I will still be sat here at lunchtime, hope you have a lovely day …

Snow fairy melt today, and for me liquorice and peppermint tea…

Yesterday we had a lovely trip to Bordeaux to collect a wonderful friend from the airport, they have chosen our little corner of rural france to live, and we couldn’t be happier, her husband will be joining her in a weeks time and their new life here amongst the sunflowers, goats, horses, corn, vineyards and wonderful history begins, this jolly to the airport meant I could do a little bit of retail therapy in Ikea, nothing much just a couple of little bits, and amongst them I was able to get some new lightbulbs or as Rich another friend and neighbour, who also happens to own a lovely lighting company called Dusk, tells me they are lamps not bulbs, well that just does’t make sense to me, a lamp is what holds the bulb! But hey I will bow to his superior knowledge and except that I maybe wrong, but I can’t change 61years of calling it a lightbulb… anyway I digress these new bulbs/lamps are for my sewing room, I did purchase some locally but when I got them home and put them in they gave off a lovely orange glow, but defiantly not the look I was going for, hence the new ones.

So I mentioned that the bag I made for a friends birthday had a funny story attached, well sometimes it’s lovely to be able to pattern match fabric so on seems and pockets they become invisible as the patterns just flows, well this very rarely happens with my creations mostly due to the fact that I am using repurposed fabric and often just odds and ends, and also it is incredibly difficult and skilled to pattern match, well with this bag the pattern happened to create a rather funny picture of a donkey with the riders body being on the wrong way round… Lily who now owns the bag said, it looks like he is wondering where the mule’s head is! I think he is saying help me my mule has no head! Photo below so you can decide what it looks like… I will be careful in future when placing patterned fabrics.

Have a lovely day and bon week-end.

Today is another Snow Fairy Day and Ginger and Lemon tea… Deja vu

Finished! phew sometimes things take a little longer than anticipated but they are always worth the wait, in my opinion.

It’s another beautiful morning here in the Charente, the sun is not yet up, and the birds are just beginning to stir, I have lit my melt and have my cuppa, what a way to start the day… so let me tell you about the little bag I made yesterday.

I really enjoyed the process of putting this little bag together, admittedly the interfacing I used was way to thick, but it is very padded so hopefully will be robust, may tweak the pattern a little for the next one, and had to do an emergency shop for some different hardware, ie Zip, D Rings and Slider… I have to say these are the things I find hard living in rural france, nothing is readily available, you have to search on line or drive a round trip of at least a couple of hours, not an issue if you have a long time scale but as I am a little impatient that doesn’t always work out well for me, so if anyone out there has a good supply shop for sewing supplies I would be very interested in hearing from you. I will post pictures below, and I have added the bag to my available items, sadly this one will be heading to my daughter in the UK, but I have plenty of fabric to make more if someone would like one, I will also have the option to have just a wrist strap if you do not want a full crossbody strap.

So today I think I may actually get round to making another one of these little bags with different interfacing (the padding) and I have just the right fabric to use for this one, it is a little left over from an old quilt cover that was donated to me, and I think it will make a great phone pouch.

Have a lovely day…

Today is a Snow Fairy day… with a cuppa Ginger and Lemon tea..

Things don’t always go to plan…So i only managed to cut the fabric out yesterday for the phone pouch, not as much progress as I would of liked, but some day’s it’s just like that, I spent most of the day trying to fix the like button on this blog, but alas it eluded me, so I have parked that task for now in favour of finishing the bag. I have a wonderful friends birthday coming up and really need to focus on the task in hand or she will be giftless! I will post a picture of what I am hopefully going to make her after her birthday as you never know she may be reading my blog.

Does anybody else have chickens that are not laying, honestly we are feeding the whole wild bird population of the Charente at the moment I think, our chickens are indeed very fussy about what they eat, they pick out the bits they want and leave the rest all over the floor for every Robin, Jay and Pigeon to eat! seriously if they don’t lay soon they will be in the pot!!! ok ok they won’t I couldn’t do that, but I do tell them, but I think they know I am a bit of a push over, so in the meantime while waiting for the chickens to lay, oh they have names by the way, we have Ivy who is head hen, and then we have Betsy… we did have Repecka but sadly she is no longer with us… (no she did not go in the pot) I think life is a little to easy for them and maybe we should get a couple more chickens to shake things up a little, after all how am I meant to make Mark cake if I have no eggs… buy them I hear you say, well yes I do but it’s a little bit counter productive when we have chickens who should be providing the said eggs for the cake! but I have to say they are fun to have around and it means they eat our scraps, and it is very much part of living in rural France.
I have to get back to the sewing now, until next time… have a lovely day x

Today is a Spiced Black Pomegranate day… well that’s normally my melt of choice that I burn in my sewing room and today is defiantly a spiced day, I love this time of year as the autumnal feel creeps in, 6am when the house is so quite I can, this year come down to my sewing room with a cuppa, today Liquorish and Peppermint, but what to do? Well that’s easy sew… but what to sew is the hard decision.

I actually have a new project to do, Maddy my daughter has started a new job, after 15 years of being a stay at home mum she is now out in the world of being paid… It is a job, but I think it is more of a vocation, as many of you know Maddy has “A Rupert” he is very special as he has Autism, like so many children and adults,  I believe they are gifted to only certain people and Maddy and Adam were gifted with Rupert, he has 2 older brothers, and an older sister, so Maddy, Adam and the other children definitely have their hands full, which has meant that Maddy has needed to be around for him, but he is now 9 and more settled in a wonderful school who are able to cater for his needs, allowing mum to seek gainful employment… bizarrely or maybe not, she has chosen her first role back at work to be caring for Adult Rupert’s, a role which she has embraced and thriving in, so she has asked me if I would make her a pouch to put her phone in, as when she is out with the residents she has hands free without the need for a large bag, and when in their home, she will be able to still have the bag on her for updating client information onto their App’s.

So this is my task for today to make a crossbody phone pouch, if it turns out ok I will add it to my available options to purchase, obviously in a variety of fabric choices.

I hope you all have a lovely day whatever you are doing…

If you have any question please message me on WhatsApp on the bottom of every page, and I will answer you as soon as I can…

I have been pulling together my new sewing room, which was meant to be my loo-tility, boot room and our dog (Mori)Arty’s bedroom, but since my husband Mark finished the room, he said that it was more suited for me as a sewing room. Well, at first I was not so sure, as I had dreamt of this room for so long but never as my sewing room, as this was in our 3rd bedroom. But as he explained at the time we were having the blended twins coming to stay with their Mum and Dad and we needed the 3rd bedroom now there are 2 of them.

So, we set out to totally transform my old makeshift sewing room back into a twin bedroom… and the new room at the back of our house into my perfect sewing room. I will post a picture so you can see where I am now hanging out. It is still my utility room which works great as when I buy fabric it can go straight in the washer, then line dry and ironed all in my own little space, it also houses my new downstairs loo so no need to go upstairs anymore, whoop whoop… and we are also feeding Moriarty in here , so it is very much a multi functional room! But with 20m2, it is a big room, so there’s plenty of space for all the functions I had in my head.

I hope you enjoy my blog, keep checking in for more updates!