New rug

Isn't it funny how excited one can get over a rug!? I thought I'd make the most of the Laura Ashley sale on this weekend (25% off) so I ordered this lovely rug for Tim's office. It looks so bare, the carpet is horrible and it does get very cold in there. Also, good tip, if you get anything through Quidco you also get their commission back as cash back, so we ended up saving £50 off the price of the rug!



Don't forget to enter the giveaway!

Oooh, almost forgot! This lovely couple came round to have a look at our eglu. I signed up on the Omlet site to show local people thinking of buying an eglu around, and to offer hen and advice for budding chicken keepers. I think they were really keen anyway and were so friendly they have offered to invite us round to show us the chickens when they get them.


P.s. My home will be featured on Vintage Indie soon so do take a look.

A pigeon and a giveaway

Hi all,

Look what turned up on the doorstep this morning - this gorgeous pigeon from the lovely Charlotte over at the Pigeon Loft. These little beauties are limited in number so I was so pleased to bag one! :-) It's absolutely beautifully made and fun! I've named mine Cecil Percy Pigeon.

Now on to the giveaway, I've been so lucky in the past with giveaways that I thought it was about time I did my own. For the prize, I'll be making a selection of bits n bobs, not sure what yet, but they'll all be nice I promise. Now, Cecil has been hiding somewhere in the following pics so if you can spot where he's hiding then leave a comment on this post with a description of where Cecil is, and I'll pop your name in the hypothetical hat! :-) Good luck!







I hope you're all having a lovely weekend.

TTFN

Sian x

Iaido

I've just come back from Iaido (pronounced Eeia) and loved it! It was so Cathartic - very much like yoga, only I love the accuracy and skill involved. I am a bit of a secret fan (oops, my secret's out now!) of all things Japanese. It really appeals to me being so disciplined and studying something until you are so accomplished at it. I admire the Japanese way of life and the way they do things.

Anyway, enough waffling from me. I hope you're all having a good week. :-)

TTFN,

Sian x

An award and my prediction for the next big thing...

Thank you so much to Floss and Gemma, two lovely blog ladies with beautiful blogs! :-)

I now have to list 7 things I love and pass this on to 7 bloggers, so here goes:

1. Sitting at home with Tim.
2. Rosie kitten when she nudges up against my legs and purrs - I especially love it when she prods my face when she wants feeding, pretty much like this.
3. Cars - I washed mine for the first time last weekend and remembered why I bought it, it looks like a beast again. I like beastly cars made by BMW and Lotus, the more mean looking (and sounding) the better! :-)
4. Cleaning and tidying, you just can't beat a tidy house. I almost get depressed when it's messy.
5. When I go and see the girls and they are so pleased to see me!
6. Air streamers - I would love one of these, aren't they wonderful?
We'd like to go here one day, looks lovely.
7. Catalunya - this part of Spain (well, really its own country it's so different and has its own language) is just wonderful, I particularly like Barcelona and Girona. I did my skydiving license in Empuriabrava and had a wonderful time!

So many to choose from, but I'd like to award this to:

Happy Loves Rosie
Miss Marple
Mary Poppins
Country in the Town
Vintage, Pretty and Shabby
Vintage Heaven
Blueberry Heart

Now, on to my prediction for the next 'big thing'....Candlewick bedspreads! :-) I picked this up on ebay for £8 including delivery.

When is a bath mat not a bath mat?...

...I bought this pretty 'bath mat' from Velvet in Brighton to celebrate the success of the show case, it went really well. Lots of people let them down at the last minute and I was brave enough to go for it!

I thought it was far too pretty to belong in the bathroom and it covers the coffee stain (don't ask!).
I also found a spot for the Cath Kidston bath mat in the kitchen.

Bargains in TK Maxx

I popped into TK Maxx in my lunch break today and look at what goodies I found.

Hope you all have a lovely weekend, I have my acting show case tomorrow so that means I get to put in to practice all the things I have learnt over the last 10 weeks. Quite frankly, I've realised I am pants at acting but actually surprisingly good at presenting 'infomercial' type things. :-)

Busy bee

Gosh, I have been so busy this week. I've not had a great week at work, it's been one of those 1 step forward and 2 steps back weeks. You try and get something done and it back fires. I'm also insanely busy, I make a 15 line to-do list and all that happens is instead of crossing things off I end up adding to them.

Anyway, I had a big order from this lovely lady on Monday and wanted to sort that out for her in time for mother's day. Then I've been making various presents from family and friends:

[Gorgeous vintage fabric cushion]
[student shopping bag for Tim's cousin][2 Amy Butler patchwork cushions]

I've taken a week off from exercise/after work activities because I nearly killed myself! I work long hours and don't get in usually until 7pm so add a couple of hours on top of that exercising then I don't get home until bed time! I hope you're all having a better week, I'm really looking forward to the weekend! :-)

[My new union jack cushion] :-)

P.s Thank you so much for the award Floss, I will post about it asap. :-)

What's in a name...

Rules: USE THE 1ST LETTER OF YOUR NAME TO ANSWER EACH OF THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS. THEY HAVE TO BE REAL PLACES,NAMES,THINGS. NOTHING MADE UP! TRY TO USE DIFFERENT ANSWERS IF THE PERSON IN FRONT OF YOU HAD THE SAME 1ST INITIAL. YOU CAN'T USE YOUR NAME FOR THE BOY/GIRL NAME QUESTION

1.What is your name? Sian
2. A 4 Letter Word: Sock
3. A Boy's Name: Simon
4. A Girl's Name: Sarah
5. An Occupation: Scientist
6. A Colour: Sienna
7. Something you wear: Scarf
8. A Beverage: Saki
9. A Food: Sausages
10. Something found in the bathroom: Sink
11. A place: Sussex
12. Something you shout: Shut up!

Just a quickie...

[Ashdown Forest]

I've been so busy today, first of all I popped to the National Cat Centre in Chelwood gate, my oh my, it's enormous! I donated a cat bed that I bought for Rosie - one of those posh wicker ones that cost about £30. She's so funny with beds, she likes to sleep on top of blankets or cushions, but she hates to sleep in things!

I took some photos of the Ashdown forest today too, we are so fortunate to live here because it's simply stunning. Next weekend if the weather holds out I think we'll have a picnic.

I then gave my car the annual clean, made 5 lavender hearts and 4 new cushions for the sofa. I found this gorgeous vintage red Cath Kidston fabric FQ on ebay a week ago and managed to get it for £3!

TTFN

Sian x

I'd like to take you on a mini tour...

As you can imagine from my last post, I am exhausted! My alarm didn't go off on Tuesday (power cut in the night, you couldn't make it up could you?) so I had to rush around, pick my colleague up from the station and then try and work out where we were going! Then on Thursday I popped along to Aikido - I had forgotten just how daunting and slightly intimidating martial arts can be! I got there and then the chap was quite stern, not nasty just quite serious. You have to be fairly comfortable and confident being around people you don't know for Aikido, lots of grabbing hands/arms, sitting face to face with random people I also had to interview each and every one of the students. Having said all that, I would really like to do it and shall be going again. I'd love to get through the grades and maybe one day be a black belt! :-)

Anyway, today I have been tidying and scrubbing the house - it has been a tip this week simply because I haven't been here to tidy it! I thought I'd invite you to come in and have a look around. :-)
[the sun streaming in the sitting room]

[I love having fresh flowers in most rooms][my floral picture wall, it's not quite as good as Posy's wall but I'm working on it]

[walk through into the dining room]


[you can just spy the utility room on the right, more on that side of the house next week!]

I hope you have enjoyed the mini tour. I'll be doing some crafting tomorrow for Mother's day and various birthdays coming up so I shall post some pictures tomorrow. Have a good evening!

Sian x

Here's what I've been up to...

I've been extremely busy lately so haven't been able to post as much. I went for run tonight, tomorrow I have a course up in Uxbridge, Wednesday I have spin class, Thursday I have Aikido/Iaido oh and Friday is 'Lost' night, then on Saturday I have my acting course, and Sunday, oooh, I can sleep! :-)

I had a go at making cup candles on Sunday and I'm so pleased with them. I'll be selling some in my shop at some stage, but wanted to run them by you. The cup in the front was something Debbie sent me so I'll be keeping that one for myself! :-)

I also wanted to show you the vegetable garden, Tim and his brother have worked so hard! It's going to be terraced at some stage with railway sleepers because it's quite steep and the neighbours are going to put a fence at the bottom.

[Before]



[After]


I've just ordered these Amy Butler 5" squares on ebay. I thought I'd have another go at quilting a nice bright throw or some quilted cushions.



TTFN

Sian x

Crochet course and the way of the sword

[Laughing Hens retreat]

I've signed up for this crochet course, it's really local for me and looks basic enough. I'm a bit stingy with petrol you see (comes with driving 150 miles daily to work!) so the more local the better. I've had a go myself and I just get so frustrated with it! I find knitting a doddle yet crochet is like an alien art form. I think I need someone to show me and explain how to follow a pattern. Whilst browsing the net for courses I also found this place which isn't too far away and looks really good. I love the sound of the weekend course, right up my street! I think at £695 I'll have to start saving my pennies! :-)

I'm also going to start doing martial arts again. I've done Kick boxing and Karate in the past but I thought this time (now that I'm a bit older) I'll have a go at a more civilised discipline - Aikido (the way of spiritual harmony) or Iaido (the way of the sword). I like a new challenge and I don't think I cram enough in to my weeks! ;-)

Hope you're having a good week! Btw, thank you for all the lovely compliments and for all of you who have ordered from me. I promise I will let you know as soon as I get the 'Keep Calm' posters. I'll also be adapting the design (slightly different wording) for some mugs in pink, green and blue, but more on that another time!

TTFN

Sian x

Chocolate rose bud bath bombs

What do you think of these? I made these after seeing the Vintage Kitten posting about them (they were £20!) for valentine's day and I thought they would probably make an equally lovely present for any occasion or nice wedding favours?

I will be posting about the progress in the vegetable garden (it's now twice the size!) later in the week. :-)

What to do with Cath Kidston samples...

On Saturday, I had my acting course in Brighton. It was Shakespeare this week. That was good fun, we had to do a 'street' version of the 3 witches in Macbeth. Not 'Drum, Drum Macbeth Doth come', but 'That's Macbeth's car innit!'. I now realise I am quite frankly rubbish at acting, but really it's just a distraction and is a bit of fun. It also means that I can go around the hundreds of antiques, bric a brac, independent shops, and of course Laura Ashley and Cath Kidston. I bought lots of CK fabrics this week: white antique rose, green floral and gingham (one of my favs now on sale too), washed roses, and pink posy. I'll be making a few more bits this week to go in my blog shop (easier to update than my site!), once I get a new needle for my sewing machine that is! How irritating, it just broke this morning and was my last one! I just managed to make this lovely union jack tea cost for a lady in the US and then it snapped! This is my best yet, I'm so pleased with it ! :-)


[Hope you like it Mary. :-)]

I noticed Laura Ashley had a 25% sale on so I got a few bits that I've been looking at for ages:
[Lovely coasters]
[Gorgeous 'Home Sweet Home' sign]

Now, on to the main subject of today's post. I find it easier to blag samples in store when I'm buying lots of things so I managed to get a whole load of free samples this week. Lots of you have blogged asking what to do with fabric samples and this is my suggestion, to cover a lamp shade. Earlier in the week I bought this lamp shade for £2.00 in good old QS and all I have done is cut the edges of the fabric samples with pinking shears and glued them on. As simple as that! :-)