organised chaos and garden goodness

Today I spent the entire time cleaning up my dining/school/sewing/craft/computer room. I need to think of a name that combines that lot, anyway with decorating going on and getting junk from my mum who's moving our house is a tip, you have to do the shimmy around everything so enough I said to myself this morning and cracked on and spent until about an hour ago tidying, sorting and making it pretty. At last it is finished, I feel free now to create again instead of looking around knowing there is a great big job to be done. Peruse at your leisure my room...... the view from the comfy chair over my easel....
in the far corner is my sewing machine although you can't make it out on here....

another corner full of junk oh I mean collectibles....

view from sewing corner to my easel, see the woman puppet hanging up I got her from Robin hoods bay near Whitby many years ago on holiday, she is called Petronella after a daft poem me and my best friend used to laugh at in English class, the boys are scared of her and so is Tom which makes me laugh, she's on string and when you move her, her dress billows behind her like a ghost, its funny!....

lots of suitcases and hat boxes full of wool and fabric. I'm very happy with the organisation and not sure how long it will last but for now I'm loving it!.

Our garden is in full bloom now, what little I planted that is compared to last year, the faithful lavender is gorgeously purple and smells divine, it's also chicken proof for some reason they don't eat it, maybe they don't like the smell.


Also our blackberry and blackcurrant bushes have started to fruit, giving copious amounts of juicy goodness. I collected some yesterday and we had them with some welsh drop cakes for breakfast, I got the recipe out of the hairy bikers cookbook which I have borrowed from the library, not as keen on them as Rachel Allen's pancakes which is a firm favourite in our house.

Yummy goodness with Able and Cole red gooseberry's. I also made some redcurrant jelly as we went around the allotments for open day and ended up buying a punnet of the sour things, it turned out rather well although it is very zingy. You just weigh the redcurrants and then put the same weight in sugar in a pan, bring to the boil, cook for 6 minutes stirring now and then, skim off the froth ad put into sterilised jam jars (put into a pan with water to cover the jars and heat up the water, leave to boil for a few mins, be careful on getting the jars out, they are roasting!), when you have put the fruit in the jar and fastened the lid, tip it upside down and leave to cool, this creates a vacuum in the jar. We had ours with some organic lamb and roasted veg and it was lovely.

Tut, Tut I should be working!

Oh dear, Ive done it again.... I am meant to be working on getting more things made for my grand opening of my new online shop but things have been so busy around here lately, at the moment our grand idea of moving has been called to a halt, it was driving us mad not being able to find somewhere so for now we are staying put and to cheer ourselves up we have started gutting and re-decorating our lounge. We have a lovely sofa coming soon, I'm really excited as this is my first ever brand new sofa, the sales man that dealt with me seemed astounded that I didn't want stain protection spraying all over it though, he had that "your one of the weirdo's" look about him after that, especially after I explained about how toxic it is. Every other one I have had I found in a second hand shop or antique dealers.

We have started painting with some great low odour B and Q Eco friendly range paint and I'm loving the creamy buttermilk colour we have chosen, normally I'm a bright mix it up kinda girl but this time we are going all grown up plain serious!!, I'm sure I will be adding my own twist though. We have finally sourced a natural/ chemical free option for the floor, this has been tricky to do and I was very surprised how un-enlightened the carpet store sales people are at knowing about natural flooring even though they stock it. We are hoping now to find a local fitter or I can imagine some cursing going on if we try and lay it. I got a gorgeous light fitting in the sale, it was half price and is just the thing I was looking for. When it is finally complete I will show before and after pics, I love looking at those on the living etc site!

My mum is moving on Monday so I have been helping her too, the chickens are still waking us all early on and I have been so tired lots of nights we have gone to bed straight after the children. So in between all that and general life I have been tirelessly making, my lovely sewing machine has not stopped.

Right now I meant to be making but I came on the computer as you do to catch up and started browsing and found this shop in London.....

Look at how delightful these mugs are, oh my god its more Moomins!!! I adore the pink one but at £15 each I would be a bit worried about breaking them, I can dream though.... This gorgeous children's lamp also caught my eye, how magical and cosy it looks, in fact sod the children's room I would love this myself, I could pretend fairy's live in it and it glows from the fairy fire that they light to toast tiny crumpets on..... and now I must be tired as I'm revealing my true nonsensical thoughts to you all!

Have fun dear readers in whatever your busy days ahead bring oh and keep smiling, especially if you live in Blackpool like me and all the bus routes have changed and what should be a 10 minute journey home lasts an hour and you end up far far away from home because the crappy bus driver didn't mention without warning all the routes have changed! xx

Whoa wednesday already!

Quickly, very quickly because Ive been such a busy girl with days doing housework and DIY, days to friends houses for good company and tea and a lovely day at the super duper itsy bitsy craft fair, which gave me tons of inspiration. So I have been getting busy making a new website because frankly my old one I feel was rather shite, this new one is too cool for words, I love it. When it is ready for unveiling I shall be having a competition with some lovely spends vouchers for the lucky winner!!

I have been making like a wild thing too, this bag is made from jute, and is fair trade, I have embellished it with vintage doily's and fabrics, plus some of the very girly fabric from Kazzy, it shall be on sale in the new shop soon! I was walking the other day past a charity shop and I heard a little voice that said "come here, Rubles, come here" naturally I was curious (why else would I venture in?!), once inside I was puzzled for there was no humans around but still I heard the little voice "In here Rubles, open me" - Dear readers I had not gone loopy loop because I opened a drawer and oh to my delights it was full of doily's. Bloody great bargain too, loads for £2.50. I shall always listen to the voices from now on, and don't any of you tell me I hear them because I'm nuts!!
Another rather naughty purchase I made recently is this to die for retro styled gas lift chair, it was in the sale and I did NEED it, no seriously I did because I got out my art easel/architect table to do some paintings and its really high so a normal sized chair would not be high enough for me to reach.

Don't you just love it too!. Well I shall be rather quiet for a few weeks working on my site although I do read your posts everyday I don't always get chance to comment on them, so Ta Ta for now xx

catch up

What a busy old time we have had, I am always trying to be a good blogger and keep up to date but I just can't seem to manage it, anyways, lately we have been enjoying our Able and Cole veg boxes which is like Christmas each week as there are some lovely surprising waiting for you to discover, it keeps me on my cooking toes too because sometimes when at the end there is only a couple of courgettes and an onion left you have to invent and be inspired but cookery books to make a great lunch! Also which I thought was rather great was when Claire signed up and said I had recommended her she got a free cook book and I got a free large bottle of olive oil, not bad eh!. Our smiley watermelon man ;)


We went on a home school trip to Ribchester Castle, which is strange as there is no castle there. Just some ruins of a granary and a little museum, we had a good time though as one of the tour guides gave us a talk and the kids got to dress up in roman armour, we also got to handle some roman artifacts, like this gladiator shoe above.

Me being rather silly with an antler, think it was from a deer - a roman one???

rather dark piccy of Chris in the armour which he said was dead heavy.


A more clearer piccy of a roman soldier, this bit was in the museum. The location was nice too, by the river ribble and has lots of wildlife, def worth a day out if you drive, thankfully we got a lift of a friend or it would of taken a train and 3 buses to get there!

Another day we got the train to Adlington nr Chorley to meet up at Pharaoh's play place, a regular haunt for homeschoolers I found out last week-I'm always behind with everything.

I like this rather intellectual piccy on the train, we don't get to capture many like this!!!......And then its back to the silliness

Chris has become obsessed with blowing bubbles but it just looks like he's drooling all the time! Poor boy, he's so special hehe.




Shoes in photos really fascinate me, I'm not quite sure why but check out the levitation in this photo weird eh!

I have been crocheting loads and now have 3 different projects on the go, really must learn to finish one before I start another tut tut, I have had some great news too, my neighbour has just bought a bar and its really lovely inside but the walls are plain so he wants to put up my painting for sale and when one sells he wants me to paint another to replace it, so pleased and excited that my work will be seen to a bigger audience, these are not my fairy paintings, no, no, no, that would be strange, no these are modern, abstract type women's faces like this one:

My chickens are still very noisy in a morning, like 5am most days - any tips for me to shut them up before I roast them?

I have been carrying on with the oil pulling but one day I didn't bother as I felt cured of tooth ache - big mistake, it came back with a vengeance that evening so I'm back on it now and so far its OK. I find it a bit of a bore though really, I'm never good a following routine but if it does me good then I shall persevere. Hope you all have a lovely weekend x

sewing by hand and mice

My lovely friend Melodie who shares the same birthday as me surprised me with this gorgeous house she made, she is so talented, it is made of felt and lovely beads, buttons and ribbons,

Look how delightful, the details are, so very clever, each flower is individually hand sewn and embroidered

when I took the lid off inside was treasures, threads in lovely colours and hand made felt things

A pin cushion doughnut, so good it looks edible, an ice cream cone with golden scissors inside and a cupcake needle case, ohhh so lovely.

What a thoughtful gift and so girly and pretty for me!! Thank you Melodie, you are one in a million x

This week we have been invaded by mice - again, I'm sure its because we live by a cemetery, this happens every year, most of the street get them and the exterminators van is seen parked up at various houses, except ours that is, I did consider calling him out but after reading about the poison they use and how harmful it is to humans and obviously the mice, I was against it, so we use traps instead, at first the humane ones, but did you know you have to travel over 3 miles away to release them or they just come back, I didn't really fancy cycling with a trapped mouse over 3 miles everyday! So know we use the death traps, its so awful, I don't empty them my fella does, but this morning there was one in the kitchen that somehow had managed to drag itself across the floor, the younger boys saw it and the smallest cried and cried and kept saying to it, "I'm sorry little friend", it made me feel just awful. I had to explain why we can't have them in the house and it all sounded so lame after all the chats we have about looking after and protecting animals, and the way we live, not killing creatures. So we have been having a big tidy, cleaning out under everything and sorting through all my material stash that tends to spill out onto every room, I discovered lots of fabric I had forgotten about and made some new light and airy curtains for my sewing/dining/school room. I used some of the fabric Kazzy sent me on the swap too as it is so pretty, the photos have come out quite dark but when the sun shines they look so fresh and lovely

they are made from various patchwork squares of different sizes all sewn together haphazardly, trimmed with vintage lace.

Maybe on the next sunny day I will be able to get better pics to share, have a lovely week xx