✴ my creative space

I haven't taken part in My Creative Space for ages. Even now I'm joining as the 169th person...sheesh it's popular, but we love it so. I love visiting other peeps and having a bit of a nosy at the wonderful things they have all been up to. It's a great motivator....or a good kick up the crafty bum...

This week I have mainly been skirting around the issue of the unfinished projects and have instead been tackling the task of the unkempt house { brownie points to me } and enjoying evenings with Kirstie and Turn Back Time while stitching a little zip corsage brooch { the reward }.

I've spotted lots of these in high street shops recently but of course decided I'd make one because all it is really,when all's said and done, is a zip, a brooch back and a little bit of stitchery...job's a good'un!

✴ the good life

This is the 'before' photo of my vegetable patches. Please don't get excited into thinking that there may be a glorious 'after' shot....This photo was taken yesterday!

These have been a 'work in progress' for well over a year now...Oh dear.

When the baba was very small, well, much smaller than she is now, I would bundle her in blankets and wheel her out in the pram and she would happily fall asleep leaving me with a wonderful hour to do some weeding and tidying. But it was far too much work for just the odd bit of weeding with stolen hours and predictable nap times and so the weeds grew back, much faster than I could pull them out. It got to the point where it just seemed easier to leave it and wait for the deathly hand of winter to take it's toll.

And so this is where we are now. Spring is, well, here! At last. The sun is shining, everything's greener and buds are blooming. It's time to get back to it. 

The 'after' shot may be a while off yet but I'm determined to turn into a proper little Barbara Good by the end the year (but maybe without the flared dungarees!).

I'll be getting lots of help from the RHS 

And this book 

I'm inspired by Daylesford Organics 

And garlic grown here 

Organic seeds from here and here 

I would love to make these spoon plant labels from Melbourne Epicure 

And my own garden gloves from a pattern by Heather Ross 

Or this tool apron pattern here 

A nicer way to bag up that garden waste from Hen and Hammock 

And a lovely way to gather and store my homegrown veg

Phew... This gardening lark is really exhausting....Cuppa tea?

✴ my creative space

Sometimes, when in the making zone, it's so very easy to get so very carried away with delightful things.

There has been a little party in my creative space. To cheer up a bit of crochet. 

There has been dreamy soft velvet, tiny beads and sparkly diamante.

Golden thread, sequins and satin.

Gathering and ruching and fraying.

And although these beautiful things are so vivacious and fun in their own way. When they all got together, well, it was all just a bit too much. Each one vying for attention and adoration.

The bit of crochet felt ignored and unloved.

So we sent them packing and invited a humble scrap of ticking and a bit of ribbon and danced into the wee small hours....

Sometimes the simplest things just seem to work out better.

{Don't worry the other things have another party to go to}

For more creative spaces twirl away to Kootoyoo.

✴ my creative space

Here is my creative space this week. Because of a horrible cold, which thankfully is now on it's way out, there hasn't been any pushing out of pram and mama tea and chat. But there has been much staying in, cbeebies, crochet and chasing an adventurous and stir crazy one year old!

There has been lots of crochet. In the evenings, after dinner, while watching a film, lovely. There has been some more grannies, obviously!

And there has been some flower crochet, which are then to be beautiful brooches, hopefully, eventually.

There has been some stitching of a birthday gift, shh..... don't peek! Which should be hurried as deadline is looming!

And most importantly, there has been much admiration of Miss Ella's first doodles on her thank you cards.

Isn't she just so creative? I especially love the colours she has chosen. There are 12 of these! Mainly done during her 'da da' period. Whilst chewing on a rice cake. And then the pencil......!

My creative space is back! Pop along to Kirsty's to see what she and everyone else has been up to.

✎ My Creative Space...

My Creative Space is a mish-mash of wayward thread, off-cuts of fabric from past projects and new ideas being created....

I love embroidery threads, the colours always seem so vivid. I'm always drawn to different shades of green and grey...

Tidying up the fabric stash, I only have a very small collection over here with me the rest is away in the UK. I have ALOT of fabric, it's one of the only perks of working in costume - all the leftover fabric! Yum!

Busy stitching apple stalks...

Hearts...

And rosy cheeks...

And far too much gazing out of the window!

For more Creative Spaces from people who are far more productive than me,

go to Kootoyoo

✼ Oh, Coral!

I love coral. I love botanical drawings of coral. This is a little bit of embroidery I've been doing, just because, for fun.
I stitched it onto a piece of linen that used to be a cushion cover.

                       

Prints from here 

I want to find a selection of antique botanical prints of red coral to hang in frames on the wall in the dining room.

I think the red against the 'graphite' walls will look great.

I already have a set of four botanical prints of yellow flowers in the living room.

I just think they look so striking in modern frames.

I love mixing old and new.

I'm inspired by these framed prints from Graham & Green.

✢ A cross stitch in time....

I've been sewing this embroidered 'tile' from the book 'Linen and Thread' that I bought last week.
It's actually used as a piece on a cushion cover but I will probably frame it and hang in the hallway.
It's been such a long time since I have done cross stitch!