WOYWW and spring flowers.....

As you know Twiglet joins me here for a Fun Day Monday so, apart from her helping me to do the cutting when I have curtains to do, we do our best to keep Monday just for fun, laughter and crafting. This Monday was no exception and for those interested the poppy picture I blogged on Monday has now been uploaded in the shop. I don't shut up 'shop' for our fun day so my customers still come delivering more sewing jobs and therefore Tuesday is spent catching up on all my sewing as best I can [and boy did I have some catching up to do this week].

I know this is Wednesday and it's the day organised by 'Julia Queen of Snoop' for us all to show and tell our work spaces but I feel I must tell you all I did yesterday to explain the state of my 'to do' rail today cos I would hate to let any of you think I'm slacking this week :-)

Here goes......I managed to...
Shortened 3 pair curtains
Put velcro on the top of another pair curtains
Put leather elbow pads on a jumper
Repaired a torn dress
Take in the waist on a lined skirt
Put new elastic in a skirt
Shortened a pair of trousers
Take in the skirt sides of a dress
Take in the bodice of a boned posh frock



So..... my 'to do' rail today looks like this. It's only got one hanger on it :-)
This is another challenge I've been given. I have to convert a single white sheet and a union jack into a fancy dress outfit for Britannia :-) What fun.









What I'm gonna do is all planned so hopefully won't take me long and then I plan to attack this lot...



...These are my material boxes and I hope I can be allowed some time for crafty creations today. Who wouldn't want to delve into all that lush fabric and create something beautiful with it eh?
Also I have been given lots of new beads for Mother's Day and I am really looking forward to playing with them.



Lastly, but by no means least, I wanted to share with you all the lovely signs of spring that I found and snapped at the weekend. Isn't spring just the best time of the year? :-)



Our little violas have opened up their faces and are so bright and cheerful.










I have a bowl of gorgeous miniature daffs now in full bloom. How cute are they?







The flowering cherry tree is already in bud and the flowers are starting to open.








The pussy willows are starting to open up on our little weeping will tree.









Even the tiny red flowers on one of our conifers are all in bloom. They are so pretty close up and yet are easily missed when walking past.

Fun day Monday...

Twiglet and I have had another very successful day today. We started by getting the l'ove of my life'...curtains....out of the way. I now have 3 pair of curtains needing sewing tomorrow, and I really don't enjoy curtains, plus my to do rail has steadily filled since this morning. As I am having Friday off I have lots to get finished by Thursday afternoon :-)

As soon as the curtains were out of the way the fun began. Twiglet sat dumfing more brooches as she has sold lots lately and has had several requests for more. I'm sure she will show and tell on her blog very soon so I'm not giving away her secrets. I have been sat dumfing a new Poppy picture and thought you would like to share it so here goes.....
Its larger than I normally make and I have to say I'm really thrilled with the result. Hope you like it too and it helps to brighten up a damp, gloomy day.

I will be uploading it in the shop soon so anyone interested in buying it please just email me.

My Sunday Paula update...

For all who are wondering how our dear friend Paula is going on you will be pleased to hear she is home. They discharged her from hospital on Friday!!! Bless her she, I am certain, was rather frightened at going home rather earlier than they has previously planned. Still in lots of pain from the op and even worse pain when needing to cough, move and even breathe I'm sure it was a daunting prospect. I purposely haven't blogged this earlier because she was in desperate need of rest and lots of sleep to allow her body heal. She has today managed to get downstairs and with a little gentle exercise and lots of TLC she, I am certain, will now make a good steady progress but, as I have said to her, she must listen to her body and not expect too much too soon. It's pretty major surgery she has had and healing takes time and patience. I know everyone is sending her good vibes and I know she is very grateful for all the love and attention you have all given her. She is without her Internet provider until some time in April but has asked me to update you all and pass on her love and thanks to all her blogging friends.

Just a quick hospital update about Paula...

I've heard from Paula today. The physio has had her out of bed and walking but she is still suffering rather a lot of pain so she has had to increase her Morphine and other analgesia but as most of you will know these all come with side effects they don't always warn you about so laxatives have been prescribed too. I sometimes think it is not good to know everything before having these major operations or maybe you would think twice. She has asked me to thank you all for your very kind wishes and send you lots of love. Hopefully she will be back up and running very soon but, for now, every day has to be little steps of steady progress.

She did send me a photo of her wound but I promise I won't share that with you all....all I will say is ouch!!

Lastest update from Paula.....

I sent a text to Paula's phone to let her know we were all thinking of her and to pass on all your good wishes and this is the text I just had back from her.....

Hi Annie....thats great ta. no longer in my own room..Privaleges hav stopped. oh well.
Tell evetone thanx i'm hjhh on morphibe at mo n cant typr priprjy

Even on her hospital bed she managed to raise a few smiles bless her. It was so very good to get her reply but I've told her to get lots of rest and that I would pass on her message to all so she didn't feel the need to text everyone personally....I'm sure we will all forgive her spelling errors :-)

WOYWW and my latest Paula update

Firstly...and the most important bit this week...I have just had my latest update from Paula's hubby.....

She had her op as planned yesterday morning and although they won't know exactly what they have done until the Dr's round this morning she was on the right side of it all. She was in quite a bit of pain though last night so I'm really hoping they get that under control for her. At least now she has got rid of Tommy [the name she gave to her lung tumour] and now every day she should feel a little better. They have told her to expect to be in hospital for about a week. I'm sure we are all sending her lots of really positive vibes and lots of love.

Now for those who join Julia our Queen of snoop for the what's on your work desk Wednesday this is my space today.

I'm pleased to say this is my done rail. When I started my day yesterday I had 20 hangers on my to do rail ...should have been 21 but Twiglet had put two items on one hanger and yes she was given a written warning for such an over sight :-) :-)
I had a really good 'catch up Tuesday' and as you can see I have now reduced my to do rail to .......

.....just 4 hangers, but I'm afraid to say these are pretty tricky jobs on this rail so will take me the best part of today....especially as Twiglet has just text to say she is coming down this morning to cut some curtains for me...she really doesn't like to think of me taking time out to chill :-)
Seriously for those that don't know what a fab relationship I have with my big sister Twiglet she is one in a million and does her best to do the curtain cutting for me so I'm not kept waiting for her to do it [I have a replacement knee and can't kneel on the floor to cut out curtains]. We make just the best of teams.

Our fun day Monday was just that....fun. We laughed, drank tea and coffee, ate chocolate [an essential on a Monday] and we created. Thought I'd snap a bit of the creating to share with you all...



The friend that joins Twiglet and I was making the most gorgeous Faberge inspired eggs to put on Easter cards. She has dumfed wools and treads on felt and is now embellishing them with beads, gems etc.

(Twiglet sat here wetting herself - I meant dumfed wools and threads! - lol the thought of T. treading felt - like you would grapes has got us both howling - we are easily amused!)

Twiglet is using dissolving plastic and mounting wools, threads and pretty bits between two layers before fixing them there with machine stitching. I just love the colours she is using and am certain she will be blogging it all at some point....well, I hope she does :-)

This is a little Wedding inspired dumfling that I've been playing with. I've yet to stitch on the beads. Not sure how I will use this yet but may use one of the suggestions we have had in our Wedding challenge over in the blog shop.

Lastly but by no means least....This is a little treasure I found enjoying the sunshine on Sunday. I didn't see one ladybird in our garden all last year so was really thrilled to spot this one and thought I would share it with you all. :-)

Don't forget to pop over to the blog shop to check out the Bridal/Wedding blog challenge and be in with the chance to win.

Bridal department challenge.....

Spring is upon us and we are feeling perky and productive. It's the season for romance and wedding plans. So, we are taking the bridal theme for our latest challenge and we are hoping to involve all our blogging friends as well. We are planning to launch a Bridal department in our blog shop in the next few weeks.
The above pic shows some of the beautiful items we already make. These include bridal keepsakes, like hearts and little bears, ring cushions, wedding memory journals, wedding cards and brooches. So, now we want to extend our range so that we can create a new, well stocked bridal shelf.
We both have lots of ideas but would like to throw the challenge open to you wonderful, creative folk out there. We would appreciate your comments/feedback and any ideas, on a bridal theme, you have to offer.
We will give a little gift to the 3 ideas we like the best, so please put your thinking caps on.
We have had such lovely feedback and brilliant ideas that have helped us over the last months and feel we have made some wonderful friends through the contact you have made with us. Thanks lots.

An update for my caring friends...

For all those who left me such lovely comments yesterday I would say a big thank you. I'm sure you will all be pleased to here that the little baby is much improved this morning. It never fails to amaze me just how quickly they pick up from something that would have us feeling rough for days.


Also for those that asked to see the skirts I was making here is the first one finished. It has a placket down the centre front [that my customer has yet to buy buttons for], 3 pleats into the waistband each side on the front and an elasticated back waistband. It matches exactly the skirt she left with me so I'm sure she will be thrilled with it........I just have the other one to make now this morning :-)