birthdays and bunting

June is a busy birthday month, first there was J. I have a huge confession to make. in fact this accounts in part ( ok a lot) for my prolonged abscence. I am embarrassed to admit it, but honesty is important amongst friends.
I bought his cake

I am still waiting for the ground to open and swallow me up.
But in my defence I bought it from M&S, and if that's good enough for the Calendar Girls then it's good enough for me.

Next it was my birthday and I got some gorgeous gifts from kind friends and no photographic evidence... I had two cakes, both homemade, (one by an aunt who bought a gluten free mix and made it for me, I was truly delighted.) There are no photos of the cake either, but I have a few extra pounds of weight to prove they are eaten.....

Tomorrow is my mum's 80th. They have just got back from 2 weeks in Boston, I am hugely envious of their travels, and their energy. I was tired just navigating the airport carpark when I went to collect them.... She is having a party next weekend, I will try very hard to photograph That cake....

Amongst the birthdaying, I have been readying for the Arts Festival, it starts on Friday. I currently making labels, I'm not really on the laptop writing to you at all. Or at least I should be but... In fact I should be doing at least 8 things right this minute, and my head is spinning with all of them, so it is a bonus that I got sent a review parcel of some new vitamins - B record Plus, to bring me energy. I will write it up properly when I've finished the 10day course, but so far so good.

I shall be back soon with photos of the Arts Festival, tales of a wonderful display unit a friend and I made, but right now I have to dash, there is bunting everywhere, which I need to photograph, oh how I love bunting - there's something special going on, the Queen is coming to town, and I'm off to wave! xxx

lessons in romance

E: what are you doing mummy?
me: I'm helping daddy make this new flower bed.
E: More flower beds! Why do we need More flower beds?
me: because daddy doesn't buys me flowers, instead he's building me a flower bed I can grow some.
E: why don't you just buy your own flowers?

oh dear, the boy has a lot to learn about romance.......

may hunting

tigger, a fave cartoon friend, a butterfly,
something blue - in wool you can make the sea blue, often it's grey!
a bike - courtesy of mollie makes - oh so pretty!



interesting local building - the treehouse, a street light - useful for holding up an igloo
red door, I've used this picture before(cheating....), emergency vehicle, lego to the rescue!




zodiac sign, I couldn't find any twins, vintage wallpaper at Belsay Hall,
texture, a feather boa, black and white portrait, baby eyes.

lessons learnt from blogging

Since I started blogging I have learnt a great many things from a fantastic range of places. I have learnt to crochet, been inspired to bake, joined quilt-a-longs, and photo challenges, made and met friends, planted flowers, and learnt more about a community of friendship and inspiration than I could possibly have imagined.

to the bemusement of my family and friends I photograph everything, write lists in notebooks of things to make/bake/create and have a favourites bar on the computer that is so long they can never find the links to cbbc or the premiereship table.....

I hadn't realised just how much my life had changed though until I tried to photograph a few things recently.

first there were the purple tinted meringues, the white plate they were heading to the party on just wouldn't do........



and I couldn't work out why, so I sat for a while and thought about it, and I realised it was Alice. From Alice I have learnt that there should be plates for scones, and the correct bowl for strawberries, not forgetting the biscotti plates.



the burden of responsibility is immense. I hope this pale pink plate does justice to the first egg.

and the winner is

I've been shutting myself away in my study for the last few weeks, as I've rather foolishly booked a table at the Alnmouth Arts Festival. engage panic mode...... it all looks terribly professional.....



I've been making some stitchy pictures



which will be alongside the lavender bags and some cushions

I've also borrowed an embellisher from a friend

and to show off the stuff for the arts festival I've made it a new blog Northumbrian Textile Art - which one day might even have links to etsy and folksy.

thanks for all lovely comments on the last post, and now for the giveaway winner, drum roll please, and the winner is Laura of Nimble Fingers and Steady Eyebrows, a blog which has a lovely format of letters sent between friends.

"a year of posting" and 4 excuses

365 posts. A year of blogging. ok so it's taken 3 years, 7 months and 4 days but I'm not counting. talking of counting I used to have a gadget that counted my visitors and comments, but it broke. I do know that my blog email account has 6233 messages in it, that's a lot of nice chat. so to say thanks for coming and chatting leave me a comment on this post and I'll send a little treat to someone at random including a mini lavender bag and maybe some chocolate if you're not all fed up of it by now.

so what are my excuses for not being around much, well we had lots of preparation to do to get ready for some new members of the family, and well here they are.
Firstly let me introduce Cornflake. She is E's.



This is Ruby. She is Miss K's.



This is Harriet, she belongs to my niece, but lives with us.



and lastly this is Myrtle. She's mine.



no eggs yet, chocolate or otherwise, but we're waiting patiently.....

late for the hunt

oh dear, I'm late for the April hunt, and missing a few, but here are my finds....

sculpture - driftwood naturally sculpted by the sea, yellow buttercups

eggs, St George - last years birthday cake !

Shakespeare - for our choir, cross; plane trails making kisses in the sky

my camera, and a royal wedding breakfast....

back soon with excuses for my abscence, and a giveaway for a year of posts (365!)