Strawberry Spider

Found in the strawberry patch this unusual spider called a strawberry spider for its colouring not its choice of home! very unusual think it has babies in its puffy pouch on the back - it was about one inch long.

 

Mr cockerel (named Eric the Viking) has found a new home on a farm locally thankfully he went before we had complaints from neighbours with the cock a doodling!

Pretty Zinnia flowers in my garden - grew these from seed and grew loads - the rest of the garden is a bit messy we are going for the overgrown cottage garden look honest.

 

 

And Chickies are getting big and outgrowing their ark housing so we are trying to be inventive and make a chicken run out of Jessies old trampoline which she has never really used.....our task for the weekend......

We've stripped it of its legs and safety cover netting (but will use that for a roof idea hopefully) hubby has got to weld bits apparently before we take off the trampoliney bit.

Chicks

Chicks have hatched (sorry this is a bit late as they hatched 2 weeks ago now!!) they are not so fluffy now they are getting their real feathers - the cats are very interested but can't get to them.

The stripy chipmunk ones are the girls (3 yippee) and one little yellow boy (oh dear what am I going to do with him one of our neighbours complained when we tried to have a cockerel before- not thinking about it yet). Mummy hen is doing a good job and chatters away to them we can't handle them sadly yet as she would take my hand off but when they are six weeks old she can go back with the big hens and we'll keep the chickies separate for a bit longer.

I have been busy stitching makes for the magazine but sadly can't show you those but I can show you the masks I've been making for Jessie's school production of jungle book - she is a wolf and I said we could make the masks for all the wolves thinking there might be 4 or 5 to make so I made a mock up and she took it in to show her teacher and came after school telling me that her teacher thought it was great and could I make 10 please ....er .....ok then.......so this is how it went....

I carded all the grey merino and finn wool on my drum carder to make big batts then laid them all out on a bamboo mat ready for the felting - its been really hot here over the last few days so I could do the bubbly soapy bit outside trying not to get burnt.......

Then I felted like a whirling dervish - think the neighbours were wondering what was going on and then magically the big pile of fluff turns into a thick solid felt fabric- I had to make two pieces in the end this was the smaller one ! I finished off the felt by rinsing in the washing machine, then dunking for 20 minutes in a bowl of hot water with white vinegar added and then machine rinsing again. When dry and steam ironed I then cut all the masks out sewed them together (added a little commercial felt for details) on my trusty old Bernina sewing machine that made easy work of going over about 10mm of felt thickness on some bits (note to self oil the poor old machine!)..........

 

 

 





 

 

This bigger mask above is Jessie's as she is one of the main ones with one other wolf pack leader??? Phew bit worn out with a whole weekend felting and making in some heat....its been wet and cold for so long its taken us by surprise. Garden is looking messy but I've got too much work on at the moment to get out there - seedlings are wilting wanting to be planted out maybe this evening if it cools down...got a broody hen too sitting on some eggs should hatch next week about 16th/17th July hopefully if the eggs are viable - will post pictures then.

 

The crowds are gathering.........



awaiting the exciting information on how to bake these...........

..........cookies yum yum - I am going to make a new tag called 'Baking' and you can find out how to make these Millie's cookies there - but obviously for copyright reasons I'll now call them Sammie's Cookies......it has taken a lot of time to get this far lots of test batches had to be studied, scoffed and commented on and now I think I've cracked it!

I have been busy (honest) just not blogging about it !! I create stitched projects for magazines and have had a few in succession to do but I can't post photos of the work as I don't think the publishing company would be too chuffed if the projects circulated before the magazine was out (and they work months in advance!!) but I wanted to share the fact of a small find that I have found........

It has been so bitterly cold here in Blighty with only a few hours of sunshine so far. I pretty much always wear thimbles when stitching and have struggled to keep my all metal ones on my cold and numb fingers whilst battling to finish the stitching and then I searched the net for a solution the lovely CLOVER company sell these metal tipped silicone thimbles not cheap at about £7 each but I was desperate! and it works they stay on feel a bit odd at first but you soon get used to them.....I love CLOVER products they are so well thought out and work well........oh and had to add a picture of George just because he's gorgeous.

Journalling journey

 

 

 

I love Teesha Moore's journal blog www.teeshamoore.com have look at how she makes her journal covers.  The youtube clips are brilliant - I have been making up these little pillows as she calls them and stitching an edge and quilting/embellishing the fabric these will then be sewn together to make a cover - I really want to get into journalling and have been squirrelling away lots of little bits to play with  - my usual lack of confidence holding me back - Teesha is a real inspiration I've just gotta take a deep breath and GET ON WITH IT !!!!!