Thankful Thursday

When I enter my garden at daybreak
as the first rays of light appear.
I listen  to sweet sounds of birdsong
and I thank the Lord I can hear.

In my garden during the morning
as the rays of the sun grow bright.
I look around at the beauty
and then I give thanks for my sight.

In the afternoon in my garden
the garden which I love so much.
When I feel the soft green foliage
I give thanks for my sense of touch.

The fallen leaves in my garden
are much too precious to waste.
They nourish the vegetables and fruits
which I thank the Lord I can taste.
                                                 anon.

It was our anniversary at the beginning of the week and we have been married for 24 years.  The time has flown by, and clearly only the years have increased and not my wrinkles and grey hairs! 

These are the beautiful flowers that husband bought for me.  I love roses, well ...I think I may even love all flowers!  Early on in our marriage I never wanted flowers as I always preferred to see them growing, but times have changed and my house is never without a full vase or two! To me this time of year is especially lovely for flowers as brightly coloured daffodils (very patriotic of me!), tulips and hyacinths just put a cheery splash of colour into the cold dark days. A reminder that the longer warmer days are just around the corner.

This evening I am feeling a bit flat, it hasn't even been 18 hours since she left but I am already missing no 4 dreadfully! Minimal sleep doesn't help the situation either. Hey ho she is only away for a few days so I really do need to get a grip!

I am really pleased with myself this month as I have managed to blog every single day so far. I suppose it was a bit of a challenge to myself to blog every day for a week and once I'd done that I thought I'd increase it to a fortnight. Well my fortnight doubled and here I am hanging in there!

Also my buttons have arrived today from Abakhan, they are a mixture of 24 mother of pearl heart and stars.  I'm not really sure if you would call them buttons or beads as they only have a single hole. I have some plans for them and I will shop at the weekend for a few supplies to make something which will hopefully do them justice. Until tomorrow x

short and sweet

My intention tonight was to share some photos but I've run around this evening packing for no 4. She is off to Euro Disney  at a quarter to three in the morning. So I will bid  you a Good Evening and promise to pop by tomorrow!

Getting down and dirty!

How do you clean the glass of your log burner? This picture shows a particularly burnt and sooty glass plate. My Sunday morning chore is always to clean the glass, but this week it was bad because the wood that we are burning although seasoned is very damp.  The temperatures have not been hot enough or for long enough to efficiently self-clean the glass.

You do not need to buy any fancy expensive cleaners, you just need some of the ash, a dish of water and some scrunched up newspaper.

Take a newspaper ball and dip it into the water before dipping it into the ash. Using a circular motion rub the ashy newspaper over the glass. Keep going until all of the soot has been loosened from the glass, using a fresh newspaper ball dipped into the ash each time. You are aiming for an ash smeared glass (below) rather than the sooty glass that you started with.

Use another fresh piece of newspaper, dampen it with the water and rub at the glass until it is sparkling!

The beauty of this is that you can put your used newspaper into the grate to help start the next fire. Cleaning the fire is one of my favourite jobs as I love to see the glass clean, and doing it this way is simple!

A Sunny Sunday

I'm sure that you know about my love of snow, but after some heavy rain it's finally gone. This morning was glorious and showed that Spring is thinking about making an appearance. The fields were pretty waterlogged before the snow and rain arrived so it's no surprise that we have the makings of our very own lake at the moment.

The geese are thrilled with 'lake Cymraeg' and took full advantage by preening themselves. I really love the geese as they have such character. I'm still not quite sure what to expect come Spring time as some people say that they can be a little aggressive when the females start to lay. We have eight geese altogether, five that I bought as five year old adults from a goose producer in Norfolk (they were the breeding stock that were no longer commercially viable) and three that I bought as six week old goslings. Once the goslings became adults they were left to roam freely together with the adults. They all live together as one big family - sometimes happy, sometimes not so.  At the beginning the young male often challenged the older male and gets put back in his place immediately and then he sulks and sometimes limps for a couple of days! It was always supervised and never got really nasty, it was lots of noise and flapping.  I wanted to get geese as a deterrent as we have had a quite a few poultry thefts.  They do make an awful racket when strangers visit, and when they all run towards you with their wings outstretched and honking, well, it is not for the faint-hearted!

Most people recycled and made things in the 70s, we made all sorts including dolls house furniture out of match boxes, paper fasteners and some leatherette (bought to patch the settee!) I have previously covered tins to give them a new life but we used wallpaper instead of the pretty scrap book papers that are readily available today.  I was reminded of the idea over at Torie Jayne's blog and it was so quick and easy to beautify an old tin I decided to have a go. I cleaned said tin and removed the label to use as a template.  I cut some pretty paper to size and stuck it to the tin using double-sided tape.  I then just used a little vintage lace at the top and bottom of the tin, however they also look pretty without it.

Of course the downside of this makeover is that we will have to live off beans for the foreseeable future.  Although an upside is that I will obviously already have my next blogpost title in mind - 'How to clear a room' or 'Don't stand downwind!' ;-)

Another Friday evening when I am too tired to do as much as I`d liked. I sat my food hygiene test today, thankfully I passed so that's something on my list crossed off. I have watched the Big Brother eviction this evening and was pleased that Rylan won. Even more relieved that Speidi didn`t.
It's snowing again and this evening I have fought hard to keep the log fire burning. All the wood that we have is a little damp and it had got the better of me. Husband is the pyromaniac in our house and he's gone out this evening. Someone from his work is moving on, someone that he has worked with for a few years, now that will make him restless.
I was going to wait  up for husband but I can barely keep my eyes open.  Goodnight!

I'm finding that my feet are so cold when I get into bed that I just can't sleep! So this evening on my way home I have bought myself some snuggle socks to end my misery. The yellow and pink striped ones have already been claimed by No 1 even though my ageing feet are in much greater need than hers! Anyway we'll see how toasty my feet are tonight.

I never paint my nails but I was rather drawn to these nail wraps with cute flowers on. They were only a £1 from Poundland so I wasn't really expecting great things but they have been fantastic! Every one has admired them at work, depite the fact that I managed to catch one of my nails with the potato peeler.

Buttons

I am sooooooooo lucky! Totally Tutorials was contacted by Abakhan Fabrics to organise an exchange of either fabric, tulle or buttons to three bloggers who would be happy to provide a Valentine tutorial using their products.  I am so very pleased to say that I have won these...

Now ...what to make?

How important is spelling to you? I often have a problem with poor spelling and one of my major irritations with people is when they confuse 'your' and 'you're'.  I even managed to pass this on to my daughter! Anyway, on my way to work I pass this sign every morning, but rather than annoy me, it amuses me. I must be mellowing in my old age! Just before Christmas they were offering a Christmas 'hampster' - I wonder what it tasted like?

Yay! At last snow!

I was very disappointed that the snow didn't come when it should have! I'd checked Metcheck Uk religiously and 'my snow' was due at 3o'clock.  Like an expectant father I paced a little and checked progress - nothing. I checked just before I went to bed and it was thin snow but it must have been persistant because when I got up this morning, yippeee! Lots of real life snow with a good 'crunch' to it.  As we are up and away before many of our neighbours are, it was also pure...

These pictures are taken by me with my arm hanging out of the window as I drove along  a main road - well sometimes you just have too!  It is so beautiful and I can't help but get excited at the snowy scenery.  Even if we don't get anymore snow 'til next year, this snowfall has brought a smile to my face today!

I have been paired with the blog Tangled Sweetpea in my latest swap, so I'm off to read through Victoria's blog as it is one that I am not familiar with.  That is one of the nice things about swaps, it offers an opportunity to make a new friend. Can't wait to get started on making something to send to her.

How to make a gingerbread man garland

Before Christmas I ran a workshop to make a gingerbread garland. Here is the tutorial...

You will need:

wooden gingerbread man - I bought mine from Ebay

 Brown/black/red/white paint

 fabric

 felt

 twine

 raffia

 buttons

 

Paint the gingerbread man, Firstly painting the edges.   Set aside to dry.

Use a piece of scrap paper to make yourself a heart template. The size should be something that would look good with the size of the gingerbread man.

Pin the template to the fabric and cut out four.

Cut out two smaller felt hearts. The felt is used to give the hearts a bit more stiffness.

You will be sewing on the right side of the fabric so you need to make yourself a `felt sandwich`. Use a small running stitch.

Paint the other side of the gingerbread man. Set aside to dry. Now might be a good time to have a cup of tea!

Decorate the gingerbread man so that it looks cute!

Thread the twine through the gingerbread man and make sure that he is in the middle. Place both of the hearts a similar distance from the ginger. Turn over and sew the twine to the back of the hearts.

Make yourself two traffics bows. Sew a button onto the middle of the bows then stitch onto the top of the heart.

This is your garland make it your own by embellishing as you wish. Stand back and admire your handiwork! I tied a knot at each end for hanging. Although this workshop was a Christmas one remember a ginger is for life not just Christmas!

As with much of the country the snow is falling thick and fast. It started mid- afternoon and has continued since. The log fire is burning and I`m reluctant to go anywhere else in the house.I have no photos to share with you tonight as I am blogging from my Kindle. I`m trying to find the motivation to do some crafting, but I`m flagging this evening. It's been a long week of assessments and I did assembly this morning. It's the first time I've done it at my new school and to say I was nervous would be an understatement. I ended my assembly with Stevie Wonder`s Happy Birthday and I've been singing it to myself all day! Hopefully I'll be a little more motivated tomorrow. I think I might just watch the eviction on Celebrity BB and then go to bed. Good night!

Thankful Thursday

Reasons to be thankful...

Although I am a little wary of driving in bad weather this morning just seemed the best of both worlds. The minus temperatures have left both the hedges and trees spiky with the frost, and yet the roads were clear.  It was like driving through a winter wonderland and I get help but get excited with this amazingly beautiful time of year.

Owing to the nature of my job I often have the privilege of working with many skilled and fantastic people.  When I arrived at work this morning I was greeted with with a gift from one of these amazing ladies who thought of me when she was doing her grocery shop and bought me this...

This evening I have dined with another two of these amazing ladies.  It was so lovely to catch up with these two special ladies who I feel honoured to call my friends.

This evening the pipes have frozen and I have had to some handwashing so that my daughter has some clean clothes for tomorrow.  Whilst I often ridicule my children for the inadequate underwear that they wear, I must say when it comes to handwashing there is so little fabric to wash, they are done in an instant! ;-)

Some days it's easy to be thankful.

A Woolly Wednesday!

I've just done a spot of knitting.  I checked the internet for something suitable and I finally found this booklet amongst my patterns.  I'm not sure of the date of it but it would have cost 30p so it'll be from a little while back!

Yellow is the favourite colour of one of the boys in my class.  So I have spent a couple of evenings knitting away.  It is his party on Saturday so I shall give him this hat as a gift.  I know he'll love it and it'll be warm and cosy! This will be especially welcomed during this cold spell that we are having at the moment.

I still haven't quite finished the knitted holly wreath but I'm struggling to find a base locally. Still I have plenty of other projects to be getting on with...

Some advice...

For those of us that are old enough to remember Baz Luhrmann and his advice to wear sunscreen in the nineties, I share these instructions...

Have a good day!

How to make a raggy wreath and rose

Take a metal wreath base...

and lots of fabrics which you cut into strips.  The size of the strips are about 2cms by 10cms but it is dependent on the size of the wreath base. The fabric that I have used is re-cycled cotton shirts which are ideal for this job.

Start to tie the strips around the inner ring.  Try to get the knot in the middle of the strip, so that the strips are equal both sides of it. 

Continue to tie the strips around the inner circle.

Then tie the strips around the outer circle.  I tied my strips so that there was no gap or movement between them. It's a personal opinion but I prefer the wreath to be fuller.

I then decorated the wreath with a raggy rose. I ripped a strip of material from across the whole width of the fabric.  The strip is about 5cms wide by the width of the material. Tie a knot at the very end of this fabric strip.

Holding the knot firmly begin twisting the fabric and start winding it around the knot.  Continue to hold it quite firmly otherwise it unravels :-).

Continue to wind and wrap the fabric.

The completed rose.  I fiddled with the shape a little then put a few stitches in it to stop it from unravelling but I'm sure a trusty glue gun would work just as well.

I made three roses which I attached to the wreath with a few stitches but again they could be glued on.  I also used the same fabric as the roses to make a hanging loop. The wreath is now completed. Stand back and admire your handywork...

...or get your daughter to stick her head through it!

I've just joined my first swap of the year...

Click to visit!

I've finally found a temporary home for my little crochet pot cover.  I treated myself to some hyacinth bulbs. Now that they have been brought into the warm they will quickly bloom but until they do my little hooky cover will provide the colour...

I don't know what the weather has been like for you today, but it has been real 'comfort food' weather with us.  I made a baked egg custard for pudding and it was delicious!

A walk in winter

We had a lovely walk today, No 4 has been poorly and first week back at school she has already had three days off.  As a hearing aid user she is often troubled with ear infections.  She has had a hacking cough for a few days, which then turned into a temperature and then an ear infection. I thought maybe a blow out in the air would do her good after being stuck in the house.  We chose a lovely country walk and found these wooden sculptures along the way...

This artwork looks like laser cut metal...

There are some very talented crafts people about.

P.S. don't look now but I think blogger has just let me upload some photos!