On a Cake on Monday

Happy Birthday to You 

Happy Birthday to You

Happy Birthday Miss E -eeeeeee

Happy Birthday to You

~

Yes, I have now been a Granny for 10 years! What an amazingly wonderful 10 years it has been, watching this magical being grow and blossom. The cake was made by her Mum, my daughter, who is a fabulous cook – it was DEEEEEEEEEeeeeeee – lish.

I was asked for some edible flowers so I cut them the night before in case of rain overnight, and plonked them in a vase

Next morning I cut off the heads of roses, marigolds, lavender and marjoram to take to the cake

So strawberries and cream with fresh rose petals, edible glitter, silver and gold candles, and a garland of lavender to celebrate a a feisty, sporty, sparky, creative and all round delightful 10 year old. I’m so happy to be part of her life and look forward to what happens next!

~

Pop across to Cathy’s to see what real gardeners are putting in their Vases this Monday. A celebration of the camaraderie of gardeners, this week. It is strangely thrilling to see flowers from some seeds I sent to Cathy in her Vase today – the friendly, supportive connections that are built through blogging are so full of joyful surprises. Thank you Cathy for your brilliant meme and bringing us together each week. ❤

Fox and Cubs in a Giraffe on Monday

The vases are from Chive.com

Hawkweed or Fox and Cubs  have seeded themselves in my gravel garden, I love the rich colour

However, apparently I should not be encouraging it in the garden as it can be a rampant weed.  So disappointing. For now I’m going to enjoy it, just as the insects are.

Teaming it with this gorgeous achillea – oof! I LOVE that colour combo.

Add in the lavender and I’m a happy colour-loving bunny. All three plants are  much loved by the insects – there’s a whole lot of buzzing going on!

Joining Cathy at Rambling in the Garden for her fun Monday get together of gardeners all over the world.

and

Cee’s Flower of the Day

IaVoM: Honeysuckle, Alchemilla Mollis and Feverfew

In my vase this week is honeysuckle, feverfew and a froth of Lady’s Mantle.

Pop across and Ramble in the Garden with Cathy to see her Vase and those from gardeners across the globe.

This honeysuckle pleases me hugely because I grew it from a cutting. The flower is not as beautiful as some honeysuckles but the scent is magnificent, especially in the evenings.

Look how it has grown! All from a cutting, isn’t nature amazing! I grows through a Clematis Montana, which flowers in the Spring.

Joining Cee’s Flower of the Day.

I have been having A-Good-Clear-Out in the kitchen, thus ticking off a few of my 17 for 2017 Aims/Goals/Challenges.

Goal: Sort out 13 shelves, boxes, cupboards or shelves. I have done 5 this week (that’s 12 altogether!) – Well done me! 😀

A. I have a 3 drawer filing cabinet with files stuffed with papers from goodness knows when  – I’ve been through all three drawers and discarded everything that is no longer needed, either shredding the paper for compost, (P) or rolling it into fire-lighters (P)

B. These shelves

needed painting, and so did the wall behind them.

Do you recognise some vases from previous IAVOM posts?

How was I going to get the shelves off the wall by myself?

(C. see that desk top – I could not have shown you the toppling heap of stuff that was on there – far too embarrassing  – number 3 surface cleared!)

I could have asked a neighbour to help, but I get a kick out of ‘The Power of One’ solutions! So ……

I put chairs piled with stuff to rest the shelf on as I undid the screws – it worked.

A clear wall, with a mist coat painted onto the raw plaster. I’m using some of my Mum’s old paint – Dulux Barley White, it must be ancient but it still seems ok. (P)

I have quite a few things that need sanding so I treated myself to a Detail Sander and sanded the shelves

I do love a gadget. It cost just £30, well worth it!

The sanding was needed to create a surface for the Dulux ‘Quilted Calico’ Eggshell to key in to

And then of course there was D. Under the Table to deal with – a whole tub of used flower pots – luckily I have found a Garden Centre, Groves, about 20 miles away that will recycle them (P) in the  Pot to Product Scheme. 

I used to live near there, so I can combine the trip with meeting up with old friends. (P)

And the last of the 5- E. The top of the filing cabinet which houses the paper shredder and piles of office related detritus (no ‘before’ picture here either!) A broken child’s chair is acting as a shelf (P)

There are several great ideas for using chairs as shelves on Pinterest – here’s one

 

And a vase of flowers – just the thing to celebrate the transformation.

I removed over 40 old redundant business cards from the letter rack. They have gone in the collage cupboard and might be used as collaged tags in journals – oh dear – not thrown away yet then!

Have you noticed a few (P)s  in the text – can you guess what they stand for?

Love-in-the-Mist of time

Joining Cathy with the wonderful In a Vase on Monday meme.

Love-in-the-mist, Gardeners Garters and (learn to love your weeds) ground elder flowers.

They are cosying-up in an old glass bottle that I found in the hedge of the farm cottage I lived in many years ago. Some of the materials in this piece of collage/embroidery are from that house and that time – the 1970s. Happy memories.

This is how the piece looks now with some Swarovski crystals added and some more stitching.

I’ve combined a little crochet to add to the texture

I’m just a tincey bit excited about adding crochet to embroidery and fabric collage – no that’s not true – I’m leaping about and squealing with excitement – can’t wait to see where this takes me.

~

Thankfully, life is returning to somewhere near normal, a health scare in the family caused us all some anxiety for a while and daily rhythms went a bit haywire, but happily we are through to the other side and good health and well-being has returned. Sorry to be mysterious but as it was not my own health issue, I don’t feel I can say more.

I have just spent a wonderful few days recharging my own batteries with creativity – that’s what works for me. Sleep doesn’t do it, but sewing, painting, crochet and being in my own creative space, exploring all manner of delicious possibilities does it every time. I’ve even started dreaming in stitches and colour combinations again!

I feel like I’ve hit a Vein of Gold, long may it last.

On the grass on Monday

Today we made flower mandalas

Little Miss M aged 4, with Granny taking orders and happy to be the artist’s assistant.

Master R, who wanted to make an edible mandala

Miss E, aged 9

Joining in with Cathy and the international Monday Garden Party that is ‘In a Vase on Monday’.

 

Monday Vase: Amaryllis and Hellebore

Joining in with Cathy’s meme In a Vase on Monday, over at Rambling in the Garden

and

Cee’s Flower of the Day

~

I’ll be going to Chelsea Flower Show with my sister again this year, I was just looking at their website to see information about this year’s gardens and – there we are! On the 2017 RHS Chelsea website!

Here

https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-chelsea-flower-show/At-the-show

and here

Shopping

We were on the ‘Chive’ stand, I do like their vases. I have a couple of square ones which have featured in IAVOM before, here and here in July 2016and a Giraffe vase, yet to make it’s debut.

We were chosen for the photograph because of our colourful attire – see, we fit right in –  and because we looked like we were having fun – we were!

We were told by the photographer that we might be in this year’s catalogue, but I never thought we would end up on the website – twice!

FUN!

We’re thinking of wearing the same things this year.

In a Vase on Monday: Pulmonaria

 

Just back from a wonderfully exotic and quite crazy 2 weeks on the island of Nevis, in the Caribbean. I was on a Ben Waters ‘Rock n Roll holiday’ , he was playing at the Nevis Blues Festival – more to come on all of that!

Driving home from Gatwick airport on Thursday I was struck by how beautiful England is – cherry trees and others full of blossom… and bluebells – so early! I’m trying not to be concerned about that and enjoy their beauty.

Before I even went through my front door, I checked round my garden to see how everyone had been doing in the two weeks I had been away. Aquilegia already flowering and so many Spring bulbs needing dead-heading. The Pulmonaria was past its best and flopped over from the middle, so I grabbed handfuls and cut it back. There were still some pink blossoms to enjoy so I plonked them all in a couple of white jugs.

I nestled them amongst some exotic blooms that greeted me inside the house

I’m delighted with this one on a cactus and am entering it in Cee’s Flower of the Day

The red Amaryllis weren’t planted until January, but they don’t seem to have minded their late planting. The one still in bud is one from last year, flowering again – the first time I have had one flower a second year – I’m thrilled.

A couple of Vases from my holiday:

This one greeted us as we arrived at our luxury home up on the mountain

and I put these few blooms from the garden in a wine glass on the last day, with IAVOM in mind

leaving it as a little thank you to the house.

It is taking a while to get back in the swing of things and I know you have had glorious weather in England whilst I have been away as my garden needs watering.

As much as it is fabulous to experience foreign climes, other cultures and meet some wonderful people – it is so good to be home, especially at this time of year.

Pop across to Cathy to see all the April wonders of ‘In a Vase on Monday’.