Cupcake Swap and Knitting for Charity

Recently I took part in a Cupcake Swap hosted by Jodi at OhSewBeautiful and I had lots of fun choosing all things cupcake related for my swap partner Heather of The Patchwork Heart.

This is the parcel that I sent to Heather

and these are the gifts that it contained.

I crocheted these lavender cupcakes for Heather and I now seem to have an addiction to making them! :)

I received these lovely parcels from Heather, all neatly tied up with ribbon.

Heather had been very busy stitching a wall-hanging, notebook cover and key fob for me - all beautifully made. Thank you Heather for my gorgeous gifts.

Thank you also to Jodi for hosting this swap.

Calling all knitters - Jodi is currently supporting a knit-together for this charity

Please support her. Details can be found here. I know I have some 4-ply yarn lurking in my stash and I will be knitting something to send to Jodi.

Allotment Update

We have had a good supply of vegetables from our new allotment all summer. We devoted our old allotment to potatoes, sweetcorn, pumpkins and squashes this year and my Husband has been harvesting a good crop of potatoes - hopefully enough to see us through until next year.

I spent yesterday afternoon at the new allotment and harvested a large bucket load of onions.

In their place I planted some more leeks. The first plantings replaced the garlic harvest in the same bed. The dibber is the handle from my Grandad's old fork.

The early-sprouting broccoli is thriving under the Enviromesh.

Sadly this is the only aubergine this year from the 4 plants that I had planted. Also in this bed were Gartenperle tomatoes, which unfortunately got the blight and had to be removed last week.

My spring-planted spinach beet had lasted all summer, but finally it had gone to seed, so yesterday I planted a new crop. I don't know if this is too late in the season, but I thought it was worth a try.

The Brussels sprouts are growing, but are infested with the dreaded white fly! I will have to do something about that this weekend.

We have good crops of beetroot, celeriac and carrots under mesh in this bed. I saw on Gardeners' World last week that you need to remove the outer leaves on celeriac each week to encourage the bulb to swell, so I plan to do that this autumn.

All of the beans are almost over now and we still have a few courgettes. I have also grown some gourds for decorations and the rhubarb is still growing.

Not bad for our first season. :)

Slight drama yesterday - someone got their key stuck in the allotment gate padlock and I was trapped inside! Luckily (?) there had previously been a break-in through the fence and someone was able to get some tools from home and undo the repaired part of the fence to make a hole for me to crawl out of!! :) I didn't go back this afternoon! Instead I worked in the greenhouse - removing the leaves from the tomato plants to encourage the tomatoes to ripen. At least I can't get locked in there! :) My garden has been rather neglected whilst I was decorating, so this weekend I plan to do some pruning and deadheading.

Wishing you all a great weekend, Pj x

The End of the Summer Holidays ...

... and I have gone back to work for a rest! During the final week of the summer holidays I was very busy decorating our bedroom. I have painted the walls in off-white and I made some new curtains in duck egg blue. Sorry for the bad quality of this picture, the light isn't good in here for taking photos.

We are going for a vintage feel in this room with a new light fitting and curtain pole. The light shade was quick to assemble

and I love it.

I think it is so pretty.

I love that the birds on the curtain pole match the birds on the curtains. This photo shows that true colours of the room. I just need to buy new bedside lamps and a metal Victorian-style bed head then the room will be finished.

I have also given the hall, stairs and landing walls their annual lick of paint to cover up any marks that bags (Fay!!) and fingers (Jay!!) have made. The ceiling also received a new coat of paint. Next year my husband will have to redo the white work as it is rather chipped in places. He has been warned! :) This month I will be decorating the cloakroom and changing the gold coving back to white in our living-room.

Meanwhile this lazy boy had been taking it easy on my car!!

Cheeky boy!!

August 2011

Another month has passed and we are already a week into September. Today is my Son's first day at college. He is studying A-levels in Computing, Business Studies, Physics and Electronics and he is also taking an enrichment course in Fitness to gain a qualification as a Fitness Instructor. I have said that he can get me fit! :) This week has been my last week off work and I have been very busy decorating our bedroom. All the painting is now finished and I have almost completed the curtains - I just need to hem them now. All we now need are two bedside lamps and some new bed linen, but I can't decide on a set yet!!

Back to August and time for the monthly mosaics.

The highlight of August for me was spending a week in Norfolk with my parents. We had the best week weather wise; this August was the seventh wettest since records began in 1914. Back home I kept warm by the oven, whilst baking cakes! The cupcakes in the middle of the mosaic I made and took to Norfolk for my Mum's birthday.

In the garden the flowers have survived all the rain, although some have looked rather bedraggled at times. The lawn has loved the rain; it is lush and in need of another cut when the rain stops!

It has been so dull this month that the tomatoes in the greenhouse are late to ripen. I hope that they are ready before the frosts start, otherwise I will have to make lots of green tomato chutney. Soon it will be time to replant the patio pots for winter and to bring in the less hardy plants. There is a definite autumnal chill to the mornings now. I'm still hanging on to wearing sandals, but I suspect that won't be for much longer. It will be Halloween before we know it! (At least I didn't say Christmas!!)

Best wishes, Pj x