The morning after

We enjoyed long lazy days of glorious sunshine during June and the petunias in my pots just kept on blooming. The entire garden was a blaze of vibrant colour.....wonderful!

July brought showers and finally, last night, torrential rain and wind. The pretty heads of my poor petunias were ripped from their stems and tossed around the patio.

In fact flowers all around the garden are now a sorry sight!

I've rescued a few brave little roses that survived the storm and have popped them in water. As the weekend forecast is for more heavy rain I shall have to be content to view the garden through the window.

I wish I knew the secret of retaining a perfect garden in our wet and windy British climate?

Indoors or out, enjoy your weekend.

Fun times

I wonder how many of you share your family holidays with a host of cuddly toys?

When my two children were very young I would pack one small cuddly toy and a book for them each to take. But one particular year, when they had grown a little older and wiser, I remember them asking, "Can the toys come with us?"

I had to disappoint them and refuse as I knew this could have entailed a great many cuddly characters coming along for the ride and taking up valuable space in the already full car.

And so we began the trip to our holiday destination with just two small toys and a few books.

However, we hadn't travelled far when, turning round to speak to the children in the seat behind, I was greeted by a large number of fluffy faces and giggles of delight. The toys had somehow been smuggled into the car when I wasn't looking and were now looking forward to having a happy holiday with their young owners.

If my children are reading this post they will no doubt remember the fun they had that year with........

Beggar and Kitty

Keele and Flora

Tosh and Sheba

Bonnie and Clyde

and last but by no means least, Mrs Mop and her little friend Maggie.

Seaside holidays in England can often be windy and wet but we are well used to braving the elements.

Whatever the weather, there are always reasons to be cheerful.

Mrs Mop was (and still is) guaranteed to put a smile on your face. Apparently she was 'smuggled' into university for a while by my daughter.

My children are grown now but this cuddly family can still be found in my son's old bedroom almost certainly looking to make more mischief when the time is right.

Cupboard love

How well I remember arriving home from school one afternoon (many years ago) to find my mother struggling to manoeuvre an enormous cupboard through our front door and into the hall. This scruffy brown stained item stood about 7ft tall and mum had enthusiastically purchased it from a local auction sale because 'its size offered numerous storage possibilities'. Two men with a large van had delivered the monster and now it was up to mum and me to get it indoors before my dad came home from work.

The cupboard had obviously been made by an amateur carpenter and apart from its 'storage possibilities' it had nothing to commend it. My dad was a craftsman and his woodworking skills were superb and so you can imagine the horrified look on his face when he arrived home to find mum and me still battling with the cupboard.

After much discussion he was eventually persuaded to lend a hand and with the shelves and doors removed the monster was taken indoors, but it only got as far as the front hall. Mum wasted no time in painting it white (inside and out) and the 'big cupboard', as it was affectionately known, became home to a great many household objects. And there it stayed for the next 6 years until we moved to a new house.

The big cupboard now found a home in the conservatory where it stayed for the next 24 years until my parents moved to a smaller house. With doors off and shelves removed it found a home in my mum's utility room.

Mum and dad sadly passed away 5 years ago and the big cupboard seemed to have reached the end of it's useful life as it was simply 'too big'. However, I was keen to inherit it (due to its storage possibilities) and with great difficulty and with much help from husband, son and daughter we eventually managed to get it through our back door and into the utility room, but no further. And what a useful cupboard it has been.

Then a few months ago we decided to give the utility room a much needed make-over and a new purpose built fitted cupboard was ordered. The end of the line for the big cupboard perhaps?.........

Happily I can tell you it's useful days are continuing. With some persuasion hubby agreed to dismantle the cupboard and then re-assemble it as you would a piece of flat pack furniture. The doors and shelves were removed (that was the easy bit) and then the cupboard was broken into smaller parts.

With 2 weeks of constant sunshine it has lived in the garden where hubby has stripped and sanded the various bits. You might just be able to spot him at work beyond the flower bed.

Once cleaned down I painted all the individual parts. Yesterday we reassembled the cupboard in my newly decorated breakfast room. And here it is looking very grand in its new home.

It has new knobs to match my blue and white theme 

and inside I'm able to store all the blue and white china that I've collected over the years.

The old cupboard has travelled a long way and had many homes and I feel sure my mum would be pleased to see it now looking so smart. It would be very easy to think of dozens of uses for it but for now I'm happy for it store my china and if I ever decide it should be moved, then the job will simply involve removing the necessary screws that hold it together. This would of course involve a strong man with a screw driver who knows how to reassemble it!

The fibres of life

Where would we be without natural fibres? So much of what we wear these days is made from synthetic materials that it was an absolute joy to visit our local Woolfest at the weekend. The large venue was awash with fibres of every colour and type.

Gorgeous crochet

Magnificent socks 

Scrumptious displays showing.....

.... felt of every shade

Skeins of vibrant fibres, mixed and matched

And amongst all this beauty were pens containing the irresistible animals that supply us with so much 'must have' fibre.

Shaggy sheep, waiting to be shorn. 

Sheep whose winter coats had been removed

  

 and the cutest angora rabbits who, unlike the sheep, refused to pose for my camera.

I had to show you these little dolls who were proudly wearing their traditional Norwegian knitwear. Aren't they adorable.

 I came home with a bag full of yarn and can't wait to use it.

I'll definitely be back next year!

Paint it white!

You might remember I recently told you we were stripping the wallpaper in our breakfast room. I was full of enthusiasm at the time and sure the room would be finished in record time.

But as always it has taken longer than we anticipated and we are only just getting round to completing it.

The walls are now bright and white.

The window is white

and the door, removed from its hinges and laid flat for painting is............ brilliant white. We always take large items into our garden room for painting as there is plenty of empty floor space.

We have a new carpet

and we did consider a new chandelier to replace an ancient one which we inherited when we bought the house. However, I decided it might look OK if I painted it white. What do you think?

Rest assured, it hasn't been all about painting things white round here. Whilst hubby has been glued to the TV watching the World Cup I've been experimenting with a few ideas. White ones of course!

Yesterday I began knitting this little snow bunny. It might become part of a festive pattern collection I'm planning for later in the year.

But enough about knitting!

I'm eager to get my china back in the dresser and have decided to display my vintage florals rather than my blue and white which has been in there for quite a while. My blue and white will have another home, but more of that in a later post.