Just a quick hello

Hi blogettes just a quick one today as I've nothing much to report, I just thought I'd pop on while I had the computer out and say hello as I haven't blogged for a week.
I've been adding items to my website today. I spent yesterday taking photos of the items and last night hubby cropped and uploaded to the internet around half of them, so today I added them to my website with descriptions and prices. I think I've added about 18 or 19 new items today and hopefully if hubby gets the rest sorted tonight I can add the others to the website tomorrow.
Working with my jewellery the last couple of days has put me in the mood to make some more so I think I might have to get my beads out for a little play next week. It will be time to change the stock in the shop in a couple of weeks so I should make some new pieces for there.
Right well as I said this is a quickie so I think I'll get off now and go do a bit of my knitting before dinner time.
Happy crafting girls xx

P.S.I finished the pair of slippers I mentioned in my last blog  heres a pic

Busy week

Hello girls. Hope everyone is well and busy crafting, I'm well and I've been quite busy since my last post. Hubby and I enjoyed his holiday from work and made good use of the fine (if a little cool) weather and got quite a few jobs done in the garden. We also had a day off and went shopping which was nice.
I managed to get a bit of crafting in on an evening  too, I made another couple of bears for mum and a pram blanket (like the one I knitted for eily a while ago). I'd just started knitting a top for myself when mum asked me if I could make someone a pair of knitted slippers like the ones I made before christmas, so my top has been put on hold while I knit those now.

Yestereday I did a bit of sewing and made this dress for Eilys grandaughter. I made a prototype a while ago in plain white fabric but it was much too big in size. The pattern said fits 3-6 months but it was more suitable for a toddler and even showed a picture of a baby wearing it standing up who looked at least one. Hubby and I played about with the sizing and came up with what we hope is a better size for a baby. Its a pale pinky lilac colour with a little white daisy print and then I have added a white daisy trim to the neck waist and hem, it fastens with two buttons on the back.

Front of dress

Back view of dress

Gardening

Hello girls.
Hubby and I are off out in the garden soon to do some work, its about time too. We aren't great gardeners or regular gardeners either for that matter, but this week hubby has the week off work and we decided it was past time to get some jobs done out there.
Originally we had planned to go up to scotland to visit my sister and her family sunday till wednesday so we could go out for day trips with my sister and her kids who are also on holiday this week. When we visit we usually go on a saturday stay overnight and come home sunday and Ali is always saying we should go up for a bit longer so we can all go out and do something for the day. So we said we'd do that this week ,unfortunatey the weather forecast had other ideas and forecast rain and heavy rain for the days we would be up there,  Typical the blooming weather always lets me down so we decided to postpone our trip.
As the weather was forecast to be dry here we decided to get some jobs done in the garden instead. So out we went yesterday with our trowels etc ready to tackle the weeds. At the top of our garden in front of the house we have two plots covered in slate pieces that we stand pots on in summer and for the last couple of years one plot has been steadily filling up with a weed called horsetail. We pull it up and coat it with weedkiller but nothing seems to stop it.
Yesterday we decided to drag all the slate off the plot and lift the weed suppressing membrane thats underneath to try to get to the roots of the weeds. Well by eck girls it was like a birds nest under there, the whole plot was covered in a mass of roots all knottted together and going off in every direction. We pulled and pulled and only managed to get the top layer off, there was no way these roots were giving up their home easily.  We came in for a cuppa and I googled how to get rid of horsetail to see if I could find any tips.

Nasty horsetail weed

What I found wasnt very encouraging. Basically you can't kill the bugger, just attempt to weaken it and keep on top of it !!!!!!! The roots can go down for about 5 to 10 feet and there are hundreds of them intertwined so digging them out is near on impossible, unless you have a digger and dont mind a ten foot home in your garden, even then you may not get it all. They are resistant to most weedkillers and even burning them didn't work for one person who claimed to have tried this. Basically the advice given was to pull the shoots off as soon as you saw them before the spores came out and spread, which eventually would weaken the plant as you pulled off its light source and it depleted its food source but as each weed could spawn hundreds more you're unikely to ever get rid of it totally. WONDERFUL just what a sporadic garden like myself wanted to hear, basically I'd need to be out there pulling off about a hundred shoots every week.!!!!!
Well this was not what hubby wanted to hear either and so a plan was needed ....
Our plan is to concrete over the plot and hope to choke the roots and cut off their route to the surface!!!!!!  Now this might not work forever as the roots could find their way through little gaps and cracks that may appear in the concrete over time but for this year hopefully it should get rid of most of them. So off hubby went to B&Q and bought some bags of ready mix concrete and then off we went back into the garden.
Ten bags of concrete and two achey people later and the plot is covered in concrete. BYE BYE WEEDS... we hope... Today when its dry we'll cover it back up with slate ready for some pots to go on top.
We also pulled up most of the other weeds in the gardens and sprayed the hard to pull or nettley ones with weedkiller to pull up later and I scrubbed the tabe and chairs ready for painting,
Today we're out to get the last few weeds and then its onto painting the fences and table and chairs with wood stuff and replacing the slate. No doubt when hubby and I come in tonight we'll look like we have very bad freckles as we'll be probably be covered in lots of specks of dark oak fence stuff. Whenever we've done the job in the past we always seem to get as much on us as the wood.
Right well hubby has already gone out so I best be off ladies enjoy your day and wish me luck xx

Five teddies

I sewed up and stuffed the other two bears yesterday while mum was visiting and sent them off with her to be sold for charity.
Heres a pic of all five before they left. I'm quite missing them sitting on my shelf now they've gone.

All ready to go

Old photos and teddy bears

Hi blogettes.
Well my cold is more or less gone now just the odd snuffly moment but I'm thankful to be able to say it wasn't a really bad one.
Its my sisters birthday today and being as she lives up in scotland I won't be seeing her so I've sent her pressies and card up by post and I text her this morning to wish her happy birthday. She's recently joined facebook so I've left her a message on facebook too wishing her a happy birthday, the wonders of modern technology eh. When I was thinking about wishing her happy birthday on facebook I remembered an old photo mum has of us both at skegness as kids hugging and I thought being as I'm not there to give her a hug in person I'd send her a pic of us hugging instead so I posted the photo on her facebook page with my birthday message.
There are a few photos from this day out which look like we had a fun time. Ali and me are in more or less matching outfits. Flared tousers, sandals with socks!!! our fave flintstone tshirts and red zip up hoodies. Fashion icons or what eh.
I love looking through mums old photos they bring back such lovely memories and they usually give us the giggles at some of the fashions in clothes hair and furniture etc from times gone by.

Me and big sis x

I've been knitting more teddy bears like the one on my last post, I said I'd enjoyed knitting it and would probably end up making more and sure enough I have. So far I've knitted and stuffed another two and also knitted two more that are waiting to be stuffed and sewn up. I just cant seem to stop knitting them lol. My mum is going to take them to the crafters group she's part of and put them on their stall next time they go to a fair and sell them with the rest of the things they make and sell for charity.

Two more teddies

Well mums coming over for a visit today so I best be off as I want to make an orange flan for later and she'll be here soon she said she'd be here around lunchtime.
Hope you're all well and enjoying crafting xxx