Taoist Birthday's and Crafty Fun !!

Well ! I seem to have been rushed off my feet, but have found my crafting mojo - popped up from somewhere!

Nice Birthday Weekend - it was my eldest Son's Birthday today, where have all those 24 years gone? Its scary!

Now, my Son goes his own way, follows his own path, is indeed his own Man - the kind of attributes I had hoped to foster in my children. This path encompasses the Tao - he lives his life as closely as possible to the understanding of Taoist teachings. Its too complicated to go into here - look on the web - tons of stuff there!

But part of this lifestyle means he doesn't want things, for 'wants' sake, doesn't really want new fashionable clothes etc - makes buying presents really difficult!

So I thought I would make him a Meditation mat, I had noticed, on a nice day he takes an old towel into the garden to sit on (and meditate). I just used an old vintage blanket and appliqued a Taoist symbol in the centre. Around this grows a tree - from one side to the other the leaves symbolising the changing seasons of the year.

The height of Summer moving into Autumn - even a little acorn!

Around the outside of the tree - moving through all the seasons are footprints with embroidered words - all have a meaning to those following the Tao.





He seemed pleased with it, either that or he is just humouring his old Mum! And of course I enjoyed making it it for him!

On the crafting front - like I said found my mojo!
Once I had papered the walls in my summerhouse I was so pleased with the result I decided to do a similar effect on the walls in my hallway. I wanted a mis-mash of different types of print, I have music, old letterpress print, old vintage wallpaper to give a slight touch of colour, old discoloured newspapers and lots of other bits and bobs. Today I found an old booklet (in pieces ) of vintage Christmas music!
It will be a 'Conversational' piece if nothing else!




Here's Hubby P with his latest find - an old Opticians Eye Testing Box - thingy - twas only £1!
Unfortunately he couldn't get it to work - some bits missing. The paper roll inside should/or would at one time roll slowly down showing different letters and symbols for the client to read - usually at a set distance. The apparatus is housed in a lovely wooden box with little doors, the whole thing had been fixed to a wall.

It couldn't be fixed so Hubby P suggested he at least save the printed roll from inside, so that I could use it on my wall - or some other crafty thing - such a clever Hubby P!!

I just love it - what is it about printed papers?!

And just look at these wonderful children's symbols - well assuming they were for children, maybe if you couldn't read you could at least recognise a row of soldiers!!

More action with the pasting brush - Hubby P says 'he dare'snt sit still for too long'!!

I found a nice old suitcase, twas a bit tatty inside so I lined it with this rather nice paper featuring stylish Vintage-y Ladies. I found the paper in one of those lovely, delightfully expensive shops that you usually love to browse in - but find everything just too pricey! Could only afford one sheet - but even that was tied with a ribbon and put in a posh bag!

Finished case, with todays Carboot sale finds.

Cant wait to use my little case, I am going to fit it out with nice Vintage-y toiletries and fluffy towel, use it as a nice weekend bag. Just need to arrange a nice weekend away now!

Some of today's finds, pretty hippy- dippy scarf 50p from a nice young woman emigrating - somewhere - I am sure she said - cant remember - must be my age!

Pretty covered coat hangers - just like my Grandmother had - am I becoming my Grandmother!? OMG as the youngsters say!

Yet more Dairy Maid to add to my collection, some pretty purses - and a whole box full of fabric!!

I am the woman who said 'No more', 'No more' - 'I have no more room for any more fabric'!

My Name Is Vicky - And I Am A Fabricoholic!!!!!

How could I refuse this whole box of vibrant, colourful, delightful fabric all for £5. All are big pieces a couple are large pieces of wool - others are vintage acrylic types. No doubt it will all be used in the fullness of time - the Poi I made for Will to take to the Festival sold like hotcakes.
I'm a sucker for these bright vibrant colours!

Anyway enough for now - this has been a huge post - thank you for bearing with me.

xx Take care for now xx

And then there were three little bunnies!

Hello there! Had a good Weekend?

We have been ever so' busy with a house full of friends and family, a great gathering of the 'clan' - the great and the good - and not so good I dare say!

So not too much of interest, not much crafting, or car booting, to 'blog' about -

The sad news is that we lost two of the baby rabbits, so we are down to three. They seem to be okay, doing well - she says with crossed fingers! I look at them that many times during the day - willing them to be well and thrive, I think they think I am really rather odd!!

They seem to be eating well, and they are as nosey as ever!

On the gardening front I was gifted a nice Morning Glory - a climbing plant, for helping with the Family 'bash' - some people are just so kind.
Its just waiting for me to brave the rain and plant it!

The rain and wind has been awful here! Its wrecked the garden, blowing over all my nice tall hollyhocks just as they are beginning to flower.

Just thought I would show you this odd little photo, its supposed to be of the dogs - but they moved! But its a nice picture of my metal stand with a new carboot find - a tatty old enamel dish and jug, I thought it looked quite - well - very 'Country living'!!

Say 'Hello' to Fly!

Fly has come to us from a friend, who has changed jobs and finds caring for her a bit difficult. Fly was a rescue dog, in terrible condition when Maria first got her. She is a bit better now in a physical way, but so very timid, and cowers at the least little thing.

We think she is about 7 yrs old, but she is very small, and looks so vulnerable.

So now we have Fly - waifs and strays often wander through our gate, sometimes they live out their lives with us, sometimes they move on. I like to think we do what we can, and our lives are all the more richer for it.

She seems to have settled well, she gets on with our other dog Uncas, he is a big softy, part sheepdog, husky and wolf, he is big and can look scary, but she's got the measure of him - she is boss!

A little carboot sale find yesterday.

First of all I must give away one of Hubby P's weaknesses - he is a Womble Fan - remember the Wombles!!!! (The Wombles of Wimbleden were a childrens TV programme in the 70/80's - for those of you over the pond!).

Anyway over the years Hubby P has had a special Womble pillowcase - swears he can't sleep without it!

I have a few of this design, so that he always has a clean one, but I have only ever seen this one design.

So imagine my delight at finding this other 'new' design in a pile of bed linen at the carboot sale!

Of course Hubby P was just delighted! - more Wombles!!

It was nice and clean (although I put it through the wash just to freshen it up), and it came with a single duvet cover. I shall keep the duvet cover for the fabric - may even make him a Womble nightshirt! Or would that be a bit much?**

That's all for now folks, just off to rescue my washing off the washing line, this wind is getting stronger!

xx Take care xx bye for now xx

Sad News! and everyday stuff!

A few pretty flowers for you!

I have some sad news today, although the baby rabbits are ok, their Mother sadly died over the weekend. All I can think is that she picked up some kind of infection after/during the birth, and just couldn't shake it off. She seemed fine until a few days ago - I was a bit worried she was getting thin, but I thought that was due to her suckling her young.

Luckily the young are old enough to get on without her. I buried her under a nice Rosemary bush. Another few weeks and I will start looking for homes for the babies.

On a lighter not, I found this for 50p at the car boot sale on Sunday - its a tourist-y thing with 'Paris' embroidered on it, but the hat is a good quality beret. So I bought it thinking I could do something with it! (well for 50p!!!)





I had some nice Vintage pretty bits in my sewing stash, so I just covered up the tacky 'Paris' with a - well, a kinda flower thing-y! I think it works quite well!






'This week we have mostly' - been playing Poi.
For those of you who don't know what on earth I am talking about (I didn't know until last week!) Poi is a set of two weighted lengths of something - these on the photo are fabric, but you can buy them as weighted balls on lengths of string. And you do a series of moves/patterns, twirling them about.
Some people do it with lighted (as on fire!) Poi - I have ruled that out completely, we have enough accidents in this house!



Apparently its all the rage with the young folk at the music festivals, so Will (seen above) who is going to 'Glade' (a Festival for all us who are past thinking of such things!) asked if 'we' could make some for him and his friends. The 'we' of course being me doing all the sewing - him filling the bags of rice for weights! I managed to find some old - Vintage I might add, crimpoline fabric from my stash to make them. We found this worked better than cotton - its that bit elastic-y.
And I found a big piece of jazzy crimpoline at the car boot, so we made some more!




We made so many he's taking lots and going to sell them at the Festival!

There was so much of this jazzy stripy fabric I made some colourful bunting! We are having a Party this weekend, just a family thing, but I thought it would look rather jolly!

As its Tuesday today - its car boot sale day!

Just one or two things today, a nice cake plate with pretty roses, and a 1940's bottle of Yardley Lavender scent. The scent comes in its original box with a little hand written note from Thomas, dated 1940! So sweet!

Flowers too, some unusual ceramic (white) ones and deep purple flowers - paper or perhaps wood - I'm not sure. They make a nice display alongside my Lily's from the garden.

xx That's all for now folks xx Take care xx

Welcome to our little Grandson!

He's arrived at last! Safe and sound! And suitably unimpressed with the rest of us!

Hubby P and I ventured off our little Island and headed to the big city (well not really a city - but it seems big, noisy and fast to us country bumpkins!) to see our grandson - and what a little smasher!

What is it about babies? who can resist a cuddle!

Hubby P got a bit of a smile - or was it a yawn. Otherwise he took us all in his tiny stride, was happy to be handed around and cuddled.

He is our our first Grandson, we have two Granddaughters so a little boy is always nice to balance things out, one can get a bit tired of forever pink and glittery!

We just spent the day with them - you know how it is, everyone wants to meet the new arrival, constant visitors, it can be so tiring for baby and mum. Hubby P too needed a good 24hrs to get over the hectic emotional day! Not that he's at all a softie, of course!!*

We had only been away for a day (a day with lots of rain I might add) and the garden was positively zinging with colour!

So fresh and lush with all the rain.

Unfortunately the shallots have gone to seed, but don't they look nice with their little bulbous tops, I think I will just leave them to add interest to the garden.

On the crafting front, not a lot. We seem to have been so busy, last week was a very sad week, we lost a good friend, and had the Funeral and all that entails - so sad, Helen left three daughters and young grandchildren.

On a lighter note - we had a lovely visit from Twiggy (Twiggypeasticks - see side bar) and family, they were on holiday here on Anglesey. I think they had a nice time - the weather was fabulous - lots of playing in the sea I believe.

And of course the new baby!

I did however finish the bodyform/dressmakers dummy thing-y, do you remember I was covering it in papier mach'e. Well I finished with a top layer of old vintage music. I am quite pleased with her - just need to 'dress' her now - find some nice vintage-y bits and bobs!

Not a terribly good photo - here she's just drying outside.

Bunny watch!

All doing well, the little ones are starting to nibble at food I put in for mum. I try and give them a little something different most days. They enjoy fresh herbs from the garden, not too keen on boring old white cabbage!

Mum seems to getting a bit bored with them now!

One or two carboot-y bits ( I took Hubby P on Sunday, to unwind from the hectic day we had on Saturday - visiting the big city!)
A couple more bits of the Better Maid ware that I collect. The little white and red watering can is also Better maid, although it looks nothing like the other pieces I have! Still, its pretty and I like it!

I just loved this little tin - nothing in it yet, but I'm sure it will lend itself to holding some nice pretty buttons or something. Please excuse the sticky label mark and whatnot, I haven't got around to giving it a was yet!

It just reminded me of the pretty butterflies that grace my garden during the summer - butterflies must be some of the most wonderful little beings we have in the garden - those and Faeries of course!

Here's one I chased around the garden with the camera - the only place it would stay long enough for a photo was on the heap of building materials! Obviously not one for posing nicely on flower!

Well - back to the everyday stuff now, washing to do, dinner to prepare, still - its sunny outside, we have a lot to be thankful for!

Ta ta for now xx