* Miffy & New Bibs *

The summer sun has inspired my baby bib making lately - I made this Birdie bib during my holiday in the South of France. The yellow of the sunflowers that were beginning to peep out in the vast sunflower fields (as well as Miffy's lovely yellow outfit) reminded me what a cheering colour bright yellow is - I'm sure baby will think the same!

Here is Miffy modelling the Birdie bib:

I also thought baby should have a funky set of bibs, so I'm embarking on making some bandanna style ones starting with this yellow 'starry' bib:I embroidered some little stars with faces on some yellow cotton...it seems to be a bit big for Miffy, but will hopefully fit baby when she arrives!

I'm storing all my bibs and other little makes for baby in this basket - you can see some beautiful red and white knitted booties at the front - courtesy of brother Drew's knit-tastic mum, Mary!
Hope the summer sun is inspiring you too in your crafty/creative makes.

x*x*x

Button Lampshades & Damson Vodka

For a while now, my boring creamy coloured lampshade in my dining has been troubling me - how could I make it more interesting?

Well, I finally started work on it this weekend, by threading buttons into a red themed line...
...and added some feathers!
I'm going to add some more button threads and feathers, so it looks very bright and twinkling in the corner of my dining room :)

Also, Charlotte and I picked damson's in her mother in law's garden (Liz) who kindly let us forage!
I'm going to make some damson vodka or gin - check out a recipe I'm going to try here!
Here is the sum of our foraging:

Baskets and tubs full of damsons, some cooking apples and blackberries - its feeling more like a mini harvest festival looking at this!

I'm going to also try and make an apple and blackberry pie - YUM!

(Thanks to Charlotte for her lovely damson and fruit photos!)

x*x*

Summer Garden Goodness

I just want to celebrate a dreamy summer's day:

A happy, chilled cat...
Cherry picking in our neighbour's garden...







Watching the busy bees on the lavender - I want to make lavender cupcakes soon...

Picking salad for a summer lunch...


Home-made flan, with salad and herbs from the garden and home-made plum chutney from friends at Christmas...yummm...

A BBQ with beautiful friends, jumping like mad on a giant trampoline and seeing the moon glimmer in the summer dusky sky...
A great end to a great day!

x*x*

Boules Anyone?

For a while I have been wanting to get a Boules Set - an old one, from a dusty second hand shop/stall of course!


How charming to spend summer dusky evenings playing boules - Jon and I want to take a set away with us to all our holiday places to play with friends too (and wear a straw hat)...

If anyone sees a lovely set on their travels to their favourite charity shop haunts- can you let me know?

x*x*x