Autumn, gifts, penny rug, Winter cottage.

I love the bright colours on this cupboard shelf. They are the perfect antidote to the weather we’ve been having. I love the following song from War of the Worlds.

My front door with a scene I made from offcuts from other projects. I used a rippled glass for where the waterfalls hits the lake.
Son did a bit of crafting while we were watching Australia’s Next Top model final. Alice won but we were rooting for Stef. He did the cut work with the blade from a pencil sharpener. I think I need to get him a cut mat of his own and some safer scapels! :-0 I like the “HI” which looks like waves hitting the shore. waves + hi – I like the idea.
I did a little work myself. Winter Cottage
Here they are together. I hope to do a little circle something in the centre “sow, grow reap, sleep” to unite the seasons.
This is the beautiful silk hanky one of the Chinese girls gave to daughter. Aren’t they sweet!

Daughter is in town at the moment with her friends who slept over. I think they got the noise down to a reasonble level by 2.30am and quiet by 3am. Still she is only 16 once (Monday). I now have to brace myself for her 18th next. It is so weird being the parent of teenagers. They are already bigger than me and inside I still feel like a kid myself some days.
This wonderful package arrived from Messy Karen– she was giving away all sorts of fabrics. These batiks are wonderful. She also sent more of the fabric which I used for the Spring Cottage roof. My peg bag is in this fabric too with pale green and pink (blogged before) with a bird house design on. Thank you so much also Karen for sending candy corn for Halloween. I’ve had several offers of help with that. 🙂 As far as I know, nowhere round here sells it, so it is very much appreciated.

The wonderful woman also sent me bookmark kits! Give me a few years and I will look just like this witch- isn’t she fabulous! I’ll get some things in to the post for you as soon as I can.
This arrived from Tracy at Pink Purl to brighten my day. Gorgeous shade of pink. She knows just how perfect the timing of this was. She also makes such elegant jewellery, but that will have to wait until Monday. Shhhh secrets from daughter!
Inside were the fabrics I had won in her giveaway. ooo ideas and plans! Must remember to build a cloning machine. 🙂
You’ll have to click to see all the detail here. The round tin has my little special bits in. I took a tiny 1887 Queen Victoria penny out so you could see it more clearly. The tin with oranges in has my cream-peach-orange buttons in. While delving in there I found the bottom row of buttons. Now wouldn’t they make great tree trunks with yo-yos for the trees as a border on a quilt or something? I’m at it again with the ideas. LOL
Anyway I picked out 6 to be the centre of the cream flowers. I had been waiting for the right project for the square and hexagonal buttons. I ran out of thread for these tongues so 3 on the right aren’t done. I’m using a cream vintage thread to sew around the main section.
Now how’s this blurry pic of nature imitating art? A blackbird on the cotoneaster berries.

Cotoneaster
Crows high up at Halsall
Fircones. This would make a lovely Christmas photo if the frost were on them.
Halsall Wood
Oak leaves
A fallen fir cone
The front garden lavender is still going. I left half of it on the hedge for the bees but I need to think about harvesting it for the Winter soon.

Ok and finally finally:
Thank you so much Tracy.

Along with this award comes a tag, and this Meme is about 7’s…

7 Things I plan to do before I die:
1. Climb Machu Piccu in Peru
2. Make a quilt with machine quilting done with those stencil things- to me this is the epitome of quilting. 🙂
3. Make some of EH Shepherd’s Wind in the Willows illustrations from fabric.
4. Move house again.
5. Read all the Elm Creek Quilt novels
6. Remain deeply in love with my husband
7. Become a nicer person

7 Things I do now:
1. Sims 2
2. Crafts of all sorts.
3. Write novels -not very well
4. Take photos
5. Watch TV
6. Try to walk the dogs in interesting places and learn more about this area
7. Talk to the TV when the characters are being divs and not listening to me. 🙂 I’m turning into a Grumpy Old Woman

7 Things I can’t do:
1. Be smiley nice- sorry no can do: face cracks and the inner sarky crude me comes out. LOL
2. Mobile phones. They hate me and die and I can’t to predictive text. If someone gets a gobbledegook message they know it’s me trying to say something and they’d be better off trying to talk to me in person. Ooo and if phone vibrates in my hand, I automaticaly throw it before thinking… could be part of the reason why they die so quickly? 🙂
3. Science- it’s all pixie’s and fairies. As far as I’m concerned electricity is made by fairies beating their wings fast.
4. Run- left leg is slower than right after back damage. Yep I found this out the hard way measuring my length on the canal tow-path.
5. Resist gorgeous fabrics.
6. Accept a compliment without saying something to depreciate it- e.g. “You look nice” “Well you should see me without make up”. Instead I need to say “Thank you, that was a lovely thing to say”.
7. Tolerate injustice, bullying, inequality, sexism, racism, ageism, and all those otherthings that insecure people do to try to feel better about themselves. I want to change the world but know I can’t so I try to to my bit.

7 Things that attract me to the Opposite Sex:
(Ok if I was leching out of a car window it would be physical stuff,(I was good though, I didn’t take a pic of those young cyclists in their lycra shorts! ) but as a married woman I’ll share what attracted me to hubby).
1. The way he talked and thought about things -deeper than a lot of men I had spoken with.
2. Independance of opinion- he didn’t follow the crowd and didn’t mind saying what he thought.
3. He knew and had records of an obscure band I got to know in Europe but no one knew in England at that time. His record collection was bigger than mine too so needed investigating with a load of blank tapes. 🙂
4. We shared the same moral ideals and generosity of spirit. He is more giving than me though.
5. He was man enough to allow me to be a woman yet not expect me to be chained to the kitchen sink. We still don’t stick to steriotypical roles -he’s a pretty good cook and does a lovely coq-au-vin. I was very much a tom-boy when we met.
6. Beautiful eyes- gateways to the soul
7. Big broad comfy shoulders.

7 Things that I say most often:
1. Lovely
2. Wonderful
3. Gorgeous
4. Brilliant
5. Only boring people get bored
6. Coffee!
7. I have a cunning plan (I loved the Blackadder series).

7 Celebrities that I admire:
1. Angela Lansbury (Jessica Fletcher in Murder She Wrote).
2. Joan Hickson (Miss Marple- even Agatha Christie said she was her idea of miss Marple)
3. David Suchet (Poirot)
I’ll now have to bend the rules a bit. So many celebrities don’t seem to do anything worthwhile with their money or time, so I’m going to add famous authors.

4. Charles de Lint- he brought fairy land into the C21st with his Newford based books.
5. Miss Read – she brought the Cotswolds to people world wide in her Thrush Green books based on Wood Green in Witney Oxfordshire. (I have a little bookcase in my room with these 2 authors on).
6.Kenneth Graham for writing The Wind in the Willows. My fav children’s book of all time. I still love rivers.
7. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle for inventing Sherlock Holmes.

7 Favorite Foods:
1. Crispy roast duck pancakes with plum sauce -Chinese style
2. Roast lamb shank with smashed potato
3. Liver and onions with rich gravy
4. Fresh pineapple
5. Tomato soup with grated cheese.
6. Hot buttery toast
7. Crisps (potato chips)

Please feel free to claim this award and do the meme.


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