Snapdragon's garden

Cobbler's niece

It is a sad thing that since I began sewing for a living I have found less and less time to sew for myself, for friends and for family.

Once I head up to the house of an evening I rarely venture back down to sew for pleasure.  I am much more likely to be working on a needlepoint or some knitting.

This weekend however I decided to make a present for my youngest niece's 1st birthday which is next week.

I settled on a playmat with a road and fields - partly because I think its really useful and fun - partly because this is the first time I had quilted anything and I wanted lots going on to hide the flaws.

First I appliqued the top with a cord road and linen fields and river - with a few embroidered fish swimming about.

Then I sandwiched in some wadding and a plain red linen back and basically drew with my freehand needle to keep it all together.

 and give it some texture.  I fashioned some bias binding out of more of the red linen and edged the whole thing neatly.

ready for the wooden animals which arrived today.

So now I have 3 whole days to play with it myself before handing it over  . . .

 

And relaaaaaxxxxxxx

Yesterday we got all the outstanding Christmas orders out the door -

This is the camera shy Valerie heading out the door with the last of yesterday's mail sacks - she and Donna packed  and dispatched an unbelievable 185 orders yesterday.

Which means that today and tomorrow can be dedicated to re-doing any orders that are reported lost, tidying up the workshop and planning for next year.

Most urgently I need to finalise designs for some new postcards which go to print on 4th January.

Here is a sneaky peak at a couple of new meadow ones.

It also means that I am back to working normal hours and that our family Christmas can start.  Last night we began to clear the house of all its accumulated junk and got the first of the Christmas decorations out.

The vintage paper fans are from Acorn and Will and the paper Christmas trees by Pearl and Earl.

I love the way that they are nostalgic yet not at all cluttery.

On a personal level, it is wonderful to have whole evenings stretching ahead - next year I need more help - and to be able to spend time cooking and reading and snuggling up with my family!

I am feeling very much like Dixie - prone to curl up and doze at any opportunity

London

Last week we went to London as a family for the October Schools week.  Its really the last chance I get to relax before the Christmas rush kicks in.

We stayed in a lovely rented flat in Soho, we ate out (and ate out and ate out), we met with friends, went to see War Horse and the Gerhard Richter exhibition - both amazing

We visited Kew and the BBC. 

We fitted more into 3 days than we have into the last 6 months. And then we went to see The Pierces at Shepherds Bush Empire and got the Caledonian Sleeper home.

I also bought this

A silver leather satchel which I have been coveting for ages on the Pedlars website.  It was officially my treat for taking up "running" and sticking at it for longer than I have before.

But now it is acting as a great reminder that - especially after all that eating out and eating out - I need to strap on my trainers this afternoon!

 

Katie's party

On Sunday it was Katie's 11th Birthday party.  Instead of the usual trip to bowling or the cinema she asked if she could invite the whole class and have a disco in the house.

Of course I said yes.

I bought wonderful paper decorations from Pearl and Earl so that we could make the space look partyish on a budget.  Mostly I bought paper streamers and sewed them together to make more impact

then we hung a wonderful bright pink pom-pom from the middle of the ceiling (I am SO in love with this it will come out for every party from now on)

I spray painted allium Christophii seedheads in zingy colours

and hung them in the windows

I made a cheese and pineapple hedgehog or 2

put out the food and drink

retired to a safe distance and let them get on with it . . .

Camp life

On uploading my holiday photos from our trip to Denmark and Sweden I find that there are 640 of them.  They are going to take some editing.

In the meantime here are some campsite images.

 My home for the past 3 weeks - a bell tent - the girls get the camper.

 the slow pace of camping life gave a bit of time for my girls to be creative

and for Euan and I to relax completely

Before we went, people kept saying how "brave" we were to take a 1973 campervan touring.

But I'm delighted to report that, give or take the odd window winder, Dougal made it home unscathed!

2 dozen down

Its a special day today.

It is 24 years since Euan and I decided to risk our friendship and get "more serious"

We'd actually left school by then - this is leavers 1986 - but pretty much looked as we did in this photo (I am there with open toed sandles I had painted dark red with nail varnish worn with dark tights - hmmm ).  Euan is mainly hidden by the blonde barnet of Sandy Horsfall. When I look back I think "what babies!"

 
Best gamble I ever made.

Sunshine shoes

These are my sunshine shoes

and they hardly seem to have been worn this year at all - the last time was when we were on Islay in April.

The girls break up from school tomorrow and to celebrate we are heading off for a couple of days Dougalling

He is just back from getting his speedometer fixed (we decided that strapping the sat nav onto the steering wheel would probably not continue to pass muster) and is purring along.

All we need now is weather that allows me to stomp along some West Coast beaches in those shoes.

Dixie

Its well over a month since Dixie came to live with us.

We decided to get another dog as Jasmine seemed to be a bit morose on her own - quite happy to sleep out her days in the workshop in a way that didn't seem quite right for a 6 year old.

and it has certainly worked - the two of them spend their days wrestling and chasing - and have to be frequently booted out of the workshop to give us all some peace.

Dixie has settled into the rythm of our lives really well - I'm not saying that there isn't a lot of this kind of face when she is caught chewing something she shouldn't

But then who could possibly resist?

None of us anyway.

Old photos

My Dad, having got to grips with his computer, has downloaded lots of old slides and gave me a memory stick full of them (how apt the term sounds in that context).

Along with lots of glam 1960s shots of my Mum (which she won't let me post) there are masses of my childhood.

These are my 2 favourites

My friend Jonathan (long lost) and I in the garden at Killingwirth, The Hawthorns, Gullane where we lived at the time.

I love my pixie boots and umbrella - though I'm not sure of the "underwear as outerwear" look of lumpy tights.

What I did on my holidays

Last week we took our first Dougalling outing of the season - down to The Quiet Site at Ullswater.

To be3 brutally honest, the trip did not start well - an hour into the trip Dougal was kangarooing down the M74 and needed Green Flag Rescue to tow him to a garage in Thornliebank. 

The bad news was that the fuel pump had broken, the good news that the garage had a spare and we were able to get it fixed and back on the road within a couple of hours.  The weather was horrible though, driving rain and a gusting wind that managed to relieve us of a windscreen wiper and the number plate as we drove through the Lake District.

Pitching the awning was interesting and eventually the wind got so fierce that it ripped the zips off the front and we had to hold the flapping canvas together with groovy bird pegs.

8 pm saw us all playing Pass the Pig in the onsite pub downing ale and coca cola, musing on whether camping was all its cracked up to be.

The next morning though, the sun shone, the bacon sizzled and it all turned around.

We had what turned out to be a fantastic holiday in the Lake District,

sailing

walking (rather more uphill than Zoe and I anticipated)

Dozing in the sunshine

and having a sing song.

We were sad to leave, but not too sad as there was the excitement of picking up this little bundle of cheek on the way home

Meet Miss Dixie Glen.