Sunday Smile x 2

My photo taking of late has been pretty crap.  Well to be honest, it's never been great.  It's really been a luck of the 'click'.  So needless to say I was happily surprised to see this beauty when I was downloading photos from my camera late one night.  I don't see many butterflies in my garden and certainly not in late October, so this one made me smile twice, once when I saw it and again when I saw I actually captured it on camera!

Happy Sunday!  May your week be full of happiness and unexpected smiles.

Toodles...L x ♥

♥ October ♥

I know, I've been quiet again.  September has slipped by quietly with very few photos on my camera. I've been plodding along day to day, achieving very little it seems, until this weekend.  This weekend saw a flurry of activity....

• I turned the dining room/home office/sewing room into a bomb site....and then back into an almost tidy dining room/home office/sewing room.  Almost tidy, with just a tiny bit of clutter, because it wouldn't be my house without a touch of clutter.
• I started a new/old/new knitting project (no photo yet, don't want to jinx it).  My Paulie Cardigan was nearly finished, just down to one cuff, when I realized that unless I looked like a potato with tooth pick arms it was never going to fit.  While I do possess the potato shape body, getting rounder by the chocolate bar, what I lack is the toothpick arms.  Oh how i wish I had toothpick arms and a toothpick body to go with it....so onward to a new project.  Fingers crossed!
• I've been enjoying the zinnas and sweet peas from the garden, along with a zillion tomatoes.  My first successful year with sweet peas!  Yay for sweet peas, although I am sad I have no sweet pea seed pods growing so I'll have them for next year.  A marketing ploy to make me buy more seeds I am sure.
• Loving this sweet roll top sewing box I won on eBay.  Sorry, no exciting bidding war, just my single bid.  The Mister helped me do a little fix with some wood glue and sand paper and the little top rolls like a dream
• Enjoying the last of the summer flowers in the garden. They'll be gone any day now as the temperatures drop quickly. It is after all October and there will be snow soon.  Big J doesn't believe in snow in October and so I show him this photo. . 
• Our newest edition, Sir Charlies, is settling in well....wellish really.  He cries like a baby whenever I leave, it breaks my heart.  He also escapes anytime I leave, so we've been busy building new gates and fixing fences. It's not working, he can squeeze through anything.  He's fine when anyone else leaves, just me.  He has a fetish for socks, rocks and acorns.  All of which I find rather annoying on the living room rug in the morning, but I rather see the rocks on the rug than listen to him throw them up in the air and crash down on our new wood floors.

 
So there we have it.  

The pumpkin month is upon us and it is almost list summer never happened.  

Why does time go by so fast these days?

 

I do hope all is well with you.  

Thank you for stopping by, I shall be back.

 

Toodles..L x ♥

This Month....August....

Well it seems August is almost gone, in fact I woke today and felt sad I had missed blogging before the end of the month. I was happy when I sat down at the computer to see I was wrong!  It seems that summer has slipped away quickly this year (again) and I've had little time to blog, although things have been relatively quiet this year.  

I've been harvesting the garden, enjoying the flowers and of course indulging in my sewing machine obsession.  My latest find, is by far my best bargain both in price and performance.  This machine sewing (Singer 27, sorry no photo) sews like a dream and on it's first day home I treadled away and whipped up a little runner for it.

Although I have another treadle machine, which works, I've never actually made anything on one before.  I never could quite master the treadle action and my bum ankle last year did nothing to help.  However, this machine is a dream to treadle and I'm hoping it could be considered a form of exercise?  Anyway, this machine is quickly becoming by far my favorite!

In addition to harvesting hoards of tomatoes from the garden (and Big J making delicious spaghetti sauce), this year we've managed our first pumpkins!  I know they are a bit early to pick, but the vine got some blight and died, so we've got three in already.  I'm so excited, but I don't hold much hope they will last till Halloween for pumpkin carving.

As the summer has whizzed by, we've made a few runs down the big city to visit the in-laws and run Big J back and forth to the airport.  Not my favorite way to spend 6 precious weekend hours, but each trip involves me pleading with the Mister to stop for vital supplies of Orangina.  Just to lessen the pain of those hours in the car.  Until this last run I always thought it was an American drink, since it was the first drink I ever had on my first trip to the USA over 27 years ago.  Come to find out I was wrong, which would explain why my American friends looked so puzzled every time I ranted about how much I love it.  Doesn't explain why I lived so close to France for three years and never tasted a drop while I was there.  Odd.  Anyway, now I'm washing my collection of cute little Orangina bottles and deciding just how many empties I need to keep.  All of them?  ☺

Well I just wanted to swing by before the month was out and say 'hi'! I haven't abandoned this little space just yet and I'm a little cross at myself for not blogging more.

Do hope you are all keeping well!  Thank you for stopping by, must run, it's a long weekend over here and I need to make the most of every second.

Toodles...L x ♥

In My Garden - July

Just a little diary entry to track the progress of my garden this year.  I just found a lost post from June to track the progress and it's a bit late now to mention June, so here is July.  Photo heavy, but really for tracking purposes only. I love to look back on where things were the year before.

First, vegetables etc...

We have one tomato plant that is bursting with fruit and full of leaves, it is enormous.  Two right next to it are sparse of both leaves and fruit, but their fruit is almost ripe...interesting....I think they are different types of tomatoes.  In fact, I think they were grown from non GMO seeds and the bushy one was from mass produced seeds.  I wish we had kept better track.

 Kohlrabi....never eaten or grown kohlrabi before, so this will be interesting.

 On our sparse tomato plants, the first tomatoes, almost ready!!!! YUM.

 Apples coming along nicely. The tree had some kind of blight this year were the leaves on the end of the branches turned brown and the apples went soft and bad.  So that's left us with a small crop, but I am sure they will be delicious.

 Little lady pumpkin just starting out.  (I think? Maybe it's a watermelon, utterly hopeless at remembering what got planted where!)  Well if anything, I do know this is a female blossom and I am waiting for it to open so it can do it's thing with all the male blossoms.

 Further up the vine a pumpkin or maybe a watermelon?  I change my mind everyday as to what it will be.  If you can tell, PLEASE put me out my agony of not knowing :-)  Anyway, it's the first time we've had any success growing either and we try in vain every year with no luck.

 Beans, carrots, stevia, parsley and beets, maybe a pepper plant or two?  A bit of a mess, I know, but the beans are delicious and the stevia is better than sugar for my morning cuppa!

 The worlds slowing growing beets.....hurry UP beets, 

I love you. YUM.

 Absolutely masses of wild strawberries growing our back hill (hill in next photos). I swear these are strawberries that we planted when we first bought the house 15 years ago, they are everywhere. Too tart to eat, but maybe wild strawberry jam?

 Ok not a great photo, but our back hill.  For the first time we are utilizing it to grow veggies.  We have a stray tomato plant, well not stray, it got broken off another plant, was on the window sill inside, but got knocked over, put outside in a jar of water and got knocked over again and now it outside covered in tomatoes and being swamped by a watermelon (pumpkin?) plant.  In amongst that mess are also a couple of butternut squash plants and cucumbers.  The cucumbers are already providing a wonderful addition to our dinners and an afternoon snack for the guinea pigs.  First time having success growing them and they are delicious.

 And last, but not least a sneaky nasturtium that snuck down from the mulch pile and ended up with the oregano.  Nasturtiums are one of my favorite flowers, they remind me of home.

OK less yap from me...
Onto Flowers....

 Ok, not quite a flower, but I love coleus plants.  I remember when I bought my first coleus plant. I was 8 years old and we lived in Capel St Mary, Suffolk.  There was some sort of fair on the playfield at the end of my street and I bought a coleus in a little cup for 2 pence. I took such great care of that plant, it grew so nicely on my bedroom windowsill. I was devastated when we packed up to move back to Australia and I was told I couldn't take it with me.  Funny the memories we hang on to sometimes.

 Love these little violas popping up in the cracks in our path and stairs!  I keep a close eye on the Mister when he is weedwacking to make sure he doesn't chop them down. He doesn't share my love for them.

Phew! I did get a bit snap happy this afternoon! Congrats if you made it to the end of this post 'cos I nearly didn't.

Must be off, a new crochet project calling my name.

Thank you for stopping by!  Have a lovely day.

Toodles...L x ♥

P.S. Thank you for all your lovely comments on my bag!  I do hope it lives up to the winners expectation :-).  If you haven't entered my little giveaway, please do leave a comment on my post from yesterday.

Reality and the Reasons

Firstly, THANK YOU from the bottom of my heart for all your supportive words on my last post.  They have lifted me and helped me move forward.  As you know I work from home and have little social interaction, some days it's debilitating and lonely.  I have no family in this country and few friends, so those kind words really do mean the world to me.  

So just a few very random things.....and nonsense if you make it to the end.

I've been hooking like mad for my little mad/expanding childish obsession :-) Heaven help me!!!!!!  But those little hats come together SO fast and i get to use fancy sparkly silver and gold crochet thread.

 I've started a new obsession with these cheap and cheerful 1950 's (?) ceramic elephants and lambs. I know, nuts, but for a dollar, I can't say no!

 Last night I go stuck into some sewing.  First I fixed this cranky old machine. It belonged to my MIL, it has the weirdest bobbins, sews like a tank, but does do a nice stitch. I really don't care to sew on it, don't know why, but I don't.  As it was working and ready to sew I did a little stitching (small quilty thingy next to the machine).  I thought you might like a peek at my messy sewing area.  This is it in its natural state and I'll be honest with you, it ALWAYS looks like this.  Apparently, I'm not tidy by nature. :-)

 And this is the disaster of our dining room table.  Overflow from my sewing. It's been a few days since we've eaten at the dining room table.  Please don't be too horrified, but if you're like me I know you love a nosey in other peoples houses.  Oh and see that thick folder on the table?  That'll get a mention later.

 On another note, my garden is going nuts this year!  I love it.  It really has helped keep me from going over the edge.

 I love going outside to piddle around in the evenings and see what's growing. It's a little wild.

 But I love picking the peas and pulling up weeds.  Good therapy I tell ya!

OK so seriously, that was a wacky post and I'm impressed you've made it this far.  Just briefly, lets talk about the things that are driving me a little crazy.  We'll go in order, from less bothersome, to ok this is going to drive me b@tsh*t crazy:

• Little J and his attacks of the wanties.  Not the, I want a bar of chocolate, or buy me this $10 toy, but I want a pair of headphones that cost $380.  Kid can work a really good guilt trip, can be like an endless dripping tap on the annoyance level, but I've worked really hard an almost mastered him with the firm NO. No twelve year old needs wireless Beats by Dr Dre, right???
• The Mister.  My doctor described my relationship with him perfectly. I love him to bits, but 6 days out of 7 I can't stand him. Apparently her husband is the same?  He may drive me crazy.  He's very understanding and apologetic, as long as HE isn't the problem. Man does not know how to say sorry. Ugh. Can't be all that bad, we've been married 19 years!  Sorry, just had to get that one off my chest.
• Ever increasing, never decreasing medical bills (folder on my dining room table is now over an inch thick with bills)!  I could have flown home to Australia and had my health issues dealt with for cheaper!  Health insurance in this country SUCKS.
• My Job.  Still hanging precariously in the balance and the people I have to deal with are getting more insane by the day. Actually, now I've typed that I think my give a damn is busted. I don't really care if I lose my job anymore.  Bring it on I say!!!!
• My neighbors.  This is actually the worst thing. The thing that has made me really fragile.  I'm the kind of person who doesn't like conflict.  Not one bit. I'm the peacekeeper who tries to see good in everyone. I've tried for 18 months with these people.  Tried.  The trying is over, they are now trying my patience. I'm from the school that my pets are my family. They're from the school that pets are like toys, you put them in the cupboard when you are tired of them.  It breaks my heart, it breaks my sons heart.  We've had tears over it today when we nearly convinced them to let us have their cat (the one who helped me break my ankle and is sister to our cat).  Tell me, who leaves their puppy/dog tied up in a torrential downpour that saw land slides on our street and the end of it under 4 feet of water?  Who locks up their cat cage outside, because they don't want it to get pregnant, don't want it in the house, but are too cheap to get it spayed?  UGH I tell ya!  UGH.  The good news is I'm not the only annoyed neighbor, we're banding together to solve this one.

Phew!  That was ALOT wasn't it?  See why I'm crazy? Is it just me, or would these things make you nuts too?

Ok I'm off. I've ordered pizza for dinner and then I plan to get stuck into some more sewing.  Actually, while I was typing this, Little J has just 'sold' me the desk in his room for $5.  Anything to get him to stop pestering me while I write this post.  :-)

Toodles...L x ♥