Round-Up of Queries and Book Giveaway Winner

Good Evening Everyone.

It was 88°F/31°C in our back garden this afternoon - for me that's melting point.  I hope you are all enduring enjoying equally hot weather wherever you are.

Of course, it's too nice to be indoors for too long ... got to soak up those vitamin D enriched rays whilst we can ... I just hope it lasts through to the end of our upcoming holiday. All this heat does mean one thing for sure, there's not a lot going on in the craft space, so I thought I'd do something different today.

I've had a few comments recently that have included a query on something I've posted. Usually I try to answer any questions directly to the person concerned, but today I thought I'd round up a few here instead, working on the principle that if it interests one person it may well interest others too.

So, in no particular order, here we go:

Q1.  Concerns these poppies that appeared on a Country Diary card on 6th May.

Mrs A of It's an Alien Life, asked, "Did you make the poppies yourself?

Sadly, no. I don't think I could - they are so beautiful! They were left over from a Remembrance Day project made last year and were purchased from Wild Orchid Crafts - you can find them here.

Q2. came from Kay, 505whimsygirl when she saw this collage of flowers, using snaps of flowers and plants that are blooming in my garden at the moment.

Kay's question is, "Is that a columbine that I see? If so, that is the Colorado state flower."

Well, as you can see from the above photos, Kay, you definitely saw columbines in the collage, two different varieties. The blue and white one is an Alpine variety, Aquilegia flabellata Ministar, so it doesn't grow more than about 6" in height, and the other is Lime Frost - a gorgeous tall purple flowering plant with striking lime green leaves - a real favourite.

Q3 was not so much a question as an observation and request made by Mrs A on seeing the tent card below:

Here's what Mrs A said, "Every time I make a tent card shape it slips down! Must be doing something wrong. Any tips?

Now, I don't really have any tips beyond always using a good weight of cardstock for the base and using a bone folder on the crease but Sandra H, Nanagramps Craft Design, had a very helpful suggestion:

"a little tip, bend both ends about 1/4" ... is effective."

That rounds off the queries for now.

Now to the book giveaway. You may remember that I wanted to pass on my copy of Sweethaven Summer by Courtney Walsh in a recent post.

There were four folk interested and in time honoured tradition I put each name on a strip of paper, screwed it up before dropping it into one of my favourite cream jugs, empty of course, then asked the EM if he would kindly do the honours - here's the draw in photo form:

And the name out of the jug is:

Asia King (aka Joanna K), Under a Creative Spell.

Joanna, please contact me by email - ellie.worthington@sky.com - with a note of your snail mail details, and I'll be delighted to post the book to you as soon as possible. Happy reading :)

Joanna said that, once she has read the book, she will be happy to pass it on to anyone who is interested ... I can see this being a book that does the rounds of blogland before it ends up in a charity shop :))

I wonder how many of you have been watching the coverage of the Chelsea Flower Show. I've been to a few flower shows over the years but never to Chelsea, much as I would have loved to - came close to it one year, but for a reason that now escapes me had to give it a miss, sigh.

However, I've thoroughly enjoyed watching  the BBC coverage ... so many beautiful gardens this year and plenty of gold medal winners. The 1950s style The Caravan Club garden, Celebration of Caravanning; the Muum, Korean Air, The Dowager Viscountess Rothermere, gardenlink, Quiet Time: DMZ Forbidden Garden; and Chris Beardshaw's, Furzey Gardens are among my favourites.

Okay, that's me done for this evening. I think it's cool enough to wander through to the craft space and maybe create a little something :)

Happy crafting,

.