Friday Smiles

Hi Everyone,

It's Friday and I have three photos that made me smile this week to share with you and Annie at a Stitch In Time.

First up is this photo of Burns Cottage, home of Scotland's Bard, Rabbie Burns, all wrapped up to celebrate Burns Night on 25th January.

As every year, we celebrated with a traditional Burns Supper - mashed potatoes and neeps (swede) and haggis - delicious :)

Next - a BOGOFF from mother nature herself - two oranges for the price of one ... unpeeled by my bloggy friend, Sarah - The Handmade Card Blog.  Incidentally, Sarah will be demonstrating for IndigoBlu in the Craft Centre at Cardwell Garden Centre tomorrow, Saturday, 31st January - more details on her blog. It was Sarah, four or more years ago, who persuaded me to start my own blog so, as you can imagine, I'm really looking forward to meeting her, in the flesh, at last :)

And finally, spotted this on FaceBook and thought the crocheters out there would appreciate the sentiment :)

Although the weather isn't too good here, I know a great many of you are suffering far worse - much snow and a freezing wind chill factor according to the reports - so I hope the above has made you smile even if for only a moment.

Take care, stay warm and stay safe,

Rainbow Meringue Cushion

Afternoon Folks

I hope this finds you well and keeping warm - unless, of course, you're in a hot part of the world. Here in south-west Scotland it's perishing though nowhere near as extreme as it is in Massachusetts, US. I've seen the news and we're told the snow is at least 2 feet deep - that's a lot of snow so if you are over there do stay cosily indoors until the roads are clear.

If you've been popping in over the last week or so you won't be surprised that I'm still harking back to last year for today's share. Another cushion, no. 7, but a different shape ... a small narrow rectangle - chosen especially for my sister, Margaret. As Margaret has MS and therefore spends a lot of time in her wheelchair I thought this would be the ideal cushion to pop behind her back, or even her head if she wants to have a wee snooze.

It took fabric from three fat quarters to make the cover. My favourite is the blue fabric with the rainbow meringue print - reminds me of the time we had tea in Aunt Betty's, Harrogate. I've added some snippets of various trims that I found tucked away in my stash for added interest, including a white bobble trim - everybody seems to love the bobbles - and a very pretty blue rosebud trim :)

There was a tiny strip of the print left over which I used to trim the envelope back.

That's it for today - short and sweet :) Because I used those snippets of trim, I'll submit this cushion to Pixie's Snippet Playground.

I spent a few hours playing with watercolours yesterday evening, whilst watching TV. I now have a wee stack of interesting background pieces created with watercolour washes and Brushos and some stamped images watercoloured and ready to use on various projects - though I'm not too sure when I'll get round to making them up. Anyway, something to look forward to using some time soon.

Thanks for taking the time to drop by.

Happy Crafting,

In A Vase On Monday - Berries in a Little Brown Vase

Afternoon to you all again,

Twice in one day! It's a very long time since I joined in Cathy's In A Vase on Monday meme. I'm so glad to be able to join in again though there's not a lot to be had in our very wet garden ... we've had a lot of heavy rain and storms over the last few weeks.

After yesterday's trip out - mentioned in the preceding post - I took the opportunity to nip out into the back garden to do a bit of foraging in the shrubbery. There are no flowers to be seen, not even a snowdrop, but plenty of greenery and a few clusters of berries. I started with the cotoneaster berries for some colour then added some twigs from one of the glossy leaved escallonias. There wasn't enough out back so a tour round the front garden was called for.

There I found the buddleia was just coming in to leaf, so much I'm sure it won't miss the three little bits I pinched. The sarcococca  in a pot by the front door is just coming into bud so I snipped from that too - maybe the tiny wee buds will open in the warmth indoors. Finally, we have a couple of little fir trees that are always happy to oblige me. I think they may have started out a good many years ago as Christmas trees which were planted out after the festivities were over - now they grow one on either side of the driveway gate and look just perfect there.

The first two photos were taken in the kitchen against the white tiling because that room is the brightest at this time of the year but the last is a shot of where the vase is now. I've had this little brown vase for many years but this is the first time it's been used! It's usually tucked away in a corner cupboard as is the much treasured little pottery mushroom house - my son made it at school when he was a teenager. The black laquered box, another treasure, contains a set of matching coasters ... a gift from a Japanese professor when he visited the university department where I worked for a number of years.

I did hope to find one plant in flower on my trip around the back garden but sadly I was to be very disappointed. I was looking for the white hellebore I moved from a pot to the woodland area at he bottom of the garden.

It looked very promising on Christmas Day when I took this photo - some nice fat buds were popping through then - but yesterday it looked even smaller and very unpromising. I'm now regretting taking it out of the tub where it was so obviously well settled and happy.

I seem to have hit this week running - two posts in one day - will I be able to keep it up I wonder. If I do, I hope to catch up with all the others who enjoy putting a vase together for Mondays over the next day or two.

Take care all and stay safe, stay warm.