A sweet giveaway for the first day of 2011!

Pop on over to Sweet Little Birdy for a chance to win this gorgeous prize. Have a fantastic first day of 2011 ♥ Leah

Happy New Year!

Enjoy the last day of 2010 and have a wonderful 2011!
Thanks so much for visiting my blog throughout the year.
I can't wait to see what 2011 brings!
Leah xx

Handmade Christmas present round up

This is a round up of the gifts I made this year. It's not as many as in previous years - I had to cut back a bit or I'd have been holed up in my craft room all year! I started fairly early, October I think, and made a big pile of Christmas cards as well.

This little cloud mobile was easy to stitch up from felt. I made three of them, one for my nephew, one for Jonny's nephew and one for my goddaughter. The raindrops are scraps of cotton fabric.

The quote on the front was hand embroidered. It comes from quite a beautiful little poem by Langston Hughes:

APRIL RAIN SONG
Let the rain kiss you
Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops
Let the rain sing you a lullaby
The rain makes still pools on the sidewalk
The rain makes running pools in the gutter
The rain plays a little sleep song on our roof at night
And I love the rain.

These were presents for my workmates. They are coloured glass nail files, and I made a little sleeve for them from the green openweave ribbon.

Stitched a few beads at the bottom for added sparkle...

... and attached a flower and ribbon at the top. I was going to make one for myself to keep, but of course I never quite got round to that and I'm unlikely to do it in the future!

This wasn't made by me, but for me (yay!) My mum made it - you might recall seeing a similar one in her garden in my first Real Gardens post.

That's it for the round up this year. Did you give or receive anything handmade?

Want flowers, need flowers

This is a picture I took at the Ellerslie Flower Show this year. It's been on my desktop ever since, burning itself into my consciousness until I'm sure it's only a matter of time until it just turns up one day outside.

The design is "An Englishman's Retreat" by Chris Beardshaw. The key elements are the tall trees and the spires of the delphiniums, and the colour scheme of purple, silver and shots of red.

And here is my garden... not looking very similar at all I know! I grew most of these plants here from seed, and they have not been particularly quick off the mark, even with the warm spring. The exception is this rampaging petunia, although it comes with its own story of failure (out of a packet of about 100 seeds, only 4 germinated). The other plants are alyssum, angelonia, godetia, gilia and lambs' ears (which is going well - it's already been divided about 4 times). And of course, some extra tomatoes next to the fence.

Anyway, I'm really craving an abundant garden filled with flowers. My slow seedlings weren't cutting it, so I went to the garden centre and looked for Plants That Are In Flower Now. Happily, I managed to make most of my selection from the bargain bin too.

I got gaura (pink and white), nicotiana, impatiens, echinacea Hope (the same as in the show garden! Yay!), arctotis and a pretty, cottagey shrub with pink flowers that I forget the name of.

Close up of Arctotis Louise. I'm going to put this along the side of the driveway - hopefully I'll be able to divide it into two or three sections.

Instant seal of approval.

Today was 31 degrees C, so I waited till late afternoon when it was a more modest 25. Then I planted them, watered, mulched, and admired... and completely forgot to photograph! The forecast for tomorrow is rain, which is good for little plants establishing themselves, but not so good for photos. Anyway, I'll update when I can.

Season's Greetings

I'm a little relieved that Christmas has been and gone - what with everything that's gone on this year I really wasn't feeling the spirit! I had a nice, whirlwind kind of day catching up with lots of family in Timaru, all of whom I don't see often enough so it really was great to see them.

Arrived home about 6pm yesterday to another flurry of aftershocks, there are more cordons up around town and plenty of police directing traffic. We missed most of the aftershocks due to being down south (and I'm glad about that - particularly glad that I wasn't in town or in a mall when they hit!) but there were a couple of goodies last night which had me waking up in a hurry.

I have the next couple of days off work and I'm really looking forward to taking it easy (ha! Like that will actually happen with the garden looking the way it does), or more likely being lazy.

Hope you are having a good summer/winter break, wherever you may be.

Bickies for Santa

Jack is getting worried about what santa will think when he arrives at our place tonight and finds that SOMEBODY has already been eating the cakes we have left out for him. So funny since Jack is the one that we have caught having a nibble more than once tonight!!
Have a wonderful day tomorrow! Leah

Bendigo

Hello, here a couple of pics from
The Square
G for Georgia was my favourite stall, I did a little bit of Christmas shopping but it was very difficult deciding what to buy!
I can't wait to do it again in 2011. Have a very Merry Christmas ♥ Leah

counting the days...

with just days to go until Christmas things are ticking along nicely...

Our #1 is back in the shed,

she arrived with an english accent and a bag full of Chocolate.

little olive has reached her peak of fitness

and i am actually really rather proud.

for some time ago she confessed to a fear of heights,

which as you can imagine is tres tricky if you wish to guide Santa's sleigh.

so for the past few days she has bravely practiced looking down...

this year her antlers are bigger than last years set,

indeed they are quite on the loose side of things.

however little olive has taken to wearing them day and night,

and i have high hopes come Christmas Eve,

she will have mastered them perfectly

and so my dearest readers, as hard as it is to believe,

yet another year has whizzed on by

and i am left again marveling at all the things that have past.

i know for some the holiday season can be a little lonely,

or indeed a little sad,

loved ones no longer with us and family far away.

for many this year, in old blighty and europe,

the snows have caused plans to be changed.

so where ever you are,

whatever you celebrate this time of year

and with whom (two or four legged friends a like).

i am thanking you for the kindness you continue to show me

and may your season be filled with

a little joy,

a little peace

and

a little crafting...

she is wishing you a 'peachiest of peachy' new year ~ Tif

Weird Cat Behaviour #4

WEIRD CAT BEHAVIOUR #4*

Sleeping on the doormat. No, of course you're not in the way there, I can step quite easily over you balancing a basket of laundry and the hedge clippers! It's especially fun when you jump up and try to go in the door while I'm closing it, balancing said objects!

To be fair, it was 28 degrees C. I couldn't be bothered moving much further either.

*Usually followed up by Annoying Cat Behaviour #1358 - sharpening claws in the screen door while wailing to be let in or out.

Paper Christmas Garland Tutorial

Hello, I'd love to make some of these for christmas. I have all of the supplies, but I think that might be struggling for time. The Bendigo Handmade Market was fantastic, I couldn't believe how busy it was! I have some pics on my camera, I will share tomorrow.
Not many sleeps left now, Grace keeps opening presents from under our tree, usually they belong to her brothers which creates lots of noise!!
Leah

home for the holidays...

just a few hours to go and i will be leaving for the airport to pick up Our #1.

i spent my morning wisely pottling around and achieving very little for my pottling ways except a few stitches.

i also managed to write a sign saying "welcome home sweetie" which i promptly attached to a large Father Christmas balloon i bought at the grocery store, intent on taking to the airport with me.

i have no idea what came over me, i am not a grocery store balloon kind of person but the moment seized me as i bought the carrots, the oranges and the sunchips (all good stuff from the food group 'orange')... i noted mothers all around with little children in their carts, i was struck by the moment, that moment that hits you when you know life has moved on, that your days of stuffing kids into carts and bribing them around the grocery store are long gone. when your rose colored specs fall into place, those moments are always recalled with fondness.

as i bought the over sized Father Christmas balloon, i stood with glistening eyes, telling the lady who the balloon was for. can it really be 122 days have gone by and now the day has come when she will be back in our family nest for 11 whole peachy, festive, gleeful days and then she will be gone again. this time around it will be far longer than 122 days, more like 222.

but that is okay, for i will be busy preparing for Our #2 to fly the nest next summer, she too choosing to spread her wings to adventures far away. i am quite sure by the time Our #4 leaves i will be a dab hand at this apron string cutting lark

and so tomorrow i have quite the jam packed thrilling day planned for her, first we will go and look at bi-focal lenses for me and then we will head to the thrift store! she will go her way to the clothing, i will go mine to the knick knack department, we will meet half way and compare our finds and it will, dearest readers, i am quite positively sure, feel like old times, the very good sort of old times that keeps one going on the days when the distance seems unbearable.

she is thanking you so very kindly for the lovely words concerning her dottie angel fim and wishes you the peachiest of weekends ~ Tif

i do believe...

this morning upon pulling our bedroom curtains open, i noted a package of green and red placed quite neatly at the base of our fence next to our driveway...

i hoppity skipped down the stairs and out into the cold

and that is when dearest readers a warm glow filled my heart, the glow of glee. for upon my driveway was a bag of red bows, upon my fence three of them already happily doing their gleeful thing.

now if you may recall, our #4 had noted upon his father installing greenery along the fence, that indeed it looked as though the tree branches had fallen from above and we had yet to clear up the debris. however not any longer, no sirree! through another's kindness, a small gleeful miracle has happened at Mossy Shed.

our fence is now 'a glow' with it's branches, lights and red bows and once again i find myself marvelling at the kindness of others...

she does believe in small miracles and she is wishing you one of your own, this gleeful season ~ Tif

Happy Snaps

Hello,
I have had a crappy week! These pics still make me smile.
Toby graduated from day care yesterday, he played the part of a little cupcake in the concert and of course, a blurry pic from MY camera of Bon jovi in concert ♥♥♥
We are of on a "mini-break" tomorrow to take part in The Square Bendigos Handmade Market which I know that I will enjoy! Have a wonderful weekend! Leah

dottie angel... once upon a time

Mr Internet and i had a falling out over the past few days, 'twas not the best timing for us to part ways, indeed i could have wept at his departure... however i am delighted beyond all delights to report we are back together, i say forever, but he says he cannot commit to forever and says he wishes to take it one day at a time.

so without further a do, feeling like i am a little late to the party, (but always better late than never) i am tres delighted to show you a dottie angel film Janine and her brilliantly, brilliant filming skills created.

when Janine and her clan came to stay in October, she felt it a grand idea to do a little bit of filming so folks that do not know me, may have an introduction to dottie angel and life at Mossy Shed. i am also thinking perhaps folks that do know me and my blog may indeed still enjoy seeing a little bit of my world, after all usually i am pictured with no head and in my classic Flat Stanley pose.

i must confess i was a little nervy about it, having only ever featured in home videos of long ago, the days of when four small children were crammed into our bed, 4:00am Christmas morning and my man thinking it perfectly perfect to record the moment.

but a film about me featuring in no particular order, billy-no-mates, used dog, little olive, Mr Shark and Miss Ethel, well now that truly was a completely different kettle of fish... when i first saw the short film a few weeks back, i must tell you i was quite moved by how Janine had truly captured me and my day to day life, when my clan are out and it is just me, my critters and my crafting. a time for my imagination to shine...

Dottie Angel's Once Upon a Time from Etsy on Vimeo.

and so on Tuesday, a little bit of dottie angel aired on Etsy's peachy blog, along with a lovely write up from Janine.

i feel most fortunate indeed to have Janine, the Etsy team and you of course, my dearest readers, to believe in my imagination, making me feel it is okay to be me. that is truly the kindest gift one can ever give, i believe and so i am thanking you kindly for allowing me to share a little piece of me every time i ramble here and in these two films by the talented Janine Vangool

A thrifty moment with dottie angel from UPPERCASE gallery on Vimeo.

she is down to 22 hours and her first born will be home for the holidays ~ Tif

for the love of burke...

once again i found myself heading to the big city last week (with bangs to aid me) and once again i found myself lost. for the love of burke and his fabby chairs, i had no choice but to use my secondhand senses and deep breathing exercises to get back on route. after quite a few trips over bridges, in a large roundabout way i found myself where i wished to be with great relief.

i have only ever found one burke chair before, it was many, many moons ago, but all so clear like it were yesterday... how is it one can remember precisely the day and time one finds the most fabbiest of vintage finds and yet i cannot remember what i did yesterday or indeed need to be doing today or tomorrow. when i found the two burke chairs last week, they also came with a friend. i had not known about the friend until i turned up, but his little ugly duckling ways standing next to the two swans caught me unawares. my thrifty maternal instincts for all waifs and strays took a hold, especially when he swivelled so nicely upon introduction. i didn't stand a chance

back at the shed i unloaded my haul. i told myself this was madness, as i squeezed them into my studio and stared at their beauty, not knowing quite how i was going to disguise the fact i had bought yet more chairs into our nest. i decided to scatter them in different corners of the shed, thus giving the appearance they may have always been there, blending in amongst the other forsaken souls i have happened across in the past.

"ah ha" i exclaimed to myself, little olive (busy licking burke's legs) and used dog "a brilliantly brilliant plan if ever there was one!" i could tell they were most impressed with my cunning plan.

i also told them, i could not, would not, under any circumstances, never, ever touch the cushions until after Christmas, for my Mother Christmas duties were top priority over cushion slip covers, even i could see that. i noted both little olive and used dog were wearing smirks after i have finished my words.

after two hours i was twitching, after three i was rifling through my bark cloth stash and by the fourth hour, one burke chair was sporting a spiffy reversible jacket. i stood quietly back in amazement, for it fitted like a glove, a beautiful vintage bark cloth glove and i noted as i stood there, a small amount of glory shone around.

next day i told myself it would be madness (again) to leave the other chair without his little jacket, what if the good fortune sent by the handcrafted gods ran out, just thinking about it made me start to fret. if i did not get on with it hoppity quick then the gods may think i did not care for the 'fitting like a glove' gift they bestowed upon me and take it away! by the end of the day, two little 'gloves' were completed and shining away in the kitchen knook

alas, the ugly duckling awaits his transformation, the handcrafted gods have moved on to some other lucky crafting soul and i must await with patience for their return. whilst i am awaiting, i shall continue with my Mother Christmas duties and ponder what is best for the little ugly duckling so he too, may get his moment to shine...

she will be back tomorrow with something to share, something like she has never shared before ~ Tif

the three wise dolls...

of dottie angel

spreading wisdom where ever they may go

high hopes

do have them quite often, once a day would be brilliant but if that is a little tricky, once a week is perfectly peachy

most happy

not always easy but wisdom has it, if you think yourself into a happy place, then chances are you will be feeling most happy before you know it

little crafty

perhaps the wisest of them all and with very good reason... be a little crafty each day and i know from first hand experience, sanity may well be saved

she is wishing you the most craftiest, happiest weekend you can hope for ~ Tif

December ramblings

I've been meaning to post here for a while. I've even had these photos uploaded for several days. But I've been rather busy and tired, and I've had to have early nights because it's getting hard to pull myself out of bed in the mornings. We are shifting to a new location for work this weekend (after being displaced by the earthquake), so a final weekend of hard yards is required and then no more double bus trips! No more getting out of bed before the breakfast radio hosts have even come on air! No more cold, rattly, stuffy, poky, inconvenient work building. Hooray!

So, here's the potager in the early morning light a couple of weeks ago. No, I still haven't laid that last brick path. Potatoes are growing madly in the foreground and you can see the tomato stakes over by the shed.

At the moment I'm harvesting broccoli, rocket, lettuce, pak choi, peas, strawberries, potatoes, various herbs and spring onions. Annoyingly I had to buy a punnet of spring onions to plant out, as I forgot to sow seeds in time to replace the ones I've just about finished harvesting. I got into such a good pattern last autumn, but over winter they all slowed down and came ready all at the same time and I was too busy picking them to think about sowing them. I've let a few go to seed so I'll have some more to sow later.

This is the first potato harvest! It doesn't look like much but I was thrilled with it. These are Heather. I sneaked these out from under a few different plants as they started flowering - apparently this is known as "bandicooting". I'll wait till the flowers die down before I harvest the rest - in the meantime the Swifts are ready.

In the glasshouse the tomatoes are working hard. This is Sunset's Red Horizon. The photo is out of date already - the fruit are probably about the size of golf balls now. Still stubbornly green though. Most of the glasshouse tomatoes now have green fruit. Sunset is in the lead, followed by Arctic, and Amazon Chocolate is growing a big mutant fruit formed from several flower heads.

This cute heart shaped strawberry was fun to eat, but makes me a little sad now. I have strawberries in baskets in the glasshouse, and I also had baskets in a wire plant stand outside the front door. Someone stole the plant stand, and the strawberry baskets, on Saturday night. I went out to water them the next morning and they were gone. Nothing else was taken - not the potted blueberry bush, any other pot plants, or the wooden chair - which makes me think it was planned. Someone had probably walked past, seen the strawberries and decided to come back later and help themselves. The planter was top heavy, so they would have had to remove the baskets to carry it out. The fact that it was so obviously deliberate really annoys me... I would almost rather have found the baskets spilled on the ground, then I could put it down to some drunken idiot rather than a cold, calculated thief. It also annoys me that I can't have pretty things outside my front door (which is set back quite far from the street), without some loser thinking they have the right to just come along and take them. There's obviously a plant klepto on the loose in my neighbourhood... maybe it's time for me to get a dog, or some killer chickens!

'a sweating' with Miss Ethel...

well i have ground to a halt with 'a sweating' with Miss Ethel. she has given all she can give and quite honestly i think after her beavering of the past week she deserves a little rest.

i will be popping some handcrafted goodness in my little shop window tomorrow (friday) throughout the day and then again on monday. i have made it a two parter for the clouds will not part and the rain will not stop and Mossy Shed is a bat cave.

i think the time has come the walrus said, to investigate lighting options so i may give up my madness ways of chasing any little bit of daylight that peeks through a window at any given moment, by the time i am set up, ready to go, a big angry cloud comes along again.

so what you see today is just a sprinkling of things that will be listed. a few choice pictures if you will, taken over the past week as and when a ray of light appears...

i must confess of all the wares Miss Ethel and i have been beavering on, the 'little string of dottie angel' is one that makes me smile. so much so, that of the four i made, despite breaking my rule of never, ever keeping something i made for the shop (don't ask me why i have such a rule, i just do, i am somebody that makes up rules in their head for no apparent reason and then frets about breaking them), i have decided that one little string will remain in mossy shed. it has all the elements of dottie angel,

vintage wallpaper,

a print of forsaken souls,

without words heart patch,

an old book page,

my flat stanley body,

vintage linens,

bark cloth,

a hand embroidered word,

the dottie angel dos,

a high hopes print,

vintage lace,

a handmade button card

and last but not least,

a little pair of teeny tiny turquoise clogs...

all stitched happily with abandonment by Miss Ethel and her fabby peachy pink thread. as i am tippity typing this ramble, my forbidden little stringy garland is hanging above my computer looking most spiffy indeed and reminding me i should fret less about breaking rules.

on another note, the lovely Jade of Craft Hope, did a little write up recently of her trip to Seattle and my dottie angel camp. she has done the most fabby job of continuing to craft dottie angel style and everything she has shown me since our peachy weekend together has made me so proud of her crafty ways and so i am thinking this is probably a perfectly perfect time as any, to mention that i have high hopes next year there will be another dottie angel camp, not in Seattle but in a place very close to my heart! so when i know the nitty gritty, probably in the new year, i will be sure to let you know.

she is thinking once again she sounds like a traveling salesman, but this time one with bangs ~ Tif

calendar girls...

outside it is chucking it down and i fear daylight will not get a look in before night fall, however i will not let that dampen my spirits, no sirree, i will not spend my day fretting about not getting photos finished for my etsy shop, nor will i worry that if i go out in said 'chucking it down' rain my newly acquired bangs (fringe) will get a mind of their own and stop looking peachy smooth 'straight from the salon' loveliness.

for near on 18 years i have remained bangless, and i am quite sure that is not something one goes around saying in public, however if the word bangs is the word for fringe, then i see i have no alternative when living abroad and embracing a different language but to use the correct terminology. if i was in old blighty i would say "for near on 18 years i have remained fringeless" but i am not, so i must go with the wording 'bangless' and try to say it with a straight face.

my bangless state has come to an end (still with poker straight face) and yesterday after much fretting and pondering with several lovely folks (who know who they are) i went for the chop!

my clan cannot look me in the eye without smirking, my man exclaimed upon arriving home late last night, drenched from rain and soccer

"oh my god! i can actually see your face, wow!"

followed by laughter, i have no idea if that was a wonderful exclaiming on his behalf, i did not bothered to find out for at the time i was busy adjusting to feeling like i had a helmet on my head. however i am delighted to report this morning it feels less like a helmet and more like a light weight summer cap, so me thinks this is a good sign.

in the meantime as i adjust to my new bangy way of life, i have several thrilling 'this and thats' to have happened i really did wish to share, so for today, if i may be so bold, i wish to share the moment i became a calendar girl

a few moons ago, (not many moons, just enough though to allow me to pen the word 'moons' which i like) the lovely Kathreen of the peachy online place Whipup kindly invited me to be a calendar girl for her Whipup Calendar 2011. i have never been asked to be a calendar girl before so as you can imagine, i did have a few giddy moments of excitement about the whole idea.

Whipup is a lovely site that hosts a whole wealth of inspirational ideas from around the crafty community, i have no idea how Kathreen found me and my how-tos but she did, and often kindly pops them up on her lovely site so folks may find them.

the calendar features 12 crafty souls and is available in three printable formats all for the rather fabby price of $5, which i am told goes to supporting Whipup and keeping it doing what it does, which i think is truly spiffy, for Whipup is a wealth of crafty goodness 'how-tos' and inspiration. all the information about the calendar and nitty gritty stuff that Kathreen has covered can be found here

i can be found as Miss March, which i thought was quite lovely as usually March is a month i have little connection with, but now when March 2011 rolls around i will be able to feel a bond knowing i am Miss March. Kathreen asked each crafty calendar girl a set of three questions and over the past few weeks she has been posting the little mini interviews on Whipup. if you care to peruse her archives you will find them easily and if you happen to wish to find my little three answers you can find them here under Miss March. you will also find right at the bottom of my spiel a link to all 11 other peachy calendar girls and their crafty places.

so there we have it, it may be grotty and wet outside, dull as a cave inside but just looking at the lovely pictures and crafty goodness on the Whipup Calendar 2011 my day is already feeling brighter

she is off to the big city in the rain, with only her new bangs to help with driving directions ~ Tif

Excited!

Hello, we are of to Melbourne this weekend to see Bon Jovi in concert. My husband bought me the tickets for my birthday (which was a few months ago now) Wooo Hooo! I'm getting excited already!