During May....

I have been

making cakes, this one was Coffee and Walnut, on a very wet Bank Holiday,

I also made a Banana cake with an online recipe, it was very tasty and quite light for a banana cake.

I have been making brooches

I love a bit of handstitching whilst watching Coronation Street!

I have also been stitching Scottie Garlands
and patchwork brooches

I have been sent a gorgeous surprise parcel from a very sweet friend in America,THANK YOU SO MUCH dear Paula,you really are the sweetest, kind thoughtful lady!!
He is the cutest darling teddy I have ever seen! I love him and my pretty and dainty hankie too!

I have been crocheting roses from the tutorial of the Amazing Lucy  I've crocheted roses before, but this pattern is so quick and easy, thank you Lucy

And picking flowers in the recent and glorious sunshine and yes I do include Buttercups as flowers, the are so cute and cheery with their nodding yellow heads

Been doing a makeover on a large unit that I bought from our local charity warehouse, so far I have Annie Sloaned it in Old White, I need to wax it now, I'm also going to wallpaper the backing board with pretty floral wallpaper that I've bought on Ebay, hasn't arrived yet though, can't wait.

What have you been up to in May?
Love Rachel x

Wet and Rainy in Witney

Hello Hello!
It's a horrid wet rainy day here today, I know the gardens need it but why can't it just rain through the night and let us have glorious sunshine in the day!
I have been making a treasury on Etsy this morning whilst having my tea and toast http://www.etsy.com/treasury/NTY5NTI3MXwyNzIyNzAzNjM4/favorites-on-a-rainy-day?ref=pr_treasury
Managed to do this one ok, usually I seem to delete it before I have saved it!

Have been making little Dinky Bunnies this week too

Also been cutting into my Cath Kidston stash...well I must stop stroking it and start to make things!
Have made more Scottie Dog Garlands

Also made these at the weekend with my son, very moreish

Peanut Butter Pretzel Bites, I found the recipe on Pinterest, here's the link if you'd like to give them a go.
http://everyday-is-a-holiday.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/peanut-butter-pretzel-bitesyes-indeed.html
Just a little tip don't eat them before the chilling time is up as they are delicious when they have firmed up completely! We are just greedy and couldn't wait!
Have a lovely day wherever you are,
Rachel x

Blue Crochet Flowers

Blue Crochet Flowers, a photo by RubyRed06 on Flickr.

This is a lovely way to spend a lazy Sunday afternoon, crochet and a cup of tea!
Happy weekend!
Rachel x

Crochet Gone Wrong

Well the day started well, I was having a little sort out of my t-shirt drawer and remembered I had T shirt yarn pinned on one of my Pinterest boards so I thought I'd give it a go with some of my old tops.

The yarn was pretty easy to make, I was quite inpressed with my little stash.

So I found a pattern for a rug, just a rectangular one, and got busy, with my size 15 crochet needle!
I'd altered the size of the rug as the one in the pattern was quite big. It was just DC in rows, but my ends were going out of shape, somehow I was decreasing!I was using up the yarn pretty quickly too!
Hey ho I thought, I'll just carry on and make a tote bag instead, well it's not exactly a tote bag, waaay too small for that, more of a peg bag or carrier bag holder!!
See how tiny it is!I don't know why I have such difficulty with crochet in rows, I think I'll stick with granny squares!

Thanks for the heads up from Mrs Cuckoo on the pretty Primark tea towels, I nearly missed out on those!
I had a gorgeous weekend in Brighton too with the Hubster, even managed to drag him to the car boot at the marina too, will show you my finds next time!
Hope you all have a great week, and thank you kindly for your recent comments, if I haven't managed to pop to your blog yet, I'll be around soon!
Rachel x

Bunting Bargain

Bunting Bargain, a photo by RubyRed06 on Flickr.

Found this bargain wooden Bunting reduced at Sainsbury's! Only £3.99 reduced from £8!
Perfect for the Jubilee I thought!

Kitchen Additions

First of all thank you for all your sweet comments on my last post, they are much appreciated!
Now as you know my kitchen is a work in progress, in 2011 I painted the pine cupboards, we still need to replace the laminate worktops (with lovely wooden ones hopefully)
Well in the meantime I've been doing a bit of ' prettifying'!

I bought an old shelf for £2 at Oxford market, it was pine with a green cast iron stand, but now I've revamped it.I thought it would create a bit of extra space for some of my pretties!

Pretend you can't see the ugly wire at the back!

I'm so pleased with my new radio a bargain from Sainsburys at £9.99!

Lovin the Ella Valentine egg box packaging too, so pretty.The Hubster also put up these lovely metal hooks for me too, muche needed extra space for the growing mug collection!

Hope you are all having a great week, I'm still a bit achey from 2 days solid gardening at the weekend in the goregeous sunshine!

Love it!!

Rachel x

Fabric Deco tape

I can't bear to part with the teensiest scraps of fabric, so last night I had a lovely hour with one of my boxes of scraps and a roll of double sided sticky tape!Used some on a recycled spice jar too!
I'm covering a sweetie tin next!
I haven't done a tutorial as it's so easy, just cut a length of tape, peel the backing off one side and stick your fabric strips to it.
I trim off the excess after I've stuck it to the tape.
Just googled it so here's a link to a lovely tutorial done with single pieces of fabric, not scraps

Have a lovely day!
Rachel x