the green gal

The ABC of me

Meaghan over at Urban Farm Designs posted this meme (I think that's what it's called), and I thought I'd have a go at it myself. You might find out something new about me that you didn't already know! Here goes:

A is for Age: 34 (thought I'd feel grown-up when I got to this age, still waiting for that feeling to kick in…)

B is for Bed size: King

C is for Chores you hate: Vacuuming and mopping floors, mainly because it's made much harder by…

D is for Dog's name: Georgie, my adorable little Cavalier King Charles spaniel

E is for Essential start to your day: Cannot ever miss out breakfast, never ever, it would throw me for the whole day plus, as I wake up hungry, the sound of my rumbling tummy would disturb people for miles around

F is for Favourite colour: Turquoise without a doubt!

G is for Gold, silver or platinum: Platinum and silver

H is for Height: 5ft 8in

I is for Instruments you play: Used to be the piano but as I haven't touched one since the day I was allowed to give up lessons I doubt I'd be able to string two notes together now

J is for Jewellery you wear every day: Wedding and engagement rings, they never leave my finger

K is for Kids: That would be the fluffy cute bundle listed above!

L is for Living arrangements: Two bedroom cottage with a room at the end of the garden which will one day be a studio…

M is for Mum's name: Marie (pronounced 'marry', get it wrong at your peril), you can read about her in this post

N is for Nicknames: Gabs most commonly but following the popularity of the TV show 'Gavin and Stacey', one of my friends is testing out Gab-a-la…

O is for Overnight hospital stay: Never and I hope it stays that way

P is for Pet peeves: Rude people, there's just no need!

Q is for Quote: "One can dream so much better in a room where there are pretty things." Anne Shirley, 'Anne of Green Gables'

R is for Right or left handed: Right, although I'd like to be left-handed, strangely

S is for Siblings: I'm the youngest of five, next to me is Dominic, then Finola, then Kevin and then eldest is Damian

T is for Time you wake up: Too bloomin' early! Hubbie's alarm goes off at 5.45am, bleurgh, then I get up at 6.30am

U is for Underwear: Yeeeeees?

V is for Vegetable you dislike: Cauliflower, urgh, just the word makes me feel shuddery

W is for Ways you run late: Usually by not wanting to be early

X is for X-rays: Teeth, far too many times

Y is for Yummy food you make: Probably chocolate chip cookies, you can find the recipe here

Z is for Zoo favourite: Ooh, I don't really like zoos, find all those animals sitting around in little areas looking so bored rather depressing. But for a favourite animal I think I'll go for pygmy goat! Would quite like a couple when I should ever have a smallholding

So, there we go, me from A to Z, do you feel like you know me so much better than you did before? Let me know if you take the ABC test of yourself!

Can you love a sewing machine?

If so, I think I'm a teeny bit in love with this one. I found it languishing on the floor in a corner of an antique junk shop in the pretty town of Westerham. It must have been waiting for little me to come along and rescue it I've always admired these beautiful old Singers from afar so I'm super chuffed that I now have my own. It looks like it could work, with a bit of tlc, but I think I'm going to need some help learning how to use it. The shuttle alone has me confounded, so any help or advice gratefully received!

Colour inspiration – turquoise and yellow

As everyone knows, my favourite colour is turquoise (or aqua or teal if you'd rather). But, in the spirit of branching out, I'm going to match it with other almost as pretty colours to come up with a colourway inspiration for you.

First up, in honour of the late blooming daffodils – yellow…

1. Yellow Inspiration, 2. hello?, 3. ., 4. Jamaica-Me Happy, 5. yarn, 6. Aqua, Green Wreath, 7. Buttons, 8. Turquoise Ring, 9. Princess flower cupcakes

Shiny clean doggie

We gave our little dog, Georgie, her first ever bath at the weekend! She's a year old and is v girlie when it comes to puddles and mud so doesn't really go near them. Hence the lack of impetus for a washing. But after a year we figured she should have one anyway so into the bath with her!

(Apologies for quality of pics, they were taken on my iPhone and I was giggling at the pathetic sight, which didn't help. And yes, that is a blue bath. I would like to say we have a kitsch aqua coloured bath suite but we don't, it's just plain nasty outdated blue. Plus the toilet is a different shade of blue to the washbasin and bath, what's all that about?)

Georgie was very well behaved but I don't think she liked it much. Lying in front of the fire drying afterwards was much more enjoyable.

And now look at what a shiny clean thing she is, how bright is her white fur?!

Breathe in the spring air

It's a beautiful day here, I hope the sun is shining where you are too. And, as is only fitting on a sunny spring day, I have been behaving in a most typically Sunday way.

1. Took the dog for a long walk in a nearby wood. Saw lots of little tufts of green leaves so hoping they'll turn into bluebells soon.

2. Went to the garden centre and bought lots of organic peat-free soil for our raised veggie beds. Last year we totally underestimated how much soil compresses down over time and our vegs didn't have enough soil to grow in. I've learnt my lesson, have thrown on lots more soil and will wait for it to settle down before sowing.

3. Planted my chitted first early seed potatoes in a low stack of tyres. This worked really well last year as you just keep adding soil and another tyre as the plants grow. Plus, it frees up the beds for other crops. I got my tyres from our local garage. The owner told me that all of their old tyres are recycled but growing potatoes in them sounded much more interesting! You can read here how I got on with my veggie endeavours last year.

4. Hung a load of washing outside on the line to dry, wind blown dry clothes are somehow lovelier than those which have air dried in the spare room.

5. Completely unrelated but I just spent a v enjoyable half hour photographing the reels of thread I bagged at my favourite antique/secondhand store yesterday. I already have wool that matches perfectly (no prizes for guessing my favourite colours) so snapped them too. I may not have photographed them outside in the spring air but the warm sunshine was flooding into the room making the light the best it's been for photo taking all year.

6. Will soon be off for another dog walk, then a read of the papers with a drink or two in the local pub, followed by a bowlful of homemade leek and potato soup at home. Pretty much a perfect Sunday! Hope your weekends have been equally or even more lovely.

Mother's Day

So, it's Mother's Day. I'm not going to write about Mother's Day in general or about mothers in general, I'm just going to write about my mum.

My mum reads my blog, like the supportive lovely mummy she is, so I know she'll read this but that's not why I'm writing it. I thought I'd write a little bit about my mum because… why not? I write about plenty of other stuff in my life and so why not give a bit of space to my dear mamma? Cards and gifts are obvious but writing a blog post, aha, she won't have seen that coming!

Not wanting to embarrass her (pink cheek flushing is an affliction passed down through the generations) I won't go on for long but I do want to take this opportunity to say what a marvellous mother she is.

She's always been super supportive, equally of course to all of my siblings, and no more so than since I embarked on my new creative endeavour. My mum is a great hoarder and a week after our first discussion about my plans, I took delivery of a great parcel containing gorgeous fabrics that my mum had squirreled away over the past 30ish years. I recognised some of the patterns from previous duvets or curtains but a lot of it belonged to my family before I did. 

On my last trip to see her, my mum and I spent a lovely long time in an antiques centre marvelling at the treasures on sale, that's where I picked up the 1930s Brownie camera I waxed lyrical about previously. And before I set off for home (I live more than 200 miles away), my mum gave me the most beautiful collection of linens that were owned, used, made and embellished by her sister, her mother and my father's mother. 

But it's not about what my mum gives me or where we go together that makes her the best. My mum's the best because she's my mum. Because her eyes twinkle when she giggles and when she gets the giggles she can't speak and goes pink. Because when she says the word 'croissant' she sounds like a duck and for the past 20 years or so neither my sister nor I can say the word without doing a duck impression. Because she makes lasagne better than the Italians. And because whatever is ailing me, a cuddle from my mum makes everything that little bit better.

So, thank you, Mum, happy Mother's Day.

What lies ahead…

I've been dropping hints about it, the Indie Biz button on the left is a bit of a giveaway, so yes indeed reader, I am inching my way towards selling my handmade goodies! As well as selling new handmade pieces I will also offer a bespoke service where I remake your children's (or your) old clothes into something new for you to use or display for ever more.

Here's a little peek at the future to whet your appetite…

Watch this space…

Save water and money

A quick money-saving tip for you, it'll cost you nothing and save you water too. Hop over to Save Water Save Money and get yourself a free ShowerSave. Your water company will send you a little stainless steel tube which you attach to the shower hose where it joins your bath taps (v easy, honest, I could do it). And that's all you have to do.

The gadget evens out the amount of water that flows from your shower so you don't waste money heating water you don't need. Our shower used to either dribble or blast us and batter the shower curtain so the constant even flow has made our showers much more enjoyable!

Now, I do write for Save Water Save Money on occasion but I'm not being paid to write about the ShowerSave here. I didn't even get mine from SWSM, it was given to me by a friend who has a power shower so can't use it. Yep, if you were looking for a catch, this is it, the ShowerSave doesn't work on electric showers.

But, if you have a non-electric shower and you want to save money a ShowerSave will help do the job for you.

And if you frugal-minded folks want more of me, you can tootle over to Almost Frugal where I am the subject of This is What Frugal Looks Like.

Spring = bunting

The sun is shining, bulbs are bursting out, time to break out the bunting! Here's a little taster to put a spring in your step…

For the eagle-eyed of you, yes indeed, this is the bunting that features in my shiny new blog header.

And there's more where that came from…

5 Things

I'm taking the Indie Business 2.0 workshop run by Elsie, Leigh-Ann and Jill and today the community part of the website opened up. One of the creative bright sparks on the forum suggested people fill out the following 5 things lists to tell others more about themselves. I filled it in super quickly so that I didn't hum and haw too much about my answers, and thought I'd include it here too. If you have a few minutes spare, fill in your own lists, I'd love to know what's on yours…

5 Things I am looking forward to:
1. Holidaying in Wales with my hubbie and doggie
2. Getting chickens, hopefully sooner rather than later
3. Learning lots and being inspired by the Indie Business workshop
4. Making things that people want to buy
5. Longer days and more sunshine

5 Things I did yesterday:
1. Walked my dog without her pulling much, she’s learning!
2. Sent the 197th issue of First News to press on time
3. Got our dodgy boiler working again, hurray!
4. Resisted the call of Chip Shop Tuesday
5. Had the fastest ever phone call with my mum

5 Things I wish I could do:
1. Speak a foreign language
2. Draw
3. Worry less
4. Find more time in the day
5. Be better at sewing, knitting, crocheting, photography…

5 Places I'd like to travel to:
1. Scotland. I’ve been to the other side of the world but not to Scotland, how ridiculous.
2. Back to America, there’s so much more of it to see
3. New Zealand, with my hubbie this time
4. Ireland, yep not been there either
5. The rest of the world!